Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : CRITICAL (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Products and processes engineering
Entité participante : Delft University of Technology — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : TU Delft
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1924020.0 €

From concentrated solar power plants to rocket engines, energy conversion systems are continually re-engineered to perform ever better. Often this involves fluids being pushed into the supercritical region, where highly non-ideal thermodynamic effects are at play. Yet, our fundamental understanding of flow physics at such conditions lags behind to successfully realize these exciting engineering applications. Especially, the sharp variations in thermophysical properties and the high optical density at supercritical pressures lead to significantly richer flow physics and even more intricate phenomena in turbulence. In three work packages, I will (1) elucidate laminar-turbulent transition; (2) unravel compressible effects on turbulence; and (3) unveil turbulence-radiation interactions, ranging from the critical point to conditions far into the supercritical region of a fluid. Exploiting my recent achievements, I will perform the first study of its kind, combining advanced hydrodynamic stability analysis, novel multi-physics simulation tools, and original experiments with infrared thermography to identify and characterize new flow physics in the supercritical fluid region. The results will reveal how and when flows in the non-ideal region transition to turbulence, how strong compressibility affects turbulent heat transfer, and how the higher optical density of a fluid interacts with turbulence. Uncovering these mechanisms will actively contribute to a breakthrough in a wide range of emerging technologies, from utility-scale concentrated solar power plants to more powerful and efficient propulsion systems.

Mots-clés : supercritical fluids,energy,propulsion,turbulence,radiation,fluid mechanics
Projet ERC : Back2theFuture (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The study of the human past
Entité participante : University of Antwerp — Pays : Belgique — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UAntwerp
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1470883.0 €

From the eighteenth century onwards, the future was considered as open, uncertain and constructible – the way we tend to perceive the future today. In contrast, early modern Europeans believed that the future was beyond the control of man. The aim of this project is to challenge such grand narratives on past futures, which are generally highly linear and focused on modernity, have a fuzzy chronology and thin empirical base, biased by learned text. Moreover, these hypotheses fail to do justice to the presence and interplay of various (multi)temporalities and do not link future expectations to the concrete actions of men and women in the past. Most historians simply ignore the topic, since past futures are extremely hard to find in the written record. Hence, they focus on the actions of men and women in the past rather than their motivations. To gain more insight in how people in the past thought about the future and how this affected their actions, this project draws on a highly innovative combination of close and distant reading methods of more than 15,000 letters written in (varieties of) Italian, German, French, Dutch and English by and to European merchants in the period 1400-1830. These practical documents enable us to reconstruct different types of future thinking of these merchants and to assess how these thoughts powered their actual behaviour. Better still, they also shed light on the future expectations of their non-merchant correspondents: their wives, children and other family members, clerks, clergy, nobles, craftsmen, etc. A comparative analysis of the letters from these different social groups, written in several languages, in a variety of European regions and during distinct moments, allows us to identify the impact/speed of potential agents of change that loom large in the literature (capitalism, the Reformation, probability calculus, and the Enlightenment) more carefully. With this methodology, we will be able to provide fine-grained explanations.

Mots-clés : future expectations,merchants,letters,correspondence,capitalism,religious change,enlightenment,history
Projet ERC : FIND-seq (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Integrative Biology: from Genes and Genomes to Systems
Entité participante : St Anna Children's Hospital — Pays : Autriche — Rôle : Partner
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 0.0 €

Functional non-coding regions of the genome play a fundamental role in gene expression and are enriched for disease associated variants. Perturbation of non-coding regions harbouring disease-associated variants is now the rationale of ongoing clinical trials (e.g. NCT03432364), highlighting the translational potential of basic research in the non-coding space. However, our ability to systematically identify disease-associated functional elements in the non-coding genome, understand its grammar, and subsequently develop new therapies is limited. CRISPR-based pooled screens targeting non-coding elements in situ have been successful in uncovering complex gene regulatory architecture in a variety of biological systems. However, these approaches are limited to a few loci, lack of direct genotype-phenotype correlation, and do not target large chromatin structures that determine gene expression programs. To overcome these limitations, I propose a multi-scale approach platform that is generalizable to different cell types and phenotypes. Under this proposal, I will focus on the role of non-coding sequences in the context of blood malignancies. I will investigate non-coding sequences whose change in chromatin state (activation or repression) is associated with drug resistance in Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia (CML). I will study alterations in the chromatin structure (i.e. at chromatin loops or topologically associated domains) that are causal to imatinib resistance in CML. Finally, to learn enhancer grammar and mechanistically link non-coding variants to disease, I will focus on non-coding sequence variation in leukemia and dissect non-coding sequences at base pair resolution using dense mutagenesis coupled with long-reads sequencing. A deeper understanding of the non-coding regulatory architecture in diseases will provide the basis for development of innovative therapies targeting the non-coding genome.
Projet ERC : DIRECT-fMRI (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Physical and analytical chemical sciences
Entité participante : Champalimaud Foundation — Pays : Portugal — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1787500.0 €

