Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : UNIVERSE PLUS (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Synergy grants)
Entité participante : Société Max-Planck pour le développement des sciences — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : CO-PI
Acronyme de l'entité : Société Max Planck
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 5000000.0 €

There are strong indications from physics at both infinitesimal and cosmic distances that our current understanding of the laws of nature is only approximate, and must be replaced by deeper principles. The UNIVERSE+ project seeks a new foundation for fundamental physics, ranging from elementary particles to the Big Bang, revealing a hidden world of ideas beyond quantum mechanics and spacetime. Novel geometric objects recently discovered in theoretical physics hint at new mathematical structures. Combinatorics, algebra and geometry have been connected to particle physics and cosmology in an entirely unexpected way. Leveraging these advances, we will launch the field of Positive Geometry, as a new mathematical framework for describing the laws of physics. To this end, we bring together the necessary expertise in particle physics (Arkani-Hamed, Henn), cosmology (Baumann) and mathematics (Sturmfels). This is the first collaboration of its kind, made possible by a recent confluence of critical insights in both mathematics and physics, which are now so closely aligned as to propel us forward on a clear trajectory. Our goals are fiercely ambitious: we aim to create a new mathematical language for describing physical phenomena at all scales, from the interactions of elementary particles to the large-scale structure of the universe.

Mots-clés : scattering amplitudes,primordial cosmology,quantum field theory,feynman integrals,computational algebraic geometry,positive grassmannian
Projet ERC : n-AQUA (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Synergy grants)
Entité participante : Société Max-Planck pour le développement des sciences — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : CO-PI
Acronyme de l'entité : Société Max Planck
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 3330566.25 €

Water is a substance that needs no introduction: It shapes our blue planet, is life-enabling, and scientifically fascinating with a host of anomalous behaviours. Despite centuries of studies, breakthroughs in the last decade have shown that when wWater is an abundant, yet exceptional and life-enabling substance. The past decades have seen tremendous progress in our understanding of the many peculiarities of water, many of which can be traced to the nature of the interactions between water molecules. When confining water to nanometer-range pores and cavities, wholly new and unexpected phenomena appear: water flows differently in confinement, its phase diagram changes drastically, and conventional theories break down. This is exciting from a scientific perspective, but also of great technological importance: nanoscale water is fundamental to water purification and desalination, where water has to flow through nanopores, and for energy-related processes as a source of protons and hydrogen. Here, we aim for fundamental new scientific insights into water at key length- and time-scales by bringing together a critical mass of researchers with complementarity skillsets in nanofluidics, spectroscopy, and theory and simulation. We follow a radically new perspective for nanoscale water transport, envisioning confined water not only in terms of real-space confinement, but also in terms of its collective modes: how they couple and resonate with the confining material and its - quantum - excitations to affect global transport. Seeing water dynamics in both the real and Fourier worlds allows us to naturally address quantum couplings and light- matter interactions and their effect at nanoscales. This opens a new world of possibilities, e.g., by controlling water motion through fine-tuning of its excitations, quantum engineering of water transport is made possible. Such views have the potential to enable world-changing novel technologies in the water-energy nexus and related fields.

Mots-clés : water,molecular scale friction,transport control,in situ spectroscopy,nano fluidics,electronic structure
Projet ERC : EndoTheranostics (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Synergy grants)
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 : 0.0 €

Colorectal cancer (CRC) represents a significant proportion of malignant diseases. Interventions are often carried out during the latter stages of development, leading to low patient survival rates and poor quality of life. In 2022 a European Commission report stated that “colonoscopy-based screening has higher sensitivity than testing for blood in stool, but it is less acceptable to participants”. At the same time, effective methods to treat polyps in the colon are limited. Current approaches are often associated with unsafe oncological margins and high complication rates, requiring life-changing surgery. EndoTheranostics will usher in a new era for screening colonoscopy, advancing the frontiers of medical imaging and robotics. A tip-growing or eversion robot with a sleeve-like structure will be created to extend deep into hollow spaces while perceiving the environment through multimodal imaging and sensing. It will also act as a conduit to transfer miniaturised instruments to the remote site within the colon for diagnosis and therapy (theranostics). With these capabilities, the system will be able to offer: 1. painless colon cleansing in preparation for endoscopy; 2. real-time polyp detection and tissue characterisation through AI-assisted multimodal imaging; 3. effective removal of polyps by conveying a “miniature mobile operating chamber” equipped with microsurgical tools to the target through the lumen of the eversion robot. The unique technical and clinical challenges will be tackled by the PIs, each bringing complementary skills, backed by their institutions with wide expertise and exceptional facilities. The synergy and added value evident in this team will lead to breakthroughs not possible through independent research. The outcomes of EndoTheranostics will revolutionise the theranostics of CRC, impacting the quality of life of millions of individuals. Ultimately it will launch a new era for endoluminal intervention with applications beyond medicine.

