Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : ViAjeRo (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Computer science and informatics
Entité participante : University of Glasgow — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2443657.0 €

ViAjeRo will radically improve passenger journeys using immersive Virtual and Augmented Reality to support entertainment, work and collaboration on the move. In Europe, people travel an average of 12,000km per year on private and public transport, in cars, buses, planes and trains. These journeys are often repetitive and wasted time. This total will rise with the arrival of fully autonomous cars, which free drivers to become passengers. The potential to recover this lost time is impeded by 3 significant challenges . Confined spaces: These limit interactivity, and force us to rely on small displays such as phones or seatback screens . Social acceptability: We may share the space with others, inducing a pressure to conform, inhibiting technology use . Motion sickness: Many people get sick when they read or play games in vehicles. Once experienced, it can take hours for symptoms to resolve VR/AR headsets could allow passengers to use their travel time in new, productive, exciting ways, but only if bold research is undertaken to overcome these fundamental challenges. ViAjeRo will use VR/AR to do adventurous multidisciplinary work, unlocking the untapped potential of passengers. They will be able to use large virtual displays for productivity; escape the physical confines of the vehicle and become immersed in virtual experiences; and communicate with distant others through new embodied forms of communication – all whilst travelling. This will be of great benefit to European society and open a new area for products and services. Our vision requires groundbreaking contributions at the intersection of HCI, neuroscience and sensing to: 1 Develop novel interaction techniques for confined, seated spaces 2 Support safe, socially acceptable use of VR/AR, providing awareness of others and the travel environment 3 Overcome motion sickness through novel multimodal countermeasures and neurostimulation 4 Tailor the virtual and physical passenger environment to support new,

Mots-clés : virtual reality,augmented reality,passengers,motion sickness,social acceptability of technology,interaction design
Projet ERC : INTERRUPT_VIOLENCE (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Social World and Its Diversity
Entité participante : University of the Witwatersrand — Pays : Afrique du Sud — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : Wits
Type d'entité : Organismes privés (hors enseignement)
Financement ERC de l'entité : 512918.75 €

Violence Violence is an important societal challenge and associated with poor health outcomes across the life-course. Studies find consistent associations between childhood violence exposure and risk for victimisation and perpetration in adulthood, particularly across generations. Thus far, we lack an evidence-base to understand the underlying mechanisms of intergenerational violence transmission as well as potential for prevention in regions with high rates of interpersonal violence such as sub-Saharan Africa. This marks a major evidence gap and a compelling need. This study will use a mixed methods approach to develop the first-known empirically-generated theoretical framework on intergenerational violence transmission. It will do so using three approaches never utilised in the region: 1) using data from a 1-year longitudinal study of 1800 adolescents in South Africa (interviewed in 2010/11 and 2011/2012) it will re-trace original participants, re-interview them as young adults aged 20-27, recruit their children (n~211) and previous primary caregivers (n~540) and conduct in-depth qualitative work on a sub-sample of families to identify mechanisms of violence transmission across generations and genders, 2) it will investigate the effect of the prevalent structural risk factors poverty, poor service access and delivery and the HIV epidemic on violence transmission, and 3) it will examine the effect of protective interventions and policies using quasi-experimental methods. This study will transform our understanding of the causes, effects and potential prevention mechanisms of intergenerational violence transmission through cutting-edge social science research. This is an ambitious research agenda of a complex behaviour and is characterised by methodological and theoretical innovation never used in the region before. The methodology presents high risks balanced by the potential for ground-breaking scientific and social impact for violence research and prevention.

Mots-clés : violence,child abuse,intimate partner violence,intergenerational,family,health
Projet ERC : Evidence-VAW (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Individuals, Markets and Organisations
Entité participante : University of Warwick — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2450586.0 €

Violence against women (VAW) is a fundamental cause of gender inequality and a substantial constraint on women’s lives, but it has drawn significantly less intellectual curiosity from economists than aspects of gender inequality such as the pay gap. I propose to redress this by acquiring, generating and analysing unavailable or under-used data using techniques for causal identification with a view to producing a rich tapestry of scientific evidence to guide policy and further scholarship. This is an important time to do this as there is a growing consensus around prioritizing VAW in international policymaking but the evidence base is thin. There are no systematic data on VAW, partly because women are inhibited in reporting. Creative new strategies are being used in many countries to reduce VAW, but without scientific evaluation. This project will investigate institutional designs to encourage women reporting VAW and to deliver justice on VAW (including penalties for firms, feminization of the criminal justice system and the use of mobile phone apps and social media to provide women information and facilitate their coordination); it will implement and evaluate grassroots interventions designed to address VAW by inducing behavioural change among men and women; it will analyse the likely value of policies addressing proximate causes (alcohol ban, unemployment insurance); the potential of women’s political mobilisation; and the role of UN discourse on VAW. Some projects use randomized control trials (RCTs), others leverage natural experimental variation from policy reform or institutional features. Many use longitudinal administrative data providing unparalleled opportunities for research. Within the RCTs, I will gather unique data on social norms, beliefs and social networks. Although focused on women’s rights, it addresses issues on the frontier of economics research, including inequality, productivity, institutional design, political economy, and legislative

