Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Intramolecular force mapping of enzymes in action: the role of strain in motor mechanisms (FORCEMAP)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Molecular and Structural Biology and Biochemistry
Countries involved: Hungary
Call:  (ERC-2007-StG, 2007)
Start date: 2008-09-01
End date: 2014-08-31
Duration (months): 72.0
Total project cost (EUR): 750000.0
EU funding (EUR): 750000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

A fundamental but unexplored problem in biology is whether and how enzymes use mechanical strain during their functioning. It is now evident that the knowledge of atomic structures and chemical interactions is not sufficient to understand the intricate mechanisms underlying enzyme specificity and efficiency. Several lines of evidence suggest that mechanical effects play crucial roles in enzyme activity. Therefore we aim to create detailed force maps that reveal how the intramolecular distribution of mechanical strains changes during the enzyme cycle and how these rearrangements drive the enzyme processes. The applicability of current nanotechniques for the investigation of this problem is limited because they do not allow simultaneous measurement of mechanical and enzymatic parameters. Thus we seek to open new avenues of research by developing site-specific sensors and passive or photoinducible molecular springs to measure force-dependent chemical/structural changes with high spatiotemporal resolution in myosin. Since force perturbations occur very rapidly, we are able to combine experimental studies with quasi-realistic in silico simulations to describe the physical background of enzyme function. We expect that our research will yield fundamental insights into the role of intramolecular strains in enzymes and thus greatly aid the design and control of enzyme processes (specificity, activity, regulation). Our studies may also lead to new paradigms in the understanding of motor systems.

Keywords: motor,enzyme,protein,mechanics,kinetics,dynamics,mechanism,kinase
Taking Force Microscopy into the Third Dimension (3D-FM)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Condensed matter physics
Countries involved: Netherlands
Call:  (ERC-2007-StG, 2007)
Start date: 2008-08-01
End date: 2013-07-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1794960.0
EU funding (EUR): 1794960.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

I propose to pursue two emerging Force Microscopy techniques that allow measuring structural properties below the surface of the specimen. Whereas Force Microscopy (most commonly known under the name AFM) is usually limited to measuring the surface topography and surface properties of a specimen, I will demonstrate that Force Microscopy can achieve true 3D images of the structure of the cell nucleus. In Ultrasound Force Microscopy, an ultrasound wave is launched from below towards the surface of the specimen. After the sound waves interact with structures beneath the surface of the specimen, the local variations in the amplitude and phase shift of the ultrasonic surface motion is collected by the Force Microscopy tip. Previously, measured 2D maps of the surface response have shown that the surface response is sensitive to structures below the surface. In this project I will employ miniature AFM cantilevers and nanotube tips that I have already developed in my lab. This will allow me to quickly acquire many such 2D maps at a much wider range of ultrasound frequencies and from these 2D maps calculate the full 3D structure below the surface. I expect this technique to have a resolving power better than 10 nm in three dimensions as far as 2 microns below the surface. In parallel I will introduce a major improvement to a technique based on Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR). Magnetic Resonance Force Microscopy measures the interaction of a rotating nuclear spin in the field gradient of a magnetic Force Microscopy tip. However, these forces are so small that they pose an enormous challenge. Miniature cantilevers and nanotube tips, in combination with additional innovations in the detection of the cantilever motion, can overcome this problem. I expect to be able to measure the combined signal of 100 proton spins or fewer, which will allow me to measure proton densities with a resolution of 5 nm, but possibly even with atomic resolution.

Keywords: subsurface atomic force microscopy magnetic resonance force microscopy
Roles of Homeoproteins in Lymphoid Organ Development (HINLOD)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: International Re-integration Grants
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Italy
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2007-4-3-IRG, 2007)
Start date: 2007-09-03
End date: 2011-09-02
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Lymphoid organ development results from a complex interplay of genetically controlled molecular and cellular networks. While most of the molecular mechanisms underlying lymphoid organogenesis remain unknown, recent findings demonstrate that homeodomain transcription factors are essential to these processes. One such homeoprotein is Pbx1 that binds DNA with a subset of Hox proteins, including the Hox11 oncoprotein aberrantly accumulated in T-cell acute leukemia. Like Hox11, Pbx1 was originally isolated as a proto-oncogene in pre-B-cell leukemia. By using knockout mouse models, cellular and biochemical approaches, we demonstrated that Pbx1 and Hox11 loss of function mutations result in reduced spleen mesenchymal proliferation accompanied by spleen agenesis. Furthermore, we established a genetic network regulating spleen mesenchymal expansion and demonstrated the essential role of the Pbx1-Hox11 transcriptional pathway during spleen ontogeny. Although a few Pbx1- and Hox11-targets have been identified, the growth-related transcriptional networks orchestrated by these homeoproteins during lymphoid organogenesis remain mostly unknown. Our research objective is to perform a comprehensive search for direct Pbx1 and Hox11 growth-related target genes and de-convolute the global gene regulatory network governed by these homeoproteins during lymphoid organogenesis. We plan perform a comprehensive analysis to uncover genes differentially expressed in wild type and single Pbx1 and Hox11 mutant embryonic spleens. Next, our studies will focus on those direct downstream targets that are likely responsible for the cellular proliferation/differentiation defects observed in these mutant spleens. We will validate these potential targets by performing in situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry analysis on embryonic spleen sections and further corroborate whether Pbx1 and/or directly control these targets by chromatin immunoprecipitation and transcriptional assays.