Mots-clés : soft robotics,inflatable robots,medical imaging and perception,tissue characterisation and registration,microsurgery,natural orifices translumenal endoscopic surgery notes,autonomous control and manipulation,intervention shared control
Projet ERC : KARST (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Synergy grants)
Entité participante : Université de Ljubljana — Pays : Slovénie — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1989125.0 €

Karst aquifers are a treasure and a threat: while up to 25% of the world population depends on them for drinking water, they also have capabilities for extremely fast conduction of water and contaminants. In the light of climate change, we need to prepare for extreme flooding and understand the consequences for karst aquifers. Despite their socio-economic importance, decades of research, and high-profile disasters, karst structures and processes remain notoriously difficult to assess. Because of the complexity of karst and its lack of accessibility, the foundations of flow and transport modeling in karst systems are weak. Key phenomena related to extreme events such as flash floods and heavy tails in tracer recovery are still beyond current modeling capabilities. KARST will establish the next generation of coupled stochastic modeling frameworks to predict karst processes, assess the vulnerability of karst aquifers, and forecast their response to extreme events. Our approach will bridge structures and processes on all scales, far beyond the capabilities of current theories and computer simulations. This will be achieved by targeting three key objec- tives: (i) Identification and quantification of flow and transport dynamics at the conduit scale. (ii) Characterization and modeling of karst network structure at the catchment scale. (iii) Derivation of a new upscaled approach to predict karst processes at different resolution scales. Together, this will result in an unprecedented multiscale modeling framework for the prediction of flow and transport in karst. Solving this long-standing problem is possible thanks to the synergy of the KARST PI team combining the set of skills and knowledge (hydrogeology, physics, mathematics) required to make a ground-breaking step in this field. Beyond that, the new approach is expected to impact other real-world systems in medicine (capillary networks), neuroscience (brain microcirculation) or glaciology (meltwater flow in glaciers).

Mots-clés : karst,networks,upscaling,flow,transport,graphs,structure,anomalous transport,continuous time random walks,lagrangian analysis,particle methods,dispersion,turbulent transport,groundwater,contamination,floods
Projet ERC : NEMESIS (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Synergy grants)
Entité participante : École polytechnique de Milan — Pays : Italie — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : PoliMi
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2136095.0 €

Relevant partial differential equations (PDEs) problems of the 21st century, including those encountered in magnetohydrodynamics and geological flows, involve severe difficulties linked to: the presence of incomplete differential operators related to Hilbert complexes; nonlinear and hybrid-dimensional physical behaviors; embedded/moving interfaces. The goal of the NEMESIS project is to lay the groundwork for a novel generation of numerical simulators tackling all of the above difficulties at once. This will require the combination of skills and knowledge resulting from the synergy of the PIs, covering distinct and extremely technical fields of mathematics: numerical analysis, analysis of nonlinear PDEs, and scientific computing. The research program is structured into four tightly interconnected clusters, whose goals are: the development of Polytopal Exterior Calculus (PEC), a general theory of discrete Hilbert complexes on polytopal meshes; the design of innovative strategies to boost efficiency, embedded into a general abstract Multilevel Solvers Convergence Framework (MSCF); the extension of the above tools to challenging nonlinear and hybrid-dimensional problems through Discrete Functional Analysis (DFA) tools; the demonstration through proof-of-concept applications in magnetohydrodynamics (e.g., nuclear reactor models or aluminum smelting) and geological flows (e.g., flows of gas/liquid mixtures in underground reservoirs with fractures, as occurring in CO2 storage). This project will bring key advances in numerical analysis through the introduction of entirely novel paradigms such as the PEC and DFA, and in scientific computing through MSCF. The novel mathematical tools developed in the project will break long-standing barriers in engineering and applied sciences, and will be implemented in a practitioner-oriented open-source library that will boost design and prediction capabilities in these fields.

