Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
The role of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in agricultural grasslands exposed to increasingly persistent weather patterns (AMFAGPW)

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: Belgium
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2023 (HORIZON-MSCA-2023-PF-01, 2023)
Start date: 2025-02-01
End date: 2027-01-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 191760.0
EU funding (EUR): 191760.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

A recent fingerprint of climate change is the increasing persistence of weather patterns, which implies that average weather is making way for anomalously long periods of dry or wet meteorological conditions. This shift in climate regimes is likely to negative affect ecosystem functioning, yet scientific knowledge on this is still scarce as much research has focused on unidirectional changes (e.g. only an increase in dry periods). In the current project, we will fill part of this knowledge gap by studying impacts of increasingly persistent weather in agricultural grasslands. Using a state-of-the-art experimental platform, we will test how a sequence of dry, wet, or alternating dry and wet growing seasons affects grasslands relevant in Flanders, and whether plant community composition (which grasses are present in which numbers) can modulate the outcome. Furthermore, we will evaluate the importance of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) in potentially altering impacts of increasingly persistent precipitation regimes, identifying AMF colonization in relation to plant performance and how AMF regulate biochemical and molecular pathways in different grassland species. The UN has recently called for more attention for nature-based solutions in the fight against negative climate change impacts. This project contributes to that by elucidating the importance of plant community composition and AMF in safeguarding grassland ecosystem functioning under increasingly persistent weather.

Keywords: plant ecology agricultural plant production not elsewhere classified ecosystem services soil biology plant physiology
Formose Reactions on Microdroplets (FROM) (FROM)

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: Chemistry
Countries involved: Denmark
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2023 (HORIZON-MSCA-2023-PF-01, 2023)
Start date: 2025-09-01
End date: 2027-08-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 230774.4
EU funding (EUR): 230774.4
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

I propose to examine the importance of water microdroplets sprayed from geysers as a reaction medium in prebiotic chemistry, with the goal of providing evidence for CO2-reduction to formaldehyde and following synthesis of carbohydrates from formaldehyde via the formose reaction. Water microdroplets have recently been proven to be a unique reaction medium, but the importance of microdroplets for the origins of life remains largely unexplored. This fellowship application proposes geysers as a catalyst for synthesis of complex organic molecules at the origin of life – a new hypothesis which has previously not been explored. This is a high risk, high gain proposal and the new scientific skills obtained during the fellowship will be highly valuable for a research career at the interface of organic synthesis and microdroplet chemistry. The project will be carried out over two years with Prof. Michael Pittelkow at the University of Copenhagen where all synthetic chemistry, kinetic experiments and characterization of products will be performed.

Keywords: prebiotic chemistry,microdroplets,formose reaction
Ground Truth for Pebbles in Planet Formation (GT4Pebbles)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Advanced grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Universe Sciences
Panel description: Astro -physics/ -chemistry/ -biology; solar system; planetary systems; stellar, galactic and extragalactic astronomy; cosmology; space sciences; astronomical instrumentation and data
Countries involved: Netherlands,Germany
Call: ERC ADVANCED GRANTS (ERC-2024-ADG, 2024)
Start date: 2025-10-01
End date: 2030-09-30
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 3492672.0
EU funding (EUR): 3492672.0
Participants: 2
Project status: SIGNED

The discovery of exoplanetary systems has triggered a boost in the development of planet formation models. Most of these models rely on the presence of so-called pebbles – dust aggregates that have grown and been compacted in just the right way to be dynamically loosely coupled to the gas in the planet-forming disk. Only then do they enable key processes that produce planetary seeds and grow them efficiently into planets, overcoming growth barriers and enormous time scale problems. The models require that conversion of micron-sized dust particles into pebbles is global, efficient and fast. However, this is currently an unproven assumption that renders base assumptions of these models as shaky. GT4Pebbles will answer the following questions: - Do pebbles with useful properties for planet formation actually form, and with sufficient abundance? - What are the quantitative properties of these pebbles, and the consequences for planet formation models, disk observations and disk mass measurements? Building upon my recent advances in modeling and disk observations, and on advances in experimental technology in our partner laboratory, we will develop the first full-size range fractal dust-agglomeration experiment. We will gain comprehensive insights into the formation and properties of dust aggregates without relying on extreme extrapolations. By integrating experimental results with advanced numerical models, we will derive the structural, mechanical and optical properties of these aggregates as they evolve into pebbles. We will create a robust global dust growth model that for the first time meticulously accounts for porosity and compaction phenomena. This research will enable us to identify and characterize the initial seeds crucial for planet formation models in disks, providing valuable contributions to our understanding of planetary-system formation. With GT4Pebbles, planet formation models will no longer be “built on sand”, but on a solid foundation.

