Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : LiftMatch (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Computer science and informatics
Entité participante : Weizmann Institute of Science — Pays : Israël — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1675640.0 €

This proposal presents a research program aimed at breaking new ground in theoretical, algorithmic and practical aspects of the notoriously difficult matching problems. The main goal is developing a unified algorithmic framework for matching problems that enjoys theoretical guarantees and high practical value for ``real-life'' applications. The core methodological aspect is the modelling of matching problems as high-dimensional, lifted convex problems that can be efficiently approximated. We present several case-studies of this methodology, constructing efficient algorithms for approximating the solutions of important instances of the matching problem. The results already demonstrate state of the art performance and are backed-up with novel theoretical analysis proving tightness and correctness of the suggested convexifications for certain classes of non-trivial input. This proposal has ``high risk - high impact'' profile: The ``high-risk" aspect of this proposal comes from the hardness of general matching problems which, when faithfully represented, are NP-hard. However, as we demonstrate, combining convex optimization tools in a careful way, that takes into account computational complexity, is likely to push forward the limits of current algorithmic solutions. The ``High-impact" will be immediate: As matching problems exist in almost every aspect of scientific research, practical generic algorithms for matching problems are likely to have a significant influence. We believe that the inroads and preliminary results presented in this proposal already provide strong evidence for the potential success of the suggested research program.

Mots-clés : shape matching,non rigid matching,geometry processing,shape analysis
Projet ERC : PlasmoCycle (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Immunity, Infection and Immunotherapy
Entité participante : University of Cambridge — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : U. Cambridge
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1801331.64 €

This proposal promises to transform our understanding of the basic biology of the malaria parasite Plasmodium, and of how that biology affects virulence. Remarkably little is known about the Plasmodium cell cycle, despite a wealth of knowledge on the subject in model cells. This project will reveal, with unprecedented resolution, how DNA replication is organised in Plasmodium and how changing conditions in the human host and exposure to antimalarial drugs affect it. Plasmodium is an early-diverging protozoan with a complex lifecycle & unusual cell-biological features. It replicates in its human host by ‘schizogony’: a single parasite generates many nuclei via independent, asynchronous rounds of genome replication prior to cytokinesis. This occurs over ~24hrs inside infected erythrocytes. However, the genome can also be copied extremely rapidly during the sexual cycle in the malaria-transmitting mosquito. Here 8 male gametes are produced from a single gametocyte in less than 10mins, necessitating extraordinarily rapid DNA synthesis. This project will first elucidate the spatio-temporal dynamics of DNA replication in these contrasting cell cycles. To do this, I have developed a method for labelling nascent DNA replication, which was not previously possible in Plasmodium. It will permit: a) a detailed characterisation, at the whole-cell level, of the asynchronous genome replication that occurs in schizogony; b) a study of replication origin spacing & DNA synthesis speed at single-molecule resolution on DNA fibres, comparing these parameters in schizogony & gametogenesis; c) mapping sequences with replication origin activity in the Plasmodium genome; d) investigation of cell-cycle checkpoints & replicative responses to the changing environment in the human host and to antimalarial drugs. These are crucial issues for understanding parasite virulence and drug-resistance, and the work will inform vital new research into transmission-blocking interventions for malaria.

Mots-clés : malaria,schizogony,gametogenesis,drug resistance,host pathogen interaction
Projet ERC : EQEC (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Fundamental constituents of matter
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 : 1440313.0 €

This proposal will advance the theory of quantum error correction towards its application in real physical devices, in particular superconducting transmon qubit systems. The research will result in proposals for experiments: how to use physical qubits to redundantly represent logical quantum information and how error information can be obtained and classically processed. The research will consider novel ways of using transmon qubits to achieve a universal fault-tolerant surface code architecture. The research will produce a design of a universal fault-tolerant architecture in which qubits are encoded in the electromagnetic field of a (microwave) cavity. Research will also focus on mathematical and numerical studies in quantum error correction which are technology-independent, but shed light on coding overhead, decoding efficiency and logical universality.

