Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : DYNABODY (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Human Mind and Its Compl exity
Entité participante : Université de Münster — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : Universität Münster
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1498820.0 €

Rhythmic peripheral signals like respiratory, cardiac, and gastric activity not only serve our bodies’ strive for homeostasis, but actively modulate brain activity and behaviour. However, what are the functional mechanisms and signalling pathways by which these rhythms orchestrate brain function? An ever-growing number of studies show that body-brain interactions are of prime importance when we assign functional roles to brain activity. Yet, little is known about how body-brain coupling is governed by states of the body (e.g. breathing interventions) and the brain (e.g. emotional or excitability states). Critically, these gaps also extend to studies in disease, which currently limits our understanding of how embodied processing contributes to pathology. Generally, it is unclear how multimodal physiological rhythms interact not only with each other, but also with high-dimensional brain dynamics. I will address these challenges by combining state-of-the-art MEG neuroimaging, computational modelling, and comprehensive physiological recordings to develop a novel framework of body-brain dynamics in health and disease. I will probe body-brain coupling in consequence of short-term changes in body and brain states, i.e. induced by experimental manipulation (breathing interventions, cognitive-emotional tasks), longer-term changes like circadian rhythms, and pathological alterations of excitability states or respiratory mechanics. To widen the scope towards multimodal body-brain interactions, I will assess the link of respiratory and gastric rhythms with non-invasive olfactory bulb recordings during edible odour processing. This lays the groundwork for developing the first computational model describing whole-body-whole-brain interactions. Overall, this project will establish an explanatory model to describe function and dysfunction of multimodal body-brain coupling and redefine the way we conceptualise, investigate, and ultimately understand the interplay of body and brain.

Mots-clés : body brain interactions,embodied cognition,respiration brain coupling,respiration,physiology,computational modelling,brain body states
Projet ERC : CROSSTALK (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Cell Biology, Development, Stem Cells and R egeneration
Entité participante : Université de la Sarre — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1499990.0 €

The cytoskeleton is mainly composed of actin, microtubules, and intermediate filaments. It is fundamentally important for many cellular processes, which is reflected in its morphological and functional diversity. In the past, in-depth analysis of actin and microtubule networks made it possible to reconstitute their diversity in vitro with astonishing precision. This enabled a detailed understanding of the mechanisms underlying actin and microtubule network formation, which are the basis for many cellular processes. In contrast, our knowledge of intermediate filaments is still in its infancy, and we are far from rebuilding complex intermediate filament networks and their interactions with other cytoskeletal elements in vitro. As intermediate filaments are a major determinant of cellular resilience against mechanical stress and their mutations associate with diseases, detailed insight into intermediate filament network formation and properties will represent a milestone in cytoskeletal research. The proposed project will be a major step in this direction. We focus on vimentin, the most ubiquitous member of the intermediate filament family. We will investigate the role of vimentin-microtubule crosstalk as well as the relation between network morphology and mechanical stress. How do these networks provide cells with mechanical stability, while being able to rapidly change their morphology? Through a combination of biochemical, structuring, and mechanical methods we will address this question, which is relevant in many biological systems – from subcellular structures to tissues and organisms. In this way, CROSSTALK will pave the way towards a clearer picture of this heavily understudied cytoskeletal filament. It aims at integrated, mechanistic insight into the organization and (mechanical) functions of vimentin and its interactions with microtubules, which form the basis for understanding its role in many higher-order physiological and pathological processes.

Mots-clés : cytoskeleton,microtubules,intermediate filaments,vimentin
Projet ERC : URANIA (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Products and Processes Engineering
Entité participante : Université de Padoue — Pays : Italie — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UniPd
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1500000.0 €

