Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : HEALFAM (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Social World and Its Diversity
Entité participante : Umeå University — Pays : Suède — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1477556.25 €

Previous research has investigated the relationship between unemployment and health from a perspective of an isolated individual. HEALFAM takes a novel approach and examines how transition to unemployment triggers diffusion of ill mental and physical health within families. It investigates how becoming unemployed affects health outcomes of partners, children and elderly parents of the unemployed and whether the magnitudes of these influences differ across families and societies. Thus, instead of viewing the unemployed as functioning in isolation, HEALFAM assesses the consequences of unemployment for family members taking a multi-actor perspective and international comparative approach. Guided by the life course theoretical framework, which views health and well-being as a process rather than a state and calls for considering interrelatedness of individuals, HEALFAM employs longitudinal data that provide information about multiple members of families. In order to analyse these datasets, HEALFAM uses longitudinal dyadic data analysis techniques as well as multilevel models for longitudinal data. HEALFAM aims to open a new frontline of research on health and wellbeing from a life course perspective. It benefits from my knowledge on three interrelated social phenomena: (1) the role of labour market career and experiences of unemployment (2) family structure and intra-family resources (3) social antecedents of health and wellbeing among family members. It draws on high quality register and panel survey data as well as the expertise at the interdisciplinary research centres that I am connected to at Umeå University. Through international collaborations, it brings together experts in multiple disciplines carrying out research taking a life course perspective.
Projet ERC : BLaSt (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Computer science and informatics
Entité participante : University of Oxford — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1931178.0 €

Probabilistic programming is a powerful method for Bayesian statistical modelling, particularly where the sample space is complex or unbounded (non-parametric). This is because the statistical model can be described clearly in a way that is precise but separate from inference algorithms. It accommodates complex models in such a way that outcomes are still explainable. The objective of the proposed research is to develop a semantic foundation for probabilistic programming that properly explains the non-parametric aspects, particularly the symmetries that arise there. There are three ultimate goals: * to propose new probabilistic programming languages: better languages for statistics; * to devise new general inference methods for probabilistic programs; * to build new foundations for probability. The method is to build on advances on exploiting symmetries in traditional programming lan- guage semantics, by combining this with recent successes in formal semantics and verification for probabilistic programming.

Mots-clés : probabilistic programming,semantics of programming languages,monads,category theory,abstract types
Projet ERC : VALIDATE (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Proof of concept grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Products and processes engineering
Entité participante : University of Luxembourg — Pays : Luxembourg — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Product counterfeiting, sometimes related to the theft of the original, has emerged as a significant economic issue, with the market value of pirated products equalling or exceeding the gross domestic product of some European countries. A 2016 report from OECD in cooperation with the EU Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) found that in 2013 counterfeit products sold were worth €375 billion, totalling 2.5% of global trade. Counterfeit products range from high-end consumer luxury goods, to business-to-business products such as machines, chemicals, raw materials or spare parts, and to common consumer products such as toys, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and food. Some counterfeit products, in particular in the latter category but also, e.g., spare parts, are of low quality, thus creating additional health and safety threats. Valuable raw materials can be stolen at the site of production or in transit, sometimes being replaced by a copy that can be difficult to detect as such by the receiver, sometimes reappearing on the market with no means to detect them as stolen. VALIDATE aims to investigate the commercial feasibility of Cholesteric Spherical Reflectors (CSRs) coatings as high-security identification tags, within a work plan that aims to take our innovation from a Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of 4 to 6/7. This will serve as a key stepping stone towards full commercial exploitation of our CSRs as a game-changing material for authentication. The value proposition of VALIDATE is a physical identifier tag that is effectively unclonable as a result of the manufacturing process, naturally tamper-evident and hard to simulate due to the complexity of the generated patterns. VALIDATE’s end goal is to have a comprehensive description of the commercial feasibility of our technology and, if positive, what commercialization route has the best risk/benefit ratio.

