Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : FoTran (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Computer science and informatics
Entité participante : University of Helsinki — Pays : Finlande — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UH
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1817622.0 €

Natural language understanding is the "holy grail" of computational linguistics and a long-term goal in research on artificial intelligence. Understanding human communication is difficult due to the various ambiguities in natural languages and the wide range of contextual dependencies required to resolve them. Discovering the semantics behind language input is necessary for proper interpretation in interactive tools, which requires an abstraction from language-specific forms to language-independent meaning representations. With this project, I propose a line of research that will focus on the development of novel data-driven models that can learn such meaning representations from indirect supervision provided by human translations covering a substantial proportion of the linguistic diversity in the world. A guiding principle is cross-lingual grounding, the effect of resolving ambiguities through translation. The beauty of that idea is the use of naturally occurring data instead of artificially created resources and costly manual annotations. The framework is based on deep learning and neural machine translation and my hypothesis is that training on increasing amounts of linguistically diverse data improves the abstractions found by the model. Eventually, this will lead to universal sentence-level meaning representations and we will test our ideas with multilingual machine translation and tasks that require semantic reasoning and inference.

Mots-clés : computational linguistics,distributional semantics,representation learning,machine translation,deep learning,artificial neural networks
Projet ERC : SOCIOCOMPLEXITY (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Environmental Biology, Ecology and Evolution
Entité participante : University of St Andrews — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1968688.0 €

Natural selection explains the appearance of design in the living world. But at what level is adaptive design expected to manifest (gene, organism or society) and what is its function? Adaptation may manifest at multiple levels, and indeed new levels of adaptive individuality may evolve over time – such as with the emergence of multicellularity and eusociality. However, understanding the forces that drive such “major transitions” remains a challenge: current theory, with its focus on single, simple traits, has been unable to engage with issues of complex, coordinated adaptation at the level of the group, and this has led to a striking mismatch between theory and data. In particular, there is currently very poor understanding of what drives conflicts within groups and how group-level adaptation can sometimes prevail despite these conflicts. My research team will develop new theoretical and in silico experimental paradigms for studying complex, group-level adaptation to resolve these problems. We will: (1) synthesize the theories of inclusive fitness and multilevel selection to allow direct engagement with complex adaptive design at multiple levels of biological organization; (2) take a geometric approach to social adaptation to determine how complex, multidimensional phenotypes evolve in the context of social conflicts; (3) develop a computational paradigm for group-level adaptation in which complexity may be quantified and tracked over evolutionary timescales; and (4) employ genomic imprinting as a tractable model of major transitions, to understand how conflicts of interest arise and how they resolve to maintain or disrupt the adaptive integrity of the organism, with applications to childhood cancers and growth, fertility and neurological disorders. This research will yield novel insights into the fundamental drivers of complex adaptation at the level of whole organisms and successful societies.

Mots-clés : adaptation,darwinism,fitness,group selection,inclusive fitness,kin selection,major transition,multilevel selection,social evolution,superorganism
Projet ERC : NonCovRegioSiteCat (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Synthetic Chemistry and Materials
Entité participante : University of Cambridge — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : U. Cambridge
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1499756.0 €

Nature has been employing attractive non-covalent interactions for billions of years to enable the chemical synthesis machinery of life that is enzymatic catalysis. In comparison, synthetic chemists have only very recently started to employ the very strongest, hydrogen bonds and ion pairs, to control selectivity in synthetic routes. This has occurred predominantly in the rapidly growing of enantioselective organocatalysis and has quickly had a huge impact. The vision of this grant is to take these insights and apply them to control of two more important aspects of selectivity facing the synthetic chemist – regioselectivity (positional selectivity within a particular functional group) and site-selectivity (within a wider molecule). These selectivity aspects are particularly relevant due to the increasing number of methods for functionalisation of C-H bonds, in which the overarching challenge is obtaining selectivity for one in the presence of many. My plan to achieve this will be divided into three main parts: WP1. We will combine reactive and versatile transition metals with bespoke ligands which will interact with a common functional group in the substrate via a key non-covalent interaction. The resulting functionalisation of the substrate will be rendered pseudointramolecular, permitting regioselectivity or site-selectivity to be controlled through judicious catalyst design. WP2. We will develop novel catalytic strategies to control the selectivity of intermolecular radical reactions. In radical chemistry, whilst reactivity is often high, low selectivity is often the limiting factor and as such often the most selective radical reactions are intramolecular ones. By intramolecularising radical reactions by the use of temporary non-covalent interactions we will solve outstanding problems in aromatic and aliphatic radical C-H functionalisation. WP3. The methods developed above will be applied to the late-stage functionalisation of pharmaceutically relevant molecules
Projet ERC : TERPENECAT (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Synthetic Chemistry and Materials
Entité participante : University of Basel — Pays : Suisse — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1500000.0 €

