Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Symbiont-assisted cuticle biosynthesis as a key innovation contributing to the evolutionary success of beetles (SYMBeetle)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Consolidator grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Environmental Biology, Ecology and Evolution
Panel description: Ecology, biodiversity, environmental change, evolutionary biology, behavioural ecology, microbial ecology, marine biology, ecophysiology, theoretical developments and modelling
Countries involved: Germany,Germany
Call: ERC Consolidator Grant (ERC-2018-COG, 2018)
Start date: 2019-06-01
End date: 2024-05-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1997750.0
EU funding (EUR): 1048217.55
Participants: 2
Project status: SIGNED

To elucidate the key adaptations underlying evolutionary success remains one of the central challenges in evolution and ecology. However, rigorous experimental tests are usually hampered by the lack of replicate evolutionary events or the inability to manipulate a candidate trait of importance. SYMBeetle exploits the naturally replicated evolution of an experimentally tractable, symbiont-assisted key adaptation in beetles to understand its impact on niche expansion and diversification. Recent evidence indicates that beetles across at least seven different families associate with microbial symbionts that provision their host with tyrosine, an aromatic amino acid necessary for cuticle biosynthesis, hardening, and tanning. SYMBeetle addresses the hypothesis that the acquisition of tyrosine-supplementing microbes constituted a key innovation across phylogenetically distinct beetles that allowed them to expand into novel ecological niches, by relaxing the dependence on nitrogen-rich diets for successful formation of the rigid exoskeleton and protective front wings. Specifically, tyrosine supplementation may facilitate the transition to herbivory and allow for subsisting at very low ambient humidity, by facilitating the production of a thick cuticular barrier to desiccation. To test this, SYMBeetle will uniquely combine experimental manipulation of symbiotic associations to assess the symbionts’ contribution to cuticle biosynthesis and its fitness consequences (desiccation resistance and defense) with large-scale comparative approaches aimed at elucidating the taxonomic distribution, ecological contexts, and evolutionary origins of cuticle-supplementing symbioses. The results are expected to transform our understanding of microbes as important facilitators for the evolution of herbivory and the colonization of dry habitats in beetles, two factors of major relevance for the emergence of economically relevant insect pests of agricultural crops and stored products.
Development and commercialisation of a new purification system for contaminant-free radiocarbon dating (ChromaChron)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Proof of concept grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: The study of the human past
Panel description: Archaeology, history and memory
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call: ERC Proof of Concept Grant (ERC-2018-PoC, 2018)
Start date: 2019-06-01
End date: 2020-11-30
Duration (months): 18.0
Total project cost (EUR): 136238.0
EU funding (EUR): 136238.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The ERC-funded project ‘PalaeoChron’ is exploring the dispersal and chronology of early anatomically modern humans outwards from Africa and into Eurasia between 60-40,000 years ago. The study of this key period, during which Neanderthals and other archaic humans disappeared to extinction, relies on the power of radiocarbon dating for the chronological framework underpinning it. There is a huge onus on reliable dating, but this is extremely challenging due to the overwhelming effects of even trace (~<1%) amounts of carbon contamination on archaeological bone samples. To overcome this, as part of the project, we have been using preparative liquid chromatography to isolate specific amino acids from bone collagen for radiocarbon dating. This has seen a dramatic improvement in our ability to decontaminate samples for dating, and obtain accurate results. The Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit (ORAU) is unique in the world in routinely using this approach for radiocarbon dating, but the current method does have some limitations despite the obvious advantages. The main limitation is the time required for the chromatography step; only one sample per day can be prepared. This Proof of Concept grant aims to develop a new chromatography solution to enable a higher throughput and a greater efficiency in the application of these purification techniques for collagen based samples. We have been working with our industrial partners in the development of the method and we want to bring a commercial product to market. Enabling this technology to be taken up by other laboratories will allow significant improvements to routine dating and geochemical analysis, thereby transforming our ability to provide a chronology for the human and environmental past.