Materials response to harsh irradiation, temperature and corrosive media is preventing the successful exploitation of innovative nuclear fusion, advanced fission technologies for sustainable energy production and human exploration of faraway planets. Specifically, materials degradation and early failures hinder these scientific longstanding endeavours. The current paradigm to tackle these issues is to implement mitigating solutions or to characterise the surrounding environment to understand failure initiation and propagation. URÅNIA shifts this approach by focusing directly on understanding the incubation stage prior to initiation events. In this view, I will: i) create a novel gold standard to reveal the incubation stage of materials degradation phenomena; ii) reveal precursors affecting the transition from incubation to initiation, iii) link precursors nanoscale effect to macroscopic degradation behaviour. I want to accelerate the development of innovative nuclear technologies thanks to a new approach towards materials degradation investigation leveraging a combination of hierarchical analyses and interdisciplinary competences across nuclear, chemistry, materials science and engineering. URÅNIA ground breaking idea is to: 1. Create a system where I can measure time to initiation in controlled stress corrosion cracking (SCC) and pyrophoricity experiments. 2. Freeze at specific instants the incubation to initiation transition. 3. Reveal precursors using isotopic tracers with advanced microscopy. 4. Link precursors role at the nanoscale to the resulting macroscale effect using a neural network tool. 5. Compare precursors role in unirradiated and irradiated materials to elucidate the reasons for potentially enhanced SCC. URÅNIA changes the approach to investigate materials degradation, unlocking the development of innovative nuclear materials and potentially aiding materials design in all those key forefront technologies needed in energy and space.

Mots-clés : incubation initiation precursor oxide cracking pyrophoricity uranium compounds steels
Projet ERC : SCRIBEMUS (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Texts and Concepts
Entité participante : Université de Bristol — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : Partner
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 33121.0 €

From Bach to Beethoven, Verdi to The Beatles, whether elite or popular genres, our collective musical culture was shaped by complex technologies of music writing first invented c.1200 years ago in western Europe. SCRIBEMUS will elucidate the first spreading of musical notation in Latin Europe, one of the most debated topics in historical musicology since the 19th c. The project will address significant lacunae in our understanding of how music scripts were shaped and exchanged within transregional networks of singer-scribes. It will assess how scribes mediated contemporary writing practices and visual culture in the creation of musical notation, as well as the impact of politics and monastic institutions–especially convents–in the first adoption and diffusion of the musical staff. The project's international team will undertake the first large-scale and fully interdisciplinary analysis of hundreds of surviving musical sources across two centuries (c.900–1100); we will literally read beyond the surface of extant palimpsests manuscripts using multi-spectral imaging and digital processing to reveal a corpus of so-far 'hidden' melodies. SCRIBEMUS will go significantly beyond the state of the art in the field by exploring the scribes' intellectual approaches that guided their graphic representation of sound; this will be achieved through the development of software NeumSyntax. We will combine innovatively computational musicology and machine learning for the study of early musical notation with vocal performance practice through a collaboration with the music ensemble Dialogos. In three intersecting work packages, the project will cross the disciplinary boundaries between music, Latin palaeography, linguistics, the study of past musical cultures, and computational science. SCRIBEMUS will fundamentally advance our understanding of how early singers developed sophisticated ways to visualise, read, and perform musical sound, changing the course of music history to this day.

Mots-clés : musical notation,gregorian chant,manuscript studies,palimpsests,liturgy,digital imaging
Projet ERC : ARRIVAL (Horizon Europe, appel 2025, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Study of the Human Past
Entité participante : Université de Bristol — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2119801.0 €

In 1826, the first LRJ blade point in Britain was found at Kent’s Cavern. ARRIVAL will return to the cave 200 years later to answer the fundamental questions we still ask about these tools - who made them and when? Ground-breaking advances in archaeological science methods over the past decade enable us to study the dynamics of the Neanderthal-Homo sapiens transition in unprecedented resolution but few sites have been explored with the full suite of methods. New findings from Ranis, Germany, have recently proven that Homo sapiens were present in northern Europe between 47,500 - 43,000 years ago, much earlier than previously suspected. These people made stone tools known as the Lincombian-Ranisian-Jerzmanowician (or LRJ), which are found at more than 40 sites across northern Europe and were previously thought to have been made by Neanderthals. Only one high-resolution dataset (Ranis) exists for the LRJ. The lack of additional datasets prevents us from investigating variations between LRJ occupations. ARRIVAL will bring together an international, interdisciplinary team to investigate key LRJ sites using a multi-proxy approach, combining new excavations, chronometric dating, non-destructive collagen screening, palaeoproteomics, isotopic and aDNA analysis with traditional lithic and palaeoecological analysis. ARRIVAL will focus on newly excavated material to produce robust new datasets whilst providing better contextualisation for legacy collections. New methods will be developed to improve the accuracy and reliability of 14C dating in this crucial time-period, enabling us to produce the first robust chronological framework for the LRJ. ARRIVAL will determine if the LRJ can now be considered a reliable proxy for Homo sapiens across its entire range and provide the first high-resolution, regional investigation of LRJ sites to explore the nature and extent of LRJ occupations and the arrival of Homo sapiens in northwestern Europe.

