Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Micro-Fat Tissue on Chip (MicroAdiPSChip)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Consolidator grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Human Diseases
Panel description: Medical technologies and tools for prevention, diagnosis and treatment of human diseases, therapeutic approaches and interventions, pharmacology, preventative medicine, epidemiology and public health, digital medicine
Countries involved: Germany
Call: ERC Consolidator Grant (ERC-2017-COG, 2017)
Start date: 2018-06-01
End date: 2024-05-31
Duration (months): 72.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1775000.0
EU funding (EUR): 1775000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Human fat tissue has evolved to serve as a major energy reserve. An imbalance between energy intake and expenditure leads to an expansion of adipose tissue. Maintenance of this energy imbalance over longer times leads to obesity and metabolic disorders such as type 2 diabetes, for which clinical cures are not yet available. Adipocytes are the main cell type within the adipose tissue and can be divided into white, beige, and brown subtypes. White adipocytes store and mobilize energy, whereas beige and brown adipocytes store and burn energy during cold exposure to generate heat. An attractive strategy to restore the energy imbalance and treat obesity is to activate or increase the number of beige adipocytes in white adipose tissue. The main research obstacles affecting our ability to induce beige adipocytes is our lack of laboratory test systems recapitulating the microenvironmental conditions of the adipose tissue. Therefore, this research project aims to develop adipose tissue models outside organisms in sizes of micrometers for studying the differentiation of human inducible pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) into mature adipocytes. For assembly of the micro-fat tissues, we combine microfluidic and bioprinting technologies. In particular, the integration of micro-fat tissue on microfluidic chip platforms will be exploited to dynamically control the chemical, cell architectural, and mechanical microenvironment of hiPSCs incorporated in the micro-fat tissue. With novel single-cell-resolution in situ detection systems, we will aim to reveal, which microenvironmental stem cell niche factors are required to differentiate hiPSCs into metabolically active beige adipocytes. The acquired experimental data will help to mechanistically understand the role of natural stem cell niches, determine how to simulate them under laboratory conditions and finally provide patient-specific, clinically relevant information for developing new cell-based treatments for obesity.

Keywords: microfluidics,in situ bioanalytics,3d cell culture model
Uncovering the basis of behavioral individuality across developmental time-scales (BehavIndividuality)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting 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: Israel
Call: ERC Starting Grant (ERC-2019-STG, 2019)
Start date: 2019-12-01
End date: 2025-11-30
Duration (months): 72.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1375000.0
EU funding (EUR): 1375000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

A fundamental question in biology is why different individuals show different behaviors. While individuality in behavior is usually explained by genetic heterogeneity or differences in environmental exposures, more recent studies have shown that stable behavioral variation is also observed among isogenic individuals that were raised in the same environment. However, this important and potentially conserved epigenetic source of individual-to-individual behavioral variation remains largely unexplored. I have recently developed a novel imaging setup, using C. elegans, that allowed for the first time to study behavioral individuality across the full development time of animals, at high spatiotemporal resolution and under tightly controlled environmental conditions (Stern et al. Cell 2017). By using this unique system I found that isogenic animals show long-term behavioral individuality that persists across all developmental stages, and was dependent on specific neuromodulators. In this proposal I suggest to study how behavioral individuality emerges across development from non-genetic differences among individuals. In particular, I plan to (i) identify neuronal circuits and variations therein that lead to different behavioral states among individuals by combining my established methods for longitudinal behavioral quantifications with cutting-edge neuronal imaging and molecular techniques; (ii) study the role of conserved epigenetic mechanisms in generating stable neuronal and behavioral variations by integrating high-throughput gene-expression, neuronal, and behavioral analyses in single animals; and (iii) explore how stressful conditions affect behavioral individuality. I hypothesize that stress may enhance variation as a population-level mechanism to diversify risk in the face of complex or unpredictable conditions. The proposed research will shed light on novel processes that establish and maintain inter-individual diversity in neuronal and behavioral patterns.

