Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Fast Brillouin microscopy for phase transition (FaBriCATion)

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: Physics
Countries involved: Italy
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2022 (HORIZON-MSCA-2022-PF-01, 2022)
Start date: 2023-10-01
End date: 2025-09-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 188590.08
EU funding (EUR): 188590.08
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Multiple human diseases ranging from neurodegenerative disorders (such as Alzheimer´s disease) to cancer have been found to be linked with biomolecular mechanical properties change (phase transitions PTs). While these diseases have impacted many human beings (50 million for only AD), the causes of most of these diseases are still mysterious, and there is yet no effective treatment. To understand the pathological role of PTs and their corresponding potential as a therapeutic target for these diseases, it is crucial to probe the mechanical properties of live cells. Current standard approaches to measuring the mechanical properties have important limitations: requirement of contact force (atomic force microscopy and optical coherence elastography) and lack of cellular resolution (ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging). An emerging tool, Brillouin microscopy (BM), provides the capability of “imaging” the mechanical properties through probing the so-called Brillouin scattering spectrum in a non-invasive manner with 3D sub-cellular resolution. Its advent has led to a wide range of biological applications. However, the acquisition time for a standard confocal microscope size image is in the order of tens of minutes, owing to the trade-off between the measurement speed and the spectral resolution. Thus, it prevents the BMs from studying the kinetics of phase transitions in live cells. FaBriCATion is to substantially investigate in-vivo Brillouin microscopy, pushing the acquisition time to a sub-millisecond scale per spectrum while maintaining the high spectral resolution, therefore permitting the measurements of the dynamic changes in mechanical properties of the living cells and tissues in sub-cellular resolution. It will enable direct observations of biomolecular phase transitions and reveal their relationship with the pathological effects in cells. The project will advance the research in understanding biomolecular PTs, thus bringing economic and societal benefits.

Keywords: brillouin scattering,biomechanics,brillouin microscopy,phase transition,in vivo imaging
Investigating Virus-Host Interplay in Human Primary Models of Genetically Modified Respiratory Epithelium (InVIRium)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Consolidator grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Immunity, Infection and I mmunotherapy
Panel description: The immune system , related disorders  and their mechanisms , biology of infectious agents and infection, biological basis of prevention and treatment of infectious diseases , innovative imm unological tools and approaches , including  therapies
Countries involved: France
Call: ERC CONSOLIDATOR GRANTS (ERC-2022-COG, 2022)
Start date: 2024-01-01
End date: 2028-12-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2475808.0
EU funding (EUR): 2475808.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Respiratory viruses can rapidly spread worldwide with a devastating impact, as dramatically highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to the pandemic threat posed by influenza A viruses (IAV) or coronaviruses, respiratory viruses, including IAV, influenza B virus (IBV), seasonal coronaviruses and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), are the cause of yearly epidemics, with a huge impact on human health. The vast majority of in vitro studies has been performed with model cancer cell lines. However, they share limited features with the primary cells found within the human respiratory epithelium. Robust and relevant, ex vivo models of human primary airway epithelia, cultured at the air-liquid interface (ALI) have been developed over the years and nicely recapitulate the structure and composition of the in vivo respiratory epithelium. Nevertheless, in depth studies on the genes and the potent innate immune, interferon (IFN)-induced, defences regulating viral replication in such pertinent models are still lacking. The InVIRium project will address this knowledge gap by combining a newly acquired expertise in the generation and gene editing of human ALI airway epithelia, with a strong expertise in CRISPR screens and virology. The objectives of InVIRium will be to explore in depth the relationships between major human respiratory viruses, SARS-CoV-2, IAV, IBV and RSV, and their relevant, primary target cells. InVIRium will characterize the IFN-stimulated-genes responsible for the potent antiviral state, explore the mechanisms of SARS-CoV-2 escape from the IFN system and define the landscape of host genes regulating respiratory virus infection in this physiologically relevant ALI model. InVIRium will bring a change of paradigm in the way we study respiratory viruses, by implementing cutting-edge approaches in highly pertinent human models and will gather fundamental knowledge that is currently lacking on the interactions between viruses and their primary target cells.

