Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : ProteinDynamics (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Physical and analytical chemical sciences
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 : 2000000.0 €

The function of many proteins involves large-amplitude domain motions that occur on a timescale of microseconds to millisecond. In the absence of tools to directly observe these dynamics, our understanding of the function of proteins is necessarily incomplete and must frequently rely on extrapolation from known static structures. Here, the implementation of real-time imaging of single particle dynamics in liquid phase is proposed with both microsecond time resolution as well as near-atomic spatial resolution. The experimental approach builds on several recent technological advances, namely the advent of Time-Resolved (“Four-dimensional”) Electron Microscopy, graphene liquid cell technology, and direct electron detection cameras, which are combined with established single-particle reconstruction techniques in cryo-Electron Microscopy. Visualizing the conformational dynamics of proteins will fundamentally advance our understanding of these nanoscale machines and has the potential to greatly benefit biomedical applications.

Mots-clés : in situ electron microscopy,time resolved cryo em,photo electron gun,single particle dynamics
Projet ERC : CANCEREVO (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Human Diseases
Entité participante : University of London — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : U. London
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 749696.25 €

The fundamental evolutionary nature of cancer is well recognized but an understanding of the dynamic evolutionary changes occurring throughout a tumour’s lifetime and their clinical implications is in its infancy. Current approaches to reveal cancer evolution by sequencing of multiple biopsies remain of limited use in the clinic due to sample access problems in multi-metastatic disease. Circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA) is thought to comprehensively sample subclones across metastatic sites. However, available technologies either have high sensitivity but are restricted to the analysis of small gene panels or they allow sequencing of large target regions such as exomes but with too limited sensitivity to detect rare subclones. We developed a novel error corrected sequencing technology that will be applied to perform deep exome sequencing on longitudinal ctDNA samples from highly heterogeneous metastatic gastro-oesophageal carcinomas. This will track the evolution of the entire cancer population over the lifetime of these tumours, from metastatic disease over drug therapy to end-stage disease and enable ground breaking insights into cancer population evolution rules and mechanisms. Specifically, we will: 1. Define the genomic landscape and drivers of metastatic and end stage disease. 2. Understand the rules of cancer evolutionary dynamics of entire cancer cell populations. 3. Predict cancer evolution and define the limits of predictability. 4. Rapidly identify drug resistance mechanisms to chemo- and immunotherapy based on signals of Darwinian selection such as parallel and convergent evolution. Our sequencing technology and analysis framework will also transform the way cancer evolution metrics can be accessed and interpreted in the clinic which will have major impacts, ranging from better biomarkers to predict cancer evolution to the identification of drug targets that drive disease progression and therapy resistance.
Projet ERC : DIMENSION (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Products and processes engineering
Entité participante : Eindhoven University of Technology — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : TU/e
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1672808.25 €

The fundamental importance of materials to modern society is evidenced by the way new materials have revolutionized almost every aspect of our lives. Despite the many advances, dwindling resources and more stringent demands on product cost and performance demand increasingly better material designs and production processes, resulting in a heightened reliance on computational methods. In the field of computational materials engineering, the recent emergence of data science into the mainstream is causing a paradigm shift in the way models and data are used. There is a shift from traditional simulation methods which use data mainly to calibrate parameters in models, to data-driven simulation methods which seek to bypass the use of models by extracting knowledge from large data sets. This project synergistically combines aspects of both – by developing advanced computational methods that permit multi-scale material models to be informed by available measurement data. This project addresses this challenging problem through two main tasks. In the first part, we develop dimension reduction techniques for rapid multi-scale materials simulations. These methods must be capable of dealing with deterministic and stochastic microstructure parameters reflecting variations in loading, material, and morphological properties. In the second part, the reduced order models serve as an enabler for the development of computational methods for the selection of the most informative data and its assimilation into multi-scale material models. By enabling parameter estimation and model correction, this leads to increased accuracy and precision in the prediction of engineering quantities of interest. The success of the project will give rise to a novel computational framework that enables real-time multi-scale materials simulations informed by optimally chosen data, thus permitting effective risk management and cost reduction in the design of materials and control of manufacturing processes.

