Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Biodiversity of East-European and Siberian large mammals on the level of genetic variation of populations (BIOGEAST)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: International Research Staff Exchange Scheme
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Poland,Estonia
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2009-IRSES, 2009)
Start date: 2011-09-01
End date: 2016-08-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 163800.0
EU funding (EUR): 163800.0
Participants: 2
Project status: CLOSED

The project, planned for 4 years, aims at building a network of research centres in Central and Eastern Europe and Siberia, and apply the state-of-art knowledge in genetics and macroecology to: (1) investigate phylogeography of 7 species of large mammals (wolf, Eurasian lynx, brown bear, moose, red deer, roe deer, and wild boar); (2) identify the locations of LGM refugia for large mammals in Eastern and South-Eastern Europe and the routes of their post-glacial dispersal to current ranges; (3) recognise large-scale patterns of neutral genetic variation of large mammals and correlate them with macroecological variation in life habits; (4) investigate the past genetic variation of European bison (based on ancient DNA extracted from the 19th century museum specimens). The project will be performed by 2 consortium members located in EU: Mammal Research Institute, Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland, and Department of Zoology, University of Tartu, Estonia, as well as 5 partner institutions from 3 Eastern countries: A. N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Moscow, Russia; Research Institute of Game Management and Fur Farming, Kirov, Russia; Institute for Biological Problems of Cryolithozone, Yakutsk, Russian Federation; The Schmalhausen Institute of Zoology, Kiev, Ukraine; and Faculty of Life Sciences, Ilia Chavchavadze State University, Tbilisi, Georgia. In total, 91 exchange visits (typically, one-month long) are planned. Staff secondment is well balanced with 48 person-months from the EU to the Eastern countries, and 43 from the Eastern countries to the EU. Transfer of knowledge between the partners will also include regular seminars delivered by the seconded staff and two workshops. We expect that the results of the project will form a major contribution to our understanding of pan-European patterns and processes in mammalian biodiversity on the level of genetic variation. This is the first attempt of such a large-scale study in Eurasia.

Keywords: phylogeny,molecular genetics,biodiversity status and trends,causes and mechanisms of loss,population genetics,population biology,environmental biology
Perturbative Approaches to Gravitational Instability and Lensing in Cosmology (AGILE)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Intra-European Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: France
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-IEF-2008, 2008)
Start date: 2010-01-05
End date: 2012-01-04
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 168638.85
EU funding (EUR): 168638.85
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Observations of the large-scale structure of the Universe are one of the pillar supporting the standard cosmological model. Coming surveys are expected to shed new light on its still missing parts, such as the nature of dark energy and cosmic acceleration. They also can provide increasingly stringent tests of the inflationary paradigm offering a window on the high-energy physics that determined the early stages of the Universe. The unprecedented precision of future large-scale structure surveys however demands better accuracy in the modeling of the physics of gravitational instability. The purpose of this proposal is to extend our theoretical understanding of the formation of structures in the Universe, assessing the potentiality of new powerful perturbative techniques closely related to field-theoretical methods. Such tools will provide predictions for cosmological observables that will be able to match the precision of a wide variety of probes of the distant Universe such as cosmic shear and galaxies; furthermore, they will be complementary to and more flexible than computer simulations while allowing a more direct physical interpretation. Specifically, the goal is to obtain prescriptions for the matter power spectrum and bispectrum on a previously unaccessible wide range of physical scales. The results of this work will find immediate application to the analysis of data from ground-based surveys in development such as CFHT-LS and KIDS and will be even more important for forseen space-based missions such as DUNE.

