Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : MULTIFLEXO (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Condensed matter physics
Entité participante : Spanish National Research Council — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : CSIC
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1470000.0 €

Flexoelectricity, the coupling between an inhomogeneous deformation and the electrical polarization, has emerged a “hot” topic in modern materials science due to its cross-cutting relevance to many phenomena of fundamental and technological interest. Understanding the intriguing physics that governs its behaviour at the nanoscale is crucial to harnessing the potential of strain gradients in practical applications, and such a progress requires a substantial support from theory. In spite of impressive recent advances, first-principles calculations of flexoelectricity remain technically challenging at several levels: first, the breakdown of translational lattice periodicity that a strain gradient entails is problematic to treat in the context of traditional electronic-structure methods; second, the stringent length- and time-scale constraints of direct quantum-mechanical approaches limit the applicability of these methods to real problems, which often involve complex sample shapes and morphologies. This project is aimed at overcoming these obstacles from their very root, via the development of ground-breaking innovations in electronic-structure and multiscale methodologies, and at using these advances to address a number of pressing physical questions in the context of energy and information technologies. In particular, the objectives of this project are: (i) identifying the microscopic mechanisms that are most effective at delivering a strong flexoelectric response in a variety of materials; (ii) understanding how these bulk effects are modified by size, shape and boundary conditions, and how they interact with other material properties; (iii) supporting the experimental interpretation by critically assessing alternative physical interpretations of the observed effects (e.g. compositional gradients); (iv) exploring the functionalities enabled by strain gradients in complex materials systems, including 2D crystals, semiconductor nanowires and multiferroics.

Mots-clés : ab initio,density functional theory,electromechanical effects,flexoelectricity,piezoelectricity,ferroelectricity,surfaces,domain walls,gradient effects,perovskites,nanostructures
Projet ERC : FLIGHT (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Environmental Biology, Ecology and Evolution
Entité participante : Swansea University — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1996042.5 €

Flight is thought to be one of the most energetically costly of bird activities. These costs matter by virtue of their magnitude, as factors affecting flight costs can have a disproportionate impact on the overall energy balance. Flight costs are fundamentally linked to airflows, as well as behavioural responses to them, because birds react to horizontal and vertical currents by changing flight mode (i.e. flapping/ gliding), speed and route. Even minor route adjustments can radically affect the flow conditions that birds experience due to the uniquely dynamic and heterogeneous nature of the aerial environment. Yet our understanding of how airflows impact birds is in its infancy, being constrained by a lack of information on the metabolic costs of flight. Currently, the main methods for measuring flight costs in the laboratory either restrain the bird (thereby increasing energy expenditure) or suffer from low resolution, and field methods do not allow costs to be resolved in relation to fine scale movement paths. FLIGHT will use interdisciplinary approaches, integrating laboratory and field techniques, to address these grand challenges. Breakthrough methodologies will be used to (1) measure the costs of unrestrained bird flight in the laboratory and (2) derive a new proxy for power use in flight that is linked to flight performance, using accelerometry measurements from cutting-edge data loggers. Loggers will then be (3) deployed on wild birds to quantify their responses to airflows and the energetic consequences over fine scales. This will provide completely novel, mechanistic insight into the way the physical environment impacts flight costs, and (4) enable variation in flight–related energy expenditure to be modelled geographically and seasonally in model species. Overall, FLIGHT will provide new macro-ecological insight into relationships between bird distributions and flow conditions and inform assessments of how birds may be affected by changing wind regimes.

Mots-clés : movement ecology,accelerometry,flight,energy expenditure,wind,seabird,biotelemetry,foraging,birds,metabolic rate,migration,aerodynamics
Projet ERC : GEoREST (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Products and processes engineering
Entité participante : Spanish National Research Council — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : CSIC
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1438201.0 €