Mots-clés : computational homogenization,multi scale materials simulation,materials engineering,control of manufacturing processes,material design,finite element methods
Projet ERC : COS-OCS (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Earth system science
Entité participante : University of Groningen — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : RUG
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 584373.0 €

The future climate of our planet strongly depends on the capacity of the biosphere to sequester atmospheric CO2, and on the abundance of stratospheric sulphate aerosols (SSA). These aerosols form a layer that resides at about 16 km altitude that, contrary to CO2, has a cooling effect on climate. These two climate-regulating mechanisms are intricately linked to the atmospheric trace gas carbonyl sulphide (COS). COS is the most abundant sulphur compound in our atmosphere. The dominant COS source is biogenic activity in the ocean, while uptake by the terrestrial biosphere, and a small amount of destruction in the stratosphere, contribute to its removal. The COS loss to the biosphere could potentially be used to quantify photosynthetic CO2 uptake, while its stratospheric destruction is an important precursor for the formation of SSA. A deeper understanding of atmospheric COS variations would therefore signal a major step forward in our ability to diagnose CO2 uptake and SSA formation. With this research program, I aim to fundamentally improve our limited understanding of the COS budget. The program combines innovative modelling and measurements. I aim to collect samples from aircraft, ship cruises, and stations across all latitudes, on which highly challenging analyses of COS and its isotopologues will be performed. To characterise the important transition to the stratosphere, vertical COS profiles up to 30 km will be sampled with so-called “AirCores”. A larger spatial coverage will come from currently untapped satellite data of COS isotopologues. My program will integrate these measurements into the first multispecies and isotope-enabled inverse modelling framework for COS, building on techniques I developed during the past decade. The measurements and model together will allow breakthroughs in the coupled COS and CO2 budgets, and unlock the potential of COS as new climate diagnostic.

Mots-clés : isotopes carbonyl sulphide climate
Projet ERC : COS-OCS (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Earth system science
Entité participante : Utrecht University — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : Partner
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 950137.47 €

The future climate of our planet strongly depends on the capacity of the biosphere to sequester atmospheric CO2, and on the abundance of stratospheric sulphate aerosols (SSA). These aerosols form a layer that resides at about 16 km altitude that, contrary to CO2, has a cooling effect on climate. These two climate-regulating mechanisms are intricately linked to the atmospheric trace gas carbonyl sulphide (COS). COS is the most abundant sulphur compound in our atmosphere. The dominant COS source is biogenic activity in the ocean, while uptake by the terrestrial biosphere, and a small amount of destruction in the stratosphere, contribute to its removal. The COS loss to the biosphere could potentially be used to quantify photosynthetic CO2 uptake, while its stratospheric destruction is an important precursor for the formation of SSA. A deeper understanding of atmospheric COS variations would therefore signal a major step forward in our ability to diagnose CO2 uptake and SSA formation. With this research program, I aim to fundamentally improve our limited understanding of the COS budget. The program combines innovative modelling and measurements. I aim to collect samples from aircraft, ship cruises, and stations across all latitudes, on which highly challenging analyses of COS and its isotopologues will be performed. To characterise the important transition to the stratosphere, vertical COS profiles up to 30 km will be sampled with so-called “AirCores”. A larger spatial coverage will come from currently untapped satellite data of COS isotopologues. My program will integrate these measurements into the first multispecies and isotope-enabled inverse modelling framework for COS, building on techniques I developed during the past decade. The measurements and model together will allow breakthroughs in the coupled COS and CO2 budgets, and unlock the potential of COS as new climate diagnostic.