Keywords: laboratory astrophysics,numerical methods,optical properties
Decoding the rules of enhancer - promoter specificity throughout development (DEPI)

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: Germany
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2023 (HORIZON-MSCA-2023-PF-01, 2023)
Start date: 2024-04-01
End date: 2026-03-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 173847.36
EU funding (EUR): 173847.36
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Enhancers control spatio-temporal gene expression, which is central to the diversification of cell-types and tissue differentiation. Enhancers can be located in close proximity to, or distally from, their target gene’s promoters, including in introns of non-cognate genes. To regulate gene expression, distal enhancers (E) must come into proximity to interact with their promoters (P) through folding/looping of the intervening DNA. How enhancers identify and regulate their specific target gene remains poorly understood and is subject of this proposal. Chromosome conformation capture based techniques such as Nuclear-Titrated (NuTi) Capture-C are powerful tools for the genome-wide investigation of enhancer–promoter proximity/interactions (EPIs) at sub-kilobase resolution. This project aims to uncover general features of EPIs by measuring and characterizing EPIs using NuTi Capture-C across many different developmental stages and tissues during Drosophila embryogenesis. I will analyze a massive Capture-C dataset already generated by host lab, capturing interactions from 16,663 genes’ promoters each at eight different conditions (with four replicates), thereby providing unprecedented scale and resolution. I will integrate this Capture-C resource with multiple genome-wide datasets (gene expression, histone marks and chromatin accessibility) from the host lab and others. The analysis of this comprehensive EPIs atlas will link enhancers to promoters (genome-wide), characterize features driving E-P specificity and potentially identify novel factors involved in their establishment. This new view of tissue- and developmental stage- specific EPIs will serve as a unique resource that we will share through a user-friendly web-based portal to a large community using this important model organism. The biological insights that we uncover, including features linked to E-P specificity and tissues-specific regulation, will interest a very broad community studying genome regulation.

Keywords: enhancer promoter specificity,3d chromatin organization,chromatin loops,capture c,embryonic development
Cross-Modal Alignment for Semantic Processing and Effective Representation (CASPER)

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: Italy,Switzerland
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2024 (HORIZON-MSCA-2024-PF-01, 2024)
Start date: 2025-10-01
End date: 2027-09-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 209483.28
EU funding (EUR): 209483.28
Participants: 3
Project status: SIGNED

Cross-Modal Alignment for Semantic Processing and Effective Representation (CASPER) project is pioneering a novel framework that synergizes cognitive neuroscience with advanced artificial intelligence methodologies. By employing Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) and Large Language Models (LLMs), CASPER enables seamless integration and representation of diverse modalities, such as text, audio, speech, images, and neural signals, including fMRI, EEG, and MEG. The project’s core aim is to push the frontier of multimodal learning and neural representation decoding, facilitating complex tasks like speech reconstruction, cross-modal content generation, and zero-shot learning. Through the alignment of AI systems with neural activity patterns, CASPER strives to enhance our understanding of human cognition while unlocking groundbreaking applications in neural decoding, assistive technologies, and conversational AI. This transformative approach is poised to redefine the standards of cross-modal representation and neural signal interpretation, marking a significant advancement in the field.

Keywords: large language models,graph neural networks,latent diffusion models,neural signal processing
Silicate alteration in marine sediments: kinetics, pathway, and dependency (MadSilica)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Consolidator 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: Sweden
Call: ERC CONSOLIDATOR GRANTS (ERC-2022-COG, 2022)
Start date: 2023-07-01
End date: 2028-06-30
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1999780.0
EU funding (EUR): 1999780.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Over its long geological history, the overall habitability of Earth has been governed by the chemical alteration of silicate minerals, a reaction that buffers pCO2 and climate. While terrestrial silicate weathering is widely appreciated, marine silicate weathering and reverse weathering (or marine silicate alteration, MSiA, altogether), has long been considered insignificant in the big picture. This paradigm is challenged by recent work that suggests reverse weathering, as an oceanic Si sink, could be three times higher than previously thought. The latest estimates of marine silicate weathering showing its CO2-fixing capacity could be 82% of that of its terrestrial counterpart. Though potentially significant, these estimates are associated with large uncertainties and untested assumptions. In particular, information about the exact chemical pathway of MSiA, kinetics, and the environmental dependency is missing. To fill these gaps, I will provide the first comprehensive assessment of MSiA by quantifying its rates through both laboratory experiments and field observations. While the former constrains how MSiA initiates, the latter represents the million-year quasi-steady state condition in nature. Reproducing the conditions for MSiA in the laboratory is undeniably challenging due to the required multi-year incubation under up to 340 times atmospheric pressure and near-frozen conditions, which I can reproduce with a novel apparatus. Circulation of modified seawater with realistically slow flow will be maintained to derive MSiA rates through continuous fluid composition monitoring. Together with the rates estimated from field observations, I will evaluate the dependency of MSiA on environmental factors, such as the type/quality of silicates and organic matter. The project will be transformative in our understanding of the coupling between Si and C cycles, and thus provide fundamental knowledge for predicting Earth responses to a likely hotter and wetter future.

