Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Dispersion force masked-based helium atom lithography (FabouLACE)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Innovative Europe
Programme: The European Innovation Council (EIC)
Theme: EIC Transition
Destination: Open to supporting projects in all areas of science, technology,...
Action type: EIC actions
Countries involved: Norway,Belgium
Call: EIC Transition Open 2023 (HORIZON-EIC-2023-TRANSITION-01, 2023)
Start date: 2023-12-01
End date: 2026-11-30
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2499397.0
EU funding (EUR): 2499397.0
Participants: 2
Project status: SIGNED

As Margrethe Vestager, European Commission Executive Vice-President, said “There is no ‘digital’ without chips”. Leading-edge semiconductors provide the foundation of the digitalization of entire sectors and industries that are transforming the EU economy and of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and quantum computing. Photolithography is currently used for the initial patterning step of chip manufacturing and leading-edge chips require smaller and smaller features. The smallest features that can be produced with this technology (26 nm at present and expected to reach 16 nm in 2028) not only limits the performance and power efficiency of leading-edge chips, but also the opening of new markets linked to quantum devices and silicon devices with integrated light sources. FabouLACE project catches this opportunity through a disruptive lithography approach that uses metastable atoms and dispersion force-based masks and enables features of 2 nm. The technology, currently at proof of concept stage and protected by two patents, will be brought at TRL 6 by the end of the project by developing a prototype. Its performances will be validated together with Imec (key actor in the development, testing and early adoption of nano- and digital technology innovations, including lithography) and end-users in the markets of interest. The spin-off Lace, founded in 2022, will bring the technology to the market by 2031. The technology has already attracted a great interest among investors (450k€ raised in few months) and among the major foundry Intel that accepted Lace in its highly competitive start-up program intel-ignite. Market and business readiness will be developed together with end-users and leveraging on the economic support from investors (>3M€ private funding expected to be attracted by 2026). The technological and business maturation is expected to result in as much as 628M€ in revenue in the 2031-2036 period. Let the quantum future begin.

Keywords: lithography,patterning
Mental Illness Detection and Clinical Assessment with Reliable Interpretability (MIND-CLARITY)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Postdoctoral Fellowships
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Information Science and Engineering
Countries involved: Spain
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2024 (HORIZON-MSCA-2024-PF-01, 2024)
Start date: 2025-08-01
End date: 2027-07-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 209914.56
EU funding (EUR): 209914.56
Participants: 2
Project status: SIGNED

Mental health represents a major worry in most countries while providing a good diagnosis is a hard task. A reliable system for assessing mental disorders is crucial for helping clinicians and patients achieve accurate diagnoses and treatment. Research has long established that certain vocal features are linked to mental health disorders, allowing a machine learning model to learn how to classify different mental disorders using voice. Artificial intelligence (AI) has been providing excellent responses diagnosing mental diseases so far but, remarkably, they often operate as "black boxes" that do not allow for an understanding of how they make their decisions. This makes it mandatory to perform a thorough study on the system in order to achieve fairness, explainability and trustworthiness. This project aims to develop an open source AI based model, explainable and transparent, that can assess between many mental illnesses using voice recordings from a patient, contributing from the study, analysis and understanding of the problem, providing greater interpretability, security and extrapolation ability. The project will be divided in three stages, curation of dataset, the development of the system and exhaustive explainability and fairness analysis over the system. This tool does not replace a clinician diagnosis, it intends to help them decide in dubious cases, with non invasive, cheap and easy tests that can be performed with a cell phone by the patient or his/her family to keep a daily control. This is a multidisciplinary project that combines health sciences, machine learning and mathematical modelling. This project also intends to share expertise with the host organization and equip the candidate with training advanced methodologies. The results could substantially enhance the effectiveness of mental health diagnosing. This project aligns with the EU’s strategy for safeguarding public health.

