Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
A Nano-electrode chip for high-resolution/high-throughput cellular assays in cultured neurons including synaptic tranmission (NeuroNanoChip)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Proof of concept grants
Action type: ERC actions
Countries involved: Netherlands
Call: ERC Proof of Concept Grant (ERC-2014-PoC, 2014)
Start date: 2015-07-01
End date: 2016-12-31
Duration (months): 18.0
Total project cost (EUR): 149475.0
EU funding (EUR): 135617.12
Participants: 2
Project status: CLOSED

Cellular studies in neuroscience are hampered by the fact that in vitro cultures of primary neurons are complex, variable and heterogeneous, making studies on cultured neurons time consuming, labour intensive and not scalable. Especially for single cell studies on synaptic transmission and cellular trafficking, this is a major limitation. Both in academia and industry, mitotic cells are commonly used as a proxy for neurons (e.g. PC12 cells). However, while being less variable and better scalable, such cells model neurons only to a limited extent. These cells make no functional contacts (synapses) and do not have the same polarized organization that neurons have, which limits the validity for studies on synaptic transmission and cellular trafficking. Most commonly prescribed drugs for brain disorders target synapses. Yet, drug screening, lead finding/optimization and safety studies build either on cells that make no synapses or on labor-intensive low-throughput assays. Hence, new, standardized, scalable assays using real (synaptic) neurons, will provide a substantial step forward both for academia and industry. This application aims to develop a nano-electrode chip with an electrode array to stimulate, record and image many single neurons with high-resolution, for a period up to several weeks. This approach provides imaging data at single synapse and single organelle resolution and synaptic transmission data at high-throughput. Together, this will not only facilitate and standardize cellular assays using real neurons, but also upscale throughput 100 fold. In addition to the chip itself, we also see market potential for the method (growing/recording neurons on chips) and for a fee-for-service company that offers high throughput compound screening on synaptic neurons.

Keywords: neuroscience,synaptic transmission,nano electrode,exocytosis,cultured neurons,patch clamp,cellular trafficking,life cell imaging
Micro machining with abrasive waterjets (MICROAB)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Industrial Leadership
Programme: Nanotechnologies, Advanced Materials, Advanced Manufacturing and Processing, and Biotechnology
Theme: Nanotechnologies
Action type: SME instrument
Countries involved: Sweden
Call: Accelerating the uptake of nanotechnologies, advanced materials or advanced manufacturing and processing technologies by SMEs (H2020-SMEINST-1-2014, 2014)
Start date: 2014-10-01
End date: 2015-03-31
Duration (months): 6.0
Total project cost (EUR): 71429.0
EU funding (EUR): 50000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Miniaturisation of products requires non-contact machining of micro components. Lasers, wire discharge machining (EDM) and abrasive waterjets are the three main non-contact machining methods but abrasive waterjets have yet to be commercialised for micro machining. This project will result in micro abrasive waterjets becoming an established method for micromachining components from ceramics, metals, glasses, composites and layered materials. Finepart Sweden AB has been assigned patented and patent applied technologies by a UK based pioneer of micro abrasive waterjets in exchange for shares. A prototype micro abrasive waterjet system, with cutting jet diameters down to 80 µm, has been used to cut a wide range of materials and material thicknesses. Technical developments will be scalable to smaller cutting jet diameters and for exploitation in fine and macro machining. Finepart manufactures and sales a fine abrasive waterjet machining centre whose platform is constructed to advanced machine tool standards with accuracies needed for micromachining. The machining platform will be adapted for micromachining including 5 axis capabilities. It is estimated that the development of micro cutting capabilities will increase the market for abrasive waterjet based machine tools by 20%. The market in 2014 is estimated at EUR 0.7 billion with predictions it will grow to over five times its current size. Finepart’s strategic objective is to develop an international business based on micro abrasive waterjet machining centers. Selling will be through a global network of machine tool distributors with an extensive European distributor network in place when sales of micro abrasive waterjet center commence. A business plan will set out the technical developments needed and costs to demonstrate the commercial viability of micro abrasive waterjets and the management and commercial actions to develop Finepart. The business plan will form part of a proposal for stage 2 funding.