Mots-clés : isotopes carbonyl sulphide climate
Projet ERC : CAMUT (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Pompeu Fabra University — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UPF
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

The gap between the current capabilities of the music technologies used in commercial services and the needs of our culturally diverse world is still immense, e.g. in the several music traditions of culturally rich and diverse India. The existing technologies fall short of utilizing even the basic musical characteristics and hence they limit our music listening experience. The consumption practices of services and products for Indian music vary to a large extent from those of other popular music genres and they need to be addressed. An emerging market for digital music distribution in India will need music intelligence technologies that are adapted to local needs and music tastes. Hence, India is a natural venue to assess the market potential and needs for culturally adapted information and communication technologies (ICTs) for music. Culture Aware Music Technologies (CAMUT) aims at bringing closer to market, the results of new research carried out to address such a need. Building on the technology outcomes of the CompMusic project, we propose to develop two specific prototype products tailored to suit India’s economic and sociocultural context, and formulate a business plan based on their potential for commercialization: 1) An application that addresses the large and varied private music collections providing innovative means to organize/archive, retrieve, discover and explore music collections, and 2) A platform to provide our technologies as service, addressing the needs of content owners who cater to the public for a cost. For testing and early adoption, we have partnered with major institutions, record labels and content owners such as the All India Radio and Music Academy Madras. CAMUT will use their large music archives for mutual benefit to develop the prototype products, providing enriched access to music to hundreds of millions of users, which will provide valuable feedback on the need and utility of such ICTs.

Mots-clés : techtransfer,innovation,music technology,cultural diversity,indian art music,software application,application programming interface,culture aware technology,karnatik music,hindustani music
Projet ERC : AEROSOL (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Universe sciences
Entité participante : KU Leuven — Pays : Belgique — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : KUL
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1665998.1 €

The gas and dust in the interstellar medium (ISM) drive the chemical evolution of galaxies, the formation of stars and planets, and the synthesis of complex prebiotic molecules. The prime birth places for this interstellar material are the winds of evolved (super)giant stars. These winds are unique chemical laboratories, in which a large variety of gas and dust species radially expand away from the star. Recent progress on the observations of these winds has been impressive thanks to Herschel and ALMA. The next challenge is to unravel the wealth of chemical information contained in these data. This is an ambitious task since (1) a plethora of physical and chemical processes interact in a complex way, (2) laboratory data to interpret these interactions are lacking, and (3) theoretical tools to analyse the data do not meet current needs. To boost the knowledge of the physics and chemistry characterizing these winds, I propose a world-leading multi-disciplinary project combining (1) high-quality data, (2) novel theoretical wind models, and (3) targeted laboratory experiments. The aim is to pinpoint the dominant chemical pathways, unravel the transition from gas-phase to dust species, elucidate the role of clumps on the overall wind structure, and study the reciprocal effect between various dynamical and chemical phenomena. Now is the right time for this ambitious project thanks to the availability of (1) high-quality multi-wavelength data, including ALMA and Herschel data of the PI, (2) supercomputers enabling a homogeneous analysis of the data using sophisticated theoretical wind models, and (3) novel laboratory equipment to measure the gas-phase reaction rates of key species. This project will have far-reaching impact on (1) the field of evolved stars, (2) the understanding of the chemical lifecycle of the ISM, (3) chemical studies of dynamically more complex systems, such as exoplanets, protostars, supernovae etc., and (4) it will guide new instrument development.

Mots-clés : astrochemistry,evolved stars,infrared submm observations,theoretical models,laboratory experiments
Projet ERC : BlockchainGov (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Institutions, Governance and Legal Systems
Entité participante : European University Institute — Pays : Italie — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : EUI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 560000.7 €

The general malaise of liberal democracies—characterized by a gradual erosion of trust in traditional institutions (such as banks) and new intermediaries (e.g. social media)—has spurred the development of new blockchain-based applications (like Bitcoin) that allegedly obviate the need for trust. Often described as a “trustless” technology, blockchain’s potential for disintermediation has been touted as a catalyst of innovation that could displace existing power structures. But is it shifting power away from former centers of power only to create new ones, or can it lead to an actual new organisation of power? BlockchainGov is an interdisciplinary project that will study the impact of blockchain technology on new and existing governance structures, and its consequences for legitimacy and trust. First, it will investigate the governance of existing blockchain systems, and analyse the power dynamics at play within these systems. Second, it will examine the legitimacy and long-term sustainability of existing attempts at distributed governance, through the lenses of legal and political theory. Third, it will explore the potential of blockchain technology to support new models of distributed governance providing an architecture for decentralized and participatory decision-making with attributes of transparency and accountability. Last, it will experiment with these new models at different levels of governance, from the community level to the global governance level. The project will open a new field of scholarship on “distributed governance” that uniquely combines the disciplines of computer science, political science and law. It will provide key empirical and theoretical contributions to science, with important policy implications to the broader questions of global governance. Bringing this project to life requires a funding scheme compatible with a high-risk/high-gain vision to finance a fully dedicated and highly motivated research team with multidisciplinary skills.

