Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : GLOBAL ACADEMIES (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Study of the Human Past
Entité participante : KU Leuven — Pays : Belgique — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1446500.0 €

Science has become a global enterprise. To produce knowledge, scientists with different nationalities, gender backgrounds, ethnicities and socio-political views engage in debate and adopt shared codes of conduct (e.g. leaving out personal bias when evaluating each other’s work). This project conducts historical research into the mechanisms that structure these global social relations within science by using 20th century scientific societies as its lens. It hypothesizes that these hitherto unstudied societies have played a regulatory role in the globalization of science by acting as ‘gatekeepers’, simultaneously opening up and limiting access to (sub)groups, such as women scholars or scholars from the Global South, by organizing (massive) conferences, selecting speakers, allocating prizes, electing boards etc. Building on studies of gender and ethnicity in science and on sociological analyses of evaluation in science, GLOBAL ACADEMIES innovates the concept of scientific sociability to include unspoken codes of conduct that could establish divisions within scientific groups, allowing the study of societies’ mechanisms of in- and exclusion, of setting (implicit) standards, and their strategies for coping with (political) dissent. The project innovates methodologically by engaging in multi-sited research into scientific societies in the USA, France, India and Brazil, and at the international level, and by using multiple research methods (journal analysis, archival research and oral history), in which present-day scientific societies are involved as stakeholders. The project aims (1) to develop a conceptual toolkit for scholars across the humanities and social sciences to understand scientific societies’ formats, standards and customs in relation to scientists’ group behavior and (2) to set a new historical framework for understanding the role of scientific societies in science, foregrounding issues of gender, ethnicity and geopolitics in an era of decolonization.

Mots-clés : scientific sociability scholarly societies history of scientific conferences gender and ethnicity in science cultures of evaluation
Projet ERC : PROCESSHETEROGENEITY (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Soci al World and Its Interactions
Entité participante : KU Leuven — Pays : Belgique — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1499500.0 €

Social scientists are eager to answer questions about relations between constructs like beliefs or values. For example, do values affect climate change beliefs? Do perceived threats predict political beliefs? Do risk perception and susceptibility to misinformation determine vaccine hesitancy? Polarized beliefs about climate, politics, and vaccination are a societal threat and it is important to study what drives them. Large-scale survey data is gathered to do so. Using regression to answer the questions ignores that constructs are not directly observable, but measured by survey items containing measurement error (challenge 1). Not correcting for this causes the studied effects to be underestimated and conclusions to be misguided. When many groups are involved - such as many countries in the European Social Survey - the underlying processes likely differ across groups. For example, drivers of climate change beliefs may differ for countries experiencing extreme weather. Group-specific or multilevel analyses result in numerous group-specific regression slopes or random effects, making it hard to find which regression effects are different or similar for which groups (challenge 2). Across many groups, the constructs' measurement is often inequivalent or 'non-invariant', for example, due to translation (challenge 3). A measurement model indicates how items measure a construct and disregarding non-invariance in this model invalidates the comparison of effects among constructs (i.e., one may find differences that are actually due to non-invariance). By tackling challenges 1-3, the proposed mixture multigroup structural equation modelling framework provides the tools to break new ground in understanding what drives constructs like polarized beliefs. A clustering finds subsets of groups with common processes. Flexible measurement models account for non-invariance so that the clustering focuses on the processes. I will implement the methods in freely available software.

Mots-clés : structural equation modeling,factor analysis,regression analysis,measurement error,measurement invariance,mixture model,latent class analysis,surveys,questionnaires,cross national surveys,experience sampling,multiple group data,multigroup data,intensive longitudinal data
Projet ERC : PolTech (Horizon Europe, appel 2025, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Institutions, Governance and Legal Systems
Entité participante : École polytechnique fédérale de Zurich — Pays : Suisse — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : ETH Zurich
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1746875.0 €

