Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : Nano4Bone (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Materials Engineering
Entité participante : Université de Maastricht — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2000000.0 €

Self-healing hydrogels are investigated as promising biomaterials in tissue and organ regeneration applications, offering a powerful alternative for scarce donor tissue. However, these hydrogels are often insufficiently tough, which is a significant limitation in their clinical use. Another drawback is that there are limited solutions on how to instruct cells for tissue healing. Thus, one key challenge is to develop self-healing hydrogels that are mechanically strong and can guide tissue regeneration. However, current methods to improve the mechanical properties of hydrogels negatively impact self-healing behavior. In Nano4Bone, I aim to provide a novel solution to this challenge by engineering nanoparticle polymer interactions using metal-ligand coordination bonds, which, uniquely, are both stable and labile; ideal properties for creating spontaneous self-healing hydrogels. The nanoparticles act as dynamic crosslinkers to increase local crosslinking densities, thus dramatically improving the mechanical properties without affecting the self-healing behavior. Importantly, the nanoparticles can also act as bioactive units through smart incorporation of therapeutic ions to instruct tissue-healing behavior. The metal ligand bond can be tuned for temporally controlled release of bioactive nanoparticles, a novel approach which allows kinetic control over bioactive signals. To prove their clinical utility, I will optimize the materials to treat and regenerate bone tissue in osteosarcoma (OS), for which new treatment options are urgently needed. Nano4Bone proposes an innovative method to drastically improve the mechanical properties of hydrogels without negatively impacting their self-healing abilities. The impact of the project will be large by addressing key challenges in the field, offering a new treatment for OS, and a wide application area of the new materials in regenerative medicine and other biomedical fields.

Mots-clés : mesoporous silica nanoparticles,inorganic ions,metal ligand coordination,dynamic,self healing,tough,nanocomposites,ceramics,biomaterials,hydrogels
Projet ERC : PIPELINES (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Cell Biology, Development, Stem Cells and R egeneration
Entité participante : Vlaams Instituut voor Biotechnologie — Pays : Belgique — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : VIB
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1999699.0 €

Plants contribute up to 80% of all biomass on earth. Despite their staggering diversity; dominant land plants share a highly important characteristic: the presence of a vascular system providing physical support and long distance transport. This is however not a simple binary trait, as some non-vascular mosses contain cells with conductive capacity resembling that of vascular plants. Available evidence indeed suggests that conductive tissues of non-vascular plants are functionally homologous to vascular tissues in vascular plants and can even be compared at a molecular level. However, the molecular players involved in conductive tissue development remain almost completely unknown. Moreover, although key molecular regulators of vascular tissue development have been identified in the model plant Arabidopsis, very few are shown to be functionally conserved across vascular plants. Despite their importance for growth and development, we thus have a limited understanding of the evolutionary conserved regulators of plant plumbing systems.  In PIPELINES, I will consolidate my expertise in single-cell applications and build a dedicated team to identify conserved molecular players specific to vascular and conductive tissues by combining multi-species comparative single-cell and spatial transcriptomics with gene regulatory network inference; and characterize these factors using loss-of-function approaches. By comparing this data, I will determine the ancestral set of regulators sufficient to trigger specification and differentiation events in plants; and validate these through introduction of single-cell sample multiplexing in a heterologous system.  By unravelling the molecular basis of vascular and conductive tissue development and identifying conserved core developmental regulators, the output of PIPELINES will act as a starting point for targeted engineering of vascular tissues; which holds great potential for improving plant biomass and productivity in crop species.

Mots-clés : plant vascular tissue development,conductive tissue development,single cell transcriptomics,spatial transcriptomics
Projet ERC : FeMMiWork (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Study of the Human Past
Entité participante : Université de Maastricht — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1999996.0 €

