Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Understanding and Designing Novel NanoPores (DesignerPores)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Consolidator grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Condensed matter physics
Panel description: Structure, electronic properties, fluids, nanosciences, biological physics
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call: ERC Consolidator Grant (ERC-2014-CoG, 2014)
Start date: 2015-07-01
End date: 2021-06-30
Duration (months): 72.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1936431.0
EU funding (EUR): 1936431.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Translocation of ions and molecules is ubiquitous in biology and technology. Despite the tremendous amount of technical development, biological systems are still much more sophisticated in exerting exquisite control over active and passive translocation through nanopores in membranes than their existing synthetic mimics. This proposal aims to build novel designer nanopores that can match naturally evolved systems. For this we have to control all three stages of translocation: 1) diffusion and entry into, 2) diffusion in, and 3) exit from the nanopore. To gain fundamental insight into the translocation process we will employ microfluidic channels combined with holographic optical tweezers. Results from the microscale model system will be directly translated to nanoscale pores built with DNA origami nanotechnology. Our microfluidic experiments will automatically track diffusing spherical and non-spherical particles in artificial channels. Facilitated membrane transport will be mimicked by holographic optical tweezers providing full control over the translocation process. We will clarify how translocation depends on particle-particle, particle-channel, and particle-channel-entrance interactions. The generic principles discovered on the microscale will guide the design of artificial nanopores made by DNA origami self-assembly. Our DNA origami based designer nanopores will lead to a novel class of transporters for molecules, ions, and water through solid-state and lipid membranes. The project will generate a quantitative understanding of membrane transport processes, test existing theoretical models with unprecedented experimental control, and introduce a novel approach to design active and passive nanopores built from DNA.

Keywords: nanopores,dna origami,holographic optical tweezers,brownian motion,diffusion,translocation
Quantitative analysis of protein S-palmitoylation in host resistance to intracellular pathogens. (QuantPalm_immunity)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie-Sklodowska-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Individual Fellowships (IF)-Global Fellowships
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Life Sciences
Countries involved: United States,United Kingdom
Call: Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF-GF) (H2020-MSCA-IF-2014, 2014)
Start date: 2015-07-01
End date: 2018-06-30
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 251857.8
EU funding (EUR): 251857.8
Participants: 2
Project status: CLOSED

Protein fatty-acylations (N-myristoylation, S-palmitoylation and Lys-fatty acylation) are important lipid-modifications that regulate the trafficking and function of membrane-associated proteins in eukaryotes. With the development of new chemical proteomic methods by the Hang laboratory and others, many additional protein candidates of fatty-acylation have been reported. Notably, the Hang group has recently discovered several fatty-acylated proteins which are directly involved in host resistance to pathogens, such as IFITM3 and the autophagy factor Irgm1 (unpublished). Irgm1 is implicated in host clearance of intracellular pathogens by regulating autophagy in interferon-induced cells. These studies suggest a broader role for protein fatty-acylation in host immunity than previously appreciated. However, the functional analysis and quantification of many candidate fatty-acylated immunity-associated proteins remains to be determined. The objective of this research is to characterise and quantify S-palmitoylation of immunity-associated proteins and ultimately understand how dynamic fatty-acylation of these immune effectors contributes to host defence. Aim 1 involves the development of a quantitative chemical proteomic method for profiling S-palmitoylated proteins in naïve and stimulated immune cells. For Aim 2, I will analyse how S-palmitoylation affects the localisation and trafficking of autophagy factors (i.e. inducer of autophagy). For Aim 3, I will investigate how S-palmitoylation affects autophagy factors in host clearance of pathogens. These studies should provide important advances in understanding how protein S-palmitoylation influences autophagy-mediated clearance of pathogens and host resistance to intracellular pathogens, and therefore provide new opportunities to treat infections.

Keywords: chemical biology,quantitative chemical proteomics,post translational modification,s palmitoylation,immunity,autophagy mediated clearance of pathogens,protein localisation,irgm
Sheep, Wool, Landscape and Connectivity (SWLCONNECTIVITY)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie-Sklodowska-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Individual Fellowships (IF)-Standard European Fellowships
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Social Sciences and Humanities
Countries involved: Netherlands
Call: Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF-EF) (H2020-MSCA-IF-2014, 2014)
Start date: 2016-01-10
End date: 2018-01-09
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 177598.8
EU funding (EUR): 177598.8
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The purpose of the proposed Marie Sklodowska-Curie action is to enable Paolo Palladino, Professor of History and Theory in the Department of History at Lancaster University, to advance his scientific career by means of further training through research. The programme of research, which Luis Lobo-Guerrero, Professor of History and Theory of International Relations in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Groningen will supervise, and around which the action will develop, focuses on the processes involved in the evolution of three regional economies and the commodification of their agro-biological heritage, specifically as this relates to sheep and the production of woollen textiles (these regions are the Lake District and Dales of northern England, the Catalonian Pyrenees, and the Piedmontese Alps). A trans-national, comparative approach allows for investigation of the diversity of local responses to the transformation of agro-biological products into commodities traded on a global scale; an extended chronological perspective also allows for the investigation of the similarly complex relationship between the creation of bio-economic value and the passage of time (WP1, WP2 and WP3). The results of such investigation then serve as the basis for the development of an empirically grounded, critical understanding of socio-cultural structures and their transformation (WP4). The action thus allows Palladino to advance his understanding of research skills and methods at the intersection of historical, philosophical and sociological modes of inquiry. At the same time, the hosting organisation and beneficiary of the action, the Institute for the Study of Culture (ICOG) at the University of Groningen, will expand its programme of research on the political economy of global integration, on the importance of biological and ecological resources to such integration, and on the role of the past in the construction of a more sustainable future.