Mots-clés : causal evidence,econometric approaches to gender inequality
Projet ERC : D-FENS (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Cellular, Developmental and Regenerative Biology
Entité participante : Czech Academy of Sciences — Pays : Rép. Tchèque — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : AVČR;CAS
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1537000.0 €

Viral infection or retrotransposon expansion in the genome often result in production of double-stranded RNA (dsRNA). dsRNA can be intercepted by RNase III Dicer acting in the RNA interference (RNAi) pathway, an ancient eukaryotic defense mechanism. Notably, endogenous mammalian RNAi appears dormant while its common and unique physiological roles remain poorly understood. A factor underlying mammalian RNAi dormancy is inefficient processing of dsRNA by the full-length Dicer. Yet, a simple truncation of Dicer leads to hyperactive RNAi, which is naturally present in mouse oocytes. The D-FENS project will use genetic animal models to define common, cell-specific and species-specific roles of mammalian RNAi. D-FENS has three complementary and synergizing objectives: (1) Explore consequences of hyperactive RNAi in vivo. A mouse expressing a truncated Dicer will reveal at the organismal level any negative effect of hyperactive RNAi, the relationship between RNAi and mammalian immune system, and potential of RNAi to suppress viral infections in mammals. (2) Define common and species-specific features of RNAi in the oocyte. Functional and bioinformatics analyses in mouse, bovine, and hamster oocytes will define rules and exceptions concerning endogenous RNAi roles, including RNAi contribution to maternal mRNA degradation and co-existence with the miRNA pathway. (3) Uncover relationship between RNAi and piRNA pathways in suppression of retrotransposons. We hypothesize that hyperactive RNAi in mouse oocytes functionally complements the piRNA pathway, a Dicer-independent pathway suppressing retrotransposons in the germline. Using genetic models, we will explore unique and redundant roles of both pathways in the germline. D-FENS will uncover physiological significance of the N-terminal part of Dicer, fundamentally improve understanding RNAi function in the germline, and provide a critical in vivo assessment of antiviral activity of RNAi with implications for human therapy.

Mots-clés : germline,rna interference,pirna,retrotransposon,antiviral defense
Projet ERC : ILLUSIVE (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Systems and communication engineering
Entité participante : University of Oulu — Pays : Finlande — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : U. Oulu
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2496578.0 €

Virtual reality (VR) technology has enormous potential to transform society, especially as the world faces unprecedented challenges of remote work and social distancing brought on by COVID 19. Through telepresence it uniquely enhanced health care, collaborative design, education, and social interaction, all from a distance. Further benefits arise by incorporating synthetic models, which advance computer interfaces, data visualization, and immersive storytelling. In spite of its potential, the VR industry has struggled through hype cycles as devices built from co-opted component technologies fail to meet the expectations of each generation. As an industry leader in Huawei and early Oculus VR, I concluded that the struggle is largely due to the lack of a rigorous foundation that draws from scientific disciplines of perceptual psychology, neuroscience, and human physiology. I propose to reduce the gap between engineering and these human-centered sciences by developing a new field of perception engineering. In this pioneering view, the object being engineered is the illusion itself, and the physical devices that achieve it are auxiliary. This project focuses on developing mathematical foundations for VR that unify engineering concepts from robotics and control theory with their biological-system counterparts, especially predictive coding and the free energy principle. A cornerstone is von Neumann-Morgenstern information spaces, introduced for games with hidden information, which I have leveraged for fundamental problems in robotics throughout my research career. Our team will include experts from VR, neuroscience, perceptual psychology, robotics, control theory, and pure mathematics. The work will lay a foundation for principled engineering approaches to design, simulation, prediction, and analysis of sustained, targeted perceptual illusions. This would offer valuable guidance and deeper insights into VR, robotics, and possibly the sciences that study perception.

