Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
A Disruptively Novel Approach to Clean and Safe Water Supply to Off-Grid Communities – SAFEWater-SDCW (SAFEWater-SDCW)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Innovative Europe
Programme: The European Innovation Council (EIC)
Theme: EIC Accelerator
Destination: Open to supporting projects in all areas of science, technology,...
Action type: EIC actions
Countries involved: Netherlands
Call: EIC Accelerator Open (HORIZON-EIC-2022-ACCELERATOR-01, 2022)
Start date: 2023-04-01
End date: 2026-03-31
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2198722.5
EU funding (EUR): 1539105.75
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

SolarDew has developed a disruptive, point of use water purification technology. It may look like a solar panel but instead of electricity, produces high quality drinking water, through a process of membrane distillation. The process follows the natural cycle of evaporation and condensation of water; removing salts, heavy metals, bacteria and viruses in a single step. This unique non-porous membrane is low cost (>20x cheaper) and highly resistant to contamination compared to existing membranes. The membrane is integrated into a water purification bag using manufacturing technologies from the packaging industry for high quality and low cost. It is integrated into a single unit and powered exclusively by solar thermal energy, making it robust and easy to use. Compared to bottled water, customers can save up to 20-40 cents/litre The technology is in line with UN SDG 6 ,Green Deal Goals, was financed by the Innowide Program and won the Seal of Excellence in the EIC Accelerator (Dec ‘20).

Keywords: modular water purification system,membrane distillation,small scale water decontamination and desalination
Revealing Accreting Planets Through Observations and Refined simulations (RAPTOR)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Consolidator grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Universe Sciences
Panel description: Astro -physics/ -chemistry/ -biology; solar system; planetary systems; stellar, galactic and extragalactic astronomy; cosmology; space sciences; astronomical instrumentation and data
Countries involved: Germany
Call: ERC CONSOLIDATOR GRANTS (ERC-2024-COG, 2024)
Start date: 2025-10-01
End date: 2030-09-30
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2131233.0
EU funding (EUR): 2131233.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Recent multi-wavelength observations disclosed a groundbreaking discovery—an accreting giant planet surrounded by a circumplanetary disk within the gap of the young circumstellar disk PDS 70. We now witness planet formation, one of the forefront themes in modern astrophysics, in action. With over 5,000 detected planetary systems, we have learned that nearly every star in our galaxy hosts at least one planet. The crucial insight into how these planets form lies in the conjunction of theoretical studies and observations of magnetized dusty accretion disks - rotating masses of gas and dust around freshly formed stars. Global magneto-hydrodynamical disk models reveal gas evolution, characterizing the accumulation of sub-micron grains and concentration of pebbles. Models with embedded planets and improved thermodynamics showcase the gap and ring structure formation. However, modeling both becomes essential when focusing on the scales of young planets. Which physical process determines the mass budget the planets can accrete? Many observed exoplanetary systems, such as TRAPPIST-1, show a distinct mass limit of several Earth masses. What prevents dust pebbles from further accreting onto these super-Earths? What is the role of the envelope and circumplanetary disk for giant planets’ gas and solid material content? Addressing these crucial questions requires a new class of models that incorporate (1) adaptive mesh refinement for mass tracking near the planet, (2) modeling of magnetic fields from circumplanetary disk scales to the planet, and (3) radiative transfer for comprehensive heating and cooling across all scales, unveiling the envelope and circumplanetary disk formation. The astonishing discoveries underline that the next generation of theoretical models is needed. The RAPTOR project goes beyond explaining the observed structures of planet-forming disks. It will unveil how gas and dust materials build up the planets in detail never reached before.

Keywords: radiation magneto hydrodynamical simulations,planet disk interaction,circuplanetary disk,planet formation
The system of shape representations in cognition, development and across languages (SHAPE)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Synergy grants
Action type: ERC actions
Countries involved: Norway,Germany,United States,United Kingdom,France
Call: ERC SYNERGY GRANTS (ERC-2024-SyG, 2024)
Start date: 2025-06-01
End date: 2031-05-31
Duration (months): 72.0
Total project cost (EUR): 10459256.0
EU funding (EUR): 10459256.0
Participants: 6
Project status: SIGNED

