Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Synergizing Neural Network Theory and Combinatorial Optimization via Extension Complexity (NeurExCo)

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: Mathematics
Countries involved: Belgium
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2023 (HORIZON-MSCA-2023-PF-01, 2023)
Start date: 2024-04-01
End date: 2026-03-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 175920.0
EU funding (EUR): 175920.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Artificial intelligence is changing our lives. Artificial neural networks are present and entering various fields of modern technology such as medicine, engineering, education and many more. Even a small-scale theoretical understanding of why and how neural networks succeed in practice can have a considerable impact on the future development of such technologies. In contrast, combinatorial optimization is a well-established discipline at the intersection of mathematics and computer science, dealing with classical algorithmic questions like the Shortest Path or Traveling Salesperson Problems. A powerful tool to study structural and algorithmic properties of combinatorial optimization problems is polyhedral geometry. For example, the geometric notion of extension complexity classifies how well a specific problem can be expressed and solved via an extremely successful general-purpose technique called linear programming. Recent developments show that polyhedral theory can also be a powerful tool to achieve a better mathematical understanding of neural networks. The overall goal of this project is to significantly intensify the connection between neural networks and polyhedral theory, using the concept of extension complexity. This new symbiosis will advance both, the theoretical understanding of neural networks as well as the fundamental understanding of classical combinatorial optimization problems. On the side of neural networks, we expect to obtain new bounds on the required size and depth to solve a given problem, serving as an explanation of why large and deep neural networks are more successful in practice. Furthermore, we expect contributions to a more refined understanding of the computational complexity to train a neural network. On the side of combinatorial optimization, we expect that generalized notions of extension complexity inspired by neural networks lead to new structural and algorithmic insights to classical problems like the matching problem.

Keywords: polyhedral geometry,neural networks,combinatorial optimization,extension complexity,computational complexity
Sharing and re-using clinical trial data to maximise impact (SHARE-CTD)

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: Life Sciences
Countries involved: Germany,Austria,Italy,France,Netherlands,Switzerland,Canada,United States,United Kingdom
Call: MSCA Doctoral Networks 2022 (HORIZON-MSCA-2022-DN-01, 2022)
Start date: 2024-01-01
End date: 2027-12-31
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2694376.8
EU funding (EUR): 2694376.8
Participants: 24
Project status: SIGNED

Data from clinical trials are a rich source of clinical information, highly structured and clearly explained by the accompanying protocols. Responsible sharing of such data holds incredible promises to increase value and decrease waste in medical research. It is built on principles (ethical, scientific), governance structures, skills, and operation infrastructure. Clinical trial data sharing (CTDS) is an emerging activity in academia as well as in the pharmaceutical industry. Both communities develop models for organising and performing CTDS. Thereby, several issues gain relevance: enhancing data sharing with researchers, improving public access to clinical study information, sharing results with patients participating in clinical trials, certifying procedures for sharing clinical trial information, and reaffirming commitments to publish clinical trial results. We see a developing field of professional activities that need well educated experts to define and implement best practices. Training such a new generation of experts in CTDS requires specific teachings with a focus on clinical trial transparency and reproducible research practices. It should include topics such as clinical trials regulations, ethical, legal, and social issues, informatics, data science, biostatistics, and meta-research, as well as domain expertise across different medical fields. In order to gain a deep understanding of this developing field, research activities should be based on meta-research approaches. Those activities focus on research on best practices for CTDS, developing methods to make efficient use of shared data (e.g., methods to augment randomised clinical trials, perform independent participant data meta-analysis, or estimate personalised treatment effects) and measuring CTDS impact.

Keywords: open science,meta research,data sharing
Clouds and climate transitioning to post-fossil aerosol regime (CleanCloud)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness
Programme: Climate, Energy and Mobility
Theme: Climate
Destination: Climate sciences and responses for the transformation towards climate neutrality
Action type: Research and Innovation actions
Countries involved: Denmark,Greece,Germany,Sweden,Cyprus,France,Italy,Switzerland,United Kingdom,Finland,Netherlands,Norway
Call: Improved knowledge in cloud-aerosol interaction (HORIZON-CL5-2023-D1-01, 2023)
Start date: 2024-01-01
End date: 2027-12-31
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 6811904.04
EU funding (EUR): 6811904.04
Participants: 20
Project status: SIGNED

