Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Current-free Stellarator for Fusion Power Plants (CSFPP)

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: Germany
Call: EIC Accelerator Open 2024 (HORIZON-EIC-2024-ACCELERATOR-02, 2024)
Start date: 2024-08-01
End date: 2026-07-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 3530625.0
EU funding (EUR): 2471437.5
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

A current-free stellarator is a type of magnetic confinement device that confines a hot, ionized gas in a toroidal vacuum vessel with external magnetic field coils. If the gas is sufficiently hot, hydrogen isotopes fuse to helium cores and neutrons, releasing a total of 17.6 MeV energy per reaction. As neutrons are not confined by the magnetic field, they deposit their energy in an actively cooled wall. This drives a standard heat cycle with a turbine to generate electricity, a mature technology. Proxima Fusion is already working on an integrated modeling framework to deliver a reactor relevant and cost-competitive configuration based on the concept of a current-free stellarator. By informing the modeling framework of engineering constraints (and vice versa), Proxima Fusion can ensure that their engineering design based on the optimized configuration can be built while massively decreasing expected manufacturing costs due to optimization for higher error tolerance.

Keywords: fusion energy,stellarator,digital twin
Mercury: Assessment of the Geology of Late Eruptions and Volatiles (MAGLEV)

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: United Kingdom
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2024 (HORIZON-MSCA-2024-PF-01, 2024)
Start date: 2025-06-02
End date: 2027-06-01
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 260347.92
EU funding (EUR): 260347.92
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

The MESSENGER mission imaged explosive volcanic deposits on Mercury: a surprising result because Mercury’s proximity to the Sun should have depleted its constituents in volatiles. Mercury’s large core suggests its rocky shell was stripped by some process, which most likely would have removed its volatiles too. The volatiles’ species, how Mercury retained them, and how they were concentrated in Mercury’s magmas are unknown. Mercury’s volcanic plains formed ≥3.5 billion years ago, before magma ascent routes were closed by global contraction, but some impact craters liberated magmas for an unknown time afterward. The University of Leicester-built Mercury Imaging X-ray Spectrometer on the ESA-JAXA BepiColombo mission will measure Mercury’s composition. Mercury’s explosive volcanic deposits are important targets, but it is unknown how MIXS will respond to their exotic physical and chemical properties under different observation conditions. Vital groundwork remains to be done before BepiColombo arrives in 2026. Through the Mercury: Assessment of the Geology of Late Eruptions and Volatiles (MAGLEV) action, I will: (1) conduct an interdisciplinary study of materials excavated by Mercury’s Caloris basin to provide the deepest constraint on Mercury’s volatile subsurface distribution to assess how they were concentrated in Mercury’s magmas, with implications for the planet’s formation; (2) measure the volumes and ages of late-stage lavas found within impact craters, to inform us about the thermal evolution of Mercury and Mercury-like exoplanets, and; (3) quantify the response of the University of Leicester’s MIXS emulator to synthetic analogues of key Mercury terrains, to optimise MIXS operating parameters. By conducting MAGLEV at the Institute for Space based at Space Park Leicester, I will gain new research skills, planetary perspectives, teaching opportunities, and space mission experience, all of which will enhance my short-to-long term career development.

Keywords: planetary science mercury
Human Face Identity Categorization: Bridging the Gap between Vision and Social Semantics (HUMANFACE)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Advanced grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: The Human Mind and Its Compl exity
Panel description: Cognitive science, psychology, linguistics
Countries involved: France
Call: ERC ADVANCED GRANTS (ERC-2021-ADG, 2021)
Start date: 2023-03-01
End date: 2028-02-29
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2499851.0
EU funding (EUR): 2499851.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

HUMANFACE is based on a proposed global theory of human face identity recognition, conceptualized as a categorization function (i.e., Face Identity Categorization, FIC). FIC is considered as the pinnacle of categorization in human adults, who perform this function rapidly and automatically, despite a large, undetermined, and flexible number of categories of identities experienced throughout life. The core theoretical hypothesis of HUMANFACE is that semantic representations of person identity precede and guide the development of visual face identity representations throughout lifetime. Hence, contrary to standard theoretical models, there is no border between “visual perception” and “semantic memory”, but a postero-anterior gradient of sensitivity to physical and semantic features of identity in the human ventral occipito-temporal cortex (vOTC). The theory integrates a number of observations from single neurons to behavior, making predictions tested in five work packages. In WP1, valid measures of rapid, automatic FIC in human adults are optimized, to be used in WP2, testing the modulation of FIC by, and integration with, social semantics. To map the neural basis of FIC as constrained by social semantics, including its temporal dynamics and critical relation to behavior, WP3 consists of intracerebral recordings and stimulation across the vOTC. To show the emergence and strengthening of representations of facial identity by multimodal person knowledge, studies in infants and children will be conducted in WP4. Finally, to test hypotheses about the coding of facial identities across degenerate minicolumns of neurons, recordings will be made at the level of single neurons in the vOTC in WP5. The project will generate a large corpus of data and original methodologies to make decisive progress in understanding one of the most complex functions of the human mind/brain, shedding new light on how humans give meaning to their physical and social environment.

