Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Self-regenerating Functional Surfaces – Towards a Technology Platform for New Materials and Devices (Regenerate)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Synthetic Chemistry and Materials
Panel description: New materials and new synthetic approaches, structure-properties relations, solid state chemistry, molecular architecture, organic chemistry
Countries involved: Germany
Call: ERC Starting Grant (ERC-2014-STG, 2014)
Start date: 2015-05-01
End date: 2021-04-30
Duration (months): 72.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1498987.5
EU funding (EUR): 1498987.5
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Self-regenerating materials are intriguing. If critical properties of a failing material or device could be easily restored, this would significantly extend its life time. In this proposal, we describe our vision of a technology platform for the self-regeneration of surface properties. Functional surfaces fail due to damage or contamination. Instead of trying to make “better” functional materials, we here propose a fundamental change in the design of such materials. We want to make a material that can shed its entire contaminated or defective layer, like a reptile shedding its skin, and present a clean, functional one. By shedding defined layers, instead of just eroding a polymer surface, the emerging surface stays homo¬geneous, and cavities or crater-like erosion are avoided. Further¬more, our vision is a material where we can selectively disintegrate the topmost degradable layer of a stack, while the other degradable layers remain in place. That way, the process can be repeated until all layers of the stack have been sequentially removed. The selective and sequential shedding of polymer layers from a multi-stack, with the aim of obtaining functionally intact successive functional layers, is so far an unresolved and therefore extremely attractive, fundamentally important concept, both from a basic science and an application point of view. We want to demonstrate the feasibility of our concept with two research objectives: (1) the sequential regeneration of a functional surface property, exemplified by antimicrobial activity; (2) the regeneration of the activity of a functional device, exemplified by a glucose sensor. We will assemble our target materials, and study their properties and disassembly using surface plasmon resonance/optical waveguide spectroscopy (SPR/OWG), atomic force microscopy, ellipsometry, and other relevant techniques. We will also develop a method to measure water diffusion through thin films using SPR/OWG.

Keywords: degradable polymers,polymer synthesis and characterization,polymer thin films,antibacterial polymers,surface plasmon resonance spectroscopy,conducting polymers,chemosensors,glucose sensor
Personsalised Medicine Innovation through Digital Enterprise Solutions (PERMIDES)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Industrial Leadership
Programme: Innovation in SMEs
Action type: Innovation actions
Countries involved: Austria,Germany,Austria,Germany,Germany,Norway,Norway
Call: Cluster faciltated projects for new value chains (H2020-INNOSUP-2015-1, 2015)
Start date: 2016-09-01
End date: 2018-08-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 4978418.75
EU funding (EUR): 4838318.75
Participants: 8
Project status: CLOSED

It is the aim of PERMIDES to strenghten the competitiveness and foster the innovation potential of Personalized Medicine as an Emerging Industry in Europe by providing key solutions for the reconfiguration of the biopharmaceutical value chain towards a Health Economy 4.0 with a special focus on oncology (i.e. cancer treatment). Current value chain challenges lie in e.g. data gathering and exchange, big data and machine learning, or new software-based marketing methods based. Via a cross-clustering approach, leading biopharma and IT clusters from three countries (Austria, Germany and Norway) will create novel cross-sectoral collaborations between SMEs to address innovation barriers in the biopharma sector via cutting-edge IT solutions. As a cross-cutting industry, the ICT and software sector is an enabler of innovation in many industries and therefore provides a broad knowledge base of processes and best practice solutions in diverse industrial contexts and business environments. PERMIDES will create an collaboration space consisting of workshops, a semantic online matchmaking portal complemented by matchmaking events that will allow biopharma enterprises to identify the most suitable ICT company from the participating clusters. In a second step, the biopharmaceutical SME and the ICT partner will jointly tackle an innovation barrier in the value chain using an innovation voucher scheme. Follow-up coaching and transfer activites by the cluster organisations will maximise the effect of around 90 collaborative projects that PERMIDES aims to achieve.
Identifying the conditions under which forest-focused supply chain policies lead to improved conservation and livelihoods: a pan-tropical analysis (FORESTPOLICY)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Institutions, Governance and Legal Systems
Panel description: Political science, international relations, law
Countries involved: Switzerland,United Kingdom
Call: ERC STARTING GRANTS (ERC-2020-STG, 2020)
Start date: 2021-03-01
End date: 2026-02-28
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1893287.0
EU funding (EUR): 990540.75
Participants: 2
Project status: SIGNED

