Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Developing a Fibrosis Targeting and Tissue Reparative (FiTTeR) Therapy for the Infarcted Myocardium via an Injectable Functionalized Extracellular Matrix Hydrogel (FiTTeR)

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
Call: Individual Fellowships (H2020-MSCA-IF-2016, 2016)
Start date: 2017-08-21
End date: 2019-08-20
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 195454.8
EU funding (EUR): 195454.8
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

As a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow, I will develop, characterize, and determine the efficacy of a biomaterial platform to target pathologic fibrosis and promote tissue repair following myocardial infarction (MI). I have an ideal background and will perform well in this project based on my expertise in extracellular matrix (ECM) derived biomaterials, characterizing the immune response to biomaterials, and evaluating in vivo outcomes. The proposed system will consist of a protein fragment tethered to an injectable hydrogel. The hydrogel carrier will be composed of ECM, which has been shown to facilitate tissue repair processes by local modulation of immune cell phenotype . The cryptic protein fragment, recently isolated and recombinantly produced by the Stevens Group , has gained attention for its ability to regulate the onset of fibrosis by interfacing with cells to abrogate the release of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs). No therapies currently exist to prevent or mitigate fibrosis. Developing a sophisticated delivery system for a cryptic protein fragment will enable the broad potential of targeting pathologic fibrosis to be realized. This system will be advantageous in simultaneously providing localized delivery, combined immunomodulatory and regulatory properties of the ECM and recombinant protein fragment, and sustained release of the protein fragment during degradation of the ECM hydrogel. The combination of my expertise (in ECM hydrogels, characterizing the host response to biomaterials, and translating technologies) and Prof Molly Stevens’s supervision and world-class interdisciplinary biomaterials-focused group, the 2014 Research Group of the Year (European Life Science Awards), at Imperial College London (ICL), together make this project ideally suited for success.

Keywords: extracellular matrix,myocardial infarction,fibrosis,cell biomaterial interactions,tissue engineering
Tools And Strategies to access to original bioactive compounds from Cultivation of MARine invertebrates and associated symbionts (TASCMAR)

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: Israel,Germany,Spain,Italy,Italy,Greece,Thailand,Sweden,Greece,France,France,France
Call: Novel marine derived biomolecules and industrial biomaterials (H2020-BG-2014-2, 2014)
Start date: 2015-04-01
End date: 2019-09-30
Duration (months): 54.0
Total project cost (EUR): 6758452.5
EU funding (EUR): 6755950.25
Participants: 13
Project status: CLOSED

TASCMAR project aspires to develop new tools and strategies in order to overcome existing bottlenecks in the biodiscovery and industrial exploitation of novel marine derived biomolecules (secondary metabolites and enzymes) with applications in the pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals, cosmeceuticals and fine chemicals industries. Exploitation of neglected and underutilized marine invertebrates and symbionts from mesophotic zone will be combined with innovative approaches for the cultivation and extraction of marine organisms from lab to pilot-scale, using the unique prototypes Platotex™ and Zippertex™, both reaching the Technology Readiness Level 7. Thus, marine dedicated cultivation and extraction equipment will be built and validated. These unique improvements will ensure sustainable supply of biomass and promote the production of high added value bioactive marine compounds. An integrated, holistic technological metabolomic approach will be applied, in conjunction with bioactivity profiling, as filtering and bio-prioritisation tools. Moreover, state-of-the-art analytical instrumentation and in-house databases will be employed for the dereplication and characterization of valuable compounds. A panel of libraries (marine organisms, extracts, pure metabolites and biocatalysts) will be constructed and exploited throughout the project. A focused panel of in-vitro, cell-based, in-ovo and in-vivo bioassays for discovering metabolites with anti-ageing and/or angiogenesis modulating activity will frame the entire work-flow and will reveal the lead compounds. In addition, the catalytic potential of mesophotic symbionts and deriving enzymes candidates will be evaluated in fine chemicals and bioremediation industries. The project activities will be constantly assessed via effective management for their societal, economical and environmental impact in order to find the best compromise between industrial development and sustainable growth.