Nature is a rich source of biologically active molecules, among which the largest and most diverse group of natural products are terpenes. Essential drugs like the cancer medication taxol/paclitaxel or the malaria drug artemisinin belong to the terpene family. They are efficiently formed in nature through a so-called tail-to-head terpene cyclization. Chemists are not able to mimic this process with man-made catalysts. This proposal aims at closing this significant research gap by utilizing supramolecular chemistry. Learning how to design such complex catalysts will not only enable us to mimic natural enzymes, but to enter uncharted territory of terpene chemistry. The main objective is the development of selective catalysts for terpene cyclizations. This certainly poses the greatest challenge within this proposal. Therefore, two independent work packages were devised to tackle this challenge. A novel class of self-assembled catalysts will be developed which are able to control the conformation of the substrate, thereby allowing for selectivity in the cyclization process. The active site of these catalysts can be modified to selectively produce the desired terpene product. Additionally, dynamic covalent chemistry will be employed to construct covalent catalyst structures. As the second objective, this proposal aims to greatly expand the natural variety of terpenes by utilizing unnatural terpene cyclization precursors. Utilizing the catalysts developed from objective 1, unprecedented artemisinin drug derivatives, which are not accessible via other routes, will be synthesized. This project will provide catalysts which are able to predictably constrain the conformation of the substrate. Such control is not possible with state-of-the-art catalyst systems. Therefore, I anticipate that this project will open up new horizons in the fields of catalysis and organic synthesis.

Mots-clés : terpene cyclization,self assembled capsules
Projet ERC : QuinaWorld (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The study of the human past
Entité participante : Institut national de recherches archéologiques préventives — Pays : France — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : INRAP
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 248612.5 €

Neanderthals disappeared ~40 000 years ago; although they have received significant public and academic attention, their evolution and behavioural diversity remain little known. Quina Mousterian designates a singular Neanderthal lithic industry; it is often associated with specific, large game seasonal hunting (herds of reindeer). Particular mobility patterns and elaborate carcass processing suggest an image of a complex, intriguing cultural entity. Outside its core area (SW France), Quina Mousterian is also mentioned in different parts of Europe. My project will first aim at testing the hypothesis that a Quina cultural entity existed, i.e. that the occurrences of Quina Mousterian correspond to a short period of time and can thus be attributed to affiliated or connected groups of Neanderthals. A widely interdisciplinary consortium will then aim at defining the characteristics of the assumed Quina entity, how it evolved in time and potentially diffused in space across Europe. High-resolution OSL dating, based on new Bayesian models allowing cutting-edge uncertainties (~2-3%) for periods beyond the radiocarbon dating range, will be implemented to obtain a tight chronological framework and tie the archaeological record with palaeo-environments. Tool production and use, as a function of raw material availability and procurement, will be studied based on a technological and techno-functional approach. The influence of varying climates and environments on the Quina subsistence strategies – approached in terms of both food acquisition and storage – will be deciphered. Palaeo-anthropological and genetic studies will aim at defining the biological identity of the makers of Quina Mousterian, and possible human migrations associated with its diffusion. Eventually, the Quina World project will allow discussing the potentially oldest regionalisation and cultural diffusion patterns of Europe, and shed new light on the array and complexity of Neanderthal behaviours.

