Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Magneto-Mechanical Technology for Bioinspired Material Testing and Ex-Vivo Diagnosis (MAGMATED)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Proof of concept grants
Action type: ERC actions
Countries involved: Spain
Call: ERC PROOF OF CONCEPT GRANTS (ERC-2025-POC, 2025)
Start date: 2026-01-01
End date: 2027-06-30
Duration (months): 18.0
Total project cost (EUR): 150000.0
EU funding (EUR): 150000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Natural hydrogels and bioinspired soft materials are changing paradigms in regenerative medicine, drug delivery, microfluidics and soft robotics applications. Their use requires a comprehensive mechanical characterisation over time that is currently limited by the need of several and costly experimental setups. These equipment faces difficulties for imposing hydrating and thermal conditions, and for gripping samples during testing without damaging them or introducing undesirable stress concentrations that compromise the validity of the results. Another research area that faces the same issues and limitations is the mechanical testing of ex vivo tissue for diagnosis. MAGMATED platform will comprise an intelligent system and integrated data-driven method to mechanically characterise soft materials and biological tissues, providing a fast spatial distribution of apparent stiffness and viscoelastic properties. It builds on our results on magneto-active polymers (MAP) and magnetic actuation control to induce deformation under realistic in vitro conditions. The platform will integrate MAPs as sample holders with a computational framework combining data-driven and physical models to determine the spatial distribution of mechanical properties, from recorded deformation images. Multiple force combinations on the sample, along with inverse engineering approaches, will enable a comprehensive and accurate spatial characterization surpassing existing methods. MAGMATED has the potential to significantly reduce testing times and costs for mechanical characterisation of soft biological materials and tissues, providing a portable platform that does not require extensive user’s expertise. We expect a profound impact on testing and design protocols in bioinspired scaffolds, regenerative medicine or diagnosis. The simplified and cost-effective system will also broaden access to mechanical testing across diverse facilities, eliminating the need for dedicated laboratory space.

Keywords: magneto mechanics,mechanobiology,machine learning,diagnostics,soft materials,experimental characterisation
Novel advanced and repurposed therapeutics for vision restoration in a group of severe rare ocular surface diseases: from validation to first clinical investigations (RESTORE VISION)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness
Programme: Health
Theme: Health
Destination: Tackling diseases and reducing disease burden
Action type: Research and Innovation actions
Countries involved: Ireland,Sweden,Italy,Spain,France,Germany,Denmark,Norway,Netherlands
Call: Development of new effective therapies for rare diseases (HORIZON-HLTH-2022-DISEASE-06-two-stage, 2022)
Start date: 2023-05-01
End date: 2027-04-30
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 8049852.25
EU funding (EUR): 7999851.75
Participants: 10
Project status: SIGNED

Rare Eye Diseases (REDs) are a major cause of visual impairment and blindness in Europe, affecting patients of all ages. The RESTORE VISION Consortium identified a group of 7 REDs all affecting the cornea and ocular surface that cause severe vision impairment and blindness and have inadequate treatment options today. Onset and progression is characterised by overlapping common pathophysiologic mechanisms: defective corneal wound healing, nerve degeneration, stem-cell dysfunction and aberrant vessel ingrowth. The 7 REDs targeted are Aniridia-Associated Keratopathy, Neurotrophic Keratopathy, Limbal Stem Cell Deficiency, Ocular Cicatricial Pemphigoid, EEC Syndrome, Ocular Graft versus Host Disease and Corneal Neovascularisation, affecting over 500k patients in Europe. Current management is often prohibitively expensive, has low efficacy and leads to debilitating side effects, pointing to a critical medical problem and area of unmet medical need. RESTORE VISION brings together actors from across the full value chain: 6 leading research institutions, 3 SMEs and a European patient organisation. We take a ground-breaking approach to improve eye health by verifying disease pathomechanisms, using cutting-edge models for each rare disease to test novel and repurposed compounds and determine drug mechanisms of action, formulating compounds as safe eye drop suspensions or subconjunctival drugs, and performing several first-in-human trials of novel therapies. New therapeutics with game-changing potential will be evaluated for the first time. Our pioneering ‘streams’ approach is based on the repurposing of 6 existing drugs and the development of 3 new compounds, all with solid preliminary data showing remarkable effects in restoring the cell physiology, immune, avascular, neural and signalling environment in the cornea. This innovative approach shortcircuits lengthy and complex regulatory and drug development processes, ensuring rapid translation into the clinic.

