Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Conduction Mechanisms in Advanced MOS Technologies (CONAT)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: International Incoming Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Israel
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2011-IIF, 2011)
Start date: 2012-09-01
End date: 2014-08-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 250106.0
EU funding (EUR): 250106.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Silicon-based technologies are approaching their physical limits, and technology breakthroughs, in terms of materials and processes, will be required as device sizes reach the nano-scale frontier. To face these challenges, a new generation of devices based on a clever combination of selected materials is currently under consideration worldwide. The aim of this project is to investigate the conduction mechanisms, in connection with degradation and breakdown characteristics, of Metal Gate/High-K structures on III-V substrates intended for applications in future MOS transistors. This aspect is primary obstacle to the successful incorporation into mainstream semiconductor process. To the date, no systematic study about these topics in such advanced structures has been carried out. The project covers all aspect of conduction in the MG/HK/III-V stacks, fresh, stressed and, finally the breakdown event and the conduction over the degraded stacks. The electrical characterization will provide relevant information to contribute to the elaboration of models that are able to predict the life time of devices more accurately. Leading the transition to advance electronics is a challenge for applied research as it requires specific technologies platforms. That is actually why this proposal is highly interesting. This research project would contribute to achieve excellence in the filed and consequently would attract the interest of the industrial sector of the EU. This proposal aims to define advantages and constrains of advance MG/HK/III-V stacks since they will play a relevant role in the next generation of CMOS manufacture process

Keywords: metal gates,high-k dielectrics,iii-v substrates,conduction mechanisms
Hydraulic Stimulation Modeling in Geothermal Systems (HYSM)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Intra-European Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Germany
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2011-IEF, 2011)
Start date: 2012-05-14
End date: 2014-05-13
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 167390.4
EU funding (EUR): 167390.4
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The increasing demand for energy with the least possible environmental impact in the last years has led to an ever-increasing interest in geothermal energy world-wide. Most areas with elevated temperature gradients are hot but have a relatively low permeability. In such cases hydraulic stimulation is used to increase permeability and reservoir productivity. The aim of hydraulic stimulation is obviously the maximization of productivity. It is however linked to risks, such as induced microseismicity or borehole stability, which in turn are likely to increase significantly production costs. For the stimulation the pumping volume rate and the applied pressure are parameters influencing the reaction of the rock mass formation in the sense of brittle or ductile behavior. It is, as a result, necessary to develop methods of determining the exact stimulation procedure suitable in each specific case in order to enhance productivity, while keeping costs and risks to a minimum. The present project suggests an approach to the subject from three different aspects: constitutive, experimental and numerical. The constitutive model is to result from examination of the physics at the microscale and upscaling to the continuum by means of averaging techniques. Interaction of neighborinng cracks will be taken into consideration. As input to the model the probability density functions of the orientations and spacings of cracks will be used. The output is to be the evolution of the fracture matrix and, as a consequence, the evolution of the rock permeability. The experimental program will focus on crack interaction and fracture propagation. The effect of high temperatures, as a rule present in geothermal reservoirs, will also be examined. The numerical program will follow two different paths, that of DEM and that of FEM. The first will be used to provide insight on the fluid-solid interaction, while the second will be used for validation and case study simulations.

