Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : PEOPLE (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Study of the Human Past
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 : 976610.73 €

Homo sapiens emerged in Africa in the Middle Pleistocene, and their appearance broadly overlaps with the onset of the Middle Stone Age (MSA). This period saw a persistent population expansion into a wide range of ecosystems, including deserts, rainforests, and mountains. To develop such ecological flexibility, early humans had to adapt their subsistence strategies to markedly different and dynamic environments that dramatically affected their lifeways. However, we know surprisingly little about the timing and modes of H. sapiens dispersal within Africa. To address this issue at subcontinental scale, PEOPLE will look at South African ecosystems that offer ways of assessing human response to climate change. One key factor affecting this response is freshwater availability. Water played a crucial role in human adaptation since it determined the foraging activities of people across the open landscape and thus had pervasive influence over their expansion on the continent. In the interior of South Africa, which features a mosaic of diverse grasslands and arid shrublands dissected by sporadic rivers, ancient water courses and wetlands provided early humans with favourable conditions and possible dispersal routes. To understand how and when humans settled on the subcontinent, PEOPLE will search geological deposits at rivers, springs, and dry lakes in the interior of South Africa, which offer long records of climate change. The aim is twofold: determine the role of changing environments in the adaptive strategies of MSA people, and establish a chronology for human palaeoecology based on absolute dating of palaeoenvironments and technological organisation. To achieve these goals, PEOPLE will adopt a multi-scalar geoarchaeological approach led by an interdisciplinary research team. The results of this project will change our understanding of human dynamics in southern Africa and have the potential to piece together how humans eventually dispersed throughout Africa and beyond.

Mots-clés : human evolution pleistocene africa stone age geoarchaeology modern humans landscape water dispersal palaeoecology palaeoenvironment
Projet ERC : EDINCLUSION (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Individuals, Markets and Organisations
Entité participante : IFMR Graduate School of Business — Pays : Inde — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : IFMR;IFMR GSB
Type d'entité : Autres
Financement ERC de l'entité : 697500.0 €

Social and economic stratification of schools can hurt both the equity and effectiveness of education systems. These concerns are exacerbated in settings where private schools account for a significant share of enrolment, as is the case in India - where nearly half the population attends a fee-charging private school. The EDINCLUSION project proposes an ambitious research agenda focused on understanding and improving school integration in India - which is the world’s largest school system, and also among the most unequal. The agenda focuses on studying and improving the impact of India’s landmark school integration policy, under the Right to Education Act 2009, which mandates that 25% of places in private schools should be reserved for students from disadvantaged economic and caste backgrounds (with the government reimbursing fees). This is likely the world’s largest-ever school integration initiative, affecting several times as many children as school desegregation initiatives in the US in the 1960s. Yet, despite its importance, there is remarkably little research on either the impact of this policy or on ways to improve its effectiveness.  The proposal features three work packages to address these gaps: (a) an assessment of effects on current beneficiaries, identified using the lottery-based allocation of seats in oversubscribed schools, (b) identifying approaches to encourage applications from poorer eligible students, evaluated through two multi-armed randomized control trials, and (c) a systematic understanding of private school markets using innovative survey design methods, panel data and exogenous policy-induced variation for identification. The results of this research program will generate ground-breaking evidence on (i) the effectiveness of this large school integration program (ii) identify scalable ways to improve its effectiveness and (iii) generate fundamental insights about the functioning of urban school markets in developing countries.

Mots-clés : affirmative action social inclusion education student learning india
Projet ERC : NSC-CoDEC (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System
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 : 1497575.0 €

