Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Next generation banking tools for the blockchain economy (Bitwala)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Industrial Leadership
Programme: Innovation in SMEs
Action type: SME instrument
Countries involved: Germany
Call: SME instrument (H2020-SMEInst-2018-2020-1, 2018)
Start date: 2019-02-01
End date: 2019-05-31
Duration (months): 4.0
Total project cost (EUR): 71429.0
EU funding (EUR): 50000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The cryptocurrency-economy is soaring and industries in multiple countries around the world are emerging to offer businesses and individuals the services they need to make the most out of this new financial frontier. To put things in context, in March 2018, over $6.2 billion in Bitcoin was exchanged, an increase of 17.6x compared to the previous year, while in April 2018 the Chinese authorities announced a €1.3 billion fund for blockchain innovation. European startups are striving to lead this innovation as well: Bitwala is a German fintech company that has built a first-of-its-kind next generation bank account with crypto features. We bridge the gap between the crypto and fiat currency worlds by offering customers a fully licensed bank account with blockchain and cryptocurrency functions. European businesses will benefit by having access to the necessary infrastructure needed to start using cryptocurrencies to optimize their cross-border money transfers, explore different financial instruments and pave the way to start offering additional services to their customers. This also benefits European citizens, who have a safe infrastructure to invest in cryptocurrencies through a fully regulated bank account that offers a regular deposit insurance of €100,000 (and in the future a deposit insurance for crypto assets). In 2014 we founded Safaru B.V, a legal entity from which the Bitwala brand operated, transferring over €75 million for 78,000 business and private users from 120 countries around the world until end of 2017. In order to accommodate a shift in regulations, Bitwala pivoted in January 2018 to become a full crypto bank, signing a contract with a German white label bank (solarisBank AG) which provides the necessary legal umbrella. In 2020 Bitwala plans to offer other cost-effective blockchain-based assets (e.g. real estate, gold, stocks) that are not available to the general public due to high administration costs.

Keywords: blockchain,crypto,digital asset,money transfer
Revealing novel molecular mechanisms linking DNA replication and cell fate decisions (RepDiff)

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: Denmark
Call: Individual Fellowships (H2020-MSCA-IF-2018, 2018)
Start date: 2020-01-01
End date: 2021-12-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 219312.0
EU funding (EUR): 219312.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

All cells in our body share the same genetic information. Cellular identity is determined by epigenetic mechanisms, which control gene expression. Replicating cells should accurately replicate their DNA sequence and copy their epigenetic profile to maintain their identity. DNA replication entails the disruption of the chromatin organization ahead of the replication fork and its restoration behind it. When cells change their identity in either normal development or abnormal processes as cancer, they undergo epigenetic reconfiguration, which defines their new identity. Recent works have revealed a time gap between DNA replication and epigenetic state restoration of many chromatin regulation layers. I hypothesize that the time until chromatin restoration post DNA replication provides a ‘window of opportunity’ for transcription factors and chromatin regulators to bind otherwise inaccessible areas and to facilitate chromatin reconfiguration and that pluripotent cells have specialized chromatin replication proteins, which preserve their high epigenetic plasticity. To test this hypothesis, I will join the lab of Prof. Anja Groth, a leading expert in the mechanisms controlling chromatin replication. Together with my expertise in stem cells and reprogramming, I will address this question with two sequential steps. I will use a cutting edge, quantitative proteomics method in which nascent DNA is affinity purified and its associated proteins are analyzed by mass-spectrometry (NCC-SILAC). I will use this discovery tool to define the proteins dynamically associated with nascent chromatin in pluripotent cells and cells that undergo cell fate transitions. I will then investigate proteins predicted to effect chromatin restoration/reconfiguration to dissect their functional role. This work has the potential to reveal a mechanistic link between DNA replication and cell fate decision and thus significantly contribute to the fields of development, stem cells, and cancer.

