Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Interdependence of functional and structural plasticity in cerebellar climbing fibers in health and disease (FunStructure)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie-Sklodowska-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Individual Fellowships (IF)-Reintegration panel
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Life Sciences
Countries involved: Italy
Call: Individual Fellowships (H2020-MSCA-IF-2018, 2018)
Start date: 2019-07-01
End date: 2021-06-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 171473.28
EU funding (EUR): 171473.28
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Modifications of the structure and intrinsic excitability of neurons (i.e. “structural plasticity” and “intrinsic plasticity”) have been proposed to contribute significantly in encoding memory in synergy with synaptic plasticity and have been shown to contribute to the pathogenesis of several diseases including multiple sclerosis (MS). However, it is still largely unclear how changes in intrinsic excitability affect structural plasticity and how this affects circuit function. A better understanding of this two-way interdependence is crucial to understand how brain circuits encode memory engrams and are affected by diseases. Here I propose to investigate the two sides of this function-structure relationship choosing cerebellar climbing fibers (CF) as a model. Using in vivo viral delivery in the inferior olive nucleus (where climbing fibers originate), electrophysiology, optogenetics and confocal microscopy I will modulate CF function or structure acutely in slice or chronically in vivo and analyze the corresponding effect on CF morphology or physiology, respectively. I will use previously developed viral constructs to silence the expression of the growth-associated protein 43 (GAP-43) or voltage-gated sodium channels to induce structural modifications or a reduction of excitability in CFs, respectively; I will also use optogenetics to specifically stimulate transduced CFs in slice and a recently established conditional knockout mouse for SK2-type calcium-gated potassium channels to increase CF excitability. In order to investigate how CF function and structure may be modified in pathological conditions I will focus on the effects of the upregulation of the RE1-Silencing Transcription Factor (REST) observed in MS and related to alterations of neuronal excitability and axonal structure. This project will show how CF activity can modify its structure and PF plasticity rules, contributing to memory formation and disease.

Keywords: cerebellum,climbing fiber,purkinje cell,intrinsic plasticity,structural plasticity,synaptic plasticity,sk channels,gap 43,rest,excitability,electrophysiology
Novel Integration of Powerplant System Equipment (NIPSE)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Societal Challenges
Programme: Smart, green and integrated transport
Action type: Research and Innovation actions
Countries involved: Spain,Greece,France,France,France,France,Netherlands,United Kingdom,United Kingdom
Call: Competitiveness of European Aviation through cost efficiency and innovation (H2020-MG-2014_TwoStages, 2014)
Start date: 2015-06-01
End date: 2018-05-31
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 6235001.25
EU funding (EUR): 6235001.25
Participants: 12
Project status: CLOSED

The main objectives of NIPSE are to provide technologies to - reduce Integrated PowerPlant System development time of future aeroengines by 10% - enable the 2 to 3% environmental related gains in fuel burn and reduction in emissions looked at by these new aeroengine architectures (especially Ultra High Bypass Ratio and Open Rotor) through improved aeroengine equipment solutions. The objectives will be achieved through several elements. NIPSE will develop key equipment and capabilities, in particular: - multivariable optimisation methodologies, - more efficient heat exchangers, - smaller equipment, and - novel electrical and pneumatic interconnections to enable a means of developing better competitive solutions for future aeroengine architectures in a shorter development time. This will be performed taking into account line maintenance issues to ensure the improvements of aeroengine architecture and associated equipment do not adversely impact the passenger experience. This is relevant to the work programme in increasing competitiveness of European companies through development of technologies to achieve fast, best solution approaches for installation of aeroengine equipment, allowing securement and enhancement of existing European workload for this equipment, and enhancing exports for Europe. Development of key technology in equipment definition, installation and optimisation enables existing and future aeroengine technologies to better achieve their goals, thus enhancing European competitiveness within aeroengine market. Without NIPSE, the true potential of the new aeroengine architectures will not be achieved and societal gains will not be met.