The adult mammalian brain exhibits a remarkable capacity of adaptation, which has long been thought to result from synaptic remodeling of neurons born during development. Importantly, the discovery that new neurons can be generated in the adult by neural stem cells (NSCs) revolutionized our understanding of brain plasticity. In the adult mouse brain, NSCs reside in two specialized niches: the dentate gyrus (DG), and the ventricular-subventricular zone (V-SVZ) lining the lateral ventricles. Although anatomically and functionally different, these two neurogenic regions share several cell types, including the glial NSCs and their lineage, and are sensitive to similar environmental stimuli. This raises the exciting possibility that NSCs within and between niches could coordinate their behavior under specific contexts. I recently showed that in the V-SVZ, regionally-distinct NSC pools can selectively and transiently respond to specific physiological states. However, such spatial and functional stem cell diversity in the DG remains to be investigated. Here, we hypothesize that the two brain niches form a single plasticity-generator system, comprising multiple stem cell subpopulations, some of which may be inter-dependent. We will first investigate whether some NSC pools across both niches share unexpected molecular features and developmental trajectories. To determine whether and how this V-SVZ/DG system evolved to sustain a plasticity-oriented, regionally-restricted, and transient process in mammals, we will perform comparative transcriptomics with a contrasting model of adult neurogenesis in Zebrafish, which is regeneration-oriented, widespread and continuous. Finally, we will test whether the recruitment of specific adult NSCs in the mammalian brain is orchestrated by neuronal circuit activity outside the niche. Altogether, our work will uncover the molecular, cellular and circuit logic of adult mammalian neurogenesis in light of NSC heterogeneous identities.

Mots-clés : adult neurogenesis,molecular neuroscience,transcriptomics
Projet ERC : DIVERSE (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System
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 : 1996415.0 €

The brain has the remarkable ability to imagine diverse solutions to complex problems and to rapidly switch between them to adapt to new situations. Such properties are essential for adaptive behavior but remain poorly understood, partly due to the prevalent focus in previous studies on stereotypical behaviors. Here, we will adopt a fundamentally different approach by exploring the neural properties underlying diversity in decision strategy, aiming to provide greater insights into how the brain operates in natural conditions.  By leveraging novel computational methods that identify changes in behavioral strategy combined with the latest advances in electrophysiological recording and optical manipulation in mice, the overarching goal of the project is to understand how the brain switches between different decision strategies. We hypothesize that the brain achieves remarkable flexibility by running multiple decision processes in parallel, allowing animals to select one decision strategy while their brains maintain several alternative solutions readily available for quick adaptation. We will test this hypothesis through a series of experiments that aim at determining:  (1) Which neural circuits are involved in strategy selection? (2) What neural mechanisms control changes in strategy? (3) How to trigger a strategy in neural circuits and behaviors?  We will address these questions using mice in the context of foraging, a fundamental survival behavior shared among all animals, involving the search for resources in dynamic environments. The project will deliver a rich and unique neural and behavioral dataset, enabling the development of a novel conceptual framework for behavioral flexibility as an adaptive selection mechanism of parallel decision computations. Ultimately, this research will contribute to solving various aspects of the decision-making puzzle and provide a foundation for explaining the diversity in behaviors, including those that deviate from the norm.

Mots-clés : premotor cortex ensemble recording mouse foraging neural circuits electrophysiology calcium imaging population dynamics
Projet ERC : FRICTIONS (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Studies of Cultures and Arts
Entité participante : Wageningen University & Research — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : WUR
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1499975.0 €

Tourism is a pervasive phenomenon as are the contemporary global dialogues about slavery and colonial heritage. Globally, the tangible and intangible remnants of slavery and the colonial past generate tensions that can yield both productive and destructive outcomes. In such locations, visceral narratives and experiences that evoke these tensions are being crafted for visitors. The FRICTIONS project will unravel how tourism transforms and narrates this heritage while navigating the ensuing contestations and tensions. In our increasingly diverse society at risk of polarisation, the stories we tell about our history can directly address challenges such as racism, discrimination and inclusion.  FRICTIONS develops an interdisciplinary theory of cultural memories linked to slavery and colonial heritage tourism. The project employs an innovative and rigorous qualitative methodological research design to explore the tensions arising from slavery and colonial heritage tourism within three key geographical contexts: (a) Ghana-Suriname-Netherlands; (b) Angola-Brazil-Portugal and; (c) Namibia-Brazil-Germany. FRICTIONS will map and examine: (1) to what extent and under which conditions sites of slavery and colonial heritage are transformed into tourism products, practices and performances; (2) the ways in which such transformations create frictions of space; and (3) how these frictions influence broader societal narratives concerning the collective heritage of slavery and colonial heritage.  FRICTIONS is an ambitious project combining insights from cultural geography, tourism studies and heritage and memory studies to advance conceptual knowledge that renders the transformative role of tourism into wider societal discussions of slavery and colonial heritage beyond specific places. Such insights inform ongoing societal debates on dealing with this shared heritage. This is important and urgent for charting a path towards a truly inclusive and just global society.