Keywords: chromatin replication,nascent dna
Predicting future methane fluxes from Northern lakes (METLAKE)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Consolidator grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Earth system science
Panel description: Physical geography, geology, geophysics, atmospheric sciences, oceanography, climatology, cryology, ecology, global environmental change, biogeochemical cycles, natural resources management
Countries involved: Sweden
Call: ERC Consolidator Grant (ERC-2016-COG, 2016)
Start date: 2017-04-01
End date: 2022-12-31
Duration (months): 69.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2000000.0
EU funding (EUR): 2000000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The new global temperature goal calls for reliable quantification of present and future greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, including climate feedbacks. Non-CO2 GHGs, with methane (CH4) being the most important, represent a large but highly uncertain component in global GHG budget. Lakes are among the largest natural sources of CH4 but our understanding of lake CH4 fluxes is rudimentary. Lake emissions are not yet routinely monitored, and coherent, spatially representative, long-term datasets are rare which hamper accurate flux estimates and predictions. METLAKE aims to improve our ability to quantify and predict lake CH4 emissions. Major goals include: (1) the development of robust validated predictive models suitable for use at the lake rich northern latitudes where large climate changes are anticipated in the near future, (2) the testing of the idea that appropriate consideration of spatiotemporal scaling can greatly facilitate generation of accurate yet simple predictive models, (3) to reveal and quantify detailed flux regulation patterns including spatiotemporal interactions and response times to environmental change, and (4) to pioneer novel use of sensor networks and near ground remote sensing with a new hyperspectral CH4 camera suitable for large-scale high resolution CH4 measurements. Extensive field work based on optimized state-of-the-art approaches will generate multi-scale and multi-system data, supplemented by experiments, and evaluated by data analyses and modelling approaches targeting effects of scaling on model performance. Altogether, METLAKE will advance our understanding of one of the largest natural CH4 sources, and provide us with systematic tools to predict future lake emissions. Such quantification of feedbacks on natural GHG emissions is required to move beyond state-of-the-art regarding global GHG budgets and to estimate the mitigation efforts needed to reach global climate goals.
PRevention Of Malnutrition In Senior Subjects in the EU (PROMISS)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Societal Challenges
Programme: Food security, sustainable agriculture and forestry, marine and maritime and inland water research and the bioeconomy
Action type: Research and Innovation actions
Countries involved: Iceland,Germany,Spain,Austria,Belgium,Belgium,Belgium,Finland,Sweden,Belgium,Netherlands,Netherlands,Netherlands,Netherlands,Netherlands,Netherlands,Netherlands,Luxembourg,Denmark,United Kingdom,Canada,United Kingdom
Call: Tackling malnutrition in the elderly (H2020-SFS-2015-2, 2015)
Start date: 2016-04-01
End date: 2021-07-31
Duration (months): 64.0
Total project cost (EUR): 6915506.25
EU funding (EUR): 6915506.25
Participants: 26
Project status: CLOSED

PROMISS (PRevention Of Malnutrition In Senior Subjects in the EU) is a multi-country project aiming to turn the challenge of tackling malnutrition in community-dwelling older persons into an opportunity for healthy ageing for the future. The PROMISS consortium contains worldwide expertise in epidemiology, clinical trials, geriatrics, nutrition, physical activity, microbiomics, as well as in behaviour, consumer, sensory and computer sciences. It builds on strong collaborations with food industry and SMEs to strengthen innovation of the European agri-food sector and their market position. Existing data from scientifically well-established prospective aging cohorts and national nutritional surveys from Europe and ‘third countries’ will be combined with new data from short- and long-term intervention studies in older persons at risk. Its holistic approach will provide insight in the causality of the links between diet, physical activity, appetite and malnutrition and underlying pathways, thereby providing the necessary evidence to develop optimal, sustainable and evidence-based dietary and physical activity strategies to prevent malnutrition and enhance active and healthy aging. PROMISS will also deliver food concepts and products as well as persuasive technology to support adherence to these strategies. The dietary and physical activity strategies and food products will be specifically developed with older user involvement to meet the needs and fit the preferences of older consumers. In close collaboration with stakeholders, PROMISS will translate these strategies into practical recommendations to guide policy and health professionals at EU- and Member States level. Dissemination and implementation takes place through strong dissemination partners operating on an European level and linked to national networks across Member States. PROMISS promises prevention of malnutrition, additional healthy life years and a strengthening of EU’s food industry

Keywords: undernutrition
Development of biomaterials through mimesis of plant defensive interfaces to fight wound infections (MIMESIS)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Consolidator grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Biotechnology and Biosystems Engineering
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: Portugal
Call: ERC Consolidator Grant (ERC-2014-CoG, 2014)
Start date: 2015-09-01
End date: 2022-02-28
Duration (months): 78.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1795967.5
EU funding (EUR): 1795967.5
Participants: 2
Project status: CLOSED

