Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
High-performance, ultra-light flexible CIGS Solar Cell (UL-Flex-Cell)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie-Sklodowska-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Individual Fellowships (IF)-Standard European Fellowships
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Physics
Countries involved: Portugal
Call: Individual Fellowships (H2020-MSCA-IF-2019, 2019)
Start date: 2021-02-16
End date: 2023-02-15
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 159815.04
EU funding (EUR): 159815.04
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Photovoltaic (PV), a renewable and a sustainable source of energy, is one of the best alternatives to suppress the emission of greenhouse gases and limit global warming. The cost of PV systems is dropping continuously, and their energy generation price is not affected by future fuel price increases. Among different thin-film PV technologies, CIGS solar cell exhibit the highest power conversion efficiency. It is lighter, significantly cheaper to produce, and can be made flexible to use for portable electronics, mobility applications as well as building integration, which is highly relevant in view of the European Strategic Energy Technology plan. To keep pushing prices down and increase efficiency, a novel concept is needed. Low-temperature growth of high-quality CIGS thin-film opens a new frontier of solar business by fabricating solar cells on ultra-light polymeric substrates. However, the main problems that limit the growth of CIGS thin-films at low substrate temperature are poor electronic properties due to incomplete phase transformation and insufficient alkali metals in the absorber layer due to decreased diffusion. In this project, a pulsed hybrid reactive magnetron sputtering process will be developed to obtain a high-efficiency solar cell at low-growth temperature. It is a new, unique, and single-step fabrication process, which will have a high impact on the industrial production of solar cells. Surface stoichiometry and nucleation of anions/cations species at various deposition conditions will be investigated. Furthermore, the atomic mobility of the anions/cations species will be promoted using laser pulses, which enhances the phase transformation resulting in increased crystal growth. To further boost the performance, heavy alkali metals will be incorporated. High-quality results are expected, since the proposal will combine the expertise of the applicant with the knowledge of the host, and the use of unique state-of-the-art fabrication facilities.

Keywords: cigs,low temperature,flexible,ultra light,high performance
Snow Core Accumulation from Delta-15N Isotopes (SCADI)

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: France
Call: Individual Fellowships (H2020-MSCA-IF-2019, 2019)
Start date: 2021-01-01
End date: 2022-12-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 196707.84
EU funding (EUR): 196707.84
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Future sea level rise threatens infrastructure worth trillions of euros and the livelihoods of millions of people. The magnitude and rapidity of this rise heavily relies on how the mass balance of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS) responds to a warming climate, as a net loss of just 1% mass will increase sea level by ~0.7 m. However, any increased ice loss and resulting sea level rise may be partly offset if warming also increases snow accumulation on the EAIS. Currently, our understanding of exactly how EAIS accumulation rates respond to climate change is uncertain as modern records are sparse and the deuterium ratios used as an accumulation proxy in ice cores are affected by several other climate variables. This project aims to fully develop and apply an independent methodology to infer past snow accumulation rates using the fractionation of nitrogen isotopes in nitrate (NO3-). After NO3- is naturally deposited on the Antarctic snow surface, exposure to sunlight promotes photolytic loss of nitrate that favors 14NO3- over 15NO3-. As a result, the 15N/14N ratio (δ15N) of remaining NO3- steadily increases until enough snow accumulates to bury the NO3- below the photic zone and stop the process. Accumulation rate changes can thus extend or reduce the NO3-exposure time and degree of δ15N change. Through a suite of newly collected and archived snow/ice samples that cover a wide range of modern EAIS accumulation rates, the empirical relationship between δ15N and snow accumulation will be quantified and applied to 160 ka of data from the Vostok and EPICA Dome C ice cores. These new δ15N analyses will independently estimate how snow accumulation at the sites responded to the dramatic global climate changes of the past two glacial cycles, including two periods of rapid deglacial warming. In turn, this will produce a clearer understanding of Antarctic climate dynamics and mass balance responses during abrupt climate change and help reduce sea level projection uncertainty.