Keywords: compound specific radiocarbon analysis,semi preparative chromatography,hydroxyproline,accelerator mass spectrometry
High-temperature Thermophoresis using advanced optical microscopies (HiPhore)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Consolidator grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Condensed matter physics
Panel description: Structure, electronic properties, fluids, nanosciences, biological physics
Countries involved: France
Call: ERC Consolidator Grant (ERC-2017-COG, 2017)
Start date: 2018-03-01
End date: 2023-08-31
Duration (months): 66.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1922973.0
EU funding (EUR): 1922973.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Thermophoresis denotes the motion of dissolved species in fluids created by temperature gradients. In water, the origin of thermophoresis is multiple, complex and still a matter of active research activities for solutes such as proteins, DNA or colloids. Thermophoresis at small scales (sub-100 µm) aroused a strong interest this last decade because it makes the process faster and because of the development of important applications in life sciences, e.g. in bioanalytics. However, reducing the spatial scale makes quantitative and non-invasive measurements of temperature and molecular concentration more challenging. In the HiPhore project, using gold nanoparticles under illumination as nanosources of heat, I wish to achieve major breakthroughs in the field of microscale thermophoresis in liquids (MTL): (i) We will develop new microscopy tools and pioneer their use in the context of MTL: we will implement the possibility to shape arbitrarily complex microscale temperature profiles and to quantitatively image in parallel the resulting fields of temperature and molecular concentration using label-free advanced optical tools. (ii) Thanks to these tools, we will study the enigmatic origin of protein thermophoresis with a new glance. We will also explore a new regime, that I coin super-thermophoresis, consisting in thermophoresis in superheated liquid water up to 200°C. We have shown that such a metastable state can be achieved at ambient pressure using gold nanoparticles under illumination at their plasmonic resonance. (iii) Based on this gain of knowledge and know-how, we will develop two new applications of MTL. The first one consists in studying the thermal stability of proteins by thermophoresis with a label-free approach. The second one consists in using a superthermophoretic trap to enable for the first time the culture and the real-time observation of hyperthermophilic microorganisms (living up to 113°C) in vivo at ambient pressure under optical microscopy means.

Keywords: plasmonics
Barbara Bodichon's Epistolary Bildung (BBEB)

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: United Kingdom
Call: Individual Fellowships (H2020-MSCA-IF-2016, 2016)
Start date: 2017-09-01
End date: 2019-08-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 183454.8
EU funding (EUR): 183454.8
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Bildung is a controversial German neo-humanist term that, as conceptualised by Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767-1835), proposed a whole new educational project: to bring all the potential contained within each person to full expression as a means towards social progress. Bildung is the object of renewed attention in theories of education today. While it is contested for its classist and sexist bias, it is also reconceptualised as a powerful tool to counterbalance market-oriented instrumentalist uses of education. Seeking to contribute to these debates from the perspective of the history of education, my project will put into play a critical reading of Bildung in order to explore personal correspondence as educational instruments in the life of English feminist, artist and philanthropist Barbara Bodichon (1827-1891). Persuaded of its potential as a thinking tool, reading letters through the lens of Bildung is an original way of exploring epistles as sources of informal education for literate women in nineteenth-century England and an alternative path to review and nuance our understanding of this already studied historical figure.

Keywords: bodichon,bildung,epistolary education,epistolary self,textual agency,feminism,performativity,power
PARAGONE: vaccines for animal parasites (Paragone)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Societal Challenges
Programme: Food security, sustainable agriculture and forestry, marine and maritime and inland water research and the bioeconomy
Action type: Research and Innovation actions
Countries involved: Spain,Spain,Ireland,Uruguay,Spain,Germany,Belgium,China,Belgium,Norway,United Kingdom,United Kingdom,United Kingdom,United Kingdom,United Kingdom,United Kingdom,United Kingdom
Call: Tackling losses from terrestrial animal diseases (H2020-SFS-2014-2, 2014)
Start date: 2015-04-01
End date: 2019-03-31
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 8998559.75
EU funding (EUR): 8998559.75
Participants: 22
Project status: CLOSED

Helminth and ectoparasitic infections of ruminants and poultry have a huge impact on the biological efficiency of these vital food sources. Indiscriminate antiparasitic use has led to drug resistance across the globe. The main alternative to the dwindling supply of antiparasitics is vaccines. Here, in the PARAGONE project, findings from previous EU and other-funded projects on parasite vaccine development will be exploited to take a number of promising prototypes towards commercialisation. Partners from the Europe, China, Uruguay, SMEs and pharma, will directly move forward prototypes against the ruminant helminths Fasciola hepatica, Cooperia spp., Ostertagia ostertagi, Teladorsagia circumcincta and Haemonchus contortus and, the ectoparasitic mites, Psoroptes ovis (ruminants) and Dermanyssus gallinae (poultry). They will utilise novel adjuvants or delivery systems to maximise efficacy of some of the prototypes. Moreover, immunology studies will focus on pathogens that have previously proved problematic, often because they release immunosuppressive molecules that must be overcome for vaccines to work or because recombinant vaccines have failed to elicit protection observed with native prototypes. State-of-the-art technologies will be used to interrogate host/parasite interactions to define key signatures of protection that can be used to inform delivery systems that will enhance immunity, while other studies will define polymorphism in current vaccine candidates to ensure derived prototypes will be fit-for-purpose across geographic scales. Fundamental, is engagement of the scientists with pharma and other stakeholders (farmers, veterinarians, regulators) via many dissemination activities that will be used to obtain feedback on how the vaccines can be best deployed in the field. The output will be at least two prototypes to the point of uptake by pharma, government or philanthropic agencies, and a clear pathway to commercialisation for all prototypes studied.