Mots-clés : quantum error correction
Projet ERC : COMSTAR (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Human Mind and Its Complexity
Entité participante : Newcastle University — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2080040.0 €

This research programme will investigate how adversity experienced early in life affects cognition in adulthood in two different long-lived species, humans and European starlings. Previous research has suggested that there might be cross-species similarities in the way early-life adversity shapes cognition, but the extent of commonalities has not been systematically investigated. I will focus on three cognitive domains where we have some evidence that early-life adversity may be important: impulsivity, dietary cognition, and threat-related cognition. For each domain, I will characterise how the trait relates to different facets of early-life adversity. These will be measured using socioeconomic and familial variables in humans, but in young starlings they will be experimentally manipulated via cross-fostering and hand-rearing siblings apart so that they experience different early histories. To measure the adult outcomes in each cognitive domain, I will develop novel behavioural paradigms with directly analogous versions in the two species. I will also examine whether telomere length, a cellular measure of cumulative stress exposure, statistically mediates the relationships between early-life adversity and the cognitive outcomes, thus testing recent theoretical models based on psychological adaptation to ones own physical state. In the second phase of the programme, I will focus on adaptive questions: do the observed effects of early-life adversity simply represent pathology, or can they be considered as adaptive responses? To test this, I will create ‘novel worlds’: experimental environments whose parameters I can vary systematically to establish whether there are circumstances under which individuals who have experienced early-life stress actually perform better than those from more benign developmental backgrounds. Thus, I will move beyond cataloguing the cognitive consequences of early-life adversity, and begin to explain them.

Mots-clés : early life adversity,comparative cognition
Projet ERC : GAN (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Mathematics
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 : 32276.25 €

This research project focuses on the structure, classification and rigidity of three closely related objects: group actions on measure spaces, orbit equivalence relations and von Neumann algebras. Over the last 15 years, the study of interactions between these three topics has led to a process of mutual enrichment, providing both striking theorems and outstanding conjectures. Some fundamental questions such as Connes' rigidity conjecture, the structure of von Neumann algebras associated with higher rank lattices, or the fine classification of factors of type III still remain untouched. The general aim of the project is to tackle these problems and other related questions by developing a further analysis and understanding of the interplay between von Neumann algebra theory on the one hand, as well as ergodic and group theory on the other hand. To do so, I will use and combine several tools and develop new ones arising from Popa's Deformation/Rigidity theory, Lie group theory (lattices, boundaries), topological and geometric group theory and representation group theory (amenability, property (T)). More specifically, the main directions of my research project are: 1) The structure of the von Neumann algebras arising from Voiculescu's Free Probability theory: Shlyakhtenko's free Araki-Woods factors, amalgamated free product von Neumann algebras and the free group factors. 2) The structure and the classification of the von Neumann algebras and the measured equivalence relations arising from lattices in higher rank semisimple connected Lie groups. 3) The measure equivalence rigidity of the Baumslag-Solitar groups and several other classes of discrete groups acting on trees.

Mots-clés : msc2010  46lxx selfadjoint operator algebras,22dxx locally compact groups and their algebras,22exx lie groups,37axx ergodic theory
Projet ERC : PREWArAs (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The study of the human past
Entité participante : University of Padua — Pays : Italie — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UNIPD
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1448776.0 €

This research project is a comparative historical study which examines the role of militias, paramilitary movements, armed organisations, and vigilante groups before the First World War (from the late 19th century to 1914). Its goal is to investigate how and to what extent organised political violence permeated European societies even before the outbreak of the Great War. The practice of organised violence represented a mass transnational experience in an era, the so-called Belle Époque, which is generally seen as characterised by peace and progress. Armed associations were male brotherhoods that experienced and perpetrated group violence. They also acted as agents of political mobilisation, shaping individual and collective identities. Despite their different origins and purposes, these groups shared repertoires of practices and political cultures in which violence was regarded as a fully legitimate course of action. The project will provide a comprehensive, multi-scale overview of armed organisations in pre-1914 Europe. Although they represent a mass phenomenon, no comparative research on them has been carried on so far. The project will fill this gap by establishing a team of scholars who focus on Germany, Italy, the Iberian Peninsula, France, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the United Kingdom. The project also promises to bring about a paradigm shift in our understanding of the Great War and post-war paramilitary movements. Hundreds of thousands of male Europeans engaged in various violent practices as members of these groups. These experiences shaped patterns which exerted a lasting influence on the political and social life of the whole continent. The mass experience of violence among pre-war armed associations should be taken into account not only to challenge the reassuring image of the Belle Époque, but also to understand to what extent the radicalisation of politics paved the way to the massacres of the Great War and the turmoil of its aftermath.