Functional-Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) has transformed our understanding of brain function due to its ability to noninvasively tag ‘active’ brain regions. Nevertheless, fMRI only detects neural activity indirectly, by relying on slow hemodynamic couplings whose relationships with underlying neural activity are not fully known. We have recently pioneered two unique MR approaches: Non-Uniform Oscillating-Gradient Spin-Echo (NOGSE) MRI and Relaxation Enhanced MR Spectroscopy (RE MRS). NOGSE-MRI is an exquisite microstructural probe, sensing cell sizes (l) with an unprecedented l^6 sensitivity (compared to l^2 in conventional approaches); RE MRS is a new spectral technique capable of recording metabolic signals with extraordinary fidelity at ultrahigh fields. This proposal aims to harness these novel concepts for mapping neural activity directly, without relying on hemodynamics. The specific objectives of this proposal are: (1) Mapping neural activity via sensing cell swellings upon activity (μfMRI): we hypothesize that NOGSE can robustly sense subtle changes in cellular microstructure upon neural firings and hence convey neural activity directly. (2) Probing the nature of elicited activity via detection of neurotransmitter release: we posit that RE MRS is sufficiently sensitive to robustly detect changes in Glutamate and GABA signals upon activation. (3) Network mapping in optogenetically-stimulated, behaving mice: we propose to couple our novel approaches with optogenetics to resolve neural correlates of behavior in awake, behaving mice. Simulations for μfMRI predict >4% signal changes upon subtle cell swellings; further, our in vivo RE MRS experiments have detected metabolites with SNR>50 in only 6 seconds. Hence, these two complementary –and importantly, hemodynamics-independent– approaches will represent a true paradigm shift: from indirect detection of neurovasculature couplings towards direct and noninvasive mapping of neural activity in vivo.

Mots-clés : magnetic resonance,ultrahigh magnetic fields,neurotransmitters,magnetic resonance spectroscopy,animal behavior,diffusion,porous media,functional mri,fmri
Projet ERC : RespMicroFlows (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Products and processes engineering
Entité participante : Technion – Israel Institute of Technology — Pays : Israël — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1937500.0 €

Fundamental research on respiratory transport phenomena, quantifying momentum and mass transfer in the lung depths, is overwhelmingly focused on adults. Yet, children are not just miniature adults; their distinct lung structures and heterogeneous ventilation patterns set them aside from their parents. In RespMicroFlows, we will break this cycle and unravel the complex microflows characterizing alveolar airflows in the developing pulmonary acini. Our discoveries will foster ground-breaking transport strategies to tackle two urgent clinical needs that burden infants and young children. The first challenge relates to radically enhancing the delivery and deposition of therapeutics using inhalation aerosols; the second involves targeting liquid bolus installations in deep airways for surfactant replacement therapy. By developing advanced in silico numerical simulations together with microfluidic in vitro platforms mimicking the pulmonary acinar environment, our efforts will not only deliver a gateway to reliably assess the outcomes of inhaling aerosols and predict deposition patterns in young populations, we will furthermore unravel the fundamentals of liquid bolus transport to achieve optimal surfactant delivery strategies in premature neonates. By recreating cellular alveolar environments that capture underlying physiological functions, our advanced acinus-on-chips will deliver both at true scale and in real time the first robust and reliable in vitro screening platforms of exogenous therapeutic materials in the context of inhaled aerosols and surfactant-laden installations. Combining advanced engineering-driven flow visualization solutions with strong foundations in transport phenomena, fluid dynamics and respiratory physiology, RespMicroFlows will pave the way to a new and unprecedented level in our understanding and quantitative mapping of respiratory flow phenomena and act as catalyst for novel targeted pulmonary drug delivery strategies in young children.

