Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : FeMiT (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Products and processes engineering
Entité participante : Spanish National Research Council — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : CSIC
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1989967.0 €

Robust disruptive materials will be essential for the “wireless everywhere” to become a reality. This is because we need a paradigm shift in mobile communications to meet the challenges of such an ambitious evolution. In particular, some of these emerging technologies will trigger the replacement of the magnetic microwave ferrites in use today. This will namely occur with the forecasted shift to high frequency mm-wave and THz bands and in novel antennas that can simultaneously transmit and receive data on the same frequency. In both cases, operating with state-of-the-art ferrites would require large external magnetic fields incompatible with future needs of smaller, power-efficient devices. To overcome these issues, we target ferrites featuring the so far unmet combinations of low magnetic loss and large values of magnetocrystalline anisotropy, magnetostriction or magnetoelectric coupling. The objective of FeMiT is developing a novel family of orthorhombic ferrites based on ε-Fe2O3, a room-temperature multiferroic with large magnetocrystalline anisotropy. Those properties and unique structural features make it an excellent platform to develop the sought-after functional materials for future compact and energy-efficient wireless devices. In the first part of FeMiT we will explore the limits and diversity of this new family by exploiting rational chemical substitutions, high pressures and strain engineering. Soft chemistry and physical deposition methods will be both considered at this stage. The second part of FeMiT entails a characterization of functional properties and selection of the best candidates to be integrated in composite and epitaxial films suitable for application. The expected outcomes will provide proof-of-concept self-biased or voltage-controlled signal-processing devices with low losses in the mm-wave to THz bands, with high potential impact in the development of future wireless technologies.

Mots-clés : novel ferrites,mm wave,wireless communications,rf components
Projet ERC : NANOthermMA (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Systems and communication engineering
Entité participante : University of Warwick — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1258813.0 €

Roughly one-third of all energy consumption ends up as low-grade heat. Thermoelectric (TE) materials could potentially convert vast amounts of this waste heat into electricity and reduce the dependence on fossil fuels. State-of-the-art nanostructured materials with record-low thermal conductivities (κ~1-2W/mK) have recently demonstrated large improvements in conversion efficiencies, but not high enough to enable large scale implementation. Central to this low efficiency problem lies the fact that the Seebeck coefficient (S) and the electrical conductivity (σ), the parameters that determine the TE power factor (σS2), are inversely related. Relaxing this inverse interdependence has never been achieved, and TE efficiency remains low. My recent work in nanostructured materials, however, demonstrated for the first time how such a significant event can be achieved, and unprecedentedly large power factors compared to the corresponding bulk material were reported. This project focuses around four ambitious objectives: i) Theoretically establish and generalize the strategies that relax the adverse interdependence of σ and S in nanostructures and achieve power factors >5× compared to the state-of-the-art; ii) Experimentally validate the theoretical propositions through well-controlled material design examples; iii) Provide a predictive, state-of-the-art, high-performance, electro-thermal simulator to generalize the concept and guide the design of the entirely new nanostructured TE materials proposed. Appropriate theory and techniques will be developed so that the tool includes all relevant nanoscale transport physics to ensure accuracy in predictions. Simulation capabilities for a large selection of materials and structures will be included; iv) Develop robust, ‘inverse-design’ optimization capabilities within the simulator, targeting maximum performance. In the long run, the simulator could evolve as a core platform that impacts many different fields of nanoscience as well.

Mots-clés : nanostructured thermoelectrics,electronic transport theory and simulations
Projet ERC : ActionContraThreat (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Human Mind and Its Complexity
Entité participante : University of Bonn — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 688356.45 €

Run away, sidestep, duck-and-cover, watch: when under threat, humans immediately choreograph a large repertoire of defensive actions. Understanding action-selection under threat is important for anybody wanting to explain why anxiety disorders imply some of these behaviours in harmless situations. Current concepts of human defensive behaviour are largely derived from rodent research and focus on a small number of broad, cross-species, action tendencies. This is likely to underestimate the complexity of the underlying action-selection mechanisms. This research programme will take decisive steps to understand these psychological mechanisms and elucidate their neural implementation. To elicit threat-related action in the laboratory, I will use virtual reality computer games with full body motion, and track actions with motion-capture technology. Based on a cognitive-computational framework, I will systematically characterise the space of actions under threat, investigate the psychological mechanisms by which actions are selected in different scenarios, and describe them with computational algorithms that allow quantitative predictions. To independently verify their neural implementation, I will use wearable magnetoencephalography (MEG) in freely moving subjects. This proposal fills a lacuna between defence system concepts based on rodent research, emotion psychology, and clinical accounts of anxiety disorders. By combining a stringent experimental approach with the formalism of cognitive-computational psychology, it furnishes a unique opportunity to understand the mechanisms of action-selection under threat, and how these are distinct from more general-purpose action-selection systems. Beyond its immediate scope, the proposal has a potential to lead to a better understanding of anxiety disorders, and to pave the way towards improved diagnostics and therapies.