Tropical forests are critical for human wellbeing through their contributions to climate stability, biodiversity conservation, food production, and rural livelihoods. Despite numerous global commitments to help conserve and restore tropical forests, these areas are disappearing faster than ever. The goal of this research is to provide major advancements in our understanding of the conditions under which forest-focused supply chain policies (FSPs), a form of voluntary environmental governance, can lead to improved conservation and livelihoods in the tropics. My proposal overcomes major methodological limitations of past work through four major innovations: i) a coordinated pan-tropical analysis of multiple forest-risk commodities, ii) simultaneous examination of conservation and livelihood outcomes, iii) a focus on mechanisms of impact, not just measures of impact, and iv) comparative study with triangulation across multiple scales and methods. I will examine the importance of four key contextual factors in determining FSP effectiveness: i) the degree of public sector involvement in the governance of land use behaviors in the target regions; ii) historical land use trends in the target regions; iii) supply chain arrangements for the targeted commodities; and iv) values of the targeted populations. Additionally, I examine how the type of implementation mechanism used (i.e., whether the firm immediately suspends non-compliant producers) interacts with these contextual factors in determining the effectiveness and equity of FSPs. By identifying the conditions under which different types of FSPs and related implementation mechanisms can deliver improved conservation and livelihood outcomes, the resulting analysis will provide urgently needed policy recommendations to companies and other policy makers for how to better tailor the design of FSPs to specific contexts.

Keywords: supply chain,forest,food,voluntary environmental policy,corporate sustainability,conservation,livelihood
What is everybody doing? Social prediction, categorization, and monitoring in the Prefrontal Cortex of the Macaque adopting a new human-monkey (H-M) interactive paradigm. (HUMO)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Consolidator grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System
Panel description: Nervous system development, homeostasis and ageing, nervous system function and dysfunction, systems neuroscience and modelling, biological basis of cognitive processes and of behaviour, neurological and mental disorders
Countries involved: Italy
Call: ERC Consolidator Grant (ERC-2014-CoG, 2014)
Start date: 2016-03-01
End date: 2021-08-31
Duration (months): 66.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1028750.0
EU funding (EUR): 1028750.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Primates live in a complex social environment, in which they need to maintain track of their past social interactions and learn to formulate prediction on what specific groupmates are likely to do based on their past experiences. I have previously contributed to show that the PF (prefrontal cortex) has a main function in the generation of goals based on the current contexts and events, but its role in social cognition is still little explored. In this context, the frontal Pole cortex (FPC) has been associated to “mentalizing” functions and there is a link between the autism spectrum disorder and its abnormalities. However until recently, no one has been able to record neural activity from FPC, but us. I propose to investigate the role of the monitoring function of FPC in association to the dorsolateral (PFD) and orbitofrontal (OFC) cortex, recording from the entire network up to 256 neurons simultaneously. We have developed the first human-monkeys (H-M) paradigm to test several hypotheses. The task is a non-match-to goal (NMTG) task in which the monkeys are trained to switch from their choice on the previous trial to a different one. In a subset of trials the monkey observe a human partner (either cooperative or uncooperative) performing the task. When the human partner conclude his turn, the monkeys have to switch to a new goal discarding the human’s previous goal. I will explore the role of PFD in social decisions in predicting other agents decisions and distinguishing and categorizing cooperative and uncooperative agents, and the role of OFC in monitoring others’ choices. I expect that PFD will maintain, as it does with past and future goals, separate records for the past choices of different agents while PFO might contribute to solve credit assignment problems also in relationship to other’s behaviors.

