Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Protection without Ratification? International Refugee Law beyond States Parties to the 1951 Refugee Convention (BEYOND)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Institutions, Governance and Legal Systems
Panel description: Political science, international relations, law
Countries involved: Norway
Call: ERC Starting Grant (ERC-2019-STG, 2019)
Start date: 2021-01-01
End date: 2026-04-30
Duration (months): 64.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1499580.0
EU funding (EUR): 1499580.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Many of the world’s top refugee-hosting countries have neither signed nor ratified the 1951 Refugee Convention. So do international conventions make a difference? The Refugee Convention represents a paradigmatic – and exceptionally timely – test of this theoretical and empirical puzzle, for refugee protection is increasingly politicized and has wide-ranging implications for state sovereignty. The BEYOND project fundamentally reconsiders the impact of international refugee law by developing the first genuinely global and systematic theoretical framework for understanding the behaviour and position of states that have chosen not to sign the Refugee Convention – especially those that still accept the lion’s share of the world’s refugees. These non-party states, overlooked by scholarship and seen as ‘exceptions’ to the international refugee law regime, are at the core of this project rather than the margins. BEYOND asks: 1. What is the influence of the Refugee Convention in non-party states? 2. How do these non-party states engage with and help create the international refugee law regime? BEYOND exposes and analyzes the various ways non-party states relate to international refugee law. It brings an innovative combination of methods to bear, including case studies on 4 of the world’s top 7 refugee-hosting states–Turkey, Lebanon, Pakistan and Bangladesh. The sub-projects investigate BEYOND’s two basic hypotheses: 1. The Refugee Convention has a significant influence on the behaviour of non-party states; and 2. Non-party states engage with, and help shape developments within, international refugee law. BEYOND sheds crucial, empirically grounded light on the prevailing assumptions about whether and why non-party states are exceptional. It also advances our theoretical and scientific understanding of the complex effects of international conventions more generally.

Keywords: refugees,united nations,unhcr,refugee convention,international conventions,ratification,international protection
The first robust and cost-effective floating vertical axis wind turbine for deep water offshore (SeaTwirl)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Industrial Leadership
Programme: Innovation in SMEs
Action type: SME instrument
Countries involved: Sweden
Call: SME instrument (H2020-SMEInst-2018-2020-2, 2019)
Start date: 2019-09-01
End date: 2022-05-31
Duration (months): 33.0
Total project cost (EUR): 3545750.0
EU funding (EUR): 2482025.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Offshore wind is stronger, steadier and more frequent than onshore. Existing solutions in this industry are bottom-fixed and floating wind turbines, both based on Horizontal Axis Wind Turbines technology and marked by certain limitations. Bottom-fixed turbines can only be installed in waters of up to 50m depth, while floating ones struggle to produce energy at a competitive cost, mainly due to very high CAPEX/OPEX. SeaTwirl opens up this vast market potential with a disruptive offshore turbine that combines the Vertical Axis Wind Turbine technology with an effective and smaller spar-buoy. SeaTwirl has key advantages over competition: -Economic: it’s cheaper; has -14% CAPEX, -22% OPEX & -46% DECEX, less service & maintenance; -20% LCoE. -Technical: few moving parts; works regardless of wind direction; can be placed closer together; provides power continuously; uses the water’s buoyancy to carry the weight. -Environment: clean energy; low noise levels; safe for birds; helps protect marine environment. SeaTwirl is highly scalable too. First, we will develop S2, a 1-MW turbine which will pave the way for larger ones: 7MW (2025), 10MW (2028) & >30MW thereafter. SeaTwirl will cover the needs of offshore users without connection to a power grid: a) Isolated public municipalities (Islands/Coastal areas), b) Offshore industry companies (fish farms/oil & gas rigs). We will target these 2 buyer groups, who will acquire S2 for their own use, as well as energy distribution companies that will provide with energy those who do not wish to invest in S2. This project is key for our further development and our huge potential: the offshore wind industry is one of the world’s fastest growing sectors, estimated to grow at a CAGR of 7.7% by 2017-2025. By 2025, we expect to 1) sell 118 MW installed capacity (from a TAM of 2.570 MW); 2) reach over €105M revenues, €19,5M EBITDA, an estimated NPV of €14,3M & an IRR of 44,3%; and 5) create over 50 new direct jobs & about 250 indirect jobs.