Keywords: engineering mathematics,enhanced geothermal systems,soil mechanics
Reliable quantum simulators (REQS)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Intra-European Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Germany
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2011-IEF, 2011)
Start date: 2012-11-08
End date: 2014-11-07
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 167390.4
EU funding (EUR): 167390.4
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Building analogue quantum devices that can simulate the behaviour of other quantum systems more efficiently than any classical apparatus is deemed possible and highly desirable. Such advances will give immense boosts to a variety of ﬁelds, from nano-devices to quantum chemistry and information technology. A major current roadblock to this end is the fact that special-purpose quantum simulators have no known mechanisms of self-stabilisation or validation protocols; while it is perfectly known that errors are unavoidable in any experimental setting and even that many of the target systems of interest possess regimes of extreme sensitivity against perturbations. Furthermore, our current understanding of the effects of imperfections on real-world quantum simulators is remarkably poor. The latter is precisely the main reason why it is still not known whether quantum simulators will actually be more powerful than conventional computers at simulating quantum-mechanical systems. Reliable Quantum Simulators (REQS) will contribute to answer this question. In a first stage we plan to derive scaling laws with the system size for the behaviour of generic quantum simulators under realistic noisy conditions. We will then develop interactive protocols to validate the outcomes of realistic noisy simulations. In a final stage, we plan to gain insight on the true usefulness of real-world quantum simulators. This will include obtaining formal evidence on whether or not the latter are hard to simulate for classical computers. Ultimately, the breakthrough character of REQS lies at directly challenging a current common view that sustains that quantum simulators are intrinsically so robust that they do not require validation or error correction. That is, REQS will address the uncomfortable question that quantum simulators could be unreliable, or, equally bad, reliable only in the trivial regimes.

Keywords: physical sciences,quantum information,quantum optics,quantum simulations under noise,robustness,reliability.
Deciphering the domestication and speciation of horses through next-generation paleogenomics using Pleistocene specimens, modern breeds and the domesticated donkey (NGP)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Intra-European Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Denmark
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2011-IEF, 2011)
Start date: 2012-08-23
End date: 2014-11-29
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 238068.6
EU funding (EUR): 238068.6
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Horses have played a critical role in human societies, warfare and facilitating the exploration of novel territories. Moreover, the rich fossil record of the horse family is one of the most widely known examples of macroevolutionary change. Hence, horses offer a unique paradigm to understand the processes of domestication, lineage divergence and speciation. However, horses have become almost extinct in the wild precluding direct comparison of domestic and wild horse genomes. Here, we aim at using state-of-the-art ancient DNA methods in combination with 2nd and 3rd generation sequencing technologies to characterize the complete genomes of two Pleistocene horses conserved in permafrost soils, dating back to 13 KYBP and 700 KYBP respectively, together with the genomes of 4 modern domesticated breeds, the Przewalski horse and the domesticated donkey. The 13 KY-old genome will deliver the sequence of all horse genes before humans started breed selection and comparative genomics against modern breeds will reveal the genetic changes that occurred in the course of the domestication process. The 700 KY-old genome will illustrate genetic changes that occurred at deeper periods of horse evolutionary history. In addition, this multidisciplinary project will provide insights into the mysterious evolutionary history of the highly endangered Przewalski horse. Significantly, characterizing the complete genome of a 700KY-old individual will crack the time line for ancient DNA preservation by at least one order of magnitude. This will be achieved thanks to major methodological breakthrough as explored in this proposal, including ancient DNA repair and true Single Molecule Sequencing. As such, the EquusPaleoGenomics project will pave the way for the next-generation of paleogenomes by opening access to a brand new repertoire of fossils, that are so far still beyond the range of analysis.

Keywords: ancient dna,bioinformatics,genomics,next-generation sequencing,dna repair
Saliency-aware High-resolution Video Processing (SHIVPRO)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: International Incoming Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: France
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2011-IIF, 2011)
Start date: 2012-08-20
End date: 2014-08-19
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 269096.4
EU funding (EUR): 269096.4
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The ever-increasing spatial/temporal resolution of video such as ultra high definition has raised new challenges on storage, transmission and display for business, home, and mobile video applications, and thus efficient representation, compression, and retargeting of high-resolution (HR) videos become the key issues for effective deployment of these applications. Saliency models can facilitate to address these issues, but in practice, the current state-of-the-art saliency models are insufficient for efficiently handling complicated scenes containing multi-scale non-homogenous objects, highly textured regions and cluttered background. The objective of this project is to propose an efficient spatiotemporal saliency model to predict salient regions in HR videos, and fully exploit it to ease the design and improve the performance of HR video compression and retargeting applications. With the aim to overcome the drawbacks of existing saliency models, based on a multiscale region representation, the proposed model systematically realizes statistical model saliency measuring, intra-scale saliency modification, inter-scale saliency propagation and flexible incorporation of top-down information, to generate a novel saliency representation form with scalability, saliency tree, from which a multiscale saliency fusion scheme is used to derive high-quality saliency maps at various scales. Saliency tree enables an efficient search of multiple salient objects, guides the temporal non-uniform downsampling, and directs the enhanced mode decision in HR video compression. Saliency diffusion, shrinkability/stretchability estimation, and an integration of cropping/warping and uniform scaling are exploited for HR video retargeting. The research results will consolidate Europe as a leader in the research domain of saliency modeling and saliency based applications, facilitate to promote the developments of HR video services in Europe, and thus boost the European competitiveness.

