Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Distinct regional identities in Upper Mesopotamia at the onset of sedentism – revealing new data from lithic technical traditions and models of socio-cultural interaction (NEO-IDENTITY)

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 Kingdom
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2023 (HORIZON-MSCA-2023-PF-01, 2023)
Start date: 2024-11-16
End date: 2026-11-15
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 181152.96
EU funding (EUR): 181152.96
Participants: 2
Project status: SIGNED

NEO-IDENTITY investigates the social dynamics behind the formation of regional identities in the Fertile Crescent, at one of the turning point of human history when the fundamental economic, social and ideological changes constituting the Neolithic occurred in the beginning of Holocene. The project is designed to examine ways of doing in the domain of subsistence (1), symbolic context (2), and regional connectivity (3), by studying lithics and models of socio-cultural interactions. This research will greatly enrich our understanding of the transition to sedentism and emergence of agriculture by exploring the technical traditions and cultural affinities of Pre-Pottery Neolithic (PPN) groups in Upper Mesopotamia. NEO-IDENTITY studies the evidence from PPNA and PPNB (10.000-7500 BC) archaeological sites in SE Turkey, which exhibit distinct settlement organization, characterized by communal spaces that have been described as the earliest monumental architecture in Southwest Asia. The main aim of the project is to establish a research framework based on the recognition of material expressions forming cultural identities, while challenging traditional conceptual views. NEO-IDENTITY employs a novel integrated scientific outline resulting in merging method and theory. Project will use the methodological approach which combines advanced lithic technological, use-wear analyses and cutting-edge quantitative analyses through the study of micro-wear texture by Confocal Scanning Microscopy, with the analytical techniques and models for examining spatio-temporal distribution of technical traits, interaction and transmission of skills and innovations.

Keywords: prehistory,neolithic,sw asia,anatolia,lithics,flint,obsidian,use wear analyses,interactions,technology,identity,socio economic changes,symbolism
Inspiring Creativity: investigating how a digital arts intervention can enhance creative mind-wandering (IMW)

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: France,United States
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2021 (HORIZON-MSCA-2021-PF-01, 2021)
Start date: 2022-06-01
End date: 2027-02-28
Duration (months): 57.0
Total project cost (EUR): 300441.6
EU funding (EUR): 300441.6
Participants: 2
Project status: SIGNED

Mind-wandering research in the cognitive sciences shows that a significant portion of novel ideas and breakthrough “aha!” moments happen when attention is shifted internally, away from tasks in the external environment. However, research has not explored how to encourage these creative mental wanders. Inspired by how exposure to art leads to generating innovative ideas, this project investigates the hypothesis that a digital arts intervention can enhance creative thoughts when mind-wandering. This use of digital technology is antithetical to its common aim of guiding attention externally. Accordingly, this project challenges how we use digital technology and opens opportunities for interdisciplinary research across the arts and sciences. Expected impacts are: 1) paving a new direction in mind-wandering research by investigating the possibility of inspiring creative thoughts, 2) Uncovering how digital arts can be an empirical tool to investigate cognitive processes, and 3) Conceptually extending the discourse of how technology affects cognition. This project will produce high-impact research publications, presentations, and an interdisciplinary symposium to disseminate findings across relevant disciplines. Communication with the public will be facilitated with a project dedicated website and targeted outreach efforts both at the TC and return host institutions.

Keywords: mind wandering,creativity enhancement,new media art,divergent thinking,convergent thinking
Reduced Models for Motion in Fluctuating Nonequilibrium Media: Evaluating Energy Transport and Predicting Transition Rates in Steadily Driven Systems (RedNeq)

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: Physics
Countries involved: Belgium
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2024 (HORIZON-MSCA-2024-PF-01, 2024)
Start date: 2025-09-01
End date: 2027-08-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 200400.0
EU funding (EUR): 200400.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