Mots-clés : biofluid dynamics,respiratory physiology,microfluidics,organ on chip,computational fluid dynamics,transport phenomena,aerosol transport,inhalation therapeutics,drug delivery
Projet ERC : FDM^2 (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Products and processes engineering
Entité participante : Bundeswehr — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2000000.0 €

Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) is a common 3D printing technology based on the extrusion of thermoplastic filaments. While it was initially used only for prototyping, it is nowadays shifting towards manufacturing of mechanical components. 4D printing is a very novel technology to produce smart materials and structures through 3D printing of shape memory materials. Due to the specific process of FDM, the material obtains a characteristic mesostructure, which can be controlled through the print process. It is well known that mechanical properties like strength and toughness of the printed material significantly differ from those of the filament material and that they depend on the mesostructure. However, a real understanding of the material behaviour and the governing phenomena is still missing. The common modelling approach is to consider it as a composite laminate. In this proposal, I show that such models cannot capture the complex behaviour of FDM materials beyond the linear elastic regime. I argue that it can only be understood by considering nonlinear effects at the mesostructure, which needs to be interpreted as a 3D structure of bonded fibres rather than an anisotropic solid. Based on these observations, I will develop a new theoretical and computational framework, where representative volume elements of the mesostructure are modelled as an arrangement of beams with adhesive bonding and are linked to the macroscale through a multiscale approach. To make such computations feasible, it will be necessary to adopt modelling simplifications and a major challenge will be to find the right level of simplification that still can capture the relevant effects. It will also require fundamental development of novel high-order/low-cost numerical methods. The results of the successful project will be a clear understanding of the mechanics of FDM materials as well as tools for the design, analysis, and optimization of FDM structural components.

Mots-clés : finite element analysis,isogeometric analysis,structural mechanics,solid mechanics,3d printing,4d printing
Projet ERC : GLOBECOSAL (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Cultures and cultural production
Entité participante : University of Zurich — Pays : Suisse — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UZH
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1479316.0 €

GLOBECOSAL investigates how artworks were employed in the process of negotiating sanctity with the Roman Curia in the age of Iberian hegemony by examining the artworks produced with regard to the pioneers of Catholic blesseds and saints in the post-Tridentine ‘global’ context. As the cult of the saints was among the key conceptual battlegrounds in the conflict between the Catholic church and the Protestants, in the post-Tridentine period, saints came to fulfill spiritual, ideological and propagandistic purposes. Art history has paid heightened attention to the adherence of artworks to the models of sanctity formulated by the Tridentine church, leading to an overall neglect of competing local constructions of sanctity, a shortfall particularly momentous with regard to blesseds and saints connected in different ways to the process of European expansion, specifically to the Iberian empires. The hypothesis under examination is that the artworks produced in relation to gaining recognition by the Church of saints first venerated in newly Christianized territories reveal an underlying negotiation of the local Catholic communities’ spiritual status within universal Catholicism. As official recognition affirmed the society which had made a saint its own, artworks related to this process served purposes of self-representation within the broader framework of social identity formation. GLOBECOSAL traces the circulation of material objects and iconographies within and between global networks of knowledge transmission, and combines this approach with a hypothetical ‘global market of symbolic values’ developed on the basis of concepts from critical sociology. Investigating the negotiation of sanctity between Rome and geographically distant areas participates in ‘globalizing’ the history of early modern art and is qualified to challenge established perspectives on Roman Catholicism, colonialism, and the early modern world at large.

Mots-clés : early modern age of globalization,canonization,beatification,papacy,counter reformation,iberian empires,latin america,asia,rome
Projet ERC : GMGalaxies (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Universe sciences
Entité participante : University of London — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : U. London
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1741230.0 €

