Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
AI exposure therapist for anxiety disorders (AETHER)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Postdoctoral Fellowships
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Information Science and Engineering
Countries involved: Austria
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2021 (HORIZON-MSCA-2021-PF-01, 2021)
Start date: 2023-09-01
End date: 2026-02-28
Duration (months): 30.0
Total project cost (EUR): 229501.2
EU funding (EUR): 229501.2
Participants: 2
Project status: CLOSED

Anxiety-related disorders - such as phobias, PTSD, social anxiety, panic disorder - are highly prevalent and pose a great burden on society. First-line treatment for such disorders is exposure therapy (ET), which entails safely exposing patients to the source of their anxiety. Although current ET protocols are generally effective, many patients do not respond to the therapy or experience residual symptoms and relapses. How to optimize many aspects of ET protocols, such as intensity and timing of the exposures, remains uncertain. Moreover, the current research approach of studying the effect of at most few variables using between-group trials, has produced mixed results, despite large efforts. Finding optimized ET protocols is a high-dimensional search problem, with complexly interacting variables. To efficiently search this high-dimensional space, this action will develop a new paradigm for improving ET by utilizing modern artificial intelligence (AI) and biosignal analysis methods. In particular, the new bio-adaptive ET paradigm will make use of latest advances in reinforcement learning algorithms and psychophysiological models. Reinforcement learning will allow intelligently optimizing the exposure procedure, by sequentially learning from each trial and each participant, and psychophysiological models will allow to estimate the participant's anxiety level better than through overt behavior or physiological signals alone. Although aimed at anxiety disorders, the proposed bio-adaptive ET paradigm has the potential to serve as a blueprint for optimizing behavioral therapies in general. This action will allow the fellow to gain valuable knowledge of latest AI techniques, which will put him at the forefront of the emerging discipline of computational psychiatry. Furthermore, the proposed agenda will lay the foundation for innovative translational research that will ultimately benefit patients in the EU and beyond.

Keywords: computational psychiatry,anxiety disorders,exposure therapy,extinction learning,associative learning models,psychophysiology,optimal experimental design,reinforcement learning algorithms
Creating Trustworthy NLU in the Era of LLM Dominance (NALANTIS)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Innovative Europe
Programme: The European Innovation Council (EIC)
Theme: EIC Accelerator
Destination: Other destinations
Action type: EIC actions
Countries involved: Belgium
Call: EIC Accelerator 2024 - Short application (HORIZON-EIC-2024-ACCELERATOR-01, 2024)
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2555640.0
EU funding (EUR): 2555640.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Nalantis, a Belgian AI company, specializes in developing explainable and trustworthy Natural Language Understanding (NLU) solutions for the hyper-automation of business processes. Our mission is to provide fast, efficient, and reliable AI-driven solutions to both government and private sectors. This proposal, titled "Creating Trustworthy NLU in the Era of LLM Dominance" addresses the growing need for transparent, customizable, and ethical AI amidst the rise of Large Language Models (LLMs). While LLMs have transformed the AI landscape, they suffer from significant limitations, such as hallucinations, lack of explainability, and lack of domain-specific accuracy. Nalantis’ hybrid approach integrates structured knowledge bases with LLMs to deliver deterministic, high-quality results that overcome these challenges. Our solution is already productized and in use by multinational clients such as KBC and the City of Ghent, demonstrating proven value across HR, Smart Cities, and ESG reporting. With the backing of the European AI Act and a commitment to human-centric AI, we aim to expand our API SaaS model across Europe, supporting applications in all 24 official EU languages. Our approach ensures transparency, scalability, and sustainability while reducing the ecological and financial costs associated with large-scale AI models. Anchoring our approach in a human-centered, domain knowledge oriented tech stack, we ensure that our technology aligns with European values and interpretations of safety and fundamental rights. We believe that with our unique hybrid model, aided by further continuous investments in developing concept-networks across different languages in a given set of domains, we can contribute to a pan-EU business eco-system operating on a reliable AI system, benefitting both businesses, citizens and consumers. This proposal seeks ~€2.55 million in funding to scale research, development, and commercialization, and to hire 10 additional staff.