Keywords: antarctica,nitrate,ice core,mass balance,sea level
Super Bio-Accelerated Mineral weathering: a new climate risk hedging reactor technology (BAM)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: Future and Emerging Technologies (FET)
Theme: EIC Pathfinder
Destination: Novel ideas for radically new technologies
Action type: Research and Innovation actions
Countries involved: Germany,Sweden,Belgium,Belgium,Netherlands
Call: FET-Open Challenging Current Thinking (H2020-FETOPEN-2018-2019-2020-01, 2020)
Start date: 2021-09-01
End date: 2025-08-31
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 3474058.75
EU funding (EUR): 3474058.75
Participants: 5
Project status: SIGNED

Conventional climate change mitigation alone will not be able to stabilise atmospheric CO2 concentrations at a level compatible with the 2°C warming limit of the Paris Agreement. Safe and scalable negative emission technologies (NETs), which actively remove CO2 from the atmosphere and ensure long-term carbon (C) sequestration, will be needed. Fast progress in NET-development is needed, if NETs are to serve as a risk-hedging mechanism for unexpected geopolitical events and for the transgression of tipping points in the Earth system. Still, no NETs are even on the verge of achieving a substantial contribution to the climate crisis in a sustainable, energy-efficient and cost-effective manner. BAM! develops ‘super bio-accelerated mineral weathering’ (BAM) as a radical, innovative solution to the NET challenge. While enhanced silicate weathering (ESW) was put forward as a potential NET earlier, we argue that current research focus on either 1/ ex natura carbonation or 2/ slow in natura ecosystem-based ESW, hampers the potential of the technology to provide a substantial contribution to negative emissions within the next two decades. BAM! focuses on an unparalleled reactor effort to maximize biotic weathering stimulation at low resource inputs, and implementation of an automated, rapid- learning process that allows to fast-adopt and improve on critical weathering rate breakthroughs. The direct transformational impact of BAM! lies in its ambition to develop a NET that serves as a climate risk hedging tool on the short term (within 10-20 years). BAM! builds on the natural powers that have triggered dramatic changes in the Earth’s weathering environment, embedding them into a novel, reactor-based technology. The ambitious end-result is the development of an indispensable environmental remediation solution, that transforms large industrial CO2 emitters into no-net CO2 emitters.

Keywords: negative emissions,climate risk hedging,biotic synergies
Assessment of Reserve: Translational Evaluation of Medical Images and Statistics - Prediction models for outcomes of brain health (ARTEMIS)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie-Sklodowska-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Individual Fellowships (IF)-Global Fellowships
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Life Sciences
Countries involved: Germany,United States
Call: Individual Fellowships (H2020-MSCA-IF-2016, 2016)
Start date: 2017-04-01
End date: 2020-05-31
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 239860.8
EU funding (EUR): 239860.8
Participants: 2
Project status: CLOSED

Stroke and cognitive decline are among the leading contributors to disease burden and long-term disability worldwide. Despite their prevalence, the contributing disease processes are not fully understood. This is in part due to the lack of (early) prediction models and ways to characterize protective mechanisms, which can help to distinguish between patients and healthy individuals before symptoms manifest. Such prediction models can facilitate prevention strategies for adverse cognitive and functional outcomes, thereby enriching patients’ life quality and reduce the economic burden on society. Advanced neuroimaging techniques, such as MRI, have provided additional insight into the underlying disease biology. One major challenge when using neuroimaging techniques lies in the fact that large amounts of data are required to account for variations in clinical presentation and assessment, necessitating the use of dedicated pipelines for extracting phenotypes. However, most pipelines are developed in research settings and tend to fail when applied to real-life clinical cohorts, leading to a subpar use of rich, available patient datasets. Here, a fully-automated, translational pipeline for extracting MRI phenotypes from data acquired in clinical and research settings is developed with a particular focus on outlining white matter hyperintensities (WMH). WMH are a common phenotype in aging and across diseases; however, group differences are poorly understood. This makes WMH a prime candidate for extracting additional information, which can be used for outcome prediction. The proposed prediction models utilize newly extracted characteristics, clinical/demographic information and a latent variable construct to predict general cognitive decline and outcome after stroke. In particular, the proposed latent variable has shown promise in acting as a surrogate measure for protective mechanisms in stroke patients, where its biological meaning is assessed as part of this project.