Mots-clés : luminescence dating,middle paleolithic,neanderthal,subsistence strategies,bayesian modelling
Projet ERC : SyNET (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Computer science and informatics
Entité participante : Board of the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology — Pays : Suisse — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : ETH Zurich
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1500000.0 €

Nearly half of Japan without Internet for hours; thousands of airline passengers grounded; 600+ emergency calls not received. These are just three recent illustrations of the consequences of human-induced network misconfigurations. Such errors are caused by a fundamental gap: distilling the high-level requirements network operators have in mind into complex, low-level device configurations. In 2018, network operators are still trying to bridge this gap manually. The goal of this proposal is to address this gap by automatically synthesizing low-level configurations out of high-level requirements. This is a hard, inter-disciplinary challenge requiring development of new fundamental methods spanning multiple scientific fields including computer networks, programming languages, and probabilistic reasoning. Our vision is akin to program synthesis, a new programming paradigm in which “one tells the computer what to do, not how to do it”. We propose to address this challenge via three work packages: (i) user-aware synthesis where we develop techniques to facilitate how operators communicate their intents and define the space of configurations to search over; (ii) robustness-aware synthesis where we develop synthesis techniques that can enforce probabilistic properties (e.g., minimum reliability level) in uncertain network environments; and (iii) performance-aware synthesis where we develop methods to synthesize more performant configurations (e.g., to make the network converge faster). We believe SyNET will trigger a paradigm shift and spearhead the next generation of network management tools blending formal methods, probabilistic models, and user-intuitive interfaces. By alleviating the need to configure networks, SyNET promises to avoid the vast majority of downtimes plaguing today’s networks and to make tomorrow’s networks more flexible and, ultimately, more efficient.

Mots-clés : network control algorithms,network reliability,network management,synthesis,compilation,fault tolerance,distributed systems,configuration synthesis,network verification,routing,internet
Projet ERC : NeoplAT (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Cultures and cultural production
Entité participante : Austrian Academy of Sciences — Pays : Autriche — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : OAW
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 129875.0 €

NeoplAT offers a fresh and thoroughly documented account of the impact of Pagan Neoplatonism on the Abrahamic traditions. It focuses mainly, but not exclusively, on the Elements of Theology of Proclus (fifth century) which occupies a unique place in the history of thought. Together with its ninth-century Arabic adaptation, the Book of Causes, it has been translated, adapted, refuted and commented upon by Muslim, Jewish and Christian thinkers across centuries, up to the dawn of modernity. Despite a renewed interest in Proclus’ legacy in recent years, one still observes a tendency to repeat conventional hypotheses focused on a limited range of well-studied authors. This project radically challenges these conservative narratives both by analysing invaluable, previously ignored resources and by developing an innovative comparative approach that embraces a variety of research methods and disciplines. Specialists in Arabic, Greek and Latin history of ideas, philology, palaeography and lexicography develop an intense interdisciplinary research laboratory investigating the influence of Proclus on the mutual exchanges between the scriptural monotheisms from the ninth to the sixteenth centuries. Based on fundamental archival examinations in underused library collections, NeoplAT aims (1) to identify new Arabic and Latin manuscripts and to continue to explore a corpus of texts recently discovered by the PI, representing a largely unknown intellectual heritage; (2) to retrace the scholarly networks by which Neoplatonism was transmitted between the Middle East, Byzantium and the Latin West, with particular attention to the dynamics of exchange within each cultural milieu; (3) to analyse the impact of Proclus on the history of metaphysics and on the relations between philosophy and theology within the Abrahamic traditions. NeoplAT achieves these goals through a collaborative, adapted methodology; its specific outputs will provide research tools for the broader academic community.

Mots-clés : neoplatonism,pseudo aristotle,proclus,the book of causes,nicholas of methone,medieval and renaissance philosophy,arabic and latin manuscripts,critical editions,history of metaphysics
Projet ERC : MecMy (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System
Entité participante : University of Edinburgh — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 723155.0 €