We address a gap in research on the bi-directional effects of language on thought and thought on language, and the developmental pathways that transmit interactions between language and cognition from one generation to the next. The significant empirical advances we propose will result in a unified, cross-disciplinary theory which addresses language diversity through the dynamic interaction of language and cognitive systems across languages and cultures. To this end, we select shape as a core spatial property of entities in the physical world of things which determines bodily action on objects. The abstract properties of shape are codified in multiple ways in the world’s varied languages, including spoken and signed languages – in object and category labels and their organization into classes of categories, spatial prepositions, verbs, and quantifying expressions. Visual shape perception and shape representation in early perceptual and cognitive development are inherently intertwined and interdependent with early language acquisition. Children on atypical developmental trajectories show a cascade of disrupted development in both shape perception and language that can have substantial life-long consequences. Despite this compelling evidence of the pervasiveness of shape, no theoretical account has been offered to explain its nature as a system, neither has this topic been approached integrating evidence and methodologies across disciplines. The main goal of the current endeavor is to provide such an account from the point of view of systems theory and aligning methodologies across vision research, cognitive development, theory of language and language typology and sign language. Our premise is that shape holds a privileged status in human representational systems – in perceiving, using and reasoning about objects and in organizing the structures of the world’s languages and, as such, is key to understanding human intelligence and its developmental trajectories.

Keywords: shape perception and representation language development shape bias cross linguistic differences autism developmental language disorder
Cognition and Neurocomputations of motivation and planning (FORAGINGCORTEX)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: The Human Mind and Its Compl exity
Panel description: Cognitive science, psychology, linguistics
Countries involved: France
Call: ERC STARTING GRANTS (ERC-2022-STG, 2022)
Start date: 2023-05-01
End date: 2028-04-30
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1652950.0
EU funding (EUR): 1652950.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Being able to make adaptive decisions and follow through is crucial for animals and humans alike. While some simplifications of real life environments are necessary for laboratory settings, past studies have often removed essential complexity. Specifically, a common reductionist approach toward decision making focuses exclusively on a neuro-economic framing. However, this neglects that in the real world, behaviour is often a sequence of choices, requiring planning and sustained motivation to reach our goals. Only by examining cognition and behaviour embedded in these sequences can we gain a full understanding of prefrontal cortex function in general and its cognitive, computational and neural role in sequential behaviours in particular. To answer this challenge, over the last couple of years, I have been at the forefront of developing a new neuro-ethological approach enabled by advances in computational modeling, experimental designs, brain recording annd stimulation techniques. In the proposal, I have identified key cognitive processes linked to challenges the prefrontal cortex has evolved to solve. For prefrontal cortex, this means sequential and selfdetermined behaviours. To make the complexity tractable, I take inspiration from multiple disciplines including ecology, biology, psychology and neuroscience. This way, I can identify the essential elements for achieving adaptive complex behaviour as a response to real-life challenges and build unifying computational models around those processes.

Keywords: motivation,neural basis of decision making,anterior cingulate cortex,orbitofrontal corteex
Information Theoretic Foundations of Joint Communication and Sensing (IT-JCAS)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Systems and Communication Engineering
Panel description: Electrical, electronic, communication, optical and systems engineering
Countries involved: Netherlands
Call: ERC STARTING GRANTS (ERC-2023-STG, 2023)
Start date: 2024-01-01
End date: 2028-12-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1499618.0
EU funding (EUR): 1499618.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

The integration of radio communication and sensing services in the same network infrastructure will be a key feature of next-generation wireless technology. It is envisaged that wireless base-stations will communicate with active devices, and simultaneously detect, localize and track passive targets within their vicinity; all using the same spectrum and hardware. This emerging joint communication and sensing (JCAS) paradigm, currently at the frontier of wireless research, will revolutionize a broad range of applications, from automotive and transportation to healthcare and environmental monitoring. A major challenge for realizing this vision is the lack of a fundamental theory for JCAS. Communication-centric wireless systems rely on information theory in establishing fundamental performance limits and guiding the design of efficient schemes that best utilize scarce radio resources. In sharp contrast, information theory for JCAS is currently in its infancy, and without such a theory, optimal signal and protocol design for next-generation wireless networks will remain elusive. The goal of this project is to take the first major steps towards closing this fundamental knowledge gap. I will first introduce a novel information-theoretic approach to sensing. I propose the new notions of sensing capacity and reliability function, which will enable characterizing the fundamental trade-off between sensing efficiency and reliability. I will then establish new information-theoretic performance limits and optimal schemes for JCAS systems, where signals have the dual function of communicating and probing. Finally, I will extend the analysis to multiple transceivers, targets and users, by introducing a novel network information theory for sensing and JCAS. The results of this project will open a new research frontier in information theory; push the boundaries of current knowledge in neighbouring domains; and directly impact the design of future, JCAS-enabled wireless technology.

