Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Voice and speech perception across mammals: a comparative study of humans, dogs and pigs (VOIMA)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: The Human Mind and Its Complexity
Panel description: Cognitive science, psychology, linguistics, theoretical philosophy
Countries involved: Hungary
Call: ERC STARTING GRANTS (ERC-2020-STG, 2020)
Start date: 2021-07-01
End date: 2026-06-30
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1900000.0
EU funding (EUR): 1900000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Vocalizations of any mammal carry prominent cues about the inner states and identity of the vocalizer. Voice is also a prevalent channel for humans’ recently emerged communication system, speech. Recent evidence suggests that certain human auditory brain specializations and mechanisms, relevant for voice and speech perception, reflect abrupt shifts in human capacities compared to other primates. Do these brain specializations for voice and speech perception reflect human-specific predispositions and are thus human-unique, or are they the consequence of rapid evolutionary adaptations or developmental accommodations of the ancient voice perception system to recent demands imposed by the presence of speech? I hypothesize that in general voice perception mechanisms are conserved across mammals, and provide a neuronal niche in which specializations for human voice and speech perception may arise also in non-humans. The case of companion animals provides an unparalleled model system to study the possible evolutionary and experiential effects of the presence of speech on the mammalian voice perception system. Dogs and pigs are phylogenetically distant, highly vocal species that live, when kept as companions, with humans. VOIMA combines ethology and brain imaging (EEG/fMRI/HD-DOT) to compare voice and speech processing in humans, dogs and pigs: WP1 seeks evidence for selective processing of conspecific voices, human voice, and speech. WP2 explores the mechanisms and specific sensitivities for inner state coding, voice identity recognition and vocalizer normalization, from con- and heterospecific voice. WP3 tests how sensitivities to human voice and speech emerge across dog breed types, in neonate dogs, pigs, wolves and wild boars, and in input-manipulated developing dogs. Revealing how adaptation to the human social niche shapes domestic mammals' voice perception, this project will provide new insights on how speech shaped human voice perception.

Keywords: voice perception,speech perception,comparative ethology,cognitive neuroimaging,auditory cortex,domestic pig,functional magnetic resonance imaging,event related potentials,optical imaging
Cartilage derived from equine induced pluripotent stem cells: an in vitro and ex vivo One Medicine approach for osteoarthritis (CAREQiPSC)

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: Ireland
Call: Individual Fellowships (H2020-MSCA-IF-2020, 2020)
Start date: 2022-02-01
End date: 2024-01-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 184590.72
EU funding (EUR): 184590.72
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Osteoarthritis is a degenerative joint pathology that constitutes the first cause of disability in older adults and accounts for >80% of chronic lameness in horses. Effective treatments are not available while developing them is of utmost importance for the EU objective of translating knowledge into society’s benefit. Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) can provide unlimited cells for therapy with no ethical concerns. However, pre-clinical knowledge is limited to small animals with low translational potential. Larger species such as the horse better resembles human joint’s features and can also benefit from these therapies (One Medicine). To develop this approach, the first mandatory step is obtaining suitable cartilage from eqiPSCs. Thus, the goals of CAREQiPSC are: 1) establishing eqiPSCs from new sources with potential chondrogenic commitment, 2) derive mesenchymal-like cells with chondrogenic potential, 3) compare their chondrogenic ability under different conditions, 4) explore their therapeutic potential in an ex vivo cartilage explant system. To achieve these goals, eqiPSCs will be established from articular chondrocytes, umbilical cord mononuclear cells, and dermal fibroblasts, and their pluripotency will be studied. Mesenchymal cells derived from these lines will be characterised and induced to differentiate in the customary pellet system and in a 3D scaffold. The tissue obtained will be studied by histology, protein and gene expression, and its therapeutic potential will be investigated in cartilage explants, also including imaging and biomechanical assessment. The researcher’s previous experience in the equine model and the host’s expertise in iPSCs and infrastructure will ensure the achievement of these goals. The main outcome will be critical in vitro and ex vivo knowledge to facilitate in vivo application in the horse, which will generate preclinical information transferable to human therapy and will advance the veterinary medicine field.

