Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : ExTrA (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Earth System Science
Entité participante : Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : HGF
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 187470.0 €

An immediate, critical challenge facing humanity is the impact of weather extremes under a changing climate across the globe. Accurate weather forecasts and reliable climate projections rely on understanding the complex interactions between the atmospheric circulation and the water cycle. Largely governed by deep clouds, tropical weather cannot be forecasted more than a day in advance, leaving almost half of humanity living in these regions even more vulnerable. Although extratropical (outside the tropics) flows can drastically affect tropical clouds and precipitation, this effect has not been systematically quantified or understood. The novelty of this proposal is in asking a new question: How do extratropical dynamics influence the (sub)tropics? We will build on our recent work and paradigm-challenging preliminary results to study how extratropical dry, cold air intrusions into the tropics dramatically modify its atmosphere and air-sea interaction. We will use a new global Lagrangian identification approach to study this extratropical-tropical interaction for the first time, and uniquely combine state-of-the-art data from multiple sources, diagnostic tools, and multi-scale modelling. We will quantify the global spatiotemporal occurrence, variability and trends of these events (WP1); understand their underlying dynamics and precursors in midlatitudes and their impact on the water cycle (WP2); and assess their suitability as predictors of high-impact tropical weather (WP3). A dedicated international observational flight campaign will allow us to synergistically study the extratropics’ impact on the tropics (WP4). Our findings will advance not only the meteorological community but also the oceanographic, cloud physics and climate dynamics scientific communities, by providing a unified, global view of the interacting large-scale atmospheric dynamics, clouds and precipitation through their common weather timescales, paving the way for timely, accurate weather warnings.

Mots-clés : midlatitude weather systems,rossby waves,air sea interaction,tropical extratropical interaction,high impact weather
Projet ERC : TOPMASS (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Fundamental Constituents of Matter
Entité participante : DESY — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1500000.0 €

We are in the era of precision collider physics where a major challenge is to accurately describe the effects of the strong interactions. The precise determination of the top quark mass is one of the most important measurements in particle physics: it is crucial for indirect searches for new physics and the analysis of the stability of the universe. Currently, the measurement is plagued by theoretical imprecision, including an over-reliance on Monte Carlo simulations and the lack of a systematically improvable treatment of the physics of hadronization (the process by which quarks and gluons are bound into color-neutral hadrons). The same limitations also impact essentially all jet substructure measurements. This includes measurements of the strong coupling, which is another fundamental parameter of the Standard Model. With the high-luminosity phase of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) on the horizon, addressing these problems becomes exceptionally timely and critical.  TOPMASS will overcome these problems by 1) capitalizing on the PI's recent groundbreaking work to exploit Energy-Energy Correlators as a top mass-sensitive probe leading to a new paradigm, and 2) exploiting modern effective field theory methods for developing a model-independent framework to describe hadronization, enabling precise jet substructure determination of the top mass and the strong coupling. This avoids the systematic uncertainty from the usage of hadronization models. It will have immediate applicability to a wide range of precision QCD measurements.  The key outcomes of TOPMASS will be 1) High-precision computations that enable a sub-GeV top mass measurement at the LHC in a field-theoretic scheme. 2) A systematic data-driven approach for describing hadronization effects in modern jet substructure observables.

Mots-clés : top mass,hadronization,energy correlators,jet substructure,strong coupling
Projet ERC : PRO-RNO-G (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Universe Sciences
Entité participante : DESY — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1500000.0 €

The discovery of neutrinos above energies of 1e16 eV promises to uncover: the unknown sources of ultra-high energy cosmic rays, new insights into astrophysics of these sources and particle propagation through the Universe, as well as new particle physics, at energies far higher than those accessible to man-made accelerators. The Radio Neutrino Observatory Greenland (RNO-G) is currently under construction and is scheduled to reach 35 stations in 2026. The in-ice radio array RNO-G is the first large-scale implementation of the radio Askaryan technique and will provide an order of magnitude better discovery sensitivity than existing experiments. Its construction and operation is led by me and two colleagues from the US and Europe. This proposal maximizes RNO-G’s potential to discover the long awaited ultra-high energy neutrinos. My research group will do this by enabling high-efficiency and high-purity neutrino searches in data through novel simulations with improved accuracy, high-precision instrument calibration, and the unique exploitation of cosmic ray signals as a training tool.

