Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : Palaeochem (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Environmental Biology, Ecology and Evolution
Entité participante : National University of Ireland — Pays : Irlande — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : NUI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2460114.0 €

What are the limits of the fossil record? Ancient biomolecules are critically important given their potential to inform on phylogenetic relationships and the processes driving evolutionary change. Research to date, however, lacks cohesion and breadth, is strongly biased towards bone, and often fails to consider the impact of analytical bias and fossilization processes. This proposal sets a new, focussed agenda for the study of ancient biomolecules based on the characterization of thin carbon films preserving the soft tissues of fossil animals. Targeted chemical analysis of diverse fossils including frontier high-resolution mapping will be informed by a rigorous programme of fossilisation experiments simulating decay and burial, thus generating the first holistic models for the preservation of the evolutionarily important biomolecules keratin, melanin, and collagen in fossil soft tissues through deep time. The research will resolve the fossil record of these key biomolecules, the chemical mechanisms responsible for their preservation, and will accommodate taphonomic biases in evolutionary models. This enhanced picture of animal molecular evolution will test hypotheses linking biomolecular innovation with fundamental phenotypic, phylogenetic and ecological transitions, especially relating to the evolution of the tetrapod integument and the origins of animals. The research will launch twin experimental facilities for simulating burial that will allow extraction, and in-situ analysis, of reaction products in real time. These facilities will be unique in Europe, consolidating the PI’s team as a keystone global hub for research into ancient biomolecules. The research team comprises the PI, three postdoctoral researchers, and two PhD students, and will dovetail with a global collaborative network. The project will have significance for diverse scientists and will inspire the next generation to explore the wonders of science.

Mots-clés : fossil preservation,fossil vertebrates,geochemistry,lagerstatten,keratin,melanin,collagen,ecological transitions,physiology
Projet ERC : DEVORHBIOSHIP (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Individuals, Markets and Organisations
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 : 1713798.0 €

What are the origins of inequalities in health? A recent literature in economics has established causal impacts of early life shocks, investments and policies on lifelong health. However, several unknowns remain. The mechanisms through which shocks, investments, and policies interact are just beginning to be understood. Our knowledge of sensitive periods is imprecise. Little is also known about the impact of shocks and policies across different ages. Commonly used health capital measures, such as birth weight, lack sensitivity and specificity. The interplay between genes and environments in the formation of health inequalities is poorly understood. To fill these gaps, I will build on insights from my earlier work, and use a combination of high-quality data, more sensitive measures, robust identification strategies and richer models to untangle the complex interactions between biology, shocks, investments and policies. First, I will investigate causal impacts and mechanisms of two public health policies on child health and development: medical treatments for pregnancy complications and prenatal home visiting programmes. Second, I will examine the effects of two environmental shocks (pollution and influenza) on the formation of early health and human capital, and their interplay with maternal investments in nutrition. Third, I will study interactions between shocks, investments and policies from birth to adulthood, to understand the dynamic interplay between SES and health. Throughout, I will explore their interactions with genetic susceptibility or potential. I will analyse administrative records, registries linked to survey data, cohort data with biomarkers; and a randomized controlled trial. I will use state-of-the-art econometric techniques for observational and experimental data. My findings will have direct policy implications and will help understand whether and to which extent early life interventions are a cost-effective mean to promote health.

Mots-clés : health production,early childhood development,human capital accumulation,early intervention,biology and economics,gene environment interactions
Projet ERC : DEVORHBIOSHIP (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Individuals, Markets and Organisations
Entité participante : Cardiff University — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : Partner
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 24965.0 €

