Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : MATERIALIZABLE (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Computer science and informatics
Entité participante : Institute of Science and Technology Austria — Pays : Autriche — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : ISTA
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1497730.0 €

While access to 3D-printing technology becomes ubiquitous and provides revolutionary possibilities for fabricating complex, functional, multi-material objects with stunning properties, its potential impact is currently significantly limited due to the lack of efficient and intuitive methods for content creation. Existing tools are usually restricted to expert users, have been developed based on the capabilities of traditional manufacturing processes, and do not sufficiently take fabrication constraints into account. Scientifically, we are facing the fundamental challenge that existing simulation techniques and design approaches for predicting the physical properties of materials and objects at the resolution of modern 3D printers are too slow and do not scale with increasing object complexity. The problem is extremely challenging because real world-materials exhibit extraordinary variety and complexity. To address these challenges, I suggest a novel computational approach that facilitates intuitive design, accurate and fast simulation techniques, and a functional representation of 3D content. I propose a multi-scale representation of functional goals and hybrid models that describes the physical behavior at a coarse scale and the relationship to the underlying material composition at the resolution of the 3D printer. My approach is to combine data-driven and physically-based modeling, providing both the required speed and accuracy through smart precomputations and tailored simulation techniques that operate on the data. A key aspect of this modeling and simulation approach is to identify domains that are sufficiently low-dimensional to be correctly sampled. Subsequently, I propose the fundamental re-thinking of the workflow, leading to solutions that allow synthesizing model instances optimized on-the-fly for a specific output device. The principal applicability will be evaluated for functional goals, such as appearance, deformation, and sensing capabilities.
Projet ERC : CiMaC (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Synthetic Chemistry and Materials
Entité participante : Ghent University — Pays : Belgique — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UGent
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2482500.0 €

While displaying superior properties compared to thermoplastic polymers, thermosets – which have an annual global production of 40 million tons and are for example used in windmill blades and adhesives – represent a major worldwide challenge. Their crosslinked structure presents many hurdles when it comes to recycling and responding to Europe’s desire for a circular economy. The overarching objective of the CiMaC-program is to propose ground-breaking solutions to the major shortcomings of Covalent Adaptable Networks (CANs), being their long-term dimensional stability and (re)processing ability when using industrial techniques, thereby enabling the urgent uptake of these revolutionary thermosets from academic research to an industrial level. Covalent dynamic chemistry should ideally enable a combination of the bulk processing possible when using thermoplastics and the high durability of thermosets. Today, however, the chemical design of CANs, with ultrafast (re)processing potential, along with dimensional stability under service conditions, represents the holy grail in sustainable material science. The unique concept to tackle this ultimate goal will start from my recognized expertise in precision macromolecular chemistry. The central idea is that the use of precisely engineered telechelic macromolecules as CAN-precursors will allow an unprecedented regulation of the resulting CAN properties through control over different molecular parameters, such as tacticity and internal catalysis. First, several innovative synthetic protocols/methodologies will be developed to make such unique telechelic structures on a large enough scale for material science. After their incorporation into CANs, the key findings within the CiMaC knowledge platform on reprocessing and long-term performance of crosslinked materials, will be implemented for both the development of robust, on-demand debondable adhesives, as well as for providing the first upscalable extrudable thermoset materials.

Mots-clés : precision macromolecular chemistry,circular polymeric materials,covalent adaptable networks,debonding adhesives,extrudable thermoset materials
Projet ERC : SynDegrade (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System
Entité participante : University of Zurich — Pays : Suisse — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UZH
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1489340.95 €