Aerosol-cloud interactions (ACI) remain the largest source of uncertainty in past, present, and future radiative forcing, impeding credible climate projections. ACI effects are expected to change dramatically as we enter a post-fossil world, characterized by strong reductions in anthropogenic aerosol emissions but with increasingly larger impacts from natural aerosols. Although we expect cleaner clouds compared to today, ACI in this post-fossil state may considerably differ from preindustrial conditions, owing to shifts in climate and changes in sources region characteristics. CleanCloud will address the major gaps impeding robust ACI assessments, improve their representation in current and next generation kilometer-scale climate models , quantify and understand their regional and temporal effects, and how they will evolve in the transition to the post-fossil regime. To accomplish this, CleanCloud will 1) carry out targeted field experiments in European climate hotspots; 2) develop state-of-the-art algorithms and analysis tools to obtain new proxies and diagnostics for key ACI-related processes; 3) contribute to the calibration and validation of upcoming satellite missions in coordination with the satellite community; 4) improve and better constrain kilometer- and large-scale climate models using advanced machine learning, data assimilation and model calibration, confronting perturbed physics ensembles with existing and new satellite and in-situ data; and 5) assess the role of aerosols in the life cycle of convective systems, focusing on precipitation formation and the impacts on the hydrological cycle, and 6) enhance the exploitation of data centres, measurement programs, international campaigns, laboratory studies, and models. With these, CleanCloud will profoundly strengthen European Research on climate change, significantly contribute to upcoming climate assessments, and benefit society through models that enable improved weather and seasonal predictions.

Keywords: climate change,aerosol cloud interactions,aerosol radiative forcing,convective lifecycle,extreme precipitation,post fossil aerosols,storm resolving models,community engagement
Exploring quantum observables at the LHC (QUANTUMLHC)

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: Physics
Countries involved: Italy
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2022 (HORIZON-MSCA-2022-PF-01, 2022)
Start date: 2023-10-02
End date: 2025-10-01
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 188590.08
EU funding (EUR): 188590.08
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

The main motivation driving the research in collider particle physics is the possibility to address some of the mysteries in the fundamental inner workings of our Universe and to answer to questions left open by the Standard Model of particle physics (SM). Despite the unprecedented energy reached and the large amount of data collected at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) no convincing evidence of physics beyond the SM has been found. The start of the third LHC data-taking phase (2022) call for novel and unconventional approaches to search for new phenomena, looking in directions yet to be explored. This project proposes to exploit quantum effects, and in particular entanglement among particles as a new observable to probe interactions at high scales. By leveraging on quantum information concepts and techniques, I will explore new experimental strategies to analyse collider final states searching for SM extensions, through unexpected modifications of quantum correlations. The sensitivity of quantum correlations to new physics effects will be investigated both through a model independent effective approach as well as through specific models encompassing new resonances. This proposal aims to provide a first complete guidance and therefore to open the way to LHC experiments on how to perform and interpret measurements of quantum observables in the WW and top pair final states, at low as well at high energy, with specific techniques optimised for each kinematical region. Its ambition lies not only in the scope but also in development of new experimental technique based on charm tagging that has the potential to enlarge the data sample and therefore significantly extend the reach of the new physics searches.

Keywords: quantum information observables,data analysis,phenomenology,new physics searches
NEutrons and PHotons Elevating Worldwide Science (NEPHEWS) (NEPHEWS)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: Research infrastructures
Theme: Research infrastructures
Destination: Services and infrastructures
Action type: COFUND actions
Countries involved: Poland,France,Germany,Denmark,Hungary,Spain,Czechia,Netherlands,Türkiye,Jordan,Belgium,Switzerland,United Kingdom,Ireland,Sweden,Italy
Call: Research infrastructure services advancing frontier knowledge: co-fund pilots with pan-European RIs and/or national RIs (HORIZON-INFRA-2023-SERV-01, 2023)
Start date: 2024-01-01
End date: 2026-12-31
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 6796066.25
EU funding (EUR): 4757246.13
Participants: 23
Project status: SIGNED

