Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : MuscleAntiVirus (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Immunity, Infection and I mmunotherapy
Entité participante : Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : HGF
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2000000.0 €

Although skeletal muscles are not traditionally considered to be constituents of the immune system, the loss of skeletal muscle mass in chronic infection is frequently associated with impaired T cell function, or “T cell exhaustion.” Whether and how muscles regulate T cell exhaustion is unknown. We found that skeletal muscles antagonized T cell exhaustion in mice chronically infected with lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV) clone 13. Spleen-derived exhausted CD8+ skeletal muscle-infiltrating lymphocytes (SMILEs) formed clusters in muscles where their antiviral function and proliferative potential were restored. These revived CD8+ SMILEs egressed from muscles and migrated back to lymphoid organs to sustain long-term antiviral immunity. We aim to understand how skeletal muscles regulate antiviral CD8+ T cell function, metabolism, and migration. (1) Using metabolomics and RNA-sequencing approaches, we identified 46 metabolites that were enriched in muscle interstitial fluid and two myokine-encoding genes that were upregulated in muscle tissue, respectively. We plan to test whether and how these metabolites and myokines restore the antiviral functions of exhausted CD8+ T cells. (2) We found that the CD8+ T cell migration between the spleen and skeletal muscles was guided by a protein gradient of regulator of G protein signaling 16 (Rgs16). We plan to identify the Rgs16-interacting partners and the molecular mechanisms underlying Rgs16 protein gradient-driven CD8+ T cell migration. (3) We observed that increasing muscle mass using a genetic approach resulted in both increased numbers of CD8+ SMILEs and decreased viral titers in LCMV clone 13 infected mice. We plan to explore the therapeutic potential of increasing muscle mass for enhancing protective T cell responses in chronic infections. Collectively, we will study the role of muscles in “recharging” exhausted T cells and will evaluate the therapeutic potential of increasing muscle mass in chronic infections

Mots-clés : cd8 cd8 t cells t cell exhaustion exhausted t cells lcmv chronic infection skeletal muscle
Projet ERC : FUN-HSC (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Cell Biology, Development, Stem Cells and R egeneration
Entité participante : University College de Londres — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : UCL
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 199900.0 €

Hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) provide a lifelong supply of blood and immune cells. They are a life-saving therapy for leukemia and have recently found broadened applications to gene and cell therapy, against other cancers, genetic, autoimmune, and infectious diseases. Nonetheless, practical limitations, such as donor-matching or insufficient cell number render these therapies unfeasible or unsuccessful for many patients. Attempts to overcome these limitations have been unable to create a reliable source of HSC for patients: while we can generate human HSC from pluripotent stem cells (PSC), they resemble early development stages, lacking the functional maturation hallmarks. FUN-HSC aims at identifying core and actionable maturation pathways for HSCs and at defining the contribution of coordinated gene expression by chromatin regulation, using a combination of functional and genetic screening technologies and high-throughput readouts in vitro and in vivo. HSC maturation occurs in the liver during fetal development and confers functional multilineage hematopoiesis ability throughout adulthood. Using single cell omics analysis of human embryonic and fetal tissues, we describe multiple gene programs changing during developmental HSC maturation. This study will lead to candidate cell-intrinsic and niche-dependent instructions, which will be dissected in the context of the fetal liver, by analyzing the cell compartments and their interactions and by combining novel organoid technologies with mouse xenografts to model the fetal liver environment. Ultimately, we aim to identify a strategy that mimics these pathways in vitro to bring the maturation stage of the PSC-derived HSC, to a robustly engraftable and clinically valuable HSC source. Harnessing new knowledge in human HSC biology, cutting-edge genetics and tissue technologies, FUN-HSC will provide great advances in the mission of making and maintaining HSCs in vitro, enabling their full therapeutic potential.