Keywords: face recognition,human brain,categorisation,semantics,social perception
WoodyWood Pickering (WWP), a novel bio-based polymer resin to realize low carbon footprint bio-paints for a sustainable and healthy future (WWP)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Innovative Europe
Programme: The European Innovation Council (EIC)
Theme: EIC Accelerator
Destination: Other destinations
Action type: EIC actions
Countries involved: France
Call: EIC Accelerator 2024 - Short application (HORIZON-EIC-2024-ACCELERATOR-01, 2024)
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2500000.0
EU funding (EUR): 2500000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

The global paint and coating industry is facing the sustainability and global warming challenge. As 50 % of CO2 emission in paint stem from the raw materials, paint producers seek eco-friendlier approaches, such as products stemming from renewable bio-origin ingredients with negative carbon footprint. Ecoat offers a disruptive technological innovation to the coatings industry in the form of WWP, a bio-sourced polymer for coatings with negative carbon footprint, provides higher quality for the end user and at lower cost than existing mass market products. Through this innovation, the company seeks to bring about sustainable changes to the construction industry while contributing towards lowering the negative environmental impact and emissions from current industry practices – making it a perfect fit for the Green Deal goals of the EU. The company seeks EU funding for bringing this disruptive innovation to the mass market for large-scale adoption of this eco-friendly and healthy paint alternative.

Keywords: ecology,climatology and climate change,environment,pollution and climate,decarbonation,biobased,bioeconomy,bioproducts,atmospheric chemistry,atmospheric composition,air pollution
a wearable electromagnetic INterface for contactlesS envIronmental sensinG with HapTic feedback (IN-SIGHT)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Postdoctoral Fellowships
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Information Science and Engineering
Countries involved: France,United States
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2021 (HORIZON-MSCA-2021-PF-01, 2021)
Start date: 2022-10-01
End date: 2024-09-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 140071.44
EU funding (EUR): 140071.44
Participants: 4
Project status: CLOSED

IN-SIGHT will contribute to the new generation of electronic travel aids (ETA) for visually impaired people by proposing the first augmented reality wearable electromagnetic haptic interface. The interface will be designed entirely on a flexible substrate and integrated inside a glove, replacing the actual generation of rigid bulky sensors. It will include a radar, an array of reconfigurable super-directive flexible antennas conformal to the body and a network of haptic actuators. The super-directive antennas together with ad-hoc designed super-resolution algorithm (i.e. overcoming the radar sensor resolution) will be proposed for an accurate sensing of the environment, aimed at improving the navigation ability of visually impaired people. The system will also allow to remotely feel the surrounding environment and objects’ shape. The haptic actuators located inside the glove will be used to convey a contactless tactile sensation to the user. A solid phantom of the human hand will be used to experimentally test the exposure and device performance for multiple conditions and realistic scenarios. This proposal is perfectly in line with the research priorities of the EU, since it aims to boost the innovation in digital technologies and wearable electronics, while facilitating the integration of visually impaired people in the society and significantly improving their independence. IN-SIGHT is an intrinsically interdisciplinary and intersectoral project, involving antenna design, radar signal processing, bioelectromagnetics, and haptics. This fellowship will be carried out at Université de Rennes 1/IETR (FR) thanks to the unique available know how in flexible antennas, microelectronics, and bioelectromagnetics, under supervision of Prof. R. Sauleau. A secondment (4 months) is also planned in the Rogers research group, Northwestern University (USA), under supervision of Professor J. A. Rogers, worldwide expert in wearable and flexible biosensors.

Keywords: superdirective sensing antennas,wearable radar and electromagnetic haptic interface,electronic travel aids for visually impaired people
Valorisation of agricultural waste: Accesing and developing biomass subproducts for drug design (Waste2Drug)

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: Cyprus,Spain
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2023 (HORIZON-MSCA-2023-PF-01, 2023)
Start date: 2025-09-01
End date: 2027-08-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 234754.29
EU funding (EUR): 164328.0
Participants: 2
Project status: SIGNED

