Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
SERS –tweezers enhanced by electro-thermo-plasmonic flow (SERSET)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Postdoctoral Fellowships
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Chemistry
Countries involved: Spain,Switzerland
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2021 (HORIZON-MSCA-2021-PF-01, 2021)
Start date: 2023-02-01
End date: 2025-05-31
Duration (months): 28.0
Total project cost (EUR): 165312.96
EU funding (EUR): 165312.96
Participants: 2
Project status: CLOSED

Direct quantification of dopamine neurotransmission is one of the unsolved problems that engaged scientific minds for the last fifty years. Such quantification is an extremely important tool to understand the underlying pathways that promote neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's and depression. Since dopamine is secreted only in micro-molar quantities, a novel signal-amplification technique is required to be able to appropriately quantify its concentration. To meet the challenge, we propose a multidisciplinary research program comprised of simultaneous measurements from laser tweezer Raman spectroscopy and fluorescence emission spectroscopy. Our proposal is based on the strong plasmonic interaction between graphene oxide nanosheets and aptamer functionalized gold nanoparticles, which increases the local intensity of the electromagnetic field to an extent that minute changes in ambient dielectric constant due to variations in the concentration of dopamine could bring about a perceptible signal. In the suggested scheme, we will use optical tweezers to place a gold nanoparticle dimer close to the surface of a graphene oxide sheet, and their hybridization will give rise to very strong electromagnetic fields able to dramatically increase the optical emission from dopamine. Moreover, we will increase the local concentration of molecules with electrothermoplasmonic flow towards the sensing area. The SERSET project will be carried out in the Nanoparticle Trapping Lab at the University of Granada, where a state-of-the-art setup combining optical tweezers and confocal Raman spectroscopy is available. A microfluidic chip and theoretical calculations will be carried out in the group of Prof. Romain Quidant at ETH Zurich during the planned secondments. The candidate has a strong background in nanoparticle synthesis, plasmonics, and computational modelling, which will be combined in the present proposal to bring about a new technology able to quantify dopamine secretion.

Keywords: optical tweezers raman spectroscopy electrokinetics fluid dynamics
Non-Abelian states at zero magnetic field in next-generation moiré MoTe2 heterostructures (TOPOMAX)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Postdoctoral Fellowships
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Physics
Countries involved: France
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2024 (HORIZON-MSCA-2024-PF-01, 2024)
Start date: 2025-05-01
End date: 2027-04-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 242260.56
EU funding (EUR): 242260.56
Participants: 2
Project status: SIGNED

Last year’s discovery of states hosting the fractional quantum Hall effect at zero magnetic field in a lattice system – zero-field fractional Chern insulators (FCIs) – has caused tremendous excitement within the condensed matter community. These zero-field FCIs were first observed – by a team including the applicant – using both optics and transport in a molybdenum ditelluride (MoTe2) moiré superlattice. These states, analogs of the Jain sequence FQH states, host Abelian anyon excitations. However, for certain twist angles, moiré MoTe2 is also predicted to host states with non-Abelian anyons - the main requirement for achieving scalable topologically protected quantum computation. These non-Abelian states have yet to be observed. Perhaps the largest difficulty in moiré systems is sample quality and twist angle control. Contact resistance, strain, twist angle inhomogeneity, bubbles, and polymer residue can preclude the formation and observation of delicate non-Abelian FCIs. The main goal of TOPOMAX is to investigate, using optical and transport measurements, the existence of non-Abelian states at zero magnetic field in ultra-high quality twisted MoTe2 heterostructures. To achieve this, we will implement cutting-edge fabrication techniques that enable unprecedented twist angle control and homogeneity while allowing for devices compatible with optical and transport measurements. In particular, the bent bilayer nanomanipulator technique will enable systematic investigation of zero-field FCIs as a continuous function of twist angle. Determining whether the moiré MoTe2 system hosts non-Abelian states would lay the groundwork for study of zero-field non-Abelian anyons – and perhaps, one day, topologically protected qubits.

