Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : FOXSTORM (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Earth System Science
Entité participante : Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : HZG
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2346039.0 €

I propose to use autonomous underwater ocean glider vehicles with a newly developed airborne deployment system to measure ocean turbulence in extreme storms, such as hurricanes, typhoons, and tropical storms. These will be the first vertically resolved measurements of ocean turbulence in extreme storms, and will lead to a new understanding and improved estimates of the ocean mixing that is responsible for setting upper ocean temperatures - a crucial and poorly constrained feedback on storm intensity. By combining the observations with turbulence-resolving large eddy simulations, performed on high performance computational clusters, a new observationally-constrained model of the ocean-storm mixing feedback will be constructed that fills a much needed gap in the coupling of extreme storms to the ocean. This is crucial since extreme storms are increasing in strength and frequency through climate change, and are leading to record damages and loss of life in coastal communities. Such measurements are only now possible, since my research team has played a major role in pioneering the use of microstructure turbulence measurements from autonomous underwater gliders, particularly in stormy conditions. The final outcomes of the project will consist of (i) an airborne deployment system for the study of extreme events using autonomous vehicles, (ii) the first observations of upper ocean turbulence and mixing in extreme storms, (iii) a sequence of turbulence-resolving numerical simulations that, together with the observations, will identify and quantify processes responsible for setting upper ocean heat fluxes and turbulent structure in extreme storms, and (iv) a new parameterisation for ocean mixing in extreme storms that quanties the ocean-storm feedback, and its implementation in the forecasting model of the European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF).

Mots-clés : turbulence,mixing,tropical cyclones
Projet ERC : GorBEEa (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Environmental B iology, Ecology  and E volution
Entité participante : Basque Centre for Climate Change — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : BC3
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1998793.0 €

The role of biodiversity in shaping ecosystem functioning (EF) and stability (ES) is a fundamental question in ecology. The mechanisms underlying biodiversity-EF (BEF) and biodiversity-ES (BES) relations have been extensively studied, but they have been approached separately, and we thus lack an understanding of how EF and ES relate, a particularly urgent task in the face of global environmental change. Further, most research has been conducted within single trophic communities and relatively small spatial scales, and whether the types of relations observed are scalable and applicable to multi-trophic communities is unknown. To address these shortcomings, in GorBEEa I propose to merge BEF and BES research (i) within multi-trophic communities, in this case plant-pollinator interaction networks, (ii) across spatial and organizational scales (from local to regional scales, and from populations, to communities), (iii) taking a dynamic perspective that considers multiple temporal scales (within day, within season, between years), and (iv) following a multi-functional approach, analysing several functions on the resource side, but also considering the many times neglected impact on the consumer side. Further, (v) to understand aspects of stability beyond temporal invariability, I will introduce a perturbation to the system, to understand whether biodiversity in multi-trophic communities provides higher resistance and resilience values. GorBEEa represents an ambitious research programme at the intersect of population, community, ecosystem, and conservation ecology, that will deliver an understanding of how declining biodiversity levels influence natural ecosystem dynamics. But it will also offer an applied angle, through collaborations with stakeholders to develop scientifically-informed management practices.

Mots-clés : ecosystem function,ecosystem stability,perturbation,plant pollinator interactions,interaction networks,spatial dynamics,temporal dynamics,managed honeybee impacts
Projet ERC : ACTIVEDORMANCY (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Cell Biology, Development, Stem Cells and R egeneration
Entité participante : Centro de Regulación Genómica — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : CRG
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1999796.0 €