Achieving climate change targets requires the rapid adoption of low-carbon technologies (LCTs). Many LCTs, such as solar PV and wind turbines, have experienced major cost reductions. However, their adoption is impeded by high politicization: meaning their salience and polarization in political and public debates is strong. Interestingly, while the climate issue is divided along ideologically lines, it is puzzling that this is not the case for LCTs. To date, the drivers and impacts of LCT politicization remain poorly understood. PolTech addresses this gap by asking: What drives LCT politicization, and how does it impact policies, adoption, and industry development around LCTs? Drawing from political science and innovation studies, PolTech develops a new theory of technology politics. It argues that inherently different LCT traits – such as complexity, adverse effects, or user visibility – shape how symbolic and material costs and benefits are distributed across groups over time. These dynamics interact with institutional contexts, explaining cross-country differences in LCT politicization and its impacts. Adopting a comparative mixed method design, PolTech covers 44 OECD and G20 countries, responsible for 80% of GHG emissions: 1. PolTech constructs a politicization index for 15-20 key LCTs by applying natural language processing to media and parliamentary speeches; 2. PolTech uses machine learning to generate new datasets on LCT policy design and econometrics to study how politicization shapes LCT policy, adoption, and industry trends across countries. This is complemented by case studies on green industrial policies in the EU, US, India, and China; 3. PolTech assesses with quasi-experiments how LCT investments feed back into later politicization, voting behaviour and policy design. In sum, PolTech develops a novel theory of technology politics, testing it with new datasets and comparative analyses, to derive context-specific strategies for accelerating LCT adoption.

Mots-clés : climate change mitigation low carbon technologies politicization technology politics technology traits institutional context comparative mixed method research design oecd and g20 countries natural language processing machine learning panel regression multilevel event history analysis quasi experimental methods comparative case studies process tracing climate policy design datasets technology adoption datasets industry development datasets voting behaviors policy design and framing strategies
Projet ERC : IceDEST (Horizon Europe, appel 2025, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Earth System Science
Entité participante : École polytechnique fédérale de Zurich — Pays : Suisse — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : ETH Zurich
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1921250.0 €

Sea-level rise (SLR) is one of the greatest challenges facing society this century. By 2050, one billion people will be exposed to extreme sea-level rise events. However, how much and how fast sea-levels will rise remains highly uncertain. Much of this uncertainty arises from a lack of observational constraint of ice dynamics models used to estimate future ice loss. Ice dynamics models are sophisticated and satellite-derived surface observations are readily available, but subsurface friction and fracture observational voids remain.  I will address this knowledge gap using seismology, one of the few tools that can illuminate the subsurface. I will harness revolutionary emerging technology (fibreoptic sensing and nodes) to interrogate two critical glacier processes (basal slip and hydrofracture) in unprecedented detail. Basal slip dominates accepted uncertainty in SLR projections, while hydrofracture could accelerate SLR far beyond current estimates. Both processes generate seismic energy that can be directly interrogated.  I will develop a new seismic source inversion method that harnesses far denser sampling from fibreoptic sensing and nodes to illuminate the physics controlling glacier slip and hydrofracture. This advance will provide new insights, including: (1) direct measurements of ice-bed interface strength, an essential under- constrained model boundary condition; and (2) quantifying ice fracture stress state and extent, essential for assessing whether hydrofracture is as important as hypothesised for accelerating SLR.  Excitingly, ice is seismically simpler than rock, so it also provides an ideal testbed for developing new methods. I will capitalise on this to not only realise glaciology impacts, but also simultaneously realise a fundamental step-change in seismology: laying foundations for mechanistic local noise source inversion. This will pave the way both for noise removal (akin to noise-cancelling headphones) and new ways of imaging the subsurface.

Mots-clés : seismology,cryosphere,glaciology,geophysical inversion
Projet ERC : JANUS BI (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Materials Engineering
Entité participante : École polytechnique de Turin — Pays : Italie — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1500000.0 €