Mots-clés : slavery heritage,space,place,colonial heritage,tourism,cultural memories,cultural geography,tourism studies,heritage studies,memory studies,frictions,tensions,contestations,slavery,colonialism,apologies,reparations,tour guides,tourists,visitors,walking tours,angola,brazil,ghana,suriname,netherlands,portugal,germany
Projet ERC : DiverseSounds (Horizon Europe, appel 2025, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Human Mind and Its Compl exity
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 : 1163084.0 €

The prenatal period represents a critical window in which key neural structures and functions are shaped, laying the foundation for sensory processing, language learning, and cognitive function throughout an individual's lifetime. While research recognizes the importance of prenatal auditory and language stimulation, it is unclear whether and to what degree the language environment in utero shapes the fetal brain and language acquisition after birth. This proposal will focus on the prenatal language environment and its effects on neural plasticity and language development. We will adopt a longitudinal approach combining developmental cognitive neuroscience, linguistics, and information theory, using both novel and existing data.  Given the diversity of speech sounds across languages, multilingualism provides an excellent frame-work for studying environmental effects on early learning in typical development. DiverseSounds will investigate input-driven neuroplasticity of fetal brain organization, assess which characteristics of speech are processed by human fetuses, determine fetal neural predictors of inter-individual differ-ences in speech sound perception in early infancy, and investigate if fetal neuroplasticity longitudinally predicts language learning mechanisms in infancy.  We will use state-of-the-art brain imaging techniques (MRI and EEG) in monolinguals and multilin-guals, and novel measures of phonological diversity informed by descriptive and typological linguistic work. We propose to examine the relationship between prenatal experience and subsequent develop-mental trajectories of language acquisition from 25 weeks of gestation to 6 months of age. This re-search will advance our understanding of fetal and infant development and therefore bears significant implications for theory building, language therapy, and public health policy.

Mots-clés : prenatal language acquisition,brain development,multilingualism,mri,fmri,eeg,language typology
Projet ERC : RETTHINQ (Horizon Europe, appel 2025, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Individuals, Markets and Organisations
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 : 1320991.88 €

Income and wealth inequality have surged in OECD economies over recent decades, sparking renewed debates on the optimal tax-and-transfer system. How should governments design redistribution to the poor? Which taxes should be used to finance the safety net? This proposal consists of three projects combining rich quantitative models with analytical and empirical insights to push the frontier on our understanding of the efficiency-redistribution trade-off. Part I explores how to design income support to the poor. Since the 1980s, many OECD economies have reformed their safety net and introduced work requirements for several welfare programs. Work requirements foster efficiency as they incentivize labor supply but limit redistribution to the poorest. We document the shift in the distribution of transfers across households in the United States since the 1980s and quantify the optimal balance between standard means-tested transfers and those conditional on work requirements.  Part II explores how to adjust consumption taxes in recessions. Consumption taxes make up a large share of fiscal revenue in OECD economies, yet their regressive nature raises distributional concerns. Temporary consumption tax cuts have been recently proposed to fight recessions, with the joint goal of easing the burden on the poor and stabilizing the economy. We theoretically and quantitatively analyze the stabilization properties of temporary consumption tax cuts.  Part III explores how to raise revenues from the wealthy. Capital income taxes have been regularly proposed to finance redistribution, with no consensus on their efficiency cost. High capital income likely reflects skills of investors selecting productive private businesses, but it may also stem from the market power of wealthy investors. We examine the nature of high returns of investments in private businesses of the wealthy in Norway, and quantify their implications for the optimal level of capital taxes.

