Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Developing Plasma-assisted ammonia technology for decarbonisation of power production (PlasNH3)

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: United Kingdom
Call: Individual Fellowships (H2020-MSCA-IF-2020, 2020)
Start date: 2021-07-28
End date: 2023-07-27
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 224933.76
EU funding (EUR): 224933.76
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

This proposal aims to benefit from the low-cost storage of liquid ammonia as a carbon-free hydrogen alternative energy resource and mitigate associated issues to its utilisation to replace hydrocarbon fuels in existing gas turbine engines (GTEs) for power production. It is built up ongoing projects at the Gas Turbine Research Centre (GTRC), where currently ammonia flames are investigated, experimentally. Two challenging aims have been identified: (i) to enhance the reactivity of ammonia/air mixtures and improve the fundamental combustion characteristics of ammonia for use in GTEs; (ii) to optimise the existing burner for operating with pure ammonia while maintaining high fuel efficiency and low combustion emissions. The novelty of the current project relies on the fundamental study of plasma-assisted combustion to improve the reactivity of ammonia rather than currently used approaches by blending of the ammonia molecule with more reactive fuels (i.e. hydrocarbons, hydrogen, etc.). The concept will ensure faster ammonia/air reactivity by modifying the kinetics of oxidation based on the concept of plasma-assisted combustion, avoiding the blending of the ammonia molecule with more reactive fuels (i.e. hydrocarbons, hydrogen, etc.). The project includes both detailed physical experimentation using an state-of-the-art optical combustion diagnostic facility at GTRC, as well as detailed multi-scale numerical simulations, covering all scales of the underlying processes from atomic and molecular levels, to the smallest scales of turbulent fluctuations to the actual burner size. Timeliness of the project is ideal to support the use of ammonia as fuel in power applications, marine engines, and heavy load transportation systems. Its success contributes to the decarbonisation of the power generation sector, whilst delivering a unique technology, without precedent, for power and transportation purposes.

Keywords: ammonia plasma,gas turbine,kinetic mechanism,optical diagnostics,detailed numerical simulations
Second Life Batteries for Domestic Electricity Storage (SLB-DES)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Societal Challenges
Programme: Secure, clean and efficient energy
Action type: SME instrument
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call: Stimulating the innovation potential of SMEs for a low carbon and efficient energy system (H2020-SMEINST-1-2016-2017, 2016)
Start date: 2016-12-01
End date: 2017-03-31
Duration (months): 4.0
Total project cost (EUR): 71429.0
EU funding (EUR): 50000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Powervault aims to be the EU’s specialist provider of cost-effective distributed electricity storage for domestic homes, lowering electricity bills and allowing residents to seize the opportunities of the smart power revolution. The EU's electricity networks face considerable challenges from decarbonisation - with microgeneration, electric vehicle penetration and renewable heat stressing local distribution networks which were not designed to take this load. New technologies offering flexibility,such as energy storage, offer a potential solution. However, despite benefits for consumers, electricity network operators and wider society, small scale electricity storage remains prohibitively expensive with high upfront unit costs inhibiting mass market uptake. With SLB-DES Powervault has devised a multi-faceted solution that explicitly tackles the high upfront cost of domestic electricity storage. Here Powervault has instigated technical innovation and commercial sophistication, recycling second life electric vehicle batteries on a storage as a service basis. SLB-DES is explicitly designed to be the most affordable and resource efficient electricity storage solution globally. Powervault believes the cost-effective SLB-DES proposition can radically accelerate domestic electricity storage uptake, allowing more customers to benefit from increased usage of renewables and seize the opportunities of the smart power revolution, thereby supporting EU ambitions of an efficient and clean energy system. Powervault will use this feasibility study to evaluate the European market opportunity for SLB-DES, identify the steps necessary for mass market commercialisation and prepare for a Phase 2 pilot trial.