Keywords: natural products,cosmeceuticals,pharmaceuticals,nutraceuticals,ageing,angiogenesis
Laughing together: the role of laughter and interpersonal synchrony in bonding and cooperation (LaughingTogether)

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: Austria
Call: Individual Fellowships (H2020-MSCA-IF-2020, 2020)
Start date: 2022-02-01
End date: 2024-04-02
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 174167.04
EU funding (EUR): 174167.04
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Humans start laughing very early in their life, in response to tickle, play, or humor. Laughter is contagious, and seems to play an important role in bonding: Laughing together makes people feel closer to each other and facilitates cooperation. However, despite its pervasiveness and significance in human life, a deep understanding of the function of laughter and the mechanisms linking it to bonding, is still lacking. Being a positively valenced, rhythmic audiovisual social signal, laughter possesses all the necessary characteristics to induce interpersonal synchrony between people. Interpersonal synchrony facilitates cooperative action and increases affiliation, rapport and prosocial behavior. Thus, it might be the core mechanism making laughter an effective bonding tool. Such a mechanism might be in place from early on in the course of human development and play an important role in establishing the first important peer relationships in early childhood. This project aims at unveiling the functional mechanisms of laughing together, using a developmental social neuroscience approach and combining behavioral, autonomic and neural measures to investigate social laughter in adults and children. The results will clarify the role of laughter in social interactions, and pave the way for new lines of research and applications.

Keywords: laughter,interpersonal synchrony,bonding,cooperation,preschool,fnirs
Shape Adaptive Blades for Rotorcraft Efficiency (SABRE)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Societal Challenges
Programme: Smart, green and integrated transport
Action type: Research and Innovation actions
Countries involved: Germany,Germany,Italy,Netherlands,United Kingdom,United Kingdom
Call: Reducing energy consumption and environmental impact of aviation (H2020-MG-2016-Two-Stages, 2016)
Start date: 2017-06-01
End date: 2021-05-31
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 6033398.75
EU funding (EUR): 6033398.75
Participants: 6
Project status: CLOSED

Shape Adaptive Blades for Rotorcraft Efficiency (SABRE) will develop ground-breaking new helicopter blade morphing technologies which will reduce helicopter fuel burn, CO2 and NOx emissions by 5-10%, while also reducing noise emissions. SABRE will help Europe achieve its ambitious aviation emissions goals while also sharpening its competitive edge in the rapidly growing international helicopter market. It will achieve this ambitious objective by removing one of the most fundamental limitations on helicopter performance: the need for rotor blades to have a single fixed geometry which is inherently a compromise between widely different operating conditions. SABRE envisions shape adaptive blades which can continuously change their shape to optimise performance in all conditions. SABRE has a tightly cross-linked, dual stream research approach with emissions-focused rotor performance analysis running concurrently with morphing technology development. The analysis stream will combine comprehensive rotor analysis, high-fidelity aerodynamic and structural solvers, detailed morphing mechanism models, and emissions models, creating the most detailed, transdisciplinary, and comprehensive model of its type. The technology development stream will mature a selected group of novel, beyond state-of-the-art, helicopter focused morphing concepts through a carefully considered program of modelling, design and experimental testing efforts. The achievable performance of the morphing concepts will be fed back into the emissions analysis, and the analysis stream will guide the development of the technologies towards configurations which minimize emissions. SABRE is highly ambitious in both its objectives and its approach. The project has strong industry support, and brings together the ideal consortium to achieve its objectives; with world-leading experts in rotorcraft and morphing structures backed up by a clear project plan, robust management procedures, and excellent facilities.

Keywords: helicopters,emissions,morphing,adaptive,comprehensive rotor analysis,experimental testing
Multiscale chemical engineering of functional metal halides (SCALE-HALO)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Consolidator 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: Switzerland
Call: ERC Consolidator Grant (ERC-2018-COG, 2018)
Start date: 2019-06-01
End date: 2024-05-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1999950.0
EU funding (EUR): 1999950.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