Keywords: vaccines
Migrant Descendants’ Intercultural Competence and their Recognition in the English and Italian (MIDIC)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie-Sklodowska-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call: MSCA Special Needs Allowance (H2020-IBA-MSCA-SNLS-2019, 2019)
Start date: 2020-04-01
End date: 2022-07-31
Duration (months): 28.0
Total project cost (EUR): 55938.0
EU funding (EUR): 55938.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions pay particular attention to physical accessibility and inclusion and foresee financial support for the additional costs entailed by recruited or seconded researchers with disabilities.

Keywords: intercultural competence,migrant descendants,labour market
Information gain in Multi-pixel Acquisition Ghost Imaging Techniques (IMAGIT)

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: Physics
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call: Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF-EF) (H2020-MSCA-IF-2015, 2015)
Start date: 2017-01-01
End date: 2018-12-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 183454.8
EU funding (EUR): 183454.8
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Optical intensity measurements usually recover only partial information of the wave and of the media that has been gone through since phase information is lost. Interferometric imaging techniques allows us to recover the phase information but are often unstable and hard to implement due to mechanical vibrations and media fluctuations. On the other hand, in recent years an imaging technique called Ghost Imaging has attracted increasing interest through its ability to recover apparently hidden information on the spatial structure of a light beam. We propose different methods that take advantage of a spatially resolved detection in the context of Ghost Imaging, to achieve better performances than conventional imaging as well as usual Ghost Imaging. Our methods whose principles have been validated by simulations that are presented, will allow simultaneous phase and amplitude imaging and the possibility to do such acquisitions in real-time through robust intensity measurements. Using quantum correlations we will also demonstrate that the method permit to take phase-amplitude images with a small number of photons. This last technique, can have many applications in diverse fields, ranging from biological sciences to security. Based on the unique expertise, facilities and on the precedent results of the host concerning Ghost Imaging, the proposal will aim to push the 'state-of-the-art' on both Ghost Imaging and phase-amplitude imaging. The fellow, who’s past research profile matches perfectly the project will bring his expertise and the developed simulations to the host. The project will open a new promising research subject at the host institution and the fellow will receive a high level training on both scientific and transferable skills aspects from the highly experienced host researchers and from the course proposed by the host. The project and the fellow’s networking will benefit from ongoing collaborations with both academic and industrial partners.

Keywords: phase amplitude imaging,ghost imaging,single pixel camera technique,coincidence imaging
Multipurpose Cloud-Based Control Platform High Performance LED Lighting Solution for Smart Cities (LEDILSol)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Societal Challenges
Programme: Secure, clean and efficient energy
Action type: SME instrument
Countries involved: Italy
Call: Stimulating the innovation potential of SMEs for a low carbon energy system (H2020-SMEINST-1-2015, 2015)
Start date: 2015-12-01
End date: 2016-03-31
Duration (months): 4.0
Total project cost (EUR): 71429.0
EU funding (EUR): 50000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Future Smart cities are going to be amazing community hubs that will be more sustainable, efficient, and supportive of citizens. The concept of smart communities is based on intelligent infrastructures such as LEDilSOL and smart grids, so that connected and sustainable communities can be developed. Lighting accounts for almost 20% of the global electricity use, which represents 6% of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide and consumes 14% of all electricity within the European Union. As part of the important city infrastructure and the immense energy consumption that street lighting represents, street lighting is already transforming not only to satisfy the European and worldwide directives to reduce energy use and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions (2020 Climate and Energy Package and Directive 2003/87/EC ) but also to favour the cities in becoming better and safer places to live. As a result of this great need for modernization and the growing demand towards smarter cities, as well as market trends, upcoming regulation and our fierce commitment towards our clients for personalised high quality solutions we wish to introduce to the market a smart energy efficient lighting system, which consists of highly efficient LED luminaires with built-in control intelligence that are managed and controlled by a single multipurpose control cloud platform. Todays, there's already a growing movement to bring LEDs to the streets. Energy-efficient lighting is a savvy improvement on outdated High-Intensity Discharge (HID) technology - and it comes with a huge return on investment. It is estimated that by deploying of LEDs, around 70% of energy currently utilised in street lighting (a remarkable driver of LED market growth) could be saved .