Keywords: physics,cosmology,gravitation,field theory,large-scale structure of the universe,cosmic shear,weak lensing,inflation,dark energy
Determining the molecular basis for the formation of membrane nanotubes between immune cells (MEMBRANE NANOTUBES)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Intra-European Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-IEF-2008, 2008)
Start date: 2009-09-01
End date: 2010-08-31
Duration (months): 12.0
Total project cost (EUR): 91809.4
EU funding (EUR): 91809.4
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Recently, membrane nanotubes have been found to connect many types of cells, including cells of the immune system. These nanotubes contain actin filaments, are not attached to substrate, and are distinct from other cell tethers such as filopodia and membrane bridges. Potentially, specific coupling of cells over long distances can have great significance, and evidence is mounting to suggest that membrane nanotubes may have a role, e.g., in specific cell-to-cell signalling and trafficking of pathogens between cells. However, the molecular basis for the nanotubes formation is almost completely unknown. This is an urgent goal for research in this area since functional tests for the importance of membrane nanotubes are currently hampered by a lack of knowledge regarding specific ways to inhibit or augment nanotube formation. Thus, I aim to address this issue by answering three specific questions: 1) Does the formation of membrane nanotubes and filopodia require the same proteins? This will be assessed by knocking-down the production of proteins involved in filopodia formation, and observing the frequency of nanotube formation, their length, and their stability. In parallel I will test for the presence of these proteins in membrane nanotubes using mAb and/or fluorescent protein-tagged proteins as available. 2) Next I will test whether proteins known to be involved in the morphological changes the underlie immune cell spreading and contraction are required for the formation of the nanotubes. The effects of these proteins will be tested by knocking-down proteins and additionally, changes in cytoskeletal and membrane tension that are coupled to changes in cytoskeleton reorganization will be evaluated using optical tweezers. 3) Finally, I will test if the membrane protein and lipid composition in nanotubes is different from that in the rest of the cell surface membrane. If a specific composition is revealed, this may imply specific functions for the nanotube membrane.

Keywords: cell biology,immunology,membrane nanotubes,molecular biology
ADHESION AS A TOOL FOR IN-BUILT NANOTECHNOLOGY IN CEMENT-BASED MATERIALS (ADHCEM)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: International Incoming Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-IIF-2008, 2008)
Start date: 2010-01-01
End date: 2011-12-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 181350.76
EU funding (EUR): 181350.76
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The global cement industry produces 2.8 billion tones of product plus 1bn tones of CO2 and is increasing at 5% per annum, especially in developing nations. This is one of the largest CO2 producing industries which needs to improve the efficiency of its product to reduce global impact. Yet the understanding of the fundamental binding forces in cement is not clear. This project aims to study the nano-scale forces operating between the cement gel particles in order to produce more effective cement products, provided there is much of interest in linking phenomena occurring at the nano-scale with engineering performance at the macro-scale. The fellow’s expertise on the forces involved between nanoparticles with structured water on their surface will give an important insight in how to use the adhesive potential of water in cement-based materials. This should allow the designing of suitable cementitious microstructures containing nanometric particles, at present a very difficult task. Indeed, this is the first time that these interdisciplinary ideas of adhesion by confined water will be systematically explored in cement-based materials, including those used as biomaterials. To do so, this project will bring together the interdisciplinary concepts and techniques from nanoscience with examples from bioadhesion to define radical changes and applications. Ultimately, this project is timely and relevant because the European leading companies (cement-based service providers or manufacturers – four out of the world top five cement producers are European) are being pushed to offer sustainable materials as well as best mechanically tailored ones. The scientific benefit will be defined by the high quality papers submitted to leading academic adhesion and nanoscience journals. In turn, societal benefit will be gained by exporting the results to emerging countries where the economic development model needs urgently to respect the sustainability.

Keywords: adhesion,bioadhesion,nanoscience,confined water,cement-based materials,biomaterials,mechanical strength.
Novel catalytic reactions involving O-H bonds (HYDROXCAT)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: International Incoming Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Israel
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-IIF-2008, 2008)
Start date: 2009-04-01
End date: 2011-03-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 172969.9
EU funding (EUR): 172969.9
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Our group has recently discovered novel reactions catalyzed by pyridine-based pincer complexes of ruthenium, including dehydrogenation of alcohols to form esters and H2, hydrogenation of esters to alcohols under mild conditions and an unprecedented amide synthesis: catalytic coupling of amines with alcohols, with liberation of H2 (Science, 2007, 317, 790; C&amp;EN Aug 13, 2007, p. 10). The reactions are very efficient, proceed under neutral conditions and produce no waste. Our studies indicate that these reactions involve unprecedented cooperation between the metal and ligand by an aromatization-dearomatization of the pyridine core of the pincer system. We plan to (a) study the mechanism of the O-H activation step of alcohols by dearomatized PNP and PNN Ru complexes (d) develop mechanistic understanding of catalytic alcohol dehydrogenation to esters and catalytic amidation of alcohols with amines, and design superior pyridine-based pincer ligands for these reactions (e) prepare analogous iron complexes and study their reactivity and catalytic activity (f) develop new catalytic reactions based on alcohols, including dehydrogenative coupling reactions of aldehydes with alcohols, and aldehydes with amines, to form esters and amides, respectively, and anti-Markovnikov addition of water and to alkenes. This research is expected to lead to fundamental understanding of unprecedented organometallic transformations, and to novel, environmentally benign catalytic processes of industrial significance.