Keywords: cartilage,chondrogenesis,comparative medicine,induced pluripotent stem cells,horse,one health,one medicine,osteoarthritis
reliAble euRopean Identity EcoSystem (ARIES)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Societal Challenges
Programme: Secure societies - protecting freedom and security of Europe and its citizens
Action type: Research and Innovation actions
Countries involved: Spain,Spain,Spain,Spain,Belgium,France,Czechia,Portugal,United Kingdom,United Kingdom
Call: Law Enfocement capabilities topic 5: Identity Management (H2020-FCT-2015, 2015)
Start date: 2016-09-01
End date: 2019-02-28
Duration (months): 30.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2247002.5
EU funding (EUR): 2247002.5
Participants: 11
Project status: CLOSED

ARIES main goal is to deliver a comprehensive framework for reliable e-identity ecosystem comprising new technologies, processes and security features that ensure highest levels of quality in eID based on trustworthy security documents and biometrics for highly secure and privacy-respecting physical and virtual identity management, with the specific aim to tangibly achieve a reduction in levels of identity theft, fraud and associated crimes. The set of solutions will be designed to achieve required levels of multi-party trust with efficiency, ease of adoption and convenience for all end-users (citizens, law enforcement, businesses), consolidating Europe as world leader in enhanced identity-based services as a basis to boost the competitiveness of its economy. ARIES will leverage virtual and mobile IDs cryptographically derived from strong eID documents in order to prevent identity theft and related crimes in the physical (e.g. an airport) and virtual (e.g eCommerce) domains. Both, the derivation process, and the derived IDs will be univocally linked to citizens' biometric features, increasing the level of identity assurance during the credential issuance process and during authentication. Highest data protection standards will be followed to provide digital privacy-preserving features. Thus, the project will provide a global approach for ID Ecosystem in Europe to address European-specific concerns to improve identity, trust and security, and better support the law enforcement to address the new threats in cybersecurity while achieving far-reaching socio-economic positive impacts. ARIES will demonstrate its outcomes and the levels of identity prevention reduction achieved in two use case demonstrators (secure eCommerce and identity virtualization for secure travel), covering the complete vision of virtual id ecosystem and its practical application.

Keywords: biometrics,virtual identities,identity derivation,secure wallet,privacy
How politicians evaluate public opinion (POLEVPOP)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Advanced grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Institutions, Governance and Legal Systems
Panel description: Political science, international relations, law
Countries involved: Belgium
Call: ERC ADVANCED GRANT (ERC-2020-ADG, 2020)
Start date: 2022-01-01
End date: 2026-12-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2499062.5
EU funding (EUR): 2499062.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

In democracies, policies are expected to be responsive to public opinion. Extant research showed that responsiveness is selective. It varies across issues, time and countries. Yet, how come policies vary in their responsiveness has not received a satisfying answer. POLEVPOP formulates and examines a novel answer to the puzzle why policy responsiveness varies. Its core argument holds that politicians evaluate public opinion and let their actions—in line with public opinion or going against it—depend on their appraisal. When public opinion is evaluated negatively, it has no effect on what politicians do; that it is evaluated positively increases the chance that politicians act congruently. Politicians’ appraisal of public opinion has been completely overlooked as a mechanism bringing about responsive representation. Considering it a core factor POLEVPOP examines three matters: (1) which criteria politicians use to appraise public opinion; (2) how, depending on the opinion content of the message, the channel through which the opinion is conveyed and the group from which it comes, concrete public opinion signals are evaluated; and, (3) which effect these evaluations have on politicians’ political action. The central expectation is that public opinion is evaluated by politicians based on a consistent and common scoreboard. For instance, opinion signals are rated based on their representativity and underlying public opinion is evaluated on its quality and its intensity. The project tackles these matters drawing on a comparative study in eight different countries (Australia, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Israel, Portugal, Switzerland, and Sweden). In two consecutive rounds of data gathering, a large sample of politicians is surveyed and interviewed, and they are subjected to a series of survey-embedded experiments. To put politicians’ behavior in perspective, their answers are compared to parallel citizen surveys in all countries.

Keywords: representation,policy responsiveness,politicians,inequality
Mapping and theorising the global International Large-Scale Assessment industry (ILSAINC)

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: Spain
Call: Individual Fellowships (H2020-MSCA-IF-2018, 2018)
Start date: 2019-12-01
End date: 2023-11-05
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 160932.48
EU funding (EUR): 160932.48
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

In the last two decades, education policy, practice and research have been transformed by the appearance and growing influence of International Large-Scale Assessments (ILSAs), which are standardized tests administered by International Organizations (IOs) all around the world. The outsourcing of the development and implementation of ILSAs from International Organizations to private companies has created a global ILSA industry. But how does the global ILSA industry operate and how does it shape ILSAs? Over the last two decades, a small, well-established group of private companies have come to control the global ILSA industry, even as ILSAs expand in scope and reach. Although scholars have extensively studied how ILSAs have impacted on education, the global ILSA industry has not been addressed by scholarship possibly due to its recent emergence and the high levels of access that are necessary. Drawing on global education policy scholarship on privatization, Critical Data Studies, and Business Studies, and applying a network ethnography approach, this research project aims to: 1) map the global ILSA industry by identifying the actors to whom ILSAs are outsourced; 2) to theorize how the global ILSA industry emerged, stabilised and operates - particularly focusing on the global ILSA industry institutions and relationships, the network functioning, forms of agency, and power practices; 3) to investigate how ILSAs are shaped by the practices, values, profit interests and power dynamics of the private sector. Ultimately, this analysis seeks to challenge unfair practices that have been normalized over the past two decades and aims to make all those developing education accountability infrastructures also accountable and their practices more transparent.