Keywords: micromachining,abrasive waterjets,non contact machining,miniaturisation
Atmospheric dynamics Research InfraStructure in Europe (ARISE2)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: Research Infrastructures
Theme: Research infrastructures
Destination: Development and infrastructures
Action type: Research and Innovation actions
Countries involved: Ireland,Italy,Israel,Iceland,Germany,Germany,Germany,Madagascar,Switzerland,Norway,Norway,Tunisia,Romania,Sweden,Norway,France,France,France,France,Czechia,Netherlands,United Kingdom,Portugal
Call: Design studies (H2020-INFRADEV-1-2014-1, 2014)
Start date: 2015-09-01
End date: 2018-08-31
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 3242382.5
EU funding (EUR): 2985250.0
Participants: 24
Project status: CLOSED

It has been robustly demonstrated that variations in the circulation of the middle atmosphere influence weather and climate throughout the troposphere all the way to the Earth’s surface. A key part of the coupling between the troposphere and stratosphere occurs through the propagation and breaking of planetary-scale Rossby waves and gravity waves. Limited observation of the middle atmosphere and these waves in particular limits the ability to faithfully reproduce the dynamics of the middle atmosphere in numerical weather prediction and climate models. ARISE2 capitalizes upon the work of the EU-funded first ARISE project combining for the first time international networks with complementary technologies such as infrasound, lidar and airglow. This joint network provided advanced data products that started to be used as benchmarks for weather forecast models. The ARISE network also allows enhanced and detailed monitoring of other extreme events in the Earth system such as erupting volcanoes, magnetic storms, tornadoes and tropical thunderstorms. In order to improve the ability of the network to monitor atmospheric dynamics, ARISE2 proposes to extend i) the existing network coverage in Africa and the high latitudes, ii) the altitude range in the stratosphere and mesosphere, iii) the observation duration using routine observation modes, and to use complementary existing infrastructures and innovative instrumentations. Data will be collected over the long term to improve weather forecasting to monthly or seasonal timescales, to monitor atmospheric extreme events and climate change. Compared to the first ARISE project, ARISE2 focuses on the link between models and observations for future assimilation of data by operational weather forecasting models. Among the applications, ARISE2 proposes infrasound remote volcano monitoring to provide notifications to civil aviation. The data portal will provide high-quality data and advanced data products to a wide scientific community.

Keywords: atmospheric dynamics,infrasound,gravity waves,planetary waves,weather forecasing,climate monitoring
Lift Energy Saving System for Residential Buildings (LESS) (LESS)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Societal Challenges
Programme: Secure, clean and efficient energy
Action type: SME instrument
Countries involved: Spain
Call: Stimulating the innovation potential of SMEs for a low carbon energy system (H2020-SMEINST-1-2014, 2014)
Start date: 2015-05-01
End date: 2015-07-31
Duration (months): 3.0
Total project cost (EUR): 71429.0
EU funding (EUR): 50000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The global objective of this project is to develop, test and industrialize a low-cost system that captures energy from lifts and other renewable energy sources to intelligently store, reuse and supply energy to power residential buildings using ultracapacitors and batteries. This industry-demanded and market-driven Lift Energy Saving System (LESS) champions EU smart energy efficiency policies and empowers European electricity consumers to take charge of energy costs and consumption. Our general objective can be further developed in the next three sub-systems: - Product development and production of a low-cost energy recovery system. - A Hybrid energy storage systems with ultracapacitors and batteries that enable autonomous operation of the microgrid system. - Connector elements to add versatility to the system (so that other sources of micro generated energy such as solar panels or micro wind generators could simply be installed in buildings). As stated above this project has a big target market. Around 4.5 million lifts are currently installed in the EU. The remaining 3.2 million are medium-use elevators (found in our target residential sector) where the innovation proposed could be disruptive. This means that the new development has a target market of about 2.1M lifts in Europe. This includes only the existing lifts. According from the Elevator World Magazine, 12,000 new electric lifts were installed in Europe, representing a 10.7% increase on 2011. Although we are targeting Europe first with our technology, we believe this technology could also be marketed at the international market. Our overall objective for Phase 1 is to create a Feasibility Study that consists of a technological feasibility, market assessment, business model assessment, risk assessment, IPR assessment and a Business Plan. If the result of the Feasibility Study is positive, we will apply to Phase 2.

Keywords: energy recovery systems,energy efficiency,energy consumption,smart buildings,renewable,energies,carbon footprint,consumer needs,market driven product,business opportunity,jobs
A smile in return (SMILE)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Industrial Leadership
Programme: Innovation in SMEs
Action type: SME instrument
Countries involved: Netherlands
Call: SME instrument (H2020-SMEInst-2018-2020-2, 2018)
Start date: 2018-06-01
End date: 2020-05-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2705375.0
EU funding (EUR): 1893726.5
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The European e-commerce market amounts to ~80 million purchases per day. About 15% of purchased products do not live up to consumers’ expectations and are returned to the vendor. Whether in perfect condition or not, their status as returned product makes items suddenly worth a lot less. What a waste! Not only to e-tailers, who typically lose +80% of the value of returned products, but also to the environment, which is impacted by 4 billion pounds of disposed products and 11 million metric tons of carbon emissions. The problem is expected to grow as ecommerce is gaining market share fast (13.3% growth in 2016). BuyBay helps to solve the problem. The tech-company is developing a data-driven solution that revolutionises the management, processing and resale of returned items. It uses highly innovative pricing software and is unique in its ability to connect inventory management and re-product grading to multiple third party sales channels. The prototype of the Buybay platform is complete and qualified and has recently been tested in in real world settings in the Netherlands and Belgium. Demonstrations have shown that Buybay’s prototype platform has potential for unmatched value recovery (~56% instead of 19.6% of the original retail price currently). Installation of BuyBay’s platform increases re-product revenues for e-tailers, reduces the need to dispose of returned goods and has the potential to reduce re-product selling related carbon emissions of up to 31%. To ensure complete commercial scalability and enable international acceptance by e-tailers of different sizes and in different sectors across Europe, Buybay’s platform requires additional infrastructure development, optimisation through businesses intelligence analysis and scale up testing in operational environments. With the support of leading international etail companies Buybay aims to develop the new standard for returned goods.