Keywords: stroke,cognitive scores,outcome prediction,analytical pipeline,translational
Smart Home security device based on infrasound detection technology (LYT SONIC)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Industrial Leadership
Programme: Information and Communication Technologies
Action type: SME instrument
Countries involved: Italy
Call: Open Disruptive Innovation Scheme (H2020-SMEINST-1-2016-2017, 2016)
Start date: 2016-12-01
End date: 2017-05-31
Duration (months): 6.0
Total project cost (EUR): 71429.0
EU funding (EUR): 50000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

With a home burglary taking place every 0.8 seconds in Europe, people’s increasing concerns for both personal and property security is propelling the Smart Home Security market. A host of hardwired, wireless, and compact self-contained Smart Security systems is commercially available, embedding motion detectors, door/window sensors, and video cameras. However, the latest market researches on consumers’ expectations emphasise a gap between what is currently available and the consumers’ quest for affordable, reliable, easy to use and stylish home devices. LYT SONIC’s mission is to change the way home security is delivered, by integrating an innovative infrasonic detection technology into a smart LED bulb, to be easily plugged into any lamp holder end/or socket. The core innovation is represented by the advancement of the infrasonic detection technology, the new frontier in the security industry, whose development is being pioneered by few companies with still limited success. Through a proprietary algorithm able to pinpoint the source of the infrasound signal LYT Sonic represents a simple, affordable, reliable and intuitive product for smart home security. LYT SONIC infrasonic waves’ sensor collects environmental sounds and, through a WiFi connection, transmit them to a software application with a machine learning algorithm able to analyse the event, discriminate false and true alarms, and control both the alarm system and home lighting. The benefits are highly valuable to the users: 1) Immediate installation and easy portability. 2) Low price, in the range of 110-160 €, and no maintenance costs. 3) Total coverage of the house (up to 120 m2 with a single light bulb). 4) High reliability, thanks to the proprietary pattern recognition algorithm which profiles the sound waves at home, and through a machine learning procedure able to minimize false alarms. 5) A simple and lean design.

Keywords: smart home,infrasound
Identification of protein kinases and signalling pathways important for Plasmodium falciparum malaria transmission (PFSEXOME)

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,United Kingdom
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): 183454.8
EU funding (EUR): 183454.8
Participants: 2
Project status: CLOSED

Malaria is a devastating disease caused by the apicomplexan parasite Plasmodium. Plasmodium falciparum represents the most severe and life-threatening form of human malaria, causing over 500,000 deaths per year. There is no efficient vaccine available and resistance to all currently used drugs reported. One of the major problems in eradicating human malaria is the transmission of the parasites sexual stages, the gametocytes. These are formed in the blood and develop through five different morphological stages in specific organs of the human host. When fully mature after 10-12 days, gametocytes are released into the blood stream to be transmitted by the mosquito. The molecular regulatory mechanisms important for the formation of gametocytes are poorly understood but there is evidence showing that phosphorylation of epigenetic regulators plays a key role. The kinases that mediate these phosphorylation events and the proteins within their signalling networks, however, are not known and their identification is the aim of this proposal. Specifically I will: 1) Develop a novel tool to enrich early stage gametocytes from parasite culture using cell-type specific surface biotinylation and affinity purification. Development of this novel technology will represent a significant enhancement in our ability to study early stage gametocytes, which are currently very hard to isolate from cell culture. 2) Identify the signalling pathways that are used during the early stage of sexual development by near-system-wide quantitative phosphoproteome analysis comparing early stage gametocytes from Aim 1 with asexual parasite stages. 3) In a complementary approach I will systematically test 10 kinase knockout lines available in the lab for their ability to form gametocytes and gametes. The function of the kinases identified will be verified by gene complementation.

Keywords: plasmodium falciparum,malaria transmission,gametocyte development
Molecular Mechanisms of Dynamic and Spatial Control of Eph Receptors clustering (DynaSpaCER)

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: Sweden
Call: Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF-EF) (H2020-MSCA-IF-2015, 2015)
Start date: 2016-03-01
End date: 2018-02-28
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 185857.2
EU funding (EUR): 185857.2
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