Keywords: integrated sensing and communication,wireless communication,wireless sensing,information theory
Questioning the Epidemiology of Subclinical Tuberculosis (TB-QUEST)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Prevention,  Diagnosis and T reatment of Human Diseases
Panel description: Medical technologies  and tools for prevention, diagnosis and treatment of human diseases, therapeutic approaches and interventions , pharmacology, preventative  medicine, epidemiology and public health , digital medicine
Countries involved: Spain,Mozambique
Call: ERC STARTING GRANTS (ERC-2023-STG, 2023)
Start date: 2024-05-01
End date: 2029-04-30
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2499700.0
EU funding (EUR): 2499700.0
Participants: 3
Project status: SIGNED

Tuberculosis (TB) remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality around the world. The majority of TB control policies rely on the binary paradigm of TB, which focus on interventions tackling ‘latent’ TB infection and ‘active’ TB disease stages. However, recent evidence disputes this longstanding conceptualization of TB natural history, demonstrating that TB exists on a continuous spectrum of bacterial and immunological responses. Several active case-finding studies have shown that around 50% of the cases in whom Mycobacterium tuberculosis was isolated in sputum were asymptomatic. Subclinical (asymptomatic) TB has lately attracted increased scientific interest since it could play an important role in TB transmission, despite the absence of cough. However, beyond limited evidence on TB transmission based on modelling studies using retrospective data collection, there is not a single field study showing a direct transmission from an index subclinical TB case to a secondary laboratory-confirmed case. If subclinical TB does spread the disease, the consequences for global TB control and research are of paramount importance. I propose to characterize the subclinical TB stage within the natural history of TB and to understand its role in spreading the disease. I have designed a field epidemiological study (TB-QUEST) with the potential to show evidence of effective transmission from subclinical TB cases to close contacts, using pathogen genome sequencing. Additionally, by using innovative wearable technology, I will assess whether objective tools to measure classical TB symptoms match the self-reported absence of symptoms. Thus, I might challenge the current definition of subclinical TB and the usefulness of current TB screening algorithms. Lastly, I will study the clinical trajectory of subclinical TB in order to improve our understanding of its natural history, duration of infectiousness, and factors associated with self-clearance or progression to symptomatic disease.

Keywords: tuberculosis epidemiology infectious diseases global health subclinical
Supercritical Treatment of Process Wastewaters from Surface Treatment Industry MEtals (STOP WASTIN’ ME)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Innovative Europe
Programme: The European Innovation Council (EIC)
Theme: EIC Accelerator
Destination: Challenges
Action type: EIC actions
Countries involved: Italy
Call: Green Deal innovations for the Economic Recovery (HORIZON-EIC-2021-ACCELERATORCHALLENGES-01, 2021)
Start date: 2022-04-01
End date: 2024-09-30
Duration (months): 30.0
Total project cost (EUR): 4783870.0
EU funding (EUR): 2500000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Circular Materials has developed a sustainable technology to efficiently remove and recover the heavy metals present in industrial wastewaters, ideal for the surface treatment industry (in particular to recover polluting and toxic metals like chromium). While the state-of-the-art technologies generate toxic sludges to be confined to special landfills, with intrinsic risk of release of metals in the environment and groundwaters, our process operates in a completely different way. By continuously mixing in a reactor a flow of wastewater with a flow of supercritical water, the metals precipitate as a solid powder that is easily removed from the aqueous phase. This approach avoids the production of sludges (no product to dispose of), revolutionising the treatment sector and solving environmental issues. No chemicals are needed, and the operating costs are drastically reduced. Moreover, the recovered high-purity metals can be reused in the same application (perfect circular approach).