Female germ cells, oocytes, have the remarkable ability to survive for long periods of time, up to 50 years in humans, while retaining the ability to give rise to a new organism. We know surprisingly little about the molecular mechanisms through which oocytes alleviate cellular ageing, and why such mechanisms eventually fail with advanced age. The goal of this research proposal is to reveal both the mechanisms dormant oocytes employ to maintain cellular fitness and how ageing affects these mechanisms, combining biochemical perturbations with imaging and state-of-the-art -omics techniques. We have recently discovered that oocyte dormancy involves two mechanisms not reported in any animal cell type before: the suppression of mitochondrial complex I, and the constitutive activation of mitochondrial unfolded protein response. These discoveries point to a set of poorly understood strategies that oocytes use to minimise damage to their cellular components during their long lifespan. In this project, we focus on three new interlinked directions to reveal mechanisms that dormant oocytes employ to keep a ‘youthful’ cytoplasm: 1) Characterise the metabolic adaptations that enable life without mitochondrial complex I 2) Study extremely long-lived oocyte proteins and their regulation 3) Identify and characterise the quality control mechanisms that eventually fail in dormant oocytes to impact fertility. We will use oocytes from frogs, mice, and humans which are complementary in their ease of handling and relevance to human physiology. One of the biggest problems developed nations face is late-motherhood and associated fertility problems due to ageing oocytes. >25% of female fertility problems are unexplained, pointing to a huge gap in our understanding of female reproduction. This proposal will help fill this gap by studying longevity mechanisms in dormant oocytes. It will further provide insights into the metabolic adaptations of long-lived cells, female fertility, and ageing.

Mots-clés : oocyte,fertility,dormancy,long lived proteins,mitochondria
Projet ERC : PALEONILE (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Earth System Science
Entité participante : Université Humboldt de Berlin — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1731242.5 €

Over a century of paleontological investigation in Africa has revealed a rich Pleistocene fossil record that includes the evolution of hominins and their material cultures. However, the vast majority of fossil sites are located in the East African Rift Valley (EARV), and our knowledge is heavily skewed by this geographic bias. Poor continental geographic sampling means we lack an understanding of faunal regional variations, and the role of dispersal and geographic variation in the emergence of modern ecosystems. Furthermore, many have questioned the role of the Nile, the longest river in the world, in promoting faunal and cultural dispersal between Subsaharan and North Africa, and beyond to Eurasia. For decades such questions have been answered speculatively, with little data to stand on. PALEONILE is an ambitious project that will address these major gaps in our knowledge through large-scale surveys to reveal a new fossil record from the Middle Nile River Basin in Sudan. This project will test an overarching hypothesis of Pleistocene zoogeographic regionalization in the Nile Basin with respect to the EARV and surrounding areas, and will use an interdisciplinary array of paleontological, geological, geochronological, and archaeological approaches to reach its objectives. The geographic scale of the project is large and the techniques are cutting edge, including high-risk experimental methodologies such as paleobiomolecular recovery and new developments in sedimentary dating. PALEONILE forms the first ever large-scale systematic paleontological project to be conducted in Sudan, where the Cenozoic fossil record remains largely undiscovered, and its potential overlooked. PALEONILE will generate a new paradigm of zoogeographic dynamics and evolution in the African Pleistocene that represents a new synthesis of hydrographic, phylogenomic, archaeological, and paleontological evidence.
Projet ERC : CityRising (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Individuals, Markets and Organisations
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 : 1956434.0 €

The rising industrial metropolises of the 19th century faced a series of timeless challenges: the disruptive effects of new technologies, the integration of new immigrants, the threat of epidemics. In this project we study, with the use of novel, high-quality, high-frequency individual-level archival data, how the city of Munich dealt with these challenges and provided opportunities for economic and social mobility to its dwellers, in the period 1823-1914. Our study is composed of three parts. In Part 1, we study the consequences of a technological shock — the introduction of mass transportation — on the spatial structure of the city. We show how occupations and businesses were subject to differential agglomeration forces, and document the reorganization of economic activity and residents across space. Using schooling data, we study the impact of this reorganization on social mobility. In Part 2, we study how members of a long marginalized ethnic group — Jews — were integrated into the growing city, and how they rose to ranks of the educated upper middle classes. We study the initial conditions that determined their occupational specialization and eventual success: place of origin, religious current, residential segregation, human capital of ancestors. We also study assimilation strategies and identity choices, as evidenced by first name choices, human capital investments, and intermarriage. In Part 3, we study how the provision of a core health amenity — sanitation — reshaped the social geography of the city. We analyze its consequences on child mortality, fertility choices, and human capital investments using linked individual data, and consider the confounding role of spatial sorting in this process. We expect our research to unify hitherto disparate literatures (in economic history, urban economics, political economy, and social mobility), and to demonstrate the feasibility of collecting large-scale, individual-level data from European history.