SCALE-HALO proposes a research program that will advance the development of highly luminescent molecular and solid-state compounds by focusing on the emerging, vast, and rather underexplored compositional and structural spaces comprised of metals and halogens, i.e., metal halides (MHs). SCALE-HALO is motivated by the eventual utility of MHs as versatile photonic sources in modern appliances (e.g., displays and lighting) and in future quantum technologies. The recent success of lead halide perovskites in optoelectronics inspires broader exploration of the chemistry and photophysics of MHs. The clear objective is to determine factors controlling the spectral widths and emission peak wavelengths, Stokes shifts, radiative lifetimes, and quantum efficiencies. In addition to the need to discover new chemically robust and nontoxic MH emitters, there is also a critical need to engineer material morphologies suitable for specific applications (e.g., thin films, nanocrystals, composites, etc.) Ensuring the thermal and environmental stabilities are especially important efforts. SCALE-HALO will therefore encompass the chemical engineering of MHs at the atomic scale (e.g., new compounds), nanoscale (e.g., synthesis of nanostructures and their surface chemistry), and mesoscale (e.g., nanostructure superlattices and composites). Furthermore, modern exploratory syntheses will be accelerated with automated high-throughput methods (e.g., robotics and microfluidics). The characterization toolbox for probing the local atomistic structure will be expanded with multinuclear NMR spectroscopy. The individual and collective optical properties of MH nanostructures and their periodic assemblies will be established and rationalized. Toward diverse real-world applications, first trials will be undertaken to evaluate the potentials of novel MH materials for LCD displays, solid-state lighting and light-emitting diodes.

Keywords: luminescence,synthesis,surface functionalization,structure determination
Unveiling the mitochondrial role of DNA2, a human helicase-nuclease causing mtDNA deletion associated syndrome. (MITOQUAD)

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: Individual Fellowships (H2020-MSCA-IF-2016, 2016)
Start date: 2018-01-01
End date: 2019-12-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 185857.2
EU funding (EUR): 185857.2
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Multiple deletions in mtDNA give rise to a variety of neuromuscular symptoms, often associated with genetic inherited disorders and aging and they have been reported in patients with neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases. In spite of its medical importance, not much is yet known about the mechanisms by which mtDNA deletions are formed. Progressive external ophtalmoplegia (PEO) is one of the conditions characterized by the accumulation of mtDNA deletions. This disease is caused by mutations in components of the mtDNA replication machinery, like the DNA polymerase γ (POLγ) and the replicative helicase TWINKLE. Recently, also the helicase-nuclease DNA2 has been found mutated in patients affected by this disorder. The precise function of human DNA2 (hDNA2) has remained elusive. hDNA2 localizes to mitochondria and has the biochemical properties to process four-stranded DNA structure (G-quadruplexes). Interestingly, G-quadruplex DNA associates with mtDNA deletions formation in human diseases. To dissect the mitochondrial role of hDNA2, I will focus on the mechanism of hDNA2 recruitment to mtDNA. Then I will address the role of DNA2 in mitochondria metabolism and in G-quadruplexes mtDNA metabolism and I will characterize the consequences of disease-associated mutations in DNA2 gene. I will employ a range of in vitro (based on recombinant protein) and in vivo (inducible cell systems and yeast model). The clarification of the hDNA2 mitochondrial biological function will help to elucidate the mechanism by which mtDNA deletions are formed in mitochondrial disorders. Moreover, MITOQUAD project will lead to a deeper understanding of how mtDNA integrity is maintained, a relevant question for understanding the early development and progress of a large number of mitochondrial disorders, in order to treat or prevent their occurrence.

Keywords: dna2,progressive external ophtalmoplegia,mitochondrial dna replication,mtdna deletions,g quadruplexes
How do chiral superconductors break time-reversal symmetry? – Kerr spectroscopy study (Kerr)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Advanced grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Condensed matter physics
Panel description: Structure, electronic properties, fluids, nanosciences, biological physics
Countries involved: Estonia
Call: ERC Advanced Grant (ERC-2019-ADG, 2019)
Start date: 2021-07-01
End date: 2026-06-30
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2489976.0
EU funding (EUR): 2489976.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Unconventional superconductivity is extensively sought for in contemporary research. Of particular interest are chiral superconductors which possess non-trivial topological properties resulting in superconducting (SC) order parameters (OPs) that may break time-reversal symmetry (TRS). The possibility of applications to topological quantum computation have placed such materials at the forefront of condensed matter research. Recent measurements of the polar Kerr effect (PKE), in which a rotation of polarization is detected for a beam of light reflected from the surface of a superconductor, have emerged as a key experimental probe of TRS breaking. Here we propose the development of a new generation of spectroscopic instrumentation for the PKE spectroscopy in the sub-THz frequency range, the energy scale that is comparable with the SC gap magnitude of unconventional superconductors. The THz range PKE spectroscopy will enable to study the broken symmetries, the origin of unconventional pairing, the in-gap collective modes, and the structures of the SC OPs. We plan to measure the PKE at sub-THz frequencies and with sub-milli-radian angular resolution from a variety of unconventional superconductors that are cooled to 100 mK, deep into SC state. The aim is to understand the basic mechanisms leading to unconventional superconductivity in these systems in order to find answers to the fundamental questions, such as: What is the structure of the SC gap in Sr2RuO4, URu2Si2, and UPt3? Is the TRS broken in (a) the Hidden Order state and in (b) SC state of URu2Si2? Which symmetries are broken at the transition from the HO state into the unconventional SC state? – and to elucidate the microscopic origin of superconductivity in the new families of unconventional superconductors. In a broader view, the project will keep Estonian physics on the forefront of science through new scientific contacts and will promote physics education by engaging students and postdocs in the research.