Keywords: cornea,rare eye disease,stem cells,stem cell deficiency,nerve regeneration,wound healing,aniridia,neurotrophic keratopathy,graft versus host disease
Investigating Quantum Phases at Extreme Charge Doping Limit by Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (SIG-STM)

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: Finland
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2023 (HORIZON-MSCA-2023-PF-01, 2023)
Start date: 2025-01-01
End date: 2026-12-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 199694.4
EU funding (EUR): 199694.4
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Tailoring electronic properties of quantum matter is of immense current interest in the condensed matter physics community. The ability to control quantum states benefits both fundamental understanding of the underlying physics and the advancement of next-generation quantum techniques. Recently, ionic gating has emerged as a powerful tool in manipulating electronic states by achieving ultra-high doping levels. However, this technique has not been applied to scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) studies, which are crucial in accessing the local density of electronic states and exploring correlated phases. I will establish a new STM technique that integrates ionic gating (SIG-STM) to manipulate quantum states through ultra-high carrier density doping. SIG-STM will open a completely new window to study highly doped correlated materials at the atomic level. 1. I will fabricate the nano-devices that can reach ultra-high doping levels through ionic gating and are compatible with low-temperature STM. 2. I will carry out STM studies on the devices to demonstrate the technique of SIG-STM. 3. I will combine SIG-STM and molecular beam epitaxy to study versatile and low-dimension materials. This project combines the strengths of both the experienced researcher and the host group. Our new SIG-STM technique combines our expertise in the fabrication of high-quality devices (from myself) and STM measurements (from the host group). SIG-STM will be a breakthrough in condensed matter physics that can contribute to long-lasting problems such as the origin of high-temperature superconductivity. In addition, SIG-STM has great potential to expand understanding of new functional materials such as dissipationless materials and advanced electronics in quantum technologies with strong societal and potentially economic impact.

Keywords: condensed matter physcis,scanning tunneling microscopy,correlated materials,surface physcis
Driving tumour antigen presentation by RNA-mediated transdifferentiation (DART)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Proof of concept grants
Action type: ERC actions
Countries involved: Sweden
Call: ERC PROOF OF CONCEPT GRANTS (ERC-2024-POC, 2024)
Start date: 2024-08-01
End date: 2026-01-31
Duration (months): 18.0
Total project cost (EUR): 150000.0
EU funding (EUR): 150000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Immunotherapy has transformed cancer treatment, but targeting effectively refractory solid tumors remains a challenge due to poor T cell activation. Downregulation of antigen presentation pathways and lack of professional antigen presenting cells in the tumor microenvironment contribute to immune evasion. My group has demonstrated direct reprogramming of fibroblasts or tumor cells into type 1 conventional dendritic cells (cDC1) cells by overexpression of the transcription factors PU.1, IRF8, and BATF3, moving towards clinical application via a viral gene therapy. Despite its potential for first-in-class therapy, viral approaches still face limitations including inefficient targeting of solid tumors in vivo and challenging scalability. The DART project builds on the ERC-funded project TrojanDC and aims to develop in vivo reprogramming of tumor cells into cDC1-like cells using RNA vectors. I will firstly evaluate the capacity of modified linear, self-replicating, and circular RNA encoding the factors to reprogram fibroblasts in vitro and assess their antigen presentation and cytokine secretion function. Secondly, I will evaluate RNA-mediated reprogramming of cancer cells and assess anti-tumor immunity in vivo as monotherapy and in combination with immune checkpoint blockade. The goal is to optimize RNA vector designs for the most effective in vivo reprogramming considering differences in delivery efficiency, expression kinetics and immunogenicity. Collaborations with clinicians and industry partners like Asgard Therapeutics are integral, ensuring commercialization through novel intellectual property, broad dissemination, and product development. DART will enable RNA-mediated induction of antigen-presenting phenotypes in cancer cells, leading to potent and specific immunity towards tumor-specific antigens. DART will result in an off-the-shelf, safe, and scalable immunotherapy solution that also has the potential to enhance current immunotherapy approaches.
Support for the International Research Consortium on Animal Health (SIRCAH 2)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness
Programme: Food, Bioeconomy Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment
Theme: Bio-Environment
Destination: Fair, healthy and environmentally-friendly food systems from primary production to consumption
Action type: Coordination and support actions
Countries involved: Belgium,France,United Kingdom
Call: Support for international research on infectious animal diseases (HORIZON-CL6-2022-FARM2FORK-01, 2022)
Start date: 2022-10-01
End date: 2027-03-31
Duration (months): 54.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1264531.25
EU funding (EUR): 1264531.25
Participants: 5
Project status: SIGNED