Sustainability is a major concern worldwide, resulting in the launch of Bioeconomy as a global strategy with trillions of euros invested in waste valorisation policies. Agricultural waste is rich in terpenes, a class of organic molecules that can be used as chemical feedstocks for the chemical and pharmaceutical industry, contributing to a circular bioeconomy scheme through reduce, reuse and recycle. Waste2Drug will contribute to the agriwaste valorisation in two ways; first, it will focus on the valorisation of the terpene-derived p-isopropyltoluene (commonly known as p-cymene), through its pharmaceutical development as a potent anticancer agent, by identifying its biological target and optimizing its anticancer activity. In parallel, Waste2Drug will contribute to the optimization of the p-cymene access from terpene-rich biomass, through theoretical investigation of the terpene deoxydehydration reaction that will aid the development of a more efficient catalytic procedure. The theoretical insights provided by the researcher will be used by synthetic chemists first on model molecules and then on actual agriwaste. The fellowship will be carried out at NovaMechanics Ltd (NvM), under the supervision of Dr Andreas Afantitis (AA), while a secondment will take place in the University of Burgos (UBU), under the supervision of Prof. Roberto Sanz Diez (RSD). The researcher, Dr Sofia Kiriakidi, will lead the computational line of the project, while gaining valuable experience in terms of leadership and project management, by collaborating with experimental scientists and coordinating this multidisciplinary approach. Waste2Drug connects theory to experiment, academia to industry and promotes the EU Bioeconomy strategy by both developing anticancer agents based on p-cymene and by facilitating its access from biomass terpenes, converting agricultural waste to novel drug molecules.

Keywords: target identification,drug design,pharmacophore modelling,reaction mechanism investigation,catalysis,cheminformatics,quantum chemistry,machine learning
The human hippocampus as a complementary indexing machine for episodic memory (MemoryIndex)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Advanced grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: The Human Mind and Its Compl exity
Panel description: Cognitive science, psychology, linguistics
Countries involved: United Kingdom,Germany,Italy
Call: ERC ADVANCED GRANTS (ERC-2024-ADG, 2024)
Start date: 2026-01-01
End date: 2030-12-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2499912.0
EU funding (EUR): 2499912.0
Participants: 4
Project status: SIGNED

Episodic memories make us who we are, yet how these memories are coded in the human brain remains an open question. We know that the human hippocampus is essential for turning unique experiences into memory episodes, such as a memory from the last concert you have attended. We also know that the human hippocampus has two types of neurons that could be critical for coding such episodic memories. These are Concept Cells, which store general semantic concepts (i.e. the artist, or the location where the concert was), and Episode Specific Neurons, which hold together all the elements that belong to an episode (i.e. seeing Taylor Swift performing in Edinburgh). Concept cells, which are well-known, represent a context invariant and highly abstract code for certain elements that matter to us, such as a certain place, or a certain person. In contrast, Episodic Specific Neurons, which have only recently been observed, represent a conjunctive code that uniquely identifies individual episodes. However, how these two types of neural codes are used by the hippocampus to code episodic memories is unclear. Specifically, we don’t know whether and how Episode Specific Neurons and Concept Cells interact with each other and with the neocortex. We don’t know where in the hippocampus they are, how they are allocated to code for a memory, and whether they are causally relevant for human episodic memory. The aim of MemoryIndex is to answer these questions via testing computationally motivated hypotheses in a multimodal project using a unique combination of human single neuron recordings, ultra-high field fMRI and invasive electrical stimulation. The results of this project will critically advance our understanding of the fundamental coding mechanisms that the human hippocampus uses for storing episodic memories. These findings could potentially pave the way for developing a neural prosthesis to restore memory function in patients.

Keywords: episodic memory,hippocampus,human single neurons
Physiological bases of prosocial behaviors (PHYSPROSOC)

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: Austria
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2022 (HORIZON-MSCA-2022-PF-01, 2022)
Start date: 2023-07-01
End date: 2025-06-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 199440.96
EU funding (EUR): 199440.96
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Social life is a mix of cooperation and competition. A critical component of cooperation is proactive prosociality, arguably contributing to the emergence of complex cognition. Recent findings in corvids reported similarities in the behavioral and cognitive levels between birds and mammals, suggesting convergent evolution of socio-cognitive skills. This project aims to understand the development of prosocial behaviors and their underlying physiological mechanisms in two avian species – Carrion Crows and Ring Doves. The main premise of this project is that the brain governs both behavior and autonomic body responses, thus, autonomic biomarkers can be used to gauge brain activity during complex behaviors such as social interactions. A newly established methodology will be deployed to continuously monitor autonomic biomarkers such as heart rate and body temperature in two or more interacting partners during forming alliances and cooperative, affiliative, and sexual behaviors. The biomarkers will be used for longitudinal measurements of proactive-reactive social behaviors during the socio-cognitive development of crows to predict prosocial behaviors and individual differences in social integration. Altogether, this research will contribute to the understanding of physiological mechanisms driving social behavior and bridge the gap between studies in animal cognition using a purely behavioral approach and invasive neuroscience methods to study brain circuits underlying behavior.