Keywords: silicate diagenesis,sediment incubation,co2 fixation,weathering,reverse weathering
CustOms exteNded iNteroperablE Common informaTiOn shaRing environment (CONNECTOR)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness
Programme: Civil Security for Society
Theme: Civil Security for Society
Destination: Border Management
Action type: Innovation actions
Countries involved: Greece,Italy,Romania,Finland,Moldova, Republic of,Bulgaria,Spain,Switzerland,Ireland
Call: OPEN TOPIC (HORIZON-CL3-2022-BM-01, 2022)
Start date: 2023-10-01
End date: 2025-09-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 4260537.5
EU funding (EUR): 3499906.25
Participants: 17
Project status: SIGNED

CONNECTOR’s vision is to contribute to the European Integrated Border Management (EIBM) and to the EU Customs Action Plan by addressing the need of close cooperation between Customs, Border and Coast Guard Authorities within the current and upcoming challenging and demanding environment of borders’ control by further involving Customs to the Common Information Sharing Environment (CISE) network and Enhanced Common Information Sharing Environment (e-CISE) through the proposed Customs Extended Common Information Sharing Environment (CE-CISE). CONNECTOR aims for the first time to suggest an integrated, common and shared risk assessment approach for all Border Management Authorities, considering the pan-EU common risk indicators per end user group (Customs, Border and Coast Guards Authorities including FRONTEX), to ensure external EU border and secure EU citizens from cross-border crime and/or secure the seamless flow of travellers, as recommended in the multiannual strategic policy document . Thus, in this sense, CONNECTOR proposal, will design and develop the CONNECTOR system as an interoperable technical environment, ensuring close and practical cooperation and information exchange at all levels. The design and the development of the CONNECTOR system will be based on the analysis of current policy initiatives in EU level (directives, policy and staff documents, guidelines etc.) along with needs, gaps and future views of the end-user groups going beyond previous initiatives (ANDROMEDA, MARISA, EFFECTOR, etc.), complying with the Societal, Ethical and Legal (SoEL) requirements and regulations, following the SoEL-by-design principle. The CONNECTOR system will be validated in real operational environment, based on well-defined National, Cross-border and Transnational use cases defined commonly by Customs and Border and Coast Guards authorities, during three (3) long lasting trials (Demonstration and Testing) under standardised methodology.

Keywords: cise,e cise,interoperability,risk assessment,decision support,eibm
Ensuring European ECS Value Chain Sovereignty through Shaping the Future of ECS for Automotive Applications (ShapeFuture)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness
Programme: Digital, Industry and Space
Theme: Public-private partnerships
Destination: Chips for Europe Initiative
Action type: Research and Innovation actions
Partnership: CHIPS (JU-JTI)
Countries involved: Germany,Austria,Finland,Netherlands,Spain,Italy,Belgium,Greece,Türkiye,Latvia,Cyprus
Call: Global call according to SRIA 2023 (RIA) (HORIZON-KDT-JU-2023-2-RIA, 2023)
Start date: 2024-05-01
End date: 2027-04-30
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 33956408.75
EU funding (EUR): 10016584.63
Participants: 41
Project status: SIGNED

