Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Verification and validation of a biomarker panel that identifies individuals at high risk to develop Crohn’s disease allowing INTERCEPTION of full-blown disease development (INTERCEPT)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness
Programme: Health
Theme: Public-private partnerships
Destination: Innovative Health Initiative
Action type: Research and Innovation actions
Partnership: IHI (JU-JTI)
Countries involved: Netherlands,Portugal,Belgium,Spain,France,Germany,Norway,United Kingdom,Switzerland,Korea, Republic of,United States,Sweden,Denmark,Italy,Austria,Poland
Call: Clinical validation of biomarkers for diagnosis, monitoring disease progression and treatment response (HORIZON-JU-IHI-2024-07-single-stage, 2024)
Start date: 2025-01-01
End date: 2029-12-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 38049419.73
EU funding (EUR): 15179207.5
Participants: 25
Project status: SIGNED

Chronic inflammatory diseases such rheumatoid arthritis (RA), multiple sclerosis (MS), type 1 diabetes (t1D) and Crohn’s disease (CD) are increasingly common and cause important loss of quality of life and work productivity. Most of these conditions are diagnosed at a late stage of the disease; many patients have complications at diagnosis. For many of these conditions there are now methods or markers in the blood that allow diagnosis in the preclinical phase, meaning that individuals can be identified that have the disease but not yet the symptoms. This would allow very early treatment (which is highly effective) that prevents development of complications, which has been done successfully in RA, MS and t1D. CD mainly affects adolescents/young adults in the most productive phase of life. At diagnosis the majority of patients has fistulas (painful holes around the anus), stenosis of the bowel leading to crampy pain and metabolic symptoms such as weight loss, iron deficiency and other nutritional deficiencies. In CD, a number of molecules (‘markers’) have been identified in the blood of individuals up to 7 years before diagnosis. In the current project we wish to verify these markers in North American and European cohorts of which we have the serum available in freezers with the help of advanced laboratory tests leading to a ‘serum signature’. An algorithm will incorporate the relative importance of the different proteins to make it ready for widespread use. Then, we will test this signature in 10000 first degree relatives of European patients with CD across 7 countries, a process that is named ‘prospective validation’. In a final step we will demonstrate that if individuals are identified with the biomarker, CD symptom development can be halted (‘intercepted’) with medical treatment. If we succeed in this scientific work, the impact for the community would be enormous. We would be able to prevent suffering, surgeries, disability and loss of productivity significantly.

Keywords: crohn s disease interception serum signature preclinical disease
Sustainable Remediation of Radionuclide Impacts on Land and Critical Materials Recovery (SURRI)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Widening Participation and Strengthening the European Research Area
Programme: Widening participation and spreading excellence
Theme: Improved access to Excellence
Destination: Improved access to Excellence
Action type: Coordination and support actions
Countries involved: Czechia,Spain,United Kingdom,Italy
Call: Twinning (HORIZON-WIDERA-2021-ACCESS-03, 2021)
Start date: 2023-01-01
End date: 2025-12-31
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1294507.5
EU funding (EUR): 1294507.5
Participants: 4
Project status: SIGNED

The project “Sustainable Remediation of Radionuclide Impacts on Land and Critical Materials Recovery (SURRI)” aims to establish a multinational shared research agenda and project pipeline for addressing the challenges radionuclides pose to land remediation and materials recovery, with a particular focus on rare earth elements (REE) and other critical elements, in order to facilitate more efficient cycling and management of water, soil and material resources. The topic is highly relevant to facilitating the circular use of land, water and several key materials. Investigating the mitigation of radionuclide problems has been rather a “Cinderella” subject for land and waste management research, where the focus has been on organic and inorganic chemical contamination. However, radionuclides present widespread and difficult problems for Society at large and achieving the “Green Deal” in particular. The research concept is based on the integration of electrochemical and microbiological interventions, which can be applied, in-situ or ex-situ, to provide new tools to unlock the remediation of radionuclide affected sites, and facilitate the recovery of material resources from radionuclide-impacted wastes, and so reduce reliance on virgin (and non-EU) sources. The project is coordinated by the TECHNICKA UNIVERZITA V LIBERCI (TUL, CZ) with the participation of the UNIVERSIDAD DE GRANADA (ES), UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI ROMA LA SAPIENZA (IT) and the UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON (UK, Associated Partner). The three internationally leading partners in the field will help TUL to reach five specific objectives – to advance its research excellence in radionuclide impact mitigation, to develop a shared research vision and supporting research agenda for a virtual R&I centre, to raise the research profile of TUL staff, and to develop an international network of supporters, contributors and participants in the proposed virtual centre.