Fluid injection related to underground resources has become widespread, causing numerous cases of induced seismicity. If felt, induced seismicity has a negative effect on public perception and may jeopardise wellbore stability, which has led to the cancellation of several projects. Forecasting injection-induced earthquakes is a big challenge that must be overcome to deploy geo-energies to significantly reduce CO2 emissions and thus mitigate climate change and reduce related health issues. The basic conjecture is that, while initial (micro)seisms are caused by well-known mechanisms that could be predicted, subsequent activity is caused by harder to understand and, at present, unpredictable coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical-seismic (THMS) processes, which is the reason why available models fail to forecast induced seismicity. The objective of this project is to develop a novel methodology to predict and mitigate induced seismicity. We propose an interdisciplinary approach that integrates the THMS processes that occur in the subsurface as a result of fluid injection. The methodology, based on new analytical and numerical solutions, will concentrate on (1) understanding the processes that lead to induced seismicity by model testing of specific conjectures, (2) improving and extending subsurface characterization by using industrial fluid injection operations as a long-term continuous characterization methodology, so as to reduce prediction uncertainty, and (3) using the resulting understanding and site specific knowledge to predict and mitigate induced seismicity. Project developments will be tested and verified against fluid-induced seismicity at field sites that present diverse characteristics. Arguably, the successful development of this project will provide operators with concepts and tools to perform pressure management to reduce the risk of inducing seismicity to acceptable levels and thus, improve safety and reverse public perception on fluid injection activities.

Mots-clés : hydrogeology,geomechanics,induced seismicity,geo energy
Projet ERC : NANO4LIFE (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Systems and communication engineering
Entité participante : Research Institute of Molecular Pathology — Pays : Autriche — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : IMP
Type d'entité : Organismes privés (hors enseignement)
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1778325.0 €

Fluorescence microscopy is an invaluable tool for exploring the structure and function of biological processes. It provides high specificity and contrast for the observation of cellular components tagged with fluorescent molecules in a minimally invasive fashion, allowing the study of live specimens. Furthermore, the development of super resolution (SR) fluorescence microscopy has unlocked the access to spatial resolutions beyond the diffraction limit of visible light (~250nm), fuelling the discovery of new biological structures and dynamics. Nevertheless, achieving resolutions below ~10nm is challenged by multiple trade-offs between spatial and temporal resolutions, depth of observation and photo toxicity, making it difficult or impossible to obtain a molecular resolution. Additionally, axial resolutions are inevitably poorer than lateral ones, unless utilizing a complex multi-objective lens approach. I recently developed MINFLUX, a localization technique that merges concepts of SR with information theory. It achieves isotropic nanometer resolution in three dimensions with a single objective lens and has unrivaled spatio temporal resolution. However, a platform that enables these capabilities in a high-throughput manner for entire cells and tissue has not yet been developed. I aim to fill this technological gap; with my background and experience, I am in a unique position to assure the success of this project and establish these technologies in the scientific community. The performance of fluorescence imaging and tracking will progress orders of magnitude in the years to come, signaling yet another revolution for optical nanoscopy.

Mots-clés : super resolution microscopy,single molecule tracking,high throughput parallelization
Projet ERC : SMPFv2.0 (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Physical and analytical chemical sciences
Entité participante : Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 542673.46 €

Fluorescence techniques provide powerful means to study single protein machineries. Single molecule observation of Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) has become an important tool for probing structure, distances, dynamics, physicochemical properties and size of purified (in vitro) protein complexes. Super-resolution techniques provide complementary spatial information about proteins in live (in vivo) specimen. Although these techniques have become very popular because of their high sensitivity, their throughput is limited by large statistical sampling requirements, complex sample preparation procedures and/or laborious data acquisition workflows. Here, I propose to design a unified single molecule approach by engineering ultrafast, semi-synthetic protein modification techniques and fluorescent readouts into nano/microfluidic hybrid devices. The development of an automated all-in-one Lab-on-a-Chip platform will dramatically improve throughput of single molecule fluorescence techniques. The technology will provide a multiparameter readout of molecular protein mechanisms across time, resolution and complexity scales in a generalised workflow. To demonstrate the power of the new platform, I will apply it to a mechanistic study of the multifunctionality of intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs), which are vital to cellular function and associated with many disease mechanisms. The polymeric properties of IDPs enable them to populate a variety of states and engage with various cellular binding partners, thus exceeding the sampling limit of existing single molecule technologies. The new method will blur the boundaries between in cell superresolution microscopy and biochemical single molecule studies and unleash the true power of single molecule protein science for a range of applications in analytical sciences, drug discovery, biotechnology, systems biology and fundamental biomedical research.