Mots-clés : armed associations,political violence,pre wwi europe
Projet ERC : Group Agency (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Cultures and cultural production
Entité participante : University of Vienna — Pays : Autriche — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : Univie
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2495190.99 €

Though philosophers have debated intensely the issue of group agency in the last years, little scholarly work has yet been done on the normative constitution of group agents. The present project will fill this lacuna in a groundbreaking way. A philosophical analysis of the constitutive conditions of individual and collective agency will be combined with recent research in moral philosophy, legal theory and economic theory on the organisational structure of institutional agency. The first aim of the project is to provide a detailed philosophical investigation of the normative foundations of group agency and to work out the rational and moral norms that constitute and guide group agents. The second aim is to explore the implications of such an analysis for moral and legal philosophy. The third aim of the project is to apply the philosophical results to a normative analysis of corporate and economic agents. The main objectives of this project are: (1) To analyse the constitutive and regulative rules of group agency and their impact on the normative identity and self-understanding of associative as well as institutional group agents. (2) To investigate the consequences of philosophical work on group agency for recent theorising in moral and legal philosophy. (3) To explore how the achieved philosophical results can help advance a normative understanding of group agents with a clear organisational structure such as corporate and economic agents. The results will give us a new understanding of group agency, but will also have an impact on debates about the concept of agency in moral philosophy, legal philosophy, and philosophy of economics. Methodologically, the project will cover philosophy of action, moral philosophy, legal theory, philosophy of economics, and organisation theory. The project will also have an impact on wider debates about normative orders in general and the normative framework and structure of social, political and economic institutions.

Mots-clés : group agency,normativity,constitutivism,collective moral agency,legal theory,normative frameworks of institutions,corporate agents,economic agents
Projet ERC : ProMotion (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Condensed matter physics
Entité participante : University of Regensburg — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2498887.0 €

Three-dimensional topological insulators (3D-TI) feature an insulating bulk and conducting surface states. The energy spectrum of these surface states mimics the one of relativistic Dirac electrons, i.e., it is linear in wave-vector k, not spin-degenerate and the spin locks to the k-vector (spin-momentum locking (SML)). The lack of spin degeneracy makes TIs a promising system for detecting quasi-particles with properties of Majorana fermions (MF), being potentially useful for fault tolerant quantum computing. The other feature, SML, promises electrical manipulation of magnetization and is at the heart of spintronics. The focus of this project is on testing new concepts, set ups and experiments to probe MFs and SML in 3D-HgTe nano- and hybrid structures. Strained films of 3D-HgTe constitute a TI with unprecedented high charge carrier mobility enabling the observation of ballistic and quantum effects, thus being a very promising material system for these studies. For hunting MF we focus on clean 3D-HgTe nanowires (NW) with superconductor (SC) contacts inducing topological superconductivity in the TI. Here, we utilize the peculiar energy spectrum of TI-NWs, tunable from topologically trivial to topological by adding half a flux quantum through the wire’s cross section. The existence of MFs forming at the superconducting wire’s end shall be proven by (i) anomalous conductance quantization at point contacts, (ii) measuring the anomalous height of Shapiro steps in SC-NW-SC junctions and by (iii) probing quantized conductance in SC-NW-normal metal junctions. In a complementary new approach (iv) we measure the quantum capacitance in an array of magnetic vortices in a SC-TI heterojunction to probe the density of states in the proximity induced superconducting gap, where MFs are expected to form. For probing SML in ballistic ferromagnet-HgTe hybrid systems we resort to a novel geometry (v) which measures the asymmetry of current flow rather than local or non-local voltages.