Mots-clés : anti counterfeit,anti theft,supply chain security,track and trace
Projet ERC : CARPE (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : University of Dundee — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Prof Alfred Cuschieri, the overall coordinator of ERC grant Colonic Disease Investigation by Robotic Hydro-colonoscopy (CODIR - grant agreement 268519) has recently submitted the mid-term scientific report on behalf of the two participating Universities (Dundee and Leeds), which highlights several novel IPR (intellectual property rights) issues resulting from the CODIR research, which are pertinent to robotic flexible endoscopy. One of these is based on the ‘active tether robot’ (ATR) idea for the provision of snake like locomotion; i.e., instead of the locomotive power for the active colonoscope being supplied to the back of the robot via a power cable, the design is turned on its head, and replaced by a motile segmented ‘active tether’, which is itself an endoscope, and which can operate in both a gas and aqueous environment. The platform is based on a Mini Compliant Joint (MCJ), with two degree of freedoms (DoFs) using Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) wires as actuators and torsional springs, a synergistic combination which increases the energy efficiency and mechanical bandwidth performance; and at the same time, reduces heat production and stress on the SMA wires. The MJCs actuates by current-induced contraction of SMA wires, two hollow articulating rings with 2 DoFs. As the rings have intersecting axes, the two torsional springs provide roll and pitch. Such a chain of active MCJs provides sinusoidal motor-less locomotion. In essence, CARPE is a generic modular system (capable of translation into any type of flexible endoscope in current clinical use) consisting of independent segments (much like a biomimetic vertebral column), mechanics and electronics. The big advance of CARPE, when used to construct a colonoscope over the current equivalent endoscope, is that once, the end of the CARPE colonoscope is inserted through the anus, it would travel by its intrinsic snake-like locomotion to the caecum.

Mots-clés : flexible endoscopy,compliant actuators,active endoscopes,mini robots,enteroscopy
Projet ERC : PROMOTING (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Earth system science
Entité participante : University of Bern — Pays : Suisse — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UB
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1993125.0 €

Prograde metamorphism produces large amounts of fluids that have an important role for earthquake generation, arc magmatism, the growth of continental crust and for global geochemical cycles. Despite recent efforts, it remains challenging to recognize and quantify fluid fluxes in natural rocks and to model fluid pathways. The existing petrological modeling techniques are all based on the thermodynamic analysis of single rock types and neglect the chemical changes caused by fluid expulsion and the possible interactions with other rocks. The next frontier in metamorphic petrology is therefore to move our modeling capabilities from an isolated single rock system to an open and multi rock system, in which fluids can flow in, react and flow out. This concept introduces several challenges from the quantification of fluid-rock interactions in natural samples to the integration of aqueous thermodynamics and fluid dynamics in the petrological models. Based on the developments of high-resolution techniques such as quantitative compositional mapping, I have demonstrated that the petrological models can be inverted to quantify prograde metamorphism based on preserved mineral relics that partially re-equilibrated in the presence of fluids. The primary objective of PROMOTING is to develop a brand-new framework for petrological modeling of fluid-rock interactions in different, coupled rock types during prograde metamorphism. The models will be calibrated on two key tectonic settings that shaped Earth: subduction of oceanic crust and differentiation of the continental crust. A cutting-edge petrochronological strategy is required to identify at which conditions and when fluid-rock interactions occurred in natural rocks. The outcomes of this project will not only form the basis for a new generation of models integrating element mobility from rock scale to crustal sections, but they will also bring new constraints to test the validity of the most advanced subduction models.

Mots-clés : petrochronology,petrological modeling,aqueous thermodynamics,fluid dynamics
Projet ERC : SafeNet (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Proof of concept grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Computer science and informatics
Entité participante : Correct networks srl — Pays : Roumanie — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Organismes privés (hors enseignement)
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Programmable hardware dataplanes such as the Barefoot Tofino enable unprecedented network flexibility, promising an ever-evolving set of network functionalities at hardware speeds, and are being rolled out in production. However, programming such dataplanes is very difficult as numerous bugs have been found even in trivial programs: accesses to uninitialized header fields, header stack underflows or overflows and processing of dropped packets. Verifying P4 programs before deployment is a great solution to make P4 programs safe. Recent research in this direction has shown that many bugs can be caught if (1) we know the concrete table entries at verification time (Vera, our work in Sigcomm 2018), or (2) if programmers express which rules are likely to appear in practice (p4v in Sigcomm 2018). Both approaches impose a high burden on the programmer, which reduces their applicability. In the CORNET ERC Stg project we have developed af4, a verification tool that finds all bugs and automatically fixes P4 programs without needing programmer input. The key insight behind our work is that verification need not consider all table entries because certain table entries will always result in faulty behavior for all matching packets and thus cannot appear in a correct deployment. af4 automatically generates predicates that filter out buggy table entries. If bugs are still reachable after predicate inference, af4 automatically adds a minimal number of keys to the existing tables and generates predicates that remove all bugs in the programs we tested. In this project we will explore the feasibility of commercial exploitation of af4: a) we will conduct a market study to understand potential customers; b) we will study possible approaches to commercialise af4 including open-source + consulting, cloud-based, or closed-source, and c) take steps towards commercialisation including the development of alfa-testing tools to be given to prospective customers.