Keywords: machine learning ml mental health assessment explainability and transparency speech analysis
Prostate Diagnosis using Optical Coherence Tomography (PROCT)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Proof of concept grants
Action type: ERC actions
Countries involved: Italy
Call: ERC PROOF OF CONCEPT GRANTS1 (ERC-2022-POC1, 2022)
Start date: 2022-10-01
End date: 2024-09-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 167142.86
EU funding (EUR): 150000.0
Participants: 2
Project status: CLOSED

With 1.3 million new cases worldwide, prostate cancer (PC) is the second most common cancer in men, causing more than 350,000 deaths each year. It is so common that about 1 man in 8 will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during his lifetime. As for any degenerative disease, early diagnosis is crucial to improve patients’ quality of life and reduce the mortality rate. However, the gold standard technique (biopsy) is affected by large diagnostic errors, representing a major limitation to achieve adequate management of PC. The PROCT project aims to validate in pre-clinical stage a semiautonomous robotic approach to PC diagnosis based on Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT), which aims to exactly pinpoint the target lesion and analyse it through an AI and robotic-based imaging setup. This can comprehensively visualize the lesions at the microscopic level in vivo, without taking any physical sample of the prostate. The resulting virtual microscope slide will allow urologists to explore and analyse various suspicious areas in the same procedure without the need to rely on the physical examination of the biopsy samples. PROCT is a paradigm shift in PC biopsy, that is poised to turn a subjective and operator-dependent procedure into a safer and more accurate diagnostic tool. This solution is obtained by merging the AI-based target identification with robotic pointing developed in the previous PoC project PROST with a micro-optical coherence tomography sensor capable to acquire images of the prostate through a needle at cellular-level resolution. The PROCT prototype will be laboratory validated and benchmarked to assess its usability and real time capabilities. It will be also tested and validated on ex-vivo animal tissues and in the cadaver laboratory.
Challenges in Competitive Online Optimisation (CCOO)

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: United Kingdom
Call: ERC STARTING GRANTS (ERC-2024-STG, 2024)
Start date: 2025-01-01
End date: 2029-12-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1499828.0
EU funding (EUR): 1499828.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Online decision-making, characterized by the need to make decisions without knowledge of the future, lies at the heart of numerous applications. Despite its prevalence, our grasp of effective strategies for handling the associated uncertainty remains poor. Through the lens of the established framework of online algorithms as well as the emerging field of learning-augmented algorithms, this project aims to address central challenges in decision making under uncertainty. While there has been extensive research on online algorithms, many of the field's core challenges remain unresolved. However, several recent discoveries of new algorithmic design and analysis techniques have opened up novel avenues for overcoming previous obstacles. Alongside these technical advancements, the rise of machine learning is now significantly enriching our toolset for dealing with uncertainty. This has motivated the recent emergence of the field of learning-augmented algorithms. Here, an algorithm's input is augmented with predictions, aiming for near-optimal performance if predictions are reasonably good, while still retaining classical worst-case guarantees even for highly erroneous predictions. Inspired by these recent developments, this project aims to substantially elevate our understanding of decision-making under uncertainty. The main objectives are (1) to explore new directions around the concept of work functions, (2) to elevate the mirror descent technique into a generic tool for online algorithm design, (3) to develop universal techniques for designing learning-augmented algorithms, and (4) to expand the scope of learning-augmented algorithms to new domains. The project addresses questions at the forefront of theoretical computer science, building on the PI's recent success in resolving several long-standing problems, and strives for foundational contributions to the timely issue of leveraging machine-learned predictions for improved algorithm design.

Keywords: online algorithms,learning augmented algorithms
Orbital Chern Insulators in van der Waals Moiré Systems (OCI)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Condensed Matter Physics
Panel description: Structure, electronic properties, fluids, nanosciences, biological physics
Countries involved: Austria
Call: ERC STARTING GRANTS (ERC-2023-STG, 2023)
Start date: 2024-07-01
End date: 2029-06-30
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1831500.0
EU funding (EUR): 1831500.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Topological electronic phases manifest fascinating phenomena, including electronic transport via topologically-protected edge states, anomalous responses to external fields, and excitations with anyonic statistics. Harnessing these phenomena in electronic devices will lead to a technological breakthrough. The main obstacle to this has been the lack of topological systems that are simultaneously clean, versatile, robust, and highly tunable. We argue that the recent discovery of orbital Chern insulators (OCI) in graphene moiré heterostructures opens an exceptional opportunity to make a leap in our ability to manipulate topological electronic phases. Recently, moiré superlattices in van der Waals materials emerged as a powerful tool to realize correlated electronic phases. The exciting discovery of intrinsic quantum anomalous Hall effects in graphene moiré systems revealed interaction-driven orbital Chern insulating states at zero magnetic field. Unlike in most known magnets, the magnetism in OCIs arises predominantly from the orbital motion of the electrons rather than their spins, endowing them with unique properties. Remarkably, the moiré heterostructures hosting OCIs could also be gate-tuned to superconducting, correlated insulating, and metallic isospin-ferromagnetic states, which opens unprecedented opportunities for novel devices. These unique features of OCIs set them apart and warrant their thorough investigation. This proposal aims to establish the fundamental properties of OCIs, focusing on three key questions: (i) What are the phase diagram, isospin order, and thermodynamics of OCIs? (ii) What is the physics of the chiral edge states and domain walls in OCIs? (iii) Can strong interactions in flat moiré bands lead to fractional quantum anomalous Hall effect? To address these questions, we will apply a combination of complementary experimental techniques to probe electronic transport and thermodynamic properties in high-quality graphene moiré devices.