Mots-clés : palaeolithic,archaeology,radiocarbon,zooms,isotopes,adna,method development,compound specific,middle upper palaeolithic transition,europe
Projet ERC : RECONNECT (Horizon Europe, appel 2025, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Environmental B iology, Ecology  and E volution
Entité participante : Université de Bristol — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2431025.0 €

In order to maximise the potential for habitat restoration initiatives to mitigate our grandest environmental challenges, we urgently need to understand how differing approaches to forest creation affect the recovery of belowground foodwebs and the carbon cycling processes they underpin. This is a formidable challenge: we know startlingly little about how natural climate solutions, such as large-scale reforestation, influence biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in the soil, the place where most species on the planet live and where 75% of terrestrial carbon stocks are found. Meeting this challenge not only requires a step change in our understanding of the form and function of complex soil biotic networks and the factors that mediate their reassembly with reforestation, but it also requires new knowledge of the mechanisms that underpin the formation of stable soil carbon stocks. The overarching aim of the RECONNECT project is to address these gaps by building the first complete picture of how contrasting reforestation approaches mediate the whole ecosystem movement of carbon from assimilation to stabilisation in the soil via differences in the reassembly of belowground biotic networks. To achieve this, I will use a unique and powerful combination of landscape scale field experiments, state-of-the-art molecular tools, isotopic tracing and cutting-edge biogeochemistry, to: (i) develop our mechanistic understanding of how contrasting woodland creation approaches (planting versus natural colonisation of trees) impact the flow, stabilisation and storage of carbon in forest soils, and (ii) determine how differing routes to forest creation influence the reassembly and functioning of interconnected mycorrhizal networks. In doing so, I will make major breakthroughs in our understanding of the functioning of terrestrial systems and provide a much-needed evidence-base to inform he way we reforest millions of hectares of the Earth’s surface.

Mots-clés : soil biodiversity,forest ecology,mycorrhizal fungi,carbon cycling,ecosystem restoration
Projet ERC : LEAD (Horizon Europe, appel 2025, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Texts and Concepts
Entité participante : Université de Bristol — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1579270.0 €

Both in political and academic conversations, refugees are often spoken about but rarely spoken to. Refugees, of course, often discuss displacement justice with their own communities in response to their personal experiences and expertise, and with charities and agencies with whom they interact. But politicians, policymakers, and philosophers alike do not often have experience of displacement and fail to include those who do. Because of this, philosophers lack the resources to develop a fully comprehensive account of what justice for refugees might require. The LEAD project aims to critically develop the theoretical and methodological tools for a refugee-led approach to displacement justice. In recent years, literature in refugee studies and the ethics of migration has begun to reflect on refugee agency. This work highlights how displaced people respond to their difficult circumstances and emphasises the importance of choice and autonomy. This “agential turn”, which is present throughout social and political philosophy more widely, aims to centre the perspectives of marginalised groups. However, such work often stops short of including displaced people in the project of theory building itself. We can therefore ask: what would a refugee-led approach to theorising about displacement justice look like? The project will include people with experience of displacement not only in testing this methodology but also in critically building it throughout the research programme. The novelty of this project is three-fold. First, the LEAD project will integrate lessons from refugee and forced migration studies into the ethics and political philosophy of displacement. The project therefore attempts to build bridges between these two disparate literatures. Second, the project will radically expand our ideas of who “counts” as an interlocutor in philosophical discussions by substantively collaborating with refugees and refugee-led organisations in the project of theory building.
Projet ERC : OPPORTUNITY (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Individuals, Markets and Organisations
Entité participante : Université de Wurtzbourg — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 231250.0 €