ShapeFuture will drive innovation in fundamental Electronic Components and Systems (ECS) that are essential for robust, powerful, fail-operational and integrated perception, cognition, AI-enabled decision making, resilient automation and computing, as well as communications, for highly automated vehicles. Its overarching vision is to bring ECS Innovation at the Heart of Europe's Mobility Transformation, thereby elevating Sovereignty by Perfecting Programmable ECS Solutions for Intelligent, Safe, Connected, and Highly Automated Vehicles. The project will result in the following main tangible outcomes: • Safety, security and reliability of in-vehicle systems to levels appropriate for mass-market deployment. • Availability and supply of leading-edge ECS for the European automotive supply chain and for OEMs to be at the forefront of technology developments in the 2030s. • Increased Accuracy and Robustness of ECS for perception with smaller form factors and lower power consumption. • ECS attributed with cognition features and improved human-Machine Interface (HMI). • ECS with cognitive processing and decision-making capabilities. • ECS for resilient automation and communications. • Increased technology acceptance that will also lead to business sovereignty safeguard. 15 demonstrators and 2 impact studies will showcase the project’s achievements and their capability to deliver innovations and secure future application advances in core markets for European society – Mobility, Green Deal, Digital Society, Safety and Industry. The project innovations will leverage the expertise of world-renowned industrial (5 OEMs, 24 Tier-1, Tier-2 and technology providers) and 12 research partners along the complete automotive and semiconductor value chains, providing Europe with a competitive edge in a growing market. Importantly, ShapeFuture will contribute to ensuring European ECS Sovereignty by shaping the future of ECS in mobility.

Keywords: electronic components and systems,transformation of mobility,perception,cognitive,decision making,semiconductors,sovereignty
Emission controll system for wastewater treatment (VARIO)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Innovative Europe
Programme: The European Innovation Council (EIC)
Theme: EIC Accelerator
Destination: Challenges
Action type: EIC actions
Countries involved: Germany
Call: EIC Accelerator Challenge: Technologies for ‘Fit for 55’ (HORIZON-EIC-2022-ACCELERATOR-01, 2022)
Start date: 2023-04-01
End date: 2025-03-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2463750.0
EU funding (EUR): 1724625.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Wastewater treatment plants are major contributors of greenhouse gasses emission and responsible for 1-2% of emissions worldwide. VARIO “emission control” is the first system that enables online monitoring of greenhouse gases (nitrous oxide and methane) and chemical pollutants in wastewater treatments plants. The VARIO solution measures relevant substances automatically and adjusts the wastewater plants aeration system via AI models. The technology combines sensorics (mass spectrometry) and data driven models (AI), for adjusting wastewater treatment process parameters. It does this in multiple aeration basins with one analyzer via its multiplexing capabilities to save costs for operators. By using VARIO the benefits for wastewater treatment plants are: 20% costs saving for energy and chemical consumption, as well as a tremendous reduction of emissions by up to 50%. For society, these savings are equivalent to millions of vehicles off the street or a 25% reduction in airline travel.

Keywords: greenhouse gas reduction,direct emission,industrial bioengineering,environmental protection,energy management
Boosting photosynthetic activity via nanoparticle addition for biogas upgrading coupled with pigments production (NANOBOOSTER)

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: Environment and Geosciences
Countries involved: Spain
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2023 (HORIZON-MSCA-2023-PF-01, 2023)
Start date: 2024-12-01
End date: 2026-11-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 165312.96
EU funding (EUR): 165312.96
Participants: 3
Project status: SIGNED

The urgent need to reach EU independence from fossil fuel imports, decarbonization and circular economy encourages the development of sustainable technologies for the production of biofuels and high added-value products. Photobiorefineries are a promising platform to produce biofuels and high added-value products. However, the low algal biomass productivities typically limit their application. NANOBOOSTER will engineer a high-performance photobiorefinery based on the addition of nanoparticles (NPs) to boost Haematococcus pluvialis metabolism, resulting in a biomethane that meets the EN 16723 standard (CH4>95%, CO2<2%) along with enhanced astaxanthin productivities. NANOBOOSTER will address two key scientific challenges: the elucidation of the mechanisms of interaction between NPs and microalgae and the single-stage production of astaxanthin. Overcoming the first challenge will allow the synthesis of tailored NPs to boost H. pluvialis growth and astaxanthin content. Then, the optimal conditions of temperature, light, pH, NPs and NH4+ concentration will be determined at lab-scale. These conditions will be validated in an indoors single-stage continuous system using real centrate as a culture broth, which will be pretreated via selective NH3 membrane permeation to achieve optimal NH3 concentration for astaxanthin accumulation. The process will be optimized to reach an upgraded biomethane with CH4 >95% and CO2<2%, and astaxanthin contents of 10%. Finally, the process will be validated under outdoor conditions at demo scale to assess its techno-economic feasibility and draft a business roadmap. NANOBOOSTER will position photosynthetic biogas upgrading as a cost-effective process easy to implement in the biogas sector. The fellow, Dr. Vargas, will conduct this action at the Institute of Sustainable Processes of University of Valladolid under the supervision of Dr. Muñoz, with secondments at Calpech and the University of Almería under the supervision of Dr. Gabriel Acién.

Keywords: pigment production photobiorefinery biomethane microalgae biogas upgrading