Mots-clés : single cell,hematopoietic stem cells,hematopoietic stem cell transplantation,crispra,crispri,sgrna screening,fetal liver,stem cell niche,epigenetics
Projet ERC : HypFlow (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences
Entité participante : Centre national de la recherche scientifique — Pays : France — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : CNRS
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 25000.0 €

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) has become a well-established and versatile tool in numerous fields of research and in industry, but features a relatively low sensitivity which prevents solving today’s most pressing challenges in modern science. Hyperpolarization by dissolution dynamic nuclear polarization (dDNP) provides a partial solution by enhancing sensitivity 10’000-fold. However, hyperpolarized solutions are available only once (single-shot), and are contaminated and diluted. This is incompatible with most NMR experiments, except for some niche applications. HypFlow will reach the ground-breaking overall aim of providing inexhaustible (multi-shot) and pure (unpolluted and undiluted) hyperpolarization, thus truly compatible with NMR by: 1) designing and building a pulsed-DNP freeze&flow polarizer, 2) integrating the use of hyperpolarizing matrices with polarized electrons, and 3) validating multi-scan applications in metabolomics, drug discovery, and chemistry. Liquid NMR samples will freeze in the HypFlow system where high levels of polarization will be generated, will then melt and flow toward the spectrometer, and will recirculate repeatedly. This will offer, for the first-time, inexhaustible and pure hyperpolarization with a 10’000-fold boost in sensitivity. The PI has a unique combined leading expertise in most recent instrumental, methodological and chemical developments in dDNP that will empower him to tackle the scientific challenges of HypFlow. HypFlow will deepen the fundamental scientific knowledge of nuclear and electron spin polarization generation, transfer, and relaxation phenomena. It will enable detection of hyperpolarized samples in a fully compatible way with a broad range of NMR applications, radically transforming and democratizing the practice of hyperpolarized NMR in research laboratories and industries.

Mots-clés : nuclear magnetic resonance,hyperpolarization,dynamic nuclear polarization
Projet ERC : FORHUE (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Computer Science and Informatics
Entité participante : Université rhénane Frédéric-Guillaume de Bonn — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1999629.0 €

Human errors remain the main source of incidents. They can lead to fatalities, traffic accidents, or product defects and cause high economic and social cost. While some errors can still be corrected if they are detected in time, many human errors cause high costs as soon as they occur or are even irreversible. In these cases, it is very important to recognize human errors before they occur. The goal of this project is therefore to develop methods based on artificial intelligence that forecast human errors from video data. We focus on erroneous and unintentional human actions and we aim to support humans to avoid them. In order to achieve this goal, we aim to solve three tasks jointly. We aim to develop methods that forecast human motion and intention with a very low latency such that unintentional actions can be recognized before they occur. Without the capability to interfere, however, even the best forecasting model does not prevent human errors. We therefore aim to develop a model that generates an auditory feedback if an error is forecast. The feedback, however, should not only warn humans, but also guide them such that they can successfully complete their intended action. Finally, we aim to model how humans will react to the feedback. We thus aim to develop a model that forecasts the motion of humans and objects they interact with, that recognizes human errors before they occur, and that guides the human motion via auditory feedback in order to prevent errors. The model should automatically decide if and what auditory feedback is generated by reasoning how the feedback will affect the motion of persons that are close-by. While we aim to showcase that the developed technology is able to prevent errors before they occur, this technology has the potential to drastically reduce the social and economic costs caused by human errors in the long term.

Mots-clés : forecasting activities,forecasting human motion,video understanding,recognizing unintentional activities,forecasting human errors
Projet ERC : MediaMinds (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Human Mind and Its Compl exity
Entité participante : Université d'Amsterdam — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UvA
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2000000.0 €

We have an urgent need to better understand the social media engagement of youth. Social media supports the specific developmental needs of youth, such as those for social connection. However, the increased sensitivity of the developing brain to social rewards may place youth especially at risk. In addition, youth’s sensitivity to social influence exposes another potential vulnerability, given that not all information is trustworthy. Understandably, there have been widespread fears about the impact of social media on youth. However, currently little is known about what drives youth to engage with social media or how they are impacted by it.  Recent meta-analyses and reviews have identified that the field is hampered by several key limitations: 1) an overreliance on subjective and high-level measures, such as screen time, 2) the underuse of social media trace data and 3) lack of ecologically valid experimental tasks, and 4) the absence of a framework for understanding social media engagement. Here I address that challenge by developing novel computational models that provide a theoretical formalization of the complex interactions between the developing cognitive processes and social media affordances. In addition, I will analyse social media trace data, develop novel ecologically valid experimental tasks, and use neuroimaging to further test and refine these formal models. This project will focus on the neurocognitive development of fundamental cognitive processes that interact with the two key affordances that social media platforms provide: 1) social feedback processing and, 2) social information processing.  The computational framework is grounded in 1) models of neurocognitive development, 2) reinforcement learning models, and 3) Bayesian models of belief updating. Our findings will significantly advance our understanding of the social media engagement of youth on the mechanistic level, and will provide a fruitful framework and toolbox for future studies.

