Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : InequalCyprus (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Study of the Human Past
Entité participante : Université de Leyde — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2489397.0 €

The consolidation of social inequalities, postulated to have occurred during the Bronze Age in West Asia, is of crucial importance in the rise of complex societies, yet remains poorly understood. This research project will apply an innovative mixed methods approach to datasets from late prehistoric Cyprus (4000-1700 BCE) to better investigate this key development in global history. Recent archaeological research into social inequalities has either used quantitative methods to demonstrate their emergence (Kohler et al. 2018; Basri and Lawrence 2020) or questioned their existence in early complex societies (Graeber and Wengrow 2021), leaving the question of how social inequalities were first consolidated open. To move this topic forward we need an approach that combines quantitative and qualitative analysis, to assess the significance and durability of social inequalities in prehistoric societies (Klinkenberg and Düring 2023). Late prehistoric Cyprus provides an exceptional possibility to research this topic. Decades of research have produced rich datasets from settlements and cemeteries, that suggest clear transformations in the articulation of social inequalities. In the Chalcolithic (4000-2500 BCE) we have evidence for short-lived social inequalities, especially in house sizes. By contrast, in the Prehistoric Bronze Age (2500-1700 BCE), social inequalities appear more consolidated, for example in graves.  This project will investigate social inequalities in everyday life (houses, objects, mobility, and diet), and in performed settings (burials, feasts, and figurative objects), to reconstruct how social inequalities featured in these social arenas. The aim is to both quantify evidence for social inequalities, and study how inequalities were culturally negotiated. The results will shed light on how and why social inequalities were consolidated in late prehistoric societies in Cyprus and contribute to broader discussions on the emergence of social inequalities

Mots-clés : social inequality migration exchange networks figurative objects house biographies burial practices food feasting
Projet ERC : CONTROLMAP (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Human Mind and Its Compl exity
Entité participante : Université de Gand — Pays : Belgique — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UGent
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2480212.0 €

The sensation of cognitive effort is integral to everyday human experience, is a core construct in psychological theories of behavior, and contributes to multiple psychiatric disorders like ADHD and depression. However, despite decades of study the neural origin and functional purpose of cognitive effort remain poorly understood. This constitutes one of the most important outstanding questions in cognitive neuroscience and a major challenge to mental health research. Recently, I proposed a new, mathematically formal theory of cognitive effort that draws together concepts from dynamical systems analysis, linear control theory (LCT), artificial neural networks (ANNs), cognitive psychology and neurophysiology. The theory relates cognitive effort to the fact that brain neuroanatomy and neurophysiology render some neural states more energy-efficient than others. In particular, I introduced the concept of the "controllosphere," an energy-inefficient region of neural state space associated with high cognitive control, and proposed that cognitive effort serves to move the system state out of this high-energy region.  The goal of this project is to test the controllosphere theory. I will use ANNs to simulate human behavioral and neural data collected in tasks that require mental effort, and apply LCT to these models to make formal predictions about which neural representations are more or less effortful. I will then test these predictions using a wide variety of empirical techniques in a series of experiments with human participants. The establishment of a verified formal theory of cognitive effort will fill an important gap in the cognitive neuroscience of cognitive control, strongly impact clinical practice, and provide important insights for the development of novel artificial intelligence systems that balance computational function against energy use.

Mots-clés : cognitive effort,cognitive control,linear control theory,recurrent neural networks,artificial neural networks,prefrontal cortex,anterior cingulate cortex,electroencephalogrophy,magnetoencephalogrophy,neural dynamics,intrinsic manifold,task manifold
Projet ERC : GLAXES (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Condensed Matter Physics
Entité participante : Université de Padoue — Pays : Italie — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UniPd
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2499876.0 €

I will address the fundamental question of what exactly are and how to prepare glasses at the extremes of their stability range: ultra-stable, ideal glasses on the one side and ultra-unstable, defect-saturated glasses on the opposite side. The ideal glass, predicted by some theories of the glass-transition but not yet observed, is a novel equilibrium state of matter characterized by a fairly unique, dense atomic structure with almost no defects. The defect-saturated glass is instead ductile, at odds with conventional glasses: any additional defect self-heals. I will reach these extraordinary states employing a non-thermal fluidization route activated by X-ray irradiation. Its non-equilibrium nature is key here: conventional thermal treatments, that induce structural changes stabilized by quenching, modify the properties of glasses only over a limited range. My project aims then at: 1. producing ideal and defect-saturated glasses; 2. developing a general scheme to control the stability of glasses; 3. establishing experimentally the connection between their thermodynamic properties and their density of defects; 4. clarifying the microscopic mechanism of X-ray induced fluidization; 5. describing the glass-specificity of this effect in terms of amorphous plasticity. The importance of these extreme glasses is however not only fundamental: the reduced (zero?) density of defects makes the ideal glass mechanically and optically loss-free; a defect-saturated glass, instead, deforms under load and crystallizes very rapidly. Their properties are therefore enabling for new technological applications ranging from noise-free mechanical resonators, superconducting qubits with sufficient coherence for quantum computers and phase-change materials for applications as memories. The long-term vision is that the knowledge of how to measure and control the density of defects in glasses will lead to materials with extraordinary properties of relevance for many important applications.