Mots-clés : defensive behaviour,threat related processes,defensive systems theory,anxiety disorders
Projet ERC : SCALE-HALO (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Synthetic Chemistry and Materials
Entité participante : Board of the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology — Pays : Suisse — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : ETH Zurich
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1999950.0 €

SCALE-HALO proposes a research program that will advance the development of highly luminescent molecular and solid-state compounds by focusing on the emerging, vast, and rather underexplored compositional and structural spaces comprised of metals and halogens, i.e., metal halides (MHs). SCALE-HALO is motivated by the eventual utility of MHs as versatile photonic sources in modern appliances (e.g., displays and lighting) and in future quantum technologies. The recent success of lead halide perovskites in optoelectronics inspires broader exploration of the chemistry and photophysics of MHs. The clear objective is to determine factors controlling the spectral widths and emission peak wavelengths, Stokes shifts, radiative lifetimes, and quantum efficiencies. In addition to the need to discover new chemically robust and nontoxic MH emitters, there is also a critical need to engineer material morphologies suitable for specific applications (e.g., thin films, nanocrystals, composites, etc.) Ensuring the thermal and environmental stabilities are especially important efforts. SCALE-HALO will therefore encompass the chemical engineering of MHs at the atomic scale (e.g., new compounds), nanoscale (e.g., synthesis of nanostructures and their surface chemistry), and mesoscale (e.g., nanostructure superlattices and composites). Furthermore, modern exploratory syntheses will be accelerated with automated high-throughput methods (e.g., robotics and microfluidics). The characterization toolbox for probing the local atomistic structure will be expanded with multinuclear NMR spectroscopy. The individual and collective optical properties of MH nanostructures and their periodic assemblies will be established and rationalized. Toward diverse real-world applications, first trials will be undertaken to evaluate the potentials of novel MH materials for LCD displays, solid-state lighting and light-emitting diodes.

Mots-clés : luminescence,synthesis,surface functionalization,structure determination
Projet ERC : SCORS (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Synthetic Chemistry and Materials
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 : 1999812.0 €

SCORS will deliver a paradigm change for organic semiconductor science and technology by exploring and developing the electronic and optical properties of radical (spin ½)-based organic semiconductors (ROSCs). The proposer has recently discovered these can show very efficient photoluminescence and can support efficient organic light emitting diodes (OLED) operation within the spin doublet manifold. SCORS will comprise five key themes: 1) Develop and synthesize new structures for ROSCs to control emission colour and efficiency, explore fundamental mechanisms for high luminescence yield, and search for optical gain. Targets: efficient red and IR emitters out to 1µm; optically driven cw-lasing. 2) Establish the use of doublet excited states for their spin-allowed interconversion with both singlet and triplet excitations in OLED structures. Target: New OLED designs that use fast luminescence ROSCs materials in OLEDs with conventional singlet/triplet semiconductors such as TADFs, with high efficiencies (EQE>25% at high brightness (1000 cd/m2). 3) Develop IR-emitting ROSCs that energy-match triplet excitons formed in singlet exciton fission systems. Targets: doublet systems as optical emitters for singlet fission based down-conversion to improve photovoltaic efficiency. Search for direct singlet to triplet-doublet pair fission. 4) Use of ROSCs in Organic Photovoltaics (OPVs) to provide light absorbers that are designed to have no lower-energy (and therefore quenching) excitations. New materials designs to delocalize electron and hole wavefunctions will be developed. Target: a paradigm shift for OPVs - high luminescence efficiencies enabling high open circuit voltage, with non-radiative recombination voltage loss < 100 meV. 5) Explore the control the ground state spin polarisation in ROSCs. Targets: realisation of new spintronic devices, using spin injection and new detection schemes.

