Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Innovation for better ageing (BFHA 2020)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Societal Challenges
Programme: Health, demographic change and wellbeing
Action type: Coordination and support actions
Countries involved: Croatia
Call: Presidency events – Innovation for better ageing (H2020-IBA-SC1-Presidency-2020, 2020)
Start date: 2019-12-01
End date: 2020-09-30
Duration (months): 10.0
Total project cost (EUR): 190750.0
EU funding (EUR): 190750.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The project proposes scientific conference to be held during Croatia’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union entitled Better Future of Healthy Ageing 2020 (BFHA 2020) in the organization of the School of Medicine, University of Zagreb. The Conference will have a full-coverage European outreach aiming to engage around 300 participants. It will take place in Zagreb from 6 to 7 April 2020 at the Andrija Štampar School of Public Health, School of Medicine, University of Zagreb. The overall mission of the Conference is to stimulate research, implementation and scaling up innovations to manage health and wellbeing of the ageing population. The objectives of the conference are: to address issues of ageing of biological systems through the topics of regenerative medicine, neuroscience, clinical medicine and other fields of medicine; to showcase the impact of smart technologies for age friendly ecosystems, and to analyse the issues of ageing and healthcare system sustainability at various levels. The Conference will address the main theme across the three objectives with different dialogue and exchange formats including: key notes, plenary discussions panels, thematic sessions and poster presentations. During the Conference participants will have special section within the program after each session for discussions and summary conclusions that will be transferred into Recommendations. Recommendations will be developed into final conference outcome – the Policy Paper which will be drafted after the conference. The aim of this working paper is to develop forward-looking valuation pathways and impact approaches and dimensions of ageing research for transformative, mission-oriented research and innovation agendas, which can be taken up in the formulation of ageing services. The Conference and its outputs, including policy paper are aimed at stakeholders, policymakers, scientific community and healthcare providers.

Keywords: aging,health,it technologies,public health
Structural and functional studies of human PNPase in mitochondrial RNA metabolism (MitoPNP)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Spreading excellence and widening participation
Programme: Widening participation and spreading excellence
Theme: Other Widening
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Countries involved: Poland
Call: Widening Fellowships (H2020-WF-03-2020, 2020)
Start date: 2021-09-01
End date: 2023-08-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 149625.6
EU funding (EUR): 149625.6
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Throughout the eukaryotic lineages, mitochondria are essential organelles that provide cellular metabolic power through oxidative phosphorylation. In the mitochondrial intermembrane space resides an exoribonuclease highly conserved in the course of evolution: PNPase. Although the activity of this enzyme has been extensively studied, its function in this compartment is poorly understood. A clue to one of its potential functions has been provided by my recent findings on the bacterial PNPase, which I discovered to switch activity from an RNA degradation mode to a stabilising mode that chaperones regulatory RNAs. As the human and bacterial enzymes are homologues, it is possible that human PNPase (hPNPase) could have a dual mode of action as well, and could participate in regulatory processes or RNA cargo transport once trapped in a non-degradative assembly. My research will address what functions are played by hPNPase present in the intermembrane space of the human mitochondria. I will characterise the full-length enzyme and its capacity to bind substrates in the degradative and non-degradative modes. In order to achieve these objectives, I will elucidate the structure-function relationship of hPNPase by cryo-electron microscopy complemented with biochemical and biophysical assays. The results will illuminate the biological roles of PNPase in human cells including its potential contributions to mitochondrial RNA trafficking. This interdisciplinary project with potential applications in human health will apply recent breakthrough advancements in cryo-EM in order to investigate the molecular basis of an intricate biological system to advance the understanding of mitochondria biology. The research effort will foster the career development of a talented researcher and contribute to the academic and research excellence in Poland by strengthening the expertise in cryo-EM, a method currently revolutionising structural biology, at the University of Warsaw.