Keywords: distributed electricity storage
Customised exhibit solutions through visual innovation (VISSUALLY)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Industrial Leadership
Programme: Nanotechnologies, Advanced Materials, Advanced Manufacturing and Processing, and Biotechnology
Theme: Nanotechnologies
Action type: SME instrument
Countries involved: Spain
Call: Accelerating the uptake of nanotechnologies, advanced materials or advanced manufacturing and processing technologies by SMEs (H2020-SMEINST-1-2015, 2015)
Start date: 2016-04-01
End date: 2016-09-30
Duration (months): 6.0
Total project cost (EUR): 71429.0
EU funding (EUR): 50000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Consumers make their final purchase decisions once they are at the store and are heavily influenced by the visual dimension. Up to 40% of them change their minds while they shop. Besides a trade fair visitor has between 5 and 15 minutes to make a truly lasting impression on exhibitor’s stand. Differentiation becomes incredibly important in current global markets in order to obtain a larger market share. Among the range of merchandising options displays are the preferred solution for point-of-sale marketing. Companies use 11,721 units per year on average, 23 million stand displays per year without considering 2,619 trade fair events every year solely in Europe. There is a clear business opportunity for innovative displays that fulfill: low-cost high-quality printing, improved durability, reusability and environmental awareness. Our company, TECNOLOGÍAS Y APLICACIONES LÁSER S.L.U., has been working for over four years on a unique display solution based on the use of Medium Density Fibreboard (MDF). VISSUALLY concept integrates three innovative issues to conventional MDF: 1)Adaptation of digital printing technology 2) Control of laser cutting intensity and 3) Novel assembly system: Q-clip (patented). As a result VISSUALLY guarantees an affordable cost solution, excellent printing performance, finished quality never seen before, flexibility and an easy-to-use assembly system that makes the solution reusable. VISSUALLY is clearly superior to current options and an exciting and reliable business opportunity for us. Boosted by phase 1 project, we expect to create 30 jobs and €8,1M net profit in 5 years. A feasibility study including a business plan will be done including a market assessment to confirm our displays acceptance in the sectors (retailers, food, cosmetics); a technical assessment and final testing of our innovative technology; a stakeholder assessment to identify the key players and activities for the next phases of the project; and a complete Business Plan.

Keywords: display stands,brand owners,visual impact,printing and laser cutting technologies,assembly system,marketing,retailers
Decadal changes in the Atlantic Equatorial Mode. Origin and dynamics. (DEMODA)

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: Environment and Geosciences
Countries involved: Norway
Call: Individual Fellowships (H2020-MSCA-IF-2016, 2016)
Start date: 2018-02-01
End date: 2020-01-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 208400.4
EU funding (EUR): 208400.4
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Understanding the multidecadal variations of the Atlantic Equatorial Mode (EM) is important for climate prediction and climate services, because it is the first mode of variability in the tropical Atlantic in summer and has a worldwide impact on climate, including the West African Monsoon, rainfall in Nordeste (Brasil), European heat waves and ENSO phenomenon. Recently, two studies of the applicant and the group in which she is working, have pointed that the EM could present multidecadal variations in the configuration of its spatial pattern. Such changes would, in turn, have a direct effect in the climatic impacts of the EM stated above. Thus, a better understanding of such modulations is of great importance for the climate community and for climate services relevant for the general population. The main objective of this project is to better determine the multidecadal changes in the EM and the underlying mechanisms linked to its development, as well as the causes of the appearance of the different configurations of the EM, with special focus on state-of-the-art global climate models (GCMs). The project will address the investigation of how the mean state and errors in its representation affect the correct simulation of the variability in the tropical Atlantic, also focusing on the ability of seasonal forecasting systems in the simulation of the multidecadal modulation of the EM and its teleconnections. This project is original by itself, as it deals with a new aspect of the Atlantic EM variability that has not been addressed before, and can have important impacts in climate predictability and climate services.

Keywords: tropical climate,air sea interactions,multidecadal variability and modulations,ocean variability,climate modelling
Navigation of a mind-space. The spatial organization of declarative knowledge (NOAM)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: The Human Mind and Its Complexity
Panel description: Cognitive science, psychology, linguistics, theoretical philosophy
Countries involved: Italy
Call: ERC Starting Grant (ERC-2018-STG, 2018)
Start date: 2019-04-01
End date: 2024-11-30
Duration (months): 68.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1498644.0
EU funding (EUR): 1498644.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Your brain is among the most complex existing systems, and it processes every second an amazing amount of data. The most amazing thing, however, is that you get to know some of it. Declarative knowledge, meaning the portion of knowledge that we can consciously access and manipulate, is one of the most enduring mysteries of the human mind. How did it evolve? And what are the mechanisms behind it? One possibility is that the complex neural machinery that mammals evolved to navigate space has been recycled to "navigate" declarative knowledge. Research from single cell recordings in rodents to brain imaging studies with humans is converging toward the fascinating hypothesis that conscious declarative knowledge is spatially organized, and can be stored, retrieved and manipulated through the same computations used to represent and navigate physical space. Crucially, this spatial scaffolding may be what makes knowledge accessible to us. The time is mature for an integral and ambitious attempt to test and develop this innovative hypothesis. NOAM will be at the frontline of this endeavour relying upon cutting-edge neuroimaging and analysis techniques. In this project we will test the relationships between spatial and conceptual navigation asking whether people that navigate space in a different way (congenitally blind individuals) also navigate concepts in a different way. Then, we will explore how low-dimensional cognitive maps interact with multidimensional semantic information, and we will test whether the spatial organization is a trademark of conscious declarative knowledge or extends to unconscious conceptual processing. Finally we will adopt a translational approach to characterize the neural basis of pre-clinical Alzheimer Disease. Thanks to its groundbreaking nature and high-risk/high-gain approach, NOAM has the potential to ensure major progresses in cognitive neuroscience, artificial intelligence and related fields, changing the way we think about the human mind

