Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : TOP-BLG (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Systems and Communication Engineering
Entité participante : Université de Tel Aviv — Pays : Israël — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : TAU
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2337500.0 €

The terahertz (THz) spectrum, which lies on the seam between the optical and electrical spectral ranges, is ubiquitously important for science and technology, from chemical/biological sensing to stellar exploration. Nevertheless, the development of THz applications has been hindered by the sparsity of high-performance and low-cost optoelectronic devices, due to the limited response of common electronic and optical materials in this spectral range. Here, I propose to develop a new THz optoelectronic platform that is based on 2D materials of bilayer graphene structures. Taking this approach, I will realize a variety of new THz optoelectronic devices that can be electrically controlled and are highly compact and low-cost. Outperforming the state -of-the-art, TOP-BLG will constitute a transformative breakthrough in THz optoelectronic devices. Beyond THz technology, I envision that TOP-BLG will have great impact on the integration and dissemination of 2D materials into the microelectronics/optoelectronics technological market.

Mots-clés : terahertz optoelectronics,2d materials optoelectronics,
Projet ERC : LUMIFIELD (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Synthetic Chemistry and Materials
Entité participante : Université Jagellonne — Pays : Pologne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1710875.0 €

The LUMIFIELD project concerns the development of smart materials for miniaturized and efficient electronic, magnetic, and optical devices, such as data storage systems. This issue will be addressed by the design of multifunctional systems presenting a broad range of properties generated in a single phase that will enable switching of optical effects by a magnetic field (H), an electric field (E), and electromagnetic radiation (light). I propose an intensive research program aimed at crossing the current limits of single-phase multifunctionality. I plan to use chiral metal-based luminophores (CLs) interacting with unpolarized light to produce photoluminescence (PL) and circularly polarized luminescence (CPL). Molecular-level functionalization of CLs will lead to a combination of PL/CPL phenomena with single-molecule magnetism (SMM), ferroelectricity, and a photoswitching property. The resulting systems, (i) magnetic CLs, (ii) ferroelectric CLs, and (iii) photoswitchable CLs will show the related bistabilities detected by the PL/CPL-based optical response also ensuring overall responsivity to the H and E fields, and light. The ultimate aim is to construct a multifunctional CL-switch bearing at least two properties from the set of SMM, ferroelectricity, and photoswitchability. It will open a gateway to a multi-state memory effect induced by dual or triple physical stimuli with the PL/CPL output. The project will focus on searching and optimization of the chemical route to multifunctional switches, as well as on physical experiments elucidating the H-field-, E-field-, and light-matter interactions in CLs. Therefore, the final results of the project might include a multi-field responsive system suitable for high-density data storage operated by various physical stimuli, the formulation of general rules for the external control of PL and CPL effects in metal complex systems, and the formation of a highly qualified research team to face the future challenges for the EU.

Mots-clés : photoluminescence,chirality,molecular magnetism,molecular ferroelectrics,photoresponsive switches
Projet ERC : ECHO (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Individuals, Markets and Organisations
Entité participante : Université de Tel Aviv — Pays : Israël — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : TAU
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1491250.0 €

The internet and social media dramatically transformed the news landscape. The abundance of online news options, recommendations of social media algorithms, and changes in news production may have segregated individuals into echo chambers, environments where people mostly consume like-minded news. Such echo chambers could exacerbate polarization, distort perceptions of reality, and threaten democracy. However, a gap remains between these grave concerns and the limited evidence on echo chambers. A critical challenge is that research is typically conducted at the outlet level. Focusing on outlets rather than individual articles may underestimate segregation as individuals today consume specific articles from many outlets. This project will analyze the demand and supply of news at the article level to provide new insights regarding the origins, extent, and implications of online echo chambers. The project consists of three parts.  First, I will create a new dataset of the slant (political leaning) of millions of articles using high-resolution data, expert ratings, and advances in large language models. I will use this dataset to provide the first estimate of online segregation based on the slant of articles.  Second, instead of fixing the set of articles and analyzing consumer behavior, I will fix the audience and analyze how outlets tailor articles to their consumers, and whether this increases segregation. I will complement the descriptive estimates of how outlets distribute news with a casual analysis of whether the internet and social media affect the news that outlets produce.  Third, I will elicit individuals’ willingness to pay for various articles and causally estimate how the articles people typically avoid affect their attitudes when they are consumed. I will use these estimates to decompose the relative importance of two theories for how news polarizes attitudes: differences in preference for like-minded news and heterogeneity in the effects of news.