Keywords: networks,heritage,bioeconomy,biopolitics,historical epistemology,cultural geography
Targeting pathological synaptic pruning by microglia in neurodegeneration (REMIND)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System
Panel description: Nervous system development, homeostasis and ageing, nervous system function and dysfunction, systems neuroscience and modelling, biological basis of cognitive processes and of behaviour, neurological and mental disorders
Countries involved: Switzerland
Call: ERC Starting Grant (ERC-2018-STG, 2018)
Start date: 2019-01-01
End date: 2024-12-31
Duration (months): 72.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1499991.0
EU funding (EUR): 1499991.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Synapse loss is the major correlate of cognitive impairment in many neurodegenerative diseases. Recent literature suggests that microglia, which mediate synaptic pruning during brain development, can be responsible for synapse loss in neurodegeneration. Although the underlying mechanisms are poorly understood, growing evidence indicates that dysfunctional microglia affect synapses number and function in pathology. Genome-wide association studies reveal that the majority of risk genes associated with neurodegenerative disorders are highly expressed in microglia. While such studies clearly implicate these cells in the pathogenesis of the disease, little is known about the causal mechanisms that link microglial risk variants to loss of synapses. We will identify the molecular mechanisms involved in microglia-mediated synapse loss. We will also generate novel in vitro and ex vivo models of ‘risk microglia’, by introducing genetic variants associated with cognitive impairment –alone or in combination- specifically in microglia, taking advantage of CRISPR/ Cas9 genome editing techniques. These goals will be achieved by combining cutting-edge transcriptomics and proteomics with mouse models of intense synaptic remodelling, to reveal the unique molecular signature of ‘shaper microglia’. A multidisciplinary approach will allow the extensive characterisation of risk models, by combining metabolic analysis, synaptic phagocytosis and degradation assays, with super-resolution microscopy, and novel genetically encoded labelling methods. With the knowledge generated here, we aim at developing and validating in vivo novel drugs- and nanobodies-based approaches for effective targeting of pathological pruning. In summary, REMIND will focus on: 1) Identifying molecular players in microglial-mediated synapse loss 2) Generating ‘risk microglia’ models, to asses the role of genetic variants associated with neurodegeneration 3) Developing novel strategies for targeting prunining

Keywords: microglia,synapse loss,synaptic pruning,neurodegeneration,risk genetic variants,cognitive impairment
Phthalocyanine-biopolymeric nanoparticle delivery systems for cancer photodynamic therapy (BIOnanoPDT)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Spreading excellence and widening participation
Programme: Widening participation and spreading excellence
Theme: Other Widening
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Chemistry
Countries involved: Poland
Call: Widening Fellowships (H2020-WF-02-2019, 2019)
Start date: 2020-11-02
End date: 2022-11-01
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 149625.6
EU funding (EUR): 149625.6
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

According to the World Health Organization cancer was responsible for approximated 9.6 million deaths in 2018 what is the reason of being one of the biggest civilizational health problem, just behind the heart diseases. The global objective of interdisciplinary BIOnanoPDT project is to develop novel biodegradable phthalocyanine (Pc)-polymeric nanoparticles (NPs) which enhance cancer photodynamic therapy (PDT). Up to now, there is no ideal therapy for cancer treatment but among the others PDT presents several advantages, e.g. it is a selective treatment with less secondary effects than other therapies. This promising therapy combines three components: photosensitizer (PS), light and oxygen. 20 years ago PDT was approved by Food and Drug Admnistration as a clinical protocol for cancer treatment but it still have limitations to use it in all types of cancer. The development of new powerful PSs, which specifically target cancer cells, and can more deeply penetrate tissue allowing to treat large tumors is still a challenge. Phthalocyanines (Pcs) are one of the most promising second generation PSs and meet many requirements for being ideal PSs. Unfortunately, very often Pcs are hydrophobic species and undergo self-aggregation in aqueous solutions, which drastically reduces their photosensitizing efficiency. In BIOnanoPDT project the limitations of Pcs will be overcame by tailoring their properties in terms of singlet oxygen generation and by incorporating them with polymer NPs which could improve their photophysical properties, selectivity for targeted tissues by surface modification, eliminate aggregation of the PSs and their low water solubility. Additionally, it can enhance the treatment by increasing the blood circulation and selective accumulation in tumor cells. The BIOnanoPDT project will bring many innovations to the current cancer research by novel Pc-polymer NP hybrids for cancer PDT which will be an attractive alternative for conventional drugs.