Keywords: polynucleotide phosphorylase,mitochondrium,mitochondrial intermembrane space
RNA regulation during viral infection (VIRUSES AND RNA)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Immunity, Infection and Immunotherapy
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 immunological tools and approaches, including therapies
Countries involved: Denmark
Call: ERC Starting Grant (ERC-2018-STG, 2018)
Start date: 2019-07-01
End date: 2024-06-30
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1500000.0
EU funding (EUR): 1500000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Viral infections are responsible for significant morbidity and mortality and frequency and impact of epidemics are expected to increase. Thorough understanding of basic virology is critical for informed development of prevention and control. Most systematic studies of virus-host interactions have focused on proteins, however, with recent methodological advances the intersecting fields of viral infection and RNA biology hold great promise for basic and therapeutic exploration. The goal of this application therefore is to discover and dissect RNA-based virus-host interactions and related regulatory mechanisms of gene expression. Micro-RNAs (miRNAs) fine-tune gene expression by repressing mRNA targets. However, cellular miRNAs increase translation and replication of certain viruses. Thus, hepatitis C virus (HCV) critically depends on the liver specific miR-122, which emerged as a therapeutic target. Further, HCV sequesters enough miR-122 to indirectly regulate cellular gene expression. I hypothesize that this RNA-based mechanism contributes to virus induced liver cancer, and aim to address this using our recently developed rodent model for HCV infection (Aim 1). Better understanding of viral RNA (vRNA) interactions could significantly contribute to basic infection biology and novel therapeutics. I therefore aim to systematically identify vRNA interactions with other cellular RNAs and proteins (Aim 2). I expect to identify interactions of value for functional regulation and therapeutic targeting. I finally hypothesize that translation of certain cellular mRNAs – similarly to viruses – increase upon miRNA binding, and aim to systematically screen for such virus-like alternative regulation, with potential to change understanding of post-transcriptional regulation (Aim 3). In conclusion, this high-risk high-gain project has potential to shape novel dogmas for virus and RNA biology and to identify novel RNA-based therapeutic targets; a promising upcoming field of discovery.

Keywords: viruses,mirnas,hepatitis c virus,liver disease,translation,rna interactions
LiCrete - Light transmitting composite material for building purposes (LiCrete)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Industrial Leadership
Programme: Innovation in SMEs
Action type: SME instrument
Countries involved: Czechia
Call: SME instrument (H2020-SMEInst-2018-2020-1, 2018)
Start date: 2018-06-01
End date: 2018-11-30
Duration (months): 6.0
Total project cost (EUR): 71429.0
EU funding (EUR): 50000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Team behind LiCrete has developed a unique, translucent, concrete building material which can be used in both interior and exterior surfaces that optimizes natural daylight, bringing it into buildings, while maintaining the load bearing capacity. The commercial use is mainly for building facades, dividing spaces, brightening concrete stairs, lighting and additional interior ornamental features. Today, five years after the first idea, LiCrete has a valid worldwide patent for the entire technical solution, including the method of production. It is one of the first materials in the world that has a great load bearing capacity while transmitting light through all its surfaces.

Keywords: smart concrete,translucent building material,energy saving
Hydrogen generator for higher fuel efficiency and lower carbon emissions in maritime transport (H2MOVE)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Societal Challenges
Programme: Smart, green and integrated transport
Action type: SME instrument
Countries involved: Cyprus
Call: Small business innovation research for Transport and Smart Cities Mobility (H2020-SMEINST-1-2016-2017, 2016)
Start date: 2017-02-01
End date: 2017-05-31
Duration (months): 4.0
Total project cost (EUR): 71429.0
EU funding (EUR): 50000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Global marine shipping, which transports around 90% of world trade, emits around 1000 Mt of CO2 annually and is responsible for about 2.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions which is comparable to a major national economy such as the UK, Germany or South Korea. As seaborne trade is predicted to increase by 70% until 2030, and shipping emissions are predicted to increase between 50%-250%, innovation in technology is needed to reduce carbon footprint of vessels. Aris Pump Ltd. developed H2MOVE, safe small foot-print hydrogen generator to be installed into engines of marine vessels to significantly improve performances, delivering 35% less air pollution, 30% better fuel efficiency and consequently 30% fuel cost saving with a safe hydrogen technology. T he feasibility assessment will concentrate on preparing a pilot in the segment of marine engine applications, improving the electrolysis technology and validating the scale-up strategy of the H2MOVE engine. Phase 1 will develop the IP management strategy for EU and worldwide commercialization, prepare financial projections and assess sale agreements on global scale. A key activity will be identifying and discussing commercial partnerships with selected marine engine manufacturers, to reach target users i.e. vessel owners or operators.