Keywords: organogenesis,developmental biology,lymphoid organs,homeoproteins,transcriptional regulation
Understanding Preferences: Measurement, Prevalence, Determinants and Consequences (PREFERENCES)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Individuals, institutions and markets
Countries involved: Germany
Call:  (ERC-2007-StG, 2007)
Start date: 2009-01-01
End date: 2013-12-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1340000.0
EU funding (EUR): 1340000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

This project analyzes the distribution, origin, determinants and consequences of human preferences. Preferences are key building blocks of any economic model and fundamentally determine human behavior both at an individual and a country wide level. Four particularly important types of preferences, which will be studied in this research project, are risk preferences, time preferences, social preferences and preferences for work and leisure. Despite their fundamental importance, empirical knowledge regarding the nature of preferences is still very limited. Crucial open questions concern: the pervasiveness of different degrees of risk aversion, impatience, social preferences and preferences for work and leisure in the population; the extent to which different preferences vary systematically with personal characteristics, such as gender, age, and educational background; the correlation between preferences within person, e.g., whether individuals who are risk averse also tend to be impatient; the relation between economic preferences and other non-cognitive skills, such as personality (e.g., Big Five) and cognitive skills measured in terms of IQ; the origin of preferences, e.g., the extent to which preferences are passed on from one generation to the next; the possibility that preferences and attitudes vary systematically with the social and institutional environment; and the degree to which individual preference endowments differ across populations and countries. Answering theses questions is of great importance, both from a general research perspective as well as from a policy oriented point of view. This project is highly innovative as it combines experimental and survey techniques and because it bridges insights from many disciplines.

Keywords: preferences,experiments,behavioral economics
Natural speech comprehension: Comprehension of speech in noise (SPIN)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Environment and society
Countries involved: France
Call:  (ERC-2007-StG, 2007)
Start date: 2008-10-01
End date: 2013-09-30
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 600000.0
EU funding (EUR): 600000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The SpiN project stands at the frontier between experimental linguistics and cognitive neuroscience research. It aims at achieving a critical break-through in the domain of speech-in-noise comprehension by setting up a dedicated interdisciplinary research team. The comprehension of speech in noise is a complex task even for normal hearing people and it is the primary and principal problem experienced by people facing hearing loss or auditory processing disorders. Under ecological conditions, a speech signal scarcely ever reaches the ear without any interfering noise. We will study our capacity to understand speech by relying on the interaction between auditory processing and the specialized cognitive processes involved in speech comprehension and degraded speech restoration. The originality of our approach is to investigate natural speech comprehension both from a language-based and an auditory-driven perspective, using the same synergy as is brought into play when those systems work to achieve speech comprehension. To this end, several experimental techniques including behavioural assessment, electrophysiological measurements and neuroimaging will be used to conduct tests in different target populations (normal hearing participants, hearing impaired and speech processing impaired patients). A systematic evaluation of auditory performances will be done and compared to results of all experiments carried out. In all the results we will highlight the inter-individual variability observed in speech comprehension performances. This will allow us to unravel the links between sensory processes and speech intelligibility and obtain valuable information for the understanding of the neurocognitive processes underlying the comprehension of speech in general. Understanding speech restoration in ecological situations constitutes a challenge that scientists are bound to face as it is becoming such an important societal issue given the omnipresence of noise in modern societies.

