Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
The Ocean’S role in miTIgating climAte change: Mechanistic understanding of the legacy of anthropogenic heat and carbon in the ocean under net-negative carbon dioxide emissions (OSTIA)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting 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: Germany
Call: ERC STARTING GRANTS (ERC-2023-STG, 2023)
Start date: 2024-06-01
End date: 2029-05-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1500000.0
EU funding (EUR): 1500000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

The ocean has absorbed vast amounts of “anthropogenic” carbon and heat (Canth and Hanth, respectively), due to humans' carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions to the atmosphere and resultant atmospheric warming. We expect absorbed Canth and Hanth to leak back to the atmosphere under net-negative emissions and atmospheric cooling. Yet, such leakage and its impact on Earth’s climate evolution are poorly understood. Earth system models used for such research do not resolve the most energetic features of the ocean, that is ocean mesoscale features that mix and transport waters across ocean regions where most of Canth and Hanth is stored. I hypothesize that mesoscale features accelerate the transfer of Canth and Hanth towards leakage sites, with potential implications for climate under net-negative emissions. With the project OSTIA, I will set out to test this hypothesis. To do so, the project team will set up an innovative tool, an Earth system model rich in ocean mesoscale features, and equipped with a novel joint modeling approach for Canth and Hanth. The Earth system model will be exposed to a CO2 emissions scenario that is consistent with a warming target of around 1.5oC by the end of the century, includes net-negative emissions after 2050, and extends until 2300. Pioneering outcomes of OSTIA will be (i) a game changer in mechanistic understanding of the legacy of Canth and Hanth in the ocean for the next 10 human generations, and (ii) to inform if current Earth system models are fit to represent Canth and Hanth legacy effects caused by the ocean mesoscale under net-negative emissions. The objectives of OSTIA are pressing, given that delay in ambitious action to cut CO2 emissions leads to further accumulation of Canth and Hanth in the ocean, and a reliance on future net-negative emissions in order to meet promised climate targets. A successful implementation of OSTIA will be a step change in the emerging research field of the ocean’s response to net-negative emissions.

Keywords: ocean mesoscale anthropogenic carbon excess heat net negative carbon dioxide emissions
The role of animal-microbe interactions in the early evolution of animal social life (AniMicroSocial)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Environmental B iology, Ecology  and E volution
Panel description: For all organisms : Ecology, biodiversity, environmental change , evolutionary biology, behavioural ecology, microbial ecology , marine biology, ecophysiology, theoretical developments and mod elling
Countries involved: Germany
Call: ERC STARTING GRANTS (ERC-2024-STG, 2024)
Start date: 2025-06-01
End date: 2030-05-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1483126.0
EU funding (EUR): 1483126.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Animal social life is widespread and highly diverse, and has been heavily scrutinized due to its crucial impact on the diversity and complexity of life on earth. However, a key ecological driver of social life remains poorly understood: interactions with microbes. Traditionally viewed as an obstacle to social life, microbes are increasingly recognized for the benefits they can provide to their host, and a growing number of studies shows that interactions with microbes can shape key aspects of animal social life, from collective defenses to communication and social nutrition. However, this research mostly focuses on advanced social systems and typically examines effects of and on specific microbes with limited detail. As a result, major questions regarding the interplay of animal-microbe interactions and animal social behaviors and its role in the origin and early evolution of animal social life remain unresolved. The research proposed here tackles these knowledge gaps by studying the role of animal-microbe interactions during the social life of Nicrophorus burying beetles. These beetles breed on carcasses of small vertebrates and are uniquely suited to take on this challenge: they exhibit a facultative (‘ancestral’) form of family life that heavily depends on interactions with symbiotic and environmental microbes, and parental care – the core social behavior of family life – is crucial to managing those interactions. Using methods from behavioral ecology, microbiology and metagenomics, the proposed research will (i) investigate the reciprocal relationship between animal social life and animal-microbe interactions, (ii) examine how interactions with microbes shape the early evolution of social life, and (iii) study the interplay of social evolution and the evolution of animal-microbe symbiosis. This research agenda will provide foundational insights into animal-microbe interactions and their role in the as yet poorly understood early evolution of animal social life.