Keywords: nacelle,powerplant,equipment,optimisation,thermal,temperature,heat exchanger,harness,integration,architecture,system,fire detection,ducts,pneumatic pipework,valves,ejectors
Molecular Foundation of Structural and Dynamic Transformations in Novel Sodium-Ion Battery Materials (NAPANODE)

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: Chemistry
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call: Individual Fellowships (H2020-MSCA-IF-2016, 2016)
Start date: 2017-03-01
End date: 2019-02-28
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 183454.8
EU funding (EUR): 183454.8
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The future of widespread clean energy relies heavily on understanding, developing, and optimizing materials for electrochemical energy storage. To date, a limited understanding of how short-range structures influence macroscopic device properties during operation has hindered implementation of promising technologies such as sodium-ion batteries. Here, we aim to use NMR spectroscopy to provide molecular-level insight into the chemical mechanisms underpinning structural and dynamic changes in novel phosphorus- and phosphide-based anodes and correlate these changes with sodium-ion performance figures or merit, including capacity, retention, charging rates, and lifetime. The impact of anode structure and dynamics on electrochemical properties in batteries will provide insight into new materials that can achieve high performance for electrochemical energy storage.

Keywords: sodium ion battery,anode,nmr spectroscopy,energy,in situ,phosphorus,metal phosphide
Mathematical and computational foundations for modeling cerebral fluid flow. (Waterscales)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Mathematics
Panel description: All areas of mathematics, pure and applied, plus mathematical foundations of computer science, mathematical physics and statistics
Countries involved: Norway
Call: ERC Starting Grant (ERC-2016-STG, 2016)
Start date: 2017-04-01
End date: 2023-03-31
Duration (months): 72.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1500000.0
EU funding (EUR): 1500000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Your brain has its own waterscape: whether you are reading or sleeping, fluid flows through the brain tissue and clears waste in the process. These physiological processes are crucial for the well-being of the brain. In spite of their importance we understand them but little. Mathematics and numerics could play a crucial role in gaining new insight. Indeed, medical doctors express an urgent need for multiscale modeling of water transport through the brain, to overcome limitations in traditional techniques. Surprisingly little attention has been paid to the numerics of the brain's waterscape however, and fundamental knowledge is missing. In response, the Waterscales ambition is to establish the mathematical and computational foundations for predictively modeling fluid flow and solute transport through the brain across scales -- from the cellular to the organ level. The project aims to bridge multiscale fluid mechanics and cellular electrophysiology to pioneer new families of mathematical models that couple macroscale, mesoscale and microscale flow with glial cell dynamics. For these models, we will design numerical discretizations that preserve key properties and that allow for whole organ simulations. To evaluate predictability, we will develop a new computational platform for model adaptivity and calibration. The project is multidisciplinary combining mathematics, mechanics, scientific computing, and physiology. If successful, this project enables the first in silico studies of the brain's waterscape across scales. The new models would open up a new research field within computational neuroscience with ample opportunities for further mathematical and more applied study. The processes at hand are associated with neurodegenerative diseases e.g. dementia and with brain swelling caused by e.g. stroke. The Waterscales project will provide the field with a sorely needed, new avenue of investigation to understand these conditions, with tremendous long-term impact.

Keywords: numerical methods for partial differential equations mathematical and computational aspects,with applications in physiology,medicine
DEveloper COmpanion for Documented and annotatEd code Reference (DECODER)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Industrial Leadership
Programme: Information and Communication Technologies
Action type: Research and Innovation actions
Countries involved: Spain,Germany,Spain,Spain,Austria,France
Call: Software Technologies (H2020-ICT-2018-2, 2018)
Start date: 2019-01-01
End date: 2021-12-31
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 4245718.75
EU funding (EUR): 4245718.75
Participants: 7
Project status: CLOSED

Software is everywhere and the productivity of Software Engineers has increased radically with the advent of new specification, design and programming paradigms and languages. The main objective of the project DECODER is to introduce radical solutions to increase productivity and by means of new languages that improve the situation by abstractions of the formalisms used today for requirements analysis and specification. We will develop a methodology and tools to improve the productivity of the software development process for medium-criticality applications in the domains of IoT, Cloud Computing, and Operating Systems by combining Natural Language Processing techniques, Modelling techniques and Formal Methods. The combination is a novel approach that permits a smooth transition from informal requirements engineering to deployment and maintenance phases. A radical improvement is expected from the management and transformation of informal data into material (herein called ‘knowledge’) that can be assimilated by any party involved in a development process. Thus, the DECODER project will 1) introduce new languages to represent knowledge in a more abstract manner, 2) develop transformations leading from informal material into specifications and code and vice-versa, 3) define and prototype a Persistent Knowledge Monitor for managing all relevant knowledge, and 4) develop a prototype IDE. The project will automate the transformation steps using existing techniques from the Big Data (knowledge extraction), Model-Driven Engineering (knowledge representation and refinement), and Formal Methods (specifications and proofs). The project will produce a novel Framework combining these techniques and demonstrate its efficiency on several uses cases belonging to the beforehand mentioned domains. The project expects an average benefit of 20% in terms of efforts on these use-cases and will provide recommendations on how to generalise the approach to other medium-criticality domains.

