Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Brain Dynamics of Audiovisual Dialogue (BrainDial)

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: Germany
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2024 (HORIZON-MSCA-2024-PF-01, 2024)
Start date: 2026-09-01
End date: 2028-08-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 217076.16
EU funding (EUR): 217076.16
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Language comprehension naturally occurs in face-to-face dialogues. During dialogue interactions, language unfolds rapidly, yet comprehension remains possible because listeners anticipate what speakers will say next. Studies using short sentences and isolated visual cues (e.g., lip movements, hand gestures) suggest that these predictions rely on both linguistic content and the speaker’s visual behavior. However, little is known about how the brain processes multiple co-occurring audiovisual cues during natural dialogue, the primary context for language use. Moreover, while dialogues are rich in pragmatic and prosodic audiovisual cues that support comprehension, their influence on word-level predictions remains unclear. The complexity of dialogues has traditionally made it challenging to study their neural basis, but recent methodological advances now allow for the naturalistic investigation of continuous speech processing. For the firts time, BrainDial (Brain Dynamics of Audiovisual Dialogue) will apply these advances in an ecologically valid audiovisual dialogue setting. We will record natural dialogues and analyze their acoustic, linguistic, and visual cues. These annotated recordings will be used in a magnetoencephalography (MEG) study to reveal the fine-grained temporal dynamics and corticoanatomical details of how the brain generates linguisitc audiovisual predictions in real time. By integrating multimodal dialogue corpus annotations, computational linguisitc metrics derived from large-language models (LLMs), body-motion tracking, MEG, and neural computational modelling, BrainDial aims to provide groundbreaking insights into the neural mechanisms of dialogue comprehension.

Keywords: language processing,multimodal language,neural encoding,dialogue,magnetoencephalography,prediction,naturalistic language,gesture,cortical tracking,neural modelling
In cellular conformations of microRNA-34a via magnetic resonance (ECONOMICS)

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 2021 (HORIZON-MSCA-2021-PF-01, 2021)
Start date: 2023-01-01
End date: 2026-04-30
Duration (months): 40.0
Total project cost (EUR): 206887.68
EU funding (EUR): 206887.68
Participants: 2
Project status: SIGNED

microRNA-34a (miR-34a) is mis-regulated in ~75% of cancers and is considered a promising drug target. In a recent clinical trial, miR-34a was used against terminal liver cancer showing promising result with remission of 3 patients. However, mortality remained high and was attributed to its ability to target multiple mRNAs. Project ECONOMICS will investigate this issue by elucidating the underlying structure and dynamics of multiple miR-34a:mRNA complexes using NMR spectroscopy and molecular dynamic simulations. This will provide information about the conformation of miR-34a which is mRNA specific. This can further be stabilized by mutations to increase target specificity of miR-34a leading to an improvement in clinical trial results. miR-34a targets and binds the 3’-untranslated-region (3’-UTR) of ~100 mRNAs via the RNA-induced silencing complex, resulting in downregulation of the associated genes. Recently, it was discovered that miR-34a attains a high energy excited state (ES) conformation for mRNA encoding gene SIRT1. Stabilizing this ES resulted in a two-fold increase in gene repression. Can miR-34a have a similar ES for other genes implicated in various cancers? This will be studied by exploring the structure and dynamics of miR-34a when complexed with 3’-UTR of the mRNA encoding the genes HNF4a, NOTCH1, NOTCH2, DLL1 and WNT1. Cellular environment is proposed to affect the ES of miR-34a, therefore a detailed conformational landscape of miR-34a:mRNA complexes will be mapped by comparing both in vitro and in live human cells (cancerous and non-cancerous). This study will provide targeting rules for microRNA within the cell and insight into its regulatory mechanism. This information will improve the efficiency RNA based drug development, giving a competitive edge to EU’s pharmaceutical industry, and ultimately realizing “Europe’s Beating Cancer plan” to achieve long-term survival of 70% patients with cancer by 2035.