Keywords: carbon emissions,hydrogen generation,fuel efficiency,cost of energy,enegy efficiency,decarbonize,marine industry,shipping,vessels,hydrogen energy,electrolysis
ADvanced nanocomposite MAterIals fOr in situ treatment and ultRAsound-mediated management of osteoarthritis (ADMAIORA)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Industrial Leadership
Programme: Nanotechnologies, Advanced Materials, Advanced Manufacturing and Processing, and Biotechnology
Theme: Advanced materials
Action type: Research and Innovation actions
Countries involved: Israel,Italy,Germany,Italy,Poland,Sweden,France
Call: Osteoarticular tissues regeneration (RIA) (H2020-NMBP-TR-IND-2018, 2018)
Start date: 2019-01-01
End date: 2023-12-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 5397480.0
EU funding (EUR): 5397480.0
Participants: 8
Project status: SIGNED

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a major burden that affects ~ 40 million of EU citizens, with enormous direct and indirect costs for the European healthcare systems, quantified in ~ 50.4 billion euros per year. This disease involves the degeneration of cartilage and other joint structures and is one of the most common causes of pain and disability in middle-aged and elderly people. ADMAIORA aims in the long-term at increasing the healthy and active lifespan of people affected by OA, by considerably slowing down or even stopping the degeneration process, thus delaying or avoiding surgical interventions for total joint replacement. Within the project time-frame the target is to achieve a 60% reduction of degeneration in OA animal models treated with the ADMAIORA technologies, with respect to control (untreated) ones, after 4 weeks, and a 90% reduction after 3 months. To achieve this ambitious objective the Consortium will evolve and merge technologies that already showed a high potential as experimental proof of concepts (TRL = 3) and will bring them at a preclinical level (TRL = 5). The ADMAIORA Consortium will develop biosynthetic hydrogels embedded with carbon-based nanomaterials, conferring higher mechanical and lubrication properties, and piezoelectric nanoparticles enabling responsivity to remote wireless ultrasound waves. Stem cells derived from autologous adipose tissue, which already demonstrated anti-inflammatory and regenerative properties, will be entrapped in the hydrogels. Materials and cells will be delivered in situ through an innovative handheld 3D bioprinter, embedded in an arthroscopic tool. A custom brace will be designed and equipped with ultrasound probes for both monitoring the joint status and stimulating the implanted piezoelectric nanobiomaterial. A dedicated App will allow a direct connection between patient and physician in an Internet of Things framework. Overall, ADMAIORA will target a ground-breaking paradigm that may revolutionize OA treatment.

Keywords: ultrasound stimulation,remotely triggerable materials,handheld bioprinting,adipose tissue derived stem cells
Militant Imaginaries, Colonial Memories: The Visual and Material Traces of Revolution and Return in Contemporary Portugal (MICoMe)

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: Social Sciences and Humanities
Countries involved: Portugal
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): 159815.04
EU funding (EUR): 159815.04
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

This interdisciplinary project examines how knowledge about the past is produced in contemporary Portugal by analyzing individual and collective engagements with material and visual traces left by two entangled historical events: the 1974 Carnation Revolution and the return of Portuguese colonial settlers to the metropole. Both revolution and return were outcomes of the Portuguese Colonial War, known in the former colonies as the “Liberation Wars,” which resulted in the constitution of new African nations. Drawing on ethnographic participant observation, life history and oral history methods, and photo/object-elicitation strategies, this project gathers empirical data regarding how film, photography, and documents from institutional and family archives are animated in order to produce new narratives about the recent past. It thereby conceptualizes how knowledge about Portugal’s transition to democracy and, by extension, its relationship to the (de)colonial project is produced and mediated. In doing so, MICoMe puts forth novel theories regarding history and memory not separate entities, but rather co-constituting spheres of knowledge production and meaning making. As such, it develops innovative methodological approaches to understanding how contradictory and, at times, oppositional memories regarding the recent past are negotiated through public and private engagements with visual and material traces left by experiences with revolution and return. By juxtaposing colonial memories and militant imaginaries, this project posits that a cultural re-reading of the past and its mediations in the present can elucidate how historical knowledge is produced in in current contexts of political change while also unsettling closed narratives regarding empire, decolonization and political transition.