Keywords: radionuclides,land remediation,uranium,green deal,rare earth elements,element recovery
Improving plant immunity by synthetic exploitation of the ubiquitin system (SynUbL)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Consolidator grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Biotechnology and Biosystems E ngineering
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: Spain
Call: ERC CONSOLIDATOR GRANTS (ERC-2023-COG, 2023)
Start date: 2025-01-01
End date: 2029-12-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1850374.0
EU funding (EUR): 1850374.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Plants are continuously attacked by pathogens and pests, resulting globally in large agricultural losses and food insecurity at high economic cost. To counter infection, plants have developed sophisticated immune responses in which the post-translational modifier, ubiquitin, plays indispensable roles. Ubiquitination is a versatile protein modification that regulates the amplitude and intensity of immune responses, thereby establishing durable resistance. Substrate ubiquitination is performed by E3 ligases that act as matchmakers by recruiting specific substrates. Despite the essential roles of E3 ligases in plant immunity, it remains unclear how they achieve such extraordinary substrate selectivity and how they evolved to adapt to changing threats in their environment, including new pathogens. Conversely, pathogens have evolved effector proteins that hijack ubiquitin signalling to prevent immune activation, but the underpinning molecular mechanisms remain obscure. The SynUbL project will establish interactions between the major cereal crop, barley, and fungal pathogen, Puccinia hordei, as an economically relevant host-pathogen system for addressing these questions and to bioengineer durable resistance. By functionally tracking immune-induced E3 ligases along the evolutionary tree, we will reveal how these enzymes evolved structural features for specific substrate recognition. Simultaneously, we will expose P. hordei’s hijacking tactics, thereby uncovering the significance of ubiquitin in shaping the evolutionary arms race between host and pathogen. Collective insights are then utilised to synthetically engineer novel E3 ligases to allow on-demand activation of host immune pathways and on-demand destruction of immune-suppressing pathogen effectors. Hence, this project not only provides fundamental discoveries in ubiquitin signalling, it exploits these innovations by generating sustainable strategies for durable crop resistance in the agrifood sector.

Keywords: ubiquitin signalling,e3 ligases,posttranslational modifications,plant immunity,disease resistance,barley,crops,effectors
Cultivating Civic Habits (CCH)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Innovative Europe
Programme: The European Innovation Council (EIC)
Theme: EU prize
Destination: European Social Innovation Competition
Action type: Recognition Prize
Countries involved: Latvia
Call: The European Social Innovation Competition 2024 (HORIZON-EIC-2024-EUSIC-PRIZE-04, 2024)
Total project cost (EUR): 0.0
EU funding (EUR): 0.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The project “Cultivating Civic Habits” is aimed at promoting “civic competencies” among young people aged 14-18, enabling them to make informed and reasoned decisions for the public good as citizens of a diverse, democratic society. Central to the project was the development of a mobile application “Varu.Daru” targeting Latvian youth, focusing on social, civic, and democratic engagement through meaningful, low-barrier activities that users can perform daily. The app features pre-written daily civic activities based on real-life situations, designed to foster civic competence and engagement among its users. The project demonstrated significant impacts on youth engagement and civic awareness, supported by comprehensive feedback and development plans for future app enhancements. Daily feedback from users highlighted active engagement and areas for improvement, reinforcing the app’s relevance and effectiveness. Varu.Daru. on the App Store and Google Play Key stakeholders, including the Ministry of Education of Latvia, schools and directly engaged in development and testing tens of students and the USA Embassy in Riga, provided valuable insights for app refinement, ensuring its continued relevance and effectiveness. Lessons learned emphasized the importance of audience involvement, clear partner communication, anticipating challenges, and planning for sustainability beyond initial funding. Overall, Varu.Daru effectively facilitated coordinated social action among students, encouraging their participation in civic activities and the development of crucial life skills. Its innovative approach positions it as a valuable tool for promoting EU values and active citizenship among European youth, with continuous evaluation and adaptation enhancing its impact in the evolving landscape of civic engagement.

