Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Detection and identification of nanoplastics in water via plasmonic-based spectrometric methods using evaporation-driven colloidal assembly (NanoPlastBall)

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: Netherlands
Call: ERC PROOF OF CONCEPT GRANTS2 (ERC-2022-POC2, 2022)
Start date: 2023-02-01
End date: 2024-12-31
Duration (months): 23.0
Total project cost (EUR): 150000.0
EU funding (EUR): 150000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

In recent years, we have discovered that our environment is extensively polluted with plastic particles in a wide range of sizes, from the largest pieces that we can identify with our bare eyes, to the so called “microplastics” (< 5 mm). As a consequence of the improvement in detection techniques, we now know that, for example, up to trillions of microplastic particles per litre have been found in plastic bottles for infants and in general plastic-based consumer water containers. Plastic debris above the microplastic cut-off can be sampled easily (though tediously) using standard extraction, collection, and purification methods. However, microplastics are typically heavily underestimated when using such basic techniques. In this project, I intend to develop a technique by which we can (1) concentrate diluted pre-filtered solutions by a controlled droplet evaporation process and (2) perform chemical identification of its content beyond the current detection limits using surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy. The technique will be easy, fairly cheap to implement and easily scalable for the identification of micro- and nanoplastics in consumer products.
EuPRAXIA Preparatory Phase Project (EuPRAXIA)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: Research infrastructures
Theme: Research infrastructures
Destination: Development and infrastructures
Action type: Coordination and support actions
Countries involved: Italy,France,Germany,Hungary,Portugal,Switzerland,Greece,Spain,Israel,United States,United Kingdom,Czechia
Call: Preparatory phase of new ESFRI research infrastructure projects (HORIZON-INFRA-2021-DEV-02, 2021)
Start date: 2022-11-01
End date: 2026-10-31
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2490000.0
EU funding (EUR): 2490000.0
Participants: 40
Project status: SIGNED

EuPRAXIA is a distributed, compact and innovative accelerator facility based on plasma technology. It has been selected for the 2021 Update of the ESFRI Roadmap. In its first phase, its consortium of 51 institutes and industry partners will construct an electron-beam-driven plasma accelerator in the metropolitan area of Rome, thus bringing innovation, potential for spin-off companies, state-of-the art scientific applications and a vibrant international user community to the middle of Italy. In its second phase, EuPRAXIA will build one laser-driven plasma accelerator at a site to be chosen between several options in Europe. EuPRAXIA will serve users in ultra-fast science, e.g. on high-resolution medical imaging, deeply penetrating positron annihilation spectroscopy for materials and with Europe’s most southern free-electron laser (FEL). It will offer fascinating capabilities for research on biomolecules, viruses and microscopic processes. EuPRAXIA will thus be a transformative step in the development of ultra-compact accelerators and applications. The Preparatory Phase project EuPRAXIA-PP will prepare its full implementation.

Keywords: plasma accelerator and distributed research infrastructure
RENEWABLE ENERGY ACTIONS LEVERAGING INNOVATION TOWARDS ZERO EMISSIONS IN EUROPE (REALIZE)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness
Programme: Climate, Energy and Mobility
Theme: Energy
Destination: Cross-sectoral solutions for the climate transition
Action type: Coordination and support actions
Countries involved: Spain,Belgium,Germany,Norway,Netherlands,Switzerland
Call: Support for the deployment of R&I results for climate mitigation. Synergies with the ETS Innovation Fund (HORIZON-CL5-2023-D2-01, 2023)
Start date: 2024-01-01
End date: 2026-04-30
Duration (months): 28.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1402286.81
EU funding (EUR): 997383.58
Participants: 15
Project status: SIGNED

The REALIZE project aims to present a carefully selected and pre-qualified portfolio of new renewable energy generation technologies to the EU Innovation Fund (IF) through proposals resulting from successfully completed Horizon projects in Renewable Energy Sources (RES). The project will support IF project promoters to win major Innovation Fund support or propose alternative funding opportunities at EU, national and local level. Intense support will be given to ten technology partners in the consortium building on their results from 15 pre-qualified Horizon projects. From these, we will prepare seven IF proposals spanning a variety of sectors: Concentrated Solar Power, wind, solar thermal and solar photovoltaics, ocean energy and biofuels as energy-producing installations and as manufacturing projects for small-, medium- and large-scale calls. Their technology will be profiled. REALIZE will also reach out to the broader renewable energy community, with conferences and written material addressing IF’s selection criteria; sharing “lessons learnt” (including with Innovation Fund’s designers) and explaining the complementarity of different public funding programmes. Deep collaboration with other projects funded under the same call topic is foreseen but not counted upon.

