Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : CyberScoPy (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Centre national de la recherche scientifique — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : CNRS
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Timelapse fluorescence microscopy imaging is routinely used in quantitative cell biology. However, microscopes are passive systems and are still very limited in their operating capacity which limits in several ways our ability to identify and image complex biological events in real time and at the proper 4D scales. They could become much more powerful investigation systems for the life science if they were endowed with user-friendly, unsupervised decision-making algorithms, transforming microscopes into fully responsive and automated measurement devices. Indeed, we are at a moment when smart systems and artificial intelligence are being used everywhere, including in laboratories to improve the functioning of many (scientific), however outdated preprogrammed microscopy workflows are still being routinely implemented. The ability to employ real-time image analysis to inform, optimize and adjust the settings of ongoing image acquisitions would be a game changer for studying complex, dynamic cellular processes. To address this issue, we have developed a pilot software, CyberSco.Py, which enables the possibility to conduct image analysis in real time (using deep learning) to trigger modifications in the acquisition settings thus alleviating the need for manual input and supervision. This allows for the implementation of novel classes of experiments that cannot be achieved with current solutions. Within the context of this PoC, CyberSco.Py will be developed into a user-friendly software capable of smart automation of microscopy systems an their add-ons (e.g. microfluidics, temperature controls, etc...). As such, CyberSco.Py has the potential to revolutionize the power and scope of microscopy experiments for quantitative cell biology with broad implications for the microscopy sector.
Projet ERC : SAFEPRINT (Horizon Europe, appel 2025, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Quantavis srl — Pays : Italie — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : QUANTAVIS
Type d'entité : Organismes privés (hors enseignement)
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

SAFEPRINT introduces a transformative approach to product authentication by developing cost-effective, high-entropy Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs) based on ink droplet deposition. Building upon breakthroughs obtained in the ERC projects PEP2D and PREPRINT, this technology leverages the inherent randomness of drop deposition to create unique, unclonable security features that can deliver way higher entropy than current market solutions while reducing implementation costs. The project advances this promising technology from laboratory demonstration (TRL 2-3) to validation in a relevant environment (TRL 4) through five interconnected activities. These encompass technical optimization of printing parameters for maximum entropy and environmental stability, development of a smartphone-compatible reader system, integration with a secure authentication framework, and comprehensive market validation. The project benefits from Quantavis (QVS) existing authentication infrastructure, its participation in other EU-funded projects and market access. SAFEPRINT addresses the critical challenge of counterfeit goods. Our solution enables robust product authentication across multiple industrial sectors, from luxury goods to pharmaceuticals, without requiring specialized semiconductor fabrication facilities or complex implementation processes. The technology ability to be printed on several substrates using modified standard equipment, combined with straightforward smartphone-based verification, removes significant barriers to adoption while maintaining enterprise-grade security. Through structured engagement with leading companies across target sectors, we will validate the technology commercial potential and develop a comprehensive business plan for market entry.
Projet ERC : PRESENCE (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Université d'Utrecht — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Presence is the feeling of being in a virtual environment. It is the concept that provides the most explanatory value to the degree of effectiveness of virtual reality applications. This concept has received an increase in relevancy due to the recent evolution of virtual reality (VR) technology and an increase in attention from the scientific community. Developing new immersive solutions to aid in healthcare, training, entertainment, and research hinges on the ability to objectively measure presence so that the quality of these applications can improve significantly. We aim to develop a tool for measuring and analyzing presence by combining two methodologies developed in the Attention Lab at Utrecht University. The methodologies utilize psychophysiological approaches to measure the internal state of the user through analyzing visual working memory and body movement patterns. Together with our industry partner EducationXR, we then plan on iterating on the tool by using real-life data and integrating the method into our partner's available analytics suite to identify how we can improve usability and compatibility. With the learnings from our work with EducationXR and our experience in transferring validated research into services and applications in the area of clinical assessment and rehabilitation, we plan to found a startup company to sell the tool we developed in the form of a software product. By working together with policymakers and interest groups, we plan to actively work on promoting standardization in the VR industry while marketing our tool as a way to achieve a higher quality user experience. Through this process, we hope to improve the VR infrastructure in the VR industry as well as in related industries. With the ability to produce more impactful solutions that contribute positively to society through education, healthcare, and research, we hope that VR can have a positive impact and lead to novel innovation.
Projet ERC : ARGOS (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : École internationale supérieure d'études avancées — Pays : Italie — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : SISSA
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