Keywords: topological phases,moir,2d materials,quantum materials,fractional quantum hall,fractional chern insulator,topological order,anyons
The first holistic XAI-powered pulmonology care system to personalize oxygen therapy in real-time. (EMILY.AI)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Innovative Europe
Programme: The European Innovation Council (EIC)
Theme: EIC Accelerator
Destination: Other destinations
Action type: EIC actions
Countries involved: Spain
Call: EIC Accelerator 2024 - Short application (HORIZON-EIC-2024-ACCELERATOR-01, 2024)
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2500000.0
EU funding (EUR): 2500000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Chronic respiratory diseases (CRDs) are responsible for 4M lives annually and impact 454.6M individuals worldwide. Common types of CRDs include chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma, occupational lung diseases, dyspnoea, pulmonary fibrosis and pulmonary hypertension. COPD represents one of the most critical medical emergencies, claiming approximately 3.3M lives each year, with a prevalence of more than 380M cases worldwide. The primary treatment for COPD and other CRDs is oxygen therapy, prescribed for approximately 10-15% of these patients. While oxygen therapy has roots in a century-old method, it carries risks to patients, requires significant medical staff time, and leads to high societal costs. EMILY.AI is a unique and portable medical device that personalizes real-time long-term oxygen therapy for patients in any situation or condition, and establishes a system that helps prevent patients from experiencing worsening symptoms. This device provides constant support to patients with chronic diseases, giving them a sense of security and improving the effectiveness of long-term oxygen therapy.

Keywords: pulmonology,oxygen therapy,deep learning,explainable ai
Drone helipad (3LR)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Innovative Europe
Programme: The European Innovation Council (EIC)
Theme: EIC Accelerator
Destination: Other destinations
Action type: EIC actions
Countries involved: Czechia
Call: EIC Accelerator 2024 - Short application (HORIZON-EIC-2024-ACCELERATOR-01, 2024)
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1996000.0
EU funding (EUR): 1996000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Our project is focused on the development of a cutting-edge drone helipad infrastructure, designed not only to transform delivery systems in critical situations such as natural disasters and medical emergencies. These helipads provide a reliable, efficient, and secure platform for drone landings and take-offs, enabling rapid transport of essential supplies and equipment to areas where conventional infrastructure is inadequate or disrupted. Our helipads, comprising both software and hardware platforms, are equipped with advanced technology to ensure precise navigation and landing, as well as to support drone charging and maintenance services. They are designed for seamless integration into both urban and rural environments. Scalable and adaptable, these helipads can be deployed in a wide range of settings, from remote regions to densely populated urban areas, making them a versatile solution for modern logistics and infrastructure. Additionally, the system is built to operate in diverse weather conditions and is optimized for energy efficien. Our technology has already been recognized through our involvement with the ESA Business Incubation Centre and ESA Space Solutions, as well as receiving an award from EUSPA for innovation in GNSS technology and Partnered with Honeywell Aerospace. With the support of the EIC program, we aim to complete our development and move towards full market readiness, positioning our helipad infrastructure as a cornerstone of future logistics and emergency response systems. We are currently advancing our technology from Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 5/6 to TRL 8 over the next two years. This progression is crucial for bringing our solution to market, where it can make a significant impact on enhancing critical infrastructure resilience. Despite challenges in securing investment due to the current lack of comprehensive European drone legislation, we are confident that forthcoming regulations will open the market for widespread adoption.

Keywords: drone helipad,final approach,drone landing,critical infractucture
Community formation in active-matter systems (COFAM)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Postdoctoral Fellowships
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Physics
Countries involved: Italy,United States
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2023 (HORIZON-MSCA-2023-PF-01, 2023)
Start date: 2024-09-01
End date: 2027-08-31
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 265099.2
EU funding (EUR): 265099.2
Participants: 2
Project status: SIGNED

Population genetics has undergone a major revolution over the past thirty years thanks to the development of controlled microbial experiments to test the respective roles of randomness, selection, and ecological processes in evolution. For instance, it was shown that, when cell division drives the growth of dense bacterial colonies, fluctuations at the colony's edge generally lead to the emergence of spatial genetic segregation. Most organisms, however, do not spread out because of cell division but instead follow complex nonequilibrium dynamics characterized by self-propulsion and motility-induced collective behaviors. Although such nonequilibrium dynamics have been extensively studied within the new field of physics called active matter, their role in shaping microbial evolution remains largely unknown. The aim of this proposal is to address this issue and investigate the interplay between active matter physics and spatial population genetics. To do so, I will put forward an interdisciplinary theoretical framework that integrates coarse-grained descriptions of active-matter systems with evolutionary and ecological processes. By combining stochastic calculus, field-theoretical methods, and numerical simulations, I will then characterize the emergent phenomenology of such systems. To this aim, the project delves into four consecutive objectives: 1) understand the fate of genetic segregation in motile cellular colony; 2) Study the interplay of motility-induced pattern formation and genetic segregation; 3) incorporate ecological interactions in the framework developed in previous stages; 4) generalize our findings to address highly heterogeneous communities. By achieving these tasks, I aim to unravel the complex dynamics of motile cell colonies, setting the stage for a theory of spatial eco-evolutionary changes in active populations.

