Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : CHEMMINE (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Synthetic Chemistry and Materials
Entité participante : Technical University of Munich — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : TUM
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1936250.0 €

Genome sequencing projects have provided unique insights into the cellular inventory of genes and their corresponding protein products. Despite this success, a large fraction of cellular proteins remains functionally uncharacterized. Their annotation represents a major challenge for contemporary research, reaching beyond the power of bioinformatic sequence similarity searches. Thus multidisciplinary strategies consolidating chemical and biological methods are required to close this gap. We here approach the challenge by two chemical proteomic platforms that focus on disease relevant sub-fractions of the uncharacterized proteome. The first platform utilizes functionalized cofactors that exploit cognate cellular uptake systems and report specific binding of large enzyme families. The molecules will be applied to mine cellular proteomes for unknown family members with crucial roles in diseases and assign their function. The second platform exploits phosphoaspartate as an important disease-related post-translational modification. Due to low stability, this transient modification currently escapes detection by established proteomic procedures. Moreover, little is known about the enzymes that catalyze aspartate phosphorylation. We here use specific nucleophilic traps that convert phosphoaspartate into stable modifications suitable for analytic detection. In addition, the complement of currently unknown phosphodonor proteins will be identified with customized tools. With these platforms we aim to functionally annotate sub-fractions of the uncharacterized proteome and utilize our tools for the identification of new drug targets by comparative analysis of healthy and diseased cells. Finally, we apply the camouflaged molecular design strategy in the synthesis of compound libraries to screen for candidate inhibitors against selected, disease-modulating targets. The previous record of my group in chemical proteomics provides a strong basis to achieve these challenging goals.

Mots-clés : chemical proteomics,enzyme function,cofactors,probes,synthesis,post translational modification,phosphorylation,mass spectrometry,biological activity
Projet ERC : GENIE (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Synergy grants)
Entité participante : Stiftung Mercator — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2490770.0 €

Geoengineering technologies, such as solar radiation management (SRM), and negative emissions technologies, such as greenhouse gas removal (GGR), are emerging options to address climate change. This project will investigate the environmental, technical, social, legal, and policy dimensions of GGR and SRM. We provide an urgently needed interdisciplinary and holistic perspective of these technologies in order to understand conditions under which they might be deployed at scale. Our meta-analytical framework integrates insights from social science, engineering and physical science disciplines to provide a comprehensive view of GGR and SRM in the transition to climate neutrality in Europe and the world. The project will conduct excellent research and generate a robust, scientific assessment for evidence-based policymaking. Our research framework consists of three pillars—techno-economic systems, socio-technical systems, and systems of political action—within which we place six work packages (WPs). These are: (1) Understanding the current state and future potential of GGR and SRM technologies in terms of their technical and economic features; (2) Analysing bottlenecks in transitions to climate neutrality and their implications for deployment; (3) Identifying social acceptance and legitimacy constraints, (4) Learning, diffusion, and adoption; (5) Implications for Sustainable Development Goals of archetypical mitigation pathways; and 6) Policy options and governance. A crosscutting WP7 synthesizes research along three salient, but under-researched themes: A) Socio-technical change; B) Managing transition risks; and C) Political economy and feasibility of deployment. WP8 focuses on stakeholder engagement, entailing scenario co-design, science-policy dialogue formats, and specific outreach formats for target groups.

Mots-clés : negative emissions,geo engineering,solar radiation management,carbon dioxide removal,climate policy,energy policy
Projet ERC : GIANTCLIMES (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Universe sciences
Entité participante : University of Leicester — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1999815.0 €