Keywords: wind energy,environmentally friendly,electricity generation,clean energy production,offshore wind,industry,floating turbines,vertical axis wind turbine,vawt,offshore power,islands
Technological Adaptations of Nubian cores in the Karoo: neW geometric morphometric Approaches (TANKwA)

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: Portugal
Call: Individual Fellowships (H2020-MSCA-IF-2019, 2019)
Start date: 2020-06-01
End date: 2022-05-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 147815.04
EU funding (EUR): 147815.04
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The project ‘TANKWA, Technological Adaptations of Nubian cores in the Karoo: new geometric morphometric Approaches’ uses innovative digital archaeological methods to investigate human technological adaptations to arid regions during the Middle Stone Age (MSA), a critical period of early human anatomical and behavioural development. Specifically, this will focus on a new late MSA technological variant observed in the arid Karoo region of interior South Africa which uses Nubian technology, a distinctive Levallois method of stone point production more commonly seen in MSA contexts in North Africa, the Levant and Arabia. Using cutting-edge digital Geometric Morphometric techniques, this research will establish a novel method for studying Nubian technology and lithic points, testing the hypothesis that this technology was an adaptive response to the challenges facing hunter-gatherers in an arid environment. The recently discovered open-air site of Tweefontein has a large artefact assemblage offering the ideal opportunity to characterise this technology, complemented by museum study of other South African Karoo sites. The novel approach applied will generate replicable quantitative data that allows the contextualisation of Nubian technology both in the southern African archaeological record and globally, establishing the first inter-regional comparison between Nubian technology in the Levant and South Africa. The training from experts at two international research institutions in Portugal and Israel, together with the applicant’s existing expertise in this under-studied region, culminates in a unique project which advances methods in lithic analysis and contributes to our understanding of early modern human adaptations and dispersals within and outside of Africa from a new perspective.

Keywords: middle stone age,african archaeology,lithic technology,geometric morphometrics
Next-generation transparent PV for Building Integrated Photovoltaics (cs-BIPV-FS)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Industrial Leadership
Programme: Innovation in SMEs
Action type: SME instrument
Countries involved: Estonia
Call: SME instrument (H2020-SMEInst-2018-2020-1, 2019)
Start date: 2019-11-01
End date: 2020-01-31
Duration (months): 3.0
Total project cost (EUR): 71429.0
EU funding (EUR): 50000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Roughly 40% of the current global energy demand is consumed in commercial and residential buildings. Thanks to advances in technology, Building Integrated PhotoVoltaics (BIPV) have emerged, enabling all buildings to become electricity producers and strive towards self-sustainability. Due to stringent energy efficiency norms in the EU, demand for BIPV products is soaring: PV incorporated in shells of multi-story buildings is required for supplying these high rise structures with energy. But also other artificial structures, e.g. sound barriers along highways, shall be used for energy provision, without further impact on the environment. Yet, truly integrated and aesthetic BIPV modules are currently neither available in commercial volumes nor at sustainable costs. Prices of products with still limited adaptability hinder the actual market growth. crystalsol addresses these shortcomings with a patented and entirely new type of cost-efficient, flexible and transparent PV technology where advantages of an efficient and stable monocrystalline absorber and low cost roll-to-roll (R2R) module production are combined. Due to the reason that crystalsol is able to produce semi-finished modules that allow full integration into building elements without any expensive and complex integration steps, BIPV products can pricewise finally compete with standard building shell elements (like facades without PV). This offers a huge competitive advantage, resulting in an enormous potential in the BIPV market. This Feasibility Study (cs-BIPV-FS) will bring crystalsol closer to the market entry stage. It will be a first step towards full commercialisation before upscaling the company’s operations and production processes. The cs-BIPV-FS project will help to analyse and conclude the technical feasibility and commercial potential of the ground-breaking BIPV technology, resulting in advancing the innovative technological concept into a credible business case.