Mots-clés : organic electronics,semiconductor optoelectronics,displays,solar energy
Projet ERC : SENFIB (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Proof of concept grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Physiology in Health, Disease and Ageing
Entité participante : Institute for Research in Biomedicine — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : IRB;IRB-CERCA
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

SENFIB aims to deliver new drugs for the treatment of fibrotic diseases. Nearly one quarter of the global population will be over the age of 65 by 2050. Populations over 65 suffer from multiple degenerative diseases including tissue fibrosis, estimated to account for upwards of 45% of all-cause mortality. Animal models have demonstrated that senescent cells are causative in many fibrotic diseases including lung (i.e. idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, IPF), and chronic kidney disease (CKD). Senescent cells have experienced damage or stress and have permanently exited the cell cycle, yet remain viable and long-lived, generating a persistent, sterile inflammation. Selective elimination of senescent cells in animal models of IPF, CKD, and aging demonstrated improved organ function and viability. Senolytics, molecules that induce preferential killing of senescent cells while leaving healthy cells intact, have emerged as a promising approach for tackling age-associated diseases; this was named one of the “10 Breakthrough Technologies” of 2020 by the MIT Technology Review. Thus far, few senolytics have been identified; their mode of action is often unknown, some present serious toxicities, and none has yet been demonstrated to have therapeutic activity in clinical trials. We propose to launch a drug discovery program based on a prioritized novel genetic target for senolysis, which we have already validated as senolytic using a tool compound in an in vivo model of IPF. We will deliver a lead series of molecules with IPR that meet all typical drug requirements plus in vivo Proof-of-Concept data in different mouse models of IPF and CKD. The ultimate goal of this project is to develop candidates for translation into clinical use to ameliorate fibrotic diseases via the selective elimination of senescent cells.

Mots-clés : senescence,fibrosis,senolytics,degenerative disease,aging
Projet ERC : SlaveVoices (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The study of the human past
Entité participante : Fondation nationale des sciences politiques — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : FNSP
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1999975.0 €

SLAVEVOICES has two main groundbreaking scientific goals. First, it aims at fully renewing our approach of the end of slavery, a crucial social transformation in North Africa as a part of the Muslim world. So far historians have explained the abolition and slow vanishing of slavery in this region either as the outcome of European imperialistic interventions or to a lesser extent as resulting from debates among Muslim scholars and leaders who were owning slaves. SLAVEVOICES will instead interpret the end of slavery through the testimonies of the ones who experienced and acted for the end of slavery: namely the testimonies of the slaves and their descendants written in Arabic, Ottoman Turkish and European languages. Second, by studying together –and not apart as is often the case– the various groups of slaves in North Africa hailing from Africa, Europe and Asia, SLAVEVOICES will propose a new way of conceiving and writing the history of North Africa. Instead of studying each historical phenomenon according to each national part of this region (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt) as it is has often been the case, SLAVEVOICES will be a concrete attempt at writing a globalized and connected history of modern North Africa. It will explore the reshaping of the connections that groups of slaves built up within North African societies and between this part of the Muslim world and other adjoining societies in Africa, Asia and Europe in the abolition era. SLAVEVOICES will innovate in resituating slave testimonies within a broader history of literacy in North Africa throughout a long nineteenth century, a period in which literacy and written sources underwent major changes in Ottoman and colonial North Africa. Finally through a website, a book, a play, and videos SLAVEVOICES will bring back the voices, the speeches and emotions of nineteenth century slaves to a present audience as new forms of enslavement and social dependency are resurfacing across the Mediterranean.

Mots-clés : slavery,north africa,ottoman empire,abolition,testimonies  ego documents
Projet ERC : STAND4HERITAGE (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Products and processes engineering
Entité participante : University of Minho — Pays : Portugal — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2968755.0 €