While many neurons live for decades, the proteins that determine neural function have half-lives of hours to weeks. On the one hand, this allows for plastic changes during development and learning. On the other hand, this poses the question of how stable neural function can be achieved and maintained at all. Several neurological diseases, such as epilepsy or migraine, have been linked to uncontrolled neural function. However, the molecular mechanisms that stabilize nervous system function are poorly understood. The major site of regulation of neural activity is the chemical synapse. Synaptic function is tightly linked to the specific composition and abundance of proteins at synapses. However, the molecular pathways underlying the homeostatic control of protein levels at synapses, henceforth called synaptic proteostasis, are largely unknown. The main objective of this proposal is to unravel the molecular signaling systems underlying synaptic proteostasis through local protein degradation, and its role in regulating a key step in synaptic transmission: neurotransmitter release. We propose to systematically analyze Ubiquitin Proteasome System (UPS)-dependent modulation of synaptic transmission in mutants of all major classes of synaptic genes, with a focus on homeostatic plasticity genes. This will be realized by employing a unique combination of forward genetics and electrophysiological analysis of synaptic transmission in Drosophila. Novel genetically-encoded probes will be used and developed to study synaptic transmission and protein degradation, and to acutely perturb protein function. Finally, this new information will be translated into the mammalian CNS by studying UPS-dependent modulation of release at a CNS synapse that allows for a detailed biophysical description of this phenomenon. Together, this approach should be ideally suited to dissect the molecular signaling systems underlying presynaptic proteostasis, and its role in neural physiology and pathology.
Projet ERC : TransReg (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Physiology in Health, Disease and Ageing
Entité participante : University of Bern — Pays : Suisse — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UB
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1672875.0 €

While myocardial infarction leads to adverse ventricular remodeling ultimately causing heart failure in humans, some animals, including zebrafish can regenerate the injured heart. We recently revealed a high degree of plasticity in cardiomyocyte subpopulations involved in the reconstruction of the injured heart. The gene regulatory network involved in heart regeneration is starting to be elucidated and epigenetic remodeling has been suggested to play a pivotal role during this process. Similarly it is known that the environment can influence the regenerative capacity but whether such an effect can be transmitted from one generation to the next has not been addressed. This mechanism is called transgenerational epigenetic inheritance (TEI) and describes the transfer of experiences from parents to their offspring through the gametes, independent on changes in DNA sequence. TEI has also been described in humans: starvation suffered by grandparents affects the metabolism of grandchildren. TEI is also relevant to organ injury: in rats, offspring from parents exposed to liver toxicants revealed reduced hepatic fibrosis in response to the same injury. Changes in DNA methylation, histone modifications and non-coding RNAs have been associated to TEI. We aim to describe for the first time epigenetic inheritance of organ regeneration and unravel its underlying mechanism using the zebrafish model. We will assess whether cardiac injury elicits epigenetic modifications in sperm and determine if offspring from injured parental fish reveal altered heart regeneration. Genetic models will be developed for functional assessment of identified modifications. We will also further analyze cell plasticity during heart regeneration and address whether hearts regenerated from different progenitors respond equally well to further injuries. Our expected findings will constitute a paradigm shift on the origins of cardiovascular disease and define epigenetic priming as a basis for regeneration.

Mots-clés : zebrafish,transgenerational epigenetic inheritance,heart regeneration
Projet ERC : BORDER (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The study of the human past
Entité participante : University of Neuchâtel — Pays : Suisse — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1997675.0 €

While the crisis of the territorial nation-state in the Middle East has once again been brought to a head by the wars in Iraq and Syria, it cannot be simply understood as the logical consequence of an imported political construction. Based on two epistemological notions – borderlands as histoire-problème (history-as-problem) and the co-production of borders between state and society – this research project proposes to rethink the classical historical narrative about the emergence of the post-Ottoman Middle East. Taking its cue from trans-border phenomena and thus paying attention to the circulation of people, goods and ideas as well as to everyday encounters between local actors and state representatives, the project will be guided by four principle objectives to offer: • A socio-historical analysis of state violence in the borderlands of the Middle East; • An examination of the capacity of border populations to create the history of the borderlands, nation-states, and the region as a whole; • A study of the frontier effects based around the notions of subjectivity, space and time, and involving various levels of observation (macro, meso and micro) in order to identify the ruptures and continuities evoked by the delineation of new borderlines; and • A historical lens through which to make sense of current events in Syria and Iraq, and possibly orient conflict-resolution practitioners. Through the exploitation of a wide range of sources (diplomatic, administrative and military records, missionary documents, newspapers) and by looking at the social construction of international frontiers at the borderlands located between Turkey, Iraq and Syria in the interwar era, the research project will provide a much more holistic yet finely-grained understanding of the formation of the territorial state in the region in the aftermath of the First World War as well as a historical perspective on the on-going armed conflicts.