Keywords: photovoltaics,solar panels,building integrated photovoltaics,bipv,solar cells,renewable energy
Photonic Integrated Multi-Channel Telecommunication Optical frequency Comb (PIMTOC)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Proof of concept grants
Action type: ERC actions
Countries involved: Switzerland
Call: ERC-Proof of Concept-2016 (ERC-2016-PoC, 2016)
Start date: 2017-01-01
End date: 2018-06-30
Duration (months): 18.0
Total project cost (EUR): 149987.0
EU funding (EUR): 149987.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Over the past years the Laboratory of Phonics and Quantum Measurements (LPQM) has developed a photonic chip that generates ultrashort pulses at 10-100 GHz mode spacing and is capable to spectrally cover all the telecommunication bands for high speed telecommunication testing applications, in contrast to existing products that usually only cover one band. Our fabrication base is a well-established semiconductor technology, expanded through innovative processes to cover the needs of optics developed from zero until now at EPFL. This gives a cost advantage due to integration and high reliability thanks to miniaturization. We propose to develop over the next 18 months a product prototype and marketing strategy of a chip based optical frequency comb (OFC) that can be used for broadband (i.e. > 50 terahertz) coherent telecommunication test device characterization with detectable line spacing of tens of gigahertz. Potential future customers would be telecommunication companies, network providers and R&D labs that could use the devices as both receiver and multi-channel local oscillator for coherent telecommunication architectures for both long haul and metro applications. The aim of this project is to analyse the market opportunities, understand the needs of potential end-users, identify the most promising market segments and identify those elements that will comprise the pricing for a product beyond the demonstrator.

Keywords: photonic integrated circuits,high capacity coherent telecommunication,frequency combs
Semiconductor free biophotoelectrodes for solar fuel production (SUPERSET)

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: Chemistry
Countries involved: Germany,France
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2023 (HORIZON-MSCA-2023-PF-01, 2023)
Start date: 2024-05-01
End date: 2026-04-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 189687.36
EU funding (EUR): 189687.36
Participants: 2
Project status: CLOSED

The soaring demand for energy and use of fossil fuels has resulted in the release of vast amount of greenhouse gases and climate change. Developing photoelectrochemical devices for solar fuel production is one of the strategies to address these issues. The use of photosynthetic proteins as photoactive components could potentially generate highly efficient biophotoelectrodes built exclusively from earth-abundant elements, leading to a step change in sustainable solar fuel production. The extreme electron transfer rates, quantum efficiency and large charge separation of the photosynthetic protein complex photosystem 1 delivers the high energy electrons needed for CO2 fixation or H2 evolution in Nature. However, coupling electron transfer between electrodes and photosystem 1 to catalytic processes remains challenging because charge recombination of the reduced electron acceptors with the oxidized form of the electron mediators or with the electrode surface is typically faster than catalysis. The overarching aim of SUPERSET is to demonstrate for the first time the concepts of kinetic barriers and fast hole refilling through electron hopping for preventing charge recombination in scalable biophotoelectrodes and thus enable CO2 reduction and H2 production with semiconductor-free devices. Toward this aim, my specific research objectives will include: (1) Design electron acceptors based on anthraquinones to limit recombination at the electrode by taking advantage of their PCET square scheme mechanism; (2) Modify the surface of electrode by self-assembled monolayers to build a charger barrier to prevent the charge recombination of the reduced electron acceptors with the electrode; (3) Design Osmium/Cobalt-based electron donors with extremely fast electron transfer to enable the refilling of the hole produced by photosystem 1 before recombination takes place; (4) Combine the electron donor and electron acceptor to be channeled to an enzyme for CO2 reduction or H2 production.

Keywords: redox polymer,biohybrid devices,photoelectrochemical cells,biocatalysis,hydrogenase enzymes,co2 reduction,hydrogen production
Novel production routes for the fabrication of tailor-made, crystalline, self-structuring oleogels for functional food and pharmaceutical applications (NewOilFactory)

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: 2024-10-01
End date: 2026-03-31
Duration (months): 18.0
Total project cost (EUR): 150000.0
EU funding (EUR): 150000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

One out of five deaths in the EU in 2017 were linked to unhealthy diets and it is estimated that 53% of the EU population is overweight or obese, creating an unsustainable burden on national sanitary systems. Overconsumption of fats, particularly saturated ones, is one of the main causes of obesity; hence promoting diets that are lower in fats is essential. One strategy could be the reformulation of fatty foods with a lower amount of both saturated and total fats. However, this is challenging as fats provide characteristic functional properties that are hard to replicate with different ingredients. The use of oleogels to replace pure fats is a valuable option to solve this difficult task. Oleogels are materials with a reduced content of saturated fatty acids, achieved via the structuring of a liquid oil with a gelator agent. They can be further processed to obtain more complex food ingredients with reduced calories and interesting organoleptic properties (oleocolloids). The application of oleogels is still limited due to several regulatory, technological and environmental limitations. Building on the knowledge gained from the ERC StG grant CryForm, NewOilFactory aims at overcoming these limitations by developing novel manufacturing processes for the production of crystalline oleogels made from sustainable liquid oils, without using hydrogenated fatty acids or expensive gelling agents, and following the mild-processing paradigm. As part of the project these processes will be tested at laboratory scale, optimized using engineering simulation tools and validated in terms of scale-up feasibility, as well as economic and environmental sustainability. In parallel, an evaluation of their market potential and a competitive analysis will be performed. A knowledge transfer strategy including patenting, licensing and the creation of a consultancy start-up for further research and co-development with industrial partners will also be established.
Real-time reconstruction of epidemic dynamics from viral phylogenies using Deep Learning (Deep EpiDyn)

