Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : ALLEGRO (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Social World and Its Diversity
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 : 2458699.7 €

A major challenge in contemporary traffic and transportation theory is having a comprehensive understanding of pedestrians and cyclists behaviour. This is notoriously hard to observe, since sensors providing abundant and detailed information about key variables characterising this behaviour have not been available until very recently. The behaviour is also far more complex than that of the much better understood fast mode. This is due to the many degrees of freedom in decision-making, the interactions among slow traffic participants that are more involved and far less guided by traffic rules and regulations than those between car-drivers, and the many fascinating but complex phenomena in slow traffic flows (self-organised patterns, turbulence, spontaneous phase transitions, herding, etc.) that are very hard to predict accurately. With slow traffic modes gaining ground in terms of mode share in many cities, lack of empirical insights, behavioural theories, predictively valid analytical and simulation models, and tools to support planning, design, management and control is posing a major societal problem as well: examples of major accidents due to bad planning, organisation and management of events are manifold, as are locations where safety of slow modes is a serious issue due to interactions with fast modes. This programme is geared towards establishing a comprehensive theory of slow mode traffic behaviour, considering the different behavioural levels relevant for understanding, reproducing and predicting slow mode traffic flows in cities. The levels deal with walking and cycling operations, activity scheduling and travel behaviour, and knowledge representation and learning. Major scientific breakthroughs are expected at each of these levels, in terms of theory and modelling, by using innovative (big) data collection and experimentation, analysis and fusion techniques, including social media data analytics, using augmented reality, and remote and crowd sensing.

Mots-clés : pedestrian flow theory,bicycle flow theory,travel behaviour,activity scheduling,learning and memory decay,sustainable transport,crowd management,urban traffic
Projet ERC : ORCHESTRATE (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Human Diseases
Entité participante : Maastricht University — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UM
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2655000.0 €

A major challenge in regenerative medicine is to create phenotypic functioning tissues by controlling cell behaviour. We particularly lack the ability to form complex tissues composed of multiple cell types and with three-dimensional architecture, which are defining features of most tissues. We know that cells are conferred with the ability to choreograph their own development through self-organization. I hypothesize that if we actively promote this intrinsic capacity with new cell culture platforms, we can orchestrate self-organization to make complex tissues, organs, and even organisms with a high degree of reproducibility and in large numbers. This proposal begins with the design and development of new cell culture platforms which will be used to test my hypothesis. Building upon our proprietary microfabrication and -fluidic technology, we will create advanced platforms that will control how cells aggregate and enable the application of biomolecules with spatial and temporal resolution to orchestrate self-organization. This technology will be transferred into three projects of increasing complexity and ambition: making in vitro models of pancreatic islets, the pituitary gland, and a mouse blastocyst. For each, we need to find the right conditions to enrich for desired phenotypes and functions, which means that we need quantitative read-outs. We will use state-of-the-art biological methods, including RNA-sequencing, to give us a holistic view of transcript expression and pathway activation, and in situ sequencing to allow us to pinpoint the expression of important phenotypic markers at a single cell level. The anticipated outcomes of this proposal are three-fold: first, we will develop a new generation of cell culture platforms with integrated microfluidics; second, we will uncover new knowledge about how to orchestrate self-organization; and third, we will make in vitro models of pancreatic islets, pituitary glands, and mouse blastocysts.

Mots-clés : 3d cell culture,bioengineering,high throughput,microfluidics,stem cells
Projet ERC : EPICROP (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Integrative Biology: from Genes and Genomes to Systems
Entité participante : University of Lausanne — Pays : Suisse — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UNIL
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1499903.0 €