Mots-clés : social media,computational modeling,adolescence,young adulthood,reinforcement learning,bayesian learning,experimental research,trace data
Projet ERC : PROTEINSCAPES (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Human Mobility, Environment, and Space
Entité participante : Université d'Amsterdam — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UvA
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1999684.0 €

Despite the devastating effects of the meat-dairy industry on climate and environment, the production and consumption of animal-based protein is at historically high levels. I refer to this as the protein paradox. Why are we collectively unable to reduce our reliance on meat and dairy? From the extant literature, we know that changing diet is difficult, especially as the consumption of meat and dairy is culturally normalized in many societies. The literature also reveals that the meat-dairy industry has an outsize influence over consumers and governments. These explanations, however, ignore the uneven geographies of production and consumption, and how they intersect with the political contestation of meat and dairy, entwining with processes of spatial and political polarization.  PROTEINSCAPES thus asks: how can the protein paradox be explained through the political geographies of the production and consumption of animal protein? The research team will pursue: (1) a quantitative study of the protein paradox and landscapes of production and consumption across all EU countries; (2) in-depth qualitative case-study of the politics of consumption in the Czech Republic, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Portugal; and (3) a cross-national comparative study of the role of geography in the political contestation of the transition away from animal protein.  By extending and connecting theory on the geography of transitions and political-spatial polarization to advance a new political geographical approach to study transitions to sustainability, and by advancing the concept of protein landscapes—produced at the intersection of territories, identities and materialities—the project will further our understanding of why the transition away from animal protein is so difficult, the necessary first step in disentangling the wicked problem of the protein paradox.

Mots-clés : political geography
Projet ERC : LitDem (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Institutions, Governance and Legal Systems
Entité participante : Université d'Amsterdam — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UvA
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1999784.0 €

Sharply increasing strategic climate litigation (SCL) is a legal and social fact. It has the potential to influence the democratic process at a time when democracy and its safeguards are already widely in decline. As other strategic litigation, climate litigation involves many actors (NGOs; media; politicians) and has many nuanced and indirect consequences beyond its direct legal effects (creating authoritative legal narratives, framing perceptions, fostering cooperation, and ‘legalising’ the political debate). However, because of the particular nature of the climate emergency, as a global, scientifically certain existential threat to humanity, SCL is an extreme case of strategic litigation, both in quantity and in quality. As a sharply growing phenomenon, it aims for socioeconomic changes in response to the climate emergency as (1) a truly global collective action problem; which is (2) increased by structurally inadequate political responses; and (3) affects those most, who do not (yet) have political power. It is also distinct in its reliance on (4) arguments based on non-binding international norms (e.g., in the Paris Agreement) and (5) complex science with uncertain legal effects (litigants: climate science; defendants: carbon capture technology). LitDem breaks new ground by providing the missing theoretical framework that captures not only the direct legal but also the indirect non-legal consequences of SCL for the democratic process in times of societal tensions and democratic decline. It provides greatly needed guidance to involved actors. Based on qualitative multi-method studies (incl. systematic content analysis, doctrinal analysis, interviews) of all SCL in 4 national and 2 European jurisdictions (DE, FR, NL, UK, EU, ECHR), it offers a grounded conceptual understanding of the democratic implications of rapidly growing SCL. It answers the questions: How does SCL affect the democratic process? How could its (neglected) democratic potential be realised?

Mots-clés : strategic litigation separation of powers democratic legitimacy climate change
Projet ERC : HARSH (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Human Mobility, Environment, and Space
Entité participante : Université de Bologne — Pays : Italie — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1992656.0 €

Harsh parenting (HP) is the use of corporal or emotional punishment to discipline children. Despite harming children both physically and psychologically, it is widespread and persistent in certain regions and demographic groups. Why?  Existing studies on the causes of HP predominantly focus on individual and family factors, ignoring wider contextual factors influencing childrearing practices. Motivated by an ecological framework, HARSH marks a paradigm shift in understanding HP by explicitly exploring cultural, institutional, and economic causes for the first time.  It has four main related objectives: 1) Uncover the ancestral cultural origins explaining long-term HP persistence. 2) Identify the causal impact of economic factors. 3) Assess the influence of institutional structures and policies. 4) Unpack the mechanisms through which these contextual factors shape HP.  HARSH reaches its goals in four transformative ways. a) Focusing on Europe and sub-Saharan Africa, leveraging on their differences in socio-economic development, stages of demographic transitions and HP prevalence. b) Utilizing new highly disaggregated data across space and time enabling analysis of HP variations within and between countries, ethnic groups, and cohorts. c) Employing innovative methodologies including spatial analysis, and quantitative economic techniques, which are uncommon in studies on violence against children, but crucial to derive causal pathways. d) Identifying innovative socio-economic mechanisms, as well as the population subgroups most at risk.  HARSH pioneers new research avenues by offering unique, hypothesis-driven, empirical insights into the wider factors behind HP needed to fully grasp the reasons why parents adopt it. It offers an interdisciplinary perspective by using novel methods to test hypotheses from demography, psychology, and medicine. It supplies key scientific evidence for devising effective policies to tackle this major yet often hidden public health issue.