Keywords: monkeys,prefrontal cortex,frontal pole,goals
Insect-plant relationships: insights into biodiversity and new applications (FlyHigh)

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: Environment and Geosciences
Countries involved: Spain,South Africa,Serbia,Finland
Call: Marie Skłodowska-Curie Research and Innovation Staff Exchange (RISE) (H2020-MSCA-RISE-2014, 2014)
Start date: 2015-07-01
End date: 2018-06-30
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 450000.0
EU funding (EUR): 450000.0
Participants: 5
Project status: CLOSED

FlyHigh studies underexplored phytophagous and saprophagous flies and geophyte plants aiming to obtaining ecological and evolutionary data that will be used to elucidate ecological features of fly species that could be exploited for artificial mass production of flies. Artificial mass rearing of flies produces beneficial end products, the flies themselves or their larval stages, that could be applied for different services in agriculture, ecological farming or as bio-agents for e.g. complementary pollination services in natural or greenhouse environments. The main aim is to facilitate cross-sectorial transfer of knowledge and training of researchers as well as technical staff in bridging the gap between scientific results and their application into novel business ideas. The excellence of the project lies in the synergy of basic and applied ecology for exploring and developing new protocols and end products. FlyHigh brings together experts with well documented scientific achievements of the focal organismal groups and on evolutionary analyses with early stage researchers with the same research focus, with experts on insect mass rearing techniques. The relevance of FlyHigh results from integration of project aims that may result in innovative results of broader impact that will benefit the ERA institutions as well as the TC partner. The results could be advantageous in developing new ideas for future use e.g. flies could complement or even replace the presently used managed pollinators in greenhouse productions of many greenhouse products. The obtained data will also allow us to estimate the possible biogeographic events that can help explain the evolutionary history, current distributions and future biogeographic patterns of some bulb plant and fly groups in South Africa and in Euro-Mediterranean region. The outlined training course, workshops and secondments ensure transfer of knowledge between participant academic and non-academic partners, in both directions.

Keywords: phylogeography,evolutionary history,biodiversity,biotechnology,artificial rearings techniques,mini live stock
Deciphering the mycobiome of indoor environments by high-throughput sequencing (MycoIndoor)

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: 2018-03-01
End date: 2020-02-29
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 208400.4
EU funding (EUR): 208400.4
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Fungi have ubiquitous distribution in natural ecosystems and are also common in the built environment, where people spend major parts of their lifetime. When moisture is present, fungal growth can cause material deterioration and adverse effects on the occupant’s health. Traditional methods for analyzing the indoor mycobiome, such as culturing and microscopy, have severe limitations. In this project we will improve the knowledge about the indoor mycobiome in Northern Europe by combining air sampling with high-throughput DNA sequencing (HTS) and qPCR. We will (i) construct a reference DNA sequence collection for indoor fungi, (ii) analyze the small-scale spatiotemporal variation of the indoor mycobiome within selected buildings, including a complete description of all indoor compartments, and (iii) characterize the geographic variation of the indoor mycobiome on a larger spatial scale (Scandinavia) through an aerobiological study of more than 200 buildings. The project will be conducted at the Oslo Mycology Group (University of Oslo) in close collaboration with the Norwegian consulting firm Mycoteam AS, which possesses 30 years expertise on indoor fungi. The project will improve our basic understanding about the indoor mycobiome, which will help to control fungal outbreaks as well as their adverse effects on building materials and occupants. Results from this study will be a first step towards a streamlined HTS based indoor mycobiome profiling approach with a commercial potential. This intersectoral project involves relevant expertise in fungal biology, building mycology, DNA analyses, and bioinformatics, and will provide a highly professional framework for the Experienced Researcher, as well as an excellent basis for his further development as an independent researcher.

Keywords: indoor fungi,moulds,building mycology,building ecology,community ecology,aerobiology,material biodeterioration,allergens,dna metabarcoding,high throughput sequencing,quantitative pcr
Expanding the genetic etiological and diagnostic spectrum of monogenic diabetes mellitus (DecodeDiabetes)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — 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, interorgan 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: Spain
Call: ERC Advanced Grant (ERC-2017-ADG, 2017)
Start date: 2018-11-01
End date: 2024-10-31
Duration (months): 72.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2243746.0
EU funding (EUR): 2243746.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Whole genome sequencing is quickly becoming a routine clinical instrument. However, our ability to decipher DNA variants is still largely limited to protein-coding exons, which comprise 1% of the genome. Most known Mendelian mutations are in exons, yet genetic testing still fails to show causal coding mutations in more than 50% of well-characterized Mendelian disorders. This defines a pressing need to interpret noncoding genome sequences, and to establish the role of noncoding mutations in Mendelian disease. A recent case study harnessed whole genome sequencing, epigenomics, and functional genomics to show that mutations in an enhancer cause most cases of neonatal diabetes due to pancreas agenesis. This example raises major questions: (i) what is the overall impact of penetrant regulatory mutations in human diabetes? (ii) do regulatory mutations cause distinct forms of diabetes? (iii) more generally, can we develop a strategy to systematically tackle regulatory variation in Mendelian disease? The current project will address these questions with unique resources. First, we have created epigenomic and functional perturbation resources to interpret the regulatory genome in embryonic pancreas and adult pancreatic islets. Second, we have collected an unprecedented international cohort of patients with a phenotype consistent with monogenic diabetes, yet lacking mutations in known gene culprits after genetic testing, and therefore with increased likelihood of harboring noncoding mutations. Third, we have developed a prototype platform to sequence regulatory mutations in a large number of patients. These resources will be combined with innovative strategies to uncover causal enhancer mutations underlying Mendelian diabetes. If successful, this project will expand the diagnostic spectrum of diabetes, it will discover new genetic regulators of diabetes-relevant networks, and will provide a framework to understand regulatory variation in Mendelian disease.
The role of extra centrosomes on the tumour microenvironment (CentrosoTME)