Keywords: formal methods,operating systems and cloud computing,natural language processing nlp
Partition calculus on graphs, digraphs and hypergraphs with uncountable chromatic number (CHROMPART)

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: Mathematics
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call: Individual Fellowships (H2020-MSCA-IF-2018, 2018)
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 224933.76
EU funding (EUR): 224933.76
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Our main goal is to develop the theory of partition calculus on graphs, digraphs and hypergraphs with emphasis on interactions between one-and multi-dimensional relations. Such global characteristics crucially depend on local, often finitary structural properties. This places our project at the meeting point of finite and infinite combinatorics with logic and set theory. Some of the most important questions that motivate our investigations were first raised by P. Erdős and A. Hajnal in the 1960s. Their problems still guide research across finite and infinite combinatorics including the most recent works of R. Diestel, N. Hindman, P. Komjáth, C. Thomassen, S. Todorcevic, and S. Shelah. Our main objective is to investigate ramification arguments between Ramsey-results of varying dimensions. In fact, (1) we study if graphs with uncountable chromatic number necessarily satisfy the same higher-dimensional negative partition relations as uncountable complete graphs. We relate this theme to (2) the existence of orientations with large dichromatic number and partition relations on digraphs. Lastly, we explore a novel concept, (3) the existence of oscillation maps on the obligatory hypergraph associated to a graph with uncountable chromatic number. Our program will be carried out through solving specific, often well-known open problems that are central to these themes. We aim to study both the purely combinatorial and the deep foundational issues that underlie these questions. Hence, we will complement the use of advanced forcing techniques from set theory (such as mixed side-condition methods and new iteration preservation theorems) with novel combinatorial tools, such as minimal walks, oscillation maps and various ZFC construction scheme techniques. We expect our research to produce new methods of wide impact and a significantly deeper understanding of the interactions of finite and infinitary combinatorics.

Keywords: graphs,digraphs,chromatic number,orientation,partition relation,forcing,minimal walks
Integrating and decentralising diabetes and hypertension services in Africa (INTE-AFRICA)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Societal Challenges
Programme: Health, demographic change and wellbeing
Theme: Treating and managing disease
Action type: Research and Innovation actions
Countries involved: Uganda,Ireland,Spain,Norway,Tanzania, United Republic of,United Kingdom,United Kingdom,United Kingdom
Call: Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases (GACD) - Scaling-up of evidence-based health interventions at population level for the prevention and management of hypertension and/or diabetes (H2020-SC1-2018-Single-Stage-RTD, 2018)
Start date: 2019-01-01
End date: 2023-06-30
Duration (months): 54.0
Total project cost (EUR): 4196686.25
EU funding (EUR): 4196686.25
Participants: 10
Project status: SIGNED

We will integrate and scale up services for diabetes and hypertension in clinics in Tanzania and Uganda, either as standalone or integrated with HIV-infection. This builds on pilot studies that the partners are conducting, funded by UK NIHR, on the prevention and management of HIV, diabetes and hypertension in Africa. The aim of INTE-AFRICA is to assess the effectiveness and feasibility of large-scale scale up. Research evidence needed by African health services to scale-up and sustain the screening and management of diabetes and hypertension in different settings will be generated. The objectives include: to re-organise primary health care services so that diabetes and hypertension can be diagnosed and treated in dedicated chronic care clinics in two large regions, one in Tanzania and in Uganda; to decentralise care from health facilities to the community in order to reduce patient load at clinics and reduce reliance on (scarce) clinical staff; to evaluate these approaches in terms of acceptability (by patients and the community), numbers of patients treated and retained in care, patient clinical outcomes (blood pressure control, blood glucose control), costs of delivering integrated care for the health service and cost-effectiveness (compared to current standard care); to use the data generated to contribute evidence to the development of clinical guidelines; to develop the sustainable partnerships needed between researchers, government policy makers, public-private partnerships on an ethos of openness and equality so as to facilitate the expansion of the scale-up nationally. The majority of individuals with either hypertension or diabetes are identified after they develop complications, which leads to their poor outcomes, and to catastrophic costs to both the health service and the patient. Scaling up services for would prevent clinical complications in patients and could result in immense cost savings for patients and the health service.

