Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Do T cells link loss and gain-of-function mechanism in C9orf72 ALS/FTD? (C9-T Immunity)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System
Panel description: Nervous system development, homeostasis and ageing , nervous system  function and dysfunction , systems neuroscience  and modelling , biological basis of cognitive processes and of behaviour, neurological and mental disorders – In humans and all other organisms
Countries involved: Germany
Call: ERC STARTING GRANTS (ERC-2023-STG, 2023)
Start date: 2024-04-01
End date: 2029-03-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1498610.0
EU funding (EUR): 1498610.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Neurodegenerative diseases are the top 3 leading causes of death and are viewed now as systemic diseases. Adaptive immunity including a T-cell response in the central nervous system (CNS) likely contributes to disease pathogenesis. How T cells are primed and recruited to CNS is largely unexplored, due to the complexity of the process and lack of tools and animal models. I will study these questions on the most common genetic form of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD). Here, a GGGGCC repeat expansion in the C9orf72 gene causes haploinsufficiency through reduced C9orf72 protein expression, and gain-of-function toxicities through repeat RNA and its translation to aggregating dipeptide repeats (DPRs). A synergistic role of these pathomechanisms is suspected but not clearly identified. I propose that T cells are the missing piece of the puzzle for the synergistic effects of C9orf72 haploinsufficiency and DRP toxicity and will explore a) whether peripheral antigen-presenting cells (APCs) and CNS microglia present DPRs to prime antigen-specific T-cell response; b) whether C9orf72 haploinsufficiency alters antigen presentation of microglia and APCs; c) whether T cells mediate synergic effects of C9orf72 haploinsufficiency and DRP toxicity. This novel project for the first time addresses peripheral and CNS activation of T cells against DPRs in C9orf72 ALS/FTD and reveals novel mechanism on synergistic effect of C9orf72 haploinsufficiency and DPR toxicity. It offers a unique integration of neurobiological tools, immunological methods, and single-cell-level approaches. It brings solid evidence on the antigen presentation of endogenous aggregating protein to drive antigen-specific T-cell response, which will broad the understanding on ALS/FTD and other neurodegenerative diseases. It presents a promising research trajectory for the identification of new biomarkers, breakthrough therapeutic targets and the development of novel interventions.
Support to Retirement Savings Vehicle for European Research Institutions and research performing individuals (RESAVER) – 2025 (RESAVER_2025)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Widening Participation and Strengthening the European Research Area
Programme: Reforming and enhancing the European R&I System
Theme: Other ERA
Destination: Other ERA
Action type: Coordination and support actions
Countries involved: Belgium
Call: Support to Retirement Savings Vehicle for European Research Institutions and research performing individuals (RESAVER) – 2025 (HORIZON-WIDERA-2025-RESAVER-IBA, 2025)
Start date: 2025-01-01
End date: 2028-12-31
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 4998988.75
EU funding (EUR): 4998988.75
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

The RESAVER Pension Fund aims to address the critical challenges faced by mobile researchers in Europe by providing a flexible, portable, and sustainable pension solution. This proposal builds upon the success of previous grants and strategically targets new objectives to expand RESAVER’s impact across the European Research Area (ERA). The project focuses on eliminating pension-related barriers to researcher mobility, thereby enhancing talent circulation, fostering collaboration, and supporting the ERA’s goal of creating an integrated research ecosystem. Key objectives include expanding RESAVER’s geographic coverage by onboarding additional Member States and organisations, increasing the number of participants, and developing a third-pillar pension solution tailored to mobile researchers who lack sufficient occupational pension benefits. The project also prioritises enhancing financial literacy through targeted education campaigns, empowering researchers to make informed decisions about their pensions. Additionally, the proposal aligns RESAVER’s investment strategy with EU sustainability policies by incorporating ESG principles, contributing to the EU’s Green Deal objectives. A robust dissemination, exploitation, and communication plan will ensure widespread awareness and adoption of RESAVER’s solutions. Activities will include workshops, targeted outreach, strategic partnerships with local pension funds and EU initiatives, and the development of user-friendly tools. These efforts will engage researchers, research-performing organisations, and policymakers to drive the fund’s adoption and long-term sustainability. By the end of the project, RESAVER will have significantly expanded its reach, enhanced financial security for thousands of researchers, and strengthened its role as a key enabler of mobility and innovation in the ERA.

