Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Innovative Biodegradable PLA Plastic for an Increased Range of Packaging Applications (BlockPLA)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Societal Challenges
Programme: Climate action, environment,  resource efficiency and raw materials
Action type: SME instrument
Countries involved: Spain
Call: Boosting the potential of small businesses in the areas of climate action, environment, resource efficiency and raw materials (H2020-SMEINST-1-2016-2017, 2016)
Start date: 2016-08-01
End date: 2016-12-31
Duration (months): 5.0
Total project cost (EUR): 71429.0
EU funding (EUR): 50000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Bioplastics are an essential part of our efforts to reduce pollution and increase sustainability. Of these, the most ecoefficient bioplastic is PLA as it is biodegradable, requires 50% less energy and produces 10 times less emissions in comparison to standard thermoplastics like PET and PP. Furthermore, as it does not need to be recycled, it not only saves the energy and cost involved, but also the fact that only a fraction of the plastic produced reaches the recycling plant, the rest ending up in landfill or the sea. However, biodegradable plastics only make up approximately 0.2% of plastics produced in 2014. This is because conventional PLA has certain technical limitations which reduce the number of marketable applications where it can be used. For example, it cannot compete with standard thermoplastic grades used in packaging applications (such as PET and PE), in terms of oxygen and water vapour barrier and thermal properties, which are the most demanded properties for packaging requirements. Advanced & Functional Technologies for Biocomposites S.L (ADBIOCOMPOSITES) has developed an innovative, biodegradable PLA grade named BlockPLA which has enhanced technical properties: oxygen and water vapour barrier, thermal stability, transparency and flexibility. BlockPLA solves the drawbacks that PLA currently shows for packaging applications. In addition, BlockPLA has food contact approval and requires less energy to be produced. Production costs are slightly lower than conventional PLA. Therefore, BlockPLA is a real biodegradable alternative to PET, PP and PLA for packaging applications in the food and beverage industry, pharmaceutical and biomedical industry, home care packaging, cosmetics industry and others. ADBIOCOMPOSITES aims to use the SME instrument to scale up the production of BlockPLA and bring it to the packaging market, generating estimated revenues in 2022 of over 1.6M€ and providing 8 new jobs, with a ROI on project costs of 135%.

Keywords: packaging,bioplastic,biobased,biodegradable,high barrier,food contact approved
Pilot scale demonstration of novel CO2 co-polymerisation catalysts in the PU polyol market (CO2Catalyst)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Societal Challenges
Programme: Climate action, environment,  resource efficiency and raw materials
Action type: SME instrument
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call: Boosting the potential of small businesses in the areas of climate action, environment, resource efficiency and raw materials (H2020-SMEINST-2-2016-2017, 2016)
Start date: 2016-07-01
End date: 2018-06-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 3558238.75
EU funding (EUR): 2490767.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The European polymer industry is under increasing pressure to produce innovative products at lower cost to compete with overseas imports. Econic Technologies has invented a catalyst that enables replacing up to 40% of petrochemical feedstock in the production of polyurethane polyols, an important polymer segment, with low cost waste CO2, resulting in high performance product. Econic Technologies is spun out of Imperial College London, where the technology was invented, now grown to a family of patent-protected catalysts whose unique characteristic is high reactive activity and selectivity for polymers under low pressures. The catalysts enable the maximum theoretical uptake of CO2 with far superior reaction rates than their competitors under industry relevant conditions. The Econic catalyst creates novel value-add polyol building blocks for polyurethanes whilst offering significant feedstock savings: CO2 costs $100/Tonne whereas PO costs $1900/tonne. When competitive technologies require expensive new plant facilities to meet stringent process conditions Econic’s catalyst can be deployed by a low cost retrofit. The technology is proven in the lab (TRL6) and client-site demonstration (TRL7) has commenced on small scale. The Phase I feasibility study has established that early adopting market leading polyol producers are keen to deploy the technology but they still need to persuade their downstream customers, the polyurethane producers. This will crucially be assisted by demonstrator applications which Phase II will now develop. Over the first five years after Phase II completion, Econic generates EUR180m catalyst sale revenues. Polyol producers will benefit by increased profit margins to the tune of EUR380m over the same period. Catalyst toll manufacturers will generate turnover of EUR30m+ and carbon capture plants will be able to sell EUR18m worth of CO2. Total expected qualified job creation from the project exceeds 100 over the first five commercial years.