A major goal in plant biology is to understand how naturally occurring genetic variation leads to quantitative differences in economically important traits. Efforts to navigate the genotype-to-phenotype map are often focused on linear genetic interactions. As a result, crop breeding is mainly driven by loci with predictable additive effects. However, it has become clear that quantitative trait variation often results from perturbations of complex genetic networks. Thus, understanding epistasis, or interactions between genes, is key for our ability to predictably improve crops. To meet this challenge, this project will reveal and dissect epistatic interactions in gene regulatory networks that guide stem cell differentiation in the model crop tomato. In the first aim, I will utilize exhaustive allelic series for epistatic MADS-box genes that quantitatively regulate flower and fruit production as an experimental model system to study fundamental principles of epistasis that can be applied to other genetic networks. Genome-wide transcript profiling will be used to reveal molecular signatures of epistasis and potential targets for predictable crop improvement by advanced CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing technology. Further, my preliminary data suggests that epistasis is widespread and important across major productivity traits in tomato. Thus, in a second aim, I will access this untapped resource of cryptic genetic variation by sensitizing a tomato diversity panel for weak epistatic effects from unknown natural modifier loci of stem cell differentiation using trans-acting CRISPR/Cas9 editing cassettes. This screen represents a new approach to mutagenesis in plants with potential to reveal cryptic variation in other system. The outcomes of this project will advance our knowledge in a fundamental area of plant genome biology, help uncover and understand the functional architecture of epistasis, and have potential to bring significant improvements to agriculture.

Mots-clés : epistasis,natural variation,meristem,crispr gene editing,mads box gene,tomato
Projet ERC : MORE-TEM (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Synergy grants)
Entité participante : Corrected Electron Optical Systems (Germany) — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : CEOS
Type d'entité : Organismes privés (hors enseignement)
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2032473.0 €

A major mission of condensed-matter physics is to understand material properties via the knowledge of the energy vs. momentum (q) dispersion and lifetime of fundamental excitations. Unfortunately, none of the available techniques can be applied to emerging nanomaterials: inelastic x-ray scattering & electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) in reflection lack the spatial resolution whereas EELS in transmission electron microscopy lacks the needed combined spatial, energy & q-resolution. In MORE-TEM, we develop a new spectrometer enabling to map excitations q-resolved with 0.01 Å-1 resolution and q-averaged down to atomic level, at unprecedented 1 meV energy resolution and at variable temperature between 700K & 4K. This breakthrough is possible by bringing together our synergy group with complementary skills in electron microscopy, electron optics, experimental & theoretical spectroscopy. This opens the so-far unexplored possibility to investigate dispersion and lifetime of phonons, plasmons & excitons in nanomaterials including (organic) molecules, 1D nanotubes, 2D materials, heterostructures & nanocrystals in minerals with a few nm of lateral resolution on samples as thin as an atomic monolayer. Mapping out the spatial and q-landscape of primary excitations will allow us to gain control on quantum phases, like charge-density waves and superconductivity, to engineer new materials for energy (e.g. batteries), (opto-)electronic devices in (organic) electronics, and to model the physical and chemical properties of natural geological systems. This will hugely impact a wide range of applications in physics, chemistry, engineering, as well as in environmental-, geo- & material science. MORE-TEM not only implements features of a large scale facility on a cheaper table-top instrument, but it also pushes q-resolved spectroscopy to the realm of the nanoscale, providing thus a fundamentally new & unique infrastructure for the characterization and optimisation of nanomaterials.

Mots-clés : eels,nanospectrosocopy,electron optics,energy,momentum dispersion of quasiparticles,phonons,plasmons,excitons,hierarchical quantum matter,graphene,nanotubes,2d materials,heterostructures
Projet ERC : MORE-TEM (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Synergy grants)
Entité participante : Osaka University — Pays : Japon — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1827116.0 €

A major mission of condensed-matter physics is to understand material properties via the knowledge of the energy vs. momentum (q) dispersion and lifetime of fundamental excitations. Unfortunately, none of the available techniques can be applied to emerging nanomaterials: inelastic x-ray scattering & electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) in reflection lack the spatial resolution whereas EELS in transmission electron microscopy lacks the needed combined spatial, energy & q-resolution. In MORE-TEM, we develop a new spectrometer enabling to map excitations q-resolved with 0.01 Å-1 resolution and q-averaged down to atomic level, at unprecedented 1 meV energy resolution and at variable temperature between 700K & 4K. This breakthrough is possible by bringing together our synergy group with complementary skills in electron microscopy, electron optics, experimental & theoretical spectroscopy. This opens the so-far unexplored possibility to investigate dispersion and lifetime of phonons, plasmons & excitons in nanomaterials including (organic) molecules, 1D nanotubes, 2D materials, heterostructures & nanocrystals in minerals with a few nm of lateral resolution on samples as thin as an atomic monolayer. Mapping out the spatial and q-landscape of primary excitations will allow us to gain control on quantum phases, like charge-density waves and superconductivity, to engineer new materials for energy (e.g. batteries), (opto-)electronic devices in (organic) electronics, and to model the physical and chemical properties of natural geological systems. This will hugely impact a wide range of applications in physics, chemistry, engineering, as well as in environmental-, geo- & material science. MORE-TEM not only implements features of a large scale facility on a cheaper table-top instrument, but it also pushes q-resolved spectroscopy to the realm of the nanoscale, providing thus a fundamentally new & unique infrastructure for the characterization and optimisation of nanomaterials.

