Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : CONDUCT (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : University of Oxford — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Electric motor drives are the universal work horses of industry driving fans, pumps, power tools, compressors and materials handling/conveyor systems. More energy efficient motor designs are needed to meet increasingly stringent EU efficiency standards. Better thermal management of electric motors could make this achievable. Current technologies rely on expensive copper casings or inefficient air cooling. Adding more copper is not feasible (bigger, heavier and expensive) and liquid cooling is not attractive (more energy for circulation/maintenance). The extra mass/volume cannot be easily integrated in compact motor layouts. Removal of heat from small totally enclosed motors is a recurring problem in the food processing, surgical instruments and materials handling where the motors operate at their limits and run very hot. An improved method of cooling could be engineered from advanced materials. Nanomaterials such as carbon nanotubes are at least six times more thermally conductive than conventional thermal interface. A commercial application using specially tailored carbon nanotubes (CNTs) for the development of energy-saving, highly efficient motors is the aim of CONDUCT in partnership with an EU SME motor design/manufacturer. Results of CONDUCT will feed into advanced automotive, consumer, and power electronics industries who also need to find solutions for similar challenges in thermal management.
Projet ERC : NETEEG (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Proof of concept grants)
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 : 150000.0 €

Electroencephalography (EEG) is the non-invasive recording of electrical brain activity, and is an indispensable diagnostic and research tool. A significant advantage of EEG compared to other brain imaging modalities is its high temporal resolution. The downside of EEG is, however, its poor spatial resolution, which is one of the reasons for its gradual replacement by costlier alternatives. It results mainly from the sharp discontinuity in the electric conductivity of the skull bones acting as a strong low-pass filter and limiting the amount meaningful information that can be extracted from EEG signals. We propose a novel concept of EEG measurement hardware which, in combination with signal processing techniques, will increase the spatial resolution of EEG by as much as an order of magnitude. Our idea is based on the observation that by connecting a dynamic network of controllable impedances between pairs of measurement electrodes, one can alter the shape of the spatial filter constituted by the skull. Since EEG is a relatively narrow-band signal (about 100Hz, limited by the time constants of basics units of neural activity), we expect to be able to measure tens or hundreds of different configurations of the network, either directly or by using a compressed sampling scheme, without compromising the temporal resolution. This will introduce many independent equations to the EEG inverse problem and improve source estimation, having critical impact on the diagnostic capabilities of EEG as well as on its use in emerging applications such as neuro-feedback and brain-computer interface (BCI).

Mots-clés : inverse problem,compressed sensing
Projet ERC : 4D (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Proof of concept grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Physical and analytical chemical sciences
Entité participante : Delft University of Technology — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : TU Delft
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Electronic doping, the control over the charge carrier density, is at the heart of the success of the semiconductor industry. Promising new semiconductor materials like conductive polymers, fullerenes and quantum dots cannot be doped by traditional doping methods. The applicant and his group have developed a general method to dope these materials on demand with an electrochemical method, combined with photopolymerization of the solvents and electrolyte ions. This methods allows to precisely control the charge density in these new semiconductor materials and also allows patterning of the doping density via methods akin to photolithography used in the semiconductor industry. This enable the design of new device geometries, such as lateral pn junctions that could allow easy on chip integration of e.g. solution processable LEDs. The goal of this proof-of-concept application is to investigate the application potential of this newly developed technology. In particular it involves the development of demonstrator devices to showcase the technique’s potential, to investigate and protect the intellectual property and to analyze the interest from key industrial stakeholders in this technology. When successful, this technology has the potential to revolutionize the semiconductor industry. It could be of great economic potential and in addition may contribute to achieving sustainability goals by reducing energy consumption of lamps and displays and by offering new and improved means to harvest solar via highly efficient solution processable solar cells.

