Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Force production of myosin 18 and its molecular sociology with myosin 2 (MyoDuo)

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: Life Sciences
Countries involved: France
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2023 (HORIZON-MSCA-2023-PF-01, 2023)
Start date: 2024-05-15
End date: 2026-05-14
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 195914.88
EU funding (EUR): 195914.88
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

The cytoskeleton is a complex protein web organised through the cell to provide structure and cell shape dynamics. One critical and often overlooked component is Myo18, which is part of the myosin superfamily of motor proteins. By interacting with actin, myosins canonically produce force through a series of conformational changes driven by the hydrolysis of ATP. However, Myo18 appears not to cycle through the set of conformations found for other myosins due to its divergent sequence. It is therefore hypothesised to act as an actin cross-linker rather than actively producing force. Another myosin family, Myo2, is the most prominent force producing component in the muscle sarcomere and in stress fibres which drive cell migration. Myo2 performs its role by forming filaments through a coiled coil domain creating a structure with multiple force producing heads ready to bind and move along actin. The coiled coil of Myo18 allows recruitment into Myo2 filaments within these niches but its role is obscure given its divergent behaviour. The sociology between these two myosin families, that is the specific interactions of different partners in space and time, is interesting given the complementary features of these two protein families. This study aims to structurally characterise Myo18 in different nucleotide states on and off actin to gain insights into the evolution and function of its cryptic cycle. Furthermore, this work will assess through structural characterisation how Myo18 and Myo2 directly interact through their coiled coil domains. This association will then be analysed through biophysical studies exploring how Myo18 alters force production and function by intercalating into Myo2 filaments.

Keywords: cytoskeleton myosin myo18 myo2 stress fibres sarcomere motors allostery molecular sociology
PDI connectivity and cooperation enablers building trust and sustainability for CCAM (PoDIUM)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness
Programme: Climate, Energy and Mobility
Theme: Mobility
Destination: Safe, Resilient Transport and Smart Mobility services for passengers and goods
Action type: Innovation actions
Partnership: CCAM (co-programmed)
Countries involved: Greece,Germany,Spain,Austria,Italy,France,Luxembourg,Belgium
Call: Physical and Digital Infrastructure (PDI), connectivity and cooperation enabling and supporting CCAM (CCAM Partnership) (HORIZON-CL5-2021-D6-01, 2021)
Start date: 2022-10-01
End date: 2025-12-31
Duration (months): 39.0
Total project cost (EUR): 12208630.8
EU funding (EUR): 8999889.0
Participants: 28
Project status: SIGNED

In PoDIUM, using and enhancing the facilities of 3 well-equipped Living Labs in Germany, Italy and Spain we define a rich set of demanding CCAM UCs to identify and assess all the connectivity and cooperation enablers and needs that will allow the proposed higher levels of automation. Building on the proposed UCs (urban and highway - incl. cross-border setups), which will be demonstrated and validated in real-life conditions, PoDIUM will tackle all the different requirements for availability and performance of connectivity as well as the different cooperation enablers per UC. The proposed UCs aim to advance a set of key technologies both in the physical and digital part of the infrastructure. A multi-connectivity approach is followed to ensure reliability, availability and redundancy of the PDI system (i.e., ITS-G5, 5G, LTE, 5G mmWave, 60GHz-WiFi, etc.). As part of the proposed PDI system, a distributed, interoperable and hybrid (MEC and cloud-based) data management environment will be implemented, which will include suitable advanced environment perception models and digital twins to facilitate seamless and efficient exchange of data (in low latency), thus enabling real-time analytics and opening up new business opportunities. Software integrity and data truthfulness of external data are important aspects that will be considered throughout the PDI to address existing gaps. New and standardised C-ITS messages will be integrated to support advanced functionalities, whereas new designs of RSUs and OBUs will allow advanced environmental modelling and digital twins based on locally generated data. Last but not least, a major focus will be laid on the integration of VRUs in the overall PDI. All those elements will be integrated under the umbrella of the three layered PoDIUM reference architecture, which is flexible and applicable in different road environments based on the available infrastructure equipment enabling different kinds of services.