Keywords: social evolution animal microbe interactions insects beetles
Doctoral Network on Interfacial Water in Membrane Transport (WATER)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Doctoral Networks
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Chemistry
Countries involved: Austria,Germany,Czechia,France,Belgium,Romania,Switzerland,Italy
Call: MSCA Doctoral Networks 2024 (HORIZON-MSCA-2024-DN-01, 2024)
Start date: 2025-09-01
End date: 2029-08-31
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 4025809.65
EU funding (EUR): 3777004.8
Participants: 22
Project status: SIGNED

Water is essential to life. 70% of the water in cells belongs to the hydration shells of proteins, lipid membranes or occupies protein cavities - so-called interfacial water. The difference in structure between interfacial water and bulk water gives rise to a key force in molecular biology: hydrophobic attraction. We do not fully understand how exactly this force contributes to protein folding, stability, structure, function, dynamics or membrane fusion. WATER aims to train 16 PhD students to unravel the multiple roles of interfacial water in biological membranes. They will characterise water mobility and ordering inside membrane receptors, carrier proteins and channels, adjacent to their ligands and lipid bilayers, and in the reaction centres of membrane-bound enzymes, using a broad methodological spectrum including cryo-electron microscopy, simulations, light-spectroscopy and imaging. To assess the functional consequences of water confinement, they will analyze facilitated water and solute transport, chemical reactions inside proteins, ligand-protein interactions, the intraprotein H-bond network, and membrane fusion events, exploiting, e.g., electrophysiology and synthetic chemistry. The results will pave the way for the development of personalised, targeted therapies and more effective drugs and vaccines through improved binding and delivery. Biotechnological applications include artificial channels in biomimetic applications. WATER will bring together world-class theoreticians, experimentalists and computational scientists to provide multidisciplinary training in biophysics, molecular biology, medicinal and organic chemistry, structural and synthetic biology, advanced microscopy and computer science. Besides scientific excellence, WATER offers a cross-sectoral approach, involving industry from start-ups to large pharmaceutical companies, and soft skills training enhancing DC’s abilities to translate scientific discoveries and improve their employability.

Keywords: membrane transporter,mitochondrial carrier,translocon,fluorescence spectroscopy,ab initio simulations,second harmonic imaging,molecular dynamics,confined water,hydrolysis,macrocyclic peptide
Unveiling the role of Ecological Interactions in Antibiotic Resistance Evolution via Horizontal Gene Transfer (hTARGET)

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: France,Austria
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2024 (HORIZON-MSCA-2024-PF-01, 2024)
Start date: 2026-05-01
End date: 2028-04-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 226420.56
EU funding (EUR): 226420.56
Participants: 2
Project status: SIGNED

Horizontal Gene Transfer (HGT) stands among the most common mechanisms for the emergence and persistence of Antibiotic Resistance (AR) in microbial communities, a major challenge in medicine and agriculture. While molecular mechanisms driving HGT are typically studied through in vitro co-cultures of two species, a donor and an acceptor species, HGT occurs in nature within microbial communities (such as the human gut microbiome) in which such two species interact with many others. Metagenomics has identified these ecological interactions as potential catalysts for HGT, yet direct experimental evidence remains lacking. This project aims to elucidate how ecological interactions drive HGT of AR genes in diverse bacterial communities by combining experiments and theoretical models. Recent experimental advances have enabled the ecological interrogation of highly diverse communities in vitro, while theoretical models, inspired by statistical physics, can disentangle the dominant ecological interactions and predict the community dynamics. I will use high-throughput, in vitro techniques to assemble hundreds of different synthetic communities in which we will measure the rates of HGT of AR genes, both in the presence and absence of antibiotic exposure. I will develop a novel theoretical model that incorporates species interactions, environmental context and HGT. Utilizing statistical physics tools, I will generate testable predictions capable of interpreting the experimental outcomes. The project aims to generate a novel, quantitative understanding of how ecology modulates the HGT of AR genes, bridging the gap between molecular mechanisms previously described in pairwise co-cultures and ecological trends inferred from metagenomics. This knowledge will not only lead to the development of a theoretical framework integrating community ecology and HGT but also has the potential to indicate new strategies for addressing the global antibiotic resistance crisis.