Keywords: social security,brain circulation,removing barrier,occupational pension solution,multi employer,multi country
Quantum dynamical neural networks (qDynnet)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Condensed Matter Physics
Panel description: Structure, electronic properties, fluids, nanosciences, biological physics
Countries involved: France
Call: ERC STARTING GRANTS (ERC-2022-STG, 2022)
Start date: 2023-03-01
End date: 2028-02-29
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1497536.0
EU funding (EUR): 1497536.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Quantum neural networks are a young research field, that has been rapidly expanding due to their potential to attain revolutionary computing capacities and the possibility to learn on quantum data, inaccessible to classical computers. However, despite impressive proof-of-concept results, currently existing approaches that rely on sparsely coupled qubits, are not scalable to network sizes and connectivities with tunable weights required for state-of-the art tasks. In qDynnet, I will adopt a completely new and unexplored approach that uses parametrically coupled superconducting quantum oscillators instead of physically coupled qubits, that will allow me to obtain quantum neural networks of unprecedented size, connectivity and tunability. To do this, I will shift the paradigm by implementing neurons as basis states of dynamically coupled multi-level quantum oscillators, and connections between neurons as transition rates obtained through different dynamical processes such as parametric coupling, resonant drives and dissipation. I will implement experimentally quantum neural network architectures that were only simulated until now and use them to demonstrate data classification with basis state neurons. In order to go towards more complex tasks, I will use parametric coupling to introduce tunable connections between neurons. I will develop new training methods that will allow me to tune connections in such dynamical quantum neural networks and use them to demonstrate learning to recognize quantum states. I will develop circuit geometries that will be scalable to large quantum neural networks with millions of neurons and tunable connections. The qDynnet project will provide understanding of physics, and methods for dynamical coupling and training, that will have a broad impact across quantum computing fields and serve as a foundation for a whole new family of large-scale dynamical quantum neural networks.

Keywords: quantum machine learning,neuromorphic computing,superconducting circuits
Detox SatDrive Propulsion (DETOX)

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: Netherlands
Call: EIC Accelerator Open 2021 (HORIZON-EIC-2021-ACCELERATOROPEN-01, 2021)
Start date: 2022-04-01
End date: 2023-10-31
Duration (months): 19.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1999512.5
EU funding (EUR): 1399658.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

SatDrive is based on an entirely new paradigm: use of safe, abundantly available propellants and simplified, direct ignition system, increasing throttability. Compared to other technologies, SatDrive module is the key enabler for (ESAs) science missions to benefit society. It also supports adoption of civil space systems, such as: worldwide internet connectivity (bridging the digital divide) and earth observation for monitoring climate change and methane emissions. SatDrive is simplifying operations through its bi-propellant thruster for small satellites between 100-500 kg. This proposal is centred on the developments needed to bring this product to market. Dawn’s safe, reliable and affordable propulsion technology was first developed for the nanosatellite industry. An industry that is rapidly growing adverse to use Hydrazine. Quickly gaining international traction, we are expanding this technology to the midsized satellite market with a larger thruster and supporting system.

Keywords: green propulsion
NEoC – NeuroEnergetics-on-Chip: Disease modeling of impaired brain glucose metabolism using human iPSC-derived neurovascular units (NVU)-on-chip systems (NEoC)

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: Sweden
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2022 (HORIZON-MSCA-2022-PF-01, 2022)
Start date: 2023-08-01
End date: 2026-09-30
Duration (months): 38.0
Total project cost (EUR): 206887.68
EU funding (EUR): 206887.68
Participants: 1
Project status: TERMINATED