Keywords: catalyst,enabling technology,high value manufacturing,polymers,polymerisation
The Paths of International Law: Stability and Change in the International Legal Order (PATHS)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Advanced grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Institutions, Governance and Legal Systems
Panel description: Political science, international relations, law
Countries involved: Switzerland
Call: ERC Advanced Grant (ERC-2016-ADG, 2016)
Start date: 2017-10-01
End date: 2023-09-30
Duration (months): 72.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2475275.0
EU funding (EUR): 2475275.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

International law erects high hurdles for change – typically unanimity or a uniformity of practice of states – and this high threshold has provoked much criticism for hindering the pursuit of justice, the provision of public goods, and the democratic revision of political choices. Yet in different areas, such as international criminal law or the law of international organizations, international law has in recent times undergone more rapid change than the traditional picture would allow, and often in informal ways that do not fit classical categories. However, this greater dynamism has found little sustained attention in scholarship so far. The PATHS project seeks to fill this gap and understand when and how international law changes, how this change is registered among participants in legal discourses and how the pathways of change differ across issue areas and sites of international legal practice. Drawing on scholarship in international law and international relations, it aims to trace attempts at informal change in international law in six issue areas, identify relevant factors behind the developments in those cases, and understand how they relate to the formal categories of international legal change. The project expects significant variation in the ‘paths’ of change in different contexts and issue areas, with an important role for global institutions – international organizations, courts, and expert bodies – in many of them. PATHS also seeks to assess these paths normatively: it explores what mechanisms for change would be legitimate in an international legal order that has increasingly turned from a quasi-contractual institution into a structure of governance with a far more limited role for state consent than in the past. With this focus on change, PATHS aims to make a major contribution to our understanding of international law, its political dynamics, as well as its normative grounding in a globalised world.

Keywords: international law,norm change
New biodegradable anal plug to manage Faecal Incontinence (My-qup)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Societal Challenges
Programme: Climate action, environment,  resource efficiency and raw materials
Action type: SME instrument
Countries involved: Spain
Call: Boosting the potential of small businesses in the areas of climate action, environment, resource efficiency and raw materials (H2020-SMEINST-1-2016-2017, 2016)
Start date: 2017-01-01
End date: 2017-06-30
Duration (months): 6.0
Total project cost (EUR): 71429.0
EU funding (EUR): 50000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

My-qup is developing an anal plug, qup, for the management of faecal incontinence (FI) that will reduce the environmental impact that other solutions like pads, diapers and non degradable anal plugs produce. It will be sold to autonomous patients to help them recover their Quality of Life (QoL). FI affects most parts of the patient's life, including laboral, social and sex life. qup users will be able to regain control of their defecation, providing enough safety to return to their previous lifestyle. My-qup Medical considers the whole user experience with a holistic design that tackles all the sides of conservative treatment (non-surgical treatment) and management of FI. The main achievements of the project are the innovation in the material and the design. It will significantly reduce waste and use of resources. The material has been developed to comply with the European Guides of flushability. The next challenges for the product are to prove the usability and efficacy with the users, and to find manufacturers to start a small production to conduct a clinical trial. The estimated global market of FI is USD 2,000 MM with an estimated prevalence of a 10% of adult population with a growing incidence due to an aging population. There are 93 million potential users in the developed world that will be, in most cases, chronic patients. The potential client of My-qup Medical will be the user of qup: autonomous patients that, if it wasn’t for this condition, could have a normal life. As FI is a global problem, after reaching the developed world it will be necessary to study the entry in developing countries. SME Instrument Phase I would serve to assess: the feasibility of licensing vs. reaching the market, the usability of the product (including efficacy, comfort, satisfaction and safety) and the patent strategy. The results will be measured in a Business Plan, a usability test and a European patent application.