Keywords: graphene,moire superlattices,quantum anomalous hall effect,fractional chern insulators,scanning probe microscopy
DRUG-ELUTING ELECTRICAL IMPLANT TO REPAIR THE SPINAL CORD (DREIMS)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Innovative Europe
Programme: The European Innovation Council (EIC)
Theme: EIC Transition
Destination: Challenges
Action type: EIC actions
Countries involved: Spain,Germany,France
Call: EIC Transition Challenge: Full scale Micro-Nano-Bio devices for medical and medical research applications (HORIZON-EIC-2023-TRANSITION-01, 2023)
Start date: 2023-12-01
End date: 2026-11-30
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2646417.5
EU funding (EUR): 2494542.5
Participants: 4
Project status: SIGNED

In Neurofibres (FET-PROACTIVE, 2017-2021), we accomplished a major therapeutic advance for spinal cord injury (SCI) by combining biomaterials, pharmaceuticals, and electrical stimulation into an innovative implant able to promote the closure of the spinal cord gap, with axonal regrowth and glial cell migration across large lesions in rodent and porcine models of SCI. In brief, the implant comprised biofunctionalized, conducting polymer-coated carbon microfibres (MFs) that promoted aligned neural cell growth across the lesion, embedded within a drug-eluting hydrogel that filled the tissue defect and reduced fibrosis. These intraspinal elements were complemented with electrodes that provided biphasic electrical stimulation (ES) to the lesion and the perilesional tissue, thus inducing extensive neural regeneration. Building on the initial proof of concept achieved in Neurofibres (TRL 3), DREIMS will mature this novel healthcare technology through TRLs 4-5, becoming close to its approval for use in human therapeutics while creating a business plan to support further exploitation steps. The inventors of the implant filled a patent application (P202230626) on the mentioned results and recently created a spin-off company (Spinal Cord Technologies, SCT S.L.) to pursue the refinement and validation of a successful clinical and commercial medical product. DREIMS builds on those results to consolidate the first-in-class drug-eluting electrical implant to repair the spinal cord. The implant will refine and integrate three modules, namely the microfiber/drug-eluting gel bundles (MIBs) from FUHNPAIIN / SCT S.L. (Spain), spinal electrode arrays (SEAs) from ALU-FR/IMTEK (Germany), and a fully implantable electric pulse generator (IPG) from NEURINNOV (France), thus forming a procedure pack according to the European Medical Device Regulation (MDR) 2017/745. Addressing regulatory requirements and business development activities will increase the market readiness of the implant.

Keywords: medical device electroconducting microfibers biomaterials electrical stimulation active implantable device neural repair spinal cord injury
LiveWire – Identifying the conductive molecules for long-distance electron transfer in cable bacteria (LiveWire)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Postdoctoral Fellowships
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Life Sciences
Countries involved: Denmark
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2024 (HORIZON-MSCA-2024-PF-01, 2024)
Start date: 2025-05-01
End date: 2027-04-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 263393.28
EU funding (EUR): 263393.28
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Cable bacteria are multicellular filamentous bacteria found in surface sediments worldwide. They contain highly conductive periplasmic fibers (PCF) and use these fibers for intercellular long-distance electron transfer. The cells in the filament separate their energy metabolism, with most cells buried in anoxic sediment oxidizing sulfide, while a few cells at the surface use the resulting electrons for oxygen reduction. Cable bacteria significantly impact sediment geochemistry, affecting pH, ion mobility, sulfide release, and methane emissions. While their environmental interactions are well understood, the molecular principles for intercellular electron transport are still unclear. It is known that the conductivity of PCF exceeds that of any other biological material and that the PCF contains nickel, likely in the form of a novel nickel-sulfur cofactor but their protein composition was not identified. My research focus is to unravel the PCF composition and structure, as well as to identify proteins that mediate electron transfer to/from the PCF. I will combine four parallel experimental approaches: metalloproteomics, Cryo-EM, isotope labeling/NanoSIMS, and immunolocalization to study proteins in cell fractionations and in situ in intact cable bacteria. Identifying the highly effective nickel-based bioconductor and its interacting proteins is significant for understanding long-distance electron transfer and the division of labor in these multicellular prokaryotes. Revealing the PCF structure has potential applications for designing fiber polymers, conductive biomaterials, and biodegradable electronics. Through the interdisciplinary approach of LiveWire, I will expand my scientific expertise in biochemistry, structural biology, and cell imaging under the supervision of leading experts in these fields. In addition, I will improve my leadership, mentoring, and networking competencies to become a future independent research leader.

