Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : 2C-RISK (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Human Mobility, Environment, and Space
Entité participante : Institut international pour l'analyse des systèmes appliqués — Pays : Autriche — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : IIASA
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1499933.0 €

The 2C-RISK project is the first to comprehensively analyze the interrelated effects of compound and cascading climatic and non-climatic risks on human mobility worldwide and to pioneer the empirical assessment and quantification of climate-related immobility. Climate change can have major implications for human mobility through its impacts on security, livelihoods, health and well-being, potentially leading to increased displacement and migration. At the same time, not everyone affected decides to move, and climatic risks and related impacts can also lead to heightened immobility. Patterns in (im)mobility are crucially shaped by a range of drivers and moderators influencing who becomes mobile, when, and why. While the multicausal nature of climate-related (im)mobility has been recognized, there are considerable gaps in the understanding of how climatic risks interact with other compound drivers and risks in influencing mobility outcomes. Considering risks in isolation may miss crucial interdependencies between different risk types and related impacts over time and space. Exploring these interdependencies can fill in the missing links as to when and why households become mobile under climatic stress, and when and why they decide or are forced to stay put despite difficult circumstances. To this end, the 2C-RISK project: (1) provides novel estimates of the effects of compound and cascading climatic and non-climatic risks and impacts on mobility outcomes; (2) advances empirical research on climate-related immobility; and (3) employs innovative nowcasting and projection methods to explore potential changes in mobility in the short and long term. By laying novel foundations for understanding the conditions under which climate-related (im)mobility occurs and by identifying populations in situations of heightened distress, the 2C-RISK project will contribute to more informed policies aimed at safeguarding the well-being of populations in a changing climate.

Mots-clés : risks immobility statistical analysis nowcasting projections
Projet ERC : AlternativeEnds (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Integrative B iology : from Genes and Genomes to S ystems
Entité participante : Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences — Pays : Pologne — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : IBCH PAS
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 49250.0 €

The human genome contains only ~20.000 genes, however, most of them encode multiple transcripts resulting from alternative promoter usage, splicing, and 3’ end selection. Gene 3’ ends can be defined by the positions of RNA 3’ cleavage, or the location where RNA polymerase II terminates transcription. Alternative 3’ ends determine the properties of the encoded protein: typically its abundance, but sometimes also domain structure – as for immunoglobulin M heavy chain which is membrane-bound or secreted depending on the 3’ cleavage site. Widespread changes in 3’ end usage are characteristic of many processes e.g. differentiation and cancer like neuroblastoma. We do not understand what drives this selectivity. In this research project I will answer the fundamental question of how the location and timing of RNA polymerase II entering into termination mode impacts on the choice of the alternative cleavage and polyadenylation site (Aim 1). I will use biochemical and genetic approaches to elucidate the sequence determinant of alternative cleavage and termination (Aim 2), and investigate sequence-independent components of alternative termination (Aim 3). I recently pioneered the measurement of 3’ cleavage positions together with locations of transcription termination by a novel transcriptomic method. I will apply this method to investigate the timing of changes in cleavage and termination relative to each other on an averaged cell population level, and use a new technique to test this for single molecules. I will also determine the baseline for cleavage site selection utilizing a newly developed in vitro system. Combining those unique integrative and separation-of-function approaches will yield a comprehensive view of alternative gene end regulation. Ultimately, understanding the complex crosstalk between RNA cleavage and transcription termination in alternative 3’ end selection will enable the manipulation of this process e.g. to alleviate diseases such as neuroblastoma.

Mots-clés : transcription termination,pre mrna 3 processing,alternative polyadenylation,rna polymerase ii,pausing,human,mammalian,transcription,chromatin
Projet ERC : ConCASM (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Synthetic Chemistry and Materials
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 : 1499643.0 €