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: United Kingdom
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2024 (HORIZON-MSCA-2024-PF-01, 2024)
Start date: 2025-09-01
End date: 2027-08-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 276187.92
EU funding (EUR): 276187.92
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Reconstructing epidemic dynamics in real-time has become crucial for effective disease management, as demonstrated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Traditional methods rely on epidemiological data (e.g., reported cases), which can be biased or incomplete due to variable testing policies, particularly in resource-limited settings. Instead, phylodynamics has emerged as a valuable toolkit for using viral phylogenies to understand epidemic dynamics. However, conventional phylodynamic methods rely on mathematical formulas and approximations, which are not scalable to large datasets and are time-consuming, limiting their use primarily to retrospective rather than real-time analysis. This proposal aims to transform phylodynamics by integrating it with deep learning to bypass the cumbersome likelihood calculations, thereby facilitating real-time analysis directly from sequence data. I will develop innovative deep learning models to explore the relationships between phylogenetic trees and epidemiological parameters of viruses with epidemic potential, such as SARS-CoV-2, influenza, RSV, and mpox. These models are designed to rapidly and accurately estimate time-varying epidemiological metrics, including transmission heterogeneity, basic reproduction numbers, infectious and incubation periods. This initiative is set to revolutionize our ability to model and comprehend infectious diseases in real-time, elevating sequence data to a critical, standalone data source. It will incorporate cross-validation with epidemiological inference from reported cases and wastewater analyses, reducing reliance on any single data source and enhancing both public health responses and infectious disease surveillance. Furthermore, by simulating incremental data collection that reflects real outbreak conditions, this project will evaluate the sensitivity of real-time estimations and determine the necessary sampling proportions to accurately represent epidemic dynamics. This approach will yield crucial

Keywords: phylodynamics,deep learning,genomic epidemiology,infectious disease,phylogenetics
Structural, kinetic, and biophysical analysis and engineering of KIT.METRNL signalling to boost heart tissue regeneration after myocardial infarction (HeartRepairKIT)

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: Belgium,Germany
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): 191760.0
EU funding (EUR): 191760.0
Participants: 2
Project status: SIGNED

KIT, a receptor tyrosine kinase, is dimerized at the cell surface by the cytokine stem cell factor (SCF) to initiate signalling pathways securing fundamental cellular processes, including hematopoiesis, gametogenesis, and melanogenesis. Impaired signalling due to KIT mutations or deficiency leads to various malignancies such as leukemia and melanoma. However, recent data have shown that KIT can also initiate signalling by binding meteorin-like protein (METRNL), triggering unrelated stimulation of heart tissue regeneration. Ischemic heart diseases are the leading cause of mortality and morbidity worldwide, with approximately 9 million annual deaths and over 180 million disability-adjusted life years lost. Therefore, revealing the molecular principles and mechanism of this completely new function of KIT gives hope for new opportunities towards novel therapies that might maximize the efficiency of heart recovery after heart disease incidence. However, the field is currently plagued by a paucity of mechanistic details and the structure-function relationship of the KIT.METRNL complex assembly. The goal of this project is to derive the structure-function landscape of the novel interaction between KIT and METRNL and to provide a blueprint for how KIT can be activated by two structurally distinct protein ligands. The gained knowledge will govern the rational engineering of METRNL towards improving its interaction with KIT to elicit intensified signalling that can lead to amplified heart tissue regeneration. This aim will be achieved by synergistically combining methods of molecular and structural biology (supervisor’s expertise), biomolecular kinetics and rational protein engineering (researcher’s experience), and single molecule biophysics (secondment). Collectively, this research endeavour will impact basic and applied cardiovascular disease research and promises to provide new possibilities for alleviating the enormous socioeconomic burden associated with these diseases.

Keywords: kit,receptor tyrosine kinase,meteorin like,stem cell factor,myocardial infarction,biomolecular kinetics,single molecule biophysics,protein engineering,drug design,protein protein interactions