Keywords: portuguese colonial war,carnation revolution,return,visual and material culture,oral history,memory studies,knowledge production,ethnography,historiography,institutional and private archives
The Human Behavioral Immune System: Consequences for Health and Innovation (HBIS)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: The Human Mind and Its Complexity
Panel description: Cognitive science, psychology, linguistics, theoretical philosophy
Countries involved: Netherlands
Call: ERC Starting Grant (ERC-2015-STG, 2015)
Start date: 2016-07-01
End date: 2021-06-30
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1499482.5
EU funding (EUR): 1499482.5
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Modern innovations such as soap, condoms, and indoor plumbing have allowed billions of people to reduce their contact with viruses and bacteria and, as a result, dramatically increase length and quality of life. But how did members of the genus homo avoid pathogens for the two million years that preceded these technological innovations and, more broadly, discoveries that infectious disease is caused by microbes? And, importantly, how do any natural behavioral defenses against pathogens impact our behavior in the modern world? Recent research and theory in the field of evolutionary psychology suggests that natural selection has shaped a human behavioral immune system (HBIS)—a suite of psychological mechanisms, ranging from aspects of our olfactory systems (e.g., that detect specific chemical compounds) to our emotion systems (e.g., the emotion disgust) and our learning systems (e.g., conditioned aversions to foods) that are coordinated for a common function: to detect and motivate the avoidance of pathogens. Given that myriad universal human behaviors connote some pathogen risk—including interpersonal contact, mating, and eating—gaining a holistic understanding of the HBIS has the potential to offer critical new insights into multiple fundamental aspects of human nature. Here, I utilize an interdisciplinary approach to answer three foundational, yet currently opaque questions concerning the nature of the HBIS, including: (1) Where does trait variation in HBIS activation come from? (2) What effect does the HBIS have on behavior when cues to pathogens are detected? and (3) How does the HBIS facilitate learning of avoidance and rejection? To answer these questions, I propose an array of methodologically diverse studies to investigate how trait HBIS activation shapes rejection versus acceptance of innovations, how state HBIS activation can be harnessed to promote the use of health-promoting technologies, and how the HBIS can be leveraged for shaping dietary behavior.

Keywords: evolutionary psychology,personality,emotion,health,behavioral genetics
New building methodology for improved full-concrete wind towers for wind turbines. (AIRCRANE)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Societal Challenges
Programme: Secure, clean and efficient energy
Action type: SME instrument
Countries involved: Spain
Call: Stimulating the innovation potential of SMEs for a low carbon energy system (H2020-SMEINST-1-2014, 2014)
Start date: 2015-05-01
End date: 2015-10-31
Duration (months): 6.0
Total project cost (EUR): 71429.0
EU funding (EUR): 50000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Building methodology in skyscrapers marked a turning point in the construction sector. Due to the high altitude of those buildings, the only way of building them is a crane that rises in the same manner the skyscraper does. The main objective of the AIRCRANE project is to complete, qualify, standard setting and demonstrate in real working conditions a self-climbing telescopic crane (AIRCRANE) for the construction of full-concrete towers for wind turbines, at very low cost compared to current market solutions. This new solution has been inspired by the skyscraper’s building methodology. As a consequence of the development of this new crane, the second objective will be the introduction in the market of a new full-concrete tower with no height limit and with a new patented procedure of building that will bring reliability, time saving, quality and workers safety. In the current decade the main trend in the wind energy sector is to decrease the costs of the energy produced by wind turbines. One of the main strategies is the installation of the rotor axis (as well as nacelle and generator) at higher heights, as much as possible, where turbulences are minor and the efficiency of the equipment is higher. However, the wind industry has found some technical and economic constraints given by the construction of steel towers. This constraints are related to: size limitations in transport (larger diameters of tower segments), cost increase for heights greater than 100m., vibrations, etc.. Full concrete towers, built with precast concrete elements are a feasible solution: easy to transport, more durable (~50 years vs. ~25 years of steel), less vibrant, less required maintenance, etc. Another advantage is that concrete annual average price is significantly lower than steel. The development of the new AIRCRANE will help in the construction of full concrete towers, to reach heights unreachable with conventional nowadays crawler cranes (>140m) and at a much lower cost.

Keywords: wind,energy,crane,concrete,tower,to build