Mots-clés : cities social mobility economic opportunity jews germany sanitation historical microdata
Projet ERC : MULTIMOYA (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Immunity, Infection and I mmunotherapy
Entité participante : Vlaams Instituut voor Biotechnologie — Pays : Belgique — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : VIB
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1981593.75 €

This project aims to characterize a recently discovered link between a rare genetic disorder of the brain, called Moyamoya disease (MMD), and the cellular immune response against microbial infections. MMD is characterized by a progressive occlusion of arteries at the base of the brain leading to stroke. Mutations in Ring Finger Protein 213 (RNF213) represent the most common genetic cause of MMD, however, it is suggested that environmental stimuli are needed to trigger disease onset in genetic carriers. Intriguingly, we recently discovered RNF213 as a novel antibacterial protein that can target intracellular Listeria (Gram+), providing strong protection to Listeria both in vitro and in vivo. Similarly, RNF213 can bind intracellular Salmonella (Gram-), mediating its ubiquitin-dependent degradation. Moreover, we also identified RNF213 as a cellular sensor for proteins modified by ISG15 (ISGylated proteins), a ubiquitin-like modification of the immune system induced by interferon. These observations not only uncover RNF213 as a novel key antimicrobial protein, they also suggest an important role for the immune system in triggering MMD. MULTIMOYA starts from the hypothesis that dysregulated immune responses to infections might trigger MMD disease onset in patients carrying mutations in RNF213. To investigate this hypothesis, we will determine whether MMD patient-derived immune cells respond differently to interferon, LPS or bacterial infection by mapping altered pathways using a multi-omics approach, combining genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics and (tracer) metabolomics data. Results will be validated by biochemical and imaging analysis in relevant patient-derived/like cellular models as well as in mouse models of MMD that we will establish. Together, these experiments will provide unprecedented insight into MMD-related immune responses and fundamental processes that link cellular immunity with vascular disease.

Mots-clés : stroke,infection,immune response,transcriptomics,proteomics,metabolomics
Projet ERC : MAKE DO MEDICINE (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Soci al World and Its Interactions
Entité participante : Université de Maastricht — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1999865.0 €

As the world wades through Covid-19 pandemic debris, it becomes harder to ignore that medicine is a distinctly wasteful enterprise. Hospitals in particular have become nodes of disposability. Solutions to this problem has to date attracted mostly the attention of medical technology companies promoting circular economies, a model still reliant on production and technological innovation. The Upcycled Clinic takes a different direction. This ethnographic project focuses on creative practices such as repurposing in the clinic, involving making the most of existing materials. Five sub-projects have been carefully selected with illuminating examples around the world including Antarctica, Ghana, the Netherlands, the U.S and U.K. A team of ethnographers will conduct fieldwork and interviews with a range of actors, many often overlooked, such as cleaners and laundry staff, and look at open datasets of pandemic improvisations. The overarching objective is, through comparison, to better understand conditions which cultivate and curtail creative material engagement in the clinic. This inventive and timely contribution to the social study of medicine will advance the field in at least three directions. First, by attending more closely to materials, it moves hospital ethnographies beyond current focus on the patient encounter. Second, it will offer the first globally orientated study of improvisation in the clinic. Third, it breaks new methodological ground in the social sciences by developing novel ways of reusing and sharing research material in ethnography that adopts sensory methods and rethinks data waste. These contributions from the rich case of the clinic will add empirical insights to theories of materiality and help address long standing questions regarding resilience and innovation in the workplace. Practically, the study will articulate conditions under which healthcare can leverage creativity and pay better attention to local solutions to wastefulness and shortage.

Mots-clés : team ethnography,hospital ethnography,anthropology of medicine,making,materiality,senses,sensory ethnography,creative methods,upcycling
Projet ERC : TOUCHNET (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Soci al World and Its Interactions
Entité participante : Université Friedrich-Schiller d'Iéna — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1994571.0 €