Keywords: conceptual processing,spatial cognition,consiousness
Dynamic Territory: A Normative Framework for Territory in the Post-Holocene (DynamiTE)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Cultures and cultural production
Panel description: Literary studies, cultural studies, study of the arts, philosophy
Countries involved: Norway
Call: ERC STARTING GRANTS (ERC-2020-STG, 2020)
Start date: 2021-01-01
End date: 2025-12-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1498301.0
EU funding (EUR): 1498301.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Climate change will disrupt current political, societal and economic paradigms. What should a just territorial arrangement be for countries that will partially or totally disappear due to sea level rise, or whose main productive activities—like farming—will be lost due to changed weather patterns? How to think of “locals” and “migrants” in a world where climate refugees are estimated to reach up to one billion by 2050? How should Global Systemic Resources (GSRs), like rainforests, be governed to guarantee their maintenance? In a post-Holocene world where sea level rise, desertification, droughts, crop failure, water shortage, floods and extreme weather events will become the norm, we need normative criteria to solve conflicts of interest regarding the use of land and natural resources. DynamiTE aims to provide those criteria, developing a novel framework for territory on a global scale, reassessing the traditional rights and duties associated with it. While current normative theories of territory (NTTs) rely on Late Holocene assumptions (stable and predictable climate, geography and demographics), DynamiTE theorizes territory amidst instability and unpredictability. While current NTTs draw their main normative assumptions from the Western liberal canon—e.g., that property rights over land and natural resources secure justice—DynamiTE questions their adequacy now and in the future. DynamiTE conceptualizes territory and territorial agency as dynamic, with shifting boundaries and shifting memberships that reflect this new complexity. It proposes moreover a dynamic, interdisciplinary methodology that integrates environmental studies, geography and international law into political philosophy. Examining three transversal themes (people in flux, distribution of land and resource use, and governance of GSRs), DynamiTE aims to be the first truly interdisciplinary NTT and to open a new field of research on normative questions surrounding territory in a changing world.

Keywords: cosmopolitanism,human geography,international law,migration,natural resources,property rights,territory
Affordable airless packaging system to disrupt the airless packaging market (IVS)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Industrial Leadership
Programme: Innovation in SMEs
Action type: SME instrument
Countries involved: Spain
Call: SME instrument (H2020-SMEInst-2018-2020-1, 2018)
Start date: 2018-06-01
End date: 2018-11-30
Duration (months): 6.0
Total project cost (EUR): 71429.0
EU funding (EUR): 50000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Airless packaging technology is the solution to a largely unsolved problem: preserving liquid food, cosmetic, pharma, and chemical products after the package has been opened. Airless packaging preserves the protective atmosphere of the package after opening and therefore, it preserves the integrity of the product from air oxidation and bacterial contamination. Ultimately, it extends product’s shelf life, reduces product waste, enables brands to use less or no chemical preservatives and create more natural products. However, current airless packaging solutions are complex, expensive, and require sophisticated filling machinery, which highly limits its scope of application to a very narrow portion of mostly upscale cosmetic products. 86% of the airless packaging market is constrained to 11% of the packaging market. The largest segments of the packaging market, food, beverages, home care, which represent 89% of the market, only in rare cases benefit from the advantages of airless technologies. IVS is a patented sealing system for flexible liquid packaging that enables to deliver the product without any air intake. IVS has all the valuable benefits of airless packaging but it has two further key benefits that may turn it into a breakthrough solution in the market: very low price per unit and low Total Cost of Adoption. IVS is intended to disrupt the airless packaging market by making the airless technology also viable for lower-price products in the largest segments of the packaging market: food, beverages, and home care. We plan to launch IVS in the market and we seek to further develop it to a market-ready product. We will use Phase 2 for this purpose, with a total investment of €1 million in 18 months. The overall plan is to commercialize IVS first in Spain and speed scalability at international level through a network of allies and partners. Thanks to this strategy, we expect to reach a turnover of €30 million and 92 employees by year 2024.