Sonochemistry is the use of ultrasound to facilitate chemical reactions. Chemical reactions requiring stringent conditions can be effectively carried out using sonochemistry at ambient conditions. The current state of sonochemistry is limited by the low efficiencies in converting electrical energy to cavitation energy for free radical generation. This makes the application of ultrasound for chemical synthesis an expensive technique in terms of energy per productivity. Controlling cavitation with novel catalytic cavitation agents (CCA) to reduce energy requirement for inertial cavitation will open a new paradigm for sonochemistry, potentially impacting the catalytic chemistry, acoustic and sonochemistry communities and opening opportunities to address challenges faced by chemists in sustainable chemicals synthesis. The objective of my project is to systematically progress towards deep understanding of cavitation bubbles generation through in-situ observation approaches, engineering of multifunctional catalytic cavitation agents and machine learning. This will exert better control on the formation, uniformity and collapse location of cavitation bubbles thereby significantly reducing acoustic energy requirement for inertial cavitation. I will synthesize multifunctional transition metal oxides catalytic cavitation agents, investigate and optimize their structure/properties relationships in response to acoustic cavitation. This project offers a unique integration of approaches, competences and resources in material science (synthesis of CCAs), physics (modelling) and chemistry (activation of small molecules). The iterative project focus on the most fundamental understanding of the physical mechanisms, will allow for substantial progresses into the complex phenomenon of sonochemistry and sonocatalysis.

Mots-clés : sonochemistry,acoustic cavitation,heterogeneous nucleation,radicals,
Projet ERC : EmergEd (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Soci al World and Its Interactions
Entité participante : Université de Potsdam — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1330441.0 €

About 30 per cent of the world’s population are children. Children are not only the most important people for their parents, but also the future of our societies. Providing them with the best possible education is of inestimable importance. Which education is best, however, is a question that is continually being negotiated. For a long time, this question was answered primarily by national governments. For some years, however, ongoing processes of globalisation are significantly shaping education, leading to what scholars term the global turn in education. Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have become core actors in this global turnaround. They are increasingly joining forces in education-related transnational networks (i.e., global non-governmental spaces) that express an obvious claim to influence schools and education systems worldwide. Hence, questions arise about the associated risks and benefits for schools, particularly with regard to education's role in promoting educational achievement and equal opportunity among students from different backgrounds. However, despite this increasing relevance scholars have neglected to investigate transnational networks of NGOs in the field of education. EmergEd aims to drastically improve scientific knowledge on NGOs in education by analysing the emergence of global non-governmental spaces in education and how they influence education systems and schools – a contribution from which a far-reaching scientific – and in the long run societal – impact is to be expected. It will do so by developing an inter-disciplinary methodology integrating (inferential) Social Network Analysis (SNA) and Discourse Network Analysis (DNA), alongside qualitative data analysis based on Grounded Theory, to contribute to further theory building. This methodology is highly innovative as it draws theories and methods from different disciplines together in novel ways and thus follows an approach at and beyond the frontiers of disciplines.

Mots-clés : transnational governance in education,social network analysis,global turn in education,influence of non governmental organisations,discourse network analysis
Projet ERC : ALPaCA (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Fundamental Constituents of Matter
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 : 1384543.0 €

The Standard Model (SM) of particle physics describes most fundamental phenomena extraordinarily well, but unresolved questions such as the matter-antimatter asymmetry remain. New Physics (NP), able to resolve these questions, has not been found in direct searches yet, so it must be either extremely rare or manifest at higher energies that can only be probed by precision SM measurements. Lepton flavor universality (LFU) is one of the most precise predictions of the SM, but discrepancies with measurements have emerged in decays of B hadrons. Unambiguously establishing the presence of LFU breaking effects is therefore one of the most vital and timely challenges in HEP. However the current experimental precision is not sufficient for a discovery due to the limited size of data sets. Therefore, the LHCb experiment at CERN is being upgraded to measure B hadrons at higher rates. But at these rates, efficient selection of signals requires exceptional computing demands. CPU-based systems no longer meet these demands, so real-time selection constitutes a major bottleneck. The Allen system, that I have pioneered and led from proof-of-concept to the new LHCb baseline implementation, solves this by using graphics processing units, and even provides a large head-room in computing resources. With ALPaCA I will build a team to demonstrate that the experimental precision of LFU observables required to establish the presence of NP is reached by using accelerated real-time analysis systems. We will:  1. Enhance Allen using the extra computing resources to increase the data samples for LFU observables by a factor two.  2. Test LFU in ratios of branching fractions of b -> c l nu transitions with electrons for the first time at LHCb.  3. Characterize NP by measuring angular observables of b -> c tau nu transitions at LHCb. 4. Direct the design of future experiments and facilities by unlocking new computing potential.