Mots-clés : finite element methods,error analysis,finite element exterior calculus,hilbert complexes,efficient algebraic solvers,nonlinear pdes,magnetohydrodynamics,porous media flows,fluid structure interaction,virtual element methods,hybrid high order methods
Projet ERC : PAAL (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Synergy grants)
Entité participante : Université d'Agder — Pays : Norvège — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UiA
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 3223419.0 €

PAAL's objective is to investigate the interaction of phonological representations with cognisance, and their relationship to script. We view cognisance as part of the native speaker's core knowledge of their language.This includes generalisations about constraints on phonological representations in terms of features, size and shapes of morphemes, tone and metrical structures. Cognisance is not identical to the phonological representation of particular lexical items; rather, cognisance is the knowledge about what might be a conceivable word in a given language. We argue that cognisance is involved in all levels of language processing and change, in both spoken and written modalities. Speakers may have different vocabularies, but the phonological cognisance of individuals within a speech community should converge. It has been widely claimed that the notion of "phonological awareness" supports script acquisition. We propose that "phonological awareness" has to make sense in terms of cognisance, which is fundamental to all native speakers, regardless of their level of literacy. Novel to our approach is that it makes explicit predictions about the relationship between cognisance and representation and their relationship to script. Most scripts encode aspects of phonological structure but vary across languages and change over time. Even the closely related Germanic languages we primarily investigate, all using Latinate script, differ in their relationship between phonology and script. We compare the Latinate script to Bengali (also an Indo-European language) whose writing system is very different. Our working hypothesis is that phonological cognisance and representation govern spoken and written language processing, language acquisition, and change of all languages. In this interdisciplinary project, we combine expertise and methodologies across the fields of theoretical phonology, psycholinguistic and neurolinguistics, language acquisition, and language change.

Mots-clés : phonology,first language acquisition,language change,bilingualism,script,morphology,bengali,germanic
Projet ERC : ADDI (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Synergy grants)
Entité participante : Université de Turku — Pays : Finlande — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2229021.25 €

The Advancing Digital Democratic Innovation (ADDI) project will pioneer the study of digitally augmented forms of civic participation for preference formation and elicitation. While digital technology has, for some time now, been widely seen as being in direct conflict with the needs of a well-functioning democracy, ADDI will realise the true potential of digital technologies in the democratic space. The project will be led by four well-known researchers with expertise in participatory platform design, deliberative democracy, and computational social choice. It will be organised around three methodological pillars - technology, empirics, and theory - and it will serve three core objectives: designing technologies and procedures for citizen deliberation and participation; experimentally testing the impact of digital platforms in deliberative and participatory forums; and understanding the structure of the preferences collected through digitally augmented instances of civic participation and deliberation. The technology track will lead the creation of interventions in the form of open-source platforms designed to digitally augment deliberation and participation. The empirical track will test these interventions using randomised trials in deliberative and participatory forums and will explore the statistical patterns of the preferences elicited in them. The theoretical track, finally, will contribute conceptual and algorithmic tools to elicit, present, and combine preferences in real-world environments, including situations where participants provide incomplete preferences and that involve under-represented minorities. At the end of the project, we will have charted the potential of digital technologies in supporting and improving democratic practices, while also providing a robust suite of scientifically validated open-source tools designed to distribute these capabilities at a global scale.

Mots-clés : computational social choice,collective intelligence,collective will formation
Projet ERC : REAL (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Synergy grants)
Entité participante : Université autonome de Barcelone — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : CO-PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 6594931.0 €

How can we sustain human well-being within planetary boundaries? What policies and provisioning systems could enable societies to prosper without growth? What politics and alliances are necessary for seeing post-growth policies through, and how can the public be engaged in them? What new scientific paradigm could answer such questions?  Societies face multiple intertwined crises. Bold alternatives are sorely needed. This project develops frameworks for ‘Post-Growth Deals’, from empirical research through to practical applications. First, we develop equitable North-South convergence scenarios, modelling human well-being achievement in all countries within planetary boundaries. Second, we articulate post-growth policy packages for the Global North and South, assessing their political acceptability and modelling their effects. Third, we develop models of provisioning systems to ensure future populations have adequate energy, food, shelter, health and social security. Fourth, we learn from political movements, studying politics and alliances that could bring post-growth transitions forward. Fifth, we identify practical steps to bring Post-Growth Deals to life, working with four representative communities to co-produce knowledge and action on the ground.  The potential gains of this research are immense: post-growth transitions may unlock a far more ecologically stable and socially prosperous future than current trajectories lead to. REAL brings a paradigm shift moving post-growth science from economics to sustainability studies. We propose a new trans-disciplinary ‘5Ps of post-growth’ science, grounded in resource/energy modelling, political-economy and socio-political analysis – a skill-set that no single researcher or team presently possesses. The PIs are leaders in their fields and bring complementary expertise in: modelling of provisioning systems (JST), political economy and North-South relations (JΗ), and the politics of socio-environmental transformations (GK).