Keywords: speech comprehension,speech in noise,speech in speech
Percolating Entanglement and Quantum Information Resources through Quantum Networks (PERCENT)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Fundamental constituents of matter
Countries involved: Spain
Call:  (ERC-2007-StG, 2007)
Start date: 2008-11-01
End date: 2013-12-31
Duration (months): 62.0
Total project cost (EUR): 699600.0
EU funding (EUR): 699600.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Quantum communication networks consist of several nodes that are connected by quantum channels. By exchanging quantum particles, the nodes share quantum correlations, also know as entanglement. Essential for the future development of quantum communication is to understand the design of efficient protocols for the distribution of entanglement between arbitrarily distant nodes. The main objective of the present proposal is to construct the theory of entanglement distribution through quantum networks. At present, very little is known about this fundamental problem, namely about which properties of a quantum network are required to be able to establish entanglement over large distances. Very recently, we have proved that the distribution of entanglement through quantum networks defines a new type of critical phenomenon, an entanglement phase transition called entanglement percolation. These surprising effects do not appear in the standard repeater configuration previously considered. Crucial for the construction of these examples is the use of concepts already known in statistical mechanics, such as percolation. Our scope is to go far beyond these proof-of principle examples and derive the general theoretical framework describing entanglement percolation, exploiting the connection between statistical concepts and entanglement theory. The obtained framework will also be applied to other information resources, such as secret bits. Then, the ultimate aim of the project is to provide a global picture of the distribution of quantum information resources over realistic quantum communication networks.

Keywords: quantum information theory,quantum communication,condensed matter physics.
Preparing for the construction of the Digital Research Infrastructure for the Arts and Humanities (PREPARINGDARIAH)

Framework: FP7 — Capacities
Programme: Research Infrastructures
Destination: Support to new research infrastructures
Action type: Combination of CP & CSA
Countries involved: Netherlands,United Kingdom,France,Germany,Denmark,Germany,Greece,United Kingdom,Cyprus,Ireland,Croatia,United Kingdom,Slovenia
Call:  (FP7-INFRASTRUCTURES-2007-1, 2007)
Start date: 2008-09-01
End date: 2011-02-28
Duration (months): 30.0
Total project cost (EUR): 3695262.6
EU funding (EUR): 2500000.0
Participants: 15
Project status: CLOSED

The grand vision for the Digital Research Infrastructure for the Arts and Humanities (DARIAH) is to facilitate access to research material for the humanities and for supporting the preservation of digital heritage material in Europe. DARIAH connects information users (researchers), information managers and information providers. It gives them a technical framework that enables enhanced data sharing among research communities. Researchers can use DARIAH to: • find and use a wide range of digital content from across Europe, and the tools that aid their interpretation and use; • ensure the long-term preservation of data; • ensure that they work to accepted standards and following best practice; • seek advice, and exchange ideas and knowledge on all aspects of digital scholarship; • use DARIAH as a place for experimentation and innovation in collaboration with other scholars from across multiple domains. The core strategy of DARIAH is to bring together national, regional and local endeavours to form a coherent infrastructure where complementarities and new challenges are clearly identified and acted upon. The initial idea for DARIAH has now grown into a clear vision shared by many and it is time to make this vision concrete. The overall objective of the Preparing DARIAH Project is therefore to move the project forward and be ready for the construction of DARIAH by 2011. Specific objectives of the project are to: 1. draft a business plan for the construction and operation of DARIAH; 2. identify initial and potential consortium partners; 3. gain commitment from key stakeholders; 4. draft a “signature ready” consortium agreement. The work in the preparatory project addresses coordination, strategic, financial, governance, logistical, legal and technical issues, as well as management and dissemination activities to support this work. The activities foreseen vary from desk research, agenda setting meetings and forums, surveys, mailings and testing of prototype technologies.

Keywords: digital data,arts and humanities,curation,preservation,accessibility
Global Ocean Observing Infrastructure (EURO ARGO)

Framework: FP7 — Capacities
Programme: Research Infrastructures
Destination: Support to new research infrastructures
Action type: Combination of CP & CSA
Countries involved: France,Germany,Germany,United Kingdom,United Kingdom,Netherlands,Spain,Italy,Ireland,Norway,France,Portugal,Greece,Poland,Bulgaria
Call:  (FP7-INFRASTRUCTURES-2007-1, 2007)
Start date: 2008-01-01
End date: 2011-06-30
Duration (months): 42.0
Total project cost (EUR): 4210105.45
EU funding (EUR): 2995859.67
Participants: 15
Project status: CLOSED