The project RedNeq aims for powerful reduced descriptions of nonequilibrium media, including suspensions of active matter or of steadily driven particles, by benchmarking the fluctuation dynamics of test particles immersed in them. The first goal is to characterize the dynamics of these probes via extended and general Fluctuaton-Dissipation relations, which can be treated as a recipe for writing Langevin equations for probes in nonequilibrium baths. That reduced dynamical description of nonequilibria is essential for the study of at least two other classes of phenomena that are envisioned in RedNeq: (i) Energy and particle transport between nonequilibrium baths, as relevant in Physics of Life systems such as biological power houses, molecular motors and bio-engines more generally; (ii) Metastability in and around steady nonequilibria from effective nonequilibrium reaction-rate formulae, as for example important in the evaluation of dynamical large deviations, first-passage times and tipping points. The focus is theoretical and foundational for the construction of nonequilibrium statistical mechanics and soft condensed matter, with the core models, techniques, and methodologies being from stochastic processes, graph theory and path-space integration. The results of the project will be closely aligned and helpful for the ongoing biophysics ands soft matter experiments involving calorimetry and microrheology, since it will provide generalized guidlines and ready to use formulas for noise friction relations, athermal energy conductivities, and transition rates, when dealing with nonequilibrium baths.

Keywords: nonequilibrium statistical physics,response theory,local detailed balance,reduced description,active particles,stochastic process,fluctuation theory
Optical control over multi-membrane materials (OCOMM)

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: Physics
Countries involved: Sweden
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2022 (HORIZON-MSCA-2022-PF-01, 2022)
Start date: 2023-04-01
End date: 2025-05-31
Duration (months): 26.0
Total project cost (EUR): 222727.68
EU funding (EUR): 222727.68
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Acoustic metamaterials and circuits allow to shape and control the propagation of vibrations, i.e., phonons, in an artificial material. Using the interaction of phonons with light in so called optomechanical devices, single material sites can be interfaced and mechanical properties be locally tuned. Optomechanically controlled acoustic circuits hold great promise for a wide range of applications from routing and manipulation of vibrations in integrated acoustic circuits, over topological optomechanical materials and non-reciprocal devices, to optomechanical arrays. So far, optomechanical control of acoustic metamaterials on the scale of only up to two interface sites has been achieved by optomechanical crystals or coupled microdisks. The limited access to interface sites and the dominating disorder in those systems poses fundamental restrictions on the size, complexity, and amount of control over the acoustic layer. My project will realize a new platform for optically interfaced, integrated acoustic circuits that lifts the present restrictions. To this end, I will interface InGaP-membrane resonator arrays, i.e., the acoustic metamaterial, fabricated over a distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) substrate using flexibly positioned micromirrors on optical fiber tips. This system establishes an out-of-plane optical interface using a membrane-in-the-middle cavity scheme. The microscopic Fabry-Perot cavity approach enables large optomechanical spring effects that are used to individually control the acoustic material sites and that surpass both disorder and the direct mechanical coupling of acoustic resonator sites. This novel approach will allow for an unprecedented and hitherto unachieved level of optical control over acoustic metamaterials. The platform established within this project will be suited for a vast number of applications complementing other integrated device platforms and opening a pathway to concepts so far only studied in theoretical proposals.

Keywords: light matter interaction,cavity optomechanics,acoustic metamaterials,optical fiber fabry perot cavities,multi mode mechanics
De-Risking the drug discovery process of Oncology and Metabolic diseases (VITALA)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Innovative Europe
Programme: European innovation ecosystems
Theme: Elevating the scalability potential of European business
Destination: Elevating the scalability potential of European business
Action type: Coordination and support actions
Countries involved: Spain
Call: Women TechEU (HORIZON-EIE-2022-SCALEUP-02, 2022)
Start date: 2023-07-01
End date: 2023-12-31
Duration (months): 6.0
Total project cost (EUR): 107142.86
EU funding (EUR): 75000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Excellence: Vitala Technologies brings together Organ-on-Chip (OoC), hyperpolarized magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging (HP MRSI), and advanced data analysis tools to provide a patented and revolutionary test for the monitoring of the efficacy in treatment of a new drug moving through the metabolic pathways of a cell. This new methodology provides the opportunity to set preclinical drug testing strategies that are more effective, faster, cheaper, and reduce animal use. The information obtained by this novel methodology will improve the future steps for drug candidates in advanced pre-clinical and clinical stages. Vitala’s analysis allows defining and executing on pre-clinical testing strategies, increasing the speed of the drug discovery process, and reducing its costs. Impact: An increased accuracy in the early stages of the drug screening process will allow discarding inadequate pharmaceutical candidates before those reach the animal testing stage, reducing the number of animals used in the whole pre-clinical process. Moreover, our objective is to de-risk and revolutionise the entire drug discovery process, decreasing the direct and indirect costs associated with the pre-clinical drug discovery pipeline with our real-time, non-destructive, highly sensitive technology. Vitala’s impact will expand to later phases of drug discovery by preventing in-vitro and in vivo as well as human testing of drugs that in the absence of translatable models could have been deemed appropriate to proceed to later clinical trial stages. Implementation and team: Vitala is formed by a management team of professionals with complementary backgrounds in the fields of microfluidics, imaging technologies and business administration. Vitala has already filled a PCT patent application and successfully completed an FTO, which gives our technology a green light to be exploited both in the EU and the USA with short and long term strategies in place.