Neurological conditions conquer the world; they are the leading cause of disability and second leading cause of death worldwide. Although there is growing evidence for the immense impact of disturbances in neurometabolism for overall brain function, only little is known about the underlying mechanisms (knowledge gap). Especially human insights are sparse due to a paucity of physiologically relevant model systems (research gap). To address these challenges, within the scope of the NeuroEnergetics-on-Chip (NEoC) project, I am proposing the development of a novel, human iPSC-based organ-on-chip model of the neurovascular unit (NVU) that integrates all neurometabolically active NVU cell types and specifically enables the inspection of neurometabolic coupling mechanisms. To categorically cast light onto the mechanisms behind impaired metabolism of glucose, the brain’s principal energy supplier, I will build an NVU-on-Chip disease model of glucose transporter 1 deficiency syndrome (GLUT1-DS). Since GLUT1-DS is monogenic, it presents an excellent paradigm to study cellular and molecular consequences of disturbed neuroenergetics, even beyond the disease itself. For implementation of the NEoC project, I will i) generate all neurometabolically relevant NVU cell types (endothelial cells, perivascular cells, astrocytes, microglia and neurons) from human iPSC lines derived from GLUT1-DS patients, ii) develop a novel NVU microfluidic platform addressing the shortcomings of existing NVU-on-Chip systems, and iii) build GLUT1-DS-NVU-on-Chip models to specifically study perturbations in energy metabolism, blood-brain barrier integrity and neuroinflammation as a consequence of GLUT1-DS in vitro. The NEoC project will provide novel knowledge on the underlying mechanisms and pathophysiology of GLUT1-DS, and thereby not only benefit those afflicted by the orphan disease but impact our understanding of a variety of other CNS and metabolically linked disorders.

Keywords: organ on chip,microfluidics,neurovascular unit,neuroenergetics,ipscs,glut1 deficiency
Re-Making Sex: Observing, Representing, and Explaining Sex Difference in Early Modern European Vernaculars (Re-Making Sex)

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: Social Sciences and Humanities
Countries involved: Austria
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): 183600.96
EU funding (EUR): 183600.96
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Since Thomas Laqueur's controversial arguments in Making Sex: Body and Gender from the Greeks to Freud (1990), scholars of gender history have debated the shift from so-called "one-sex model," in which the bodily differences between male and female human beings were thought to exist on a continuum from a fully formed human male body to an inferior, "less male" female body, to the modern "two-sex model" at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Building on critiques of Laqueur's arguments, this project analyzes vernacular texts treating sex differences, hermaphroditism, and human reproduction circa 1600-1800 in German, French, English, and Spanish in medical and non-medical sources. Although the "one-sex model" did not dominate premodern and early modern medical discussions of sex difference as Laqueur argues, in the learned Latin traditions taught in medical faculties in universities, European vernacular literatures in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries paid special attention to specific visual and spatial analogies between male and female anatomies and debated the possibilities and implications of sex ambiguity and sex change. The project analyzes how vernacular texts described the determination of sex difference, the extent to which male and female bodies were different, and in what sense, what the stakes were of failing to determine the maleness or femaleness of a body, and the specific social, political, and religious anxieties about gender roles and norms, the family, literacy, sexuality, and religious piety were expressed and developed in the discussions of sex difference and determination.

Keywords: history of medicine history of sex,gender,and sexuality religion and gender
BRINGING THE PLASTIC WASTE TRANSFORMATION BY THE INSECTS AT SCALE (WInScale)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Innovative Europe
Programme: European innovation ecosystems
Theme: Elevating the scalability potential of European business
Destination: Elevating the scalability potential of European business
Action type: Coordination and support actions
Countries involved: Sweden
Call: Women TechEU (HORIZON-EIE-2022-SCALEUP-02, 2022)
Start date: 2023-07-01
End date: 2024-06-30
Duration (months): 12.0
Total project cost (EUR): 107142.86
EU funding (EUR): 75000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The traditional linear plastic industry business model results in an ever-growing amount of accumulated waste which contributes significantly to the negative environmental impact of the global plastic industry. One of the biggest issues concerning the recycling of used polymeric materials, packaging, textile, furniture, is the handling of complex waste streams consisting of mixtures, co-polymers, and other recalcitrant materials, such as thermosets (non-melting plastics, foams), that can be only burned or disposed of on the landfills. Yet, neither of these solutions is acceptable from the environmental point of view, therefore the new regulations and EU directives aim to limit these methods. We have developed a novel approach towards handling of complex plastic waste streams, where there is no available recycling alternative, thanks to under patent technologies. The approach is based on one specific insect, Galleria mellonella, the greater wax moth, and we have developed a scalable vertical farming process that enables the insects to digest and transform polymeric materials into proteins, lipids and biofertilizers. The long-term goal of this developed process is an environmentally-sound and commercially-successful transformation facility. WINSCALE focuses on the scaling up of the transformation process. Namely, it focuses on the biochemical and technological development of the solution applied to two specifically difficult waste streams: sludge coming from the waste treating companies and polyurethane foam coming from matrass recycling facilities. WINSCALE enables the overall improvement of the investor readiness of the developed solution, contributes to the creation of new, cross-sectoral value chains of waste transformation to added value products, thus promoting European competitiveness in the knowledge-based modern economy and women’s leadership in the deep tech industry.