The Proof of Concept “Advanced Reduced order modellinG: Online computational web server for complex parametric Systems” ARGOS wants to fulfil the demand of a Reduced Order Modelling Offline-Online tool, exploitable thanks to the creation of a computational interface, handling and analysing a parametric problem in a very intuitive way. ARGOS is a computational web server hosting several web applications, some with a general purpose and some for very specific problems: users can access directly through the web browser, using their available device, choose the application they need and finally use it to tackle the problem of interest. Thanks to the web application, users do not have to install any package by themselves on their machine. Any device having an internet connection can access ARGOS and run a web computing application. The real time response, due to the model reduction algorithms, combined with the ease of use of ARGOS, matches the industrial demand of intuitive and immediate tools. Within this black-box framework, the final user is not required to have any specific and technical knowledge about reduced order modelling. We thus envision that this approach could be adopted also in many other fields directly related with applied sciences, for example in medicine and environmental studies. ARGOS will have a vast audience of companies and institutions, proposing a closer integration between design teams and research and development teams. ARGOS could also be easily connected with emerging technologies related with data assimilation, data science and analytics, industrial digital twins, machine learning, diagnosis and maintenance tools, etc. The mathematical core of the web platform ARGOS will rely on the software developed within the ERC CoG AROMA-CFD project by valorising open source software libraries ITHACA and RBniCS. Different demos will be developed, for example in bioengineering, structural mechanics, and industrial shape optimisation in fluid dynamics.
Projet ERC : GRASP (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Centre hospitalier régional universitaire de Lille — Pays : France — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : CHRU Lille
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 80000.0 €

PCOS is the most common endocrine disorder affecting up to 18% of women worldwide. The syndrome imposes a heavy health burden, covering infertility, obesity, type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome. The development of treatment options is an urgent need since there is currently neither a cure nor mechanism-based treatments, leaving patient management suboptimal and focused solely on symptomatic treatment. One key neuroendocrine aberration in most women with PCOS is increased luteinizing hormone (LH) pulse frequency. This suggests an increase in activity of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) neurons in the hypothalamus. The LH hyper-pulsatility contributes to increased ovarian thecal androgen secretion and failure of ovulation, constituting a pivotal pathogenic role in the syndrome. These evidences suggest that alterations of GnRH neuronal activity/secretion could be the basis for neuroendocrine anomalies that accompany the reproductive disturbances in the syndrome. In GRASP we will test the hypothesis that low administration doses of a GnRH antagonist, aimed at tempering LH secretion/pulsatility, can ameliorate both reproductive and metabolic PCOS traits in animal models of PCOS and in women with PCOS. The specific objectives of GRASP are to i) dose-range GnRH antagonism to rectify LH pulse amplitude and frequency in PCOS-like mice ; ii) to perform a long-term treatment with the selected doses of GnRH antagonist to assess its potential beneficial outcomes in correcting reproductive and metabolic alterations of this preclinical model; iii) to perform a pilot dose-effect clinical investigation testing the ability of sub-therapeutic doses of GnRH antagonist to rectify the altered hormonal dynamics in women with PCOS. The overall goal of GRASP is to provide a proof-of-concept for future long-duration randomized controlled trials of this approach to appraise its clinical benefits in women with PCOS and to move forward towards therapeutic innovation.
Projet ERC : SYCOS (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Université Aalto — Pays : Finlande — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Short- and long-term prediction of solar activity and space weather are long-standing problems, affecting the society at a large scale: being able to issue a prediction earlier and more reliably will prevent economic losses for industries, space sector, and governments. During our ongoing ERC CoG project UniSDyn, we have numerically and observationally demonstrated the potential of a novel data product, the internal surface gravity oscillation mode, tracing the sub-surface magnetic field in the Sun, and here formulated methodologies to build prediction tools based on it both over short and long timescales. Earlier prediction methods have relied on magnetic fields on the solar surface or in the interplanetary space, while now we propose to use the solar internal oscillations as basis of the predictions - hence our ideas are novel and ground-braking. Innovation potential is augmented by the demonstrated capacity of the team to perform the demanding data analysis of the required data products for the proof-of-concept tools. Large innovation potential is also contained in new type of data service to be built: they augment the sustainability and re-usability of generic scientific data products, and enhance the renewal of science.
Projet ERC : PUPILLO (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Université de Copenhague — Pays : Danemark — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : KU
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Eye-tracking is one of the most valuable tools for measuring human behaviour, applicable to multiple populations and stages of development, and their use has enjoyed an exponential increase both within and outside of research. Pupil size, measurable with eye-trackers, provides a valuable index of a wide range of cognitive functions. However, pupillometry has significant untapped potential because current commercial eye-trackers are unable to provide reliable indications of cognitively driven pupil changes. This results in a restricted design space for research, large loss of data and often unreliable measurement. We propose a novel architecture of remote eye-tracker for behavioural research, conceived to address both the problem of large data loss, and the problem of reliability of pupil size changes. Our solution addresses these pains at both the hardware and software levels, with a series of innovations including an identical offline mode to retrieve otherwise lost data, and autofocus and robotic tracking to accommodate much greater participant movement. In pilot experiments, with infants, we have increased the proportion of usable data from about 50% with the current state of the art, to close to 100%. We are currently developing procedures and algorithms to compensate for the light reflex so that pupil dynamics data is deconfounded, and acquisition possible over a much larger span of stimuli and situations. PUPILLO aims to become the next generation eye-tracker, providing the research and medical communities and beyond, with a cost-effective, easy-to-use and customizable solution to fully exploit the potential of gaze tracking and pupillometry.
Projet ERC : APPMONITOR (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Université de Copenhague — Pays : Danemark — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : KU
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