A key assumption about postwar migration in Europe is incorrect – that nearly all who moved from the European South to work in the booming northwestern European economies were men. In fact, anywhere between 25 and 30% were women, but their role was erased by policy-makers, and subsequently by researchers, who framed labour migration as male. The resulting epistemological fog has led to claims that the feminisation of migration is a recent phenomenon. Women’s work trajectories, and experiences of work, were distinctly gendered. Rectifying the record involves not only rescuing the forgotten stories of women working legally in factories. It also involves rethinking the notion of labour migration by focusing on invisible and informal, and yet crucial, labour, such as domestic work by women classified as dependents. By creating a counter-archive comprised of documents, oral history, and creative writing, this project will reconstruct the histories of women migrants. Four researchers will engage in systematic comparison of the trajectories and experiences of women from southern Europe (Italy, Yugoslavia) and Turkey, living and working in two destination states (France, West Germany) between 1955 and 1985. Using a transnational framework that considers relationships to multiple places, we will examine how gender and ethnic/national difference intersected to shape women’s experiences. By recognizing and analysing the central place of women from Southern Europe and Turkey in building the northwestern European economies in the postwar boom years, the study examines the genesis of what sociologists call “counter-geographies of globalization.” In de-centering European history by focusing on migrant women from Europe’s periphery, it will change our understanding of the evolution of Europe after the Second World War. Through interdisciplinary critical engagement, it promises to generate new insights into the evolving role of gendered labour in globalization processes.

Mots-clés : europe after 1945 migration history gender history guest worker programs informal work counter archives oral history transnational migration
Projet ERC : PraxisofCoexistence (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Soci al World and Its Interactions
Entité participante : Université de Londres — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : UoL
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 110625.0 €

The world is experiencing what many have described as a crisis of multiculturalism. Over the past decade, growing and increasingly mainstream voices have declared multiculturalism to have failed, in such places as Europe, the United States, India, Israel, to name a few. In view of growing concerns over the ineffectiveness of current coexistence policies, and brewing ethno-religious conflicts, this research program will address this issue by taking a comparative approach to the question of ethno-religious coexistence in multiple sites. By examining cases of “ordinary” coexistence in situations of religious and ethnic diversity, the research seeks to understand how coexistence is actually practiced. The Praxis of Coexistence seeks to open an entirely new empirical, inductive, and comparative line of inquiry that does not seek to examine the effects of different policies on coexistence, but rather looks at coexistence practices to, among other things, achieve better policy. Understanding how people handle diversity spontaneously will enlighten us about what they “expect”, what they are looking for in coexistence. I ask: How do communities accommodate difference in spontaneous and culturally resonant ways? What resources do they actually draw on to maintain civil relations and avoid conflict and violence between the different religious and ethnic groups that cohabit the same space? This project will open theoretical and normative space for a broader range of approaches to coexistence, ones that are attuned to questions of deep difference, divergent worldviews, and diverse values. In contrast to studies on the effects of policy or structural conditions on the dynamics of coexistence, this project will demonstrate why we should also take culture and existing practice seriously when considering the dilemmas of diversity.

Mots-clés : intergroup accommodation,tolerance,ordinary coexistence
Projet ERC : SupraValent (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Materials Engineering
Entité participante : Université de Maastricht — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2000000.0 €

Current biomaterials poorly recapitulate the tough, responsive, and spatiotemporal behavior of native extracellular matrices (ECM). This recapitulation of ECM complexity is imperative to create environments that can effectively communicate with living cells. A key missing component in synthetic ECM-mimetics is spatiotemporal control of material dynamics. Supramolecular biomaterials hold significant promise to fill this need, yet their poor mechanical properties often limit application. I hypothesize that strategic combinations of dynamic supramolecular assemblies with reversible/degradable covalent bonds can lead to tough, hierarchical, and spatiotemporally complex hydrogels. After all, nearly all hierarchical materials in nature are composed of optimized combinations of supramolecular and covalent bonds. In SupraValent, I will test my hypothesis with the design and exploration of spatiotemporal changes to hydrogel properties via covalent modification of 1D supramolecular polymers. SupraValent will first create structure/dynamics/property relationships of supramolecular assemblies between solution-phase studies and hydrogel materials. I will leverage this information to create tough supramolecular biomaterials and bioinks, which allow for the introduction of spatiotemporal gradients and cell-mediated changes (via degradation) to the material’s properties. Then, I will introduce innovative cell/material constructs where the cells create covalent bonds on the materials over the lifetime of culture. Here, genetically modified bacteria will introduce the spatiotemporal complexity into the construct, moving towards living material’s modifications. These studies will transform the way we create and control timescales in dynamic biomaterials, and open supramolecular hydrogels to new applications. Furthermore, this work will provide a much-needed breakthrough to creating life-like materials with controllable properties.