Fighting microbial infection of wounds, especially in immunocompromised patients, is a major challenge in the 21st century. The skin barrier is the primary defence against microbial (opportunistic) pathogens. When this barrier is breached even non-pathogenic fungi may cause devastating infections, most of which provoked by crossover fungi able to infect both plant and humans. Hence, diabetic patients (ca. 6.4% of the world population), who are prone to develop chronic non-healing wounds, constitute a major risk group. My research is driven by the vision of mimicking the functionality of plant polyesters to develop wound dressing biomaterials that combine antimicrobial and skin regeneration properties. Land plants have evolved through more than 400 million years, developing defence polyester barriers that limit pathogen adhesion and invasion. Biopolyesters are ubiquitous in plants and are the third most abundant plant polymer. The unique chemical composition of the plant polyester and its macromolecular assembly determines its physiological roles. This lipid-based polymer shows important similarities to the epidermal skin layer; hence it is an excellent candidate for a wound-dressing material. While evidences of their skin regeneration properties exist in cosmetics formulations and in traditional medicine, extracting polyesters from plants results in the loss of both native structure and inherent barrier properties hampering progress in this area. We have developed a biocompatible extraction method that preserves the plant polyester film forming abilities and their inherent biological properties. The ex-situ reconstituted polyester films display the native barrier properties, including potentially broad antimicrobial and anti-biofouling effect. This, combined with our established record in fungal biochemistry/genetics, places us in a unique position to push the development of plant polyester materials to be applied in wounds, in particular diabetic chronic wounds.

Keywords: plant polyester materials,filamentous fungi,antimicrobial and anti biofouling surfaces,molecular genetics and chemistry,wounds
Generating Energy from Electroactive Algae (GREEN)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Products and processes engineering
Panel description: Product and process design, chemical, civil, environmental, mechanical, vehicle engineering, energy processes and relevant computational methods
Countries involved: Portugal
Call: ERC STARTING GRANTS (ERC-2020-STG, 2020)
Start date: 2021-01-01
End date: 2025-12-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2267667.0
EU funding (EUR): 2267667.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

The aim of this grant is to establish a world leading research centre focusing on developing a radically different way to generate clean energy from algae. GREEN will deliver a self-sustainable bioenergy generator, with an output power of the order of W/m2 that is at least 100 times larger than current state-of-art bioenergy generators. The unprecedented enhancement in output power finally breaks the power scalability barrier for bioenergy generators and in this way delivers impact on the world’s renewable energy research trajectory. I have recently discovered that a population of diatoms, a form of algae, communicate in a cooperative manner and produce long lasting large magnitude electrical oscillations. The discovery has been made possible through my recent breakthrough - I have developed a large area and low impedance transducer to record cooperative communication in cells. My idea is to harvest the generated electricity from the algae. Using 2D electrodes, the output power is µW/m2, which is low. However, the power increases with the density of diatoms adhered to the electrode and with the electrical coupling of the cells to the electrode. By going from a 2D to porous 3D electrodes, and by optimizing the coupling an output power of W/m2 is within my reach. To deliver the new bioenergy generator, it is essential to understand 1) which materials and 3D electrode geometries comprise larger cell densities and enable a more efficient charge transfer from the living organisms to the electrode 2) which organisms provide the higher output powers, and 3) how the electric circuitry will be developed to store and deliver the generated power. This multidisciplinary research will advance the state-of-the-art by delivering a prototype for a new green self-sustained energy harvester, suitable for power scalability, through realising technological advances in 1) electrochemical electrodes, 2) cooperative signalling mechanisms in algae and 3) energy harvesting circuits.

Keywords: bioelectronics
Flavour Anomalies with advanced particle Identification MEthods (FAIME)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Advanced grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Fundamental constituents of matter
Panel description: Particle, nuclear, plasma, atomic, molecular, gas, and optical physics
Countries involved: Slovenia
Call: ERC Advanced Grant (ERC-2019-ADG, 2019)
Start date: 2020-10-01
End date: 2025-09-30
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2732275.0
EU funding (EUR): 1952107.0
Participants: 2
Project status: SIGNED