Keywords: image processing,signal processing,saliency model,visual attention,saliency tree,saliency map,salient object detection,high-resolution video compression,high-resolution video retargeting.
Directed evolution of class B G-protein coupled receptors (GPCR EVOLUTION)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Intra-European Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Switzerland
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2011-IEF, 2011)
Start date: 2012-12-01
End date: 2014-11-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 184709.4
EU funding (EUR): 184709.4
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Class B G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) are peptide hormone-binding receptors that are implicated in the pathogenesis several human diseases which makes them attractive targets for drug therapy. To develop new compounds to target these receptors a detailed understanding of the molecular structure is required which has not been succeeded to date. To elucidate the structure of proteins by X-ray crystallography or NMR spectroscopy large quantities of protein are required. For GPCRs this prerequisite is difficult to achieve as the vast majority of GPCRs exhibits low endogenous expression and is very unstable in solution. Therefore, improved expression conditions are required for the efficient characterization of new GPCR structures. In the proposed project class B GPCRs will be optimized for improved heterologous expression and increased thermostability by means of directed evolution. Libraries of class B GPCRs will be obtained by random mutagenesis and will be heterologously expressed using a system in which functional GPCR is targeted to the inner membrane of E. coli. Mutants that display increased receptor expression levels and ligand binding will be selected by flow cytometry using fluorescently labeled ligands. Repetitive cycles of randomization and selection will allow to gradually increasing the level of protein expression and stability. With this evolutionary approach key residues within the receptor sequence can be rapidly identified that are responsible for improved biophysical properties without affecting the pharmacological properties of the receptor. Such GPCR mutants will be a valuable tool on the way to express high quantities of stable receptor protein for subsequent structural studies.

Keywords: health sciences,technological sciences,natural sciences
Functional evaluation of newly identified deregulated genes in Alzheimer's Disease patients using neuronal cultures and mouse model of the Disease, and possible contributions to Prion Disease (ADAPTOGENE)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Intra-European Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Spain
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2011-IEF, 2011)
Start date: 2013-04-15
End date: 2015-04-14
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 168896.4
EU funding (EUR): 168896.4
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Neurodegenerative diseases (NDs) are the neurological disorders which will affect a significantly growing number of people in the context of the aging of the EU's population and worldwide. NDs thus constitute a priority for action. Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia and ND, and a major social and health problem. Preliminary data from the host laboratory identified a subset of significantly deregulated genes in brain tissue of AD affected individuals. We here propose to test how and to which extent activation or suppression of these genes confers susceptibility to AD. We propose two approaches: the first in vitro, to analyze how the modification of the expression of these genes influences neuronal cultures survival and plasticity in the old stage, and the susceptibility of neurons to Amyloid beta toxicity. Then, the most promising genes will be further selected for an in vivo screening in transgenic mouse model of AD, to elucidate whether the alteration of the expression of these genes may modify and hopefully counteract the signs of AD in vivo. Additionally, as recent advances in Prion diseases, another family of NDs affecting humans and animals, and AD research suggest that AD and Prion diseases converge in many pathogenic aspects, and may even be amenable to similar therapeutic principles, we propose to analyze the contribution of these genes also in Prion disease cellular models, and whether alteration of Prion biology may in turn contribute to AD pathology. This fellowship will give important information on aberrant genetic, cellular and molecular mechanisms responsible for NDs such as AD, and will open direct leads for early diagnosis and prevention. The fellow will acquire a more complete and diversified scientific knowledge and technical preparation through a multi-disciplinary approach, and will be trained to become an expert researcher towards an independent research career in the field of neuroscience, in particular of NDs and AD