Keywords: shelflife,flexible packaging,food and beverages,homecare
Soft Biocompatible Polymeric Nanostructures: A Toolbox for Novel Generation of Nano Pharmaceuticals in Ophthalmology (NanoPol)

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: Chemistry
Countries involved: Germany,Spain,Finland,Russian Federation,Finland,Greece,France,Czechia,Netherlands,Kazakhstan,United Kingdom,Brazil
Call: Research and Innovation Staff Exchange (H2020-MSCA-RISE-2018, 2018)
Start date: 2019-03-01
End date: 2024-12-31
Duration (months): 70.0
Total project cost (EUR): 777400.0
EU funding (EUR): 685400.0
Participants: 13
Project status: SIGNED

We propose a research and innovation project that aims to develop a rational, knowledge-based toolbox for the fabrication of (1) biodegradable and biocompatible associating (gel-forming) polymers, (2) nanogels and (3) nanoparticles tailored as multifunctional therapeutic agents in ophthalmological applications. We seek for novel methods to replace currently used approaches with biocompatible and biodegradable synthetic/natural polymers. Macromolecules of increasingly complex architectures including block, graft and star-like polymers will be explored with respect to their ability to build up transient networks or nanoparticles with well-controlled rheological and structural properties and targeted performance. Profound understanding of the relation between architectural complexity and properties of the macromolecules is crucial for the fabrication of functional polymer-based materials for biomedicine and will greatly enhance the competitiveness of Europe in the field. Such conceptual understanding can only be achieved based on a rational interdisciplinary approach, in which theory and simulations guide experiments. Our work plan includes the design, synthesis and characterization of novel macromolecular architectures dictated by theoretical and simulation outcomes on the properties of the materials, followed by toxicity and in vitro/in vivo testing of the materials/structures and industrial feasibility studies. The macromolecular assemblies will be investigated as complex carriers enabling (1) prolonged retention in the eye and (2) controlled ocular drug release under external stimuli (i.e. temperature, light, pH). The synergy resulting from the cooperation between world-leading in their respective fields academic groups and companies though the effective secondments plan will provide a unique interdisciplinary research and training environment that will allow to address unmet challenges in the area and will ensure European leadership in cutting-edge technologies.

Keywords: self assembled nanostructures,associating polymers,nanogels,natural and synthetic polymers,ocular drug delivery,ophthalmology
Evolution of opsin genes in guppies (Poecilia reticulata) relative to male colour: a window into the genetics of mate choice (OPSINEVOL)

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: Life Sciences
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call: Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF-EF) (H2020-MSCA-IF-2014, 2014)
Start date: 2015-04-15
End date: 2017-08-15
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 195454.8
EU funding (EUR): 195454.8
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The spectacular colours displayed by males during courtship often result from sexual selection by female choice. Female visual perception should therefore play a critical role in the evolution of male colours. In guppies, both sexual dimorphism and male colour have evolved multiple times as a trade-off between female preference and predation pressures. Populations under low-predation regimes have repeatedly and independently evolved more colourful, sexually dimorphic males, and females with relatively strong preferences for colour. I will study opsins, the visual pigments that mediate vision, to shed light into the evolutionary relationship between male colour and female preferences. Guppies present a unique opportunity to systematically study multiple aspects of opsin evolution, asking whether it mirrors the pattern of parallel evolution of sexually selected traits. Initially, I will use next-generation sequencing to evaluate the total number of opsin genes, their distribution through the genome and their conservation across populations. I will then study variation in opsin sequence and expression associated with the evolution of colourful and sexually dimorphic guppy populations. Finally, I will study divergence in the visual system, beyond opsins, using comparative transcriptomics of the retina and the brain’s optic lobes. The results of this work will provide a cohesive, integrative and multi-faceted understanding of the role of opsin variation in this model system of evolution by sexual selection, and will determine the role of opsins and the visual system in driving female mate preferences and male colour evolution. This project will help us understand the genetic underpinnings of key adaptive traits, linking genes to the phenotype and opening up new research agendas.

Keywords: opsins,visual system evolution,sexual selection,mate choice,colour evolution,guppy