Mots-clés : programmable networks,automated program verification and repair,network verification
Projet ERC : MEIOBARMIX (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Biotechnology and Biosystems Engineering
Entité participante : Leibniz Association — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : LG
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1497875.0 €

Progress in plant breeding towards superior varieties relies on selecting favourable traits after creating genetically diverse material. This is primarily achieved by homologous recombination (HR) during meiosis, when programmed DNA double strand breaks (DSBs) are alternatively repaired as crossover (CO, resulting in new parental chromosome combinations) or as non-crossover (NCO, restoring the previous situation). In cereal crops such as barley, recombination by CO occurs mainly near chromosome ends leaving the main body of genetic material untouched. NCO repair can also result in NCO gene conversion (NCO-GC), non-reciprocal exchange of short DNA stretches between alleles. More than 90% of meiotic DSB repair results in NCO, and NCO-GCs are typically not considered in breeding practices as little is known about their tract length, frequency or formation mechanism. MEIOBARMIX aims at uncovering new strategies and developing novel tools to increase and redirect meiotic HR outcome to improve and accelerate plant breeding. Based on novel and high throughput single pollen nuclei genotyping tools, NCO-GC frequency, length, and sequence context and their potential as natural source of genetic variation will be determined. Using the power of a forward genetic approach in Arabidopsis, components regulating the formation of a NCO-GC and/or CO will be identified and genome editing tools will be used to explore novel strategies for site-specific DSB induction as trigger for targeted meiotic recombination. Moreover, novel virus-based tools and ‘stresses’ will be employed to modify the barley recombination landscape. This study will provide ground-breaking results regarding the role of NCO-GCs for genome diversity, explore the feasibility of novel targeted meiotic recombination approaches and uncover novel tools to develop new strategies to harness and influence the outcome, frequency and/or distribution of meiotic recombination in barley ultimately boosting plant breeding.

Mots-clés : plant breeding,meiosis,meiotic recombination,barley
Projet ERC : NICE (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Proof of concept grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Physiology in Health, Disease and Ageing
Entité participante : Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies — Pays : Italie — Rôle : Partner
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 35000.0 €

Prompt coronary catheterization and revascularization have dramatically improved the outcome of myocardial infarction, but also have resulted in a growing number of survived patients with permanent damage of the heart, which frequently leads to heart failure. This condition is now common, expensive and lethal. All currently available drugs for heart failure are aimed at improving residual cardiac performance, while none counteracts the loss of cardiomyocytes. We aim at developing an innovative biological drug that induces cardiac regeneration after myocardial infarction by stimulating endogenous cardiomyocyte proliferation. Our past work using high throughput screenings has identified a human microRNA (hsa-miR-199a-3p) that is effective at stimulating cardiomyocyte proliferation. Expression of this microRNA in the heart using an AAV vector leads to cardiac regeneration and improvement of cardiac function after myocardial infarction in both mice and pigs. A single administration of hsa-miR-199a-3p as a synthetic molecule is sufficient to stimulate cardiac repair. This project now aims at formulating this chemically synthetized miRNA into a lipid nanoparticle (LNP199) that is fully biocompatible, protects the miRNA from degradation and promotes its cardiac intracellular delivery. By experiments in large animals, the project will define the optimal route for LNP199 delivery by comparing three different routes of administration to the heart, any of which can be adopted for application according to standard clinical procedures. Delivery of LNP199 in pigs after ischemia reperfusion followed by cardiac MRI monitoring over time will provide information on the efficacy of this treatment in a clinically applicable scenario and highlight possible side effect. Among the advantages of this regenerative approach are one-off administration, relative ease of delivery according to standard interventional procedures, stability once manufactured and likely affordable cost.