Keywords: neurosciences,neurobiology,neurodegenerative diseases,alzheimer's disease,beta amyloid,neuronal toxicity,prion diseases,aging,genetic screen,genetic functional validation
UE cultural policy and intercultural dialogue in time of globalization: a comparative study of values concerning cultural heritage for civil society (Faro-Convention, 2005) (VALOGLOB)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Intra-European Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Spain
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2011-IEF, 2011)
Start date: 2013-02-01
End date: 2015-01-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 168896.4
EU funding (EUR): 168896.4
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

VALOGLOB project has the scope to analyse Faro-Convention (2005) using a research methodology based on a systemic approach (Morin, 2005), a cross-cultural comparative study (Demorgon, 2004) with the World Heritage Convention (UNESCO, 1972) and field case studies in Europe, Euro-Mediterranean area and Russia. These objectives have the aim to better understand theoretical and practical mechanisms of a legal text (Faro-Convention, 2005) with great impacts on civil society (museums and inhabitants). Since the Second World War, tens of Conventions, Recommendations and Declarations on cultural heritage were adopted by governments. These normative instruments are rarely studied in a cross-cultural approach with main focus on citizenship as a key actor regarding its implementation. Faro-Convention (2005) stresses its aims on the values of cultural heritage for society. In time of globalisation, cultural heritage cannot be anymore a topic discussed only by specialists, but a dialogue in permanent interaction with the civil society in order to build a common European identify based on “diversity” and “unity”. To carry out this project, the researcher (PhD) has a great research experience (temporary Lecturer at University of Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, France), has been involved in French and international projects (FP6, FP7, AECID, ANR), got a research award nomination titled “Cultural Policy Research Award” (CPRA, 2010), has published 3 peer-reviewed articles has an extended professional experience (Cambodia, Gabon, Sudan, Latin America, Russia, etc.) in international organisations (International Council of Museums (ICOM), UNESCO, APSARA, etc.). The IUEE, Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence, at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) will give to the applicant the opportunity to carry out her research project in a major European and multicultural centre for intercultural dialogue and cultural policies dissemination for the Mediterranean basin and beyond (Russia).

Keywords: heritage,intercultural dialogue,faro convention,unesco world heritage convention,globalization,europe,culture,cross-cultural interpretation,identity,diversity,civil society,cultural values
Efficient NMR crystallography of nucleic acid systems (DNAMET)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Intra-European Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2011-IEF, 2011)
Start date: 2012-06-01
End date: 2013-11-30
Duration (months): 18.0
Total project cost (EUR): 156775.05
EU funding (EUR): 156775.05
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The goal of this proposal is to develop efficient strategies for the nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) crystallography of organic molecular solids, focussing on nucleic acids and their derivatives. These systems are natural targets for the developing field of crystallography via NMR since H-bonding and tautomerism are central to their biological activity. The structure and function of RNA and DNA depends strongly on associated metal ions and with water molecules, but the non-covalent and dynamic nature of these interactions creates severe problems for their characterisation in the solution state, while characterising the role of water and hydrogen bonding in the solid state via X-ray diffraction techniques is also difficult. As well as providing a variety of challenges for NMR, such as paramagnetic metal ions, these studies will provide direct information on local structure and dynamics in these key biological materials that is inaccessible to conventional crystallography.

Keywords: solid-state nmr spectroscopy,dna-metal interactions,dft calculations