Mots-clés : macro public finance,heterogeneous agents,inequality,taxation,redistribution,labor supply,automatic stabilizers,capital returns
Projet ERC : GROW (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Human Mobility, Environment, and Space
Entité participante : Wageningen University & Research — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : WUR
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1404141.0 €

Groundwater is the largest freshwater resource on earth and is crucial for people and the environment. In many regions around the world, groundwater is used unsustainably. Consequently, groundwater levels drop leading to drying rivers and wells, salt intrusion, land subsidence, and groundwater depletion. Irrigated agriculture is the largest user of groundwater worldwide and is responsible for current hotspots of negative impacts, especially for intensively irrigated regions of the world. Already, many rivers in these regions have reached their environmentally critical streamflow, which is necessary to maintain healthy ecosystems. With expected increasing water demands and climate change, the pressure on our groundwater resources will increase further and new regions experiencing negative impacts will develop. To reduce and prevent these impacts, groundwater uses should be reduced. At the same time, crop productivity should be maintained to protect global food security. This poses for me the urgent question: What is the current and future environmentally safe operation space for global groundwater use and what is, and will be, the impact of sustainable groundwater use on crop production worldwide? In this project, I will provide a better understanding of groundwater availability worldwide. My project will define the environmentally safe operating space for current and future groundwater use and will define and quantify the key trade-offs between sustainable groundwater use and crop production. I will develop a novel and innovative modelling framework that connects groundwater, surface water, and crop growth. The model will be linked novel future water demand scenarios, including adaptation strategies towards sustainable groundwater use worldwide. The results will show globally where and when competition for groundwater between the environment and crop production is largest and whether sustainable groundwater use can support current and future crop production.

Mots-clés : groundwater use,groundwater sustainability,crop production,food security,future scenarios,large scale groundwater modeling
Projet ERC : FLORA (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Human Mobility, Environment, and Space
Entité participante : École normale supérieure PSL — Pays : France — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : ENS PSL
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 364873.95 €

Food systems are crucial to end hunger, but also to mitigate and adapt to climate change, to protect and restore biodiversity, to ensure human health and well-being, to end poverty, and to support sustainable communities. While hunger has receded, food systems are causing increasingly severe damage to our environment and health. The FLORA project will contribute to a transformation of global agri-food production, trade, and consumption necessary to achieve sustainable and healthy food systems.  The project will create essential evidence to identify and implement the shifts in practices and behaviours needed to effectively achieve this transformation, by (1) making a diagnosis of the integrated health and environmental outcomes of food systems globally, from the production and consumption perspectives, with innovative measures of sustainability, (2) identifying key threats and opportunities with system dynamics and complex network analyses, and (3) targeting and evaluating tailored solutions with an inter-disciplinary modelling framework. The project will enable the identification of most effective, targeted solutions by considering trade-offs, synergies, and dynamics of key food systems components. Global in scope, it sets the ambitious goal to overcome barriers in current approaches by taking a systemic approach and establishing a robust, interdisciplinary framework supported by empirical advancements to tackle complex food systems challenges. This innovative project builds on the PI’s excellent track record in leading interdisciplinary research focused on the global agri-food system and its environmental impacts.

Mots-clés : food systems
Projet ERC : sc-PTSD (Horizon Europe, appel 2025, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System
Entité participante : Łukasiewicz Research Network – PORT Polish Center for Technology Development — Pays : Pologne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : PORT
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1403931.0 €

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a devastating psychiatric disease triggered by severe psychological trauma, affecting 4% of the global population - a prevalence projected to rise due to ongoing conflicts like the war in Ukraine and the looming threat of climate change. Despite its widespread impact, we lack effective treatments of PTSD, placing a significant burden on individuals and society.  Previous PTSD research was hindered by limitations such as bulk tissue analyses, a lack of epigenetic focus, or small sample sizes. These drawbacks limit our understanding of cell-type-specific alterations during PTSD. My proposed project will leverage single-nuclei RNA sequencing, DNA methylation profiling, and 3D chromatin structure analysis to achieve unprecedented insights into PTSD pathology. Specifically, I aim to:  1) Identify cellular, epigenetic, and transcriptional perturbations in a post-mortem human brain PTSD cohort, revealing promising molecular targets.  2) Characterize classical models of PTSD using single-nuclei genomics, and develop novel humanized model of PTSD. This will enable the identification of the most relevant model for human PTSD, and streamline further validation of targets.  3) Test the efficacy of novel as well as already identified targets from my pilot animal study by utilizing epigenome-modifying tools to alleviate PTSD pathology in mouse models.  This project will deepen our understanding of PTSD at unprecedented resolution, ultimately validating novel molecular targets and paving the way for more effective interventions in future.

Mots-clés : stress related disorders,single nuclei genomics