Keywords: antibiotic resistance,horizontal gene transfer,community ecology,eco evolution,plasmid
Bordism of symmetries: From global groups to derived orbifolds (BorSym)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Mathematics
Panel description: All areas of mathematics, pure and applied, plus mathematical foundations of computer science, mathematical physics and statistics
Countries involved: Germany
Call: ERC STARTING GRANTS (ERC-2024-STG, 2024)
Start date: 2025-01-01
End date: 2029-12-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1488136.0
EU funding (EUR): 1488136.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Bordism theory connects many central areas of mathematics: Defined via smooth manifolds, it has proved to have deep connections to formal groups from algebraic geometry and stable homotopy theory from algebraic topology. In particular, complex bordism serves as an effective organizational tool for studying the stable homotopy category, splitting up the homotopy groups of spheres into components of different wavelengths. The goal of BorSym is to develop a similarly powerful correspondence that classifies the symmetry of spaces through novel connections to equivariant algebraic geometry and smooth actions. While such a relationship for symmetries has long been conjectured, it was only recently that foundational results have been established for the actions of abelian groups, such as the tensor-triangular classification of actions on finite complexes and my proof of the equivariant Quillen theorem. At the same time, bordism of symmetries has become a central object of interest also in the seemingly unrelated field of symplectic topology, where groundbreaking work of Abouzaid and collaborators has identified derived orbifold bordism as the universal target for Floer homology, thereby solving long-standing open problems in the field. In view of these events a new picture is emerging which paints a universal role of equivariant bordism, going substantially beyond even its classical role described above. The goal of BorSym is to unravel the full potential of this emerging picture: to thoroughly develop a chromatic homotopy theory of group actions; to employ the newly established set of tools to tackle major open problems in transformation groups and obtain new information about the derived orbifold bordism ring; and to extend the connections between formal groups, thick subcategories and bordism rings beyond the abelian case.

Keywords: cobordism,formal groups,equivariant stable homotopy theory,orbifolds
Hopes and Futures of Academia: Reimagining Bacon's New Atlantis (ATLANTIS)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Postdoctoral Fellowships
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Social Sciences and Humanities
Countries involved: Norway,United States
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2021 (HORIZON-MSCA-2021-PF-01, 2021)
Start date: 2022-08-15
End date: 2026-03-14
Duration (months): 43.0
Total project cost (EUR): 226751.04
EU funding (EUR): 226751.04
Participants: 2
Project status: SIGNED

ATLANTIS tackles the multifaceted challenges facing academia today by focusing on alternatives articulated within or at the boundaries of higher education. These challenges are not only practical, but also deeply theoretical and engage fundamental epistemological and ontological discussions about the intertwinedness of science and society, and the knowledge this relation generates. Using Francis Bacon’s New Atlantis (1626) as a reference point, this project’s ambition is to co-create different narratives, infrastructures and frameworks that amend the consequences of the technocratic imaginaries of knowledge and progress crystallised in this story. Following the lead of researchers that have taken people’s hopes and visions as objects of analysis and entry points into broader societal concerns, ATLANTIS aims to: 1) develop a nuanced account of the diverse challenges facing academia and better understand emergent or successful responses and transformation; and 2) co-create possible and utopian academic worlds that open new horizons for meaningful discussions and paradigm-shifting actions that account for its current weaknesses and blind spots, particularly when it comes to gender and multispecies entanglements. ATLANTIS is anchored in anthropology and science and technology studies (STS) and focuses on three distinct but interconnected lines of inquiry about academia and its future at the present (neoliberal) moment. ATLANTIS takes a forward-looking approach that is historically and ethnographically grounded, while engaging innovative co-creation and future-oriented techniques articulated at the intersection of anthropology, innovation, and design. ATLANTIS is hosted at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) and includes a secondment at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). It is co-supervised by Vivian Anette Lagesen, Knut H. Sørensen, and Sharon Traweek.