NEutrons and PHotons Elevating Worldwide Science (NEPHEWS) will deliver access to the world-class collective of Europe’s premiere open advanced neutron (N), synchrotron (SR) and free-electron laser (FEL) complementary research infrastructures (RI), to promote curiosity driven excellence in research. In NEPHEWS the RI institute in a novel approach jointly with their 40k+ user base of scientists through Users Organisations to provide a user-driven access program targeting new and non-expert communities, with a focus on Widening countries, Ukraine and Africa, a priority. The bottom-up User-to-User-oriented approach aims to build an integrated European RI landscape involving LEAPS and LENS consortia and their European scientific user communities. NEPHEWS will provide 135 twinning experiments, successful piloted in the CALIPSOplus project, and 451 user experiments across European RI facilities. New and non-expert users receive in-depth hands-on expert training in twinning research experiments with expert-users. These actions are complimented with support in virtual access, workshops, schools and proposal writing. All build expertise, foster collaborations, and widen user access across the ERA. NEPHEWS will specifically engage user and scientific communities of selected priority countries via outreach visits at universities, supporting political dialogue with national funding authorities (NFAs). To this end, NEPHEWS will deliver quantitative reporting of its actions and use country-specific quantitative data from novel community analysis methods. This will be the basis for an informed science policy when advocating to NFAs on the merits and benefits of sustained nationally funded user access to these RI. NEPHEWS brings a paradigm shift in the ERA RI landscape by direct involvement of the user communities to instigate wider access across the most advanced RI of the world. The integration is simultaneously realized for the FEL, SR and N communities across the ERA.

Keywords: curiosity driven research,trans national access,twinning for users,neutron and photon sources,community building,widening countries ukraine and africa
Language geography and the dynamics of linguistic and population prehistory (LANGUAGE REDUX)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Consolidator grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: The Human Mind and Its Compl exity
Panel description: Cognitive science, psychology, linguistics
Countries involved: France
Call: ERC CONSOLIDATOR GRANTS (ERC-2023-COG, 2023)
Start date: 2024-08-01
End date: 2029-07-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1974676.0
EU funding (EUR): 1974676.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

The LANGUGE REDUX project addresses the continuing challenge of understanding the processes that have shaped linguistic diversity. Aiming to push deeper into linguistic prehistory, the main questions it will be concerned with are: How did languages come to be distributed the way they are, and can we identify parts of the world where particularly old linguistic distributions are preserved? The project will harness tools from geography and macroecology to pursue a radically new, strongly data-driven approach to explore these questions: while historical linguistics has traditionally focused on language spread and language expansion, the LANGUAGE REDUX project will instead turn to the processes in which the range of languages is reduced before they are ultimately replaced by other languages. It will explore the commonalities of the places in which languages survive later waves of language expansion longest –so-called REDUX areas–, and derive an account of geographical factors that favor the conservation of old linguistic distributions from them. The project’s main aim is to test the Geospatial Layering Hypothesis, which states that we can extrapolate from REDUX areas to identify those parts of the world that preserve earlier linguistic distributions, hosting deep lineages and typological structures that were once more common generally. If confirmed, this would be a breakthrough in historical linguistics and open up perspectives on linguistic and population prehistory that are hitherto unavailable. To explore this, the LANGUAGE REDUX project will establish a research framework in which qualitative historical evidence on different time scales is engaged with spatial statistics, process-based quantitative modeling, and state-of-the-art typological methods; in addition, the framework will take into account genetic evidence as a proxy for demographic prehistory and thereby embed the LANGUAGE REDUX project in an interdisciplinary research landscape on human prehistory.

Keywords: language geography,linguistic diversity,language dispersal,linguistic and demographic prehistory
Next Generation Molecular Data Storage (NEO)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Innovative Europe
Programme: The European Innovation Council (EIC)
Theme: EIC Pathfinder
Destination: Challenges
Action type: EIC actions
Countries involved: Belgium,Germany,Austria,United Kingdom,Czechia
Call: EIC Pathfinder Challenge: DNA-based digital data storage (HORIZON-EIC-2022-PATHFINDERCHALLENGES-01, 2022)
Start date: 2023-10-01
End date: 2026-09-30
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2418514.98
EU funding (EUR): 2418514.98
Participants: 6
Project status: SIGNED

Current long-term archival media (such as tape and disk) have several issues, the most important one being that they are short lived (up to 5-10 years) forcing data to be copied between storage media every few years in a costly process which also produces considerable electronic waste. Longer-lasting media are desperately needed and DNA oligos have been identified as a major contender to be the next archival storage medium. With it, data is written using DNA synthesis and read using DNA sequencing. DNA is particularly promising as a storage medium, due to its durability as it can last for several hundreds of years. However, storing data in DNA oligos is currently too expensive due to the exorbitant cost of DNA synthesis (~0.12USD to write one bit) as well as issues such as speed in writing (synthesis) and reading (sequencing). For this reason, we propose to investigate storing data in DNA nanostructures. Our approach is based on producing DNA nanostructures, like a breadboard, and attaching streptavidin at a given set of locations, to either write a one if streptavidin is present or a zero otherwise. The major benefit of our approach is that all possible nanostructures can be built out of a predefined, small set of DNA oligos which can be produced cheaply and en-masse. Writing is therefore substantially cheaper. With our approach, writing, reading (based on atomic force microscopy), and editing are also substantially faster. Editing information is currently infeasible with DNA storage based on oligos. We have successfully demonstrated the feasibility of both writing and reading in proof-of-concept experiments, giving confidence in the approach. The goal of this proposal is to scale up the basic but successfully tested idea to make this a feasible approach at a larger scale. The team proposing this work is ideally placed to make the research a success. The team brings all the necessary expertise together.