There is mounting evidence that the spatial and temporal organization of ligands at cell-cell interfaces modulates signaling. In particular, for Eph receptors and their ligands (ephrins) this phenomenon is widely recognized but poorly understood due to difficulties in controlling and analyzing membrane protein microenvironments at the nanoscale. A combination of different techniques ranging from DNA nanotechnology to high resolution microscopies via standard biochemical techniques and computational tools will be used to provide a molecular understanding of the roles of the spatial and temporal organization of ligands in receptor signaling. Substrates that recreate the intramembrane signalling geometry at cell-cell contacts are designed and produced by employing ligand decorated DNA nanostructures anchored on artificial supported lipid bilayers. This allows an unparalleled control of spatial distribution of the ligands and their dynamics. TIRF/STORM super-resolution microscopy is used to measure size and dynamics of clustering and biochemical assays will quantify the receptor spatial distribution and activation levels. Together with computational simulation and modeling of clustering dynamics, these efforts will lead to a molecular mechanism of spatial organization of ligands and receptors during clustering and how this affects signaling.

Keywords: receptor clustering,eph receptors,spatial organization,cancer,dna nanostructures,supported lipid bilayers,atomic force microscopy,tirf,storm,modeling and simulations
Wiring up the SomatoSensory Cortex (InterWiring)

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: Switzerland
Call: ERC Starting Grant (ERC-2015-STG, 2015)
Start date: 2016-11-01
End date: 2022-04-30
Duration (months): 66.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1970000.0
EU funding (EUR): 1970000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Understanding how the mammalian brain network acquires its ability during development to process information and interact with the environment is one of the fundamental challenges in modern biology. The brain originates from a sheet of neural progenitors during embryogenesis but rapidly develops into distinct functional areas such as primary sensory and the highly associative cortices. Although all cortical areas consist of the same main neuronal elements, excitatory and inhibitory cells, their functions are markedly distinct. Unlike others, primary sensory cortical regions receive direct inputs from the environment through the respective thalamic nuclei starting at an early stage in development and are therefore likely to be shaped by incoming activity from sensory modalities. Despite the plethora of data on the arealization of the cortex by early signaling centers and the critical period plasticity mechanisms which take place after the basic elements of the circuit have been laid out, very little is known about the important period in between and how individual elements bind together to construct a functional circuit. This proposal is aimed at bridging this gap in knowledge, by addressing the long-standing question of how genes and activity interact during development to establish the correct wiring of excitatory and inhibitory cells in cortical sensory areas. As the primary role of inhibitory cells is to shape the flow of information transfer in the brain, they are well positioned to contribute significantly to the distinct modes of information processing performed in different cortical areas. Considering that dysfunction of cortical inhibitory circuits has been proposed as a major contributor to the etiology of neuropsychiatric-neurodevelopmental disorders, it is my hope that this approach will not only provide insights into the making of the healthy brain, but also into clinically relevant pathologies.
MadbaM: automated tools for precision calculations of the Baryon Asymmetry of the Universe in BSM models (MadbaM)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie-Sklodowska-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Individual Fellowships (IF)-Standard European Fellowships
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Physics
Countries involved: Belgium
Call: Individual Fellowships (H2020-MSCA-IF-2016, 2016)
Start date: 2017-10-01
End date: 2019-09-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 172800.0
EU funding (EUR): 172800.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The measured Baryon Asymmetry of the Universe (BAU) is a firm evidence for the existence of new physics beyond the Standard Model of particle physics (BSM). Despite of that, the offer of scientific software for the high-energy physics community currently misses dedicated tools devoted to precise baryogenesis computations in BSM models. The aim of the present proposal is to fill this gap, providing the necessary tools in order to bring the theoretical computation of the BAU into a precision era, and employing them to use the BAU as a powerful observable for the characterisation and test of physics BSM. The main deliverable will be a scientific software, MadbaM, able to precisely compute the BAU in as many BSM scenarios as possible. MadbaM will fit in a propitious and timely framework, since preliminary results from precision neutrino oscillation experiments point towards the existence of a large violation of the matter-antimatter symmetry in the lepton sector, and the available array of high-energy and high-intensity experimental facilities offers an ideal ground to test the BSM hypothesis. The implementation of the proposal will be based on a mutual exchange of expertise between the Researcher and the Host Institution, with the Researcher profiting from the world recognised leadership of the local research group in designing and delivering software for precision computations in high-energy physics, while he will complement the local research skills bringing his own expertise on the theory and phenomenology of BSM models motivated by observations on the BAU and in neutrino physics.

Keywords: baryon asymmetry of the universe,new physics,cp violation,beyond the standard model of particle physics,computational physics,leptogenesis