Keywords: biodegradable,anal plug,environment,faecal incontinence,flushable
High throughput spectroscopy atomic force microscopy for the foot printing of bacteria and cellular organelle (HighTPSAFM)

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: Physics
Countries involved: Spain
Call: Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF-EF) (H2020-MSCA-IF-2014, 2014)
Start date: 2016-05-01
End date: 2018-04-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 170121.6
EU funding (EUR): 170121.6
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The project HighTPSAFM (High throughput spectroscopy atomic force microscopy for the foot printing of bacteria and cellular organelle) intends to develop and implement high throughput and high resolution modes of atomic force microscopy (AFM) with spectroscopy-like capabilities and enhanced sensitivity to detect and identify heterogeneous compositional contrast. The aim is to develop the instrumentation in order to answer and elucidate mechanisms of timely questions in molecular and cell biology, i.e. related to the Histone Code Hypothesis and bacterial resistance. Unresolved requirements involve simultaneously be minimally invasive while providing high throughput, high resolution and spectroscopic capabilities, such as chemical identification, or footprinting in the case of bacteria, cells and other biological systems, with high sensitivity. The applicant has already gained international recognition for his achievements in the field and become an emerging scientist of note. The project further represents a significant advance in the applicants’ career by expanding it towards applications in the fields of biotechnology and complementary optical techniques. The project will establish the candidate, and collaborators, in the field by building a European interdisciplinary and international team of growing stature and recognition. The project includes the building of a competitive network of collaborators in Europe with partners that will jointly serve to support and systematically fulfil the objectives. The two year project will further provide sufficient experience to the candidate as an independent researcher while being supported by an international referent in nanotechnology with state of the art infrastructure and facilities at of the Universidad de Murcia UM (CIOyN, Spain) and at Linz (JKU, Austria) as secondment. These have proven experience in the development and translation of microscopy instrumentation and new acquisition and data processing techniques.

Keywords: multifrequency dynamic atomic force microscopy,force spectroscopy,epigenetics,chromatin structure,histone modifications,bacterial resistance
Multi-use affordable standardised floating Space@Sea (Space at Sea)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Societal Challenges
Programme: Food security, sustainable agriculture and forestry, marine and maritime and inland water research and the bioeconomy
Theme: Cross-cutting marine and maritime research
Action type: Innovation actions
Countries involved: Austria,Germany,Germany,Germany,Germany,Germany,Germany,Norway,Belgium,Romania,Netherlands,Netherlands,Netherlands,Netherlands
Call: Multi-use of the oceans marine space, offshore and near-shore: Enabling technologies (H2020-BG-2017-1, 2017)
Start date: 2017-11-01
End date: 2020-10-31
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 7629927.5
EU funding (EUR): 6766793.02
Participants: 21
Project status: CLOSED

The Space@Sea project aims to develop multi-use platforms with the objective to develop safe and cost efficient deck space at sea. Due to the increasing population and scarce usable space on land, there is an increasing need for sustainable food and renewable energy from the ocean. In the future these will be supplied more and more by fish- and seaweed farms and ocean energy(floating) wind turbines. There are also geographical locations where additional housing or logistic hubs are needed. All these developments need a flexible and scalable concept that can support a multitude of activities at sea. Space@Sea consists of a group of companies, research institutes and universities that will develop a modular concept for multi-use platforms. Standardised floaters that can be produced at low cost will form the basis. The approach will reduce the cost through standardisation in a similar way that containers reduced the cost of transport in the past. Each floater can support a different function, such as: housing, renewable energy hub, aquafarming (seaweed, algae and fish farms) and logistics equipment. By combining the applications in different ways, Space@Sea will form islands according to the specifications for the location and function at hand. Three specific islands will be validated and demonstrated as part of Space@Sea: An energy hub in the North Sea, aquaculture in the Mediterranean and a floating logistics hub in the Black Sea. To develop a safe and economically viable floating island, a floater need to be developed that can meet the requirements of the various applications and environmental conditions. At the same time these requirements will be brought together into a standardized design. Technology developments are required for the floater, the shared mooring system, coupling between the floaters and application specific developments. The Space@Sea consortium aims to overcome these challenges for a sustainable and cost efficient development of our oceans.

Keywords: multi use platform,moorings,multi body dynamics,safety,environmental impact
DECIPHERING THE ROLE OF TRIB1 IN REGULATORY T CELLS (DISTRICT)