Mots-clés : virtual reality,robotics,control theory,perception,perceptual psychology,sensor fusion
Projet ERC : AntiViralEvo (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Environmental Biology, Ecology and Evolution
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 : 1998750.0 €

Viruses are absolute parasites as their replication depends on biochemical systems of their host. Because viral infections reduce the fitness of the host organism, hosts and viruses have been tangled in an evolutionary arms race for survival from the very beginning of life. As the immune system allows organisms to identify and eliminate viral infections, it is of pivotal importance for host fitness. In vertebrates, the antiviral immunity is heavily based on the interferon pathway that enables infected cells to alert neighbouring cells against incoming infection and recruits cells of the immune system to battle the virus. However, in the case of invertebrates, which lack interferons, the antiviral immunity is believed to be based mostly on an RNA interference (RNAi) that cleaves viral RNA. Until now, the recognition mechanism and mode of action of such systems were studied mostly in vertebrates, insects and nematodes. From this limited phyletic sampling, it is impossible to deduce what was the original mode of action of these systems in their last common ancestor and how antiviral immunity was triggered in early animals. To attain novel insights into the early evolution of this crucial system, I propose to study it in an outgroup: the sea anemone Nematostella vectensis, a representative model species of Cnidaria, a phylum that diverged approximately 600 million years ago from the rest of animals. Beyond its key phyletic position, Nematostella is a tractable lab model with available advanced molecular and gene manipulation tools making it an excellent comparative model. I will harness these tools to decipher the cnidarian system for battling RNA viruses and answer the outstanding questions regarding the evolution of antiviral immunity and its ancestral state in animals. My preliminary results put in question the textbook dichotomy between the antiviral immune systems of vertebrates and invertebrates as I find active components of both systems in Nematostella.

Mots-clés : unravelling the evolution of antiviral sensors and response systems in animals using the phylum cnidaria
Projet ERC : CHUbVi (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Synergy grants)
Entité participante : Board of the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology — Pays : Suisse — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : ETH Zurich
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 3016993.66 €

Viruses such as Influenza A (IAV) and others remain one of the greatest threats to human health and society. Despite their danger and widespread prevalence, the molecular mechanisms of how they infect mammalian hosts and evade the immune system remains poorly understood. Recent studies from our team implicate two common proteins – HDAC6 and unanchored ubiquitin chains – in host cells as key mediators of viral entry via the aggresome processing pathway. This discovery offers a new line of investigation for understanding and preventing viral infections. By identifying the pathways and interactions involved in this infection process, we will provide new molecular targets for the development of broad-spectrum antiviral compounds. Multidisciplinary studies by a team consisting of a molecular biologist, a virologist, and a chemical biologist will use a diverse set of tools to validate these pathways and gain fundamental knowledge about their regulation. To achieve this, detailed studies on the exact nature of the ubiquitin chains needed to activate HDAC6 will allow the development of biochemical and cellular assays of Influenza A infection and enable the determination of the precise mechanism and the downstream cellular pathways necessary for viral infection. The chemical synthesis of labeled ubiquitin chains will support detailed structural studies and a clear understanding of how they are formed and packaged into infectious viral particles. The strong possibility that numerous other virus types also utilize this pathway will be tested with life-threatening agents of current concern including Zika, Dengue, Ebola, and MERS viruses. By demonstrating – with both biological approaches and small molecule compounds – that blocking these cellular processes in cells and animal models reduces viral infection, this project will provide a wealth a novel insights and the basis for the development of a new generation of anti-viral therapies.

Mots-clés : ubiquitin chains,hdac6,influenza virus,aggresome pathway,proteasome,stress granules,proteostasis
Projet ERC : CATA-LUX (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Synthetic Chemistry and Materials
Entité participante : Institut Català d'Investigació Química — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : ICIQ;ICIQ-CERCA
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1895407.25 €