Keywords: in cell nmr spectroscopy,microrna 34a,molecular dynamic simulations,rna rna interaction
Unified theory of sexual selection (CAUSEX)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Consolidator grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Environmental B iology, Ecology  and E volution
Panel description: For all organisms : Ecology, biodiversity, environmental change , evolutionary biology, behavioural ecology, microbial ecology , marine biology, ecophysiology, theoretical developments and mod elling
Countries involved: Finland
Call: ERC CONSOLIDATOR GRANTS (ERC-2024-COG, 2024)
Start date: 2025-11-01
End date: 2030-10-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1848004.0
EU funding (EUR): 1848004.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Sexual selection and sexual strategies include some of the most fascinating and widely-studied phenomena in evolutionary biology. Yet they are also among the most debated and disputed topics. Our ability to understand causal relationships and to fully engage with disagreements and controversies is limited by the disjointed nature of theory, which does not typically engage with the gamete level where central concepts are defined. CAUSEX will seek a common causal and mathematical structure that applies across models of sexual selection and sexual strategy, and engages explicitly with the defining aspects of sexes and sexual selection. This common foundation will be used to bind together and reconstruct central aspects of classical sexual selection theory, to scrutinise relationships between modelling methods, and to develop new models. In doing so, we will also develop biophysical models (fertilisation functions) which explicitly link gamete level processes to fitness. The overall aim is a conceptually and causally coherent theory which is clearly linked to the gamete level. The unification of a disjointed and controversial field will address unresolved challenges and clarify empirical predictions, and will be a major breakthrough in evolutionary biology.

Keywords: evolution sexual selection reproductive strategies fertilisation causality theory modelling
The Constitutional Road to Dictatorship: States of Exception and Authoritarianism in Europe, 1900-39 (STEXEU)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: The Study of the Human Past
Panel description: Archaeology and history
Countries involved: Portugal
Call: ERC STARTING GRANTS (ERC-2024-STG, 2024)
Start date: 2025-04-01
End date: 2030-03-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1493271.0
EU funding (EUR): 1493271.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

STEXEU investigates the impact of states of exception on democracy in early-twentieth century Europe. In the interwar years, and sometimes before, democratic rule came under strain across the continent. In explaining the rise of dictatorship, historians have generally pointed to forces that challenged the rule of law from without, such as fascism and communism. However, when faced with extraordinary challenges to state authority, the fin-de-siècle liberal legal order contemplated the suspension of constitutional norms through states of exception and emergency powers. During and after the First World War, governments became increasingly dependent on these legal instruments in a context of political instability. Their repeated use resulted in hybrid forms combining democratic and authoritarian features and sometimes (though not necessarily) paved the way to open dictatorship. STEXEU examines how the use of states of exception transformed the mentalities, practices, and interactions of state and non-state actors in charge of maintaining law and order. The project assesses eight national case studies: Spain, Portugal, Italy, Germany, Czechoslovakia, France, Britain, and Greece, which followed different trajectories in 1900-39 (some remained democratic, others not). Though it draws some cues from legal studies, STEXEU is above all a history project, which will revolutionise the voluminous juridical literature on states of exception by grounding this phenomenon in historical reality through a systematic analysis of primary sources. STEXEU promises to shed new light on the history of democracy and dictatorship, exploring the disregarded constitutional origins of authoritarianism that emerged from the bosom of the liberal regimes themselves. The relevance of this study transcends historiographical environments, enriching fields such as legal studies and political science and connecting with contemporary anxieties such as the rise of illiberal democracies.

Keywords: states of exception,democracy,dictatorship,liberalism,constitutions,social conflict,interwar decades,fascism,militarism
Modelling African Futures: A comparative technography of evidence-based welfare policy in Ghana, Senegal, Kenya and Botswana (ModelFutures)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: The Soci al World and Its Interactions
Panel description: Sociology, social psychology, education  sciences , communication  studies
Countries involved: Denmark
Call: ERC STARTING GRANTS (ERC-2024-STG, 2024)
Start date: 2025-09-01
End date: 2030-08-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1498765.0
EU funding (EUR): 1498765.0
Participants: 2
Project status: SIGNED

Welfare systems rely on extensive knowledge about the population to plan, finance, and expend limited resources in a targeted manner. In view of their often-fragmented national identification and statistical systems, Africa’s emerging welfare states are thus facing significant challenges in their capacity to establish categories of welfare entitlement and to target groups for intervention. Led by the PI, ModelFutures’ team will carry out ground-breaking, comparative ethnographic research at the statistics-welfare nexus of four African country cases – Ghana, Senegal, Kenya and Botswana – to understand: How do states generate truths about future welfare in contexts of uncertain knowledge about the population and its wellbeing? The project’s threefold objectives aim to (1) trace statistical modelling practices in the context of multi-facetted uncertainties about the population and its environs; (2) analyse the impact of adaptations and creative data practices on quantitative truth claims; and (3) connect statistical future-making and anticipatory welfare politics in sites of statistical innovation. ModelFutures’ ambition significantly extends beyond the state of the art of our understanding of statistical world-making by developing a novel concept of vernacular prediction that attunes to experts’ skilful adaptations of globally circulating computational models and standards, while attending to their modelling practices’ co-constitution with symbolic commitments and situated infrastructural arrangements. Combining expertise from anthropology, science and technology studies, and population statistics, ModelFutures generates novel theory on the production of evidence-based welfare policies in contexts of contested claims to the validity of data, methods, and the anticipatory politics that play out between short-term mitigation efforts and the pursuit of long-term dividends.