Giant planets serve as natural laboratories to explore the processes shaping planetary climate. The next five years will likely transform our understanding of the extreme environments of the outer Solar System, with the culmination of the Juno and Cassini missions to Jupiter and Saturn and the arrival of a new capability for ice giant science (James Webb Space Telescope, JWST). GIANTCLIMES will capitalise on this chance of a generation by assembling the first comprehensive climatology of all four giants. My programme will provide insights that no single mission can: exploring atmospheric variability over long time spans using an unprecedented multi-decade archive of ground-based observations; new data from space telescopes and planetary missions; combined with world-leading spectral analysis techniques and interpretive models. GIANTCLIMES consists of three objectives: 1. CLIMATE CYCLES: Assemble the first quasi-continuous record of Jovian climate over three decades to identify natural patterns of atmospheric variability to predict spectacular storm eruptions and global-scale transformations of its banded structure. 2. STRATOSPHERES: Explore the changing stratospheres of seasonal Saturn and non-seasonal Jupiter over long timescales to develop a new paradigm for the radiative, chemical and transport processes shaping these poorly-understood atmospheric regimes. 3. ICE GIANTS: Provide the benchmark for understanding the fundamental differences between Ice Giant and Gas Giant climate via existing Spitzer and Herschel observations of Uranus and Neptune, and produce the highly-anticipated first spatial maps of their stratospheres using JWST. These projects will explore planetary climates in all their guises, using comparative remote sensing studies to understand the forces defining their natural variability. New insights and discoveries from GIANTCLIMES will reinforce my leading role in the next generation of ambitious missions to explore the giant planets.

Mots-clés : planetary atmospheric science and climatology,ground  and space based infrared observation
Projet ERC : SEMICOMPLEX (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Physical and analytical chemical sciences
Entité participante : University of Milan — Pays : Italie — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UNIMI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1899973.0 €

Given the continuing revolution in “nano” and “bio” technologies, it is urgent for chemists to be able to carry out reliable quantum dynamics simulations of complex molecular systems. The goal of this project is to fill the gap between theory and experiment and provide the community with a user-friendly computational tool for nuclear spectra (IR, vibro-electronic, etc.) calculations of very complex systems. Present theoretical methodologies are hampered either by artificial nuclear potential interactions or by local potential perturbation assumptions. The semiclassical molecular dynamics method that I have been pioneering is not affected by these limitations because it is based on ab initio classical trajectories. The nuclear forces can be calculated by any electronic structure software and trajectories can explore the entire potential surface. The remaining challenge is to overcome the exponential scaling of computational power. I will adopt a divide-and-conquer strategy to beat the curse of dimensionality. Firstly, the ab initio classical molecular dynamics is performed for the entire complex system. Then, partial spectra are calculated by using the semiclassical information derived by the projection of the trajectories onto lower dimensional spaces. Vibrational modes are not artificially decoupled. Finally, the entire spectrum is reconstructed piece by piece. This method allows chemists to have a more reliable spectral interpretation in a wider context up to the nanoscale. With the help of my own previous experience and my collaborations, I will simulate pollutant photodegradation for environmental remediation and the vibro-electronic spectra of carcinogenic molecules adsorbed on TiO2. I will also reproduce the spectroscopic properties of molecular nano-texturing of titania films for outdoor cultural heritage preservation. A new generation of semiclassical fellows will be educated to put Europe on the leading edge of quantum simulations for spectroscopy.

Mots-clés : semiclassical initial value representation,sc ivr,semiclassical molecular dynamics
Projet ERC : CSC-IS (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : CERCA Institution — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : CERCA;I-CERCA
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Global cancer market is growing at a CAGR of 6.9% with an estimated value of $81bn in 2016. Although the huge R&D investment observed in the past years in the development of new treatments, there is still lack on an effective treatment in many tumour types. In particular, the median survival for glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), a high-grade brain tumour affecting 23,000 patients a year in US and EU, is 14 months and its 5-yr survival less than 5%. It is therefore urgent to develop more effective treatments against this fatal disease. There are two main reasons that explain the lack of success for the current treatments: In one hand, Cancer Stem cells (CSCs) are responsible from tumour initiation, maintenance, relapse and metastasis. On the other hand, the tumour has mechanisms to repress the patient’s immune system that attacks tumour cells. Our team has discovered a molecular pathway critical in the regulation of CSCs and the immune checkpoint. The project presented here entails the proof of concept and pre-clinical development of a humanized antibody blocking this pathway. At the end of the ERC POC project we will have a patent protected and fully humanized antibody active in vivo and in vitro and ready to enter Phase I clinical trials in humans to continue its commercialization process. The forecasted annual peak revenue for this therapeutic antibody in GBM is $590M with additional sales coming from line extensions in other cancer indications. With the ERC POC project we are dramatically increasing the commercial value of the therapeutic antibody, transforming an R&D finding (a pathway is critical for cancer) into a potential new solution to patients (a therapeutic antibody). Hence, we are de-risking the product, advancing it through the commercialization path and creating a product and a commercial data package with a good expectative in the cancer market that is ready to be transferred to a spin-off company.