Keywords: behavior,individuality,c elegans
CROwned Spline Surface Optimization using New Treatments (CROSSONT)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Societal Challenges
Programme: Smart, green and integrated transport
Theme: Public-private partnerships
Destination: Clean Sky 2
Action type: Research and Innovation actions
Partnership: CS2 (Art-187)
Countries involved: Germany,Germany
Call: Crowned spline surface treatment and modelling (H2020-CS2-CFP07-2017-02, 2017)
Start date: 2019-01-01
End date: 2022-08-31
Duration (months): 44.0
Total project cost (EUR): 497543.75
EU funding (EUR): 497543.75
Participants: 3
Project status: CLOSED

The main goal of the project CROSSONT is to provide surface treatment methods for crowned splines which are able to fulfil the requirement of reducing the risk of wear and minimizing the friction in the spline connections between shaft and gear. It is the consortium's firm conviction that outstanding surface properties for crowned splines in UHBR applications can be generated with a combination of laser and physical-vapour-deposition (PVD) processes. Modelling of the crowned spline will be conducted to predict its behaviour. In combination with the coatings, laser local hardening is to be used, and, on the other hand, laser textured gear steel surfaces are to be considered. The latter are becoming more and more important due to their tribological properties. It is mandatory that the results of the project are low in maintenance, highly reliable and allow long life time. The proposed laser based surface treatments technologies are laser local hardening, laser microstructuring and laser nanostructuring. Additionally, multi-layered coatings will be investigated in terms of PVD and in specific by reactive magnetron sputtering. These systems may be doped with silver in order to control heat balance or to introduce a wear indicator as a smart coating. The most effective methods will be identified by using a statistical test plan, which will also investigate the combination of such methods. While PVD is able to realise thin hard coatings to protect the surface from wear, the named laser processes can either reduce wear (e.g. laser hardening) and/or reduce the coefficient of friction (e.g. micro-/nanotextures). In general, laser local hardening can be considered as an almost established process, while laser texturing is still an innovative approach to further improve the surface properties of crowned splines. The most promising methods will be applied to full scale splines and evaluated in dynamic fatigue testing. The findings are summarized in a technical recommendation.

Keywords: spline,crowned,surface,optimization,laser,coating,testing,fatigue,wear
Chemical biology approaches to unraveling the histone code (EPITOOLS)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Biotechnology and Biosystems Engineering
Panel description: Biotechnology using all organisms, biotechnology for environment and food applications, applied plant and animal sciences, bioengineering and synthetic biology, biomass and biofuels, biohazards
Countries involved: United Kingdom,United Kingdom
Call: ERC Starting Grant (ERC-2015-STG, 2015)
Start date: 2016-04-01
End date: 2021-09-30
Duration (months): 66.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1758846.0
EU funding (EUR): 964620.45
Participants: 2
Project status: CLOSED

Posttranslational modifications on histones play crucial roles in the epigenetic regulation of eukaryotic gene expression. Chemical modifications that occur on histone tails include acetylation, methylation, phosphorylation, ubiquitination, and SUMOylation. This chemical diversity together with the positions and combinations of these modifications give rise to complex networks of highly controlled gene expression programs. The identification and characterisation of chromatin-associated proteins (or epigenetic regulators) in recent years has advanced our understanding of the significance of these histone modifications and the regulatory outcomes in development and in disease. The project aims to generate new classes of highly selective and potent chemical probes for epigenetic regulators, focusing on enzymes and proteins associated with methyl-lysine marks. A novel modified peptide-based discovery platform, which combines molecular, chemical, biophysical and cellular techniques, will be developed and applied. These chemical probes will be useful for biological and biomedical research, and will serve as potential starting points for therapeutic epigenetic intervention.

Keywords: epigenetics,methyl lysines,histone demethylases,chemical probes,cyclic peptides
New methods for new materials (NEW4NEW)

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: Chemistry
Countries involved: Czechia
Call: Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF-EF) (H2020-MSCA-IF-2014, 2014)
Start date: 2015-04-01
End date: 2017-03-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 154720.8
EU funding (EUR): 154720.8
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Computational modelling of molecules and materials has had a great impact on understanding experimental observations and suggesting new routes for development. A prominent example are chemical reactions where modelling allows one to follow the motion of atoms and to obtain a detailed insight into the process. To model chemical reactions, quantum mechanics for electrons is needed and currently the most widely used method for this task is Kohn-Sham density functional theory (DFT). DFT is exact in principle, but in practice, different approximations are made. These approximations affect the accuracy of description of both strong intramolecular forces (chemical bonds) and weaker intermolecular interactions (e.g., van der Waals forces). If the errors are significant, one can obtain misleading results. Systems where an accurate description of both strong and weak forces is crucial are molecules in porous materials, such as zeolites. Zeolites are important industrial catalysts and also perspective materials for gas separation. During the catalytic process, molecules interact first weakly with the zeolite before chemical reaction takes place. Therefore, if we want to further improve the function of porous materials or develop new ones with desired chemical activity, we need to be able to model reliably both strong and weak forces. It is the goal of this project to develop new reliable methods that will enable the development of new materials. This goal will be accomplished by combining state-of-the-art DFT approximations for modelling strong and weak interactions and implementing promising schemes recently proposed. Using the expertise of the host group, we will use data available for zeolites and molecules in zeolites to validate the methods and understand their accuracy. The ability to model reliably processes in porous materials will have a large impact on the development of materials in a range of fields, including materials for solving future energy needs.