Keywords: organ on chip,hp mrsi,oncology,metabolic diseases,drug discovery,gender in innovation development
The role of birds in sustainable urban subsistence at Teotihuacan Mexico (AviCulture)

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: Italy,Mexico,Denmark
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2022 (HORIZON-MSCA-2022-PF-01, 2022)
Start date: 2024-09-01
End date: 2026-08-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 188590.08
EU funding (EUR): 188590.08
Participants: 3
Project status: SIGNED

Lessons from Mesoamerican cities are well-suited to address many problems with feeding urban populations today, as large cities thrived in this region in the absence of large, domesticated animals. While we know that residents of Teotihuacan consumed a plant-heavy diet, supplemented with wild animals harvested from local ecosystems and some husbandry of small animals, like turkeys, there are still many gaps in our understanding of Teotihuacan’s food production system. AviCulture tests two hypotheses to better our understanding sustainable food production in the city. 1. Residents practiced low-intensity husbandry of turkeys and quails at the household level. 2. Aquatic birds, a proxy for lake exploitation, were more important to urban subsistence than current evidence suggests. The project will test these hypotheses across multiple assemblages at the city by integrating common zooarchaeological analysis with proteomic analysis to improve taxonomic identification of bone and egg remains and examining eggshells to assess embryonic development. The findings of this research will speak to the organisation of two important food production strategies for the city and highlight the importance of avian fauna and lacustrine resources in investigating the development of urban economies during the classic period.

Keywords: paleoproteomics,birds,eggshell,aviculture,aquatic,urban,subsistence,food
Evasion of antitumor immunity and immunotherapy by melanoma extracellular vesicles (EVasion)

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: Life Sciences
Countries involved: Portugal
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2022 (HORIZON-MSCA-2022-PF-01, 2022)
Start date: 2023-06-01
End date: 2025-05-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 172618.56
EU funding (EUR): 172618.56
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Melanoma is the deadliest of the skin cancers. Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI), which are blocking antibodies that help to restore antitumor immunity, are currently used for the treatment of metastatic melanoma. However, only approximately 20% of the patients respond to ICI. Understanding the molecular mechanisms behind the resistance to these therapies is essential to predict patients' response and increase treatment success. Extracellular vesicles(EVs), nanosized structures released by virtually all cells, are key mediators of cell-cell communication and horizontal transfer of biomolecules locally and systemically. EVs are known to play an important role in cancer biology by regulating cell apoptosis, angiogenesis, antigen presentation and immune modulation. In recent years, EVs have been shown to also act as protein-decoys, through binding and sequestering soluble proteins, thus preventing protein-target interactions. Previous work from the host group shows that EVs excreted by melanoma cell lines express interferon-γ receptor (IFNGR). Thus, we hypothesize that melanoma-derived EVs modulate the bioavailability and activity of this cytokine. Preliminary results show that EVs isolated from mouse metastatic melanoma B16-F10 cells express IFNGR, bind to IFNγ, and protect tumor cells from the cytotoxic effect of IFNγ. Because resistance to antitumor immunity and to ICI has been linked to defects in IFNγ signaling, this project aims to investigate whether IFNGR+ EVs downregulate IFNγ signaling and ICI response. This research has the potential to unveil a novel yet overlooked cancer immune evasion mechanism mediated by IFNGR+ EVs, which may provide crucial insights to optimize current cancer therapies and ultimately improve patient outcomes.