Keywords: homogeneous catalysis,alcohols,bond activation,amides,esters,dehydrogenation,metal complex
Learning Across Games (LAG)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Intra-European Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Netherlands
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-IEF-2008, 2008)
Start date: 2009-08-15
End date: 2011-08-14
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 152430.52
EU funding (EUR): 152430.52
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

In this proposal we aim to study the twin questions of a) how agents categorize decision problems (and in particular games) according to their similarity and b) how this categorization affects standard predictions in Game Theory. The most important contribution to the literature is that we endogenize the question of categorization, assuming that categorizations can be learned. Existing literature is characterized by making sometimes ad hoc assumptions on categorizations. Initial results have already shown that some of the key concepts used in Game Theory appear to be very fragile once the problem of categorization is introduced. We have also shown that many recent experimental results have a natural explanation in terms of learned categorizations. Possibly because of these results the research has already had quite some impact, reflected for example in a large number of seminar invitations. My personal background allows me to approach this issue in an interdisciplinary manner. Many cognitive scientists have been interested in the question of categorization and there are interesting applications even to Biology, in particular to the problem of genomic imprinting. Other applications in Economics concern bidding of firms in search or procurement auctions. Data from such applications can be used to test the theory. The project is executed at the Department of Economics at Maastricht University, in cooperation with an international group of top researchers working on closely related issues.

Keywords: microeconomics,game theory,experimental economics
Tracking the impact of Holocene environmental change on the population genetics and demographics of four Baltic seal species (BALTIC SEALS HISTORY)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Intra-European Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-IEF-2008, 2008)
Start date: 2009-09-07
End date: 2012-09-06
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 172434.64
EU funding (EUR): 172434.64
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Understanding how species were affected by past climate-induced environmental change is key to predicting the ecological consequences of future climate change. Ancient DNA-based studies have revealed complex Quaternary histories for mammalian populations, and raised new questions regarding the processes underlying the extinction of some species or populations and the survival of others. Here these questions will be addressed for four species of seals that have inhabited the Baltic Sea during the Holocene: the ringed seal Phoca hispida, the harbour seal Phoca vitulina, the grey seal Halichoerus grypus, and the harp seal Pagophilus groenlandicus. The Baltic seal populations have presumably been founded less than 8,000 years ago, with the exception of the ringed seal population, established about 10,000 years ago. The Baltic harp seals went extinct about 2,800 years ago, while the other species remain in the Baltic Sea until present. Genetic studies of contemporary Baltic seals suggest that they constitute demographically independent and evolutionarily significant units compared to other conspecific populations, which makes them a useful model to study past population dynamics. The aim of the project is to test the hypothesis that distinctive life histories led to substantial differences in the long-term dynamics of genetic and demographic changes between closely related species inhabiting the same changing environment. This will be achieved through: (1) reconstructing demographic and genetic changes in each population during the Holocene using ancient DNA techniques and coalescent models; (2) comparing the population dynamics of the four species in the context of climate-induced environmental change, human exploitation, and their life histories; (3) reconstructing the evolutionary process leading to the extinction of the Baltic harp seal. These data will facilitate the development of predictive models of the impact of future climate change on the extant Baltic seals.