Keywords: waste upcycling,insects,circualr economy,proteins
Rigorous Approximations for Many-Body Quantum Systems (RAMBAS)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Consolidator 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: Germany
Call: ERC CONSOLIDATOR GRANTS (ERC-2021-COG, 2021)
Start date: 2022-10-01
End date: 2027-09-30
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1963290.0
EU funding (EUR): 1963290.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

From first principles of quantum mechanics, physical properties of many-body quantum systems are usually encoded into Schroedinger equations. However, since the complexity of the Schroedinger equations grows so fast with the number of particles, it is generally impossible to solve them by current numerical techniques. Therefore, in practice approximate theories are often applied, which focus only on some collective behaviors of the systems in question. The corroboration of such effective models largely depends on mathematical methods. The overall goal of RAMBAS is to justify key effective approximations used in many-body quantum physics, including the mean-field, quasi-free, and random-phase approximations, as well as to derive subtle corrections in critical regimes. Building on my unique expertise in mathematical physics, I will 1) develop general techniques to understand corrections to the mean-field and Bogoliubov approximations for dilute Bose gases, 2) introduce rigorous bosonization methods and combine them with existing techniques from the theory of Bose gases to understand Fermi gases, and 3) employ the bosonization structure of Fermi gases to study the many-body quantum dynamics in long time scales, thus deriving quantum kinetic equations. By applying and suitably inventing mathematical techniques from functional analysis, spectral theory, calculus of variations and partial differential equations, RAMBAS will take standard approximations of quantum systems to the next level, with special focus on those particularly challenging situations where the particle correlation plays a central role but is yet not adequately addressed. RAMBAS will thereby provide the physics community with crucial mathematical tools, which are at the same time rigorous and applicable.

Keywords: many body schroedinger equation,mean field approximation,bose einstein condensation,gross pitaevskii equation,bogoliubov theory,random phase approximation,correlation energy,boltzmann norheim equation
Improving quality of life of Parkinson’s disease patients by Quantitative Cognitive Testing (ParSyncR)

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: Hungary
Call: ERC PROOF OF CONCEPT GRANTS (ERC-2023-POC, 2023)
Start date: 2023-11-01
End date: 2025-04-30
Duration (months): 18.0
Total project cost (EUR): 150000.0
EU funding (EUR): 150000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Parkinson’s disease is dominated by motor symptoms such as tremor, bradykinesia and postural instability. However, over 90% of all patients develop cognitive impairment including deterioration of learning, memory and decision making. Current treatments focus on motor symptoms and offer at best moderate improvement of cognitive functions. Alleviating cognitive symptoms could dramatically increase quality of life of patients. Therefore, we propose to apply a behavioral test of fine decision making combined with electroencephalography and electromyography measurements to quantitatively assess complex aspects of cognitive function, including inhibitory control, learning by reinforcement and decision making under conflict. This Quantitative Cognitive Testing (QCT) can be employed to improve Parkinson’s disease therapy based on regular feedback. Moreover, the method can be extended to other domains of neurodegenerative dementias. We foresee that the application of QCT can facilitate the development of telemedicine packages, thus reducing hospital visits and patient-doctor contacts. Under this PoC, we propose to validate equipment we developed de novo, conduct proof of concept experiments, extend IPR protection, and explore commercialization strategies. We believe that QCT can help achieve the best possible cognitive function, which would improve the quality of life of patients and their families. It could also reduce disease-related cost burden on health care systems and society, making it appealing to health providers.