Mots-clés : tissue engineering,dynamic hydrogels,engineered living materials,bioprinting
Projet ERC : EMOTIVE (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Mathematics
Entité participante : Centre national de la recherche scientifique — Pays : France — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : CNRS
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1011100.0 €

Exponential motives are a powerful tool for the study of a host of objects attached to an algebraic variety along with a regular function, ranging from exponential sums over finite fields in analytic number theory to Landau-Ginzburg models in mirror symmetry. This project revolves around applications of the abstract theory of exponential motives to concrete problems pertaining to arithmetic Gevrey series, after my recent breakthrough in solving a 1929 question by Siegel. Arithmetic Gevrey series are power series with algebraic coefficients that satisfy a differential equation and certain growth conditions of arithmetic nature. Depending on the specific shape of these conditions, they come into three main flavours: G-functions, E-functions, and Э-functions. We plan to make significant progress on three interrelated questions about arithmetic Gevrey series: What are the transcendence properties of their special values? What is the nature of the differential equations they satisfy? Do they admit integral representations coming from geometry?  The most important examples of G-functions arise from period functions of one-parameter families of algebraic varieties. A geometric interpretation of E-functions and their differential equations was lacking until exponential motives entered the scene. We will systematically exploit the new possibilities they offer to make the differential Galois group act on special values of E-functions, elucidate the local-to-global nature of index theorems for E-operators, prove general structure results for Hodge loci of exponential motives, and reconcile the Siegel-Shidlovsky theorem with Wüstholz’s analytic subgroup theorem, with a view to separating special values of E-functions and G-functions. We will also advance our understanding of the relation between G-functions and hypergeometric series, as well as the arithmetic of regularised special values of Э-functions.

Mots-clés : periods,motives,kontsevich zagier conjecture,motivic galois group,g functions,e functions,transcendence of special values,hypergeometric functions
Projet ERC : INTEGRATE (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Systems and Communication Engineering
Entité participante : Université rhénane Frédéric-Guillaume de Bonn — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1854546.0 €

Modern cancer therapeutics target signalling processes within the cancer cells and the interaction of cancer and immune cells. A comprehensive understanding of these signalling processes is therefore essential to identify drug targets, plan clinical trials, and to select suitable drugs, drug combinations and drug dosages for a specific patient. Yet, most of the available mathematical models capture only a small number of molecular species and pathways, thereby ignoring important crosstalk and feedback loops. Furthermore, these models are usually based on experimental data for cell lines, which behave differently from complex cancer tissues.  In INTEGRATE, I will develop computational methods for the full process of data-driven modelling of signalling processes in cancer, ranging from model development to parameterisation all the way to uncertainty analysis. To this end, I will combine methods from the fields of mathematical modelling, machine learning, and signal processing with established approaches in systems biology. The model development will employ natural language processing and an automatic testing framework. For federated model inference, I will develop scalable mini-batch optimisation and marginalisation based uncertainty quantification. To refine models, I will exploit tools from signal processing, such as blind identification of latent variables. I will apply the developed scalable mechanistic modelling approach to integrate large-scale biomedical data for molecular phenotyping studies and clinical trials across sites. This will provide mechanistic models reconciling the available data.  The study will, for the first time, combine mechanistic modelling and machine learning for the integrated analysis of patient-derived omics and phenotypic data. By linking these data sources, INTEGRATE will deepen our understanding of biological signal processing and provide the basis for the development of digital twins.

Mots-clés : cellular signal processing,parameter estimation,statistical inference,uncertainty analysis,model selection
Projet ERC : EARLYBIRD (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Universe Sciences
Entité participante : Université Louis-et-Maximilien de Munich — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : LMU
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1999250.0 €

With one planet per star on average, planet formation must be a robust process. Yet, surprisingly, we still do not fully understand how planet formation works. Current models for planet formation usually assume pre-existing smooth disks and homogeneously distributed planetesimals of arbitrary composition. In contrast, recent results highlight the crucial role of early stage disk sub-structure, inhomogeneous accretion, and carbon depletion processes on the final planetary systems. Until now, adequate techniques to model these dynamic, complex systems in a computationally cost-efficient way were lacking.  The overall aim of EARLYBIRD is therefore to overcome this bottleneck and track the planet-building material and its composition through the initial formation of disks into the populations of planetesimals and planets and to reveal in which ways these processes are observable in older disks and exoplanets. The project concretely will 1) determine the global effects of streamers/sustained infall on early evolution of disks and planet formation, 2) study how outbursts and dust evolution interact and determine the effect of high dust-to-gas ratio infall on planetesimal formation, 3) track compositonal changes (e.g. carbon, CO, water) during planet formation and 4) decipher the observable properties all these scenarios imprint in the distribution and composition of small dust, planetesimals, and planets.  Based on my pioneering work on disk particle growth and transport, EARLYBIRD will utilize highly innovative 3D modeling techniques, which are unique in being calibrated against full coagulation models and still are two magnitudes faster than a full solver. The project will thereby not only enable me to fully exploit the information imprinted by the disk formation stages on planet formation, but also pave the way for cost-efficient 3D-modeling of dynamic systems in neighboring fields.