Mots-clés : eels,nanospectrosocopy,electron optics,energy,momentum dispersion of quasiparticles,phonons,plasmons,excitons,hierarchical quantum matter,graphene,nanotubes,2d materials,heterostructures
Projet ERC : NonChroRep (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Integrative Biology: from Genes and Genomes to Systems
Entité participante : University of Navarra — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2000000.0 €

A major shift in our conception of genome regulation has emerged in recent years. It is now obvious that the majority of cellular transcripts do not code for proteins, and a significant subset of them are long RNAs (lncRNAs). My lab and others have shown that lncRNAs regulate genome function and gene expression, and that alterations in lncRNAs are inherent to disease, including cancer. However, our understanding of the roles of lncRNAs and their underlying molecular mechanisms are still extremely poor. Among all the mechanisms reported, the evident connection between lncRNAs and the chromatin places them at the center of cell biology. During their cycle, cells must undergo faithful DNA replication to ensure that an exact copy of their genetic content is passed on to their daughters. Throughout this tightly regulated process chromatin must be disrupted and reconstituted, and it determines where and when replication takes place. If replication is deregulated, cells can proliferate uncontrollably and suffer loss of genome integrity. Our recent findings implicate lncRNA in the process of DNA replication, representing a novel aspect of genome regulation that places lncRNAs at the focal point of cancer biology. To delve deeper into these findings I aim to: 1. Identify the role of lncRNAs in the replication of the chromatin 2. Dissect the molecular mechanism by which lncRNAs function in this process and 3. Explore the role of these lncRNAs as cancer drivers and their potential as therapeutic targets. I will apply tools that we have generated in recent years, as well as new ones, including approaches to identify lncRNAs associated with replicating chromatin, novel lncRNA-tailored CRISPR applications, and the latest methodology for functional study and targeting of long noncoding transcripts in cancer. I am confident that we are in a unique position to address these life-essential and yet pending questions, setting up a basis for future lncRNA-based therapies.

Mots-clés : lncrna,chromatin,dna replication,cancer
Projet ERC : TeraTrace (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Universität Innsbruck — Pays : Autriche — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

A near-spherical terahertz resonator will be constructed and integrated into a mobile terahertz trace gas detector. It will deliver about two orders of magnitude larger terahertz path lengths, corresponding to trace gas detection sensitivity down to one part per million. With this a means becomes available to measure trace gases that are very difficult to monitor by standard means, such as the atmospherically important hydroxyl radical.

Mots-clés : terahertz spectroscopy,trace gas detection
Projet ERC : AIRWAVES (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Helmholtz Centre Potsdam - GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : GFZ
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 149711.0 €

A new automated water sampling technology was developed under the ERC Consolidator Grant STEEPclim with the potential to revolutionize environmental monitoring worldwide. A changing climate and growing scarcity of water strongly increase the need of reliable standardized and highly automated environmental monitoring, thus creating a growing market for our innovative solution. Our first prototype successfully operated under field conditions. Now we seek funding to further develop this device and explore commercialization pathways. Today, rain water, river discharge and climate are monitored routinely with high temporal resolution using quality sensors, but no adequate automated technology for obtaining representative samples for laboratory grade analysis is available for weather services, hydromet offices, chemical industry or research institutions. So far taking, preserving and analyzing samples from natural waters is meticulous, labor intensive and expensive. Isotope signatures in water are ideal tracers of processes in the water cycle. Stable isotope analysis of precipitation can identify changing atmospheric circulation patterns and the origin of groundwater. They can also be used for the reconstruction of paleoclimate from ancient waters locked in geological archives. The analysis of fruits, food and drink products, of drugs, explosives and human remains is used to identify their regional provenance. For this purpose a robust understanding of the modern distribution of isotopes in space and time is indispensable. The autonomous and robust sampler introduced here is designed to fulfill the high demands on sampling and storage for isotope analysis. It is portable, has low power consumption and can be accessed remotely for maintenance and to adapt the sampling protocol strategy. The obtained water samples are not restricted to isotope analysis but can be used for any type of environmental water analysis.