Keywords: zeolites,density functional theory,van der waals forces,quantum chemical methods,exchange correlation functionals
Robust Mechanism Design and Robust Prediction in Games (ROBUST)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Individuals, Markets and Organisations
Panel description: Economics, finance and management
Countries involved: France
Call: ERC Starting Grant (ERC-2016-STG, 2016)
Start date: 2016-12-01
End date: 2022-08-31
Duration (months): 69.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1295062.0
EU funding (EUR): 1295062.0
Participants: 2
Project status: CLOSED

In the last several decades, it has been extensively studied how strategic behavior of economic agents could affect the outcomes of various institutions. Game theory and mechanism design theory play key roles in understanding economic agents' possible behavior in those institutions, its welfare consequences, and how we should design economic institutions to achieve desired social objectives even if the agents behave strategically for their own interests. However, existing studies mostly focus on somewhat narrow classes of economic environments by imposing restrictive assumptions. The proposed projects aim at providing novel theoretical frameworks which enable us to study agents' behavior and desirable institutions under much less assumptions. I believe that the projects have significant relevance in policy recommendation in practice and empirical studies, even though the proposed projects are primarily theoretical. In mechanism design, most papers in the literature focus on environments with independently distributed private information. We propose two novel (robustness-based) approaches to analyze mechanism design in correlated environments, motivated by their practical and empirical relevance. The robustness brought by my approach can be useful to mitigate certain types of misspecifications in mechanism design in practice. Moreover, the desirable robust mechanisms I obtain appear to be more sensible, and hence, can be useful for empirical studies of auction and other mechanism design problems. In game theory, it is often assumed that the game to be played is common knowledge, or even with uncertainty, uncertain variables are assumed to follow a common-knowledge prior .However, in many situations in reality, those do not seem to be satisfied. Our goal is to provide a novel theoretical framework to predict players' behavior in such incompletely specified games, and to identify conditions for (monotone) comparative statics. Both could be useful in empirical studies.

Keywords: mechanism design,implementation,auction,robust prediction in games
COMPA - Market Study of Composite Patch Repair for Marine Pipes A cost-efficient and durable pipe repair in urgency (COMPA)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Societal Challenges
Programme: Smart, green and integrated transport
Action type: SME instrument
Countries involved: Croatia
Call: Small business innovation research for Transport (H2020-SMEINST-1-2015, 2015)
Start date: 2015-12-01
End date: 2016-05-31
Duration (months): 6.0
Total project cost (EUR): 71429.0
EU funding (EUR): 50000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The objective of the overall innovation project is to commercialise the service of composite patch (COMPA) repair for damaged ship pipes. COMPA pipe repair is a cost-effective alternative to the traditional method of repair of crack and corrosion damages in ship structures and pipes that occur frequently on various types of vessels. Total economic benefits of a COMPA repair over traditional methods are considerable. considering total savings, costs of COMPA are estimated to be up to 10 times lower than the costs of traditional methods of repair by steel cutting-welding-inserting. Additional advantages of the technology are reduced total repair costs, exclusion of flame, applicability to complex structures, shorter repair time, lower added weight and reduced maintenance. COMPA repair can thus support competitiveness of the ship repair sector in Europe. The total market for the repair is composed of 87.000 vessels world-wide, of 5 years of age and more, each experiencing hundreds of crack and corrosion damages on a yearly basis. The primary market of the vessels operating in European waters is about 35% of the total number. Considering Technology Readiness Level, COMPA pipe repair is at TRL8 as it has been proven in operational environment in 12 applications on-board vessels as a useful and reliable solution for pipe corrosion and crack problems. The specific SME Instrument Phase 1 project aims to conduct a market study of implementation of COMPA repair in order to advance its commercialisation. The market study will specify primary customer segments and specific customers, and will define best ways of approaching these. It will map out a process to go further to speed up the commercialisation process.