Galaxies are the building blocks of structure in the Universe; this proposal seeks to understand how their shapes, colours and dynamics are determined. For example, what happened in the history of some galaxies to transform them into passive ellipticals while others, seemingly of the same mass and in the same environment, are star-forming spirals? Even such a basic question about the link between morphology and star formation has not yet been answered, revealing our theories of galaxy formation are inadequate. This is a major concern in an era where understanding the shapes of galaxies and how they relate to the underlying dark matter is essential for progress in precision cosmology. This project will build the missing link between the history of a galaxy and its observational properties (i.e. between cause and effect) by using numerical simulations. Current research in this area rightly gives significant attention to the crucial problem of how feedback – energy input from supernovae, active galactic nuclei, and more – affect observable properties. But as well as investigating this avenue, GM Galaxies will uniquely make use of my new technique (“genetic modification”) to systematically investigate the role of the galaxy’s merging and accretion history at high resolution. To distinguish the fingerprints of history from the effects of feedback, we will compare to rich new data from integral field unit surveys; these reveal, for example, galactic metallicity and velocity maps. My pilot study for this project shows that such measures of a galaxy disambiguate between alternative formation routes to galaxies which would appear similar by photometric measures alone. Similarly, we will make predictions for the observable properties of the gas reservoir surrounding galaxies and for integral field observations at high redshift. In this way we will make a predictive account of how galactic structure is determined by the interaction of the accretion history with feedback.

Mots-clés : galaxy,morphology,feedback,accretion,spectroscopy,kinematics,metallicities
Projet ERC : MICHELANGELO (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Products and processes engineering
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 : 647389.09 €

Gas-liquid-solid (G/L/S) multiphasic reactors are extensively used in the chemical industry for catalytic processes. However, conventional reactors, such as packed beds and slurry reactors, typically suffer from resilient mass/heat transfer limitations due to their low specific interface areas, long mixing times, and a reduced accessibility of the gas reactants to the catalyst surface. To overcome these limitations, continuous flow microreactors and catalytic membrane reactors have been considered for increasing the G/L interface area, but these systems require complex equipment and still do not guarantee an efficient L/S contact at the catalyst surface. For a major improvement on current systems in terms of cost efficiency and energy savings, G/L/S reactors operating at the nanoscale are required. The aim of this ERC project is to design robust particle-stabilized G/L dispersions (i.e. micro/nano-bubbles and liquid marbles) as highly efficient G/L/S nanoreactors for conducting catalytic reactions at mild conditions. We will (i) prepare NPs with defined sizes, shapes, hydrophilic-lipophilic balance (HLB), including catalytic functions; (ii) generate particle-stabilized bubbles and liquid marbles affording highly active and selective reactions at the G/L/S interface with NP recycling after each catalytic cycle using external stimuli; examine the interplay between the NP assembly at the G/L interface and the catalytic properties along the reaction by combining well-designed experiments with simulations; and (iv) reengineer G/L/S multiphasic reactors using our particle-stabilized nanoreactors to achieve a high catalytic performance at milder operation conditions compared to conventional reactors while keeping a high degree of stability and flexibility at reduced layouts. Through innovation on both amphiphilic catalysts and process intensification, MICHELANGELO will deliver a radical step change towards a higher efficiency and competitiveness in the process industry.

Mots-clés : multiphasic reactor,gas liquid interface,interfacial catalysis,gas bubble,liquid marble
Projet ERC : GasApp (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : University of Barcelona — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UB
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 149962.0 €

GasApp aims at bringing the capability to detect gases to every existing smartphone in just a few months. Carrying out a gas measurement will be as simple as taking a snapshot with the phone’s camera. Technically, we will rely on colorimetry methods to turn the presence of chemical substances into colour changes. GasApp wants to take a fast track towards accurate, highly specific, and highly accessible measurements by rethinking the concept of “ubiquitous sensing”. Instead of developing new complex electronic devices, our approach builds upon existing ubiquitous devices (i.e. smartphones), a new software App and inexpensive Tags based on knowledge produced in an ERC-funded project to achieve a user friendly gas-sensing product ASAP, and making business out of this opportunity. GasApp has the potential to impact on the 2.6 billion smartphones existing today. In the short-term, GasApp will be ready to satisfy existing customer needs in mature and well stablished markets, due to the readiness of the technologies involved, such as safety at work or at home, emissions control, personal healthcare, marketing, societal involvement, etc. In the midterm, being a part of the fertile ecosystem of the Internet of Things (IoT) will certainly foster the development of new uses of gas sensors, as occurred before with cameras, GPS, touch sensors, etc. In this PoC project, we will 1) implement the first App/Tag proof-of-concept prototype aimed at relevant gas sensing scenarios outdoors, and 2) define the exploitation strategy of this technology, including full a market survey, IPR positioning, business model, and fund raising. The proposal is implemented in a 18 months workplan and 2 work packages, devoted to develop the prototype and to define the exploitation strategy, in close interaction.

Mots-clés : sensors,internet of things,low cost,gas analysis