School track decisions, university or major choice, and initial job finding are all decisive for seizing life opportunities. When individuals from different socio-economic groups make different high-stakes decisions at these critical junctions, this can reinforce existing inequalities and lead to lock-in effects that are difficult to undo later in life. Understanding decision-making at these stages is thus fundamental to analyse and tackle inequality of opportunity.  Individuals and evaluators make critical educational or occupational decisions under imperfect information due to uncertainties about true ability and future productivity. To resolve uncertainty, ability signals and their interpretation – both received and sent – are crucial components of decision-making, sorting and selection. OPPORTUNITY analyses the role of ability signals (such as grades, standardized tests, certificates, degrees, or CV information) for inequalities in high-stakes decision-making under uncertainty and inequality-reinforcing statistical and stereotypical discrimination by socio-economic background. To this end, it will draw on i) experimental methods in lab and field to study the role of social environment and ability signals for unequal educational and occupational choices; ii) administrative records to obtain information about absolute and relative ability signals (grades and degrees) awarded at various institutions over time; iii) econometric techniques that help exploit exogenous variation to make causal inference about the role of SES and different ability signals for efficient sorting and selection. OPPORTUNITY will promote an innovative research agenda providing novel answers on how to mitigate the unfair and inefficient allocation of talent. It will inform about policies that provide resources or changing ability signals to enhance equality of opportunity, one of the most urgent topics in Europe’s diverse, aging, and increasingly segregated societies.

Mots-clés : equality of opportunity,educational choice,uncertainty,socio economic inequalities
Projet ERC : CogFlex (Horizon Europe, appel 2025, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Human Mind and Its Compl exity
Entité participante : Université de Wurtzbourg — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1499845.0 €

The ability to adapt behavior to unfamiliar situations is crucial in our complex and ever-changing world. In such circumstances, we often rely on the statistical structure of our environment, allowing us to generalize previously learned behaviors to new, similar situations. Two brain regions are key to this flexibility: the hippocampus, which creates cognitive maps that represent the structure of the world, and the prefrontal cortex, which accesses and uses these representations based on current task demands. In addition to their cognitive functions, both regions are also involved in regulating emotional aspects of our experiences. However, even though it is often the interplay between cognition and emotion that plays a central role in well-being and psychopathology, cognition and emotion are often studied in isolation. CogFlex challenges this compartmentalized view and proposes a unified framework, suggesting that emotions directly shape how we represent the world and thereby influence how we generalize, update, and act on information. Using a combination of sophisticated human neuroscience methods, including high-resolution functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), intracranial recordings, and advanced computational models, CogFlex will offer unprecedented details in how the human brain forms, uses, updates and selects cognitive maps and how emotions interact with these processes. Notably, CogFlex will move beyond observing correlations by non-invasively manipulating hippocampal and prefrontal representations using transcranial temporal interference stimulation (tTIS), offering causal insight into the role these brain regions play in selecting and using cognitive maps for guiding flexible behavior. Through this integrative approach, CogFlex will provide a deep mechanistic understanding of the neurobiological basis of flexible behavior and lay the foundation for more personalized mental health interventions based on individual cognitive-affective phenotypes

Mots-clés : hippocampus,mpfc,cognitive maps,generalization,fmri,emotion
Projet ERC : DISCO-DATA (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Materials Engineering
Entité participante : Université de la Ruhr à Bochum — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1498839.0 €

Metals as structural materials are at the core of our society. Almost everything we physically interact with includes some form of metal manufactured to specific properties and formed into a desired shape. Consequently, the understanding and design of the balance between ductility and strength of metals are one of the primary disciplines of materials science. On a fundamental level, this is the description of crystalline line defects called dislocations. At the atomic scale, the current understanding of dislocations is often on the level of individual dislocation properties. At the component scale, collective behavior is commonly formulated in continuum variables with the drawback of limited applicability over a wide range of possible scenarios. Our current understanding still shows a gap in how individual dislocation properties translate into their collective behavior. To address this long-standing question, I propose a data-centric approach. First, a comprehensive dataset of dislocation ensemble trajectories for various loading and initial conditions is created using discrete dislocation dynamics as well as molecular dynamics simulations and iteratively extended. The trajectories are subsequently analyzed with tools borrowed from graph theory and time-series analysis to capture the network character of dislocation structures. Subsequently, a novel class of plasticity models is developed: instead of human-derived state variables, I will `let the data speak for itself’ to bridge the gap between individual and collective dislocation behavior. The project solves two timely challenges in materials science: One is the described gap, and the other is a demonstration of effective research data management of complex materials data providing solutions to data generation, storage, accessibility, data fusion, reuse, and analysis using the example of dislocation trajectories.

Mots-clés : dislocation based plasticity,work hardening,materials informatics,data science,graph theory