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: Individual Fellowships (H2020-MSCA-IF-2018, 2018)
Start date: 2019-06-01
End date: 2021-05-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 212933.76
EU funding (EUR): 212933.76
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The centrosome, an organelle important for cell division, is frequently amplified in cancer, including breast cancer. In this fellowship I propose to investigate how cells with centrosome amplification change the tumour microenvironment (TME) to promote breast cancer development. Recent work has shown that having extra centrosomes drive tumour growth in vivo, indicating that centrosome amplification is not a bystander of cancer, but promotes tumorigenesis. Consistent with a direct role in cancer, we previously demonstrated that centrosome amplification leads to chromosome instability and cell invasion. In addition to the cell autonomous effects of centrosome amplification, our lab has recently found that cells containing extra centrosomes also have non-cell autonomous effects via secretion of proteins that induce a paracrine invasive phenotype in mammary organoids. We also found that cells with pancreatic cancer cells with extra centrosomes secrete small extracellular vesicles (sEVs) that induce activation of the fibroblast-like pancreatic stellate cells (PSCs). Moreover, using xenograft immunocompetent mouse models, we found that induction of centrosome amplification in SUM225 human breast cancer cells leads to a strong innate immune infiltration (e.g. macrophages and neutrophils) surrounding the tumours. Guided by our preliminary data we hypothesise that altered secretion in cells with centrosome amplification changes the TME. Currently there is no published link between centrosome amplification and TME. I aim to characterise TME changes induced by centrosome amplification in vivo and to identify factors secreted by cells with extra centrosomes responsible for such changes. This work will be the first in-depth characterisation of TME in tumours containing extra centrosomes. Importantly, this project will start an exciting and novel research avenue bridging the centrosome and the TME fields.

Keywords: centrosome amplification,tumour microenvironment,breast cancer,mouse model
Researchers for Humanity 2021 (R4H2021)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie-Sklodowska-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: European researchers' Night
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Countries involved: Romania
Call: European Researchers' Night (H2020-MSCA-NIGHT-2020bis, 2020)
Start date: 2021-04-01
End date: 2021-11-30
Duration (months): 8.0
Total project cost (EUR): 110575.0
EU funding (EUR): 110575.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

"Researchers for Humanity 2021" will continue the work of the series of European Researchers' Night events organized in Romania since 2007. Pursuing the previous editions goals, this event will focus on creating a strong bond between the public and researchers, by carrying on with presenting the audience the importance of science and research work for humanity's daily life and by making the researchers more approachable for the public in general. Year after year, we keep up with promoting the European dimension of the event and it is only natural to emphasis on the public's awareness, which will flag European Researchers' Night 2021 as one of the most important and awaited events, in terms of science, research and education, as it happened in the past years. This year, during 1 day (or 2 days in some places), the public will have the opportunity to better understand science projects and researchers ideas and motivation by taking part in interactive hands-on sessions, learning by doing, education through play, as well as being encouraged to have interesting talks with the researchers themselves. The event will maintain its traditional logo as a clear connection with the European and national dimension of the event. Also, through the platform, we will invite associated events to get enrolled and be supported by us through promotion at the national level. Due to the long lasting relationships, the partnerships will be continued with the main actors from mass-media and most of the important players in private research, universities and non-formal education institutions.

Keywords: science,researchers,science fun,learning,caravan,youngsters,research,hands on