APPMONITOR addresses the critical need for means and measures to monitor digital tracking and datafication by third-parties in mobile apps in Europe, building on the ERC StG DATAFIED LIVING. With EU implementing powerful regulations to curb unwanted and illegitimate collection, mining, and compilation of user data across digital technologies, member states now have a strong political mandate to regulate the booming data economy. Yet, the successful enforcement of these schemes relies on the introduction of systematic monitoring, and a coherence between the stated ambitions and the means implemented to reach said goals. The objectives of this POC are 1) to deliver the first empirical toolkit for comparing mobile tracking across the iOS and Android ecologies and across different regional contexts within the EU thereby addressing a significant knowledge gap concerning tracking in iOS apps, 2) to use the toolkit to test the efficacy of new legal instruments for app data transparency, and 3) to develop and test a prototype for scrutinizing and labelling Android and iOS apps according to their embedding of third-party tracking that can assist regulators in enforcing legislation against illegitimate tracking and create transparency for citizens to make informed choices about app download, factoring in the app’s embedded third-party tracking. APPMONITOR’s innovation will be developed as open-source tools to make it possible for regulatory actors, as well as privacy, digital rights and data ethics NGOs to use and further develop them in response to market and technology changes. APPMONITOR thus presents a unique opportunity for a breakthrough in regulation of the mobile data market to benefit European citizens, a much-needed set of tools for regulatory actors to enforce EU legislation, and critical knowledge for policy-makers to qualify future regulation.
Projet ERC : STEDGate (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Institute of Scientific Instruments — Pays : Rép. Tchèque — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : ÚPT AV ČR
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 50000.0 €