Mots-clés : transborder movements,frontier effects,borderlands,circulations,mandate period,state formation,middle east,territoriality,decentred history,history as problem
Projet ERC : MAGNETIC-SPEED-LIMIT (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Condensed matter physics
Entité participante : Ca' Foscari University of Venice — Pays : Italie — Rôle : Partner
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 218750.0 €

While the origin of magnetic order in condensed matter is in the exchange and spin-orbit interactions, with time scales in the subpicosecond ranges, it has been long believed that magnetism could only be manipulated at nanosecond rates, exploiting dipolar interactions with external magnetic fields. However, in the past decade researchers have been able to observe ultrafast magnetic dynamics at its intrinsic time scales without the need for magnetic fields, thus revolutionising the view on the speed limits of magnetism. Despite many achievements in ultrafast magnetism, the understanding of the fundamental physics that allows for the ultrafast dissipation of angular momentum is still only partial, hampered by the lack of experimental techniques suited to fully explore these phenomena. However, the recent appearance of two new types of coherent radiation, single-cycle THz pulses and x-rays generated at free electron lasers (FELs), has provided researchers access to a whole new set of capabilities to tackle this challenge. This proposal suggests using these techniques to achieve an encompassing view of ultrafast magnetic dynamics in metallic ferromagnets, via the following three research objectives: (a) to reveal ultrafast dynamics driven by strong THz radiation in several magnetic systems using table-top femtosecond lasers; (b) to unravel the contribution of lattice dynamics to ultrafast demagnetization in different magnetic materials using the x-rays produced at FELs and (c) to directly image ultrafast spin currents by creating femtosecond movies with nanometre resolution. The proposed experiments are challenging and explore unchartered territories, but if successful, they will advance the understanding of the speed limits of magnetism, at the time scales of the exchange and spin-orbit interactions. They will also open up for future investigations of ultrafast magnetic phenomena in materials with large electronic correlations or spin-orbit coupling.

Mots-clés : ultrafast magnetism,spin currents,lattice dynamics,thz radiation,x ray free electron lasers
Projet ERC : TARICA (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Institutions, Governance and Legal Systems
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 : 1998469.76 €

While the “Arab spring” has been often analyzed as the sign of the world-wide expansion of the model of liberal democracy, almost five years after the Tunisian “revolution”, the geopolitical picture of North Africa (from Morocco to Egypt) shows very different configurations. The wave of protests and in some cases the collapse of authoritarian regimes have produced various outcomes and conducted to different political choices: « negotiated » political change in Morocco, containment of social unrest in Algeria, « national dialogue » and success of electoral processes in Tunisia, authoritarian restoration in Egypt and civil war in Libya. These varied situations have close links with the mobilizations of actors drawing on unequal resources and differentiated logics of action. Analyzing ongoing change in North Africa as part of the process of dissemination, confrontation and hybridization of various political and societal models, and as resulting from their appropriation and reinterpretation by social actors, this project aims at identifying the complex processes, which contribute to the diversity of the trajectories followed by the region in the aftermath of the “Arab revolts”. Our objective is to grasp how various actors position themselves in the space opened up by the collapse or the calling into question of authoritarian regimes and to analyze their strategies in connection with the reference models and normative repertoires, which guide their actions. Our purpose is to identify the factors and processes that make it possible (or prevent) the setting up of institutional arrangements able to manage social diversity, pluralism and conflicts, so as to avoid authoritarian restoration or civil war. Mobilizing a multidisciplinary team of 8 core researchers and a comparative approach centered on the actors, we will explore these processes through three thematic entrees: political regulation, management of the past and transitional justice, social injustice and development.

Mots-clés : arab revolts,political change,justice,political memory,governance,development,north africa
Projet ERC : RoboExNovo (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Computer science and informatics
Entité participante : Sapienza University of Rome — Pays : Italie — Rôle : Partner
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 411404.0 €