Keywords: supercritical water,metal recovery,heavy metals,secondary raw materials,surface treatment industry,toxic sludges
Cell-free synthetic biology for combinatorial biosensor design (SYNSENSO)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Doctoral Networks
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Information Science and Engineering
Countries involved: Germany,Netherlands,Italy,United Kingdom,France,Spain,Switzerland
Call: MSCA Doctoral Networks 2021 (HORIZON-MSCA-2021-DN-01, 2021)
Start date: 2022-09-01
End date: 2026-08-31
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2851495.2
EU funding (EUR): 2628648.0
Participants: 14
Project status: SIGNED

Recent advances in the field of synthetic biology offer an unprecedented opportunity for next-generation biosensors characterized by programmability, low-cost and by a sensitivity and specificity unmet by conventional sensors. Leveraging the rich toolset of synthetic biology, we can now not only build better biosensors but also analytical tools that can sense and discern complex analyte profiles, such as a panel of biomarkers indicative of a certain disease status. These cell-free biosensors developed within the SYNSENSO research program will be transformative for many domains of research and innovation, ranging from in-vitro diagnostics to health, environmental and bioprocess monitoring. Our ambition is to provide a game change in biosensing by combining cell-free synthetic biology with molecular sensor design. The SYNSENSO European doctoral network focuses on the construction of novel programmable ligand-responsive elements and the construction of cell-free computing circuits that can integrate molecular signals from those elements. Together the two components will make up the next generation of combinatorial biosensors that can sense signals and compute a response to them. SYNSENSO aims for a modular approach where different responsive elements can be composed with different computing circuits enabling fast construction of suitable sensors for new application domains. SYNSENSO brings together academic and industry leaders from the fields of synthetic biology, molecular sensor design and DNA nanotechnology. Our industry partners will provide a unique ecosystem for ten doctoral candidates of this network. Together with the external advisory board including experts from medical diagnostics they will work on concrete case studies for clinically relevant analytes. The SYNSENSO training program will empower them to perform world-class research and become academic or industry leaders in this new emerging field at the intersection of synthetic biology and biosensors.

Keywords: synthetic biology,cell free,biosensors,dna nanotechnology,gene circuits,molecular computing,biocomputing,in vitro diagnostics,environmental monitoring,biomarkers,point care diagnostics
The meanings of ancestral remains from former German colonies at the University of Strasbourg in contexts of repatriation. Crossed perspectives between Africa, France and Germany (AnceStra)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Consolidator grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Studies of Cultures and Arts
Panel description: Social anthropology, studies of cultur es, stud ies of arts
Countries involved: France
Call: ERC CONSOLIDATOR GRANTS (ERC-2024-COG, 2024)
Start date: 2025-10-01
End date: 2030-09-30
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1999063.0
EU funding (EUR): 1999063.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Over the past years, the return of cultural objects and human remains from former European colonies housed in museums and universities worldwide has been repeatedly described as the most central topic in the cultural heritage sector today. Because the seizure, preservation, and study of ancestral remains participated in a dehumanization of persons from former colonies, repatriations bear several challenges: re-humanize ancestral remains, shed light on the role of science in the development of racial theories, and contribute to a greater dialogue between the global North and South. Despite the crucial cultural, societal and political relevance of repatriations, little is known, from a socio-anthropological perspective, about the meanings that individuals and groups in the global South and North attribute to ancestral remains from former colonies. This is exactly the research question I will tackle. AnceStra departs from a specific collection: the Institute of Anatomy of the University of Strasbourg. Between 1892 and 1911, during the German annexation of Alsace-Lorraine, when the University of Strasbourg had become the Kaiser-Wilhelms-Universität, 149 human remains from the African continent entered the institute, mostly from at the time German colonies: Cameroon, Togo, and present-day Namibia and Tanzania. Demands of repatriation have been addressed to the University by organizations in two of these countries since 2019. Through a ground-breaking, two-way South-North/North-South, South-South and North-North socio-anthropological study in France, Namibia, Tanzania, and to a lesser extent in Cameroon, Germany and Togo, this project will shed light on the meanings individuals and groups demanding repatriation and individuals and groups receiving demands of repatriation attribute to ancestral remains. AnceStra will analyse the way processes of repatriation contribute (or not) to postcolonial reparation and to a reconfiguration of the links between Africa and Europe.