The Euro-Argo infrastructure will be a major component of the Argo global in situ ocean observatory. The Argo network is a global array of autonomous instruments measuring temperature and salinity over the upper 2000 m of the ocean. Argo is an indispensable component of the Global Ocean Observing System required to understand and monitor the role of the ocean in the Earth’s climate system. Argo must be considered in its ensemble: not only the instruments, but also the logistics necessary for their preparation and deployments, field operations, the associated data streams and data centres. Euro-Argo will develop and progressively consolidate the European component of the global network. Specific European interest also requires a somewhat increased sampling in regional seas. Overall, the Euro-Argo infrastructure should comprise 800 floats in operation at any given time. The maintenance of such an array would require Europe to deploy about 250 floats per year. The main objective of the Euro-Argo preparatory phase will be to undertake the preparatory work needed to ensure that by 2010 Europe will be able to deploy and operate an array of 800 floats and to provide a world-level service to the research (climate) and environment monitoring (e.g. GMES) communities. The proposal will consolidate and broaden the European participation in Argo and will develop further a leading role of Europe in global ocean observations and in ocean and climate research. The main expected outcome of the proposal is an agreement between member states and other funding agencies for long term (> 10 years) operation of Euro-Argo. To reach such an agreement, it will be necessary to work on several key technical (float technology, data management and delivery system) and organizational (logistics for deployment, coordination of national contributions) issues, to consolidate and broaden the user community and to demonstrate further the impact and utility of the infrastructure for Europe.

Keywords: ocean,climate,research,environment,monitoring,infrastructure,float
Scientific sYnergisM of nano-Bio-Info-cOgni Science for an Integrated system to monitor meat quality and Safety during production, storage, and distribution in EU (SYMBIOSIS-EU)

Framework: FP7 — Cooperation
Programme: Food, Agriculture and Fisheries, and Biotechnology
Destination: Fork to farm: Food (including seafood), health and well being
Action type: Collaborative project
Countries involved: Greece,Italy,United Kingdom,Netherlands,France,Denmark,New Zealand,United States,Netherlands,Italy
Call:  (FP7-KBBE-2007-1, 2007)
Start date: 2008-10-01
End date: 2012-03-31
Duration (months): 42.0
Total project cost (EUR): 3025597.32
EU funding (EUR): 2280098.0
Participants: 17
Project status: CLOSED

The SYMBIOSIS-EU project will bring together 14 partners from 6 EU countries (plus one each from NZ and US) to study meat safety &amp; quality. The overall aim is to identify and quantitatively evaluate practical and easy to use chemical, biochemical and molecular indices and establish their applicability as quality monitors for inspection of meat safety and quality. The project will apply a multidisciplinary system-wide approach relying on converging technologies (bioinformatics, nanotechnology, modelling) to obtain knowledge for meat safety that will be translated into simple devices and practical indicators of quality and safety. The main objectives are (i) to develop and/or validate easy to use chemical/biochemical methods (e.g. biosensors, fluorescence, FT-IR), molecular methods (DNA microarrays), (ii) to develop a suitable software platform for data sharing and integration, (iii) to apply multivariate statistical methods and machine learning (neural networks, fuzzy logic, genetic algorithms) to identify robust multiple compound quality indices, (iv) integration of the sensors and information platform and development of a system to automatically transform data acquired from a sample into a “diagnosis” of meat safety and quality. The project plan designed to meet these objectives comprises 3 Sections: 1 Microbial status and their major metabolomic, molecular profiling of spoilage bacteria, 2. Development of an easy to use integrated system to monitor meat safety and quality 3. Development of protocols for simple, effective and cheap evaluation of meat quality and safety in industry, based on new indices of quality and safety relying on detection of metabolites by simple sensors, driven by user friendly software that facilitates practical use of the developed methods. The project will be of benefit to the EU meat industry, providing useful tools and fundamental knowledge of the spoilage and hazard. It will also impact on the research and informatics communities.

Keywords: cognitive,bioinformatics,biotechnology,nanotechnology,metabolomics,genomics,system biology,neural science,sensors
Intermediate Band Materials and Solar Cells for Photovoltaics with High Efficiency and Reduced Cost (IBPOWER)

Framework: FP7 — Cooperation
Programme: Energy
Destination: Renewable electricity generation
Action type: Collaborative project
Countries involved: Spain,United Kingdom,Germany,France,United Kingdom
Call:  (FP7-ENERGY-2007-1-RTD, 2007)
Start date: 2008-02-01
End date: 2012-01-31
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 4611846.0
EU funding (EUR): 3489529.0
Participants: 5
Project status: CLOSED

This proposal pursues the manufacturing of intermediate band materials and solar cells according to the following main strategies: a) Insertion of transition elements into III-V semicontuctor matrices; b) use of quantum dot systems to artifficially engineer intermediate band solar cells; c) development of intermediate band materials and solar cells based on InGaN; d) Insertion of transition elements into thin film polycristalline hosts; Approaches “a” to “c” rely on the use of concentrated sunlight to achieve cost competitive goals. Approach “d” relies on low cost materials.

Keywords: intermediate band,quantum dots,concentration,thin films,novel concepts,low cost