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: France
Call: Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF-EF) (H2020-MSCA-IF-2015, 2015)
Start date: 2017-07-01
End date: 2019-06-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 185076.0
EU funding (EUR): 185076.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The role of regulatory T cells (Tregs) is crucial to maintain immune homeostasis by controlling peripheral tolerance. A better understanding in the molecular mechanisms involved in the biology of these Treg cells could improve their expansion and selection to treat immune-related diseases, achieve immunosuppression-free organ transplantation and to specifically target them in cancer. We reported on the over-expression of Tribbles-1 (TRIB1) in Tregs compared to their counterpart naïve T cells and that TRIB1 interacts with the master molecule of Tregs, FOXP3, a transcription factor essential for Treg suppressive activity. These results suggest still non explored potential links between TRIB1 in Tregs biology. Our goal is thus to decipher the role of TRIB1 in the Treg homeostasis and functions, through 3 main axes: 1) deciphering the function of TRIB1 in Tregs in vitro, 2) highlighting its implication in vivo using a combinaison of immune-related models and 3) discovering the signalling pathway of TRIB1 in Tregs. These results would not only increase TRIB1 mechanistic knowledge but also increase comprehension of Treg biology and bring opportunities to identify new strategies to modulate Tregs for immunotherapy.
Electrochemical Conversion of Renewable Electricity into Fuels and Chemicals (ELCOREL)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie-Sklodowska-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Innovative Training Networks (ITN)-European Training Networks
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Chemistry
Countries involved: Italy,Spain,Finland,Czechia,Netherlands,Netherlands,Denmark
Call: Innovative Training Networks (H2020-MSCA-ITN-2016, 2016)
Start date: 2017-05-01
End date: 2021-04-30
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 3616665.12
EU funding (EUR): 3616665.12
Participants: 7
Project status: CLOSED

ELCOREL is a consortium combining 5 academic and 2 industrial beneficiaries aimed at training young researchers in the field of the conversion of water and carbon dioxide to fuels and chemicals with the aid of electrocatalysts, of prime importance to the efficient large-scale storage of the excess renewable electricity. The consortium will (i) develop rational catalyst design principles for the electrochemical oxidation of water and the electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide based on the principles of quantum chemistry and large-scale quantum-chemical calculations, (ii) prepare, synthesize, characterize and test model single-crystalline and nanoparticulate catalysts, and (iii) implement high surface area catalysts in large-scale electrolysers at industrial laboratories. The fellows to be employed in ELCOREL will be part of a unique network of academic and industrial world leaders in their respective expertises, and will receive a dedicated multidisciplinary and intersectoral training through mandatory extensive training and research periods at the non-academic partners. Furthermore, they will go through an extensive training programme balancing scientific, personal and entrepreneurial skills. ELCOREL will generate a new generation of electrochemical researchers ready to deal with the academic and industrial challenges of securing Europe’s future energy independence.

Keywords: water oxidation,carbon dioxide reduction,energy storage
Innovative technology for Removal of toxic metals form highly contaminated soil & sediments (ReSoil)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Industrial Leadership
Programme: Innovation in SMEs
Action type: SME instrument
Countries involved: Slovenia
Call: SME instrument (H2020-SMEInst-2018-2020-1, 2018)
Start date: 2019-03-01
End date: 2019-08-31
Duration (months): 6.0
Total project cost (EUR): 71429.0
EU funding (EUR): 50000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

In Europe, more than 340 000 sites are likely to be highly contaminated and in need of remediation measure. About 20% of farmland soil in China require urgent remediation action. Urban soils are contaminated by Pb-based paint and emissions from the combustion of leaded gasoline in all major cities in US. Lead was identified by WHO as 1 of 10 chemicals of major public health concern. Urban soil is a lingering source of lead poisoning in children. Most countries have made the clean-up and restoration of the contaminated land a priority thus creating the opportunity for soil preserving remediation options. The remediation of contaminated soil is essential for the protection of environmental resources and human health. There are no effective and sustainable (soil preserving) remediation technologies for soils contaminated primarily with Pb. Excavation with landfilling is unfortunately still one of the most used solutions (used in 82-84% of cases. ReSoil is the single available remediation option which efficiently removes Pb and other toxic metals from contaminated soils and preserves soil as a natural resource. ReSoil is EDTA-based soil-washing technology with innovative technology for recycling of EDTA and process waters in closed-loop and thus ensuring generation of no liquid wastes. ReSoil is a breakthrough, globally important green environmental innovation in the verge of commercialization. ReSoil demonstration plant (6 t/day) and demonstration garden are available. Low operation and remediation cost, no environmental emission and preserving soil as a natural resource for safe food production make ReSoil technology disruptive innovation in the growing soil remediation market (8% annual growth rate). Increasing public concern and awareness requires new effective and cost-efficient gentle remediation options. ENVIT is an engineering company with an aim to offer the world the efficient solution for removal of lead and other pollutants from soil.

Keywords: soil,sediment toxic metals removal,soil preserving remediation,liquid wastes and emissions free soil remediation,soil washing,urban gardening