Keywords: reliable ai,explainable ai,trustworthy ai,nlp nlu,ai for language understanding,hybrid ai solutions,machine learning and llm
Cohesin Therapeutics. Precision medicine for treating STAG2 mutated cancers (Cohesin-Tx)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Proof of concept grants
Action type: ERC actions
Countries involved: Austria
Call: ERC PROOF OF CONCEPT GRANTS1 (ERC-2022-POC1, 2022)
Start date: 2022-06-01
End date: 2024-05-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 214285.71
EU funding (EUR): 150000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The cohesin gene STAG2 has emerged as a new tumour suppressor frequently mutated in bladder cancer, Ewing sarcoma and acute myeloid leukaemia (AML). Currently, these cancers are treated by cytotoxic therapies and surgery. These treatment plans are limited by unwanted side effects, have not been able to eliminate the high mortality caused by AML, and have not improved over the last few decades. STAG2 mutations are therefore a biomarker for cancer patients with high medical need. We discovered that STAG2 mutated cancer cells are highly vulnerable to the inactivation of another protein, called STAG1, while healthy cells remain unaffected. This highly selective sensitivity of cancer cells towards such a treatment is exceptional and could be exploited for precision medicine. Our long-term aim is therefore to develop STAG1 inhibitors. This precision medicine would greatly decrease side effects and costs, from which patients, doctors, and health insurance companies would benefit. To enable the development of such a STAG1 inhibitor, exploring the innovation potential is essential. For this, several “stepping stones” need to be reached which we would like to achieve with support of this ERC-PoC grant: (1) optimising our building blocks for a STAG1 inhibitor (2) developing an intellectual property strategy, (3) assessing commercial feasibility and (4) developing a business plan. Altogether, this will result in a proposition package that can be used to present the commercial potential to strategic partners. For this purpose, we have assembled a team that shares the same enthusiasm to achieve our common goal: to develop precision medicine for patients suffering from STAG2 mutated cancer.
Modelling and simulating Hunter-Gatherer Seafaring in the Americas: ecology, society and watercraft technology in cold aquatic environments (HUGASEA)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Postdoctoral Fellowships
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Social Sciences and Humanities
Countries involved: Spain,United States
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2021 (HORIZON-MSCA-2021-PF-01, 2021)
Start date: 2022-10-10
End date: 2025-10-09
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 261380.64
EU funding (EUR): 261380.64
Participants: 2
Project status: SIGNED

One of the major problems archaeologists have yet to address systematically is the development of watercraft and long-distance seafaring, which is critical for understanding earlier coastal and insular colonization and the emergence of social complexity among small-scale societies. The HUGASEA project is designed to address the determining factors in organizational and seafaring strategies of aquatic Hunter-Fisher-Gatherers (HFG) on the Northwest Coast of North America and the Fuego-Patagonia coast of South America. The project is based in an innovative and interdisciplinary approach: integrating Archaeology, Ethnohistory, Ecology, Computational modelling and Artificial Intelligence. The project is inherently comparative, as the two regions and their respective internal variation offer the opportunity to test past interaction among three variables: watercraft technology, environment and social organization (mobility, gender, status, cultural diversity). Ecological, archaeological and ethnohistorical data will be collected and modelled with GIS-based methods. Then, Agent-based models (ABM) will be created, validated by Sensitivity Analysis and Machine Learning (Bayesian Belief Networks) against empirical data, and finally used to geosimulate seafaring HFG in aquatic environments, test hypothesis and predict spatial patterns. The project will reach expert and non-expert audiences, including Indigenous peoples and young audiences, through a range of dissemination, communication and outreach activities. The researcher will develop the project on the US Northwest Coast, where he will expand his experience, research competencies and international networks. All the new knowledge and skills will be transferred back to the European Host during the incoming phase. Thus, the project will be very productive for both the researcher and the hosts, enhancing the development of his career as an independent researcher.