Mots-clés : cancer,cancer stem cells,immune checkpoint,therapeutic antibodies
Projet ERC : SENTIFLEX (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Earth system science
Entité participante : University of Valencia — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UV
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1499587.0 €

Global food security will remain a worldwide concern for the next 50 years and beyond. Agricultural production undergoes an increasing pressure by global anthropogenic changes, including rising population, increased protein demands and climatic extremes. Because of the immediate and dynamic nature of these changes, productivity monitoring measures are urgently needed to ensure both the stability and continued increase of the global food supply. Europe has expressed ambitions to keep its fingers on the pulse of its agricultural lands. In response to that, this proposal - named SENTIFLEX - is dedicated to developing a European vegetation productivity monitoring facility based on the synergy of Sentinel-3 (S3) with FLEX satellite fluorescence data. ESA's 8th Earth Explorer FLEX is the first mission specifically designed to globally measure Sun-Induced chlorophyll Fluorescence (SIF) emission from terrestrial vegetation. These two European Earth observation missions offer immense possibilities to increase our knowledge of the basic functioning of the Earth’s vegetation, i.e., the photosynthetic activity of plants resulting in carbon fixation. Two complementary approaches are envisioned to realize quantification of photosynthesis through satellite SIF and S3. First, the work seeks to advance the science in establishing and consolidating relationships between canopy-leaving SIF and unbiased estimates of photosynthesis of the plants, thereby disentangling the role of dynamic vegetative and atmospheric variables. Second, consolidated relationships between SIF and photosynthesis will be used to build a FLEX-S3 data processing assimilation scheme through process-based vegetation models that will deliver spatiotemporally highly resolved information on Europe’s vegetation productivity. To streamline all these datasets into a prototype vegetation productivity monitoring facility, new data processing concepts will be introduced such as the emulation of radiative transfer models.
Projet ERC : TextileLab (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The study of the human past
Entité participante : Utrecht University — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1999250.0 €

Globalization and the shift of industries and jobs to low-wage countries are topical political issues, but have deep historical roots. For long, cotton manufacturing has been central in global trade and industrial relocation. Textile production has existed almost everywhere, but its major export centres have relocated in the past 250 years, notably from Asia to Europe/the US, then back to Asia. When and why these shifts occur is however still poorly understood. Reducing labour costs has been argued to be central in this ‘race to the bottom’, but this does not explain why textile production was resilient in some regions and periods, and not in others. This project explores the macro-economic global relocation of textile production from a micro-level perspective: households’ labour and consumption decisions. It proposes an in-depth comparative study of changes in labour allocation and consumption at the household level, to deepen macro-level studies on global textile production. Its main question is to what extent, and how, gender divisions of work, households’ multiple livelihood strategies, and local consumption patterns have influenced the continuation and disappearance of textile manufacturing over time and space? Its empirical contribution is a systematic long-term global comparison of nominal and real textile wages in the context of total household income. Its methodological innovation is to comparatively study labour costs, skill formation and income over time from the micro- perspective of the household, using quantitative and qualitative approaches from several academic fields. Its analytical value is to study interactions between causal mechanisms on the macro-economic level (markets, institutions) and the location of textile manufacturing, with households’ production and consumption choices. This lends workers and households the agency that most studies have overlooked, thus offering new explanations for the global division of labour.
Projet ERC : GEPPS (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Individuals, Markets and Organisations
Entité participante : CERCA Institution — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : CERCA;I-CERCA
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1080000.0 €