Keywords: polymeric nanoparticles,phthalocyanines,breast cancer,photodynamic therapy
Towards EXtreme scale Technologies and Accelerators for euROhpc hw/Sw Supercomputing Applications for exascale (TEXTAROSSA)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Industrial Leadership
Programme: Information and Communication Technologies
Theme: Public-private partnerships
Destination: European High Performance Computing
Action type: Research and Innovation actions
Partnership: EuroHPC (Art-187)
Countries involved: Italy,Italy,Italy,Italy,Germany,Spain,Italy,Poland,France,France
Call: Extreme scale computing and data driven technologies (H2020-JTI-EuroHPC-2019-1, 2019)
Start date: 2021-04-01
End date: 2024-03-31
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 6012708.75
EU funding (EUR): 2051376.42
Participants: 15
Project status: SIGNED

To achieve high performance and high energy efficiency on near-future exascale computing systems, a technology gap needs to be bridged: increase efficiency of computation with extreme efficiency in HW and new arithmetics, as well as providing methods and tools for seamless integration of reconfigurable accelerators in heterogeneous HPC multi-node platforms. TEXTAROSSA aims at tackling this gap through applying a co-design approach to heterogeneous HPC solutions, supported by the integration and extension of IPs, programming models and tools derived from European research projects, led by TEXTAROSSA partners. The main directions for innovation are towards: i) enabling mixed-precision computing, through the definition of IPs, libraries, and compilers supporting novel data types (including Posits), used also to boost the performance of AI accelerators; ii) implementing new multilevel thermal management and two-phase liquid cooling; iii) developing improved data movement and storage tools through compression; iv) ensure secure HPC operation through HW accelerated cryptography; v) providing RISC-V based IP for fast task scheduling and IPs for low-latency intra/inter-node communication. These technologies will be tested on the Integrated Development Vehicles mirroring and extending the European Processor Initiative ARM64-based architecture, and on an OpenSequana testbed. To drive the technology development and assess the impact of the proposed innovations TEXTAROSSA will use a selected but representative number of HPC, HPDA and AI demonstrators covering challenging HPC domains such as general-purpose numerical kernels, High Energy Physics (HEP), Oil & Gas, climate modelling, and emerging domains such as High Performance Data Analytics (HPDA) and High Performance Artificial Intelligence (HPC-AI).

Keywords: energy efficiency,heterogenous computing,power and thermal management,innovative cooling
Synthesis of methanol from captured carbon dioxide using surplus electricity (MefCO2)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Industrial Leadership
Programme: Nanotechnologies, Advanced Materials, Advanced Manufacturing and Processing, and Biotechnology
Theme: Sustainable, resource-efficient and low-carbon technologies in energy-intensive process industries
Action type: Innovation actions
Countries involved: Germany,Italy,Germany,Spain,Iceland,Slovenia,Belgium,United Kingdom
Call: Adaptable industrial processes allowing the use of renewables as flexible feedstock for chemical and energy applications (H2020-SPIRE-2014, 2014)
Start date: 2014-12-01
End date: 2019-06-30
Duration (months): 55.0
Total project cost (EUR): 11068323.75
EU funding (EUR): 8622292.6
Participants: 10
Project status: CLOSED

Methanol represents one of the most common and widespread platform chemicals and precursors for further synthesis, and is traditionally produced from synthesis gas, obtained by the reforming of natural gas. This methanol synthesis process operates in a stable, high-throughput manner and demands low carbon dioxide/carbon monoxide ratios in feed. The current project, nonetheless, is to encompass flexible (in operation and feed) methanol synthesis with high carbon dioxide concentration-streams as an input, the latter originating from thermal power stations using fossil fuels. The demonstrational technology may alternatively be intended for the application of existing biomass combustion and gasification system streams, operating for the production of electric/thermal energy, as opposed to chemical synthesis. The other synthesis reactant, hydrogen, is to originate from water hydrolysis using surplus energy, which would be conversely difficult to return to the grid. The three main benefits of the process would thus be as follows; the mitigation of exhaust carbon dioxide and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions (1), stabilisation of electric grid by the consumption of the electric energy at its peaks (2), and the production of methanol as a versatile chemical for further conversion (3). Implications of such technology would have a strong connection to the pending exploration of alternative energy carriers and their synthesis as opposed to conventional resources of fuels and chemicals. The principal technological challenge to be overcome is anticipated to be the development of a suitable catalyst and process, which would allow for high-CO2-content feeds, relatively transient operation (save for an upstream buffering technology is developed), and economically viable operating conditions. The primary advantages of this technology are to be its flexibility, medium-scale operation (deployed “at exhaust location”), and facile integration capacities.