Mots-clés : glass transition ultra stable glass defected glass relaxation process amorphous plasticity x ray physics x ray photon correlation spectroscopy photo induced atomic displacement
Projet ERC : ChronoGal (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Universe Sciences
Entité participante : Institut d'astrophysique des Canaries — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : IAC
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2500000.0 €

The overarching goal of ChronoGal is to unveil the sequence of events and physical processes that have shaped the Milky Way (MW) from its early assembly to the present, by providing the holy grail of Galactic Archaeology (GA): precise age information. Our Galaxy is key to study disk galaxy formation and evolution, as it can be analyzed in exceptional detail using individual stars carrying the fossil record of its entire evolution. The importance of GA is underscored by the vast resources invested in it: Gaia parallaxes, homogeneous photometry, proper motions and velocities have transformed the field, aided by a huge effort from ambitious ground-based spectroscopic surveys.  Despite spectacular recent progress, GA is nearing an impasse due to the lack of precise ages for large, unbiased stellar samples, which are critical for determining our Galaxy’s chronology. My unique expertise allows me to tackle this key issue by including color-magnitude diagram fitting in the field’s toolbox. Previously limited to studying external Local Group galaxies, this technique can finally now be applied to our Galaxy, providing unprecedentedly precise and homogeneous age-metallicity distributions for hundredths of millions of stars across all MW components. This is made possible by the accurate Gaia-based distances.  ChonoGal’s ages will provide clear answers to persistent questions on MW evolution. Crucially, ChronoGal will precisely date the disk emergence, determine the duration of the enigmatic thick disk phase, resolve the debate on the presence of intermediate-age stars in the bulge, reconstruct the major halo building blocks and pinpoint the accretion time of these fossils of high-redshift dwarf galaxies. This will clarify the impact of mergers on shaping the stellar content and morphology of disk galaxies. This ambitious and urgent project, with Gaia DR4 in 2026, will be transformative, providing the reliable and precise ages needed to advance our MW understanding.

Mots-clés : color magnitude diagram,star formation history,spectroscopic surveys,gaia
Projet ERC : SPEAR (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Universe Sciences
Entité participante : Institut d'astrophysique des Canaries — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : IAC
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2453750.0 €

One of the most significant discoveries of the past decades is the realization that there are more planets than stars in our Galaxy, with a planet diversity that has far surpassed our expectations. A major focus of 21st-century astronomy is the characterization of Earth-sized planets in the habitable zones (HZPs) around nearby M dwarfs and the search for possible biomarkers in their atmospheres. This is driving the development of advanced, dedicated space missions and ground-based Extremely Large Telescopes (ELTs). These upcoming ELTs, equipped with instruments like the ANDES high-resolution spectrograph, aim to probe the atmospheres of HZPs in detail, moving beyond basic parameters to explore their atmospheric composition. Current techniques, like transmission spectroscopy, have been successful in characterizing larger planets but will face significant challenges when applied to small, rocky HZPs. Correcting for stellar, planetary, and systematic signals which are undetectable with current instruments will become crucial, as their signatures will be of the same size or larger than the planetary signals we will be looking for. Moreover, the habitability of these planets is under debate due to their susceptibility to atmospheric loss from intense stellar radiation.  To address these challenges, the SPEAR project proposes a multi-faceted approach to develop new simulations and data analysis methodologies that can solve or mitigate the key observational limitations of the ELTs. The project will also develop advanced simulation tools, conduct empirical studies on sub-Neptune planets as benchmarks targets for habitability studies, design optimal observational strategies for the ELTs, and create a prioritized list of targets that expand the parameter space to search for habitability and biomarkers. By the time the ELTs become operational, SPEAR will provide the missing essential tools needed to fully exploit these powerful observatories in the search for habitable world