Keywords: democracy innovation youth mobile civic habits participation literacy
Chemical Tools for Transcriptome-wide Analysis and Modulation of RNA (RiboChem)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Synthetic Chemistry and Materials
Panel description: New materials and new synthetic approaches, structure -properties relations, solid state chemistry, molecular architecture, organic chemistry
Countries involved: Netherlands
Call: ERC STARTING GRANTS (ERC-2021-STG, 2021)
Start date: 2022-05-01
End date: 2027-04-30
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1500000.0
EU funding (EUR): 1500000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

RNA is an essential biomolecular polymer that exhibits many cellular functions ranging from catalytic to informational that are crucial for life. Long considered as DNA's unexciting counterpart, RNA has in recent years transcended its dull image, driven by pivotal discoveries of its involvement in cellular signalling pathways. Despite the clear importance of RNA in biology and medicine, many of its properties and functions remain elusive. In the RiboChem program we will develop ground-breaking chemical tools for uncovering the identity, function, structure and druggability of RNA on an unparalleled transcriptome-wide level, with a special focus on riboswitches. Riboswitches are structured RNA molecules that have gathered particular interest due to their involvement in bacterial gene regulation that render them attractive targets for antibiotic development. The proposed tools will combine refined chemical design and synthesis, tailored towards RNA's chemical properties, with advanced sequencing technologies. This unique combination enables the discovery of riboswitches throughout the entire transcriptome using a photoaffinity labelling strategy. Customized chemical probes will be used to measure riboswitch conformational dynamics in response to environmental inputs and reveal how bacteria exploit these phenomena to fine-tune their gene expression. Finally, a paradigm-shifting strategy for modulation of riboswitch activity will be developed by applying small molecule covalent modulators of RNA structural elements, which has the potential of transforming the field of RNA targeting. Taken together, the research within RiboChem will find broad applicability in the emerging field of RNA chemistry and biology and help uncover many biological functions and properties of RNA and yield important insight into RNA targeting.

Keywords: nucleic acid chemistry,riboswitches,rna profiling,photoaffinity labelling
Continuums Of Game NETs: swarm intelligence as information processing (CoGNETs) (CoGNETs)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness
Programme: Digital, Industry and Space
Theme: Digital
Destination: World-leading Data and Computing Technologies
Action type: Research and Innovation actions
Partnership: AI-DATA-ROBOTICS (co-programmed)
Countries involved: Greece,Germany,Austria,Romania,Slovenia,Bulgaria,Cyprus,Japan,Switzerland,United Kingdom,Finland,France,Luxembourg,Italy
Call: Cognitive Computing Continuum: Intelligence and automation for more efficient data processing (AI, data and robotics partnership) (RIA) (HORIZON-CL4-2023-DATA-01, 2023)
Start date: 2024-06-01
End date: 2027-05-31
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 6655837.3
EU funding (EUR): 5679537.01
Participants: 21
Project status: SIGNED

CoGNETs aims to revolutionize the Intelligent Infrastructure Management by introducing a scalable and interoperable distributed Middleware Framework for autonomous IoT-to-Cloud computing, sustainable during and after the project via FIWARE Foundation (Technical Manager) and supported by a strong Industrial & Academic EU-JAPAN ecosystem led by AVL (leader of Catena-X initiative between EU-JAPAN in data sovereignty for the Automotive & Manufacturing supply-chain). The idea is to leverage the IT intelligence to the point where devices can self-realize their heterogeneity and self-decide how to form dynamic IoT-to-Cloud swarm continuums for responding to common AI tasks and significant items of cognitive computing in automated, secure and energy efficient fashion. At is core our Middleware will integrate new decentralized federated multi-context Broker architecture enriched with Game-intelligent Agents, Collaborative Federated Learning and End-to-End Security mechanisms (including RISC-V hardware security & AI acceleration) to effectualize dynamic data and resource management across devices at different domains, thereby using open-source programing models and APIs to produce new orchestration, optimization, etc. routines with no vendor locking. CoGNETs will also achieve energy/CO2 neutrality and “by-design” security awareness by leveraging all its Middleware processes over unified Computing-Energy-Security optimization, thereby introducing a new logic to systemically improve Computing in joint and equal terms to Energy and Security performances that are necessary for sustaining new services and business models. Validations will be taken over 3x vertical and 1x cross-vertical Demos to support emerging Manufacturing, Mobility and Health sectors, and to examine how CoGNETs can safeguard for economic, business and societal resilience, and how it can expand Europe’s digital sovereignty, strategic autonomy and industrial supremacy in the next wave of technology evolution.