Asymmetry is a key structural feature in natural systems and allows for self-organization and unidirectionality of chemical transformations. JANUS BI aims at developing an innovative protocol for the production of 2D materials bearing different functionalities on the two opposite sides. The challenge is to implement the full process in the liquid phase and thus not resorting to solid phase transfer techniques, which is the current state-of-the-art. With this new method, Janus 2D material colloidal inks can be directly produced and used as they are, or for further solution processing of thin-films and/or more complex architectures. The core of the project is the challenging protocol proposed, which rely on the versatility of liquid phase exfoliation (LPE) of 3D crystalline powders of intrinsically layered species to produce 2D material inks and on the large availability of chemical functionalization approaches for 2D materials, both aspects being soundly mastered by the PI of JANUS BI. A first exfoliation produces quasi-2D nanosheets, which are a-selectively functionalized with bulky groups so as to completely cover the exposed faces. The functionalized quasi-2D objects are then subjected to further LPE, providing single-faced functionalized 2D materials. A second functionalization step is forced to happen on the un-covered face, due to the steric hindrance of the pendant functionalities present on the other. The setting-up of a similar protocol requires a tight control over the nanochemistry and nanomorphology of the substrates employed, resulting in a substantial gain of knowledge in controlled functionalization processes for 2D colloids. Once the guidelines for its successful implementation are identified, the development of a whole library of Janus 2D inks is enabled and many further goals can be targeted, which are here exemplified by the construction of self-assembling superstructures/interfaces and of photoactive and photocatalytic nanosystems.

Mots-clés : janus 2d materials,2d materials functionalization,liquid phase exfoliation,nanohybrids,functional nanomaterials,2d material inks,solution processing,photoactive nanomaterials,light conversion,self assembling superstructures,asymmetry
Projet ERC : POSEIDON (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Materials Engineering
Entité participante : École polytechnique de Turin — Pays : Italie — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 666823.32 €

The growing interest in marine renewable energy and ocean-related human activities are the main causes of an alarming increase of the noise level in the oceans and seas. Nevertheless, the performance of underwater noise mitigation systems has since long been (and still is) limited by the fact that dissipation in linear systems is inherently poor at the sub-wavelength scale. Consequently, a viable solution to attenuate underwater waves over low, broadband, and multiple frequencies does not exist, yet. POSEIDON aims to tackle the intrinsic reasons for such a scientific / technological delay and declares an ambitious goal: to develop a new class of meta-screens allowing zero-transmission / zero-radiation over low and broadband frequencies exploiting rather than avoiding complexities stemming from heavy-fluid/structure interaction and exhibiting practical structural requirements, such as being compact, lightweight, and efficient under hydrostatic pressure. POSEIDON will take the risk of exploring two unconventional and ground-breaking approaches in the challenging context of extremely sub-wavelength underwater acoustics to design a new class of metamaterials allowing unprecedented low and broadband wave reflectivity and absorption: 1) anti-auxetic underwater metamaterials, exploring the intimate relationship between the micro-structure and the macroscopic vibrational properties of a multi-scale metamaterial immersed in a heavy-fluid and exhibiting Poisson's ratios > 0.5. 2) topologically protected and impedance adapted underwater metamaterials, assigning crystalline properties to non-crystalline materials by breaking precise classes of symmetries over multiple length scales. Both approaches are supported by the innovative assumption that (3) underwater wave control through metamaterials be already exploited by Nature. If successful, POSEIDON will fill the gap in the knowledge of underwater acoustics and significantly advance the frontiers of bottom-up material design.

Mots-clés : elastic metamaterials phononic crystals underwater acoustics bio inspiration topological protection heavy fluid structure interaction anti auxetic materials multi scale architecture sub wavelength wave attenuation
Projet ERC : CONSEC (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Computer Science and Informatics
Entité participante : Université de Duisbourg et Essen — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1486313.0 €

Smart contracts are computer programs that autonomously execute on the blockchain. They have the potential to revolutionize many applications from finance, insurance, energy, healthcare, and production industries. However, smart contracts have become an appealing attack target. Since smart contracts are always online and easy to hack once a vulnerability is discovered, recent attacks resulted in large losses of cryptocurrency thereby questioning the benefits of this revolutionary technology. CONSEC is the first holistic framework that will enable secure execution of smart contracts on the blockchain. It takes a holistic approach by developing security mechanisms covering various stages of the blockchain ecosystem starting from smart contract development and maintenance to smart contract execution and forensic analysis. A key aspect of this project is the development of the first secure smart contract compiler which detects and automatically patches smart contract bugs in the development phase. An innovative update process complements the secure compiler to mitigate new and unknown attack vectors supporting developers who deployed vulnerable contracts. Further, CONSEC will develop a secure execution monitor to audit smart contracts while they execute on the blockchain allowing instant reaction to run-time attacks. To tackle the current lack of comprehensive approaches to validate the security of already deployed contracts, CONSEC will develop new forensic dynamic analysis approaches. CONSEC establishes trust in smart contract technology enabling secure deployment and execution of smart contracts on the blockchain.