Mots-clés : exoplanet transits,extremely large telescopes,habitability,life,atmospheres,simulations
Projet ERC : CHARTAGING (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Physiology in Health, Disease and Ageing
Entité participante : Université de Padoue — Pays : Italie — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UniPd
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2811871.0 €

A major challenge in aging research is to distinguish which age-related alterations play a driving role and their interconnections. Aging ultimately implies dysregulated transcription; yet, the identity of signaling cascades and transcription factors that control youthfulness and aging in adult tissues remains poorly understood. Aging also entails maladaptive changes in how cells communicate with each other and their surrounding extracellular matrix (ECM). Senolytics approaches have revealed the role of senescent cells as drivers of aging, leaving however unclear what cell types first become senescent in real tissue and why. Here, we aim to address and connect these fundamental unknowns into an integrative view of aging at an unprecedented spatial, temporal, molecular and mechanistic resolution.  As preliminary results, we report that aging requires decreased activity of YAP/TAZ mechanosensors in stromal cells leading to unscheduled activation of cGAS/STING signaling, and that aging may be halted by restoring a youthful YAP/TAZ-cGAS/STING signaling balance. But why do we age then? Building on these findings, our hypothesis is that aging initiates from deterioration of our own “structural frames”: from changes in spatial/contextual signals that cells perceive from the ECM, to altered mechanotransduction and increased fragility of the nuclear envelope leading to cell senescence. These processes are reversible and understanding them may reveal new routes to halt aging. For this we will chart and functionally interrogate a multidimensional atlas of aging biology, delving into the logics of tissue physiology and its progressive degeneration over lifetime, also implementing novel methodologies. Our YAP/TAZ prism offers a unique vantage point to dissect causally relevant extracellular and intracellular mechanisms of youthfulness vs. aging, and opens to the exploration of aging remedies to restore youthful tissue ecosystems by restoring youthful YAP/TAZ activity.

Mots-clés : yap taz biology tissue ecosystems mechanics in physiology rejuvenation transcription factors and their regulatory networks
Projet ERC : MohoLAB (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Earth System Science
Entité participante : Université de Lorraine — Pays : France — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : UL
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 137500.0 €

The Moho and lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary (LAB) are two of the most important boundaries in the Earth. The Moho is the greatest manifestation of the chemically differentiated Earth, separating light rocks in the crust from dense rocks in the mantle whereas the LAB is fundamental for plate tectonics, defining the boundary between the floating rigid lithosphere and the weak, deformable asthenosphere. They are both first born at mid-ocean ridges, where two-thirds of the Earth’s crust and lithosphere are formed, and then evolve with the age, but what happens during the early part of their lives remains an enigma. Together, they serve as the location where coupling and exchange take place between the shallow and deep mantle, and therefore, it is fundamental to understand their formation and evolution during the early stages of their existence. Here, I propose to acquire exceptional seismic data using the most advanced technology available in industry, >2500 Ocean Bottom Nodes, and subject them to the advanced analysis techniques of full waveform inversion, to quantify the nature of the Moho and the LAB during the first 5 Ma of their lives at the fast-spreading East Pacific Rise. This new technology will allow us to record multi-component seismic reflection and refraction data continuously up to 400 km offset at ~200 m interval, thus opening up a new frontier of research. These new seismic data will provide quantitative P-wave and S-wave velocities of the whole crust, the Moho, the upper mantle and the LAB at unprecedented resolution, which combined with petrological studies will allow us to develop a comprehensive geodynamical model for mantle melting, melt migration, crustal accretion, and lithospheric evolution. The quantitative imaging of structures down to 20-30 km depth on a few hundred metre scale would be a revolution, develop synergy between academic and industrial research, and open up new horizons for deep seismic imaging for upper mantle studies.

Mots-clés : plate tectonics,mid ocean ridges,oceanic crust,moho,lithosphere asthenosphere boundary,mantle melting,mantle heterogeneities
Projet ERC : BOSTAN TREE (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Study of the Human Past
Entité participante : Université de Haïfa — Pays : Israël — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 3496176.0 €