Keywords: international large scale assessments,education privatization,global education industry,education data making,interdisciplinary,network ethnography
ContaminatEd land Remediation through Energy crops for Soil improvement to liquid biofuel Strategies (CERESiS)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Societal Challenges
Programme: Secure, clean and efficient energy
Theme: Alternative fuels and mobile energy sources
Action type: Research and Innovation actions
Countries involved: Germany,Italy,Ukraine,Italy,Greece,Greece,United Kingdom,Canada,Brazil,Luxembourg
Call: Combined clean biofuel production and phytoremediation solutions from contaminated lands worldwide (H2020-LC-SC3-2020-RES-RIA, 2020)
Start date: 2020-11-01
End date: 2024-04-30
Duration (months): 42.0
Total project cost (EUR): 4042885.01
EU funding (EUR): 3564700.25
Participants: 12
Project status: SIGNED

Biofuels are one of few options for decarbonizing transport in the short to medium term. However, they are often criticised for indirect land use change (ILUC), which is critical due to lack of high quality agricultural land and increasing world population. At the same time, significant contaminated land areas remain unused. CERESiS aims to provide a win-win sustainable solution to both issues by facilitating land decontamination through phytoremediation, growing energy crops to produce clean biofuels. In the longer term, this will increase the land available for agriculture, while producing non-ILUC biofuel. The project is based on three pillars. The phytoremediation pillar will identify a range of promising energy crops, focusing on key contaminants worldwide. They will be trialed in North, South, Eastern Europe and Brazil, with samples characterised and converted to biofuels. The technological pillar will optimize two clean biofuel conversion technologies, Supercritical Water Gasification & Fast Pyrolysis integrated with novel contaminant separation technologies, focusing on eliminating, stabilising or retrieving the contaminants in an easy to manage form. The Decision Support pillar will develop an open access, modular and expandable Decision Support System able to identify optimal solutions for each application. It will incorporate land, phytoremediation, technological, economic, environmental parameters providing critical information to stakeholders & policy makers on the suitability of combinations of phytoremediation strategies and conversion technologies for particular sites, contaminants, environmental restrictions etc. It will include Techno-economic analysis of pathways, LCA & LCC, supply chain optimization, and performance assessment against SDG goals. Partners from five EU countries, Ukraine, Brazil and Canada representing the entire value chain collaborate for the development and assessment of the integrated pathways.

Keywords: contaminated lands,phytoremediation,pyrolysis,gasification,clean biofuels,decision support system
Mechanistic basis of host infection and intracellular development in microsporidia (MsInfection)

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-2020, 2020)
Start date: 2021-11-01
End date: 2023-10-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 191852.16
EU funding (EUR): 191852.16
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Microsporidia are emerging pathogens of high priority that infect humans, and most animals. Microsporidiosis can be life-threatening and cause severe damage in the eyes, brain, muscles, respiratory, and urinary tracts. These obligate intracellular parasites also present a unique case of reductive and divergent evolution. They possess the smallest eukaryotic genome and unique cellular features such as the smallest eukaryotic cytoplasmic ribosomes and a specialised infection apparatus, the polar tube. Inside the host, microsporidia replicate through distinct life stages to form infective spores that are released into the environment upon host cell lysis. However, the molecular events involved in the pathogen’s commitment to each life stage, host cell lysis, formation, and eversion of the polar tube, remain unclear. This lacunae in understanding microsporidia are due to a lack of biochemical or structural data and the absence of systematic in vivo studies. Thus, studying this medically and economically relevant pathogen is critical for designing drugs and preventive regimes to curtail their transmission. Towards this, MsInfection aims to provide the first comprehensive and mechanistic insights into microsporidian life-cycle progression and host cell invasion. The life cycle stages of microsporidia species with varied tissue tropism will be analysed structurally and transcriptomically at the single-cell level, using Electron Microscopy (EM) and single cell-RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq). A combination of these transformative technologies will enable a systematic determination and visualisation of the molecular events driving intracellular development, and the assembly of infection apparatus and tissue niche selection.