Visible light photocatalysis and metal-free organocatalytic processes are powerful strategies of modern chemical research with extraordinary potential for the sustainable preparation of organic molecules. However, these environmentally respectful approaches have to date remained largely unrelated. The proposed research seeks to merge these fields of molecule activation to redefine their synthetic potential. Light-driven processes considerably enrich the modern synthetic repertoire, offering a potent way to build complex organic frameworks. In contrast, it is extremely challenging to develop asymmetric catalytic photoreactions that can create chiral molecules with a well-defined three-dimensional arrangement. By developing innovative methodologies to effectively address this issue, I will provide a novel reactivity framework for conceiving light-driven enantioselective organocatalytic processes. I will translate the effective tools governing the success of ground state asymmetric organocatalysis into the realm of photochemical reactivity, exploiting the potential of key organocatalytic intermediates to directly participate in the photoexcitation of substrates. At the same time, the chiral organocatalyst will ensure effective stereochemical control. This single catalyst system, where stereoinduction and photoactivation merge in a sole organocatalyst, will serve for developing novel enantioselective photoreactions. In a complementary dual catalytic approach, the synergistic activities of an organocatalyst and a metal-free photosensitiser will combine to realise asymmetric variants of venerable photochemical processes, which have never before succumbed to a stereocontrolled approach. This proposal challenges the current perception that photochemistry is too unselective to parallel the impressive levels of efficiency reached by the asymmetric catalysis of thermal reactions, expanding the way chemists think about making chiral molecules

Mots-clés : asymmetric organocatalysis,photocatalysis,asymmetric catalysis,radical reactivity
Projet ERC : PUPILTRAITS (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Human Mind and Its Complexity
Entité participante : University of Pisa — Pays : Italie — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UniPi
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1490375.0 €

Vision is probably the best understood system of the human brain: studying vision has taught us much about the human mind and its complex processes. We know in detail the fundamental steps leading to visual perception, but we do not know why normally sighted people differ in how they perceive: why some “see the forest before the trees”, while others have a fragmented perceptual experience focused on local features. PUPILTRAITS aims to fill this gap by taking an innovative approach to vision science, to understand how vision is affected by physiological state and personality traits. I will measure visual processing with both classic and new methods (that I helped develop), including pupil responses, ultra-high field Magnetic Resonance of human visual cortex, and psychophysics. Based on solid pilot data, I predict that differences in behavioral and cortical properties co-vary with personality traits, providing new reliable biomarkers of the local context-independent perception associated with autistics traits, even in young children (using pupillometry). These tools will also reveal changes of perception within individuals: during a safe and simple physiological intervention (ketosis, a metabolic state that can be naturally induced by fasting and intense physical activity), to show that early visual processing can be altered by acting on metabolism, and that this consequently affects holistic/local perceptual styles. My aim is to provide new knowledge on the relationship between metabolism, cortical processing and perception. This has the potential for a strong societal impact: it can change our understanding of pervasive developmental disorders, like Autistic Spectrum Disorders, characterized by a different way of processing incoming information; it can aid their diagnosis through objective evaluation of perceptual styles, and encourage innovative therapeutic approaches aimed at changing perception and behavior by acting on general physiology: how we eat and exercise

Mots-clés : visual perception,pupil  of the eye,neuroimaging,autistic traits,ketogenic diet
Projet ERC : LIGHTUP (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Human Mind and Its Complexity
Entité participante : Tilburg University — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : TiU
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 508397.63 €

Visual awareness affords flexibility and experiential richness, and its loss following brain damage has devastating effects. However, patients with blindness following cortical damage may retain visual functions, despite visual awareness is lacking (blindsight). But, how can we translate non-conscious visual abilities into conscious ones after damage to the visual cortex? To place our understanding of visual awareness on firm neurobiological and mechanistic bases, I propose to integrate human and monkey neuroscience. Next, I will translate this wisdom into evidence-based clinical intervention. First, LIGHTUP will apply computational neuroimaging methods at the micro-scale level, estimating population receptive fields in humans and monkeys. This will enable analyzing fMRI signal similar to the way tuning properties are studied in neurophysiology, and to clarify how brain areas translate visual properties into responses associated with awareness. Second, LIGHTUP leverages a behavioural paradigm that can dissociate nonconscious visual abilities from awareness in monkeys, thus offering a refined animal model of visual awareness. Applying behavioural-Dynamic Causal Modelling to combine fMRI and behavioral data, LIGHTUP will build up a Bayesian framework that specifies the directionality of information flow in the interactions across distant brain areas, and their causal role in generating visual awareness. In the third part, I will devise a rehabilitation protocol that combines brain stimulation and visual training to promote the (re)emergence of lost visual awareness. LIGHTUP will exploit non-invasive transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) in a novel protocol that enables stimulation of complex cortical circuits and selection of the direction of connectivity that is enhanced. This associative stimulation has been proven to induce Hebbian plasticity, and we have piloted its effects in fostering visual awareness in association with visual restoration training.

Mots-clés : blindsight,visual awareness,cortical blindness,striate cortex,fmri,computational neuroimaging