Keywords: thz spectroscopy,polar kerr effect,unconventional,chiral superconductors,time reversal symmetry breaking
Moonshine and String Theory (MST)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Fundamental constituents of matter
Panel description: Particle, nuclear, plasma, atomic, molecular, gas, and optical physics
Countries involved: Netherlands
Call: ERC Starting Grant (ERC-2014-STG, 2014)
Start date: 2015-09-01
End date: 2021-02-28
Duration (months): 66.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1256624.0
EU funding (EUR): 1256624.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The purpose of the proposed research is to forward the understanding of the umbral moonshine discovered recently by myself. I plan to study it in the context of string theory. Moreover, I aim to use this new discovery to gain a deeper understanding of certain fundamental aspects of the theory. The term moonshine refers to the astonishing and puzzling relation between functions with special symmetries (modular properties) and finite groups. The novel type of moonshine involves the so-called mock modular forms, and was first noticed in the study of K3 surfaces. In a recent paper I constructed 23 instances of such a new "umbral moonshine" phenomenon in a completely uniform way using the 23 special lattices classified by Niemeier as the starting point, and thereby provided the general framework in which this paradigm should be studied. From a physical point of view, it is well-known that K3 surfaces play a crucial role in not only the specific constructions of compactifications but also the fundamental dualities in string theory. Hence, the new quantum symmetries of K3 surfaces, as suggested by umbral moonshine, will have a wide range of important implications for string theory. Moreover, I believe the solution of the moonshine puzzle will lead to a new understanding of the long sought-after algebraic structure of the supersymmetric (or BPS) spectrum of supersymmetric quantum theories. More ambitiously, I aim to draw lessons from these special theories with large symmetries to shed light on the structure of the "landscape" of string theory vacua. From a mathematical point of view, to understand and to prove such a mysterious and beautiful relation would be a triumph in its own right. Moreover, the development of umbral moonshine will undoubtedly lead to new important results in the study automorphic forms, K3 geometry, and extended algebras.

Keywords: string theory,moonshine
Computational Analysis of Everyday Soundscapes (EVERYSOUND)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — 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: Finland
Call: ERC Starting Grant (ERC-2014-STG, 2014)
Start date: 2015-05-01
End date: 2020-04-30
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1500000.0
EU funding (EUR): 1500000.0
Participants: 2
Project status: CLOSED

Sounds carry a large amount of information about our everyday environment and physical events that take place in it. For example, when a car is passing by, one can perceive the approximate size and speed of the car. Sound can easily and unobtrusively be captured e.g. by mobile phones and transmitted further – for example, tens of hours of audio is uploaded to the internet every minute e.g. in the form of YouTube videos. However, today's technology is not able to recognize individual sound sources in realistic soundscapes, where multiple sounds are present, often simultaneously, and distorted by the environment. The ground-breaking objective of EVERYSOUND is to develop computational methods which will automatically provide high-level descriptions of environmental sounds in realistic everyday soundscapes such as street, park, home, etc. This requires developing several novel methods, including joint source separation and robust pattern classification algorithms to reliably recognize multiple overlapping sounds, and a hierarchical multilayer taxonomy to accurately categorize everyday sounds. The methods are based on the applicant's internationally recognized and awarded expertise on source separation and robust pattern recognition in speech and music processing, which will allow now tackling the new and challenging research area of everyday sound recognition. The results of EVERYSOUND will enable searching for multimedia based on its audio content, which is not possible with today's technology. It will allow mobile devices, robots, and intelligent monitoring systems to recognize activities in their environments using acoustic information. Producing automatically descriptions of vast quantities of audio will give new tools for geographical, social, cultural, and biological studies to analyze sounds related to human, animal, and natural activity in urban and rural areas, as well as multimedia in social networks.