Keywords: watercraft,seafaring,coastal archaeology,gis,spatial prediction,agent based modelling,machine learning,sensitivity analysis,hunter gatherers,northwest coast of north america,fuego patagonia
Incredible journeys: How do multiple sensory cues allow animal migrants to precisely navigate to a distant goal? (IncredibleJourneys)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Advanced grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Environmental B iology, Ecology  and E volution
Panel description: For all organisms : Ecology, biodiversity, environmental change , evolutionary biology, behavioural ecology, microbial ecology , marine biology, ecophysiology, theoretical developments and mod elling
Countries involved: Sweden
Call: ERC ADVANCED GRANTS (ERC-2024-ADG, 2024)
Start date: 2025-09-01
End date: 2030-08-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2602165.75
EU funding (EUR): 2602165.75
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Many animals, including birds, sea turtles and insects, perform spectacular long-distance migrations across the Earth. Remarkably, some of these accurately migrate between highly specific places thousands of kilometres apart, a navigational feat that is barely understood. Such precision navigation requires global compass cues to guide their long journey, and local cues at the destination to signal their arrival. I have discovered that the migratory Australian Bogong moth, with a brain size a tenth that of a rice grain, relies on the Earth’s magnetic field and the stars as global compasses, and on an odour signalling the final destination, to precisely navigate to a place it has never been before – a small alpine cave. The moth’s use of stars for long-range navigation is unique in invertebrates. But how is stellar and magnetic information sensed and integrated neurally to create precision navigation? Indeed, how do animals sense the magnetic field at all? This mystery, and its solution, is one of the greatest “holy grails” of modern sensory biology. With its simple and tractable nervous system, the Bogong moth may hold the key to solving these vexing questions. By tethering flying migratory moths in a flight simulator, and by using electrophysiology to record from sensory neurons in the brain, I will capitalise on our discoveries to make pioneering investigations of how magnetic, stellar and olfactory cues are sensed and integrated to create precise navigation. This will include aiming to identify and physiologically characterise the elusive magnetoreceptor. If I succeed, this will be a sensational discovery, opening the floodgates for international research on this little understood sense. Moreover, our recent advances in how the insect brain steers navigation will allow us to understand how sensory information is integrated to drive directed migration, opening the doors to decades of new research on the neural basis of long-distance precision navigation.

Keywords: nocturnal navigation,stellar compass,geomagnetic compass,magnetic sense,vision,olfaction,migration,insect,electrophysiology,behaviour,rna interference,immunohistochemistry,genomics
Programming the EPIcardium to CURE broken hearts (EPICURE)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Advanced grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Physiology in Health, Disease and Ageing
Panel description: Organ and tissue physiology, comparative physiology, physiology  of ageing , pathophysiology, inter - organ and tissue communication, endocrinology, nutrition,  metabolism, interaction with the microbiome, non -communicable diseases including cancer (and except disorders of the nervous system  and immunity -related diseases)
Countries involved: Germany
Call: ERC ADVANCED GRANTS (ERC-2023-ADG, 2023)
Start date: 2024-07-01
End date: 2029-06-30
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2499999.0
EU funding (EUR): 2499999.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Cardiac diseases are the leading cause of death worldwide, making human cardiac regeneration one of the most critical unmet clinical needs. The epicardium, the mesothelial envelope of the heart, is the source of several cardiac cells and provides signals that are essential for myocardial growth and vessel formation during development. Extensive animal research has indicated that the reactivation of these embryonic epicardial programs is the key to adult tissue repair in regenerative species such as the zebrafish, as well as in rodents up until a few days after birth, before the heart’s capacity for regeneration is lost. How the human epicardium develops and responds to injury is largely unknown. We recently established the first human pluripotent stem cell-based cardiac organoids showing the self-organization of epicardium and myocardium into a functionally patterned structure resembling the embryonic ventricular wall. These ‘epicardioids’ offer unique possibilities to study the dynamics of human epicardium development and function at a single-cell resolution. EPICURE aims at decoding and harnessing these programs as potentially transformative means for human heart regeneration. State-of-the-art lineage recordings, 3D imaging, and spatial multiomics in epicardioids will be used to dissect the fate acquisition mechanisms of the human embryonic epicardium and identify critical signalling pathways in health and disease. This in vitro approach will be complemented by charting a spatiotemporal, cross-species single-cell atlas of the cardiac injury response ex vivo and in vivo, including the first genetic lineage tracing of the adult epicardium in a large animal model. Finally, we will capitalize on the novel concept that CRISPR-mediated, temporal programming of the epicardium could drive meaningful heart regeneration in adulthood. Clearly, EPICURE will yield a wealth of new insights into human epicardial biology while breaking new ground in cardiac regenerative medicine.