Animal diseases cause serious social, economic and environmental damage, impact on animal welfare and can directly threaten human health. These diseases are transboundary, so an increasing number of the major threats to the livestock industry are global so they need global solutions, which can only be achieved through a coordinated research effort. To address these challenges, an international network of R&D programme owners, managers and international organisations from around 50 countries agreed to share information, improve collaboration on research activities, work towards common research agendas and coordinated research funding on the major animal diseases affecting livestock production and/or human health. This network operates as STAR-IDAZ IRC and has been supported by previous SIRCAH, Secretariat for the International Research Consortium on Animal Health (Horizon 2020, 2016-2022). SIRCAH2 will build on the success of its predecessor, in enabling the coordination of research at an international level, to identify and address critical gaps in knowledge and speed up the development of new or improved disease control strategies. To achieve these goals SIRCAH 2 will provide organisational and communication support to the IRC Committees and members and facilitate the development of research roadmaps for priority diseases/issues. SIRCAH2 will support gap analysis activities to develop these roadmaps, which will highlight research and knowledge gaps. Current and planned research will be mapped to identify which gaps are being address and which are underfunded. This will be the basis of funding recommendations to encourage programme alignment and a focused effort on priority research gaps. This will accelerate research on animal health, reinforce international research cooperation and provide veterinary innovations to support continuous development of fair, healthy and environmentally-friendly food systems from primary production to consumption.

Keywords: livestock,animal production,food systems,veterinary medicine,animal infectious diseases
Developing Experience-Centric Accessible Immersive Virtual Reality Technology (AccessVR)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Computer Science and Informatics
Panel description: Informatics and information systems, computer science, scientific computing, intelligent systems
Countries involved: Germany
Call: ERC STARTING GRANTS (ERC-2023-STG, 2023)
Start date: 2024-01-01
End date: 2028-12-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1374771.0
EU funding (EUR): 1374771.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

AccessVR will fill the gap in the scientific knowledge on how people with physical disability – particularly people with limited upper- and lower body mobility – access and experience Virtual Reality (VR) technology. Many of the several million physically disabled people in the EU cannot tap into the huge potential of the technology for leisure, education, and work: VR systems are commonly designed for non-disabled human bodies, but as a result of the complexity of VR technology, fundamental accessibility barriers for physically disabled users remain unaddressed. AccessVR addresses this issue through development of an experience-centric framework for accessible VR technology. The framework will build on technology case studies and a modular VR application that address physical and digital access barriers to VR, and will be constructed against disability studies as theoretical backdrop. The first phase of the research will examine preferences and needs of disabled people regarding user interfaces and representation of disability in VR through co-creation of individually tailored VR prototypes. In a second phase, the project will synthesize outcomes into a middleware layer, and develop an adaptive VR platform featuring entertainment and workplace scenarios. In the third phase, the VR platform will be leveraged to evaluate the experience of physically disabled people in VR to refine the framework based on empirical data. The goal of AccessVR is to further our understanding of how to create engaging VR experiences for people with physical disability that combine the removal of physical, digital, and experiential access barriers. Results are expected to have significant impact on the design of body-centric technology and the inclusion of physically disabled people. Ultimately, AccessVR will enable future research on disability and VR, contribute to the accessible design of the technology, and lay the foundation for more inclusive technological futures.

