Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : DEVTAXNET (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Individuals, Markets and Organisations
Entité participante : University of Zurich — Pays : Suisse — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UZH
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1288125.0 €

Tax evasion leads to billions of Euros of losses in government revenue around the world. This does not only affect public budgets, but can also create large distortions between activities that are fully taxed and others that escape taxation through evasion. These issues are particularly severe in developing countries, where evasion is especially high and governments struggle to raise funds for basic services and infrastructure, while at the same time trying to grow independent of international aid. It is widely suspected that some of the most common and difficult to detect forms of evasion involve interactions across firm networks. However, due to severe data limitations, the existing literature has mostly considered taxpayers as isolated units. Empirical evidence on tax compliance in firm networks is extremely sparse. This proposal describes 3 Sub-Projects to fill this gap. They are made possible thanks to access I have obtained -through five years of prior research and policy engagement– to unique datasets from Chile and Ecuador on both the networks of supply chains and of joint ownership structures. The first Sub-Project focuses on international firm networks. It aims to analyze profit shifting of multinational firms to low tax jurisdictions, exploiting a natural experiment in Chile that strongly increased monitoring of international tax norms. The second Sub-Project investigates the analogous issue at the intranational level: profit shifting and tax collusion in networks of firms within the same country. Despite much anecdotal evidence, this behavior has received little rigorous empirical scrutiny. The final Sub-Project is situated at the nexus between international and national firms. It seeks to estimate a novel form of spillovers of FDI: the impact on tax compliance of local trading partners of foreign-owned firms. DEVTAXNET will provide new insights about the role of firm networks for tax evasion that are valuable to academics and policy makers alike.
Projet ERC : EduSelect (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Proof of concept grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Human Mind and Its Complexity
Entité participante : University of York — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Teacher selection presents a significant international challenge: UNESCO predicts that countries will need to select and train almost 69 million teachers by 2030 (UNESCO 2016). However, current teacher selection methods are largely ineffective (Goldhaber et al., 2014; Klassen & Kim, 2019), resulting in the suboptimal quality of the teacher workforce. Improving the ways in which prospective teachers are selected benefits children’s educational outcomes and a country’s social and economic health (Chetty et al., 2014). Our ERC-funded research (2015-2020) represents the first large-scale project to systematically develop and test a suite of selection tools using models from organisational psychology and medical education. Our results suggest that using innovative tools that are built on sound theory and research (especially using a situational judgment test [SJT] methodology) can reliably and validly assess the difficult-to-measure non-cognitive attributes of prospective teachers in multiple contexts (e.g., Klassen & Kim, 2018; Klassen & Rushby, 2019; Klassen et al., 2017; Durksen & Klassen, 2018). The goal of Edu*Select is to explore various commercial platforms (e.g., spin-out company, other start-up, licensing arrangement) from which to leverage our teacher selection research into widespread international application. The short-term impact of the proposal will be to establish the viability of commercial platforms from which to improve the ways in which education organisations (initial teacher education [ITE] programs and potential employers) can gather and use data to make decisions about selecting prospective teachers. The longer-term impact is the improvement of the quality of the teacher workforce, leading to social and economic benefits through enhanced educational outcomes. The ERC PoC project Edu*Select will lead to the market introduction of the first research-led teacher selection tools for international use.

Mots-clés : education,teaching,personnel recruitment and selection,teacher education,organisational psychology
Projet ERC : TechChange (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Individuals, Markets and Organisations
Entité participante : European University Institute — Pays : Italie — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : EUI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 684934.0 €