Keywords: hypertension,africa,scale up
Supercritical carbon dioxide for delipidation of soft tissue - Suppressing transplant rejection. (CriTiClean)

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: Chemistry
Countries involved: Sweden
Call: Individual Fellowships (H2020-MSCA-IF-2016, 2016)
Start date: 2017-05-22
End date: 2019-07-13
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 173857.2
EU funding (EUR): 173857.2
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The lack of donor organs and tissue constitutes a health and social problem. In 2014 about 119.873 organs were transplanted, that is less than the 10% of global needs. Critical patients do not survive the waiting time while transplanted people must receive lifelong immunosuppressive therapy with severe side effects. Also, there is a risk to lose the new organ to chronic rejection, which is linked to the presence of cellular components e.g. glycolipids and lipoproteins in the donor tissue. There is currently no process to remove lipids and lipid antigens from soft tissue prior transplantation. Supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO2) is known to extract lipids from solid matrices, while polar molecules of high molecular weight, such as structural proteins in soft tissue, are insoluble. In this project we will explore the use of scCO2 to remove lipid compounds from soft tissue (i.e. pulmonary arteries) as a novel process for tissue preparation in order to suppress the main cause of rejection associated with transplantation. Fundamental studies on solubility of lipids in scCO2-water-ethanol mixtures are necessary to evaluate the extractability of lipids from fresh tissue, and will be performed by 'in-situ' Raman spectroscopy. Our approach avoids the use of current chemical and biological treatments that risk damaging the tissue and pose a toxic threat to the recipient organism. The mechanical properties of the “cleaned” tissue, the immunoresponse that provokes and its capacity for recellularization will be studied 'in vitro' and related to the amounts and type of remnant lipid compounds. The project brings supercritical fluid technology into the biomedical field. This work will lead to efficient methodologies to “clean” all kind of organs/soft tissue and will enable safe animal-to-human transplantation, a current dream that will increase the hope of critical patients and improve life-quality after transplantation by removing the need of immunosuppression.

Keywords: supercritical carbon dioxide,tissue delipidation,in situ raman spectroscopy,method development,soft tissue,pulmonary artery,immune rejection,recellularization
Prepared for Every Fortune: Cynicism as an Analytical and Normative Perspective in Democratic Theory (CANT)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie-Sklodowska-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Individual Fellowships (IF)-Global Fellowships
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Social Sciences and Humanities
Countries involved: Ireland,Canada
Call: Individual Fellowships (H2020-MSCA-IF-2016, 2016)
Start date: 2017-09-04
End date: 2020-09-03
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 251555.4
EU funding (EUR): 251555.4
Participants: 2
Project status: CLOSED

This research project aims to recover and defend analytical and normative uses of cynicism for political analysis. Beginning with a conceptual reconstruction of cynicism (understood as a radical mode of disaffection, evincing a unique normative perspective, and tied to a definable set of political tactics and rhetorical techniques), I will develop an interpretive framework for engaging with contemporary manifestations of cynical distrust and estrangement. In the view of many theorists and pundits, cynicism remains one the gravest ills to befall any democratic society: injecting a virulent estrangement which leaves its sufferers unable to trust elected representatives and unwilling to participate in collective action. The central critical claim of my project is that this alarmist view serves only to widen the gap between the professed ideals of democratic institutions and the lived experiences of democratic publics. By conducting a more attentive and sympathetic reading of cynical disaffection, I aim to demonstrate the constructive potential of its critical ethos—which otherwise tends to be pathologised as a self-defeating, anti-democratic, and illegitimate basis for political action and protest. My project will proceed along two tracks of inquiry: (1) a normative/conceptual reconstruction of cynicism, to elucidate the differences between constructive and self-defeating forms of political disaffection (2) qualitative analyses of case studies, to facilitate the development of an empirically-based framework for assessing the relative effectiveness of cynical ‘tactics’ versus other modes of political action and protest. In a non-ideal world, replete with institutional failures and democratic deficiencies, distrust and disenchantment are not necessarily counterproductive. Cynicism’s constructive potential expresses a non-defeatist strategy for coping with the uncertainties, betrayals, and false promises that are constant features of our social and political existence.

Keywords: cynicism and political disaffection