Keywords: perception modelling digital twins,ccam services tmc in mec 5g and mmwave multipath and multi connectivity its g5 and 60ghz wifi vrus software integrity and data truthfulness,3 living labs
Fairness and Explanations in Group Recommender Systems. Towards Trustworthiness and transparency (FIDELITY)

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: Information Science and Engineering
Countries involved: Spain,Netherlands
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2022 (HORIZON-MSCA-2022-PF-01, 2022)
Start date: 2024-05-01
End date: 2026-04-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 181152.96
EU funding (EUR): 181152.96
Participants: 4
Project status: SIGNED

Today, most social media networks use automated tools to recommend content or products and to rank, curate and moderate posts. Recommender systems (RSs), and in particular Group recommender systems (GRSs), -a specific kind of RSs used to recommend items to a group of users-, are likely to become more ubiquitous, with expected market forecast to reach USD 16.13 billion by 2026. These automated content governance tools are receiving emerging interest as both algorithms and decision-making processes behind the platforms are not sufficiently transparent, with a negative impact on domains such as fair job opportunities, fair e-commerce or news exposure. Two of the key requirements that have to be fulfilled to build and keep users’ trust in AI systems while guaranteeing transparency are Fairness and Explainability. But, aside from some previous attempts to enhance both aspects in traditional-individual RS, they have hardly been explored in GRSs. FIDELITY addresses this challenge by developing novel algorithms and computational tools in GRS to boost explanation, fairness, and synergy between them through a disruptive multidisciplinary research approach that: 1) extensively brings SHAP and LIME, as state-of-the-art post-hoc explanation approaches in AI, into RS and GRS contexts, 2) bridges explanation and fairness in RS and GRS, introducing an explanation paradigm shift moving from “why are the recommendations generated?” to “how fair are the generated recommendations?” and, 3) transversally evaluates the new methods through real-world GRSs and user studies. The ultimate goal is to guarantee greater user trust, and independence of RS output from any of the sociodemographic characteristics of users. The training programme, designed with the aim to fill the existing gaps between computing science, social research and business development reality, will provide the candidate with a multidisciplinary background that will boost his innovation potential and career prospects.

Keywords: group recommender systems explainability fairness personalization
Early warning systeM for soil dEgRadation: a statistical physics Approach to cLimate change aDaptation (Emerald)

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: Ireland
Call: ERC PROOF OF CONCEPT GRANTS1 (ERC-2022-POC1, 2022)
Start date: 2022-06-01
End date: 2024-03-31
Duration (months): 22.0
Total project cost (EUR): 150000.0
EU funding (EUR): 150000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Climate change is an urgent challenge and impacts ecosystems, society and economic activities. Here we focus on the problem of loss of fertile soil (soil degradation), a process that is induced and accelerated by extreme weather and climate change and affects, among other sectors, agriculture, land use planning and food security. Current tools to monitor soil health for commercial purposes or policymaking are either limited in scale due to high cost, or insufficiently accurate due to the lack of underlying robust models. The EMERALD Proof of Concept aims to test, further develop, and promote final users' uptake of a novel soil fertility monitoring and forecasting method founded in the statistical physics of disordered systems. The expertise built on the underlying physics of spin systems as part of the ERC starting grant will be applied to the accurate modelling of vegetation growth, substantially building on our promising preliminary results. This early warning and large scale survey of soil degradation offers an effective climate change adaptation tool, helping farmers, agricultural organization and governments in land use planning on the medium and long term. The use of earth observation data will ensure a scalable solution to tackle the problem of desertification globally. The final aim is to develop the research results into a service, evaluate the market, obtain the first users, evaluate its impact and develop a comprehensive non-profit commercial strategy for the uptake of this technology.
Coupled Membranes for Ammonia Cracking to Compressed Hydrogen (COUPLE)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness
Programme: Climate, Energy and Mobility
Theme: Public-private partnerships
Destination: Clean Hydrogen
Action type: Innovation actions
Partnership: CLEANH2 (JU-JTI)
Countries involved: Norway,Spain,Germany,Sweden,Italy
Call: Demonstration of scalable ammonia cracking technology (HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2025, 2025)
Start date: 2026-01-01
End date: 2028-12-31
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 7913449.69
EU funding (EUR): 5997390.1
Participants: 8
Project status: SIGNED