Technological change in information technology has the potential of transforming the production process of firms. Some processes such as automation affect workers directly, while others such as the introduction of automated workflow and control tools simply allow firms to grow to bigger sizes. We call the latter Quantity-Biased Technological Change (QBTC). The existing literature has done relatively little to understand the effects of such technological progress that affects the size and structure of firms and thereby indirectly the workforce. We aim to study this type of technological change, and especially how it affects the workforce in terms of employment and wage inequality. We aim to explore this intuitive idea in a model with highly heterogeneous firms and workers and decreasing returns to firm size. When technology enables firms to manage more workers, productive firms are now less limited by size considerations and tend to expand, affecting the marginal product of the workers. A preliminary calibration that aims to explains changes in the firm size, wage, and profit distribution in Germany over the last 15 years shows evidence of quantitative importance of the channel and its interaction with other effects, such as Skill-Biased Technological Change (SBTC). Yet there remain many obstacles: accounting for worker heterogeneity within the firm, exploring issues of market power, micro-founding the source of QBTC, and possibly linking it to new innovations such as the rise of artificial intelligence in firm management. In addition, we propose to revisit past periods of technological change and related policy interventions to gain insights for the future. To achieve this, we discuss how to analyze the past impact on regions with different industrial and occupational compositions. On top, we aim to explore a novel methodology to identify which and how many workers will be affected.

Mots-clés : wage inequality,firm size distribution,two sided matching
Projet ERC : TechChange (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Individuals, Markets and Organisations
Entité participante : Université Catholique de Louvain — Pays : Belgique — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UCL
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 583966.0 €

Technological change in information technology has the potential of transforming the production process of firms. Some processes such as automation affect workers directly, while others such as the introduction of automated workflow and control tools simply allow firms to grow to bigger sizes. We call the latter Quantity-Biased Technological Change (QBTC). The existing literature has done relatively little to understand the effects of such technological progress that affects the size and structure of firms and thereby indirectly the workforce. We aim to study this type of technological change, and especially how it affects the workforce in terms of employment and wage inequality. We aim to explore this intuitive idea in a model with highly heterogeneous firms and workers and decreasing returns to firm size. When technology enables firms to manage more workers, productive firms are now less limited by size considerations and tend to expand, affecting the marginal product of the workers. A preliminary calibration that aims to explains changes in the firm size, wage, and profit distribution in Germany over the last 15 years shows evidence of quantitative importance of the channel and its interaction with other effects, such as Skill-Biased Technological Change (SBTC). Yet there remain many obstacles: accounting for worker heterogeneity within the firm, exploring issues of market power, micro-founding the source of QBTC, and possibly linking it to new innovations such as the rise of artificial intelligence in firm management. In addition, we propose to revisit past periods of technological change and related policy interventions to gain insights for the future. To achieve this, we discuss how to analyze the past impact on regions with different industrial and occupational compositions. On top, we aim to explore a novel methodology to identify which and how many workers will be affected.

Mots-clés : wage inequality,firm size distribution,two sided matching
Projet ERC : ORGANOMICS (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Integrative Biology: from Genes and Genomes to Systems
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 : 1171787.35 €

Technologies to sequence single-cell transcriptomes (scRNA-seq) are revolutionizing our ability to analyze cell composition and differentiation in complex tissues. In parallel, recent innovations allow the generation of three-dimensional tissues from stem cells that recapitulate human development. In this proposal, we will focus on human cortex development modelled by cerebral organoids. Our vision is to create an integrative single-cell transcriptomic platform to reconstruct cerebral organoid development, and dissect network alterations that lead to human brain malformations. Our project will be advanced through the following objectives: 1. Single-cell transcriptome-coupled lineage tracing: We will use cellular barcoding to label individual cortical progenitor cells, trace their output and lineage trees with high-throughput scRNA-seq, and quantify lineage transition probabilities between cell types. 2. Gene knockout screens in mosaic organoids: We will use CRISPR/Cas9 to perform genetic screens of up to 100 genotypes in mosaic organoids to understand mechanisms that regulate cell lineage decisions during cortex development. 3. High-throughput reconstructions of cortex malformations: We will generate cerebral organoids from patients with cortical malformations and reconstruct networks and infer differentiation hierarchies using high-throughput and lineage-coupled scRNA-seq. We will spatially resolve network aberrations using sequential fluorescence in situ hybridization (seqFISH). ORGANOMICS provides an entirely new quantitative direction to study human corticogenesis. We will build high-resolution models of cortex development by measuring the expression and function of genes in thousands of single cells. Our interdisciplinary project will lead to groundbreaking insight into mechanisms underlying neurodevelopmental diseases. Our general strategy can be extended to various other organ systems where protocols to generate in vitro counterparts can be established.