STAND4HERITAGE ambitiously engages in introducing new standards for safeguarding built cultural heritage for the next generations, which is a major societal demand. Due to its large diversity, the accurate description of the structural behaviour of heritage buildings is still an open issue, particularly when subjected to earthquake ground motions. Among the most frequently observed seismic damage mechanisms in these buildings, the out-of-plane of masonry walls is acknowledged as the main cause for building loss and injuries to people. There are many unresolved challenges to effectively assess the out-of-plane seismic behaviour of masonry structures. First, it is necessary to understand less known phenomena in masonry dynamics, which largely influence the out-of-plane behaviour and capacity of heritage buildings. A recent blind exercise to predict the capacity of a benchmark masonry structure to resist a dynamic excitation demonstrated that, although advanced simulation tools are available, leading international researchers are still unable to consistently provide a collapse estimate. STAND4HERITAGE will address the aspects for successful development of approaches for seismic response prediction of masonry structures, integrating the necessary stages for out-of-plane assessment. It will generate novel: integrated stochastic-based models to consider the seismic signal in the dynamic response and capacity; datasets of the dynamic response evaluated after an extensive shake table testing program; numerical approaches for simulation of the out-of-plane seismic behaviour; an integrated analytical approach for out-of-plane seismic assessment of heritage buildings. STAND4HERITAGE objectives are in line with the UN 2030 agenda for sustainable cities and communities. The project will be founded on the experience of the PI in the topic, and on the interdisciplinary expertise of his team in facing the challenges to provide optimal intervention solutions for heritage buildings.

Mots-clés : earthquake engineering,built cultural heritage,seismology
Projet ERC : Skye (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Computer science and informatics
Entité participante : University of Edinburgh — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1995181.0 €

Science is increasingly data-driven. Scientific research funders now routinely mandate open publication of publicly-funded research data. Safely reusing such data currently requires labour-intensive curation. Provenance recording the history and derivation of the data is critical to reaping the benefits and avoiding the pitfalls of data sharing. There are hundreds of curated scientific databases in biomedicine that need fine-grained provenance; one important example is GtoPdb, a pharmacological database developed by colleagues in Edinburgh. Currently there are no reusable methodologies or practical tools that support provenance for curated databases, forcing each project to start from scratch. Research on provenance for scientific databases is still at an early stage, and prototypes have so far proven challenging to deploy or evaluate in the field. Also, most techniques to date focus on provenance within a single database, but this is only part of the problem: real solutions will have to integrate database provenance with the multiple tiers of web applications, and no-one has begun to address this challenge. I propose research on how to build support for curation into the programming language itself, building on my recent research on the Links Web programming language and on data curation. Links is a strongly-typed language that provides state-of-the-art support for language-integrated query and Web programming. I propose to build on Links and other recent language designs for heterogeneous meta-programming to develop a new language, called Skye, that can express modular, reusable curation and provenance techniques. To keep focus on the real needs of scientific databases, Skye will be evaluated in the context of GtoPdb and other scientific database projects. Bridging the gap between curation research and the practices of scientific database curators will catalyse a virtuous cycle that will increase the pace of breakthrough results from data-driven science.

Mots-clés : curated databases,provenance,language integrated query,heterogeneous meta programming
Projet ERC : NanoBubbles (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Synergy grants)
Entité participante : University of Twente — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : Partner
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 303218.75 €

Science relies on the correction of errors to advance, yet in practice scientists find it difficult to erase erroneous and exaggerated claims from the scientific record. Recent discussion of a “replication crisis” has impaired trust in science both among scientists and non-scientists; yet we know little about how non-replicated or even fraudulent claims can be removed from the scientific record. This project combines approaches from the natural, engineering, and social sciences and the humanities (Science and Technology Studies) to understand how error correction in science works and what obstacles it faces, and stages events for scientists to reflect on error and overpromising. The project’s focus is nanobiology, a highly interdisciplinary field founded around the year 2000 that has already seen multiple episodes of overpromising and promotion of erroneous claims. We examine three such “bubbles”: the claim that nanoparticles can cross the blood-brain barrier; that nanoparticles can penetrate the cell membrane; and the promotion of the “protein corona” concept to describe ordinary adsorption of proteins on nanoparticles. Findings based on error (non)correction in nanobiology should be generalizable to other new, highly interdisciplinary fields such as synthetic biology and artificial intelligence. We trace claims and corrections in various channels of scientific communication (journals, social media, advertisements, conference programs, etc.) via innovative digital methods. We examine error (non)correction practices in scientific conferences via ethnographic participant-observation. We follow the history of conferences, journals, and other sites of error (non)correction from the 1970s (before nanobio per se existed) to the present. And we attempt to replicate nanobiological claims and, in case of non-replication, document obstacles to correcting those claims. Finally, we will spark a dialogue within the nanobiology community by organizing workshops and events at c

Mots-clés : conference studies,scientometrics,controversy studies,sociology of science,scientific publishing,cell imaging,blood brain barrier,endocytosis,text mining,post publication peer review