What are the origins of inequalities in health? A recent literature in economics has established causal impacts of early life shocks, investments and policies on lifelong health. However, several unknowns remain. The mechanisms through which shocks, investments, and policies interact are just beginning to be understood. Our knowledge of sensitive periods is imprecise. Little is also known about the impact of shocks and policies across different ages. Commonly used health capital measures, such as birth weight, lack sensitivity and specificity. The interplay between genes and environments in the formation of health inequalities is poorly understood. To fill these gaps, I will build on insights from my earlier work, and use a combination of high-quality data, more sensitive measures, robust identification strategies and richer models to untangle the complex interactions between biology, shocks, investments and policies. First, I will investigate causal impacts and mechanisms of two public health policies on child health and development: medical treatments for pregnancy complications and prenatal home visiting programmes. Second, I will examine the effects of two environmental shocks (pollution and influenza) on the formation of early health and human capital, and their interplay with maternal investments in nutrition. Third, I will study interactions between shocks, investments and policies from birth to adulthood, to understand the dynamic interplay between SES and health. Throughout, I will explore their interactions with genetic susceptibility or potential. I will analyse administrative records, registries linked to survey data, cohort data with biomarkers; and a randomized controlled trial. I will use state-of-the-art econometric techniques for observational and experimental data. My findings will have direct policy implications and will help understand whether and to which extent early life interventions are a cost-effective mean to promote health.

Mots-clés : health production,early childhood development,human capital accumulation,early intervention,biology and economics,gene environment interactions
Projet ERC : DiversiPHI (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Environmental Biology, Ecology and Evolution
Entité participante : Friedrich Schiller University Jena — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : FSU
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1535625.0 €

What determines if a phage can infect a host? This question arises as we work to understand the ecological roles of the hundreds of thousands of unknown viruses that I and others have discovered around the world. Phages are the most abundant life forms on Earth with important applications in medicine and biotechnology and far-ranging effects on microbial community functioning in all environments. Phage-host interactions (PHI) are an emergent trait that depends on the complex integration of factors like their taxonomic identity, the environment, and phage- and host-encoded proteins. With DiversiPHI, I propose a research program to unravel PHI by 1) measuring, 2) modelling, and 3) experimentally testing these diverse factors to develop a predictive understanding of host-range evolution. I will first measure a range of evolutionary, ecological, and molecular factors contributing to PHI at high resolution using newly developed computational tools that exploit high-throughput datasets from thousands of natural environments around the world. Next, I will apply deep learning to integrate these measurements to simultaneously (i) quantify the relative importance and complex inter-dependencies of the different factors, and (ii) create a unique predictive model of host-range evolution. To complement these in silico predictions, I will develop an experimental evolution setup that tests the effect of the different PHI factors on host-range evolution in vitro. Little is known about the abundant phages and their role in shaping our microbial world. DiversiPHI will vastly elevate this understanding and contribute new fundamental knowledge on how species-species interactions evolve in complex environments. Moreover, I will provide valuable new analysis tools to the community and consolidate my strong international reputation as a pioneering researcher in the cross-disciplinary field encompassing microbial ecology, virology, metagenomics, bioinformatics, and computer learning.

Mots-clés : bacteriophages,virus host interactions,host range,microbial ecology,eco evolutionary processes,complexity,metagenomics,bioinformatics,machine learning,experimental evolution,host switching
Projet ERC : IllusoryPain (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Human Mind and Its Complexity
Entité participante : Aarhus University — Pays : Danemark — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : AU
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1499918.0 €