Keywords: led control,energy savings,cloud platform,smart cities
Rethinking African Gender Histories: Time, Change, and the Deeper Past in Northern Mozambique (GENHIS-AFRICA)

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: Belgium
Call: Individual Fellowships (H2020-MSCA-IF-2017, 2017)
Start date: 2019-02-01
End date: 2021-01-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 172800.0
EU funding (EUR): 172800.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

This project aims at rethinking ways of reading and writing change in African gender history. Looking at oral historical narratives and the transgenerational communication of historical knowledge among the Yaawo-speaking people in northern Mozambique, it brings the study of gender in African deeper pasts in dialogue with a cultural analysis of the contemporary historical moment. My starting argument is that our understanding of the contemporary historical moment in African gender history is strongly framed by the gender and development models of the social sciences which emphasize women’s struggle for gender equality in relation to men. This understanding influences the way in which we approach the past and write our research narratives. Through this history writing, women’s historical experiences become fixed within teleological narratives of ‘liberation’ (/‘oppression’). The past is distanced from the present along a linear path, and what is termed the ‘precolonial past’ is isolated as a separate unit of study. In my research, I seek to challenge this temporal model and explore new ways to read and write gendered histories that more fully capture the multiplicity of the gendered temporalities that constitute African existence. Overall, my study has a two-fold objective: Firstly, on the basis of the Yaawo oral historical narratives, it aims to contribute to our understanding of female political and spiritual power in Africa’s precolonial past and the historical processes of change in the colonial and postcolonial contexts. Secondly, I will study how these deeper histories also echo and are reworked in the present and thus constitute the contemporary historical experience in interaction with, for instance, more recent socialist ideas of women’s emancipation and the current development discourse on gender equality. Overall, my research proposes to open new routes in the theoretical thinking as well as the methodologies of African gender history.

Keywords: african history,historical change and continuity,gendered temporalities,deeper past,life narratives
Reconstitution and Structural Analysis of a Minimal Mechanosensitive Focal Adhesion Complex (FA x Force)

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: Germany
Call: Individual Fellowships (H2020-MSCA-IF-2017, 2017)
Start date: 2019-09-01
End date: 2021-08-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 159460.8
EU funding (EUR): 159460.8
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Focal adhesions (FAs) are receptor complexes that couple the extracellular matrix (ECM) to the actin cytoskeleton, allowing inside-out and outside-in signaling between cells and their environment. FA formation is triggered by activation of integrin receptors, which interact with cytoplasmic ligands to connect with the actin cytoskeleton and regulate numerous signaling pathways. FA maturation requires force transduction between the actin cytoskeleton and ECM, which results in protein recruitment, likely through conformational changes and force-dependent protein deformation. The molecular mechanisms regulating this process are largely unknown, though many of the key components have been identified and are well characterized in vivo. I will carry out a hierarchal reconstruction of the core FA components, namely talin, vinculin, and integrin, both alone and in the presence of actin filaments or a force-generating actomyosin network. This will allow direct observation of (1) how core components of FAs assemble and regulate each other, (2) how actin impacts the formation and structure of this core complex, and (3) the effect of force on the assembly, overall complex structure, and conformational states of individual proteins. Interactions between key proteins will be analyzed both biochemically and structurally using cryo-EM in a step-wise manner to obtain a comprehensive image of FA assembly. Recent technical advances have made cryo-EM an ideal tool for solving high-resolution reconstructions of macromolecular complexes like FAs. Structural approaches will be augmented by light microscopy experiments, to provide a dynamic view of complex assembly and regulation. By using multidisciplinary, innovative approaches, this project will address both functional and structural questions about FA assembly, yielding insight into key interactions and therapeutic targets that will directly benefit biomedical research in this field.

Keywords: cryo electron microscopy,focal adhesion,dna origami,actomyosin,force,mechanosensation