MSCA Doctoral Networks, recent awardees

2026

• Furan-based click and photo-click reactions for nucleic acid modification

  Annemieke Madder · Ghent University Hospital · BE

  Within OBCR, we have developed a highly selective and efficient singlet oxygen mediated crosslink technology which is applicable to peptide-protein, peptide-nucleic acid and nucleic acid interstrand crosslink scenarios.[1] For this purpose, a furan ‘warhead’ is introduced into one of the biomolecular partners and subsequently activated by means of an oxidation trigger such as singlet oxygen which induces generation of a nucleophile-sensitive keto-enal moiety.[2] The overall procedure allows spat

• Better Biobased Polymer Network

  TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITAET GRAZ · AT · €4,342,536

  The transition of the historically established chemistry toward biobased feedstocks and integrated biotechnology will reinvent the chemistry of the 21st century. New chemistry processes will not simply repeat fossil-based reactions but offer fully new opportunity spaces for coming up sustainable materials. The research focuses on biobased polymers and materials with superior product properties, thus making a significant contribution to achieve the GREEN DEAL goals of the European Union. The cons

• Secure AI and Digital Twin Empowered Smart Internet-of-Energy

  THE UNIVERSITY OF EXETER · UK

  The Internet-of-Energy (IoE) is a revolutionary paradigm towards achieving the EU’s zero-carbon goal through enabling intelligent and automated energy management across the entire lifecycle of energy planning, storage, distribution, and maintenance. Operating in highly complex environments characterised by intermittent and volatile renewable energy generation, dynamic energy demands, large-scale distributed energy integration, and stringent resilience and security requirements, IoE faces fundame

• Building a Decolonized Ethics and Governance Framework for Just and Trustworthy AI in Healthcare

  UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI MACERATA · IT

  Artificial Intelligence (AI) has great potential in healthcare, but it also raises deep ethical concerns as it often discriminates vulnerable groups, amplifying systemic inequalities and preventing equitable access to healthcare. Trustworthy AI is not sufficient to avoid this risk. Bias-free AI systems can indeed still be deeply unjust, if they do not embed social justice principles; and the current ethics and governance frameworks that steer the design, development and use of AI tend to perpetu

• SUstainable sports and Physical activity for Equity and Resilience in the Anthropocene

  THE GLASGOW CALEDONIAN UNIVERSITY · UK

  SUPER will train 15 doctoral Fellows as transdisciplinary leaders to develop and promote sustainable, equitable physical activity and sports that prioritise both human and planetary health in the face of world finite resources and a changing climate. The network will bring together sports and physical activity industries, organisations and practitioners with leading researchers and experts across fields such as sports & behaviour sciences, human health, education, social science, planetary healt

• European Arthurs, Medieval To Modern

  BANGOR UNIVERSITY · UK

  European Arthurs, Medieval to Modern’ (EUARTHURS) examines, for the first time, in cross-cultural synchronic and diachronic ways, the conceptualisation and the transmission of Arthurian matter in its move from its origins in early medieval narratives from Wales into other geographical and linguistic areas in Europe in the Middle Ages, into other genres and art forms that endure to the present day. Starting from the dichotomy that used to be perceived, in modern scholarship, between ‘centres’ of

• ORBital-based electronIcS

  ASOCIACION CENTRO DE INVESTIGACION COOPERATIVA EN NANOCIENCIAS CIC NANOGUNE · ES

  Orbitronics, an emerging field that focuses on the study and manipulation of the electron's orbital angular momentum (OAM), provides a challenging and innovative framework to train doctoral candidates (DCs) with excellent career prospects in academia, industry and beyond. In this promising area, ORBIS proposes a multidisciplinary network composed of 12 universities, 4 research centres and 8 companies, which will provide DCs with state-of-the-art training combining fundamental and applied Orbitro

• Testamentary practices in the periphery of the ius commune tradition: freedom and oppression (c. 1420-1620)