COUPLE will demonstrate an ammonia cracking technology by an innovative coupling of palladium-based membranes reactors (PdMR) and proton ceramic electrochemical reactors (PCER) to produce 100 kg H2/day of high-purity, pressurized hydrogen over 5000 h. The COUPLE technology will achieve an energy efficiency > 90 % by process intensification leveraging the unique strengths of both PdMR and PCER membranes in a highly integrated system. The high flow rates of PdMR membranes enable an efficient hydrogen extraction while shifting the thermodynamic equilibrium, while the PCER membranes further extract hydrogen electrochemically and also compress it and generate heat for the overall endothermic ammonia cracking reaction. This balanced thermal management minimizes energy losses and external energy inputs, enhancing overall efficiency, and achieving > 99.9 % ammonia conversion and > 95 % hydrogen recovery while significantly lowering the total cost of ownership to 0.75 €/kg H2 (excluding ammonia costs). The 100 kg/day demonstration plant will be located in Poppendorf, Germany, and the project aims to secure off-take of the produced hydrogen during operation. The overall system will be controlled and analysed by an advanced control system and an associated digital twin that will be developed in the project. The achievements in COUPLE will be an important proof of technological feasibility advancing the technology from TRL5 to TRL7. To strengthen the implementation, COUPLE will actively disseminate and communicate the results to influence stakeholders in the value chain. This includes assessment of social acceptance of ammonia as an energy carrier by applying social science methodology to identify acceptance-relevant factors. The consortium counts on partners from the industry, institute and academia sector with high world-wide excellence in the respective fields of catalysis, membrane reactors, process engineering, control systems, and industrial ammonia safety and operations.

Keywords: coupled membrane technology proton conducting ceramics pd membrane ammonia cracking pressurized hydrogen
Why do fungi oxidize their cell wall carbohydrates? (FOX)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Consolidator grants
Action type: ERC actions
Countries involved: France
Call: ERC CONSOLIDATOR GRANTS (ERC-2025-COG, 2025)
Start date: 2026-06-01
End date: 2031-05-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1999130.0
EU funding (EUR): 1999130.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

The fungal cell wall (FCW) is the primary interface between the fungal cell and its surrounding. This statement applies to all types of fungi, regardless of whether they live in symbiosis, cause disease, or decompose organic matter. As smart architects, fungi have found ways to evolve the chemical composition of this wall (made mostly of carbohydrates) to thrive and constantly adapt to various environmental factors. To date, to which extent, how and what for the FCW is modified remains largely unknown. I hypothesize that fungi use “carbohydrate oxidases” (CarbOx) to cleave and/or functionalize their FCW carbohydrates, thereby altering their physico-chemical properties to fulfil diverse putative functions. In the FOX project, I will aim at unravelling the diversity and biological functions of FCW-active CarbOx. Here, using approaches at the interface between enzymology and microbiology, I propose to decipher the biological functions of pre-identified FCW-active CarbOx in a model filamentous fungus. Then, using an ad hoc methodology integrating in muro detection of oxidized carbohydrates, proteomics and computational modelling, we will draw a comprehensive portrait of FCW carbohydrate oxidation events and pinpoint responsible CarbOx. Building on these insights and methods, we will build experimentally-supported models to probe and test the occurence of these oxidative mechanisms across the fungal kingdom. By unravelling and providing a comprehensive understanding of the oxidative chemistry and function of CarbOx during FCW remodelling, my research will lay the conceptual and practical foundations of FCW oxidative enzymology. Given the involvement of fungi in a myriad of life-sustaining and threatening processes, as well as in industrial bioprocesses, I anticipate that FOX will have wide-ranging implications for the health, agriculture and biotechnology sectors.

Keywords: fungi,enzymes,cazymes,cell wall,carbohydrates
A lead-cooled small modular reactor to deliver the next generation of clean energy. (SEALER)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Innovative Europe
Programme: The European Innovation Council (EIC)
Theme: EIC Accelerator
Destination: Open to supporting projects in all areas of science, technology,...
Action type: EIC actions
Countries involved: Sweden
Call: EIC Accelerator Open 2024 (HORIZON-EIC-2024-ACCELERATOR-02, 2024)
Start date: 2025-07-01
End date: 2027-06-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 3571427.14
EU funding (EUR): 2499999.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Blykalla is developing a breakthrough innovation to decarbonise baseload energy supply. In the midst of a climate crisis, transitioning away from fossil fuels is the number one global challenge. Clean and reliable energy is also a critical aspect of European energy security and technological sovereignty, and demand has never been higher. Our company was formed to radically challenge the way nuclear power plants are built, by making it possible to build faster and cheaper, using fission for more purposes than electricity production, and making uranium a de facto renewable resource. Our product, the Swedish Advanced Lead Reactor (SEALER), is an advanced small modular reactor (SMR) that is cooled by liquid lead. Lead-cooled reactors have been used for 70+ years in submarines. However, we have made a number of novel, breakthrough innovations that now make commercialisation of such reactors possible. The market for building new nuclear power plants is expected to grow rapidly—approximately 5-6% p.a. from today's level of EUR 30 bn—for the next 20 years– reaching EUR 80 bn. We expect lead-cooled SMRs to hold a significant share of the nuclear power market, but also to develop new markets for industrial use cases, such as nuclear-powered electrolysis. With an experienced team of 30+ people, critical intellectual property, strong partnerships, and a solid foundation of 25+ years of leading research, Blykalla is perfectly positioned to take a significant market share of both existing and upcoming markets. Blykalla is steadfastly committed to commercialising our breakthrough advancement within the strategic technology that nuclear power is. Our vision is to build and sell 1,000 of these SMRs. If deployed, this will decarbonize Europe’s energy supply, support industries, increase energy security, and the continent’s technological sovereignty. An investment from the EIC would be key in our journey toward industrialisation.