What does it mean to experience an illusion of pain? The typical role of pain is to signal when the body is damaged. However, pain illusions in the absence of any risk of tissue damage are common in the normal population. For example, a mix of warm and cold stimuli can be perceived as burning hot, as in the case of the Thermal Grill Illusion. So far, research on thermosensation and pain has largely treated pain illusions as curious quirks of the thermo-nociceptive system, and underplayed the fact that these illusions fundamentally contradict core assumptions of mainstream theories of pain perception. In this project, I propose a new approach to advance our understanding of perceptual inference of pain in humans which challenges these assumptions. Specifically, I will use behavioural and neuroimaging experiments to identify the functional properties, clinical relevance and neural basis of both illusory and veridical pain. First, I will extend innovative behavioural, physiological and neuroimaging protocols to investigate the mechanisms underlying pain illusions. Next, I will investigate the clinical relevance of illusory pain, with the ultimate goal of providing novel tools that can offer a mechanistic approach to pain assessment. Finally, I will validate a comprehensive computational model of pain, which can explain both illusory and veridical thermo-nociceptive phenomena in a unified framework. Overall this project will harness pain illusions to uncover general principles of temperature and pain perception, and will validate novel computational techniques for characterising the neural encoding of thermosensation and pain. These outcomes will redefine our understanding of illusory pain and offer new insights into mechanisms of temperature and pain perception in humans.
Projet ERC : ANICOLEVO (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Earth system science
Entité participante : National University of Ireland — Pays : Irlande — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : NUI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1562000.0 €

What does the fossil record tell us about the evolution of colour in animals through deep time? Evidence of colour in fossils can inform on the visual signalling strategies used by ancient animals. Research to date often has a narrow focus, lacks a broad phylogenetic and temporal context, and rarely incorporates information on taphonomy. This proposal represents a bold new holistic approach to the study of fossil colour: it will couple powerful imaging- and chemical analytical techniques with a rigorous programme of fossilisation experiments simulating decay, burial, and transport, and analysis of fossils and their sedimentary context, to construct the first robust models for the evolution of colour in animals through deep time. The research will resolve the original integumentary colours of fossil higher vertebrates, and the original colours of fossil hair; the fossil record of non-melanin pigments in feathers and insects; the biological significance of monotonal patterning in fossil insects; and the evolutionary history of scales and 3D photonic crystals in insects. Critically, the research will test, for the first time, whether evidence of fossil colour can solve broader evolutionary questions, e.g. the true affinities of enigmatic Cambrian chordate-like metazoans, and feather-like integumentary filaments in dinosaurs. The proposal entails construction of a dedicated experimental maturation laboratory for simulating the impact of burial on tissues. This laboratory will form the core of the world’s first integrated ‘experimental fossilisation facility’, consolidating the PI’s team as the global hub for fossil colour research. The research team comprises the PI, three postdoctoral researchers, and three PhD students, and will form an extensive research network via collaborations with 13 researchers from Europe and beyond. The project will reach out to diverse scientists and will inspire a positive attitude to science among the general public and policymakers alike.

Mots-clés : fossil colour,fossil pigments,melanin,carotenoids,structural colours,3d photonic crystals,fossil feathers,fossil insects,decay experiments,diagenesis,taphonomy,evolutionary novelty,deep ho
Projet ERC : REPATRIATES (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Cultures and cultural production
Entité participante : Central European University — Pays : Autriche — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : CEU
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1814316.68 €

What innovations to the repatriation of cultural property can be performed by making new originals? The specific objectives of REPATRIATES are to bring together internationally art-based research actions that respond to repatriation, to learn from exchanges between French, German, Austrian and British institutions and stakeholder indigenous communities. REPATRIATES examines how contested objects - whose ownership may remain unclear - can be concieved and exhibited sensitively. It develops strategies for making artistic responses to this material, to propose ways forward for the decolonization of cultural property. This research aspires to shape a pan-European response to the complex political, historical, and affective dimensions of the repatriation of cultural assets. A casuistic approach is taken to analysing four major European museums’ - the Musée du quai Branly Paris, Humboldt Forum Berlin, Manchester Museum, and Weltmuseum Vienna - approaches to concrete, current repatriation processes. Can different modes of property be learnt from cultures whose emphasis is on reciprocal relationships rather than individual material accumulations? Comparing repatriation processes to Mexico, Australia, Nigeria, Bénin and Namibia, REPATRIATES proposes new models of co-ownership. This is essential to redress historical power imbalances and their display as national heritage. What questions can be asked of repatriated objects, as in what personalities, powers, and performances do they bring with them? REPATRIATES’ over-arching objective is to exemplify artistic and stakeholder community dimensions heretofore underrepresented in repatriation debates. Multiple voices gathered in artistic research and fieldwork, from milieus of museum professionals that may be sceptical of repatriation, and those working in politics, social justice, and academics, together produce REPATRIATES that define the significance and future potential of repatriation.