Mots-clés : lepton flavor universality b flavor anomalies real time analysis systems heterogeneous computing
Projet ERC : ChloroMosaic (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Environmental B iology, Ecology  and E volution
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 : 1485852.0 €

Photosynthesis in the ocean is as significant as that of land plants, and is performed by a wide range of cyanobacteria and eukaryotic algae, the most abundant of which have originated through the secondary endosymbioses of red algae. Previously, I have shown that these "secondary red chloroplasts" are evolutionary mosaics, supported by nucleus-encoded proteins of symbiont, host and horizontally acquired origin; and that the most successful of these groups (diatoms, haptophytes and dinoflagellates) are connected to one another via chloroplast endosymbioses. My research programme will answer a question of fundamental importance to the evolutionary history, and future ecology of the planet: why is the secondary red chloroplast so successful in the modern ocean? I will perform next-generation proteomic (LOPIT) characterisation of the dinoflagellate chloroplast, whose composition remains unknown; phylogenomic and spatial reconstruction of the pan-secondary red chloroplast proteome, using environmental sequence data from the Tara Oceans expedition; and phenotyping of proteins via CRISPR/Cas9 mutagenesis in the model diatom Phaeodactylum. I will focus on defining the proteins that underpin the dominant contributions of secondary red chloroplasts to marine primary production; and their unique success in high oceanic latitudes. Thus far, I have characterised a mitochondria-associated transporter that facilitates photo-acclimation in secondary red chloroplasts under Fe limitation; and a complete glycolytic pathway that regulates diatom chloroplast metabolism in polar oceans. The phylogenetically-grounded insights from this project will connect a defining event in eukaryotic evolution, the endosymbiotic evolution of chloroplasts, to the functional biology of marine ecosystems; identify new proteins for optimising photosynthetic production in cultivable species; and define new biomarkers for the resilience of algal communities to anthropogenic climate change.

Mots-clés : dinoflagellates,diatoms,photosynthesis,endosymbiosis,environmental genomics,proteomics
Projet ERC : WoodCulture (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Study of the Human Past
Entité participante : Naturalis Biodiversity Center — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : Partner
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 583550.0 €

Woodlands in the continental Euro-Atlantic region became heavily exploited from the Late Middle Ages onwards. The timber demand of growing cities and fleets promoted changes in oak (Quercus sp.) forestry practices and long-distance timber trade, aiming to provide a fast and sustainable turnover of construction wood. Progressively, changes in timber-framed buildings and ship designs took place during the 15th and 16th centuries, concurrently with shifts in woodworking techniques. Whether and how these changes and shifts in wood culture were interrelated, is still a debated question. Dendrochronological datasets biased towards wood from old trees, limited archaeological records, and fragmented historiography have hampered thus far finding the answer. WoodCulture aims to explain changes on and redress biased perspectives about domestic forests, timber supply, building activity patterns and technological innovations in the continental Euro-Atlantic region during the Late Middle Ages and the Renaissance (c.1300-1600 CE). I will retrieve the currently missing wood archive of young and fast-growing oaks from managed forests, along with its associated historical, technological and environmental context, combining isotope dendrochronology, archaeology and history with 3D scanning, AI and GIS. This ground-breaking interdisciplinary approach will provide a novel, empirically-founded narrative about changes in woodlands and interdependencies between timber products, construction designs and technological innovations in the continental Euro-Atlantic region. Moreover, it will reveal whether domestic forests became sustainable suppliers of construction timber at local/regional scales, putting the magnitude of timber trade into perspective. The developed set of tools will revolutionise fields of study beyond material heritage (history, archaeology, geography), allowing the systematic analysis of hitherto unstudied timbers in historic buildings and archaeological sites.

Mots-clés : dendrochronology built heritage shipbuilding forest history history of wood technology late medieval period continental euro atlantic region
Projet ERC : DYNAMHEAT (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Systems and Communication Engineering
Entité participante : Centre national de la recherche scientifique — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : CNRS
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1495000.0 €