Mots-clés : biotechnology,single molecule fluorescence,fret spectroscopy,nanofluidics,click reaction,intrinsically disordered protein,superresolution microscopy,protein multifunctionality,unnatural amino acid
Projet ERC : SMPFv2.0 (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Physical and analytical chemical sciences
Entité participante : European Molecular Biology Laboratory — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : EMBL
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1454316.54 €

Fluorescence techniques provide powerful means to study single protein machineries. Single molecule observation of Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) has become an important tool for probing structure, distances, dynamics, physicochemical properties and size of purified (in vitro) protein complexes. Super-resolution techniques provide complementary spatial information about proteins in live (in vivo) specimen. Although these techniques have become very popular because of their high sensitivity, their throughput is limited by large statistical sampling requirements, complex sample preparation procedures and/or laborious data acquisition workflows. Here, I propose to design a unified single molecule approach by engineering ultrafast, semi-synthetic protein modification techniques and fluorescent readouts into nano/microfluidic hybrid devices. The development of an automated all-in-one Lab-on-a-Chip platform will dramatically improve throughput of single molecule fluorescence techniques. The technology will provide a multiparameter readout of molecular protein mechanisms across time, resolution and complexity scales in a generalised workflow. To demonstrate the power of the new platform, I will apply it to a mechanistic study of the multifunctionality of intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs), which are vital to cellular function and associated with many disease mechanisms. The polymeric properties of IDPs enable them to populate a variety of states and engage with various cellular binding partners, thus exceeding the sampling limit of existing single molecule technologies. The new method will blur the boundaries between in cell superresolution microscopy and biochemical single molecule studies and unleash the true power of single molecule protein science for a range of applications in analytical sciences, drug discovery, biotechnology, systems biology and fundamental biomedical research.

Mots-clés : biotechnology,single molecule fluorescence,fret spectroscopy,nanofluidics,click reaction,intrinsically disordered protein,superresolution microscopy,protein multifunctionality,unnatural amino acid
Projet ERC : IROCSIM (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Systems and communication engineering
Entité participante : IMEC — Pays : Belgique — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1499625.0 €

Fluorescent microscopy is an indispensable tool in biology and medicine that has fueled many breakthroughs in a wide set of sub-domains. Recently the world of microscopy has witnessed a true revolution in terms of increased resolution of fluorescent imaging techniques. To break the intrinsic diffraction limit of the conventional microscope, several advanced super-resolution techniques were developed, some of which have even been awarded with the Nobel Prize in 2014. High resolution microscopy is also responsible for the spectacular cost reduction of DNA sequencing during the last decade. Yet, these techniques remain largely locked-up in specialized laboratories as they require bulky, expensive instrumentation and highly skilled operators. The next big push in microscopy with a large societal impact will come from extremely compact and robust optical systems that will make high-resolution (fluorescence) microscopy highly accessible, enabling both cellular diagnostics at the point of care and the development of compact, cost-effective DNA sequencing instruments, facilitating early diagnosis of cancer and other genomic disorders. IROCSIM will facilitate this next breakthrough by introducing a novel high-resolution imaging platform based entirely on an intimate marriage of active on-chip photonics and CMOS image sensors. This concept will completely eliminate the necessity of standard free-space optical components by integrating specially designed structured optical illumination, illumination modulation, an excitation filter and an image sensor in a single chip. The resulting platform will enable high resolution, fast, robust, zero-maintenance, and inexpensive microscopy with applications reaching from cellomics to DNA sequencing, proteomics, and highly parallelized optical biosensors.

Mots-clés : high resolution imaging,integrated photonics,superresolution,on chip imaging
Projet ERC : FoQAL (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Fundamental constituents of matter
Entité participante : Institute of Photonic Sciences — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : ICFO;ICFO-CERCA
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1340873.0 €