Keywords: host cell respiratory virus interactions pertinent ex vivo human models,primary airway epithelia sars cov 2 coronavirus,influenza viruses,iav,ibv,rsv pneumovirus gene editing,crispr screen innate immunity interferon,interferon stimulated genes,interferon antagonism
Super-resolution cellular ultrasound imaging (CellUS)

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: Physics
Countries involved: Netherlands
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2024 (HORIZON-MSCA-2024-PF-01, 2024)
Start date: 2025-05-01
End date: 2027-04-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 217076.16
EU funding (EUR): 217076.16
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

The discovery of the green fluorescence protein (GFP) and the parallel development of super-resolved fluorescence microscopy (2008 and 2014 Nobel Prizes) led to major breakthroughs in basic biology and medicine by enabling the visualization of the pathways of individual molecules inside living cells. While optical imaging is limited to studying thin specimens (<1mm) due to light scattering in tissue, the introduction of nanoscale gas vesicles (GVs) as the “GFP for ultrasound” provides an alternative to light for deep tissue cellular imaging. However, current ultrasound imaging methods are bound by the diffraction limit, leading to a resolution of ~100 μm at an ultrasound frequency of 15 MHz. While this allows for the detection of cell populations, signals arising from individual cells cannot be isolated. With this project, my goal is to develop a new super-resolution method for cellular ultrasound imaging. The first application of this method will consist in characterizing cancer microenvironments. The first research objective will be to develop a 3D super resolution method for cellular imaging that relies on nonlinear ultrasound imaging of engineered cells expressing GVs. To put this research effort in context, the grand challenge for super-resolution cellular ultrasound imaging would be to reach a resolution of 10 μm which is the characteristic length of a single cell. The second research objective will consist in applying this imaging method to preclinical cancer research. The development of super resolution cellular imaging would provide a new tool for drug screening and treatment monitoring. To do so my project will be conducted on multi-cellular tumorous spheroid models. The output of this project will be an new ultrasound imaging method for oncology and basic biology research. The successful completion of this project will equip biomedical researchers around the world with a tool to inspect cellular functions deep into opaque tissue.

Keywords: ultrasound imaging,super resolution imaging,biomolecular ultrasound,acoustic reporter genes,oncology research
Noncommutative ergodic theory of higher rank lattices (NET)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Advanced 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: France
Call: ERC ADVANCED GRANTS (ERC-2023-ADG, 2023)
Start date: 2024-10-01
End date: 2029-09-30
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2140250.0
EU funding (EUR): 2140250.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Noncommutative ergodic theory of higher rank lattices is a current topic that has seen several exciting developments in the last five years. Among these recent advancements, in joint work with Rémi Boutonnet (2019), we proved a noncommutative analogue of Nevo-Zimmer's structure theorem for actions of higher rank lattices on von Neumann algebras. First of all, we derived several novel applications to ergodic theory, topological dynamics, unitary representation theory and operator algebras associated with higher rank lattices. Then we obtained a noncommutative analogue of Margulis' factor theorem that provides strong evidence towards Connes' rigidity conjecture for the group von Neumann algebra of higher rank lattices. These results revealed deep and unexpected interactions between the field of discrete subgroups of semisimple Lie groups and the field of operator algebras. In this research project, I plan to build upon these recent achievements to develop new directions in noncommutative ergodic theory of higher rank lattices. This research proposal is centered around two main interconnected themes. Firstly, I plan to work on several problems and conjectures around the dynamics of the space of positive definite functions and character rigidity for higher rank lattices. These include the classification of characters for higher rank lattices of product type, and more general lattices with dense projections in product groups as well as stiffness results for stationary positive definite functions. Secondly, drawing inspiration from Margulis' superrigidity theorem, I plan to tackle Connes' rigidity conjecture for higher rank lattices by developing a novel strategy combining techniques from boundary theory, C*-algebras and von Neumann algebras. These methods will lead to new rigidity phenomena for operator algebras arising from irreducible lattices in higher rank semisimple connected Lie groups.

Keywords: higher rank lattices von neumann algebras c algebras rigidity
Scaling up Daytime Radiative Cooling: The new low-cost kit FOR REAListic and repeatable characterization across all climates (FOR REAL)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Proof of concept grants
Action type: ERC actions
Countries involved: Italy
Call: ERC PROOF OF CONCEPT GRANTS (ERC-2024-POC, 2024)
Start date: 2025-05-01
End date: 2026-10-31
Duration (months): 18.0
Total project cost (EUR): 150000.0
EU funding (EUR): 150000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