Keywords: filamentous bacteria,electron transport,protein polymer,protein structure,metalloprotein,isotope labeling,cable bacteria,cytochrome,nickel,protein fibers
Connecting Resonances: A decolonial intervention into Sound Studies by listening to the Global South (ConnectingResonances)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Postdoctoral Fellowships
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Social Sciences and Humanities
Countries involved: Norway
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2021 (HORIZON-MSCA-2021-PF-01, 2021)
Start date: 2023-09-01
End date: 2026-06-30
Duration (months): 34.0
Total project cost (EUR): 226751.04
EU funding (EUR): 226751.04
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

The proposed project intends to create a fertile entry point into the history, practice and aesthetics of sound media in South Asia as a key area of the Global South, aiming to understand the unique auditory cultures and sonic sensibility of this under-explored area in the light of the transcultural confluence between Global North and South. Such new knowledge fundamentally shifts the perspectives in sound studies and in a global media art history with a decolonial approach of co-listening and exploring medial reciprocity. Mentored by leading sound scholar and theorist Prof. Brandon LaBelle at the University of Bergen, and working with other institutional partners in Norway and internationally, the project re-examines a fundamental issue in the studies of modernity and globalisation concerned with media cultural encounters and technological transmissions between Global North and South as a two-way process of postcolonial confluence. The project is a first of its kind to research an ignored area of sound studies by putting South Asian sound and media scholars, artists and practitioners on the international platform, making their work exposed to the wider global audience for a much-needed critical engagement and equity in scholarship. The project benefits the large pool of practitioners active in South Asia, whose work has often been neglected in the Eurocentric field of critical media studies and media art history. The project makes a sustained attempt to assess their work toward a new decolonial theory of sound media in the form of a book and other outputs, aiming to address a number of critical issues in sound studies.

Keywords: sound studies,musicology,media art history,decolonisation,global south,auditory culture,transcultural confluence,sound art
SCIENCE BUILDING THE FUTURE (SCIENCE4FUTURE-III)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: European Researchers' Night
Action type: Coordination and support actions
Countries involved: Romania
Call: European Researchers' Night and Researchers at Schools 2024-2025 (HORIZON-MSCA-2023-CITIZENS-01, 2023)
Start date: 2024-04-01
End date: 2026-01-31
Duration (months): 22.0
Total project cost (EUR): 333500.0
EU funding (EUR): 333500.0
Participants: 5
Project status: SIGNED

Science plays a major role in the development of a society. Despite this, the general population of Romania has little knowledge about the impact of research on all aspects of life. In this context, events that advertise science among the general public are very welcome. Another strong argument in favor of organizing the science popularization event is that this kind of events usually take place in major cities, while in small and medium towns they are very rare, so their population is missing the opportunity to discover science from a different perspective; in turn, this lack of information facilitates the occurrence of stereotypes about scientists and their work and about the usefulness of scientific research, which ultimately discourages young people to pursue a career in R&D. The main concept proposed for 2024/2025 is to reduce the passive presentation of what means to be a researcher, by involving the people directly in different interactive activities (workshops, games, competition, debates etc.). The project is constructed around four basic ideas: Future through past; Health and wealth through a clean environment; Economic development through technology and innovation; Science for future: Research begins at school. An important objective is also the future utilization of information gathered during the event, in order to enable cooperation between relevant actors that are committed to support scientific collaboration that may generate new opportunities for research and industry and new knowledge and know how that can be shared by confronting new ideas and viewpoints. Regarding the audience, the Dissemination Strategy will be directed towards various user groups, such as: the general public, especially young people, the scientific community, public institutions, NGOs, policy-makers, various associations, businesses etc. The partners have the complementary skills to assure the achievement of the project objectives and the future exploitation of the results.

Keywords: research,science,innovation,career,impact,progress,future,people,school,pupil,next generation,young researchers