  KATHOLIEKE UNIVERSITEIT LEUVEN · BE

  TESTAMENT, an interdisciplinary consortium of social and legal historians from the universities of Leuven, Kraków, Jena, Prague andWarsaw, will study dynamics of freedom and 'unfreedom', of power and oppression, through the lens of testamentary law andpractice in Western and Central Europe (c. 1450-1620), with a particular focus on the regions in the 'periphery' of the late medievaland early modern academic tradition. The project members will develop a language to transcend the traditional dicho

• Tiny Machines Working to Elucidate Mechanisms of Cerebrovascular Pathologies

  UNIVERSITY OF GALWAY · IE

  The CerebroMachinesTrain Doctoral Network (CMT-DN) seeks to go beyond the state-of-the-art of drug delivery systems by focusing on tiny machines (TMs) that can be engineered as stable formulation devices capable of: i) transporting the desired amount of therapeutic substance (drug) to a target area; ii) preserving its designed function under variable physiological parameters; iii) enhancing drug bioavailability; iv) preserving the healthy environment (cells, tissues, organs) with minimal to no s

• Ultrahigh-throughput exploration of metagenomic sequence space to discover and engineer novel biocatalysts and bioactive compounds

  THE CHANCELLOR MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE · UK

  The objective of MetaExplore is to provide research training for young researchers in novel experimental as well as computational methods to fully exploit the immense biotechnological potential of metagenomic sequence space, with innovative approaches on both fronts. On the experimental side, successful screening of large metagenomic libraries requires ultrahigh-throughput technologies, because low hit rates can frustrate conventional experimental formats. Here microfluidic droplet screening (al

• Future leaders in ageing and digitalizing societies

  LAPPEENRANNAN-LAHDEN TEKNILLINEN YLIOPISTO LUT · FI

  The digitalisation of ageing societies is restructuring Europe, raising concerns about social inclusion. Recognizing the gravity of this shift, the EU declared the 2020s 'Europe’s Digital Decade', while the WHO declared it the 'Decade of Healthy Ageing'. Researchers and practitioners typically view digitalisation and societal ageing as separate shifts. Digi4Age breaks with this tradition. Drawing on its members’ recent research, it posits that both are intertwined. They are jointly experienced a

• Enhancing collaborative synergies between Cultural HERItage and TOURism

  ERASMUS UNIVERSITEIT ROTTERDAM · NL

  Enhancing collaborative synergies between Cultural HERItage and TOURism - HERITOURHERITOUR addresses some of the most pressing challenges in the heritage and tourism sectors today: hybridisation, resilience, sustainability, and democratisation. Challenges that, until now, have mostly been understood and addressed from a perspective of economic growth. Instead, HERITOUR advocates for a radical paradigm shift by tackling these challenges through a regenerative framework, where social, cultural, po

• NovEl tEchnologies for converged Wireless-opTical cOnfiguratioNs

  IQUADRAT INFORMATICA SL · ES

  NEWTON proposes a revolutionary approach of a converged wireless-optical network architecture that makes reality an efficient 6G Cell-Free (CF)-based access network for high-density and high-coverage deployments. The proposed architecture takes also full advantage of novel solutions for both the radio-edge and regional-edge domains, as well as for efficient network-management approaches, targeting to achieve sub-second latency, more than million devices per square kilometer connection density an

• Revisioning Public Interest Media

  VRIJE UNIVERSITEIT BRUSSEL · BE

  The Doctoral Network Revisioning Public Interest Media (RePIM) aims to support the reinvention of public interest media and the development and reconfiguration of relevance and societal impact in a data-driven and platformized media ecosystem, by training next generation management-level staff. Radical market and societal changes challenge existing business models of public interest media, the content they create, the technical infrastructures they employ for distribution, and the governing stru

• Sociology of Authoritarian Law: Insights from Central Asia

  LUNDS UNIVERSITET · SE

  The overarching objective of the SOCIAL is to contribute to global and national efforts in understanding and addressing the challenges associated with promoting democratization and good governance in authoritarian contexts. More specifically, SOCIAL is built around three interconnected goals: 1. To collect original empirical data and produce new theoretical and empirical insights on the interplay between law, society and governance in authoritarian regimes in the Central Asian context. The empi