Keywords: stem cells,organoids,transgenic large animals
JUST A RATHER VERY INTELLIGENT SYSTEM (JARVIS)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness
Programme: Climate, Energy and Mobility
Theme: Public-private partnerships
Destination: Single European Sky Air Traffic Management Research
Action type: Research and Innovation actions
Partnership: SESAR (JU-JTI)
Countries involved: Ireland,Italy,Germany,Spain,France,Netherlands,Greece,Belgium,Sweden
Call: Industrial Research & Validation for Artificial Intelligence for Aviation (HORIZON-SESAR-2022-DES-IR-01, 2022)
Start date: 2023-06-01
End date: 2026-05-31
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 15762359.5
EU funding (EUR): 10847805.53
Participants: 20
Project status: SIGNED

The fast penetration of automation and Artificial Intelligence (AI) is boosting the adoption of autonomous systems across industries. Known as digitalisation, this trend is also rapidly changing aviation. Indeed, driven by the increasing complexity of the entire aviation ecosystem (aircraft, air traffic control – ATC, airports), digitalisation provides solutions in the form of Digital Assistants (DAs) that, by teaming with their human counterparts (pilots, ATC operators, airport operators), support the execution of tasks to ensure safe and profitable operations in complex scenarios. JARVIS Consortium – led by Collins Aerospace – aims at developing and validating three ATM solutions: an Airborne DA (AIR-DA, TRL4), an ATC-DA (TRL4), and an Airport DA (AP-DA, TRL6). The AIR-DA will increase the level of automation in the flight deck and thanks to AI-based actions will act as enabler towards reduced crew operations and single pilot operations. The adoption of the AIR-DA will allow pilots to deal with complex scenarios without compromising safety, security, while reducing the pilot workload. The ATC-DA will increase the level of automation in control towers, where environmental KPIs and the capacity management of airspace will benefit from the adoption of AI-based technologies. Finally, the AP-DA will increase the level of automation in airports, enhancing safety and security for intrusion detection scenarios. The adoption of AI-driven technologies in the aviation ecosystem represents an appealing concept but entails challenges. JARVIS will address key challenges common to the three different DAs: i) assured AI design, to deliver trustworthy, explainable, safe, and ethical decision-making algorithms; ii) Human AI Teaming, to deliver human-centric designs to maximise the teamwork between humans and autonomous systems; iii) big data and cloud infrastructures for the proper management of data moving from a centralised architecture to a more edge-to-cloud architectures.

Keywords: digital assistants,artificial intelligence,machine learning,assured ai,airborne digital assistant,atc digital assistant,conflict resolution,airport digital assistant,human ai teaming,big data
Experimental Laboratory Magma Ocean (ELMO)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Earth System Science
Panel description: Physical geography, geo logy, geophysics, atmospheric sciences, oceanography, climatology, cryology, ecology, global environmental change, biogeochemical cycles, natural resources management
Countries involved: Germany
Call: ERC STARTING GRANTS (ERC-2025-STG, 2025)
Start date: 2025-11-01
End date: 2030-10-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1495520.0
EU funding (EUR): 1495520.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Volatile chemical elements such as C, O, H, S, and N, are critical components in the formation and evolution of planets, control physical properties of planet interiors and associated processes such as plate tectonics, largely make up the composition of atmospheres, and determine planet habitability. Telescopic observations of exoplanets provide information about the atmospheres of planets, and the abundances of these volatile elements. However, we lack experimental constraints to reliably interpret atmosphere observations and link them to planet compositions. I propose a novel experimental approach that will provide a quantitative link of atmosphere chemistry and molecular speciation, to magma ocean composition. All terrestrial planets have experienced a magma ocean stage early in their evolution. With my group I will study the role of volatile elements in this planetary stage, and how composition, and oxidation state of magma oceans control the molecular inventory of their atmospheres. This information is crucial to derive primordial atmosphere compositions of solar system planets and constrain their volatile inventories. The new data will be put in the context of ongoing and future European space missions, such as BepiColombo to Mercury, in which I am directly involved. On the other hand, with the proposed experimental approach I will build a link from observed volatile species in exoplanet atmospheres to the compositions of the interiors of hot magma ocean worlds. The novel data will be directly integrated with observations from spectroscopic measurements of exoplanet atmospheres by JWST and the planned ESA Ariel mission to constrain planet compositions. By comparing the derived magma ocean atmosphere of Earth with the atmospheres of observed hot exoplanets, I will be able to assess how common systems like the early Earth are, beyond the solar system.

Keywords: magma ocean experimental petrology lava world bepicolombo rocky planet planet evolution knudsen cell