Mots-clés : electronic doping,semiconductors,electronic devices,quantum dots,polymers,fullerenes,leds,solar cells,lasers,photodetectors,electrochemistry,polymerisation,photolithography
Projet ERC : NONLOCAL (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Synergy grants)
Entité participante : University of Copenhagen — Pays : Danemark — Rôle : CO-PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UCPH
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 8448136.75 €

Emergent particles with nonabelian exchange statistics are a key element in the understanding of topological condensed matter system. However, the nonabelian nature has never been demonstrated experimentally, nor has the intimately connected nonlocality of quantum states been observed in any physical system. With this proposal, we outline a research program whose goal is to design and carry out experiments, with close theoretical coupling, that can – for the first time – verify or falsify the existence of these fascinating novel degrees of freedom and then, if observed, quantify the spatial and temporal limits for the nonabelian and nonlocal properties. The platform for the research is based on topological superconductivity in hybrid materials, a field in which the applicants have played a leading role. We put together a team of experimental and theoretical physicists in a strongly collaborative setup. The focus of the proposal is Majorana bound states, which exist at the boundaries of topological superconductors. Experiments have over the past five years shown observations consistent with their existence. All these experiments are based on local probes which cannot reveal the inner nature of their nonlocal and nonabelian properties. To address the fundamental aspects of nonlocality, we will design quantum devices that combine topological superconductors with known condensed matter quantum technologies, including quantum dots, two-dimensional electron gases, and fast measurement techniques. The nonabelian nature will be explored by design of multi-Majorana devices and of protocols that can reveal the nonabelian nature of braids in the space of topologically-protected groundstate manifolds. The gained knowledge will provide a breakthrough in the fundamentals of emergent degrees of freedom and quantum states encoded in topological macroscopic systems. Their possibly profound character might have future applications in quantum technologies.

Mots-clés : majorana fermions,nonabelian particles,topological states,anyons,semiconductorsuperconductor hybrids,heterostructures
Projet ERC : PARTIFACE (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Products and processes engineering
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 : 2000000.0 €

Emulsions are elemental to many aspects of every-day life, from food to pharmaceuticals. However, today’s emulsion science faces a grand challenge in developing stabilizers with outstanding functionality in a sustainable manner. To enable society’s transformation from oil-based economy to bioeconomy, there is an urgent need to develop sophisticated biocompatible materials, such as stabilizers of food and non-food emulsions, from biomass-derived precursors through sustainable conversion routes. Current bio-based stabilizers are poorly defined and not as efficient as the synthetic ones, primarily because key technologies to construct sophisticated hierarchical structures from abundant biopolymers are lacking. I will use my expertise on wood biomass and emulsion stabilizer research to develop a novel approach for asymmetric, bi-facial “Janus” nanoparticles from two of the most abundant, but underused biopolymers: lignin and hemicelluloses. I will develop a green conversion route using enzymatic crosslinking to build a novel concept: tailored wood-based Janus particles with superior capacity to stabilize emulsion interfaces. I will further tailor the particles to control their cooling rate through reversible bond formation, which will revolutionize the materials science. To achieve this ambitious goal, it is crucial to carefully characterize the particles and formed interfaces. I will develop a novel method to characterize real emulsion systems with high precision, which existing methods cannot achieve. PARTIFACE will establish a green route to sophisticated hierarchical architectures—bi-facial Janus-particle-stabilized interfaces—and thermal control systems utilizing abundant bioresources. The project will lead to a breakthrough in colloid and interface science and contribute to more sustainable use of Earth’s resources.