Keywords: dna storage,archival storage,dan origami,dna nanostructures
Ultra-soft microrobots for tumour penetration (SOFTINVADERS)

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 GRANTS (ERC-2024-POC, 2024)
Start date: 2025-10-01
End date: 2027-03-31
Duration (months): 18.0
Total project cost (EUR): 150000.0
EU funding (EUR): 150000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

SOFTINVADERS aims at advancing the technology readiness of the microrobots prototypes developed in the ERC-funded project CELLOIDS, paving the way to their future clinical translation. In CELLOIDS, we have developed the first ultra-soft microrobots and observed that they can move through gaps narrower than their size under magnetic actuation. The microrobots have a cell-like body consisting of a Giant Unilamellar Vesicle – an aqueous liquid interior enclosed by a nanometres-thin membrane made of a phospholipid bilayer. This allows them to deform substantially and even form thin protrusions, squeezing through narrow gaps and between obstacles. Such ultra-soft microrobots have the potential to traverse body tissues, mimicking the interstitial migration of leukocytes. SOFTINVADERS will challenge our microrobots with the daunting task of penetrating a solid tumour. This could open new opportunities for administering anti-cancer therapeutics in situ. The translation from research towards innovation will be achieved by addressing three main objectives: (i) enhancing the capabilities and magnetic actuation of our microrobots to make them suited to tumour infiltration; (ii) developing realistic in-vitro tumour models for the validation of microrobots; (iii) establishing a research collaboration with a clinical partner to guide the design of anti-cancer ultra-soft microrobots and define an innovation strategy. If successful, SOFTINVADERS will provide a preliminary validation of tumour infiltration by synthetic magnetic microrobots. This will represent the first innovation step towards the realisation of microrobots-enabled in-situ administration of anti-cancer therapies, potentially leading to improved therapeutic outcomes and better life quality for millions of patients worldwide.
Targeting neutrophils in colorectal cancer (Neutros)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Advanced 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: Austria
Call: ERC ADVANCED GRANTS (ERC-2024-ADG, 2024)
Start date: 2025-08-01
End date: 2030-07-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2496900.0
EU funding (EUR): 2496900.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the second most common cause of cancer death with an alarming rising incidence among young individuals. While the management of early-stage CRC has improved greatly, the median overall survival for patients with metastatic CRC is 30 months. Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) have revolutionized the treatment of advanced solid cancers, yet for CRC continue to lag behind, with the exception of 4% of patients with microsatellite instability. In contrast, several studies have shown limited to no clinical activity of ICI in microsatellite stable (MSS) CRC. A number of clinical trials with drug combinations have been caried out to convert “immune cold” into “immune hot” tumors. However, the objective response rates were disappointingly low. Thus, novel therapeutic concepts are required to improve outcome in MSS CRC patients. We recently built a large-scale single-cell atlas of the CRC tumor microenvironment (TME) and showed remarkable heterogeneity, representing a major challenge in disease management, since patients with the same tumor subtype can have different immunotherapy responses. Moreover, we identified a subset of neutrophils, the most abundant leukocytes in the blood and highly enriched in the CRC TME, that could fuel ICI response. I propose to fill the knowledge gaps on the neutrophil diversity and function in MSS CRC using cutting-edge single-cell techniques and deep learning methods. We aim to: 1) chart multi-omics single-cell neutrophil map of the bone marrow-tumor axis; 2) identify neutrophil cell niches using samples from an ICI clinical trial and spatial single-cell transcriptomics; 3) relate neutrophil cell niches to clinical correlates using a large biobank and spatial single-cell proteomics; and 4) perform mechanistic studies using patient-derived tumor fragments and mouse models. The knowledge gain will lead to rationale for novel therapeutic framework that exploits anti-tumor strategies of the innate and adaptive immunity.

Keywords: cancer immunotherapy,artificial intelligence,single cell profiling,cell niches