Keywords: innovation fund application support h2020 projects exploitation
(Magneto)Chiroptical spin crossover switches – from crystals to nanomaterials (MagChirSwitch)

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: France
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2024 (HORIZON-MSCA-2024-PF-01, 2024)
Start date: 2025-06-01
End date: 2027-05-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 226420.56
EU funding (EUR): 226420.56
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

The MagChirSwitch MSCA-PF project pioneers cutting-edge chiral Fe(II) and Fe(II)Ln(III) materials, leveraging spin-crossover (SCO) phenomena to achieve unprecedented control over chiroptical and magneto-chiroptical effects. Focusing on magneto-chiral dichroism (MChD) and (magnetic) circularly polarised luminescence ((M)CPL), MagChirSwitch aims to be the first to follow these phenomena over Fe(II) transitions, driven by the design of innovative chiral SCO complexes. The bistability of Fe(II) ions between paramagnetic and diamagnetic states offers breakthrough potential for switching chiroptical properties – an unexplored frontier that could redefine magneto-chiral materials and expand SCO applications. The project unfolds in two phases. The first focuses on the development of chiral SCO crystalline materials and the successful detection of MChD and/or (M)CPL switching, triggered by temperature (thermally-induced SCO) or light (light-induced excited spin-state trapping, LIESST). This molecular approach enables precise design and rapid optimisation of magnetic and chiroptical properties. The second phase pushes the boundaries by transferring these magneto-switching effects to nanomaterials, advancing their real-world application potential. Nanomaterials that retain these switching abilities will enable scalable production, such as thin films for next-generation magneto-chiroptical devices. Additionally, transitioning to nanoparticles may reveal novel phenomena, such as shape changes linked to Fe(II) spin transitions. MagChirSwitch will profoundly enhance the post-doctoral fellow’s expertise by exposing her to advanced synthesis and measurement techniques (including MChD measurements during short visits at LNCMI, CNRS), as well as interdisciplinary collaboration. This experience will be pivotal in launching her academic career, equipping her to lead her own research group at a university in Europe and securing high-impact research funding.

Keywords: magneto chiral materials,molecular magnetism
Optimisation & Regulation of Groundbreaking Antioxidant Nanopastes and Void-control by Organics In Die-attachments (OrganVOID)

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: Netherlands
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2024 (HORIZON-MSCA-2024-PF-01, 2024)
Start date: 2026-03-01
End date: 2028-02-29
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 232916.16
EU funding (EUR): 232916.16
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

To address the global climate crisis and achieve carbon neutrality, power electronics using wide bandgap (WBG) and ultra-wide bandgap (UWBG) semiconductors are urgently needed to replace current Si devices for higher energy efficiency. However, existing die-attach technologies derived from Si devices tend to fail at high temperatures (>175°C), slowing the development of WBG/UWBG devices. Here, we propose a novel antioxidant Cu sintering nanopaste, using reducing organics and precise void control in die attachments (DA), to produce DA with superior properties and reliability performance compared to state-of-the-art sintering pastes. This two-year project will involve multiple disciplines, including physics, chemistry, materials science, engineering, and computer science, employing methods such as multi-scale simulations, antioxidant Cu nanopaste synthesis, advanced materials characterisation for 3D microstructure construction of DA, sintering process development, and cutting-edge reliability evaluation techniques. Crucially, first-principles calculations and molecular dynamics simulations will be combined to model the evolution and diffusion/bonding behaviour of organic additives at sintering necks at the atomic level, guiding the formulation design of Cu nanopastes. In addition, a hybrid finite element method (FEM), coupled with void characteristics, microstructure, and multi-field effects (electric, thermal, and mechanical), will be developed for the accurate lifetime prediction (accuracy: >90%) of Cu sintering joints in WBG devices. The aim is to create an antioxidant Cu nanopaste capable of directly sintering a reliable DA with a shear strength of over 25 MPa at low temperatures (<250°C), in air and without the need for pressure or a protective atmosphere. This work could significantly advance the replacement of conventional Si power electronics with WBG and UWBG devices, greatly improving energy efficiency and reducing fuel consumption and CO2 emissions.