Globalization is expanding economic borders rapidly. Barriers to trade are now lower than ever and this has led to the creation of many truly global goods and asset markets. And yet globalization is changing political borders only slowly. The second wave of globalization that started after WWII found the world organized into a set of states or centralized jurisdictions that often go beyond cultural borders but that clearly fall short of economic borders. These centralized jurisdictions still hold most of the political and decision-making power. This growing mismatch between markets and states lowers the quality of economic policymaking. Since constituencies are located inside the state, governments tend to disregard effects of economic policies that are felt beyond the political border. The result is a worsening in policymaking that could seriously mitigate the gains from globalization and even turn them into losses. The goal of this project is to improve our understanding of how this growing mismatch between economic and political borders affects economic policy and political structure. In particular, it focuses on the inefficiencies this mismatch creates and on how should we (“the citizens of the world”) handle them. The project is organized around two themes. The first one is the handling of enforcement externalities. One of the key roles of governments is to enforce contracts. When these contracts involve domestic and foreign residents, governments have the temptation to enforce selectively so as to shift income to domestic residents at the expense of foreigners. The second theme is the evolution of political structure. The world is currently organized into state or centralized jurisdictions. This project studies the hypothesis that globalization leads to an alternative political structure based on a set of overlapping jurisdictions.

Mots-clés : globalization,international trade,international finance,economic policy,political structure and policy externalities
Projet ERC : GLYCOSWITCH (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Synthetic Chemistry and Materials
Entité participante : University of Naples Federico II — Pays : Italie — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1994117.0 €

Glycans are directly involved in the normal physiology and in the etiology of several major diseases, spanning from bacterial and viral infections through to cancer and autoimmune disorders. Thus, deciphering the glycome holds huge promise to provide new targets and diagnostics for human health. Despite the tremendous advance of knowledge in the field of Glycoscience during the last decade, the comprehension at high resolution of the molecular basis of many pathogen-mediated diseases is still incomplete. GLYCOSWITCH will significantly contribute to fill this gap, providing a holistic picture of the manifold mechanisms of host responses to microbial infections, with a special focus on Gram-negative bacteria. I propose to address bacterial glycans recognition by host immune proteins by using a multidisciplinary approach, combining state-of-the-art synthetic organic chemistry, molecular biology, biochemistry and biophysics techniques, massively including NMR spectroscopy. I will apply them in an innovative integrated chemical biology approach in order to decipher key glycan recognition aspects beyond current knowledge. Understanding of molecular mechanisms of detection of invasive virulent bacteria by host organisms will allow to reach the ultimate goal of GLYCOSWITCH project: the design and development of novel and effective glycomimetics able to modulate the function of host immune receptor proteins. The success of GLYCOSWITCH will unlock attractive opportunities for the development of host-directed strategies to boost the immune response or reverse pathogen-induced immunosuppression. My unique approach to this project, as an organic chemist with wide expertise in NMR and bacterial glycans, will provide groundbreaking information on protein-glycan interaction systems of paramount importance in biology and biomedicine, opening new avenues for approaching bacterial diseases and their secondary effects.

Mots-clés : structural glycoscience,molecular recognition,host pathogen interactions
Projet ERC : 4DPHOTON (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Fundamental constituents of matter
Entité participante : National Institute for Nuclear Physics — Pays : Italie — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : INFN
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1100000.0 €

Goal of the 4DPHOTON project is the development and construction of a photon imaging detector with unprecedented performance. The proposed device will be capable of detecting fluxes of single-photons up to one billion photons per second, over areas of several square centimetres, and will measure - for each photon - position and time simultaneously with resolutions better than ten microns and few tens of picoseconds, respectively. These figures of merit will open many important applications allowing significant advances in particle physics, life sciences or other emerging fields where excellent timing and position resolutions are simultaneously required. Our goal will be achieved thanks to the use of an application-specific integrated circuit in 65 nm complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology, that will deliver a timing resolution of few tens of picoseconds at the pixel level, over few hundred thousand individually-active pixel channels, allowing very high rates of photons to be detected, and the corresponding information digitized and transferred to a processing unit. As a result of the 4DPHOTON project we will remove the constraints that many light imaging applications have due to the lack of precise single-photon information on four dimensions (4D): the three spatial coordinates and time simultaneously. In particular, we will prove the performance of this detector in the field of particle physics, performing the reconstruction of Cherenkov photon rings with a timing resolution of ten picoseconds. With its excellent granularity, timing resolution, rate capability and compactness, this detector will represent a new paradigm for the realisation of future Ring Imaging Cherenkov detectors, capable of achieving high efficiency particle identification in environments with very high particle multiplicities, exploiting time-association of the photon hits.

Mots-clés : picosecond single photon imaging detectors  microchannel plate photon detectors