Keywords: non equilibrium statistical physics active matter soft matter living systems disordered systems thermodynamics bacterial communities population dynamics
Colonial Legacies of Universities: Materialities and New Collaborations (COLUMN)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness
Programme: Culture, creativity and inclusive society
Theme: Culture, creativity and inclusive society
Destination: Innovative Research on the European Cultural Heritage and the Cultural and Creative Industries
Action type: Innovation actions
Countries involved: Netherlands,Austria,Czechia,Denmark,Italy,South Africa,Suriname,Switzerland
Call: Europe’s cultural heritage and arts – promoting our values at home and abroad (HORIZON-CL2-2024-HERITAGE-01, 2024)
Start date: 2025-04-01
End date: 2029-03-31
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 3966669.12
EU funding (EUR): 3798046.62
Participants: 9
Project status: SIGNED

Historically, universities have been foundational to promoting and shaping European culture, knowledge, and values including democracy, human dignity, freedom, human rights, and equality as a global project. They have also been leading institutions for promoting dialogue and building strategic alliances between the global north and the global south in the fields of science, heritage, and cultural and creative industries. In recent years, universities and museums in Europe have increasingly developed innovative approaches to address the colonial entanglements in their collecting practices, material legacies, understandings of national and transnational identities, and the production of knowledge. However, unfinished conversations with former colonies about colonial legacies in and beyond Europe remain barriers to cooperation and exchange as well as the promotion of European values. COLUMN brings together partners from the creative industries, seven European universities from the Coimbra network, including some of the oldest research universities in Europe, and partner universities from the global south to rethink, reframe, and refresh approaches to European and postcolonial arts, culture, heritage, and societal values. Focusing on four pilot interventions that apply new collaborative and decolonial curatorial practices, COLUMN will lead the development of policies, recommendations, and good practices for new collaborations around European university heritage through strategic partnerships within and beyond the borders of the EU. Bridging knowledge production and creative arts practices, it builds an understanding of European cultural heritage as a vehicle to strengthen rights-based and equitable approaches to colonialism in dialogue with global south partners - thus paving the way for cultural cooperation in the true spirit of modern European values. Through its deliverables, the project redefines scholarly consensus, heritage practice, and policy.

Keywords: colonial heritage,european values,university heritage,global south collaboration,academic heritage,artistic curation,knowledge production,european knowledge society
DigiTorch - Digital Twin–Driven Optimization of Plasma Reactors for Efficient CO2 and Bio-waste Valorisation (EffiTorch - Hop on)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Widening Participation and Strengthening the European Research Area
Programme: Widening participation and spreading excellence
Theme: Improved access to Excellence
Destination: Improved access to Excellence
Action type: Research and Innovation actions
Countries involved: Spain,Czechia
Call: Hop-on facility (HORIZON-WIDERA-2025-03, 2025)
Duration (months): 33.0
Total project cost (EUR): 366700.0
EU funding (EUR): 366700.0
Participants: 2
Project status: CLOSED

DigiTorch extends the Horizon Europe project EffiTorch by introducing a dedicated simulation capability through the widening partner PlasmaSolve (PS). While EffiTorch focuses on demonstrating efficient valorisation of CO2 and bio-oil using a combined microwave/induction plasma reactor, DigiTorch transforms the design strategy from empirical experimentation to simulation- and data-driven optimisation. The core contribution is the development of a high-fidelity digital twin of the plasma reactor, coupling electromagnetic, fluid, thermal and plasma dynamics. The model will be continuously validated against diagnostics from EffiTorch experiments and will guide optimisation of reactor parameters such as nozzle design, transpiration geometry and hot-wall configurations. Emphasis is placed on separating the plasma core from the reactor walls, a critical challenge for long-term stability. Beyond direct technology optimisation, DigiTorch will address the economic viability of scale-up. Since the cost of induction generators is expected to limit industrial adoption, the project will investigate how larger reactor designs may enable operation at lower frequencies and higher energy densities, thereby reducing cost barriers. The digital twin outputs will directly feed into techno-economic assessments and life-cycle analyses already established in EffiTorch. By cutting experimental iterations by up to 70%, DigiTorch de-risks EffiTorch’s ambitious targets (>90% carbon efficiency, >60% energy efficiency) and accelerates Europe’s progress toward net-zero energy systems. PlasmaSolve contributes one of the few EU-based industrial plasma simulation providers, strengthening Europe’s innovation base by bridging advanced hardware with digital toolchains.