Keywords: composite patch repair,marine pipes,carbon fiber,market study
Carbon dioxide splitting into higher-value chemicals with hybrid photocatalyst sheets (CO2SPLITTING)

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: Chemistry
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call: Individual Fellowships (H2020-MSCA-IF-2017, 2017)
Start date: 2018-09-01
End date: 2020-08-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 183454.8
EU funding (EUR): 183454.8
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Harvesting solar energy to convert carbon dioxide into fuels such as syngas or alcohols is a promising strategy to curtail the growing carbon dioxide levels in our atmosphere and overcome the global dependence on fossil fuels. However, carbon dioxide is one of the most stable and chemically inert molecules and the reduction of carbon dioxide can lead to a large variety of products. Hence, the overall efficiency and selectivity of carbon dioxide reduction remains a key scientific challenge. The overall objective of the proposal is to develop novel hybrid photocatalysts-based sheets capable of splitting carbon dioxide into energy-rich chemicals with high solar-to-fuel conversion efficiency and selectivity. To this end, semiconductors with relatively negative conduction bands, such as tantalum nitride, will be modified with various water-tolerant molecular catalysts for selective carbon dioxide reduction, and combined with a water oxidation photocatalyst (bismuth vanadate) to construct sheet systems. Because of the efficient electron transfer through the underlying conductive layer, the obtained sheets are expected to provide the most effective means of achieving efficient and scalable carbon dioxide conversion to produce solar fuels. This project will involve extending the device created as part of the applicant’s current research for water splitting to carbon dioxide splitting. The applicant and the host group possess complementary skills and experiences, which match the necessity for the proposed project. Therefore, they are likely to deliver the desired outcomes in a synergistic manner. The outcomes and results in the present project will strengthen the European advances already made in carbon dioxide conversion and European knowledge. This project approaches the subject from a different scientific angle and focuses on renewable solar fuel generation to access a sustainable carbon-based economy, dovetailing with the overall objective of Horizon 2020 work programme.

Keywords: carbon dioxide conversion,artificial photosynthesis,solar fuel,molecular catalyst,semiconductor
Bio-Inspired Glycan-NanoProbes as Antimicrobial Pro-Drugs (BioNanoProbes)

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: Chemistry
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call: Individual Fellowships (H2020-MSCA-IF-2018, 2018)
Start date: 2019-05-01
End date: 2021-04-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 212933.76
EU funding (EUR): 212933.76
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Methods for specific recognition and targeting of bacteria are of key importance in developing approaches to counter the growth of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Cell surface carbohydrates play key roles in cell recognition mechanisms and bacterial adhesion. These key interactions typically exhibit high specificity and weak affinities toward their carbohydrate ligand. This low affinity is compensated in nature by the architecture of the protein, the host presenting the carbohydrate ligands in a multivalent manner or as clusters on the cell or mucosal surface. Glyco-nanomaterials offer the possibility of attaching several different molecules to the same nanoparticle while controlling the relative densities of these ligands. Recently, the Galan group demonstrated that a simple disaccharide, such as lactose can act as a “Trojan horse” on bi-functionalized fluorescent nanopartiples (CdSe QDs) to help intracellular delivery of other non-internalizable glycan moieties and largely avoid the endosomal/lysosomal degradative pathway. Following this, the group has developed a new class of water-soluble, non-toxic fluorescent carbon-based nanomaterials which are easily accessible from cheap carbohydrate starting materials and more excitingly, preliminary data have shown that these new carbon nanodots are able to label both Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria. Based on these exciting results, the aim of this project is to develop a new class of glycan-based nanoprobes for labelling and delivery of antibiotics into bacteria. The glycan-based nano pro-drugs will be evaluated in bacterial binding and killing assays and screened for selective labelling and drug release using confocal microscopy and TEM. This is a multidisciplinary project involving synthetic organic and materials chemistry, glycobiology and microbiology.

Keywords: fluorescent carbon dots,antimicrobial,smart glyco nanomaterials