Project description
Advancing aquatic photosynthesis measurement
Photosynthesis is vital for addressing pressing issues such as food security, renewable energy, and climate change. It provides valuable insights into environmental monitoring and offers opportunities for biotechnological advancements and crop improvements. While portable instruments have enabled in-depth measurements of plant photosynthesis in the field, the aquatic world, which is home to a diverse range of photosynthetic organisms, lacks similar capabilities due to the limitations of current spectrometers. This deficiency hinders our understanding of a significant portion of photosynthetic biodiversity. The ERC-funded PALMADS project aims to develop a highly sensitive absorption difference spectrometer to measure photosynthesis in diluted samples of microalgal species, thereby enabling exploration of the diversity of aquatic photosynthesis.
Objective
Photosynthesis is at the intersection of many vexing problems facing humanity, including feeding an ever-increasing population, securing the agricultural economy, replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy, and responding to climate changes. Studying this fundamental process and exploring its functional biodiversity is a crucial necessity. Indeed, photosynthesis is a perfect tool for environmental monitoring in a context of climate changes; it probes in a non-invasive way the physiological state of a photosynthetic organism, its response to the environment. Moreover, the discovery across diversity of new response mechanisms to environmental cues, new metabolic pathways or regulatory mechanisms also constitutes a reservoir for biotechnological mining or crop improvement.
In-depth measurements of plant photosynthesis are now possible in the field with the development of dedicated portable instruments, combining chlorophyll fluorescence and absorption difference spectrometry. However, such approaches do not exist in the aquatic world, where most of the diversity of photosynthetic organisms is yet located, because the sensitivity of absorption difference spectrometers is not sufficient for natural samples characterized by very low concentrations of microalgae. Furthermore, a very small proportion of microalgal species are currently cultivated and of these, very few are “lab rats” reaching high cell concentrations. For all these reasons, a huge part of photosynthetic biodiversity escapes us. In this project, we propose to develop a high sensitivity absorption difference spectrometer which will allow measuring photosynthesis in diluted samples of one or more microalgal species. We believe that the development of such an instrument will constitute a real breakthrough in the study of photosynthesis, allowing to explore the diversity of architectures, pathways and regulations of aquatic photosynthesis.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- agricultural sciences agriculture, forestry, and fisheries agriculture
- engineering and technology environmental engineering energy and fuels
- natural sciences biological sciences botany
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC-POC - HORIZON ERC Proof of Concept Grants
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2023-POC
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
75794 PARIS
France
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.