Keywords: power electronics die attachments cu sintering pastes organics void control reliability sintering mechanism
Universal Geometric Transfer Learning (VEGA)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Consolidator grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Computer Science and Informatics
Panel description: Informatics and information systems, computer science, scientific computing, intelligent systems
Countries involved: France
Call: ERC CONSOLIDATOR GRANTS (ERC-2022-COG, 2022)
Start date: 2024-01-01
End date: 2028-12-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1999490.0
EU funding (EUR): 1999490.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

In this project, we propose to develop a theoretical and practical framework for transfer learning with geometric 3D data. Most existing learning-based approaches, aimed at analyzing 3D data, are based on training neural networks from scratch for each data modality and application. This means that such methods, first, ignore the wider information overlap that might exist across different tasks and object or scene categories, and, second, tend to generalize poorly beyond the specific scenarios for which they are trained. Even more fundamentally, the majority of existing techniques are limited to problem settings in which sufficient amount of training data is available, making them ill-adapted in many practical applications with limited supervision. In this project, we suggest to take a fundamentally different approach to geometric data analysis: rather than designing independent application or class-specific solutions, we propose to develop a theoretical and practical framework for geometric transfer learning. Our main goal will be to develop universally-applicable methods by combining powerful pre-trainable modules with effective multi-scale analysis and fine-tuning, given minimal task-specific data. The overall key to our study will be analyzing rigorous ways, both theoretically and in practice, in which solutions can be transferred and adapted across problems, semantic categories and geometric data types. Such an approach will open the door to fundamentally new tasks and modeling tools, applicable to any geometric data analysis scenario, regardless of the amount of training data available. This would allow, for example, to track the evolution of biological systems, by studying the underlying complex 3D shape dynamics, or to analyze variability in object and scene collections consisting of 3D scans of previously unseen shape categories, crucial in cultural preservation and life science applications, among myriad others.

Keywords: 3d deep learning,transfer learning for geometric data,3d shape analysis,3d computer vision,geometry processing,shape matching
In-Materio Reservoir Computing Using Tailored Epitaxial Complex Oxides (RECOMPUTE)

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: Netherlands
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2024 (HORIZON-MSCA-2024-PF-01, 2024)
Start date: 2025-04-01
End date: 2027-03-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 217076.16
EU funding (EUR): 217076.16
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

The ever-increasing power consumption of electronics necessitates the development of new energy-efficient device paradigms for data storage and computation. In this pursuit, approaches aimed at mimicking the functionality of the human brain in artificial devices, so-called neuromorphic engineering, have attracted a lot of attention. Reservoir computing relying on a random, untrained reservoir provides a powerful platform to exploit materials for brain-inspired computing without strict requirements on the device-to-device variability. Implementing reservoir computing in-materio is, however, challenging because of difficulties to adapt the two main reservoir properties – nonlinearity and memory capacity - to computational tasks. Epitaxial complex oxides offer a wealth of nonlinear material properties with tunable memory characteristics, making them ideal candidates for task-adaptive physical reservoir computing. With RECOMPUTE, I aim to establish in-materio reservoir computing using epitaxial complex oxides to efficiently perform computational tasks. I propose to achieve this by combining in thin-film epitaxial heterostructures (i) rare-earth nickelates with a tunable nonlinear negative differential resistance and (ii) relaxor ferroelectrics with a memory capacity that is tunable via the chemical composition. By fabricating prototypical thin-film devices, characterizing and optimizing their electrical transport characteristics, and simulating their computational performance, I intend to shed light on the fundamental relationship between the intrinsic material properties of reservoir devices and their performance in solving different cognitive tasks – a crucial insight that has been elusive so far. Ultimately, the successful implementation of the proposed research will establish novel reservoir computing devices based on complex oxides and serve as a template for the study of other nonlinear systems for unconventional computing among and beyond complex oxides.