Mots-clés : neutrino astronomy,radio instrumentation,event identification,neutrino simulations,signal propagation,instrument calibration,high energy neutrinos,ultra high energy cosmic rays,cosmogenic neutrinos,detector development,trigger calibration
Projet ERC : AUTO-TARGET (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Prevention,  Diagnosis and T reatment of Human Diseases
Entité participante : Universitätsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UKE
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1499662.5 €

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) affects around 10% of the population worldwide and is associated with significant overall and cardiovascular mortality. CKD is a heterogeneous group of disorders characterized by alterations in kidney structure and function and is progressive in nature. Autoimmune diseases are a common cause of CKD and responsible for its most aggressive and progressive forms, mainly in younger patients. Autoantibodies play major pathogenic roles in most of these disorders and multiple disease-specific target antigens have been identified – circumstances that have shifted treatment strategies from largely unspecific immunosuppression towards B and plasma cell-targeted therapies. However, such treatments still involve broad immunosuppression with potentially severe adverse effects. Hence, there is a huge gap between the increasing insights into the immune mechanisms and pathogenic role of autoantibodies against cellular antigens on the one side and the currently available treatments with limited specificity on the other side. The vision of AUTO-TARGET is the development and experimental implementation of pathogenesis-based and antigen-specific treatments for autoimmune diseases of the kidney. The objectives are (1) to identify and characterize novel molecular targets on autoantibody-secreting cells, (2) to target autoreactive B and plasma cells using nanobody-based compounds, and (3) to engineer chimeric autoantibody receptor NK and T cells for the treatment of different autoimmune diseases of the kidney. AUTO-TARGET thereby revolves around a highly translational approach, combining target identification and characterization in patients with autoimmune kidney diseases with unique in vitro and in vivo systems to model disease and validate therapeutics. These translational studies pave the way for more specific, less toxic treatments and thus may implicate a huge step forward for the large and growing population of patients with kidney disease.

Mots-clés : autoantibodies,monoclonal antibodies,nanobodies,bispecific antibody recruiters,antibody secreting cells,autoimmune disease,membranous nephropathy,minimal change disease,systemic lupus erythematosis,rapid progressive glomerulonephritis
Projet ERC : GAMECHAR (Horizon Europe, appel 2025, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Computer Science and Informatics
Entité participante : Université de technologie d'Eindhoven — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1500000.0 €

GAMECHAR addresses a critical gap in gameplay characterization of video games by developing scalable, data-driven methods that link gameplay mechanics to player experiences. Current methodologies face limitations due to fragmented approaches, small datasets, and challenges in comparing human-generated and AI-generated gameplay data. Existing tools struggle to standardize the characterization of gameplay, making it difficult to extract meaningful insights from diverse games. Additionally, the emergent and interactive nature of gameplay requires systematic, scalable solutions for comprehensive analysis.  To overcome these challenges, GAMECHAR will develop innovative methodologies to characterize gameplay data, establishing standardized descriptors and classification models. This approach will automate gameplay data collection, processing, and feature engineering, enabling researchers and developers to distinguish between restorative and harmful gameplay. The project will contribute to gameplay evaluation and advance the quality of gameplay developed to address societal needs, e.g., healthcare. The project contributes to the EU goals for AI excellence and digital health. Key outcomes will include a comprehensive gameplay data repository, AI agents capable of automated gameplay testing, and classification models that generalize across different game environments. Methods and processes will provide researchers with tools for gameplay analysis, enabling more effective comparative studies and predictors of player experience. The PI’s pathways to regulatory authorities have the potential for broad societal impact, applying the developed approach in policy and regulation of exploitative gameplay.