Neurological disorders have emerged as a significant global societal burden, exemplified by afflictions like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, impacting over one billion individuals globally and surpassing the combined economic burden of cancer and diabetes. This has spurred a concerted global effort, with increased support for neuroscience research. These disorders often target deep brain regions and profoundly influence the structural connectivity of neuronal cells within functional circuits. Synapses, where neurons exchange information, exhibit plasticity, altering information transmission efficiency, shape, and position. Understanding the mechanisms underlying these structural changes, especially in neuronal circuits, remains limited in both healthy and affected individuals. The ERC PoC project STEDGate seeks to advance our understanding of neuronal connectivity and plasticity by developing STED-enabled holographic endo-nanoscopy for neuroscience. This ground-breaking technology promises atraumatic nanoscale in-vivo imaging of deep brain structures reaching depths up to 5 mm beneath the brain's surface. Collaborating with the start-up endeavour DeepEn, the team aims to facilitate the commercial transition of this technology. Making deep-tisue nanoscopy available globally will revolutionize our ability to monitor and understand neurological disorders and, ultimately, offer new avenues for intervention and treatment..
Projet ERC : StrokeGATE (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Institute of Scientific Instruments — Pays : Rép. Tchèque — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : ÚPT AV ČR
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

The origin project LIFEGATE introduced the prospect of multimode fibre based holographic endoscope as a unique tool for high-resolution in-vivo imaging of structures residing deep inside the brain of animal models. It harnesses the power of controlled light transport through hair-thin MMFs to image and measure brain functions at single cell and sub-cellular level in virtually any brain structure, at unlimited depth and in uniquely atraumatic manner, thereby unlocking a variety of opportunities when answering urgent bio-medical questions. The proposed ERC-PoC project StrokeGATE aims to utilise achievements of the origin project to introduce a novel, complete technological platform for investigating the impact of deep-brain stroke in living animal models. The geometry of the most advanced holographic endoscope currently built will be modified to allow induction of stroke of controlled magnitude, representing a powerful extension of the instrument’s applicability from the perspective of the users in neuroscience. Already available imaging capacity of the instrument will facilitate its navigation into the desired brain structure and, once the stroke is induced, monitoring changes to structural connectivity of the neurones within a circuit as well as development / suppression of signalling activity. LIFEGATE has already established a solid pathway to commercialisation through a start-up endeavour. Although intellectual property is expected to be generated during the execution of StrokeGATE, its main translational value lies in demonstrating the utility of MMF endoscopes across the relevant community of researchers who by now had only limited chances to fully appreciate the potential of such radically new and disruptive technological arrival. Successful accomplishment of StrokeGATE will unlock the exploitability of holographic endoscopy across a wider topical range of biomedical research, and reduce its translational barriers.
Projet ERC : SLEEP-TI (Horizon Europe, appel 2025, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Université de Linköping — Pays : Suède — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 75000.0 €

SLEEP-TI proposes a new approach to address widespread sleep disorders and enhance sleep quality through non-invasive neuromodulation. Leveraging the innovative Temporal Interference (TI) technology, SLEEP-TI aims to develop a portable, user-friendly device capable of modulating specific brain regions associated with sleep regulation and memory consolidation, without the need for invasive procedures or the limitations of traditional sleep therapy methods. Poor sleep quality and sleep disorders such as insomnia and parasomnias affect millions worldwide, significantly impacting mental health, cognitive function, and overall well-being. Current treatments, ranging from pharmacological interventions to mechanical devices like CPAP machines, often fall short in terms of efficacy, user compliance, and convenience. SLEEP-TI introduces a novel solution by using TI to precisely target and modulate the neural circuits involved in sleep stages, particularly NREM sleep, which is crucial for physiological recovery of our brain and body. The project builds on preliminary data demonstrating the effectiveness of TI in inducing sleep-related neural patterns, initially in a cohort of epilepsy patients. By adjusting the frequency and location of TI stimulation, SLEEP-TI aims to replicate these beneficial effects in the broader population, offering a personalized sleep enhancement tool. This portable device will empower individuals to manage their sleep quality at home, potentially transforming the landscape of sleep therapy and cognitive health maintenance. SLEEP-TI's multidisciplinary team combines expertise in neuroengineering, sleep medicine, and commercial product development, ensuring the project's scientific rigor and its potential for commercialization. The project's outcomes will not only contribute to the scientific understanding of sleep modulation but also open opportunities for a new class of electroceuticals in sleep medicine.