Keywords: reservoir computing,epitaxial heterostructures,complex transition metal oxides,rare earth nickelates,relaxor ferroelectrics,unconventional computing,neuromorphic devices and systems
Low frequency nanobubbles-enhanced noninvasive transcranial ultrasound for brain cancer therapy (NanoBubbleBrain)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Prevention,  Diagnosis and T reatment of Human Diseases
Panel description: Medical technologies  and tools for prevention, diagnosis and treatment of human diseases, therapeutic approaches and interventions , pharmacology, preventative  medicine, epidemiology and public health , digital medicine
Countries involved: Israel
Call: ERC STARTING GRANTS (ERC-2021-STG, 2021)
Start date: 2022-10-01
End date: 2027-09-30
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1728125.0
EU funding (EUR): 1728125.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

One of the worst diagnoses in oncology is a malignant brain tumor, with survival rates that are dismal. Noninvasive surgery can be achieved using histotripsy, a local, nonthermal ultrasound (US) surgical method that uses short, high-intensity?focused US energy to mechanically ablate deep tissues through cavitation, while leaving the surrounding heathy tissues unaffected. However, brain therapy histotripsy is currently limited due to the extremely high pressures that it requires. I propose to develop a breakthrough technology for the treatment of glioblastoma (GBM) using nanobubble (NB)-mediated transcranial histotripsy combined with blood?brain barrier (BBB) opening. NBs will be coupled with low-frequency US to remotely detonate cells in a manner that was not considered feasible in the past. As a result, low-energy, NB-mediated US surgery could be performed, reducing the required energy for standard US surgery by over an order of magnitude. While US widely utilizes microbubbles (MBs) for intravascular ultrasonography, MBs are too big to extravastate into the tumor. Unlike MBs, NBs have a sufficiently small size for accumulation in tumors; however, it was assumed that there is a trade-off between the bubble size and its ability to obtain significant bioeffects as a result of cavitation. My recent research revealed that when a bubble is excited well below its resonance frequency, its oscillations are significantly enhanced. Thus, I hypothesize that upon accumulation within the GBM tumor, and coupled with low-frequency excitation, NBs can be used as mechanical therapeutic warheads to remotely detonate cells with minimal off-target effects. For GBM treatment, NBs will be innovatively used for opening the BBB to allow tumor accumulation, followed by NB-mediated transcranial histotripsy. This research will provide a foundational understanding of NB oscillations as an innovative tool for cancer therapy and has the potential to revolutionize the field of brain therapy.

Keywords: ultrasound,histotripsy,surgery,microbubble,nanobubble,low frequency,focused ultrasound,cacner therapy,glioblastoma
Identification of novel targets to improve glioblastoma therapy (INTIGT)

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: France
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2022 (HORIZON-MSCA-2022-PF-01, 2022)
Start date: 2024-09-01
End date: 2026-08-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 211754.88
EU funding (EUR): 211754.88
Participants: 2
Project status: SIGNED

Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most common malignant primary brain tumour in adults. The current standard of care is surgical resection of GBM tumours followed by chemotherapy and ionizing radiation (IR). Despite these intense efforts, GBM tumours remain incurable and the median survival rate of GBM patients remains only ~15 months. This dismal clinical outcome underscores the urgent need for novel therapeutic strategies for GBM. At the cellular level, GBM tumours contain a rare population of self-renewing, highly invasive stem cells termed brain tumour stem cells (BTSCs). BTSCs are endowed with properties to proliferate, spur the growth of new tumours, and at the same time, evade IR and chemotherapy. Thus eradicating BTSCs in tumour bulk represents a promising approach to fight brain cancer at its roots. However, there are presently no treatments targeting BTSCs in GBM. Recent preliminary data obtained by the applicant led to the hypothesis that a novel signalling pathway, controls BTSC behaviour and represents a promising target to eradicate BTSCs. Thus, the applicant will join the Bordeaux institute of oncology (BRIC) at University of Bordeaux to test this hypothesis, under the supervision of Pr. Bikfalvi. The host, the supervisor and the candidate represents the perfect match to realise this proposal. The project is designed to bring forth a two-way transfer of knowledge between the host and the candidate. The advanced techniques and transferable skills that the candidate acquires through this research will largely broaden his competencies and increase his employability as an independent researcher in the field of neuro-oncology. Results generated through this proposal will be innovative and of clinical relevance for GBM patients. This study has the potential to open new therapeutic avenues and pave the way for future clinical trials for better treatment of these deadly tumours.

Keywords: glioblastoma brain tumour stem cells carbohydrate binding proteins cancer chemotherapy radiotherapy pateint derived xenografts