Mots-clés : water cycle,hydrological monitoring,isotope hydrology,isotope geochemistry,palaeoclimatology,geochemistry
Projet ERC : DC_Nutrient (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Immunity, Infection and Immunotherapy
Entité participante : Trinity College Dublin — Pays : Irlande — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : TCD
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1995861.0 €

A new immunoregulatory axis has emerged in recent years demonstrating that cellular metabolism is crucial in controlling immune responses. This regulatory axis is acutely sensitive to nutrients that fuel metabolic pathways and support nutrient sensitive signalling pathways. My recent research demonstrates that nutrients are dynamically controlled and are not equally available to all immune cells. The data shows that activated T cells, clustered around a dendritic cell (DC), can consume the available nutrients, leaving the DC nutrient deprived in vitro. This local regulation of the DC nutrient microenvironment by neighbouring cells has profound effects on DC function and T cell responses. Nutrient deprived DC have altered signalling (decreased mTORC1 activity), increased pro-inflammatory functions (IL12 and costimulatory molecule expression) and induce enhanced T cell responses (proliferation, IFNγ production). However, proving this, particularly in vivo, is a major challenge as the tools to investigate nutrient dynamics within complex microenvironments have not yet been developed. This research programme will generate innovative new technologies to measure the local distribution of glucose, glutamine and leucine (all of which control mTORC1 signalling) to be visualised and quantified. These technologies will pioneer a new era of in vivo nutrient analysis. Nutrient deprivation of antigen presenting DC will then be investigated (using our new technologies) in response to various stimuli within the inflammatory lymph node and correlated to CD8 T cell responses. We will generate state-of-the-art transgenic mice to specifically knock-down nutrient transporters for glucose, glutamine, or leucine in DC to definitively prove that the availability of these nutrients to antigen presenting DC is a key mechanism for controlling CD8 T cells responses. This would be a paradigm shifting discovery that would open new horizons for the study of nutrient-regulated immune responses.

Mots-clés : dendritic cells,cd8 t cell responses,inflammatory lymph nodes,nutrient uptake,mtorc1,ampk
Projet ERC : EntangleGen (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Fundamental constituents of matter
Entité participante : Heidelberg University — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2390000.0 €

A paradigm example of precise predictions in complex systems is the universal scaling of correlation functions close to phase transitions, with their associated critical exponents. The extension of this concept to time dependent problems has been studied in the classical regime as well as in the quantum regime. A clean experimental confirmation of this prediction in a quantum system as well as of its connection to non-local entanglement generation is the defined goal of this project. The experimental system builds on atomic Bose-Einstein condensates with precisely controlled internal degrees of freedom. Their physics can be mapped onto extensively studied spin systems in the large-collective-spin limit. While the mean evolution of these large spins is well captured by classical descriptions, the detailed study of the fluctuations can reveal particle entanglement. The technology for such high-precision measurements has been pioneered by the PI, demonstrating entanglement in spin-squeezed as well as non-gaussian entangled states. In this project one-dimensional gases will be realized allowing for the implementation of a spin system revealing a quantum phase transition. While the spatial spin-spin correlation functions can already be detected, the future experimental development concerns the implementation of non-demolition/weak measurements of the spin degree of freedom. This makes time-time and time-space correlation functions for the first time accessible, as a necessary prerequisite for the envisaged studies of universal dynamics out of equilibrium and the experimental confirmation of non-local entanglement. Observation of scale invariance in the then available full correlation landscape will allow the verification of the presence of a non-thermal fixed point. The successful demonstration will lead to a paradigm shift in the description of quantum dynamics in complex systems and will also open up new routes for generating quantum resources for quantum metrology.