• Lipids as promising BRidge between novel disease InsiGHts and improved Therapy

  UNIVERSITEIT MAASTRICHT · NL

  Recent insights revealed new, decisive roles for lipids in cardiovascular disease, chronic kidney disease, cancer and chronic inflammation. Lipid targeting may offer novel treatment opportunities for these four high-impact diseases, complementary to the currently available, insufficiently effective therapies. However, developing effective diagnostic, preventive and therapeutic solutions requires deeper insights into lipid metabolism in disease as well as improved methods of lipid detection and i

• Doctoral Network on Spectrum Analytics as a Service

  KATHOLIEKE UNIVERSITEIT LEUVEN · BE

  The overall research goal of SpecX is to provide a high-level research programme and doctoral training to 15 Doctoral Candidates (DCs) in large-scale spectrum measurements, analyses, and applications in future telecom infrastructure. The goal is to create a research and innovation workforce with transferable and sustainable skills in applied mathematics, radio hardware, cellular infrastructure, edge computing, spectrum data collection, artificial intelligence, spectrum management methods, and bu

• Innovative Nucleic Acids Technologies for Analysis, Detection and Treatment

  UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI UDINE · IT · €4,533,813

  In recent years, nucleic acids (NAs) have contributed significantly to advancing the diagnosis and treatment of diseases such as cancer, infectious and rare diseases. Breakthrough technologies like genome editing tool CRISPR/Cas9, direct RNA sequencing, multi-omics analysis procedure for NAs analysis, bioinformatics and machine learning for data analysis, and targeted delivery systems based on lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) prove the increasing interest in NAs applicability. However, the full potent

• Using smart contracts and policies to reduce energy-related risk and inequality among households

  NORGES HANDELSHOYSKOLE · NO

  To reduce carbon emissions, the green energy transition emphasizes incorporating variable renewable energy (VRE) sources and electrifying household energy consumption. This transition shifts households from being mere consumers to becoming producers and flexibility providers, playing a crucial in balancing VRE. The rise in energy prices due to the conflict in Ukraine has underscored a significant issue with this: while variable prices are vital for aligning demand with VRE supply, they also expo

• Nanoplatforms and Oncolytic viruses for novel cancer immunotherapy strategies

  ERASMUS UNIVERSITAIR MEDISCH CENTRUM ROTTERDAM · NL

  Immunotherapy is a potential key weapon in the fight against cancer, in general, and Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM), in particular. Still, a better understanding of how immunotherapy can be leveraged in GBM patients is direly needed. Disease complexity and blood-brain barrier impermeability mean that a standard vaccinology approach will not work. As part of a novel cancer management strategy, this project aims to create more efficacious vaccines using polymeric nanoparticles and self-assembled na

• Physics and Applications of Negative IONS

  GOETEBORGS UNIVERSITET · SE

  The structures of atoms and positive ions are well known for more than 100 years. In contrast, negative ions are less well understood as they are much more difficult to investigate and detect. This is because their binding energies are very small, and only a handful of them have excited states with the same parity as the ground state. Hence, traditional spectroscopic methods cannot be applied to most negative ions, leaving them poorly characterised despite their importance for many scientific an

• SUstainable and REconfigurable ROBots for green manufacturing

  TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITAT DARMSTADT · DE

  Development of efficient, safe, green, and reconfigurable manufacturing systems requires seamless integration between software and hardware solutions, requiring cooperation between experts from different fields. The project aims to make advancements in green manufacturing systems through collaborative robots (CoBots), making them viable for SMEs. The field of robotics faces the challenge of a disconnect between experts from computer science that provide generic solutions and the end-users that w

• Next-generation intensified chemical processes integrating plasma and single-atom catalysis

  POLITECNICO DI MILANO · IT

  PRIME LEAP tackles the grand challenge of advancing sustainable, efficient, and electrified chemical processes by focusing on the conversion of methane, a primary component of natural gas and a by-product of steam cracking, into a diverse portfolio of value-added chemicals through synergic plasma and catalysis technologies. Current progress in this sector is hindered by a shortage of trained engineers and scientists capable of designing intensified chemical processes that integrate innovative ap