Keywords: virtual reality,accessibility,interaction techniques,input hardware,co creation
Boosting ReseArch CapabilitiEs of Romanian Cloud MicrophYsics Centre (BRACE-MY)

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: Coordination and support actions
Countries involved: Romania,Norway,Germany
Call: Twinning (HORIZON-WIDERA-2021-ACCESS-03, 2021)
Start date: 2022-09-01
End date: 2026-02-28
Duration (months): 42.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1499631.25
EU funding (EUR): 1499631.25
Participants: 4
Project status: SIGNED

As the only airborne cloud research platform holder in Eastern Europe, INCAS is in the perfect position to be a well-known R&D organisation that obtain urgently needed data sets, process and interpret them in order to improve future climate projections. However, to date, a lack of presenting these capabilities has left INCAS too little known in the cloud research community and therefore, underutilized research partner with excellent and very useful facilities. Through the BRACE-MY project, INCAS team will obtain the required skills and an additional equipment needed to complement their research capabilities with state-of-the art aerosol sampling techniques. The foreseen research, conducted in conjunction with strong twinning activities will transfer the skills required for INCAS to perform aerosol-cloud interaction research and elevate its reputation to that of a leader in the cloud and aerosol community. This will be achieved by using a “learning by doing” approach to transfer the best practices for conducting research, disseminating results and educating young scientists from the world-class project partners to INCAS. In particular, this will include: the development of an ice nucleating particle counter based on a state-of-the-art aerosol sampling system provided by a project partner, conducting research flights, publishing and presenting research results within internationally recognized platforms, organizing and lecturing at summer schools designed for upcoming researcher in the field and gaining the managerial skills required to become a recognized partner for aerosol and cloud microphysics research. The project partners have been selected to ensure that all of the objectives are guided by leaders in the field of aerosol and cloud research and acting as a research provider. Therefore, BRACE-MY will give INCAS, a research institute in a “widening country”, the opportunity to elevate itself to an internationally recognized cloud and aerosol research institute.

Keywords: airborne research,climate,cloud
Boosting future REsearchers in biomaterials for Advanced healTH solutions (BREATH)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Co-funding of regional, national and international programmes
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Countries involved: Spain,Germany,Belgium,Portugal,France,Italy,Hungary,Sweden,Australia,Austria
Call: MSCA COFUND 2024 (HORIZON-MSCA-2024-COFUND-01, 2024)
Start date: 2025-10-01
End date: 2030-09-30
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1353600.0
EU funding (EUR): 1353600.0
Participants: 36
Project status: SIGNED

CIC biomaGUNE (CIC bmG) ambitions to launch the BREATH Postdoctoral Programme for talented postdoctoral researchers in biomaterials and bioengineering for advanced solutions for health, co- funded by the Horizon Europe Marie Skłodowska-Curie COFUND scheme. BREATH aims to advance the careers of researchers and train the next generation of scientific leaders in biomaterials, with a focus on translating fundamental research to industry innovation and clinics, thereby bridging the gap between academia and industry and clinical settings. The 5-year programme will promote intersectoral, interdisciplinary, and international training and foster career perspectives for young scientists by offering 12 postdoctoral fellowships of 24 months duration to conduct translational research in the Areas of Biofunctional Nanomaterials, Synthetic Bioengineering, and Molecular and Functional Imaging. A key strength of the BREATH program is the active engagement of both academic and non-academic sectors. This includes 15 top-tier international research organisations, along with 15 industrial partners, 4 clinical or health research organisations, and 4 regional entities dedicated to promoting innovation and entrepreneurship. International research organisations will provide complementary scientific expertise, advanced training, and opportunities for groundbreaking research, enabling fellows to gain new scientific expertise. Industrial partners will provide a market- oriented perspective, focusing on commercial viability and innovation, while clinical and health research organisations will bring a patient-oriented vision, prioritizing advancements in medical knowledge, healthcare outcomes, and solutions to health-related challenges. The programme is tailored to empower researchers in biomaterials for advanced health solutions, emphasizing a holistic approach that integrates research excellence, innovation, knowledge transference, and entrepreneurship.

Keywords: biomaterials,bioengineering,research excellence,innovation,knowledge transference,entrepreneurship