Mots-clés : games user research,cognitive modeling,ai driven game design,human ai interaction,behavioral analytics
Projet ERC : PRIMA (Horizon Europe, appel 2025, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Products and Processes Engineering
Entité participante : Université de technologie d'Eindhoven — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1500000.0 €

Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is a significant global health issue. Current therapies cannot regenerate the hearts of survivors, leading to frequent AMI recurrence and premature death. Crucially, these therapies fail to induce sufficient blood vessel formation, i.e. angiogenesis, which is essential to regenerate the cardiac microvasculature. Without this vasculature, cells repopulating the infarcted tissue cannot survive. A deeper understanding and better control of post-AMI angiogenesis would thus transform patient outcomes. Cells in the infarcted heart experience complex, time-evolving mechanical environments. Despite the proven role of mechanical stimuli in regulating angiogenesis in other tissues, the impact of evolving cardiac mechanical cues on post-AMI angiogenesis is unclear. With PRIMA, I aim to mechanistically understand how these evolving cues affect post-AMI angiogenesis and how to leverage this new understanding to regenerate the microvasculature. I will achieve this aim by developing a revolutionary framework featuring in vitro and in silico models of cardiac angiogenesis. These models will address the evolving mechanical cues of the infarcted heart and the cell memory of past mechanical cues (mechanical memory). The new in vitro models will expose cells to mechanical cues mimicking the cardiac tissue. The resulting insights will inform multiscale computational models to predict angiogenesis and its subcellular mechanisms in response to macroscale changes in cardiac mechanical cues. The multiscale simulations, validated by in vitro models, will finally translate the in vitro findings to the complex in vivo setting and will identify new strategies to restore the microvasculature post-AMI. Building on this unique idea and multidisciplinary approach, PRIMA will have a ground-breaking impact on cardiac interventions, by revealing mechanical cues and cell mechanoresponsive mechanisms as new targets to maximize cardiac revascularization and function.

Mots-clés : angiogenesis mechanobiology cardiac biomechanics computational modelling of mechanobiology
Projet ERC : COMPLETE (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Systems and Communication Engineering
Entité participante : Université de technologie d'Eindhoven — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1499849.0 €

Systems and control engineers aim to master increasingly complex dynamical systems while including stronger performance, operational and energy constraints. As model-based control design remains the dominant paradigm, this results in an increasing need for nonlinear modeling. However, model interpretability and generalization capabilities form important roadblocks for a wide adaptation and applicability of nonlinear system identification methods.  Strong prior knowledge is given by existing models, provided by system designers and engineers, even though they do not capture all the nonlinear dynamics of the real-life system. These models are currently not accounted for during black-box system identification. COMPLETE aims to develop a comprehensive nonlinear system identification framework to obtain accurate and interpretable models of measured complex system dynamics by completing an approximate pre-existing model through black-box nonlinear system identification. New theory and algorithms are put in place to 1) provide model structures, algorithms and theory that flexibly interconnect the pre-existing model and the black-box completion 2) ensure that data-driven completion models are interpretable and preserve key system theoretic aspects 3) data-driven experiment design strategies to detect, quantify and localize model errors at low experimental cost.  These objectives are far beyond the actual abilities of system identification, lifting the model completion for dynamical systems from ad-hoc approaches to a systematic, flexible, theoretically supported framework. My leading expertise on structured nonlinear system identification, and recent proof-of-concept results ensure the feasibility of the project. The resulting system identification framework is applicable over a wide range of engineering disciplines (mechanical, electrical, biomedical) and provides system engineers with the necessary insight to guide them towards better solutions for tomorrow's industry.

Mots-clés : system identification
Projet ERC : VANGOGH (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Products and Processes Engineering
Entité participante : Université de technologie d'Eindhoven — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1499748.0 €

Predicting the degradation of canvas paintings is not only one of the grand challenges in the field of art conservation but also a major scientific problem. Canvas paintings experience complex instability, fracture, and degradation mechanisms across several length scales triggered by the interaction between multiple physical fields. These degradation processes impact the appearance, integrity, and longevity of the painted surfaces and are thus a paramount concern for heritage conservators. This proposal targets a novel integrated computational-experimental framework that aims to realize a breakthrough in predicting the lifespan of canvas paintings by unravelling the underlying multiscale and multiphysics processes that affect their appearance and integrity. VANGOGH departs from developing advanced numerical multiscale and multiphysics models formulated within the framework of computational mechanics. These models will describe the complex constitutive response of paint and canvas materials and their effect on the degradation of canvas paintings under the coupled influence of moisture diffusion, thermal conduction, mechanical deformation, and fracture and instability mechanisms. The modelling framework will be fully integrated with a novel non-invasive multiscale experimental strategy combining quantitative mechanical testing and in-situ microscopic observations on original paint and canvas samples. The synergetic computational-experimental approach will advance the mechanistic understanding of the fundamental origin of the most critical failure scenarios in canvas paintings as a function of environmental variations and structural conservation treatments. This will allow for the first time to quantitatively predict the degradation and thus the lifetime of canvas paintings. The proposed integration of computational and experimental multiscale mechanics with art conservation will provide a paradigm shift in the scientific approach to cultural heritage preservation.