FoQAL aims to completely re-define our ability to control light-matter interactions at the quantum level. This potential revolution will make use of cold atoms interfaced with nanophotonic systems, exploiting unique features such as control over the dimensionality and dispersion of light, the engineering of quantum vacuum forces, and strong optical fields and forces associated with light confined to the nanoscale. We will develop powerful and fundamentally new paradigms for atomic trapping, tailoring atomic interactions, and quantum nonlinear optics, which cannot be duplicated in macroscopic systems even in principle. Targeted breakthroughs include: 1) Nanoscale traps using quantum vacuum forces. Nanophotonic structures enable strong quantum vacuum forces acting on atoms near dielectric surfaces to be harnessed for novel “vacuum traps.” Their figures of merit (e.g., trap depth and spatial confinement) will exceed what is possible with conventional trapping techniques by 1-2 orders of magnitude. 2) Strong long-range spin-photon-phonon interactions. We will show that nanophotonic systems enable the formation of new “quasi-particles” consisting of atoms dressed by localized photonic clouds. These clouds produce strong multi-physics coupling between photons and atomic spins and motion, facilitating novel long-range interactions and the generation of exotic quantum states of light and matter. 3) New routes to single-photon nonlinear optics. We will develop novel techniques to attain strong interactions between individual photons, which are not based upon the saturation of atomic transitions. These approaches will take advantage of engineered long-range interactions between atoms, and “atom-optomechanics” in which the optical response of atoms and their motion strongly couple. Significantly, our protocols will enable a growth in nonlinearities for moderate atom number N, in contrast to conventional cavity QED where the optimal operating point is N=1.
Projet ERC : FOREMAT (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Products and processes engineering
Entité participante : Spanish National Research Council — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : CSIC
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2423894.0 €

Following promising early breakthroughs, progress in the development of high-performance multicomponent organic energy materials has stalled due to a bottleneck in device optimization. FOREMAT will develop a breakthrough technology to overcome this bottleneck by shifting from fabrication-intense to measurement-intense assessment methods, enabling rapid multi-parameter optimization of novel systems. Our goal is to deliver organic material systems with a step-change in performance, bringing them close to the expected market turn point, including panchromatic organic photovoltaics with ca 15% efficiencies and thermoelectric devices that could revolutionize waste heat recovery by their flexibility, lightweight and high power factor. The development of multicomponent materials promises to dramatically improve the cost, efficiency and stability of organic energy devices. For example, they allow to engineer broad-band absorption in photovoltaics matched to the sun’s spectrum, or to create composites that conduct electricity like metals while thermally insulate like cotton yielding thermoelectric devices beyond the state-of-the-art. Despite these advantages, the long time required to evaluate promising organic multinaries currently limits their development. We will circumvent this problem by developing a high-throughput technology that will allow evaluation times up to two orders of magnitude faster saving, at the same time, around 90% of material. To meet these ambitious goals, we will advance novel fabrication tools and create samples bearing a high density of information arising from 2-dimensional gradual variations in relevant parameters that will be sequentially tested with increasing resolution in order to determine optimum values with high precision. This quantitative step will enable a disruptive qualitative change as in depth multidimensional studies will lead to design rationales for multicomponent systems with step-change performance in energy applications.

Mots-clés : organic semiconductors,material libraries,combinatorial screening,organic solar cells,thermoelectric generators,optimization methods,samples with gradients,raman,spectroscopy,microfluidics
Projet ERC : MIND (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The study of the human past
Entité participante : University of Amsterdam — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UvA
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1499148.0 €

For European historiography, it is self-evident that diaries, correspondences, and other personal documents provide crucial insights not only into how individuals thought about certain issues, but also in how the authors expressed their individuality, and how they saw their active role in history. This holds true both for prominent and ordinary persons, and for a whole variety of genres. In the historiography of Muslim societies, expressions of individuality are rarely ever problematized; the individual is often seen merely as part of a faith community, and the writings of individuals are more often than not just treated as a source for factual information on Islam, politics, or broader social phenomena, not as an effort of personal self-reflection. By analyzing practices of individualization in the personal archives of Muslims in Russia, this program places the Muslim subject at the center. How does a person engage with the Islamic tradition, with the demands of the state and the non-Muslim majority society, but also with other individuals, to design his or her conception of the self (Ar., shakhsiyya)? How is this individuality communicated to others, in letters about love, friendship, or a plethora of other personal matters (SP1)? What is the role of aesthetics in the narratives of the Muslim subject – how does a self-concept obtain a literary form, for instance when experiences are turned into poetry (SP2)? How do Muslims characterize other Muslims when they produce biographies (SP3), and how do they portray themselves in autobiographies (SP4)? And finally, how do Muslims employ photography for expressing their individuality, their belonging to tradition or to the contrary their difference; and how did visual self-conceptions develop, according to personal tastes, values, attitudes, and by mobilizing certain historical heritages (SP5)? Designed according to archival genres, the subprojects contribute to the central hypothesis of a Muslim culture of individuality.

Mots-clés : individual,islam,russian history,private archives,autobiographical narratives,photographs,correspondence