Keywords: waste,reverse supply chain,e commerce returns,retail,big data
Developing new MATerial solutions for cardiac PAce lead and SEnsor encapsulation (MATPASE)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Industrial Leadership
Programme: Innovation in SMEs
Action type: Coordination and support actions
Countries involved: Norway
Call: European SME innovation Associate - pilot (H2020-INNOSUP-2019-02, 2019)
Start date: 2019-12-31
End date: 2020-12-30
Duration (months): 12.0
Total project cost (EUR): 115698.75
EU funding (EUR): 115698.75
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Coronary disease is the leading cause of hospitalization and death worldwide. Serious complications happen in 12-15% of major cardiac surgeries, and are associated with increased morbidity, mortality, and higher costs. Current intra- and post-operative cardiac monitoring approaches used to detect a problem before it becomes a serious complication have significant drawbacks. They can be highly invasive, inaccurate and do not provide continuous monitoring, and patient outcomes can be adversely affected as a result. Cardiaccs is developing a disruptive medical device called ‘CardiSense’, to address this urgent unmet need for better cardiac function monitoring. CardiSense is the only device of its kind that measures cardiac function continuously, in real-time and with improved sensitivity, making it ideal for use in complex open-heart cardiac surgery patients and potentially allowing intra- and post-operative complications to be avoided, reducing morbidity, mortality and overall care costs. Although CardiSense provides a ground-breaking solution for cardiac monitoring, the addition of an Innovation Associate (IA) is key to develop the most robust and user-friendly version of our device. We are an SME with limited capacity to mobilize the job market and attract highly skilled professionals to continue the development of CardiSense. Through the SME IA programme we aim to recruit an industrial/mechanical engineer with biocompatible materials science know-how to develop new material solutions for device components. This is key to improving the flexibility, encapsulation and reducing the diameter of the device components that will maximise our market impact. The MATPASE project will significantly advance and upgrade CardiSense to become an invaluable tool in cardiac monitoring. Not only this, the IA will gain training and hands-on experience that will expand the IA’s employability while simultaneously improving our R&D in-house capabilities for future innovation projects

Keywords: medical device,cardiac surgery,cardiac monitoring,biocompatible materials,postoperative complications
Ecological determinants of tropical-temperate trends in insect diversity (Diversity6continents)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Advanced grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Environmental Biology, Ecology and Evolution
Panel description: Ecology, biodiversity, environmental change, evolutionary biology, behavioural ecology, microbial ecology, marine biology, ecophysiology, theoretical developments and modelling
Countries involved: Czechia
Call: ERC Advanced Grant (ERC-2014-ADG, 2014)
Start date: 2015-10-01
End date: 2021-09-30
Duration (months): 72.0
Total project cost (EUR): 3349618.0
EU funding (EUR): 3349618.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The study will examine one of the most fundamental, yet poorly understood patterns of global biodiversity distribution: How can so many species coexist in a tropical forest? This key question of current ecology will be studied using quantitative surveys of plant-herbivore-parasitoid food webs within paired sets of tropical and temperate forests from six continents, in Papua New Guinea (PNG), Gabon, Panama, the Czech Republic, Japan, and USA, sampled using canopy cranes, truck-mounted elevated platforms and forest felling. This novel type of data will be analysed using a new rarefaction method, developed to test mechanistic explanations for biodiversity patterns along ecological gradients. It will evaluate competing hypotheses explaining latitudinal trends in insect herbivore diversity by the variation in either phylogenetic or functional diversity of plants, the host specificity of herbivores, or the diversity and specificity of their parasitoids and predators. The study will thus examine the importance of bottom-up (plants) and top-down (enemies) drivers of latitudinal trends in herbivore food webs, central to ecological theory that postulates the role of specialized herbivores as density-dependent agents of mortality involved in maintaining high tropical plant diversity. The project builds upon prior research that produced one of the largest tropical food web data sets to expand it conceptually, methodologically and geographically. It will build a globally important research facility (a canopy crane in PNG) and link researchers and infrastructure from several countries in a major effort to draw together separate lines of tropical and temperate research. Study sites in the ILTER, NEON, CTFS/SIGEO, and Canopy Crane Network will participate. The internationally recognized paraecologist program will be expanded, PhD students from both European and developing countries will be trained, and conservation of rainforests by indigenous rainforest dwellers will be leveraged.