Mots-clés : echo chambers,online segregation,news avoidance,news demand,news slant,filter bubbles,news consumption
Projet ERC : BLINDBRAIN (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Human Mind and Its Compl exity
Entité participante : Université Jagellonne — Pays : Pologne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1287788.0 €

What makes the cognitive functions to always fall in the same brain niches, in people all around the world? This consistency might be driven by shared experience, characteristic of our species. Alternatively, it might be driven by genetic blueprints, predisposing certain brain areas to process specific types of information. To tackle this puzzle, I want to understand the functional plasticity of the early visual cortex, genetically predisposed to process vision, in people born blind. We know that, in blind individuals, this brain region responds to language. While this discovery can be groundbreaking for our theories of brain plasticity, its theoretical implications are debated, particularly because we do not know what properties of linguistic stimuli are represented in the blind early visual cortex. The project objective is to fill this gap in knowledge and disentangle two hypotheses for language processing in the early visual cortex of blind individuals. One hypothesis is that linguistic effects in this region are an extension of its typical visuospatial computations. That implies that this region represents linguistic stimuli through concrete, physical properties of language referents. An alternative possibility is that responses to language in the blind early visual cortex are driven by the development of truly abstract representation in this region. That implies that this region can represent more conceptual properties of language referents or even the linguistic properties of words and expressions themselves. My project will use advanced neuroimaging approaches, such as “mind reading” from fMRI signals and inducing “virtual lesions” with TMS, to thoroughly test these two hypotheses. By doing so, it will evaluate two fundamentally different perspectives on functional plasticity in the human brain, and will significantly improve our understanding of how sensory experience and genetic blueprints shape the implementation of cognitive functions in this organ.

Mots-clés : blindness fmri functional plasticity language mvpa tms visual cortex
Projet ERC : ROBOCRIM (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Institutions, Governance and Legal Systems
Entité participante : Université Jagellonne — Pays : Pologne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1498100.0 €

Robots are made to serve humans in carrying out tasks that are hard, dangerous, or repetitive, as well as for entertainment. Despite their (generally) benign objectives, robots may promote harmful outcomes that are under the radar of criminal law. One of the main aims of criminal law is to stabilize society. If something wrong is done, the law provides ways of responding to it. The situation could be complicated by the wider application of robots in social life: not only do they disrupt the practice of law, they also have the potential to challenge its very foundations. The main aim of the ROBOCRIM project is to build a philosophical ground for criminal law that accommodates robots. I will ask, “How can the philosophical foundations of criminal law be reconstructed to accommodate robots?” instead of, “How to accommodate robots into criminal law?” which is the usual formulation. This shifts the approach to the discussion on robots and their alignment with law and social life. The project will be conducted within three interrelated work streams. The first stream will be devoted to robots and their status from the perspective of the philosophy of criminal law. The second stream will focus on the foundation of a new account of criminal law, which I call the “phenomenological account”. The emphasis in the third stream will be on building models of institutions that accommodate robots within criminal law, to be tested using experimental methods. These new models of criminal response to crimes committed by robots treat robots as initiators of events that require a response from criminal law rather than as individual agents that could be responsible for their actions. This, combined with a novel account of criminal law, makes the project ground-breaking. It is interdisciplinary, employs multiple methods, and will shed new light on how robots might better fit into society in general, and criminal law in particular.