Mots-clés : circumstellar disks planet formation star formation formation of the solar system disk formation circumstellar dust
Projet ERC : SMALLPLATFORMS (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Soci al World and Its Interactions
Entité participante : Université Louis-et-Maximilien de Munich — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : LMU
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1988113.0 €

In 2022, following Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter, users of the microblogging platform who feared a rise in far-right discourses with the new owner’s idiosyncratic free speech policies, announced their migration to Mastodon—a free, federated social networking service. In 2021, in India, following Twitter’s actions against hateful speech, religious majoritarian actors rushed to secure their spot on Koo, a new homegrown platform. In the UK, Britain First, a far-right movement known for its anti-immigration rhetoric, migrated to Gab (microblogging) and Telegram (messaging) after facing bans on Twitter and Facebook. Such emerging trends signal the growing importance of smaller social media platforms. Drawing the focus on such platforms, this project sets up small platform discourse as an object of anthropological inquiry. Grounded in anthropology and backed with policy analysis, algorithm auditing and computational natural language processing (NLP) and social network analysis (SNA), SMALLPLATFORMS will be the first study to explore small platforms in a cross-cultural framework spanning on-ground and online inquiries, and the global North (Germany, UK) and the South (Kenya, India). Using a unique conceptual model that considers the restrictive and generative sides of small platform discourse as a dialectical relation, and explicating three structural tensions among global capital, technopolitics and speech regulation that underlie this relation, the project asks whether and in what ways forms of contentious speech are bound up with practices surrounding small platforms. Through this empirical excavation with policy implications, the project will theorize digital discourse beyond the conceptual language of the centralizing Big Tech. With extensive theoretical and comparative work on online speech, the PI will drive this research using networks and knowledge about the selected sites and the profound global dimensions of digital media.

Mots-clés : online extreme speech,social media,mixed methods,ethnography,anthropology,media theory
Projet ERC : LoCoMotive (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Fundamental Constituents of Matter
Entité participante : Université rhénane Frédéric-Guillaume de Bonn — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1999878.0 €

The interactions between the elementary particles are encoded into a set of mathematical quantities called scattering amplitudes. Consequently, they are key to making predictions for physical observables that match the precision achieved by current and future high-energy experiments. Due to our ignore of the mathematics involved, computing loop quantum corrections to scattering amplitudes is still a major challenge today, and calls for innovative and groundbreaking new techniques.  Over the last decade, a new field of research that studies scattering amplitudes through the lens of a certain branch of modern mathematics, the so-called theory of motives, has led to breakthroughs in how we compute loop quantum corrections. LoCoMotive will bring the connection between scattering amplitudes and modern mathematics to the next level. It will investigate in detail what the theory of motives teaches us about the structure of scattering amplitudes. Its final aim is to achieve a global change of perspective on the mathematical underpinnings of the laws of nature and develop novel computational techniques for scattering amplitudes that are currently beyond reach of conventional state-of-the-art technology. Inspired by cutting-edge research in seemingly-disconnected areas in mathematics and physics, LoCoMotive will 1) perform the computations needed to reveal how concepts from geometry govern the fundamental interactions. 2) play a decisive role in providing the theoretical predictions needed for the LHC and future collider experiments. 3) act as a catalyser for new research in mathematics.  To sum up, LoCoMotive is a timely proposal with a unique multi-disciplinary character, whose results will bridge a gap between formal theory and concrete phenomenological results. It will have a major impact on formal aspects of quantum field theory and possibly even pure mathematics, and provide highly-needed theoretical predictions for the LHC experiments.

Mots-clés : scattering amplitudes,feynman integrals,lhc