Keywords: microsporidia,cryo sbf,cryo electron tomography,single cell transcriptomics,electron microscopy,polar tube
Ocean Medicines (Ocean Medicines)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie-Sklodowska-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Research and innovation staff exchange
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Life Sciences
Countries involved: South Africa,Italy,Spain,Austria,Italy,Norway,Belgium,United Kingdom,Portugal
Call: Marie Skłodowska-Curie Research and Innovation Staff Exchange (RISE) (H2020-MSCA-RISE-2015, 2015)
Start date: 2015-12-01
End date: 2019-11-30
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 360000.0
EU funding (EUR): 360000.0
Participants: 11
Project status: CLOSED

Marine organisms have the capacity to produce a variety of biologically potent natural products. Such novel molecules have new mechanisms of action and therefore could be used to treat human diseases and enhance the quality of life, especially in the ageing segment of the population. However, although there is growing interest in marine natural products (MNP) as potential therapeutic agents for human age-related diseases, few MNPs have reached clinical trials and the market. To fully exploit these promising biological resources, new strategies in the pipeline as well as a new cohort of cross-disciplinary trained scientists are needed to overcome existing bottlenecks and ensure the production of high value biomolecules. Ocean Medicines is a network of academic, research centres and SMEs across Europe, with proven experience in higher education, training and endowed with state-of-the art scientific and technical expertise and infrastructures. Our aim is to establish a network of collaboration and knowledge-exchange between industrial and academic partners to further develop lead compounds from marine microorganisms having anticancer or anti-infective effects that have already been identified by the consortium. To achieve this a secondment programme will be set up to prepare a new generation of marine biodiscovery scientists that will be trained on how to isolate compounds from bioactive bacteria/microalgae and take these through to semi-industrial scale-up for further development and toxicity testing at the pre-clinical level. The Ocean Medicines programme also considers commercialization, innovation and entrepreneurship activities including how to start a new business and how to favour an industrial career to seconded researchers. We are confident that the establishment of this international research network, with its synergistic effects, will significantly contribute to advance all of the involved labs to the top level in the field of marine drug discovery.

Keywords: antibiotics,antinfective,anticancer compounds,marine microrganisms,extreme environments
Bringing flexibility provided by multi energy carrier integration to a new MAGNITUDE (MAGNITUDE)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Societal Challenges
Programme: Secure, clean and efficient energy
Theme: A single, smart European electricity grid
Action type: Research and Innovation actions
Countries involved: Spain,Italy,Italy,Germany,Italy,Austria,Sweden,Belgium,Belgium,Belgium,France,France,Denmark,United Kingdom
Call: Tools and technologies for coordination and integration of the European energy system (H2020-LCE-2017-SGS, 2017)
Start date: 2017-10-01
End date: 2021-05-31
Duration (months): 44.0
Total project cost (EUR): 3999057.5
EU funding (EUR): 3999057.5
Participants: 16
Project status: CLOSED

In the framework of the achievement of the EU Climate and Energy packages for the decarbonisation of the energy sectors, the integration of variable renewable energy sources will put at stake the stability and provision security of the electricity system: there is a growing need for flexibility provision to ensure a reliable and stable electric system. MAGNITUDE addresses the challenge to rise flexibility in electricity systems, by increasing the synergies between electricity, heating/cooling and gas networks and associated systems. MAGNITUDE will bring technical solutions, market design and business models, to be integrated on ongoing policy discussions. MAGNITUDE will define technological and operational means for maximising flexibility provision to the electricity network. It will identify the regulatory framework to bring such flexibility service to the energy markets and will provide enhanced market designs and related business mechanisms. MAGNITUDE is built upon 7 real life case studies of multi energy systems, located in different European countries, under different regulatory and geopolitical environments and with different technological development levels. It will: 1. Simulate the multi energy systems in the case studies and optimise their operation strategies maximising the provision of specific flexibility services 2. From existing regulations, propose improved market designs, and integrate them in a market simulation platform for evaluating its performance among the case study countries 3. Quantify the benefit of pooling flexibilities from decentralized multi energy systems for energy markets through an aggregation platform. MAGNITUDE results will define policy strategies and recommendations in a pan-European perspective. Achievements will be spread among stakeholders to raise awareness and foster higher collaboration among the electricity, heating and gas sectors to achieve the common goal of a less carbon intensive, yet reliable energy system.

Keywords: energy systems,smart grids,integration of variable renewable energy sources,flexibility services,business models,market design and mechanisms,decarbonisation,policies,regulations,tools