Keywords: nuclear energy small modular reactors lead cooled reactor
Human Milk Lactoferrin by Precision Fermentation (HuMiLAF)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Innovative Europe
Programme: The European Innovation Council (EIC)
Theme: EIC Accelerator
Destination: Other destinations
Action type: EIC actions
Countries involved: Portugal
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

Precision fermentation presents a transformative solution for today's food system by reducing reliance on animal proteins, offering a sustainable and scalable method for producing specialty proteins. PFx Biotech leverages this innovative technology to produce human milk proteins (HMPs) structurally and functionally identical to those found in human breast milk. This method addresses environmental concerns and ensures higher purity and cost-effectiveness. Proteins like lactoferrin, α-lactalbumin, osteopontin, and immunoglobulins are found in low quantities in cow milk, necessitating the processing of large volumes (e.g., 50 L of milk for 1 g of lactoferrin) and leading to high costs and carbon emissions (50 kg CO2eq). These cow milk-derived proteins also differ by up to 40% in amino acid sequence from their human counterparts, impacting their bioactivity, digestibility, health benefits, and allergenic potential. The infant formula industry is increasingly driven to replicate the composition and bioactivity of human breast milk., but traditional formulas, which use cow milk proteins, fall short due to these structural and functional differences. There is a growing demand for more accurate mimics of human milk to improve infant health outcomes and reduce risks associated with obesity and allergies. The HuMiLAF project aims to scale up the production of human milk lactoferrin (hLF) to a pre-industrial scale, validating its properties and testing its applications. This includes using hLF alone and in micro-and co-encapsulated forms with human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) and specific probiotic strains in two key products: infant formula and immunity shots. Business objectives include securing regulatory approvals, signing agreements with major customers, and advancing the project to commercialization. This project not only addresses a critical gap in infant nutrition but also positions PFx at the forefront of sustainable and innovative protein production.

Keywords: precision fermentation,human milk proteins,infant nutrition,infant formula,bioactivity,human milk lactoferrin hlf,strain engineering,non coding sequences,micro and co encapsulation
Pulmo ex Machina – a breakthrough lung digital twin platform (PxM)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Innovative Europe
Programme: The European Innovation Council (EIC)
Theme: EIC Accelerator
Destination: Other destinations
Action type: EIC actions
Countries involved: Germany
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

Due to the limitedness of current technologies, the respiratory system has historically been a sort of black box in many aspects of R&D and clinical practice. At Ebenbuild we want to open this black box by building the first accurate, patient-specific simulation models of lungs, the so-called digital twins of the lungs. In addition to patient data, these are based on first-of-a-kind predictive, physiologically accurate computational models of the respiratory system. By opening the black box for the very first time, our technology holds the potential to become the definitive source of health intelligence for respiratory diseases across a variety of use cases in healthcare and life sciences, from preclinical R&D to point-of-care. This will make Ebenbuild a deep-tech vanguard with a diversified spectrum of scalable products, each with a significant patient benefit and a global revenue potential and with our technological platform at their core. With EIC support we aim at expanding and validating the potential of our technology for provision of services to Biotech and Pharma companies, supporting in-silico trials for pulmonary drug delivery and enabling the development of better drugs faster. Achieving this milestone will not only unlock an intriguing business opportunity, but will also be the starting point to further develop and eventually position our platform products along the entire spectrum of the medical value chain, from the inception of novel therapies to their application at the point-of-care.

Keywords: digital twin lungs