Mots-clés : decolonization,material culture,intangible heritage,colonial history,museum repatriation,artistic research,anthropology,indigenous studies
Projet ERC : REPATRIATES (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Cultures and cultural production
Entité participante : University of Birmingham — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : Partner
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 178749.32 €

What innovations to the repatriation of cultural property can be performed by making new originals? The specific objectives of REPATRIATES are to bring together internationally art-based research actions that respond to repatriation, to learn from exchanges between French, German, Austrian and British institutions and stakeholder indigenous communities. REPATRIATES examines how contested objects - whose ownership may remain unclear - can be concieved and exhibited sensitively. It develops strategies for making artistic responses to this material, to propose ways forward for the decolonization of cultural property. This research aspires to shape a pan-European response to the complex political, historical, and affective dimensions of the repatriation of cultural assets. A casuistic approach is taken to analysing four major European museums’ - the Musée du quai Branly Paris, Humboldt Forum Berlin, Manchester Museum, and Weltmuseum Vienna - approaches to concrete, current repatriation processes. Can different modes of property be learnt from cultures whose emphasis is on reciprocal relationships rather than individual material accumulations? Comparing repatriation processes to Mexico, Australia, Nigeria, Bénin and Namibia, REPATRIATES proposes new models of co-ownership. This is essential to redress historical power imbalances and their display as national heritage. What questions can be asked of repatriated objects, as in what personalities, powers, and performances do they bring with them? REPATRIATES’ over-arching objective is to exemplify artistic and stakeholder community dimensions heretofore underrepresented in repatriation debates. Multiple voices gathered in artistic research and fieldwork, from milieus of museum professionals that may be sceptical of repatriation, and those working in politics, social justice, and academics, together produce REPATRIATES that define the significance and future potential of repatriation.

Mots-clés : decolonization,material culture,intangible heritage,colonial history,museum repatriation,artistic research,anthropology,indigenous studies
Projet ERC : SACRIMA (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Cultures and cultural production
Entité participante : Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : LMU
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1493125.0 €

What is a sacred image? This is a crucial question for multicultural Europe – today as well as in the past. Between 1450-1650 Europe underwent, at the same time, an impressive artistic development and a dramatic religious crisis during which the status of the sacred image was repeatedly contested. Focusing on a comparison between five major areas that, remaining inside Catholicism, responded differently to the challenge imposed by the Reformation, SACRIMA will investigate the relations between art, religion and geography proposing to break ground in two main ways. First, by using and developing the concept of ‘normativity’ in a double sense: institutional normativity and visual normativity. Second, by adopting a comparative approach at the crossroads of the history of art, the history of religion and cultural geography. Starting from a new systematic survey of image-based material in ecclesiastical archives, it proposes: 1) A comparative survey of contested images in the Italian peninsula and islands, France, Iberia, the Low Countries and Southern Germany. 2) An investigation of ‘visual norms’ through focus on three complementary aspects: styles (in particular, the limits of realistic effects), iconographic norms, and the role of reproduction, restoration and reframing. 3) An exploration of the geography of reactions to art transfer aiming at reconstructing a cross-border cartography of visual norms in Europe and the Mediterranean. The proposed focus on the capacity of art to impose new normative visions of sacred subjects as well as to produce reactions which are often geographically differentiated opens new perspectives on the relations between art, religion and cultural transfer, shedding new light on previously explored notions of ‘image censorship’, the ‘power of images’ or the ‘performance of images’. The overall project will contribute to the understanding of dynamics of cultural integration, differentiation and local negotiation in early modern Europe.