As the global population keeps growing and the effects of global warming intensify with relevant health implications, the demand for cooling is expected to more than triple by 2050. This surge in demand will not only double electricity consumption but also significantly increase CO2 emissions. Passive Daytime Radiative Cooling (PDRC) is acknowledged as a promising solution for regulating the Earth’s energy budget. By cooling objects through radiative heat emission into space without energy consumption, it is expected to reduce global cooling demand by 24%, saving US$3 trillion in capital costs by 2050. Quantifying the cooling contribution of innovative PDRC materials-such as radiative exchange within the atmospheric window, photoluminescence, and durability-poses significant challenges that cannot be tackled by current testing methods (both in-lab and outdoor). Building on the foundational insights from the ERC-StG HELIOS, we address these challenges with a robust and scalable in-lab testing procedure able to evaluate the performance of PDRC, as in the outdoor realistic climate exposure conditions, ensuring reliability across diverse settings.By integrating the compact and cost-effective FOR REAL testing kit into standard climatic chambers with solar simulators, various end users-e.g. companies producing building envelope systems and urban pavements, public/private certification labs,R&D teams,building designers etc.-can obtain reliable and comparable performance data on PDRC materials.The introduction of the FOR REAL system in established characterization procedures will propel radiative cooling toward practical real-world applications while supporting informed decision-making across multiple sectors. Confirming the unique values through an intense validation campaign to reach TRL4 and paving the way to TRL5 with testing in the operational environment,FOR REAL reshapes PDRC role in urban heat mitigation and energy efficiency, positioning EU as an innovation leader.

Keywords: radiative cooling urban heat island urban overheating cool material environmental simulation chamber
Past Natures for Future Conservation – Current Narratives and Historical Human-Wildlife-Land Relations in Southern Africa and the European Alps (PANATURE)

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: Germany
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2023 (HORIZON-MSCA-2023-PF-01, 2023)
Start date: 2024-05-01
End date: 2026-04-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 173847.36
EU funding (EUR): 173847.36
Participants: 1
Project status: TERMINATED

Conservationists often use ‘historical’ arguments to justify their visions of which groups of human and non-human species should live where and how. Imagined pasts are central to influential concepts and practices of conservation, such as re-wilding, species re-introduction or landscape restoration. These narratives range from vague references to past equilibriums, that need to be saved, to more specific baselines of past distribution of certain species, that need to be restored, to the re-creation of specific past landscapes in new settings. Historians have hardly contributed to these historicized arguments. Following recent calls for conservation humanities, I apply historiographical methods to engage with conservationists’ ideas of past human-wildlife-land interactions and practices in Southern Africa and the European Alps. Firstly, I analyze, contextualize and compare how conservation organizations use imagined past human-wildlife-land relations and develop a typology of historical conservation narratives. In Southern Africa, conservationists present “Africans” as naturally knowing how to live in their environment or as a threat to nature. In Europe, conservationists’ narratives present historical people as experts or masters of nature. Secondly, I research specific historical moments in both regions, to juxtapose conservation narratives with localized analyses of historical changes in human-wildlife-land relations. Thirdly, by combining critical historical analyses of cases in the Global South with those of Europe, I challenge powerful conservation narratives that often perpetuate global power structures. By this, I critique ongoing conservation debates and practices, and offer novel perspectives of multi-species pasts. A thorough understanding of these pasts is crucial for coping with immense present and challenges in the light of the ongoing climate crisis, as for example formulated in the COP15 agreement to conserve and/or restore 30% of the world’s surface.

Keywords: conservation humanities environmental history conservation narratives human wildlife land relations sothern africa european alps
Biomedical Technologies and Innovation Doctoral Programme (BIOTIN)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Co-funding of regional, national and international programmes
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Countries involved: Türkiye,Spain,Germany,United States,Netherlands,United Kingdom,Belgium,Switzerland,Sweden,Poland,Portugal,France
Call: MSCA COFUND 2021 (HORIZON-MSCA-2021-COFUND-01, 2021)
Start date: 2023-01-01
End date: 2027-12-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1344000.0
EU funding (EUR): 1344000.0
Participants: 29
Project status: SIGNED