Mots-clés : canvas paintings,multiscale mechanics,multiphysics failure,mechanical behaviour of paint and canvas materials,non invasive experiments
Projet ERC : ReWORCS (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Soci al World and Its Interactions
Entité participante : Fondation nationale des sciences politiques — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : FNSP
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1497986.0 €

The rise of platforms and remote work has refashioned concerns about work security and flexibility in public debates. Academic studies have documented an increase in non-standard work over decades, including polarization of rewards, shifting occupational boundaries, and winding paths among women and other marginalized groups. These findings had important policy implications but left questions about the unfolding of individual labor market experiences amid the more noticeable changes. This project mobilizes new techniques and data sources and overcomes divisions in research on work to address those problems. It will recover important complexity by (1) measuring the diversity of individual job trajectories in light of their economic returns, costs, and risks and by (2) grounding job trajectories in work activities and, crucially, workers’ interpretations of labor market structures. These objectives integrate previously divided formal and constructionist thinking to explain the interplay of contexts, practices, and meaning around work.  The project has three parts. Work package 1 (WP1) uses national-level employment datasets of France, Germany, and the US to survey job trajectories in relation to earnings across institutional contexts. It advances analyses of occupational and other categorical effects by drawing attention to job change sequences, standard and odd. WP2 asks how workers organize concrete work. It takes two strategic cases with detailed work records, one involving technical expertise and the other practical tasks, to study how workers do their jobs as they move between corporate and relational arrangements and to what effects. Both steps assume stable structures. WP3 asks how workers question conventional job presentations in standard and non-standard work trajectories. It draws on a unique dataset of career descriptions in two areas of work and two countries to capture institutional and cultural effects on meaning construction.

Mots-clés : labor markets expertise meaning practice organizations computational social science social network analysis text analysis
Projet ERC : IseeG (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Prevention,  Diagnosis and T reatment of Human Diseases
Entité participante : University Hospital Erlangen — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1453730.0 €

The aim of this project is to functionalize contrast agents for multispectral optoacoustic tomography (MSOT) - a molecular "sensitive" ultrasound imaging technique - to develop a new targeted imaging approach for the early localisation of inflammatory processes. Inflammatory processes in the gastrointestinal tract often act like a Trojan horse - while camouflaging themselves with diffuse clinical symptoms, they may rapidly progress into life-threatening complications. To date, it has been difficult to precisely localize them in their early stages, and their detection remains the domain of invasive endoscopy. The invasive nature of this method not only restricts its use for early disease detection, but is a major limitation for repetitive or high-risk applications. MSOT uses laser light excitation and ultrasound detection to resolve different chromophores such as haemoglobin, lipids, and other metabolic parameters at depths of several centimetres. While we were using the response from endogenous chromophores for translational to a range of potential clinical applications, we discovered that dyes delivered via the oral route enable the dynamic visualization of the entire intestinal tract. This molecular-sensitive approach has the advantage that such contrast agents are not absorbed systemically and undergo excretion largely unchanged. Based on this, I hypothesize that it is possible to functionalize such contrast agents in order to put a molecular flag on inflamed areas in the gastrointestinal tract. After characterizing potential imaging targets in the intestinal lumen and developing imaging agents, we will take a translational research approach, moving from cells through small and large experimental animal models back to the human system. This research at the frontiers of medicine and physics may pave the way to non-invasive early detection and personalized treatment strategies while minimizing the procedural risk for affected patients.

Mots-clés : optoacoustics,molecular imaging