In the proposed research, precision measurements of rare processes involving heavy quarks and leptons will be used to search for new phenomena beyond the Standard Model, popularly known as New Physics. This research at the intensity frontier is complementary to searches at the highest achievable energies carried out at the LHC proton-proton collider. Indications of very interesting discrepancies have recently been observed by three experiments (LHCb, BaBar, and Belle) between their results and predictions of the Standard Model in certain classes of decays of B mesons, which involve leptons in the final state. The proposed project will address these issues by using large event samples collected with the Belle II detector at a new electron-positron collider, SuperKEKB. By investigating a broad range of selected rare decays of B and D, the project will attempt to provide a definite answer on the violation of Lepton Flavour Universality, one of the cornerstones of our current understanding of the interactions among the elementary particles. Based on the results of these studies, the final stages of the project will be devoted to possible explanations and to studies of transitions that would be based on related new physics phenomena. Within the proposed research programme, novel, highly advanced identification methods for charged particles will also be developed. They will be of crucial importance to suppress backgrounds arising from other, much more abundant decays in measurements of rare processes where the sensitivity to a possible contribution of New Physics is largest. The proposed research will strongly benefit from the fact that the same group that contributed substantially to the physics programme, concept, design, and construction of the detector, will also carry out the development of novel analysis methods, their calibration and optimization for individual reactions.

Keywords: flavour physics,flavour anomalies,lepton universality,belle ii,superkekb
Active implants: Engineering microstructures of functional ceramics for stimulated bone growth (Active implants)

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: Information Science and Engineering
Countries involved: Norway
Call: Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF-EF) (H2020-MSCA-IF-2014, 2014)
Start date: 2015-09-01
End date: 2017-08-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 208400.4
EU funding (EUR): 208400.4
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The aim of this study is to develop piezoelectric ceramics for the use as bone replacement materials utilizing their piezoelectric behaviour to stimulate bone and vascular cell growth. The work is based on the finding that mechanical and electrical stimuli exert a strong influence on the osseogenesis on the cellular level. As piezoelectric ceramics develop electric surface charges under mechanical load it is expected that they accelerate the healing process and support the development of a strong bond between bone and implant. The quality of bone and vascular ingrowth is determined by various factors such as biocompatibility of the replacement material, surface morphology and electric surface states. Especially the porosity of the ceramic is of crucial importance as the pores have to be large enough and of open structure to allow ingrowth of both bone and vascular cells. However, increasing porosity is likely to alter the local piezoelectric behaviour and by this the local surface charges responsible for cell growth stimulation. To pave the way for the development of piezoelectric implants it is crucial to understand the influence of microstructural features such as porosity and grain size on the piezoelectric properties. I will approach this task by developing biocompatible ceramics with a wide range of microstructural characteristics. I will investigate the influence of porosity and grain size on a macroscopic scale using piezoelectric testing techniques, on a mesoscopic scale employing Piezo Force Microscopy and on the structural scale via diffraction studies. The biocompatibility as well as the influence of the piezoelectric behaviour on the osseogenesis will be clarified by in-vitro cell experiments on unpoled and electrically poled ceramics. The knowledge gained will form the basis for the development of a new class of implant materials exploiting the piezoelectric characteristics to improve the healing process and to create long lasting interfacial bonds.

Keywords: ceramics,microstructure,piezoelectricity bicompatibility
Preventing Chronic wound infections with a novel, antibiotic Wound Irrigation Solution; relieving patients from pain, risk of amputations and ensuring large cost savings for all Healthcare Systems. (WoundRinse)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Industrial Leadership
Programme: Innovation in SMEs
Action type: SME instrument
Countries involved: Norway
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

Today, 40 million people globally live with chronic wounds. In addition to elevated pain, suffering and reduced quality of life for these patients, the direct cost for the national health systems of treating chronic wounds amounts to €47,8 Bn in UK and USA alone. Totally this corresponds to around €180 Bn per year globally. Frost & Sullivan (2017) estimates the total wound care product market to be €10 Bn. In total, biofilm infections represent 80% of all human infections and facilitate the development of antimicrobial resistance. All wounds are susceptible to microbial colonization and subsequent development of biofilm infections. SoftOx’ innovative Wound Irrigation Solution (WIS) is based on a combination of two highly active chemical agents with antimicrobial properties. The solution effectively stops microbial colonization and prevent biofilm formations in wounds, and thus enables the immune defense to regain control of the wound healing process. The proposed approach is based on successfully stabilizing hypochlorous acid with our patented production process and mixing device. Current SoA is not as effective in preventing biofilm infections without having adverse effects on the host. Our aim is to develop a clinically proven wound Irrigation Solution with antimicrobial effect and wound tolerability superior to all SoA products in the market.

Keywords: wound care,infections,biofilm