Mots-clés : philosophy of criminal law,punishment,responsibility,robots,human robot interactions,retribution
Projet ERC : NN4C (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Computer Science and Informatics
Entité participante : Université de Tel Aviv — Pays : Israël — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : TAU
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1493750.0 €

As neural networks are delivering groundbreaking performance in various machine learning frameworks --- ranging from the basic framework of supervised learning to the powerful and challenging framework of control --- immense efforts focus on developing underlying mathematical theories. Recent years witnessed breakthrough contributions to the theory of neural networks for supervised learning, by myself and others. Yet, from a theoretical perspective, much is left to be elucidated about neural networks in the powerful framework of control, leading to a predominantly heuristic implementation, which hinders their use in control application domains where safety, robustness and reliability are critical, e.g. healthcare, aerospace and manufacturing. The overarching goal of the proposed research is to develop a comprehensive mathematical theory of neural networks for control, providing an explanative formalism for intriguing empirical phenomena, as well as breakthrough practical techniques that promote safety, robustness and reliability. The research aims to overcome major current challenges by harnessing powerful mathematical tools in the realms of tensor analysis and dynamical systems theory, that I have developed over the past decade. Building on my academic record in the theory of neural networks for supervised learning, which is accompanied by vast practical industry experience with neural networks for control, I am confident in being uniquely positioned to pursue this pressing ambitious goal of developing a practical theory for neural networks in control. A successful outcome of the research will significantly broaden the theoretical knowledge on neural networks, and unleash their power in critical control application domains, thereby having transformative impact.

Mots-clés : learning theory,neural networks,control,tensor analysis,dynamical systems
Projet ERC : IntrinsicR (Horizon Europe, appel 2025, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Synthetic Chemistry and Materials
Entité participante : Société Max-Planck pour le développement des sciences — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : Société Max Planck
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1410000.0 €

This project focuses on fundamental principles of organic reactivity. Achieving broad manipulable selectivity in catalysis is often hindered by limited understanding of the mechanistic generality across various systems. This concept-driven project will offer a new way of thinking, starting by revealing whether each selectivity pattern is incidental on its own or systematic across a family of reactions. Between competing pathways at the transition state (TS), a very under-explored aspect is that each pathway has a distinct sensitivity to changes in the kinetic-thermodynamic relationship—how much can a given change in reaction free energy impact reaction rates. Adjusting the thermodynamic driving force can alter the differences in energy discrimination at the TS between competing paths, thereby increasing and even switching selectivity. The difference in this sensitivity between competing pathways is crucial in determining how responsive the selectivity is to thermodynamic changes. This sensitivity has not been treated as an adjustable variable in targeted modulation, nor has it been utilized as a design principle in catalytic reactions. This project aims to develop a framework that systematically modulates such sensitivity. We work in both directions, simultaneously instantiating the overarching concepts with concrete examples of common organic reactions and deriving rational reaction designs from them, converging the two into a cohesive framework. The focused conceptual framework is relevant in a virtually unlimited number of chemical systems, which offers a "deductive" complementarity to many other research programs. The understanding gained could fundamentally alter strategies for selectivity manipulation in small-molecule catalysis and guide practical advancements in areas such as copolymerization. Though conceptually ambitious, the project uses established standard physical organic approaches, making it methodologically highly feasible.
Projet ERC : NanoBubbleBrain (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Prevention,  Diagnosis and T reatment of Human Diseases
Entité participante : Université de Tel Aviv — Pays : Israël — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : TAU
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1728125.0 €

One of the worst diagnoses in oncology is a malignant brain tumor, with survival rates that are dismal. Noninvasive surgery can be achieved using histotripsy, a local, nonthermal ultrasound (US) surgical method that uses short, high-intensity?focused US energy to mechanically ablate deep tissues through cavitation, while leaving the surrounding heathy tissues unaffected. However, brain therapy histotripsy is currently limited due to the extremely high pressures that it requires. I propose to develop a breakthrough technology for the treatment of glioblastoma (GBM) using nanobubble (NB)-mediated transcranial histotripsy combined with blood?brain barrier (BBB) opening. NBs will be coupled with low-frequency US to remotely detonate cells in a manner that was not considered feasible in the past. As a result, low-energy, NB-mediated US surgery could be performed, reducing the required energy for standard US surgery by over an order of magnitude. While US widely utilizes microbubbles (MBs) for intravascular ultrasonography, MBs are too big to extravastate into the tumor. Unlike MBs, NBs have a sufficiently small size for accumulation in tumors; however, it was assumed that there is a trade-off between the bubble size and its ability to obtain significant bioeffects as a result of cavitation. My recent research revealed that when a bubble is excited well below its resonance frequency, its oscillations are significantly enhanced. Thus, I hypothesize that upon accumulation within the GBM tumor, and coupled with low-frequency excitation, NBs can be used as mechanical therapeutic warheads to remotely detonate cells with minimal off-target effects. For GBM treatment, NBs will be innovatively used for opening the BBB to allow tumor accumulation, followed by NB-mediated transcranial histotripsy. This research will provide a foundational understanding of NB oscillations as an innovative tool for cancer therapy and has the potential to revolutionize the field of brain therapy.