As the digital nature of society increases, the frequency of human contact decreases. This seemingly inevitable relationship has potentially devastating consequences for the mental and emotional health of billions of people. Clear understanding and appropriate action are the only path to mitigating this looming crisis. Currently, the field of interpersonal touch research is a patchwork of theoretical frameworks and, worse still, lacks robust, ecologically valid experimental data. Objective One of TOUCHNET is to build a large database centered around interpersonal touch behavior: its frequency, triggers, and effects. A multi-center, ecological momentary assessment approach, will provide over 100000 individual touch events, connected to, in sub-sets, autonomous nervous system activity, questionnaires, social factors, and health (i.e. stress reduction). The TOUCHNET database itself will be a significant contribution to the field. Objective Two will leverage this database to probe the mechanisms by which touch has its effects. Merging concepts and assumptions across affective touch and social brain theories, I will examine touch-generated networks (neural signatures) associated with social processing and stress reduction. Ultra-high field, touch-no-touch, imaging experiments will compare connectivity and the functional input-output relation within social and allostatic-interoceptive brain networks. Further the direct effect of touch on communication, namely synchronicity, will be examined through fNIRS hyper-scanning. TOUCHNET will help clarify the role touch plays in society. A much-needed database of touch events will allow ecologically valid assessment across the field while detailed lab-based studies will advance our understanding of the interaction between touch, sociality, and stress. Finally, in an increasingly digital world, where touch substitutes may unfortunately be necessary, this work will take initial steps toward positive distance communication.

Mots-clés : touch,interpersonal,nonverbal behavior,human,social
Projet ERC : PairNoise (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Condensed Matter Physics
Entité participante : Université de Leyde — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : Partner
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1223748.5 €

My aim with this proposal is to develop an electron pair microscope that can locally detect electron pairs without superconductivity, and to leverage this information to gain unprecedented understanding into quantum materials.  The electronic properties of most materials, including metals and insulators, are underpinned by single electrons. Superconductors are a notable exception: here, the charge carriers are electron pairs. It has been proposed, in order to explain quantum materials’ mysterious and potentially useful properties, that electron pairs exist without superconductivity and underpin the properties of materials that are not superconducting. Indeed, tantalizing signatures of electron pairs have been reported in high-temperature and disordered superconductors above their transition temperature Tc. However, experimental evidence of such electron pairing is highly disputed and controversial, because there exists currently no experimental probe to locally distinguish electron pairs without superconductivity from single electrons.  With PairNoise, I will develop and build a radically new electron pair microscope – based on a unique proof-of-concept instrument developed in my group – that can unambiguously detect electron pairs with atomic resolution. It combines scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM), microfabrication, and shot-noise spectroscopy. With the electron pair microscope, I will determine the nature of the state above Tc in the most interesting superconductors, conclusively determine whether the pseudogap is due to pairing, and find what limits superconductivity at even higher temperatures in quantum materials. My track record of developing first-of-its-kind STM instruments, and their successful utilization for scientific progress, perfectly positions me to make PairNoise a success and to open up a new research field with further applications in the detection of fractional charges, Majorana modes, and dynamical processes.

Mots-clés : scanning tunneling microscopy,high temperature superconductivity,disordered superconductors,topological superconductors,shot noise
Projet ERC : SUSPICIO (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Study of the Human Past
Entité participante : Université de Grenade — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1999706.0 €

SUSPICIO proposes an entirely new hypothesis in the field of modern history as well as in Hispanic studies: that security became a key concept of governance in the late Spanish Empire (ca.1770–1820). This phenomenon began in the last quarter of 18th century when Spain felt the threat of losing its American colonies through external events that questioned the colonial rule, including US independ-ence and the influence of the French revolution. The perception of threat and the Spanish government’s distrust of their own population in America gave rise to extensive security regulations and measures in order to protect the colonial order. With my extensive expertise in both archive research and Hispanic studies, SUSPICIO will, for the first time, study thus far neglected sources of political crime. The novel approach to these sources will ana-lyse how the colonial administration identified and judged those individuals who were perceived to be a threat to the order, i.e., who were categorised as ‘suspects’. There was no longer the requirement for a rebellious act to already have occurred in order to make an individual an enemy of the state, but ra-ther the mere suspicion that a person would perhaps – in the future – act against the state. SUSPICIO will study to what extent the creation and persecution of ‘suspects’ polarised the people so that, rather than preserving the colonial rule, it had a debilitating effect. By regarding the ambivalence and counterproductive effects of security politics, the project promises a new interpretation of the dis-solution of the Spanish Empire. Its case may serve as an example, even for today, of how supra-national political entities can collapse under the pressure of security concerns, even though these secu-rity measures were meant to preserve them.

Mots-clés : security,surveillance,categorization