Mots-clés : limits to growth,post growth,degrowth,ecological economics,political ecology,industrial ecology,unequal exchange,environmental justice,climate justice,provisioning systems,planetary boundaries,wellbeing
Projet ERC : MOSAIC (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Synergy grants)
Entité participante : Université autonome de Barcelone — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : Partner
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 657125.0 €

“Mapping Occult Sciences Across Islamicate Cultures” (MOSAIC) is the first major project to investigate Islamic and Eastern Christian occult-scientific sources, spanning from late antiquity to the nineteenth century and from Iberia to India, in a vast continuum of languages (Greek, Syriac, Arabic, Persian, Turkish). It is generally acknowledged that occult sciences—alchemy, astrology, geomancy, lettrism, magic and a wide range of other operative and prognosticative disciplines—are integral to any history of science and technology. By including the far larger non-Latinate occult-scientific archive, equally integral to this history, MOSAIC is poised to bring about a paradigm shift. We untangle the term “occult” in all its diversity and test a more expansive definition to account for the specific epistemologies driving its multifarious applications. This dynamic and adaptive heuristic not only opens new avenues in the study of body-mind, nature-culture relationships in the historical construction of natural and mathematical science; it also reveals new paths of dissemination and crosspollination of the occult sciences in Islam and Byzantium, restoring a vast textual and artifactual record largely neglected to date. Retrieving occult science will require an unprecedented degree of synergetic expertise, international collaboration and the training of a new generation of highly qualified scholars. We will (1) identify, investigate, catalogue and interpret a critical mass of highly technical sources, making them available through editions, translations, surveys, studies, exhibitions and conferences; (2) combine, as feasible, the study of scientific theories with their technological practice, including through experimental reconstruction; (3) develop a suite of open-access digital tools of immediate use to specialists and nonspecialists alike, and (4) integrate all our findings in a print and born-digital Master Synthesis as an engine for the field going forward.

Mots-clés : greek,syriac,arabic,persian,turkish,artifacts,manusripts,byzantium,islam,occult sciences,encyclopedism,experimental reconstruction,knowledge organisation,critical editions,digital tools
Projet ERC : OCEAN (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Synergy grants)
Entité participante : École polytechnique — Pays : France — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : X
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1205527.5 €

Until recently, most of the major advances in machine learning and decision making have focused on a centralized paradigm in which data are aggregated at a central location to train models and/or decide on actions. This paradigm faces serious flaws in many real-world cases. In particular, centralized learning risks exposing user privacy, makes inefficient use of communication resources, creates data processing bottlenecks, and may lead to concentration of economic and political power. It thus appears most timely to develop the theory and practice of a new form of machine learning that targets heterogeneous, massively decentralized networks, involving self-interested agents who expect to receive value (or rewards, incentive) for their participation in data exchanges.  OCEAN will develop statistical and algorithmic foundations for systems involving multiple incentive-driven learning and decision-making agents, including uncertainty quantification at the agent's level. OCEAN will study the interaction of learning with market constraints (scarcity, fairness), connecting adaptive microeconomics and market-aware machine learning.  OCEAN builds on a decade of joint advances in stochastic optimization, probabilistic machine learning, statistical inference, Bayesian assessment of uncertainty, computation, game theory, and information science, with PIs having complementary and internationally recognized skills in these domains. OCEAN will shed new light on the value and handling of data in a competitive, potentially antagonistic multi-agent environment, and develop new theories and methods to address these pressing challenges. OCEAN requires a fundamental departure from standard approaches and leads to major scientific interdisciplinary endeavors that will transform statistical learning in the long term while opening up exciting and novel areas of research.

Mots-clés : machine learning,federated learning,computational game theory,multi armed bandits,bayesian inference,markov chain monte carlo,multi agent reinforcement learning,online matching markets,data market,incentive