Keywords: extracellular vesicles,antitumor immunity,evasion,decoy effect,immunotherapy,immune checkpoint inhibitors,biomarker,interferon gamma,interferon gamma receptor,melanoma
On-demand COMmunication between fluorescent organic nanoparticles through Energy Transfer (COMET)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences
Panel description: Analytical chemistry, chemical theory, physical chemistry/chemical physics
Countries involved: France
Call: ERC STARTING GRANTS (ERC-2022-STG, 2022)
Start date: 2023-02-01
End date: 2028-01-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1500000.0
EU funding (EUR): 1500000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

In situ and real-time detection of analytes in complex biological media requires the development of robust and sensitive biosensors. In this context, the interdisciplinary COMET project will develop innovative optical biosensors based on communicating nanoparticles (NPs) whose response is modulated by the presence of opioids. To date, robust inter-particle communication between optically-active NPs has only been described with inorganics, involving either electron or resonance energy transfer. Despite their excellent optical properties, inorganic NPs raise environmental and biocompatibility concerns with respect to their toxicity or colloidal stability. In that regard, Fluorescent Organic Nanoparticles (FONs) are an interesting alternative: FONs are composed of organic dyes condensed in a small volume and engineered to display intense absorption and excellent brightness. The optimal arrangement of spectrally complementary FONs acting as synergistic energy donors and acceptors will address the critical challenge of achieving communication between NPs and signal amplification. To meet this goal, COMET will reinvent the classical FONs elaboration by investigating the self-assembly of dedicated dyes concomitantly with a biological recognition moiety in water. Spectrally relevant FONs will be associated into nano-constructions in which a donor and an acceptor FON are brought together to enable energy transfer. I will then design stimuli-responsive biosensors based on the triggered disruption of these nano-assemblies by an analyte, particularly opioids. The detection of nanomolar traces of opioids will be achieved thanks to signal amplification through cascade energy transfers within and between FONs. Such communicating nano-tools will provide the next generation of continuous ratiometric biosensors. In addition, they will open the way to a new paradigm in excitation energy migration and impact other research fields such as optoelectronics and nanomedicine.

Keywords: fluorescent nanoparticles fret photophysic biosensors
State of unrest of active VOLCANOes through advanced seismic WAVES analysis - An application to eruption forecast modelling. (VOLCANOWAVES)

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: Spain
Call: Individual Fellowships (H2020-MSCA-IF-2017, 2017)
Start date: 2018-09-01
End date: 2020-09-28
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 170121.6
EU funding (EUR): 170121.6
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Volcanic eruptions have a high social and economic impact on a global scale, and they can be responsible for severe consequences into climate changes and on population’s life, determining severe damages to buildings, crops, telecommunications and air traffics. The security and protection of populations in sites exposed to risk requires the improvement of our ability to forecast volcanic eruptions and the development of better alert protocols, in order to take preventive measures and minimize their effects in both human and economic terms. Volcano monitoring is mainly based on the analysis of seismic signals, in order to found precursory events which appear before an eruption. Due to the big amount of seismic data nowadays acquired by the volcanic observatory, in a volcano crisis it became difficult the manual supervised detection and classification carried out by expert technicians. So an automatic volcano-seismic signal processing is crucial to quickly detect and analyse the precursory seismicity and to correctly assess the population risk. This project is conceived to advance beyond-the-state-of-the-art providing tools for a better and more accurate automatic volcano-seismic signals detection and classification to obtain Early Warning Decision Making algorithms. This is a highly interdisciplinary project, where the Signal Processing, Machine Learning, Big Data, and Knowledge Management are combined with the Volcanic Seismology science. In order to carry out this project, seismic records from some volcanoes (in particular, Etna, Colima, Montserrat volcanoes) are available. The proposed strategy includes a new philosophy in database creation and new and innovative signal processing techniques, and will improve our ability to forecast volcanic eruptions. The proposed methodologies are new in the field of volcano-seismology, but researchers involved in the project have already applied them successfully in different contexts.

Keywords: signal processing,machine learning,deep learning,volcanology,geophysics