Keywords: sociology of quantification,politics of numbers
Laser biofabrication of 3D multicellular tissue with perfusible vascular network (Laser-Tissue-Perfuse)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Advanced grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Biotechnology and Biosystems E ngineering
Panel description: Biotechnology using all organisms , biotechnology for environment  and food applications, applied plant and animal sciences , bioengineering and synthetic biology , biomass and biofuels , biohazards
Countries involved: Germany
Call: ERC ADVANCED GRANTS (ERC-2021-ADG, 2021)
Start date: 2022-10-01
End date: 2027-09-30
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2499539.0
EU funding (EUR): 2499539.0
Participants: 2
Project status: SIGNED

Building 3D vascularised organs remains the major unsolved challenge to be overcome in biofabrication and tissue engineering. Establishing blood vessels capable of efficient transport of gas, nutrients, and metabolites to and from cells is a prerequisite for the survival of tissue constructs, both in vitro and when transplanted in vivo. High resolution multi-scale constructs are necessary to replicate the complexity of functional vascular perfusion from large scale arteries and veins to micron scale arterioles, venules and capillaries. Using a unique combination of advanced laser bioprinting with two-photon polymerisation technique a full vascular system may be generated by exploring different scaffold-based, scaffold-free, sacrificial, and hybrid approaches for the generation of a complex vasculature with functional layers and extra-cellular matrix. The connection of artery and vein with engineered vascular tree including capillaries have received little research attention despite the crucial requirement to reliably connect perfusion inlets and outlets to a pulsatile flow system. This is essential not only to perfuse tissue, but to stimulate and control maturation of engineered tissue in reaching the condition required to function with realistic biophysical characteristics of thick tissue outside of a closed incubation chamber. Computer-controlled generation of a 3D vascular capillary tree and achieving its perfusion in centimetre scale cardiac and skin tissue constructs using the developed biofabrication methodologies will represent a seminal breakthrough in organ regeneration with widespread long-term impacts across the field of regenerative medicine.

Keywords: vasculature,micro vasculature,perfusion systems,two photon polymerisation,laser bio printing
Optical 6G Cell Free Networks (Opti-6G)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness
Programme: Digital, Industry and Space
Theme: Public-private partnerships
Destination: Smart Networks and Services
Action type: Research and Innovation actions
Partnership: SNS (JU-JTI)
Countries involved: Germany,France,Israel,United Kingdom
Call: Communication Infrastructure Technologies and Devices (HORIZON-JU-SNS-2023, 2023)
Start date: 2024-01-01
End date: 2026-12-31
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2238125.0
EU funding (EUR): 2062937.5
Participants: 5
Project status: SIGNED

The OPTI-6G project develops a Photonic near IR Cell Free 5G Network, which does not suffer from interference because of the propagation characteristics of EM waves in this part of the spectrum and provides universal broadband coverage within buildings from pervasively located OWC access points. The benefits of applying cell free near IR networks in buildings are (1) multi-connectivity can be configured with cell free network thereby improving link quality and reliability; (2) there is no longer the need for building owners to subdivide their non-public mobile building network into cellular areas; (3) building owners no longer need to request permission from MNOs to use their licensed spectrum since the system operates at the optical unlicensed bands; (4) interference between inside and outside access is managed by an AI Based Distributed Scheduler; (5) position and orientation of end user equipment can be measured very accurately. It provides solutions to two main barriers to develop this challenge: (i) Brings together a select multi-disciplinary team of research institutions and industries in a collaborative project to develop and demonstrate this vision, who otherwise would not have assembled to achieve this goal; (ii) Develops a proof of concept demonstrator in OLEDCOMM and RUNEL; (ii) Performs experiments to measure position and orientation of end user equipment at UVSQ and UBRU. The starting point is (1) state-of-the-art cell free 5G RAN solution and very high accuracy sub cm accuracy localisation measurement system developed by RUNEL; (2) the state of the art VCSEL infrared source and high-speed PIN photodiodes receivers and that supports 1 Gbps data rates up to 5 m over a field of emission of 25° developed by OLEDCOMM. The project brings together these technologies to produce an easy installation and operation, License Free broadband Network for indoor buildings. The outcome will be low-cost commercially attractive broadband cellular access within buildings