While today’s robots are able to perform sophisticated tasks, they can only act on objects they have been trained to recognize. This is a severe limitation: any robot will inevitably face novel situations in unconstrained settings, and thus will always have knowledge gaps. This calls for robots able to learn continuously about objects by themselves. The learning paradigm of state-of-the-art robots is the sensorimotor toil, i.e. the process of acquiring knowledge by generalization over observed stimuli. This is in line with cognitive theories that claim that cognition is embodied and situated, so that all knowledge acquired by a robot is specific to its sensorimotor capabilities and to the situation in which it has been acquired. Still, humans are also capable of learning from externalized sources – like books, illustrations, etc – containing knowledge that is necessarily unembodied and unsituated. To overcome this gap, RoboExNovo proposes a paradigm shift. I will develop a new generation of robots able to acquire perceptual and semantic knowledge about object from externalized, unembodied resources, to be used in situated settings. As the largest existing body of externalized knowledge, I will consider the Web as the source from which to learn from. To achieve this, I propose to build a translation framework between the representations used by robots in their situated experience and those used on the Web, based on relational structures establishing links between related percepts and between percepts and the semantics they support. My leading expertise in machine learning applied to multi modal data and robot vision puts me in a strong position to realize this project. By enabling robots to use knowledge resources on the Web that were not explicitly designed to be accessed for this purpose, RoboExNovo will pave the way for ground-breaking technological advances in home and service robotics, driver assistant systems, and in general any Web-connected situated device.

Mots-clés : life long learning,autonomous robot systems,visual and multi modal learning
Projet ERC : DecodeDiabetes (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Physiology in Health, Disease and Ageing
Entité participante : Centre for Genomic Regulation — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : CRG;CRG-CERCA
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2243746.0 €

Whole genome sequencing is quickly becoming a routine clinical instrument. However, our ability to decipher DNA variants is still largely limited to protein-coding exons, which comprise 1% of the genome. Most known Mendelian mutations are in exons, yet genetic testing still fails to show causal coding mutations in more than 50% of well-characterized Mendelian disorders. This defines a pressing need to interpret noncoding genome sequences, and to establish the role of noncoding mutations in Mendelian disease. A recent case study harnessed whole genome sequencing, epigenomics, and functional genomics to show that mutations in an enhancer cause most cases of neonatal diabetes due to pancreas agenesis. This example raises major questions: (i) what is the overall impact of penetrant regulatory mutations in human diabetes? (ii) do regulatory mutations cause distinct forms of diabetes? (iii) more generally, can we develop a strategy to systematically tackle regulatory variation in Mendelian disease? The current project will address these questions with unique resources. First, we have created epigenomic and functional perturbation resources to interpret the regulatory genome in embryonic pancreas and adult pancreatic islets. Second, we have collected an unprecedented international cohort of patients with a phenotype consistent with monogenic diabetes, yet lacking mutations in known gene culprits after genetic testing, and therefore with increased likelihood of harboring noncoding mutations. Third, we have developed a prototype platform to sequence regulatory mutations in a large number of patients. These resources will be combined with innovative strategies to uncover causal enhancer mutations underlying Mendelian diabetes. If successful, this project will expand the diagnostic spectrum of diabetes, it will discover new genetic regulators of diabetes-relevant networks, and will provide a framework to understand regulatory variation in Mendelian disease.
Projet ERC : The Wall (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The study of the human past
Entité participante : Hebrew University of Jerusalem — Pays : Israël — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : HUJI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2499750.0 €

Why did some (but not all) Chinese dynasties invest huge amount of resources in the construction of ‘Great Walls’? The proposed project will focus on precisely that question, in an attempt to unravel what is perhaps the most enigmatic episode of ‘Great Wall’ construction. Roughly dated to the 10th-13th centuries CE and located far to the north of other ‘Great Wall’ lines, this Medieval Wall System (MWS) is one of the longest walls ever constructed in world history, stretching over more than 3,500 km and including large auxiliary structures (Fig. 1). The amount of resources invested in this MWS must have been enormous, but historical sources are mute about its construction, and modern scholarship is unable to date it precisely or understand why it was built and how it functioned. The motives behind the construction of the MWS, its political context and ecological implications, are highly relevant for the understanding of the complex history of China and Mongolia on the eve of Chinggis Khan’s rise to power. However, because in the past scholars have assumed that ‘Great Walls’ were fortified border lines designed to stop military incursions, such issues’ impetus and consequences were never addressed. Hence, the proposed project will put forward novel hypotheses, analyse them by using advanced recovery and analytical methods, and examine them against a broad archaeological, historical, environmental, and geographical background. The research hypothesis of the proposed project is that the MWS was not built as a defence against invading armies, but rather as a means to monitor and sometimes stop the movement of nomadic people and their herds. The large-scale movements of nomadic people towards more central areas of the empire happened, I would suggest, in times of ecological stress in the Steppe.

Mots-clés : mongolian archaeology,chinese archaeology,chinese history,liao dynasty,jin dynasty,long walls