Keywords: tropical ecology,latitudinal diversity gradients,rainforest,herbivory,plant insect interaction webs
PDE-based geometric modelling, image processing, and shape reconstruction (PDE-GIR)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie-Sklodowska-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Research and innovation staff exchange
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Information Science and Engineering
Countries involved: Spain,Spain,Norway,Malaysia,Lithuania,United Kingdom,Pakistan,United Kingdom
Call: Research and Innovation Staff Exchange (H2020-MSCA-RISE-2017, 2017)
Start date: 2018-01-01
End date: 2023-10-31
Duration (months): 70.0
Total project cost (EUR): 535500.0
EU funding (EUR): 535500.0
Participants: 8
Project status: SIGNED

Geometric modelling, image processing, and shape reconstruction have huge applications in various sectors and greatly impact on EU’s economy, human health, security, entertainment and others. Existing problems such as big data and heavy manual operations in geometric modelling, incapacity in image processing in continuous domains, and lack of continuity and differentiability in shape reconstruction seriously affect quality, efficiency and capacity. Partial differential equation (PDE) based techniques provide effective solutions to these problems. Current PDE-based modelling cannot achieve both powerful capacity and high computational performance. PDE-based image processing suffers from expensive cost and local minimization. PDE-based shape reconstruction has not been developed. PDE-GIR will tackle above mentioned problems by developing advanced PDE based techniques, exploiting their applications through exchanges of research and innovation staff, international and intersectoral collaborations, and knowledge transfer. It consists of four work packages. “PaMod” will develop new PDE-based modelling techniques to obtain powerful capacity and high computational performance. “VaMod” will develop new variational models to improve efficiency and quality. “ShaRecons” will combine new PDE-based modelling with variational models to solve the problems of continuity, differentiability, and big data. “M&D” is designed to efficiently manage the project, disseminate research output, and promote the applications of the developed techniques. The consortium consists of leading experts who have been working at the forefront of geometric modelling, image processing and shape reconstruction for many years. PDE-GIR will combine their strengths to achieve the success of the proposed research. The developed techniques will be applied in academic and non-academic sectors, and integrated into IDF’s services and products to promote technology innovation and realize their commercial value.

Keywords: geometric modelling,image processing,shape reconstruction,partial differential equations,and 4 sided surface patches,variational models
Direct Interspecies Electron Transfer in advanced anaerobic digestion system for gaseous transport biofuel production (DIET)

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: Information Science and Engineering
Countries involved: Ireland
Call: Individual Fellowships (H2020-MSCA-IF-2017, 2017)
Start date: 2018-05-01
End date: 2020-04-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 187866.0
EU funding (EUR): 187866.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Anaerobic digestion (AD) has been widely applied to produce biogas through complex communities of syntrophic bacteria and methanogenic archaea. However, AD can suffer from the inefficiency of biogas production, which fundamentally arises from the low efficiency of mediated interspecies electron transfer (MIET) via hydrogen between bacteria and archaea. Dr Richen Lin proposes an advanced AD-based circular economy system by introducing conductive materials (such as biocompatible graphene nanomaterial and digestate derived pyrochar) for third generation gaseous transport biofuel production from algae feedstock. The proposal will particularly explore the mechanism of efficient direct interspecies electron transfer (DIET) between bacteria and methanogens in the presence of conductive materials. The biomethane production rate and total energy recovery in the proposed system are expected to be enhanced by 20-40% as compared to existing AD technology. The goal will be achieved by the following research objectives: 1) Theoretically compare the efficiencies of MIET and DIET in AD; 2) Develop optimal strategies to stimulate DIET and improve biogas production from algae; 3) Outline a future circular economy system by introducing pyrochar into AD. Dr Lin has a strong record of publications (26 peer review journal articles) in bioenergy through his PhD studies in Zhejiang University, China. He proposes a two year stay in the €35M Science Foundation Ireland funded research centre Marine and Renewable Energy Ireland (MaREI). He will be hosted in the Environmental Research Institute, University College Cork and supervised by Prof Jerry Murphy. The fellowship will incorporate a three month secondment in Gas Networks Ireland (an industrial partner in MaREI) to facilitate the integration of new technology in green gas industry. The objective of this proposal is to establish Dr Lin as a leading researcher in bioenergy and assist him in acquiring a position of professional maturity.

Keywords: anaerobic digestion,biogas,algae,interspecies electron transfer