Keywords: digital twin,simulation driven design,machine learning
The Rule of Law at Work: Employment Law Enforcement and Compliance (LawAtWork)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Advanced grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Institutions, Governance and Legal Systems
Panel description: Political science, international relations, law
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call: ERC ADVANCED GRANTS (ERC-2024-ADG, 2024)
Start date: 2026-01-01
End date: 2030-12-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2442966.0
EU funding (EUR): 2442966.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Across Europe and beyond, employment rights are frequently breached in a manner that manifestly undermines the rule of law. Yet breach of employment law remains balefully understudied. Little is understood of enforcement and compliance as social processes: how breach can become normalised or cast as unacceptable; how deterrence measures operate within specific contexts; how enforcement and compliance are affected by the use of new technologies to manage and monitor workers; and how routine breach might cause people to become disillusioned with employment law, and even with law in general, doubting the capacity of legal rules and institutions to hold the powerful to account. Framing enforcement and compliance as a question of the rule of law, and of the capacity of our democracies to regulate the economy in furtherance of collectively devised notions of the common good, LawAtWork develops a novel sociology – or economic sociology – of the rule of law, with application far beyond the fields of labour law and work relations. It develops an innovative approach to the study of employment law enforcement and compliance which puts key actors at the centre of the enquiry: not only firms, labour inspectorates and trade unions but individuals within them, including managers, HR professionals and, critically, workers themselves. Using a combination of methods drawn from economic anthropology, the sociology of law and comparative political economy, it analyses both actors’ decision-making, motivations and understandings and the structural constraints and resources that shape their perceptions and actions. In doing so, it pays particular attention to broad changes in political economy over time, to institutional and organisational change, and to technological developments. It thereby makes transformational advances in our understanding of breach of employment law and the reasons for it, and in much broader understandings of how law works in different socio-economic settings.

Keywords: employment law,labour law,enforcement,compliance,rule of law,economic sociology,sociology of law
Role of tissue-resident FOLR2+ Macrophages as Organizers of the Tumor Immune MicroEnvironment (FOLOME)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Consolidator grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Immunity, Infection and I mmunotherapy
Panel description: The immune system , related disorders  and their mechanisms , biology of infectious agents and infection, biological basis of prevention and treatment of infectious diseases , innovative imm unological tools and approaches , including  therapies
Countries involved: France
Call: ERC CONSOLIDATOR GRANTS (ERC-2022-COG, 2022)
Start date: 2023-06-01
End date: 2028-05-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2000000.0
EU funding (EUR): 2000000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

The infiltration of CD8+ T cells in tumors is crucial for the development of immunity against cancer. We have recently identified a tissue-resident macrophage population expressing the folate receptor 2 (FOLR2) and infiltrating human and murine breast tumors. We have shown that tumor-infiltrating CD8+ T cell form lymphoid aggregate around FOLR2+ macrophages in a perivascular niche. The abundance of FOLR2+ macrophages associates with lymphocyte infiltration, the onset of tertiary lymphoid structures (TLS) and favorable prognosis. The abundance of TLS in cancer correlates with better prognosis and clinical response to immunotherapy. Yet, the molecular and cellular cues underlying TLS formation in tumors are ill understood. Here we hypothesize that FOLR2+ macrophages locally shape the compartment of tumor-infiltrating CD8+ T cells. Mechanistically, we will address if FOLR2+ macrophages spark local CD8+ T cell responses directly, by interacting with T lymphocytes or indirectly, by fostering TLS formation. To this end, we will (1) develop a high dimensional analysis of the FOLR2+ macrophage-perivascular niche using tissue imaging, spatial transcriptomic and single-cell RNA sequencing; (2) implement a new murine genetic model developed in the lab enabling the inducible ablation of FOLR2+ macrophages and conditional gene inactivation; (3) deliver a mechanistic analysis of cellular cross-talks involving FOLR2+ macrophages and supporting the development and maintenance of TLS. Lastly, we will explore new immunotherapy strategies harnessing the immunogenic function of FOLR2+ macrophages purposed to induce anti-tumor CD8+ T cell responses. To this end, we will use antibody-mediated targeting of FOLR2+ macrophages to increase antigen presentation and/or innate activation. This study will provide fundamental insights on how tissue-resident macrophages regulate tumor-immunity and a proof of concept for macrophage subset-specific therapeutic interventions to treat cancer.

Keywords: macrophages,cd8 t lymphocytes,tertiary lymphoid structures,anti tumor immune response