Mots-clés : child health domestic violence family demography parenting style applied econometrics survey methods health economics
Projet ERC : PARACRYST (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Materials Engineering
Entité participante : Université de La Corogne — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1999000.0 €

Most advanced semiconducting polymers do not seem to fit in the traditional structural clasification of polymers, which labels polymers as amorphous, semicrystalline or paracrystalline. In fact, a single semiconducting polymer can be interchangeably identified as amorphous, semicrystalline or paracrystalline depending on the characterization method used. Given the interlink between microstructure and optoelectronic properties in organic semiconductors, this vagueness has far-reaching consequences on the optimization of organic electronic devices, e.g. contributing, in the case of organic solar cells, to the current lack of solutions for their severe instability issues. The vision of paracryst is to fundamentally re-think the basic structural principles of polymeric semiconductors to finally decipher their solid-state microstructure. To achieve so, paracryst will use, and build upon the new concept of semi-paracrystallinity, i.e. the fourth structural model for polymers recently introduced by the applicant. The new semi-paracrystalline model puts in our hands a new “toolkit” that will be here directed to i) rationalize the so far elusive microstructure of semiconducting polymers, to ii) deliver more-precise structure-properties relationships for these materials, and iii) to induce major improvements in devices, starting with increasing the stability of organic solar cells. Gaining insight into a newly discovered semi-paracrystallinity, paracryst will reshape the very foundations of the physics of polymers. Moreover, it will induce a paradigm shift in how structure-function relationships are delineated in semiconducting polymers, impacting the whole organic electronics arena, from bioelectronics to neuromorphic computing to wearable electronics. But specifically, as proof of feasibility, paracryst will employ the semi-paracrystalline model to find once and for all efficient solutions to the degradation issue that is hampering the scaling-up of organic photovoltaics.

Mots-clés : semiconducting polymers,organic solar cells,organic semiconductors
Projet ERC : BELIEFS (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Human Mobility, Environment, and Space
Entité participante : CMCC Foundation - Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change — Pays : Italie — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : CMCC
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 370625.0 €

The transition to a low-carbon society, as mandated by the Paris Agreement and recent net-zero targets, requires a significant expansion and reallocation of physical investments. Investment choices crucially depend on firms’ expectations and beliefs. However, profound knowledge gaps exist regarding transition-related expectations: current modelling frameworks lack the capability to fully assess their impact on transition dynamics; empirical evidence on their distribution is scarce; and there is limited comprehension of their evolution drivers and how to align them effectively with climate targets. Misalignment of expectations can lead to failed or disorderly decarbonisation pathways. The BELIEFS project will lay the foundations of a novel analytical framework capable of shedding light on the complex interaction between firms’ beliefs, investment decision-making and climate policy strategies, so as to identify credible paths to a net-zero society. The project will deliver a methodological breakthrough by developing a dynamic transition model with a realistic representation of expectations as heterogeneous, evolving and interdependent. The design and calibration of the model will be informed by extensive data collection efforts, including original surveys and experiments. A large-scale survey of firms will produce the first comprehensive empirical assessment of transition-related expectations and their impact on economic decisions. The results of the project will be pivotal in identifying effective policy and institutional strategies to ensure alignment of beliefs, thereby enabling a swift and orderly decarbonisation process. Over the course of five years, BELIEFS aims to offer pioneering interdisciplinary contributions to advance our understanding of the macro-behavioural dimensions of low-carbon transitions, integrating elements from climate economics, transition theory, behavioural sciences and political economy.

Mots-clés : behavioural macroeconomics commitment climate change climate policy climate related beliefs decarbonisation experiments investment choices low carbon transition net zero targets narratives transition modelling transition related expectations policy credibility policy uncertainty surveys