Mots-clés : lignin,hemicelluloses,particles,emulsions,stabilizers,enzymes,atomic force microscopy
Projet ERC : MultiphysMicroCaps (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Products and processes engineering
Entité participante : Centre national de la recherche scientifique — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : CNRS
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1982857.5 €

Encapsulation consists in enclosing an internal medium in a solid semi-permeable membrane to protect it and control the exchanges with the environment. Being at the source of innovative applications in the fields of biotechnologies, pharmacology, energy storage and food industry, capsules offer tremendous potential in the process engineering world. But scientific challenges remain to be met, such as finding the optimal compromise between payload and membrane thickness, characterizing the membrane resistance and controlling the moment of rupture. The project explores the use of deformable liquid-core capsules of micrometric size to efficiently transport active material, with a primary focus on health-related applications. We will design innovative sophisticated numerical models and high-tech experiments, needed to determine the potential of such vectors for the protection of active substances, predict membrane breakup to control the delivery, and optimize their properties for specific industrial and biomedical applications. The project will, for the first time, study the effect of a finite wall thickness on the dynamics of elastic microcapsules, propose advanced modelling approaches and microfluidic experiments of their deformability and breakup under hydrodynamic stresses, account for the inherent size variability of given capsule populations, and introduce reduced-order models to facilitate real-time simulations. As a specific application, we will study the potential of liquid-core microcapsules to encapsulate antioxidants for food enrichment. The project outcomes will be (i) new advanced three-dimensional numerical models of the fluid-structure interactions and rupture of a microcapsule, taking into account a finite wall thickness, (ii) microcapsule optimization tools based on reduced-order models, (iii) microscopic techniques to measure the capsule mechanical properties, and (iv) an applied study of optimization of antioxidant encapsulation in microcapsules.

Mots-clés : artificial microcapsules,stokes flow,fluid structure interactions,large deformation,rupture,numerical simulations,microfluidic experiments,mechanical characterization,antioxidant encapsulation
Projet ERC : CELL-in-CELL (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Environmental Biology, Ecology and Evolution
Entité participante : University of Cambridge — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : U. Cambridge
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 112885.0 €

Endosymbiosis is a key phenomenon that has played a critical role in shaping biological diversity, driving gene transfer and generating cellular complexity. During the process of endosymbiosis, one cell is integrated within another to become a critical component of the recipient, changing its characteristics and allowing it to chart a distinct evolutionary trajectory. Endosymbiosis was fundamentally important to the origin and evolution of eukaryotic cellular complexity, because an endosymbiotic event roots the diversification of all known eukaryotes and endosymbiosis has continually driven the diversification of huge sections of the eukaryotic tree of life. Little is known about how nascent endosymbioses are established or how they go on to form novel cellular compartments known as endosymbiotic organelles. Paramecium bursaria is a single celled protist that harbours multiple green algae within to form a phototrophic endosymbiosis. This relationship is nascent as the partners can be separated, grown separately, and the endosymbiosis reinitiated. This project will identify, for the first time, the gene functions that enable one cell to incubate another within to form a stable endosymbiotic interaction. To identify and explore which host genes control endosymbiosis in P. bursaria we have developed RNAi silencing technology. In the proposed project we will conduct genome sequencing, followed by a large-scale RNAi knockdown screening experiment, to identify host genes that when silenced perturb the endosymbiont population. Having identified candidate genes, we will investigate the localisation and function of the host encoded proteins. This project will significantly change our current understanding of the evolutionary phenomenon of endosymbiosis by identifying the cellular adaptations that drive these interactions, advancing our understanding of how these important moments in evolution occur and how core cellular systems can diversify in function.

Mots-clés : endosymbiosis,cell evolution,rna interference,organelle,algae
Projet ERC : Angiolnc (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Human Diseases
Entité participante : Goethe University Frankfurt — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2497398.0 €