Tackling climate change is one of the most pressing challenges of our modern society and requires researching new refrigeration and renewable energy systems. Performances of all these systems could be significantly improved if they were combined with solid-state thermal switches and diodes. Current strategies that require to nanostructure materials or to operate in the vicinity of a phase transition, lead to thermal switches or thermal diodes with low efficiencies or not suitable for applications where space is limited. Furthermore, once designed, thermal properties of these elements are set and cannot be modified.  My objective is to investigate a fundamentally new mechanism to design compact and efficient thermal switches and diodes. My strategy exploits, in ferroelectric and ferroelastic oxides, the interactions between phonons and spontaneously occurring planar defects known as domain walls. Domain walls can be easily generated, moved, and oriented by application of a small voltage or a small uniaxial pressure, and interact with phonons as defects do. They are thus perfect interfaces to achieve large and reconfigurable anisotropies in thermal conductivities in controlled directions in a fast and reversible way.  In this ambitious project, I develop a novel approach to demonstrate a dynamic heat flow control through (i) the reversible engineering of the density of domain walls in desired directions, and (ii) the development of advanced experimental techniques for in-operando thermal characterizations. My multidisciplinary strategy will unravel the interactions between phonons and domain walls to reach higher thermal conductivity variations, and lead to ground-breaking thermal switches and diodes. These thermal switches and diodes will be compatible with a large range of devices and have an impact in many fields critical for our transition toward a sustainable future (e.g. solid-state refrigeration, solar panels, thermoelectric devices).

Mots-clés : ferroelectric,domain wall,thermal diode
Projet ERC : NeuFRO (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System
Entité participante : Radboud University Medical Centre — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : Radboud UMC
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1498364.0 €

Deriving mammalian retina from stem cells has had a large impact on the study of the biology of vision and is called organoid. Compared to in vivo retina, retinal organoids are far less functionally sophisticated in terms of their synapses, connectivity, discrimination between different light stimuli and their electrical action potentials. This project will overcome this functional constraint of retinal organoids by studying electrophysiological events-derived functional maturation of mouse retina during retinal development and then stimulating those events with the help of mathematical models in order to induce the same functionality in mouse and human retinal organoids. NeuFRO will achieve a resonance in the field by generating retinal organoids with the neuronal connectivity and the natural diversity of functions using interdisciplinary fields including electrophysiology, developmental biology, and computationally-derived electrical stimulation. Initially, I will create a holistic roadmap of the electrical features of immature mouse retina during development that shows self-organization through electrophysiology. With milli- to nanometer imaging precision, electrical activities derived the circuit formation will be spatiotemporally documented. Then I will decode this space-time code of intrinsic electrical patterns and neuronal connectivity using an ambitious strategy incorporating Hodgkin-Huxley and linear-nonlinear models. Next, such electrical response models will be applied to immature retinal organoids (mouse and human) by an innovative ‘sandwich’ electrophysiology technique during the development in vitro. With this approach, I will induce naturalistic electrical features in the retinal organoid, allowing the functional neurons to wire and fire appropriately into retinal organoids, particularly visual circuits. This ground-breaking approach will advance techniques for generating functional human retina.

Mots-clés : retina,electrophysiology,physiology,ion channels,action potentials,retinal organoids,on and off,retinal network
Projet ERC : ABYSS (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Earth System Science
Entité participante : Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : OCA
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2059718.75 €

Earthquakes have caused more than half a million of fatalities in the past 20 years. A large fraction of this death toll arises from the current lack of systematic predictive signals. While some theories describe earthquakes as intrinsically stochastic processes, challenging or impossible to predict, evidence from laboratory and numerical experiments indicates that earthquakes could be preceded by a preparatory phase. But despite all efforts, only incomplete observations of such phase have been achieved. This observational gap is mainly due to our inability to deploy extensive sensor networks near the earthquake nucleation zone, especially for large earthquakes that are the most likely to produce precursors detectable at the surface. I propose to probe the mechanical state of a fault prior to large earthquakes using seismic waves recorded on the largest and densest seismic array ever deployed directly above one of the most active faults on Earth: the Chilean subduction zone. Long term monitoring of its vigorous activity will allow my team to observe the preparatory phase of several strong earthquakes (M>6). To achieve this, I will use a revolutionary technology, Distributed Acoustic Sensing, to convert several ~100 km long segments of fiber optic telecommunication cables that run offshore along the 4200 km of the Chilean subduction zone, into a large and dense ocean-bottom seismic observatory. The unique data produced by this new observatory will enable the detection of weak earthquakes and changes in the crustal properties with a sensitivity that has never been achieved before. This transformative capability, augmented by the development of real time data processing workflows, will enhance the early warning system in Chile by improving the timeliness and accuracy of earthquake warnings. The expected outcomes of this project will have a transformative impact on earthquake science as well as on the reduction of societal vulnerability to natural hazards.

Mots-clés : subduction zone megathrust faults,earthquake precursors,earthquake forecast,earthquake early warning system,distributed acoustics sensing,submarine fiber optic cable,chilean subduction zone