Keywords: anthropology,neoliberalism,academia universities epistemic living spaces,futures,hope,gender,multispecies entanglements,new atlantis
Shaping Porous Electrode Architecture to Improve Current Density and Energy Efficiency in Redox Flow Batteries (SPACER)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Doctoral Networks
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Chemistry
Countries involved: Germany,Sweden,Netherlands,Czechia,Austria,Italy,Denmark,Switzerland,Australia,United States
Call: MSCA Doctoral Networks 2024 (HORIZON-MSCA-2024-DN-01, 2024)
Start date: 2025-09-01
End date: 2029-08-31
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 4852905.89
EU funding (EUR): 4462932.24
Participants: 21
Project status: SIGNED

The energy transition has increased demand for energy storage, including long-duration storage solutions like redox-flow batteries (RFBs). But RFBs are limited by a high levelized cost of storage, due in part to inefficient electrode use and the lack of tailored RFB components. SPACER will develop high-power-density electrodes for RFBs, with a max. power density of ca. 1Acm-2 and energy efficiencies >85-90% at relevant current densities (20-30% higher than conventional electrodes). The expected cost is up to 50% less than conventional electrodes. SPACER’s approach is the use of hierarchical structures, i.e. complex multilayer materials. Work will entail: • Multiscale modelling to better understand RFB behavior and identify hierarchically shaped pore structures for optimum electrolyte and electric flow • Prototyping of the modelled structures via stereolithic (micro-), 3D printing (meso-) and textile (macroscale) techniques • Characterization of prototypes via cutting-edge imaging techniques like EPR to validate the models and electrode performance Three development cycles (micro-, meso- and macroscale) will provide insight into complex interactions and optimal material structures, and culminate in electrodes validated in mini-stacks by industrial partner PIN (TRL6). The intended applications are established (vanadium) and next-gen (HBr) RFBs. SPACER will give 17 DCs a unique skill set spanning electrochemistry, modelling, material science and cell engineering. The employability of the DCs will be further enhanced by high-quality individual training in scientific and soft skills, and structured network training units moving them from theoretical investigations toward industrial application. The involvement of 3 industrial beneficiaries and a non-funded Industrial Board, secondments in applied research and industry, and a strong training emphasis on market needs will equip the DCs with the intersectoral skills needed for a career in electrochemical energy storage.

Keywords: redox flow battery,electrodes,hierarchical structures,modelling,prototyping,stereolithography,3d printing,textile manufacturing,imaging,characterisation,epr spectroscopy
Bioelectrochemical transformation of CO2 for the synthesis of value-added products (BIOELECTRO-CO2)

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: Portugal
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2021 (HORIZON-MSCA-2021-PF-01, 2021)
Start date: 2023-03-01
End date: 2025-02-28
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 156778.56
EU funding (EUR): 156778.56
Participants: 2
Project status: CLOSED

The on-going climate crisis and accelerating production of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide has sparked a sense of urgency in the scientific community to come up with solutions to sequestrate and/or recycle CO2. CO2 is a rather stable molecule that needs a high energy input to be chemically activated, and applications to utilize CO2 effectively are still in their infancy, with several research gaps that need to be filled. In this proposal we will use a new biotechnology named microbial electrosynthesis (MES) that has the ability to use a number of aqueous and gaseous wastes, including CO2, and biotransform them into useful chemical commodities. In order to use MES for practical and large-scale applications, utilization of CO2 from exhaust gases should be the target. We will fabricate and use gas-diffusion electrodes (GDEs) enabling microbial catalysts to take up CO2 gas directly and more efficiently, solving the problem of low CO2 solubility in aqueous media and mass transfer limitations. This project will develop a novel dual biocatalyzed MES consisting of an efficient gas diffusion biocathode for CO2 sequestration in combination with a bioanode for simultaneous product valorization from glycerol, using different biocatalysts, including enriched and engineered synthetic communities. The use of microbial catalysts both at the anode and cathode will significantly increase efficiency and product specificity of the MES system, which is low with chemical catalysts. Furthermore, the application of a bioanode based on oxidation of a cheap industrial by-product such as glycerol, not only generates higher energy electrons for the GDE biocathode saving energy, but also leads to production of added value compounds, making the process more energy and cost efficient.

Keywords: co2 valorization bioelectrocatalysis mixed microbial cultures,biotechnology,sustainability