Mots-clés : topological superconductivity,topological insulators,spintronics
Projet ERC : GEOCOG (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Human Mind and Its Complexity
Entité participante : Norwegian University of Science and Technology — Pays : Norvège — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : NTNU
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2000000.0 €

Through smart technology, we are overwhelmed with new information. Does this unlimited access to knowledge make us smarter? One of the key challenges for modern societies is to understand how the brain assembles our rich inventory of knowledge. Here, I will test the hypothesis that newly acquired knowledge is represented in the hippocampal formation in neural concept spaces, which are based on the coding principles and representational structures of the neural machinery involved in spatial navigation. The key idea is that the brain’s navigation system provides the building blocks of a neural metric for knowledge. In this groundbreaking cognitive neuroscience framework, I will bridge and integrate principles from Nobel Prize awarded neurophysiology and concepts from cognitive science and philosophy. Partly building on my ERC-StG project in which I discovered the core neural mechanisms underlying reconfiguration, integration and scaling of memory networks, the aim of my proposal is two-fold: 1. I seek to decipher neural concept spaces and unravel the neural codes of a cognitive geometry for knowledge and its deformations. 2. I will provide a proof-of-principle framework for next-generation neurocognitive technology and neural user models for cognitive enhancement to edit memories and engineer knowledge. Novel ‘Wikipedia’ learning tasks will be combined with state-of-the-art pattern analyses of space-resolved fMRI and time-resolved MEG to map and quantify representational structures. I will further develop AI-inspired analyses and closed loop brain-computer interfaces to perturb and edit neural concept space. The integrative mission of my program, from cells to systems-level involvement in cognition and to technology, opens up the exciting possibility to lay the ground for redefining cognitive neuroscience of knowledge by unravelling the fundamental neural principles of a cognitive topography and to make critical translations to empower smart brains in a smart society.

Mots-clés : hippocampus,fmri,cognitive neuroscience,entorhinal cortex,space,navigation
Projet ERC : SignalingDynamics (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Cellular, Developmental and Regenerative Biology
Entité participante : Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : KNAW
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1500000.0 €

Tight coordination between proliferation and differentiation is key to proper development and homeostasis of multicellular systems. Cell-cell communication via signaling pathways has long been studied in this context. Encoding information in the temporal change of a signal, i.e. signaling dynamics, can ensure information transmission to be specific and accurate. Studies exemplifying the relevance of dynamic signaling raise the critical question: What is the function of signaling dynamics in controlling proliferation and differentiation at tissue level? My expertise in signaling dynamics, advanced light microscopy, microfluidics, development, cell cycle research and organoid culture provides a unique skill-set for the functional investigation of dynamic signaling during development and tissue homeostasis using two model systems: Somitogenesis in vertebrate embryos is the sequential segmentation of growing tissue. It is controlled by signaling gradients and oscillations. Whereas differentiation has been studied extensively, it remains elusive (A) how cell proliferation is regulated and (B) whether there is a link between proliferation and signaling dynamics. Indeed, our preliminary data strongly indicate that cell proliferation impacts on signaling oscillations. Homeostasis of adult tissue is also maintained by signaling pathways balancing proliferation and differentiation. In the small intestine some of these pathways have recently been shown to be dynamic. We will apply a systematic approach to understand (A) are signaling pathways in the intestine dynamic and (B) what is the function. Our preliminary data support that combining organoid culture, light-sheet microscopy and microfluidic perturbation allows quantification and functional analysis of signaling dynamics. By comparing signaling dynamics in development and homeostasis we will derive general principles of dynamic signal encoding in multicellular systems.

Mots-clés : microfluidics,oscillations,dynamic signaling reporters,organoids,proliferation,differentiation,stem cell,somitogenesis,small intestine