Mots-clés : blockchain technology,internet governance,commons governance,legal theory
Projet ERC : MechBiolRep (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Biotechnology and Biosystems Engineering
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 : 1500000.0 €

The global demand for dairy products is expected to surge by 36% over the next decade in a manner that is progressively insatiable by existing technologies. The dairy industry relies on bovine reproduction, yet cow fertility is declining and the exact causes are not fully understood. It is clear, however, that the quality of bovine oocytes is decreasing. In mammals, the ovarian reserve of oocytes stored within quiescent primordial follicles is non-renewable. Oocyte develop and mature within distinctive follicular microenvironments under tightly regulated molecular and physical conditions. Similarly, preimplantation embryo development is supported within a specialized microenvironment that is surrounded by the zona pellucida and insulated from external soluble and mechanical inputs. Characterizing and understanding these environments and how they affect reproductive processes is a key toward improving assisted reproductive technologies in bovine species. Our premise is that molecular characterization of endocrine and paracrine signalling pathways must be complemented with understanding the mechanical regulation of reproductive biology. This premise is supported by recent finding showing that physical stresses and the mechanical compliance of the extracellular surroundings serve as potent regulators of cell fates in regeneration processes, development, and disease. I propose to employ a biophysical and computational toolbox to study the mechanobiology of reproduction with application to bovine embryo-based technologies. By mimicking the mechanical properties of the ovarian cortical niche, which I will characterize using freshly derived ovaries, I will design an in vitro system for supporting follicle growth. Mechanical profiling of the entire developmental course from oocyte maturation to preimplantation embryogenesis will generate mechanistic insights into the physical regulation of reproductive processes.

Mots-clés : mechanobiology,follicle in vitro growth,bovine embryo based technologies,preimplantation embryo development,embryo morphokinetics,machine learning
Projet ERC : SYNTHLIVES (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Social World and Its Diversity
Entité participante : Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies — Pays : Suisse — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : IHEID
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1500000.0 €

The global extractive industry is undergoing three critical transformations: first, the advent of synthetic or lab-grown minerals, impacting the mining industry and the extraction of resources from nature; second, the creation of fully automated mining operations, seeking to render human work redundant or accessory to that of bots, drones, and other autonomous machines; third, the introduction of digital data and disintermediation technologies for mining management and traceability. Taken together, these innovations anticipate a future of mining that replaces nature with synthetic substances, human labor with intelligent machines, and intermediaries with unmediated accountability. This project responds to these changing conditions with a novel conceptualization of the emergent relationship entangling synthetic and natural objects, humans and machines, material and digital spaces: Synthetic Lives. It asks: What is the role of humans and non-human nature in increasingly synthetic, automated, and digital mining economies? This research innovates by bringing together three related areas of scholarly enquiry: i) resource materialities, to destabilize the divide between nature and culture; ii) mediation and technology, to problematize the separation between humans and machines; iii) algorithmic governance and digital transparency in mining sites, to untangle how material and digital properties are co-produced. Through a multi-sited and multi-methods study, it contributes to these fields of research in three case studies: synthetic laboratories, automated mines, and digital and data-driven mining processes. Interlacing these three foci, Synthetic Lives assists policy-making on environmental, employment, and social-digital issues, and inaugurates a debate of anthropological import: What are the political, epistemological, ecological, and economic consequences of a future that promises to be entangled in synthetic properties, autonomous machines, and digital technologies?

Mots-clés : mining,automation,synthetic,extraction,digital,futures,nature