Mots-clés : ultrasound,histotripsy,surgery,microbubble,nanobubble,low frequency,focused ultrasound,cacner therapy,glioblastoma
Projet ERC : FROGMICRO (Horizon Europe, appel 2025, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Environmental B iology, Ecology  and E volution
Entité participante : Queen Mary University of London — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : QMUL
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1499751.0 €

The epithelial surfaces of animals harbour symbiont communities that influence the health of their hosts, including defending against pathogens. Whilst microbiome effects on host biology have been extensively studied, much less is known about how hosts regulate their microbiomes to ensure that they are pThe epithelial surfaces of animals harbour symbiont communities that influence the health of their hosts, including defending against pathogens. Whilst microbiome effects on host biology have been extensively studied, much less is known about how hosts regulate their microbiomes to ensure that they are populated by beneficial rather than harmful symbionts. The study of host control is critical for both understanding how microbiomes function and for the development of targeted therapies. To meet this need, I will develop an amphibian skin model to ask three key questions exploring host control across major life-stages: 1) How does host control promote symbiont colonization? 2) How does host immune policing and symbiont counter-adaptation shape the microbiome? 3) Can host control be exploited to select transmissible protective microbial therapies? I will examine these questions using the deadly chytrid fungus, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) that is devastating amphibian populations worldwide, and the highly susceptible common midwife toad (Alytes obstetricans), which can be defended by its dermal symbionts. The project has risks, with microbial communities being ecologically complex and fundamental aspects of host biology that are relevant to symbiont control not fully understood. To overcome these challenges, I will apply a combination of novel approaches in glycobiology, proteomics, competition experiments, genomics, in vivo experimentation, AI computer vision and field work. By identifying the major drivers of host control, this project promises to transform our ability to predict microbial community assembly and develop protective symbiont therapies.
Projet ERC : SEGOP (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Soci al World and Its Interactions
Entité participante : Université d'Oslo — Pays : Norvège — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UiO
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1499606.0 €

Social and economic exclusion is a major challenge worldwide, attracting substantial research efforts across various disciplines. Yet, research has been largely unsuccessful in providing robust knowledge that can promote inclusion. One key reason is that marginalization is a multifaceted challenge that cannot be tackled within disciplinary boundaries. SEGOP will push the research frontier by integrating perspectives and methods from sociology, psychology, behavioral genetics, and economics. My main objective is to provide nuanced knowledge about how marginalization processes unfold through interactions between family background, individual characteristics, and neighborhood and peer characteristics.  With SEGOP, I will lead an interdisciplinary team of researchers. We will leverage uniquely rich population-wide register data linked with large-scale survey data on nuanced developmental mechanisms and outcomes, as well as molecular genetic data. Together we will:  1. Investigate stability and persistence across different aspects of marginalization, and forecast which children and youth will experience persistent long-term marginalization.  2. Discover when, why, and for whom neighborhood and peer processes during childhood and youth lead to marginalization. 3. Uncover whether intergenerational transmission of disadvantage occurs through segregated opportunities.  With surging inequality, growing socioeconomic achievement gaps, and increasing neighborhood segregation, there is an urgent need to understand pathways leading to marginalization. My interdisciplinary research profile, broad research background, and expertise in quantitative methods make me uniquely suited to lead this timely project. By integrating fragmented disciplinary perspectives, I have the groundbreaking opportunity to unravel mechanisms leading to marginalization. This knowledge will inform policy with the potential to reduce barriers to inclusion and give all children equal chances to succeed.

Mots-clés : neighborhood effects,peer effects,causal inference,quantitative methods,social stratification