Keywords: green methanol,carbon dioxide sequestration and abatement,hydrogen production,grid fluctuation stabilisation,platform chemicals,scale up,renewable chemicals and fuels,catalytic reactor,sustain
Nuclear Weapons Choices Governing vulnerabilities between past and future (NUCLEAR)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Institutions, Governance and Legal Systems
Panel description: Political science, international relations, law
Countries involved: France
Call: ERC Starting Grant (ERC-2017-STG, 2017)
Start date: 2018-09-01
End date: 2024-08-31
Duration (months): 72.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1480145.0
EU funding (EUR): 1480145.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Nuclear weapons choices commit populations and societies for decades and can wipe them out in matters of minutes. How is the scope of available nuclear weapons choices decided? Direct experience cannot be the answer as no one can rely on personal experience of nuclear war. Most decision-makers no longer even have the experience of the effects of such weapons either given that North Korea has been the only country testing nuclear weapons since 1998. The populations’ wishes do not qualify either, since they are very rarely consulted and only few studies on those attitudes exist. Therefore this project offers the first in depth global investigation of the grounds on which the scope of publicly acceptable nuclear weapons choices have been based since the end of nuclear testing. To do so, this project constructs an interdisciplinary research program about responsibility in an age of nuclear vulnerabilities. It investigates four ways in which nuclear weapons choices are bounded: 1) the intellectual categories we depend on to think about those issues; 2) the governance of nuclear knowledge by nuclear-weapons related institutions; 3) specific readings of the past identifying events or trends from which lessons are expected to be learned about the scope of the possible, and 4) the imaginary of possible futures as opposed to the ones deemed utopian. Combining archival research and interviews worldwide, with large-scale polling and discourse analysis of policy officials and strategists over several decades, it assesses the blinding power of categories created several decades ago and sometimes still deemed as irreplaceable lexicon of the nuclear age as well as the way in which nuclear weapons programs modify the governance of knowledge. Based on those findings, it offers a renewed notion of responsibility in the nuclear age built on full awareness of nuclear vulnerabilities in their epistemic and political dimensions, and not only the material ones.

Keywords: nuclear weapons,vulnerability,responsibility,future
Understanding the speed limits of magnetism (MAGNETIC-SPEED-LIMIT)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Condensed matter physics
Panel description: Structure, electronic properties, fluids, nanosciences, biological physics
Countries involved: Italy,Sweden
Call: ERC Starting Grant (ERC-2016-STG, 2016)
Start date: 2017-02-01
End date: 2022-01-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1967755.0
EU funding (EUR): 1749005.0
Participants: 2
Project status: CLOSED

While the origin of magnetic order in condensed matter is in the exchange and spin-orbit interactions, with time scales in the subpicosecond ranges, it has been long believed that magnetism could only be manipulated at nanosecond rates, exploiting dipolar interactions with external magnetic fields. However, in the past decade researchers have been able to observe ultrafast magnetic dynamics at its intrinsic time scales without the need for magnetic fields, thus revolutionising the view on the speed limits of magnetism. Despite many achievements in ultrafast magnetism, the understanding of the fundamental physics that allows for the ultrafast dissipation of angular momentum is still only partial, hampered by the lack of experimental techniques suited to fully explore these phenomena. However, the recent appearance of two new types of coherent radiation, single-cycle THz pulses and x-rays generated at free electron lasers (FELs), has provided researchers access to a whole new set of capabilities to tackle this challenge. This proposal suggests using these techniques to achieve an encompassing view of ultrafast magnetic dynamics in metallic ferromagnets, via the following three research objectives: (a) to reveal ultrafast dynamics driven by strong THz radiation in several magnetic systems using table-top femtosecond lasers; (b) to unravel the contribution of lattice dynamics to ultrafast demagnetization in different magnetic materials using the x-rays produced at FELs and (c) to directly image ultrafast spin currents by creating femtosecond movies with nanometre resolution. The proposed experiments are challenging and explore unchartered territories, but if successful, they will advance the understanding of the speed limits of magnetism, at the time scales of the exchange and spin-orbit interactions. They will also open up for future investigations of ultrafast magnetic phenomena in materials with large electronic correlations or spin-orbit coupling.

Keywords: ultrafast magnetism,spin currents,lattice dynamics,thz radiation,x ray free electron lasers