Keywords: distributed middleware dynamic iot to cloud swarm computing decentralized game optimization on device autonomous decision making risc v security and ai acceleration,collaborative federated learning
Engineering Synthetic Gene Circuits through Competitive Dimerization. (DIMERCIRCUITS)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Advanced grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Biotechnology and Biosystems E ngineering
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: Italy
Call: ERC ADVANCED GRANTS (ERC-2024-ADG, 2024)
Start date: 2026-01-01
End date: 2030-12-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2484115.0
EU funding (EUR): 2484115.0
Participants: 2
Project status: SIGNED

Synthetic gene circuits offer considerable potential for engineering human cells to perform complex functions for innovative biotechnological and therapeutic applications. However, current approaches are limited by the lack of versatile, scalable and modular molecular components. DIMERCIRCUITS aims to overcome these barriers by developing a novel class of Modular Artificial Dimerizing transcription factors (MADTFs) whose activity is dynamically regulated through interaction with competitive inhibitory proteins (ΔTFs). These ΔTFs competitively heterodimerize with MAD-TFs preventing their homo-dimerization and thus their function. This dual strategy enables dynamic and reversible regulation of gene expression, establishing a novel technological platform to build synthetic circuits and program cell behaviour. The compact and modular design of MADTFs and ΔTFs not only facilitates their integration into a variety of biotechnological applications but also enhances their potential for clinical translation. Computational modeling and machine learning techniques will be employed to explore the design space of synthetic circuits based on these components, ensuring they meet desired regulatory functions. This framework will guide the experimental implementation of synthetic circuits in human cell lines. As a proof of concept, the therapeutic potential of DIMERCIRCUITS will be demonstrated in patient-derived organoids for the treatment of Friedreich's ataxia, a rare genetic neurodegenerative disorder. By engineering a gene dosage compensation circuit, DIMERCIRCUITS aims to achieve precise regulation of therapeutic gene expression within a narrow window, independent of viral vector uptake, thereby mitigating the overxpression-related toxicity risks associated with current gene therapy approaches. DIMERCIRCUITS aims to establish a foundational technology for precision-engineered synthetic circuits enabling transformative advances in both biotechnology and medicine.

Keywords: mammalian synthetic biology gene expression systems modelling control engineering gene therapy
SecuStack: Securing the Leaky Hardware/Software Boundary (SecuStack)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Computer Science and Informatics
Panel description: Informatics and information systems, computer science, scientific computing, intelligent systems
Countries involved: Netherlands
Call: ERC STARTING GRANTS (ERC-2023-STG, 2023)
Start date: 2024-04-01
End date: 2029-03-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1500000.0
EU funding (EUR): 1500000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Problem: Side-channel leaks via timing, cache, and speculation can expose sensitive information across traditional isolation barriers, putting our data at risk. Unfortunately, despite decades-long attempts to eliminate these leaks, new attacks are discovered by the day. Fundamentally, this is due to the following mismatch: Today's hardware is extremely complicated because of its myriad fast paths and performance optimizations, yet, we reason about it based on coarse, implicit, and inaccurate models. This divide between model and reality results in leaks and inefficient systems that fail to keep our data safe. Aim: SecuStack wants to put an end to this seemingly endless cycle of new attacks and defenses through a radically new approach based on the following insight: To effectively secure computer systems against side-channel leaks, we need to know when the hardware leaks, at the level of gates, flip-flops, and wires. Approach: SecuStack will leverage this insight via the following four research tasks. First, the SecuStack team will automatically construct per-processor, ground-truth leakage models at the hardware level (T1). Next, we will use those models to describe leakage at the assembly (ISA) level (T2), which in turn will allow us to synthesize provably correct software defenses (T3). These steps build on research breakthroughs from my recent work. To remain feasible for a small team in a five-year timeframe, SecuStack will not target legacy toolchains but instead aim for a breakthrough in a tightly controlled setting, based on open-source RISC-V processors and a custom compilation toolchain. Finally, we will demonstrate immediate practical impact by implementing two challenging case studies: a silicon root of trust and an enclave monitor (T4). Impact: If successful, this ambitious effort will yield the first provably secure end-to-end timing, cache, and speculation safe systems and pave the way towards secure infrastructure for the future.

Keywords: formal methods security side channels verification speculative execution attacks spectre attack hardware semantics hardening type system