Engaging with the myriad challenges linked to global warming and the unchecked expansion of drylands, the project seeks to develop models for implementing past agricultural know-how in modern socioeconomic contexts. Our novel methodology fuses cutting-edge interdisciplinary scientific approaches from the humanities and natural sciences with an inclusive citizen science framework to examine the ecological history and cultivar diversity of relic ‘heritage horticulture’ in four distinct arid regions in southern Israel. Focusing on the bioarchaeology of trees, we will define the historical, biological and environmental principles of dryland heritage horticulture systems and create a method for the exploration, analysis and ultimate dissemination of the crucial data they contain. When combined, this exceptional compendium of perspectives—coupling broad socio-geographical scientific viewpoints with more precise biogenetic, archaeological, and natural science analytics—can expand our understanding of the factors that drove the sustainability of heritage horticulture in marginal areas. The outcome of our study—an archaeologically informed grasp of ancient agrarian resilience—can transform the field of environmental history and impact present-and-future agricultural dynamics. Indeed, viewing trees as a singular analytical unit is unprecedented, as is our interdisciplinary survey of both the dormant and living artifacts contained within these archaeological contexts. Hence, deep knowledge of how bygone farmers related to the landscape and managed their limited resources, particularly the terrain, soil and water, holds vital implications for climate change adaptation and current-day food security. Moreover, the unique history of dryland farming and its remarkable development in marginal regions can inspire landscape policy management initiatives and community engagement programs that promote cultural heritage restoration and landscape reclamation.

Mots-clés : desertification climate change adaptation ecological history environmental humanities heritage horticulture dryland agriculture landrace revival
Projet ERC : devise (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Materials Engineering
Entité participante : Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : IBEC
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2497246.0 €

Tissues are viscoelastic materials whose mechanical properties evolve with time and yet this important property has not been incorporated in the design of regenerative biomaterials. Mechanical properties of biomaterials are known to influence fundamental cellular process, including cell migration, cell growth and cell differentiation. However, most of the work to understand the mechanical properties of substrates on mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) differentiation has made use of pure elastic materials. Cells probe their environment by pulling forces and receiving mechanical feedback through membrane receptors. Since viscoelastic materials respond with a time dependent process to force, we hypothesise that viscoelasticity will play a fundamental role in the differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells and hence in the design of regenerative biomaterials. This project will develop (a) a new family of viscoelastic hydrogels with controlled properties that include biochemical functionalities (recapitulating the properties of the extracellular matrix in vivo), extreme mechanical properties (i.e. very low/high elastic and viscous properties) and mechanical gradients; and (b) Brillouin microscopy to follow the evolution of the local viscoelastic properties of these cell-laden materials as a function of time. we will use viscoelastic materials to promote bone regeneration in vivo using our critical-sized defect in the mouse radius model and, in a major attempt to move the field forward, we will further develop Brillouin microscopy to monitor the viscoelastic properties of regenerative microenvironments in vivo.

Mots-clés : viscoelastic materials,mesenchymal stem cells,tissue engineering,brillouin microscopy
Projet ERC : LISTEN FLASH (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Earth System Science
Entité participante : Institut de physique du globe — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : IPG de Paris
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1724558.0 €

Terrestrial Planetary Seismology aims to revolutionize our understanding of planetary interiors and seismic activity. After the Mars interior exploration by InSight seismometer, the next steps will be on the Moon, with three seismometer deployments planned for 2026/2027 : NASA's Far Side Seismic Suite (FSS) with a French spare InSight sensor, NASA's Artemis-3 Lunar Environment Monitoring Station, and the Chinese Chang'E-7 Lunar Seismometer. This ERC project hinges on detecting and locating lunar impacts, essential for constraining interior models, akin to seismic studies on Mars. It does this by deploying a network of three Earth-based telescopes to monitor Lunar Impact Flashes, complementing data from FSS and other lunar seismometers. This synergy enables precise impact location and timing, crucial for mapping lunar crustal and mantle structures of the lunar south hemisphere, including Schrödinger impact basin and South Pole shallow layers. Moreover, the project pioneers a multi-messenger approach in planetary science by combining seismic waveforms from impacts, high-resolution imaging of impact craters and impact digital twins to understand impact dynamics, lunar scattering and attenuation and lunar subsurface properties comprehensively. It aims to establish empirical relations between impact characteristics, seismic source parameters and seismic signals, enhancing our understanding of impact processes and enabling “natural” controlled seismology using impacts for future planetary exploration. With a robust implementation plan aligned with lunar mission timelines, this ERC project is based on partnership between IPGP and CNRS and promises to deliver groundbreaking insights into planetary seismology. It leverages expertise from planetary seismology, impact observations, and instrumentation, supported by international collaborations, to address fundamental questions about planetary interiors and enhance our understanding of planetary formation and impacts processes.

Mots-clés : planetary seismology moon mars lunar impact flash