Keywords: animal physiology,neuroethology,socio cognitive development,cognitive biology
Photonic Multi-beam Beamforming Technology enabling Radar/Lidar Multisensor Fusion platforms for Aerospace and Automated Driving applications (PARALIA)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness
Programme: Digital, Industry and Space
Theme: Digital
Destination: Digital & Emerging Technologies for Competitiveness and Fit for the Green Deal
Action type: Research and Innovation actions
Partnership: Photonics (co-programmed)
Countries involved: Greece,Czechia,Ireland,Netherlands,Israel,Sweden,Germany,Italy
Call: Advanced multi-sensing systems (Photonics Partnership) (RIA) (HORIZON-CL4-2022-DIGITAL-EMERGING-01, 2022)
Start date: 2023-01-01
End date: 2026-06-30
Duration (months): 42.0
Total project cost (EUR): 4995910.0
EU funding (EUR): 4995910.0
Participants: 10
Project status: SIGNED

PARALIA will enable an agile, low-cost, and energy-efficient multi-sensor combining Radar and Lidar technologies will re-architect the sensors ecosystem, upgrading their capabilities and enabling ultra-high resolution at ultra-long distances crucial for current and futuristic automotive and aerospace applications. To this end, a common Lidar/Radar optical multibeam beamforming platform will be developed based on the best-in-class multi-port linear optical Xbar architecture previously used for neuromorphic applications. For its implementation, PARALIA will utilize hybrid InP-SiN integration while leveraging a tight integration of InP components in multi-element arrays and the advances in SiN PZT optical phase shifters with μs-reconfiguration time, and low power consumption < 1uW. To demonstrate the universality of the developed optical multi-beam platform number of Lidar and Radar will be developed: i) Two multibeam Lidar modules featuring 120 degrees horizontal field of view (FOV) and 30 degrees vertical FOV and supporting 8 and 64 independent beams with 64 independent beams, based on 8 wavelengths - 8x8 XBar architecture. ii) Two multibeam Radar modules operating at K- and E- band for aerospace and automotive industries respectively. Both radar modules feature 120 degrees Vertical and Horizontal FOVs and support 8 independent beams iii) A multisensor module combining the Radar and Lidar modules with a processing unit employing a fusion ML algorithm developed to acquire and process the information coming from the multiple beams of the multi-sensor greatly enhancing its range and resolution.

Keywords: lidar,radar,silicon photonics,sensors,integration,machine learning,artificial intelligence,automated driving,aerospace
Dual challenges in the discovery and sustainability of nanozeolites: controlling defect sites and structural flexibility (ZEOLIghT)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Advanced grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Synthetic Chemistry and Materials
Panel description: New materials and new synthetic approaches, structure -properties relations, solid state chemistry, molecular architecture, organic chemistry
Countries involved: France
Call: ERC ADVANCED GRANTS (ERC-2021-ADG, 2021)
Start date: 2022-10-01
End date: 2028-09-30
Duration (months): 72.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2500000.0
EU funding (EUR): 2500000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Zeolites are a class of nanoporous crystalline inorganic materials that rank among the most versatile catalysts and are capable of facilitating the development of sustainable chemistry, separation and emerging processes. The aim of ZEOLIghT is to understand the fundamental molecular-level interactions leading to specific crystallization events of nanozeolites to direct their properties. The three challenges are: 1. rational formation of molecularly-ordered precursors with different tetrahedral (T)-atoms, understanding the fundamentals of zeolite growth kinetics in colloidal and high solid precursors resulting in frameworks with controlled defects and flexible structures (Fundamental understanding of defects and flexibility of nanozeolites), 2. translate the discovery at the atomistic scale to development of novel nanozeolites and fine-tuning of relevant properties including crystals size, pore dimension, framework structure, bulk chemistry, and stability (Engineering nanozeolites), and 3. relate the defects and flexibility as the origin of the remarkable properties of ultra-stable zeolites for applications in heterogeneous catalysis: the selection of the non-oxidative conversion of methane reaction as a specific case, but not limited to, will be considered (Application). The mysterious “defects” associated with the generation of various silanol species, Brønsted acid sites, and vacancies as integral parts of the reaction center of zeolites and their relation to the framework flexibility will be elucidated by advanced characterization. The ZEOLIghT project will be the fundamental scientific driver for seeking novel nanozeolites and fully realize the knowledge gained in global cases where porous materials are considered. The key achievements are understanding the properties of nanozeolites by uncovering the consequences of defects and flexibility. The nanozeolites will claim a sizeable share of the global zeolite market for both classical and emerging applications.

Keywords: zeolites,nanocrystals,defects,silanols,flexibility,kinetics,synthesis,size,pores,cages,framework,morphology,diffusion,pathlength,green synthesis,regeneration,stability,catalysis,methane,hydrogen