Spinning discoveries out of research institutions requires expertise and ecosystem that is hard to bring together in the academic environment. One of the main challenges is the lack of qualified personnel having multidisciplinary technical skills endowed with transferrable skills. Biomedical Technologies and Innovation (BIOTIN) doctoral programme features an international, interdisciplinary and intersectoral approach to provide 10 doctoral candidates (DCs) a unique blend of research training skills in the convergence of life sciences, engineering, and computational & data science, and entrepreneurship skills, with the aim of advancing innovation in biomedical research and education. The BIOTIN programme will address the challenges in three intertwined themes of biomedical research: drug discovery and development, diagnosis, tissue engineering and regeneration, by leveraging latest developments in data science and machine learning. BIOTIN is presented and coordinated by Izmir Institute of Technology (IZTECH) in collaboration with two implementing partners: Bogazici University (BOUN) and Izmir Biomedicine and Genome Center (IBG). A total of 22 associated partner organisations including 11 academic and 11 non-academic organisations will contribute to the programme. BIOTIN fellows will benefit from a highly-qualified interdisciplinary supervisory team, secondment-and short-visits to network partners in Europe and beyond including prominent universities, NGO (Istanbul Health Industry Cluster), large enterprises (e.g. Siemenes Healthineers and Amgen) and start-ups, alongside the opportunity to develop and practice entrepreneurship skills in leading technology development zones of Turkey. The consortium will build a group of researchers with a valuable and rare blend of academic skills and industry readiness, who in return can fulfil regional, national and international human resources needs in biomedical research far beyond the funding period.

Keywords: biomedical research,diagnostics,drug discovery and development,therapeutics,biomedical devices,biomaterials,tissue engineering,data science,enterpreneurship
Memory access in language: how we store and retrieve linguistic information (MEMLANG)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Consolidator grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: The Human Mind and Its Compl exity
Panel description: Cognitive science, psychology, linguistics
Countries involved: Netherlands
Call: ERC CONSOLIDATOR GRANTS (ERC-2022-COG, 2022)
Start date: 2023-09-01
End date: 2028-08-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1999500.0
EU funding (EUR): 1999500.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

To be able to talk and to understand each other, we have to continuously store and retrieve linguistic information. In linguistics, the dominant approach to studying the processes of storing and recall of linguistic information from short-term memory assumes that we can access all items in parallel and that the most highly activated items are the most likely to be retrieved. Activation, in turn, can be boosted by the requirements of the current cognitive context. This model is related to theories of memory developed independently of linguistics. In linguistics, it has been supported by rich research on production and comprehension. The model, however, has been applied very narrowly. It focuses only on the recall of some syntactic items, for instance, the recall of arguments during the processing of a verb. Other functions of memory fall outside the approach. The project’s core idea is that the memory model can be applied to many other cases in which memory has a decisive role. We will do this by linking the model to theories of other language phenomena developed in linguistics, cognitive sciences and artificial intelligence. First, we will link it to computational models of lexical knowledge, which will enable us to fully and formally represent what the current cognitive context is and to build an indiscriminate and general approach to memory access. Second, we will link it to computational models of grammatical knowledge to understand how we store and recall grammatical rules. Finally, we will link it to discourse theories to have an analysis of storage and recall of textual information. The project will lead to a new view on the memory model, one that is general and cross-domain. It will provide a more principled account of how memory affects language, will give us a new insight into why the theories of lexical knowledge, grammatical knowledge and discourse theories work, and it will make it possible to tie together accounts that are often treated as independent.

Keywords: syntactic processing,semantic processing,computational models of memory in language,cue based retrieval,vector space models,computational cognitive modeling,eye tracking,self paced reading
Cavity cOntrol of quantuM PhAseS in nanophotonic cavitieS (COMPASS)

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: Physics
Countries involved: France
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2023 (HORIZON-MSCA-2023-PF-01, 2023)
Start date: 2024-11-01
End date: 2026-10-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 195914.88
EU funding (EUR): 195914.88
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

The COMPASS project, acronym for "Cavity cOntrol of quantuM PhAseS in nanophotonic cavitieS," delves into the theoretical exploration of inducing and controlling superconductivity and other many-body phases using nanophotonic cavities. Situated in the field of cavity quantum-electrodynamics (cQED), COMPASS leverages the strong-coupling light-matter interactions characteristic of hyperbolic phonon polariton (HPP) nanophotonic cavities. Offering a significant advancement over traditional Fabry-Pérot cavities, HPP cavities promise unprecedented control over electronic structures, potentially deepening our understanding of exotic superconductivity and introducing novel quantum states of matter. This project necessitates the development of novel theories for strongly correlated materials embedded in nanophotonic cavities, by merging solid-state, quantum optics, and many-body physics. The action will be carried out by Dr. Gian Marcello Andolina at Collège de France under the supervision of Dr. Marco Schirò. The project integrates the Researcher's advanced expertise in quantum nanophotonics and solid state physics with the Host's mastery of many-body theory. The multidisciplinary environment of the Hosting Institution will be pivotal for the success of the Action for the growth of the Researcher.

Keywords: light matter interaction,superconductivity,cavity quantum electrodynamics,nanophotonic cavities,nonequilibrium systems,strongly correlated systems,quantum phase transitions