• MultiScale phenomena in Radiation Damage

  MBN RESEARCH CENTER GGMBH · DE

  The MS-RADAM DN will deliver a state-of-the-art research programme that will pioneer a new approach to reveal key nano- and larger-scale radiation biodamage phenomena based on multiscale modelling (MM) and its thorough validation using advanced experimental techniques and technological applications. In particular, the MS-RADAM research programme will focus on obtaining an advanced understanding of Radiation Damage (RADAM) phenomena induced by ion irradiation in biomolecular and biological system

• Doctoral Network on Strains, Diagnostics and Variants

  HELSINGIN YLIOPISTO · FI

  Resistance to antibiotic treatment of bacterial infections is a major threat to human health worldwide, with last-resort antibiotics becoming ineffective. Bacteria like carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii, Enterobacterales and Pseudomonas aeruginosa head the WHO global pathogen priority list. New strategies are needed to treat AMR bacteria.Our DN StraDiVarious proposes targeting a key virulence trait: the initial interaction of bacteria with the host. Adhesion is the first and decisive

• OligoNucleotide Technologies for Rapid Advancement of Cancer Therapies

  UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON · UK

  ON-TRACT focuses on advancing oligonucleotides (ONs) in medicinal chemistry to tackle urgent challenges in treating lung cancer, B-cell malignancies, and chronic inflammation. ONs are powerful tools for gene-specific therapy, yet their clinical use is hindered by challenges such as limited stability, inefficient delivery, and off-target effects. Since 2000, more than a dozen Nobel Prizes related to oligonucleotides in Chemistry or Medicine/Physiology, such as CRISPR-CAS9, telomers, DNA replicati

• Unified Nondestructive Evaluation of Historical Artifacts

  CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE CNRS · FR · €3,704,283

  UNVEIL aims to transform the diagnostics and preservation of cultural heritage by developing and applying innovative NonDestructive Evaluation (NDE) techniques and advanced digital tools for diagnostics, conservation, and public engagement. The project addresses key challenges in cultural heritage preservation by focusing on two main objectives: a) enhancing surface and subsurface analysis of multilayered and 3D artworks through advanced NDE techniques, such as terahertz imaging, thermography, a

• Conservation Heritage Architecture, buildings and sites by Resilient Methods: hydro-climate factors

  CY CERGY PARIS UNIVERSITE · FR · €3,772,674

  The doctoral network CHARM (Conservation of Heritage Architecture, buildings and sites by Resilient Methods: hydro-climate factors) aims to train 13 doctoral candidates in response to unfulfilled recruitment needs in research and innovation sectors on cultural heritage conservation and restoration. The Research partnership is constituted of 12 beneficiaries and 11 associated partners. CHARM puts together researchers from universities and research organisms (12 academic beneficiaries), 1 nationa

• Investigation of biopsychoSocial Influences on Gender during diverse Hormonal Transitions

  STICHTING AMSTERDAM UMC · NL

  Gender-InSIGHT aims to equip a new generation of interdisciplinary researchers with tools from disciplines including psychology, history, ethics, endocrinology, neuroscience, and public health. Through co-creation and mixed-methods research, doctoral candidates will increase understanding of the influence of biopsychosocial factors on gender during diverse hormonal transitions, including variations in puberty and menopause. Specific attention will be paid to groups historically marginalized in s

• A training network on glyconanomaterials as precision tools to unveil key insights on the triggering of the antigen presenting cells against cancer

  UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI FIRENZE · IT

  Immunotherapy is at the frontier of cancer treatment, with vaccine prototypes in phase III clinical trials. However, guidelines for the selection of the optimal antigen format (mRNA vs peptide) to be used in vaccine formulations are still not available. The glycoscience-oriented CanGoNano DN has identified this gap and proposes for the first time a research & training & innovation action that aims to unveil the molecular mechanisms of immune system activation at the molecular level. Our innovati