Nervous system function requires precise communication between myriads of neurons and glia to generate and maintain a functional organ. Most axons are eventually surrounded with myelin, an insulating structure produced by specialized oligodendroglia. This cellular interaction enables fast signal transmission, ensures long-term axon survival, and is involved in regulating learning and memory formation. The formation of new myelin during lifelong development and after myelin damage requires differentiation of oligodendroglial precursors. Although these cells are an abundant population, myelin repair is often inefficient and eventually fails. It is known that oligodendroglial precursors have diverse properties, but whether this diversity is at any level a regulatory factor for normal myelination, or causal to failure of myelin repair is unclear. Here, I will elucidate the diversity of oligodendroglial precursors by carrying out the first global analysis of their population dynamics in the whole animal from specification to myelination. I will investigate how differentiation properties change over time, reveal whether this is due to intrinsic or extrinsic factors, and identify the underlying molecular mechanisms. To achieve these goals I will use zebrafish, an ideally suited model organism for in vivo live cell imaging and genetic manipulation. I will carry out a clonal analysis of oligodendroglial precursor population dynamics during myelinated tract formation and after myelin damage. I will analyse the molecular signature of cells with different properties to identify crucial mediators. Lastly, I will investigate whether individual cells can show diversity at the subcellular mechanistic level of local axon-glial interactions. My work will provide fundamentally new insights into the principles of the heterogeneity of oligodendroglial precursors and may help to device new strategies of how to employ these cells to form new myelin in development and disease.
Projet ERC : BrainBreaks (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Integrative Biology: from Genes and Genomes to Systems
Entité participante : German Cancer Research Center — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : DKFZ
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1500000.0 €

Neural progenitor cells undergo tens of thousands of cell divisions to generate the 80 billion neurons in a human brain. In neural progenitor cells, replication stress can lead to recurrent DNA break clusters (RDCs). Joining of two RDC breaks may introduce somatic genomic diversity. On the other hand, unbalanced genomic mosaicism in neural progenitor cells may lead to brain cancer and neuropsychiatric disorders. This proposal will test whether cell-autonomous DNA lesions that accumulate during rapid progenitor division contribute to the genetic heterogeneity found across neuronal cell populations. Aim 1 will elucidate how replication stress drives recurrent break clusters in the neural progenitor cell genome. We will evaluate whether chromatin loop extrusion mechanistically contributes to breakage repairs, and thus helps shape genomic structure variations. Aim 2 will quantify the extent and impact of tissue-specific recurrent break clusters in the embryonic brain. I will create a mouse model to identify DNA breaks in temporal and cell-type-specific manner across the entire population of neuronal progenitor cells. Aim 3 will evaluate whether replicative stress drives the recurrent genomic alteration in the RDC-containing gene during embryonic neurogenesis. We will investigate one of the RDC-containing gene Neurexin 1, where deletion or truncation results in neurological disorders. By combining a powerful in vitro cell line-based tool, versatile in vivo mouse models, and cutting-edge multi-omics approaches, we will uncover the mechanisms that are critical to the fields of genomics and developmental neuroscience and may also provide valuable new insights into neuropsychiatric disorders and tumor biology.

Mots-clés : genome heterogeneity,neural stem cell,common fragile site,copy number variation,recurrent dna breaks,replication stress,brain cancer,neuropsychiatric disorder
Projet ERC : Temporal Coding (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System
Entité participante : Tel Aviv University — Pays : Israël — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : TAU
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1500000.0 €

Neural temporal codes have come to dominate our way of thinking on how information is coded in the brain. When precise spike timing is found to carry information, the neural code is defined as a temporal code. In spite of the importance of temporal codes, whether behaving animals actually use this type of coding is still an unresolved question. To date studying temporal codes was technically impossible due to the inability to manipulate spike timing in behaving animals. However, very recent developments in optogenetics solved this problem. Despite these modern tools, this key question is very difficult to resolve in mammals, because the meaning of manipulating a part of a neural circuit without knowledge of the neural activity of all the neurons involved in the coding is unclear. The fly is an ideal model system to study temporal codes because its small number of neurons allows for complete mapping of the neural activity of all the neurons involved. Since temporal codes are suggested to be involved in olfactory intensity coding, I will study this process. I will device a multidisciplinary approach of electrophysiology, two-photon imaging and behavior. I aim to examine for the first time directly whether temporal coding is used by behaving animals and to unravel the circuits and mechanisms that underlie intensity coding. To do so, I will manipulate the temporal codes in behaving animals and examine whether the behavioral responses change accordingly. To guide this study I will generate three novel databases of: i. the temporal activity of all neurons involved in Drosophila olfactory intensity coding. ii. The functional connectivity between the two brain regions that are involved in the intensity coding and iii. behavioral responses to different odors and intensities. Thus, this research will use cutting edge techniques to resolve a long standing basic question in neuroscience: how does the brain actually code information?

Mots-clés : temporal coding,drosophila,olfaction,intensity coding,optogenetics