Keywords: population genetics,extinction,palaeozoology,marine ecosystems (climate change),evolutionary biology,animal ecology,population biology,ecological genetics,conservation biology
Development of a framework for managing uncertain decisions in agricultural and environmental policies – Towards an integrated policy for decision-making support in rural areas (RURAL DECISIONS)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: International Outgoing Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Germany
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-IOF-2008, 2008)
Start date: 2009-06-01
End date: 2012-07-31
Duration (months): 38.0
Total project cost (EUR): 232684.02
EU funding (EUR): 232684.02
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Current political and scientific debates are focused on finding a long-term policy beneficial both for environment and economy in rural areas in the EU member states. The proposed research project aims to methodologically reinforce these efforts and to contribute to development of an integrated policy for decision-making support in rural areas in an interdisciplinary process. The objective of the research is to develop a methodological framework integrating uncertain economic and ecological aspects in multiobjective decision-support systems in agricultural and environmental policies for Germany, Poland, and the U.S. Several analyses have been undertaken on multicriteria decision-making approaches and the problems of uncertainty in the European Union in different disciplines. However, most of them are focused on illustrating relations between them and comparing them. With the proposed research, the existing uncertainties will be directly incorporated in decision-support systems while uncertain and fuzzy information provided by experts will be firstly operationalised by means of the PROMETHEE approach. In order to progressively evaluate political problems an integrative programming model will be constructed to integrate fuzzy information as well as game theory to consider interactive decision-making between political stakeholders. The project will provide a novel, original and sustainable scientific tool for practical implementation to improve policy evaluation and design and to alleviate interactive decision-making processes in rural areas in the European countries. Thereby, an existing scientific gap in policy evaluation and in supporting political decision-making processes in rural areas in Europe can be filled, improving European scientific competitiveness and excellence in the researched field. The fellowship will be pivotal for the scientific progress of the researcher, reaching professional maturity and for preparing for the independent scientific career.

Keywords: social sciences,agricultural economics,environmental economics,policy of rural areas,decision-making support,evaluation
Polymer conjugation of peptides/salmon calcitonin for increased efficacy (WBAWBA)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Intra-European Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-IEF-2008, 2008)
Start date: 2009-09-14
End date: 2011-09-13
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 182484.78
EU funding (EUR): 182484.78
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

This project is concerned with the development of a new peptide conjugation strategy which has the potential to overcome the limitations of the, commercially successful, conventional pegylation with linear polymers. In addition it will explore the application of single electron transfer living radical polymerization (SET-LRP) for this purpose. Project Objectives 1. Synthesis and characterization of α-functional comb polymers by living radical polymerization 2. Hydrolysis studies of polymers and polymer conjugates 3. Evaluation of SET-LRP for synthesis of conjugates 4. Conjugation of polymers to salmon calcitonin 5. Purification and isolation of conjugates 6. Gastric peptide stability testing 7. Use of tryptic digestion to confirm conjugation site(s) 8. In vitro cAMP bio assays for sCT activity

Keywords: chemistry,polymer chemistry,macromolecular chemistry
EFFECTS OF LAND COVER CHANGE AND LAND ABANDONMENT ON SEDIMENT YIELD IN SEMIARID MEDITERRANEAN CATCHMENTS USING REMOTE SENSING, GIS AND FIELD TECHNIQUES (SEDIMED)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Intra-European Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Belgium
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-IEF-2008, 2008)
Start date: 2010-02-01
End date: 2012-01-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 160123.71
EU funding (EUR): 160123.71
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The focus of this research project is to quantify the effect of historical land use/-cover change on erosion by combining conventional geomorphic methods, remote sensing and innovative geochemical techniques. The Western Mediterranean region is the core region of this project, as it was identified by the United Nations as one of the regions mostly affected by desertification in Europe. Its main objective is to provide quantitative data on the historical evolution of erosion processes in relation to past and present land use/-cover change in the Western Mediterranean region. Data collected in the project on the anthropogenic acceleration/deceleration of erosion will contribute to a better understanding of desertification in the Western Mediterranean region. Furthermore, the expertise that will be developed in this research project will allow placing present land degradation processes in their historical context.

Keywords: erosion processes,desertification,human impact,remote sensing,10be,denudation rates.