Endothelial cells comprise the inner cellular cover of the vasculature, which delivers metabolites and oxygen to the tissue. Dysfunction of endothelial cells as it occurs during aging or metabolic syndromes can result in atherosclerosis, which can lead to myocardial infarction or stroke, whereas pathological angiogenesis contributes to tumor growth and diabetic retinopathy. Thus, endothelial cells play central roles in pathophysiological processes of many diseases including cardiovascular diseases and cancer. Many studies explored the regulation of endothelial cell functions by growth factors, but the impact of epigenetic mechanisms and particularly the role of novel non-coding RNAs is largely unknown. More than 70 % of the human genome encodes for non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) and increasing evidence suggests that a significant portion of these ncRNAs are functionally active as RNA molecules. Angiolnc aims to explore the function of long ncRNAs (lncRNAs) and particular circular RNAs (circRNAs) in the endothelium. LncRNAs comprise a heterogenic class of RNAs with a length of > 200 nucleotides and circRNAs are generated by back splicing. Angiolnc is based on the discovery of novel endothelial hypoxia-regulated lncRNAs and circRNAs by next generation sequencing. To begin to understand the potential functions of lncRNAs in the endothelium, we will study two lncRNAs, named Angiolnc1 und Angiolnc2, as prototypical examples of endothelial cell-enriched lncRNAs that are regulated by oxygen levels. We will further dissect the epigenetic mechanisms, by which these lncRNAs regulate endothelial cell function. In the second part of the application, we will determine the regulation and function of circRNAs, which may act as molecular sponges in the cytoplasm. Finally, we will study the function of identified lncRNAs and circRNAs in mouse models and measure their expression in human specimens in order to determine their role as therapeutic targets or diagnostic tools.

Mots-clés : angiogenesis,vascular biology,non coding rnas,myocardial infarction,atherosclerosis
Projet ERC : In-Need (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Systems and communication engineering
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 : 1750000.0 €

Energy efficiency offers a vast and low-cost resource to address future energy demand while reducing carbon dioxide emissions. The unique properties of III-Nitride semiconductors make them the ideal material for future energy challenges. Their outstanding optical properties are revolutionizing the world with efficient LED light bulbs. Even greater impact is anticipated for power electronics. The much larger Baliga’s figure of merit of GaN compared to SiC and Si enables drastically more efficient power switches, which are at the heart of any energy generation/management system. However, current III-Nitride device performance is far from the fundamental materials capabilities, and severe thermal management and reliability limitations hinder their full potential for energy-efficiency. The In-Need proposes a unique approach to address concurrently all current challenges based on advanced nanostructures designed to optimally exploit the superior properties of the new bulk GaN materials. Nanostructuring distinct regions of the device will allow a precise control over their intrinsic characteristics. To address reliability issues and yield unprecedented device performance, these nanostructures will be combined to the excellent properties of bulk GaN. This will open opportunities for new vertical devices, enabling smaller structures with larger voltages and higher efficiencies. Efficient thermal management will be achieved with ultra-near junction cooling. Nano/micro-channels filled with high thermal conductivity materials or coolants will be embedded inside the device. We believe our judicious nano-scale design of new high-performing materials will result in state-of-the-art devices, leading to a large-scale impact in energy efficiency. The miniaturization and large power density enabled by our approach will allow future integration of power devices into single power microchips. This will revolutionize energy use much like Silicon microchips did for information processing.
Projet ERC : iPUBLIC (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : KTH Royal Institute of Technology — Pays : Suède — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : KTH
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Energy storage has become a global concern in modern society. With his ERC Advanced grant, Prof. Östling, an expert in solid state electronics from the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden, is trying to develop emerging devices based on silicon technology but with other materials than silicon, such as graphene and its analogue MoS2. These unique materials offer opportunities to novel applications, especially those related to energy storage. Prof. Östling and his team have recently developed an efficient inkjet printing technique to reliably deposit these materials at high resolution. They have been able to directly print graphene-based supercapacitors with good performance. In the new PoC project, they will employ the inkjet printing techniques to demonstrate a novel type of energy storage devices which are expected to possess both high energy density and high power density, and establish initial commercialisation steps. Although the novel devices have complicated structure, the full-printing solution will not evidently increase the production cost. Considering the improved performance, the effective cost is actually reduced. Furthermore, the printing solution facilitates scaling up during commercialisation. These printed ultrafast batteries have great potential to meet the urgent and increasing demands from the rapid growth of portable electronic devices and electric vehicles.

Mots-clés : inkjet printing,graphene,supercapacitors,lithium ion batteries