Mots-clés : smart contracts,blockchain,program flow security,run time monitoring,fuzzing,forensic analysis,secure compilers
Projet ERC : Two-CO2-One (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Molecules of Life: B iological  Mechanisms , Structures  and Functions
Entité participante : Université de Marbourg — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1498863.0 €

Carbon dioxide (CO2) receives a lot of attention as a greenhouse gas that promotes human-induced climate change. On the other hand, CO2 is also the starting point for the production of virtually all biomass on our planet. Therefore, nature has developed sophisticated methods to fix CO2 and make it available for biochemical reactions. Of all known biological CO2 fixation pathways, the Wood-Ljungdahl pathway (WLP) is the simplest way to fix two CO2 molecules to form acetyl-CoA, the key metabolic intermediate for biomass formation. It is the only pathway directly related to energy conservation and regarded to be the be the most ancient. The Two-CO2-One project aims to gain a comprehensive structural and mechanistic understanding of CO2 fixation and energy conservation in acetogenic bacteria and methanogenic archaea. These ecologically highly relevant organisms can live under conditions of extreme energy limitation in the absence of oxygen and feed exclusively on CO2 and hydrogen. I will elucidate how these species fix CO2 and conserve energy through their WLP by using the innovative structural approach of redox-guided cryogenic electron microscopy (Cryo-EM) to study the oxygen-sensitive metalloprotein machinery of the WLP. The mechanistic insights gained will be challenged by microbiological and genetic approaches in these anaerobic, non-standard model organisms.  Using autotrophic organisms that can sequester gaseous CO2 to produce biogas or ethanol from abundant waste gas resources is one way to reduce the human carbon footprint. Therefore, the Two-CO2-One project will not only lead to a deeper understanding of the unique mechanistic principles of WLP, but also provide new perspectives for developing biotechnological applications based on improved microbes that capture and sequester CO2 to produce industrially relevant chemicals and to combat human-induced climate change.

Mots-clés : microbiology,anaerobic metabolism
Projet ERC : DynamicVision (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System
Entité participante : Université de Constance — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1500000.0 €

Driving along a tree-lined avenue, we have all experienced how the rapid succession of light and shade disrupts our vision. Such conditions push even synthetic sensors to their limits, but many animals master these challenges on a daily—and nightly—basis. Indeed, a high dynamic range of sensory information is a hallmark of natural environments. Explaining how sensory information is processed with the limited bandwidth in neural circuits is key to a central goal of neuroscience: understanding the neural control of behaviour in natural contexts. This question extends beyond the processing of dynamic input by nervous systems to the closed-loop nature of animal behaviour itself: as senses guide an animal’s movements, the movements in turn shape the sensory input. It necessitates a paradigm-shift to a holistic approach considering dynamic inputs, neural processing and behavioural strategies in concert. I propose visually-guided flight in nocturnal moths as uniquely suited for approaching this challenge. Probing the system in dim light, when vision operates at its limits, offers straightforward performance readouts for all stages of the control loop. To do so, we will design a novel imaging system to quantify the dynamics of natural visual environments from a flying insect’s perspective. We will then measure how dynamic tuning adjusts peripheral neurons to compensate for these spatiotemporal light variations, and how they are integrated with movement predictions in motion neurons, to guide flight behaviour. Using a one-of-a-kind facility for large-scale animal tracking, we will record the moths’ flight behaviour at unprecedented precision to reveal the strategies that optimise sensory acquisition in these challenging light conditions. Combining all stages, this project will provide a coherent framework for studying the neural basis of natural behaviour in dynamic light environments—using a unique, ecologically impactful model to close the loop from sensing to acting.

Mots-clés : vision,neural control,behaviour,dynamic range,active sensing,light pollution