Mots-clés : cardiac regeneration,cardiomyocyte proliferation,innovative therapies,microrna,myocardial infarction,nanoparticles
Projet ERC : SPICE (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Integrative Biology: from Genes and Genomes to Systems
Entité participante : University of Trento — Pays : Italie — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1996428.0 €

Prostate cancer (PCA) is a genetically heterogeneous disease. Advances in targeted hormonal therapy (second generation anti-androgens) have led to more effective management of castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). Despite these highly potent drugs, disease recurs with new genomic and epigenetic alterations. In this ERC proposal, I will leverage my expertise in cancer genomics and a new computational methodology to unravel the landscape of lethal PCA, with a focus on determining the Achilles’ heel of these aggressive tumours. In Aim 1, I will take advantage of DNA sequencing data from over 1000 patient-derived tumour samples and use highly innovative mathematical algorithms to create a detailed evolution chart for each tumour and identify driver events leading to CRPC. After nominating candidate drivers, we propose testing 10 using in vitro gain- and loss-of-function validations experiments (i.e., CRISPR/Cas9, shRNA, and Tet-On assays) in PCA cell lines using migration, invasion, and cell cycle as readouts. In Aim 2, I will focus on genomic events that occur in recalcitrant CRPC, positing that genetic alterations occurring prior or secondary to treatment harbour clues into resistance. In vitro validations will be performed on the top 10 biomarkers. In Aim 3, I will nominate synthetic lethality combinations by mining CRPC genomic data taken from Stand Up 2 Cancer CRPC clinical trials. I will prioritize mutually exclusive genomic alterations in genes for which approved drugs exist. The top 5-10 candidates will be validated in a prostate lineage-specific manner. In summary, this ERC proposal will leverage my many years of expertise in PCA genomics and emerging public and private CRPC datasets to uncover driver mutations that will enhance our understanding of recalcitrant CRPC. Successful completion of this study should lead to novel treatment approaches for CRPC and to a computational model that may transform our approach to evaluating other cancers.

Mots-clés : castration resistant prostate cancer,tumor heterogeneity
Projet ERC : CUDI (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Proof of concept grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Systems and communication engineering
Entité participante : Eindhoven University of Technology — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : TU/e
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Prostate cancer (PCa) causes 1/5 of new cancer cases and 1/10 of cancer deaths in western males. Timely diagnosis is crucial to enable effective treatment, but this is hampered by the inadequacy and cost of the available diagnostics based on multiple systematic biopsies, which cause discomfort and health risks because of their invasiveness. Moreover, they fail to provide accurate cancer localization, resulting in either over- or under-treatment. A new diagnostic method is thus needed that is accurate and cost-effective. Our ambition is to provide patients with accurate diagnosis of PCa by ultrasound imaging. Because ultrasound equipment is affordable and widely available, our method will save lives and cost by enabling noninvasive, timely diagnosis. Over the past years, through a synergic effort of technical and clinical research, we have developed contrast-ultrasound dispersion imaging (CUDI), a revolutionary option to determine cancer location and aggressiveness by detection and characterization of cancer angiogenesis. Our results in 150 patients confirm the accuracy and clinical value of the method. With this project, we will take CUDI to the next level, establishing the basis for its clinical and commercial translation. To this end, we will realize a commercially-viable software implementation, accounting for user experience, clinical workflow, and regulatory compliance. This project will build on a strong network of international collaborations with key opinion leaders in PCa diagnostics and treatment. We will also account for patient experience via the Dutch Prostate Cancer Association. The establishment of a dedicated start-up driving the valorization activities will provide an additional boost towards the clinical implementation of CUDI. Our experienced project team combines complementary expertise from academia, industry, and clinic, establishing a solid basis for the valorization and clinical translation of CUDI.

Mots-clés : prostate cancer,ultrasound imaging,targeted biopsy,ultrasound contrast agents,angiogenesis,tissue perfusion,parameter estimation