Keywords: cell free,optical,integration
Information Economics With Fundamental Uncertainty: Robustness, Commitment, and Strategic Incentives (INFORM)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Individuals, Markets and Organisations
Panel description: Economics, finance , management
Countries involved: Germany
Call: ERC STARTING GRANTS (ERC-2024-STG, 2024)
Start date: 2025-01-01
End date: 2029-12-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1402678.0
EU funding (EUR): 1402678.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Many pivotal decisions hinge on navigating fundamental uncertainty, where a comprehensive description of the relevant contingencies and exact odds remains elusive. This project explores how such uncertainty influences learning, innovation, and strategic information sharing. While previous research has made significant strides in exploring information incentives, it predominantly revolves around scenarios with well-defined risks, neglecting the intricate real-world challenges of rapidly evolving, complex environments. My approach leverages decision-theoretic advances to construct novel theoretical frameworks of active learning and strategic disclosure, shedding light on the implications of fundamental uncertainty on the decision-makers' desire for robustness, demand for commitment, and strategic incentives. The project entails the study of active experimentation, modeled as a canonical multi-arm bandit problem, in situations where the experimenter's knowledge about the underlying distribution of payoffs is limited. I propose a new theoretical approach centered on regret minimization and continual re-optimization. This work will generate new insights into the experimenter's dynamic tradeoff between exploitation and exploration in the face of shifting worst-case scenarios, as well as the feasibility of ex-ante optimal experimentation rules. Shifting the focus to strategic interactions, I will investigate how uncertainty over the underlying process of information endowments impacts information-sharing incentives. My work will center on a canonical sender-receiver structure with verifiable information. I will examine the role of the receiver's sophistication in the predictions of such models, in particular, the inevitability of information unraveling. This will challenge some widely accepted insights of this literature.

Keywords: microeconomic theory,decisions under uncertainty,regret optimization,experimentation,strategic disclosure
Demonstration and mainstrEaming of nature-based Solutions for clImate Resilient transformation in the MEDiterranean (DesirMED)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness
Programme: Mission
Theme: Adaptation to climate change
Destination: Adaptation to climate change
Action type: Innovation actions
Countries involved: Italy,Spain,Portugal,Greece,Netherlands,Ireland,Croatia,Cyprus,France,Switzerland
Call: Testing and demonstrating transformative solutions on climate resilience, mainstreaming nature based solutions in the systemic transformation (HORIZON-MISS-2022-CLIMA-01, 2022)
Start date: 2024-01-01
End date: 2028-12-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 17733793.13
EU funding (EUR): 16937969.63
Participants: 35
Project status: SIGNED

Climate change (CC) is an increasing threat at European and global scale affecting social stability, public health, and well- being. The Mediterranean (Med) has been recognized as a CC hotspot and is among the least economically developed of the main EEA European biogeographical regions. Adapting to CC demands requires a radical shift from piecemeal to transformative strategies and approaches, supporting policy development at all levels and advancing transversal and multilevel governance solutions. Nature-based solutions (NbS) to preserve and restore ecosystems, increase climate resilience, sustainably manage the environment, while providing wider long-term socioeconomic benefits, are at the heart of the European CC Adaptation (CCA) Mission Adaptation Plan objective to support at least 150 European regions and communities to become climate resilient by 2030 and a main EUGD pillar. In DesirMED, NbS will be prioritized, together with innovative technologies and inclusive social practices. DesirMED will increase ambition, ownership and capability of regional Med leaders and communities through proven transformative CCA approaches. Recognising that successful adaptation generally occurs at local and regional levels, DesirMED involves a multilevel set of actors in 5 Demonstrating regions (DRr) and 3 Replicating Regions (RRs) working hand- in-hand with scientific partners to foster holistic approaches to implement transformative adaptation. DesirMED, by engaging at the regional level key institutions in a multi-level governance framework, will act as a catalyser to trigger and accelerate the necessary action in key community systems. Overall, DesirMED will strengthen knowledge and capabilities of Med regions and communities to take leadership and ownership in their transformative CCA pathways and accelerate the implementation of transformative solutions required to increase their resilience over the long term.

Keywords: transformative adaptation,systemic change,resilience,innovation,nature based solutions,just solutions,key community systems,mediterranean,demonstration