Mots-clés : single cell genomics,organoid technology,crispr,cas screen,cortical malformations
Projet ERC : PEC_Flow (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Proof of concept grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Physical and analytical chemical sciences
Entité participante : University of Szeged — Pays : Hongrie — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Technologies utilizing carbon-dioxide (CO2) as a feedstock to generate valuable products will play a key role in turning the chemical industry onto a more sustainable path. This project addresses the efficient utilization of solar energy and CO2 by introducing a novel technology to produces base chemicals and fuels from non-fossil fuel resources, using an original device architectures for the direct photoelectrochemical (PEC) conversion of CO2 and H2O. During my ERC Starting Grant project we have identified 4 different approaches for PEC CO2 reduction: (i) direct PEC reduction (photocathode), (ii) direct PEC oxidation (photoanode), (iii) PEC reduction and oxidation (photocathode+photoanode tandem), (iv) buried light absorber + EC. In all cases we focus on membrane separated, zero-gap cells, where humidified CO2 can be used as input. This approach will open the opportunity to use industrial exhaust fume (rich in both CO2 and H2O) directly as feedstock for the generation of valuable chemicals. There are four main objectives of this project, which together ultimately result in a preliminary business plan and a roadmap to move PEC_flow cells to commercialization. These are to (i) Validate laboratory results from the ERC HybridSolarFuels Starting Grant, obtain operational parameters under realistic conditions, which can be used in modelling. (ii) Perform technoeconomic and life cycle analysis to select the optimal PEC cell configuration for future activities. (iii) Clarify IPR position and carry out market analysis (including stakeholder- and competitor analysis). (iv) Based on all the above, develop a business plan, which paves the road for future activities, ultimately leading to commercialization.

Mots-clés : solar chemicals,photoelectrochemistry,carbon dioxide utilization,reactor design
Projet ERC : ATUNE (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Earth system science
Entité participante : Utrecht University — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2000000.0 €

Tectonic phenomena at the Earth's surface, like volcanic eruptions and earthquakes,are driven by convection deep in the mantle. Seismic tomography has been very successful in elucidating the Earth's internal velocity structure. However, seismic velocity is insufficient to obtain robust estimates of temperature and composition, and make direct links with mantle convection. Thus, fundamental questions remain unanswered: Do subducting slabs bring water into the lower mantle? Are the large low-shear velocity provinces under the Pacific and Africa mainly thermal or compositional? Is there any partial melt or water near the mantle transition zone or core mantle boundary? Seismic attenuation, or loss of energy, is key to mapping melt, water and temperature variations, and answering these questions. Unfortunately, attenuation has only been imaged using short- and intermediate-period seismic data, showing little similarity even for the upper mantle and no reliable lower mantle models exist. The aim of ATUNE is to develop novel full-spectrum techniques and apply them to Earth's long period free oscillations to observe global-scale regional variations in seismic attenuation from the lithosphere to the core mantle boundary. Scattering and focussing - problematic for shorter period techniques - are easily included using cross-coupling (or resonance) between free oscillations not requiring approximations. The recent occurrence of large earthquakes, increase in computer power and my world-leading expertise in free oscillations now make it possible to increase the frequency dependence of attenuation to a much wider frequency band, allowing us to distinguish between scattering (redistribution of energy) versus intrinsic attenuation. ATUNE will deliver the first ever full-waveform global tomographic model of 3D attenuation variations in the lower mantle, providing essential constraints on melt, water and temperature for understanding the complex dynamics of our planet.

Mots-clés : geophysics
Projet ERC : ICE_PACK (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Synthetic Chemistry and Materials
Entité participante : University of Warwick — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1999863.75 €

Ten years ago small molecules were the drugs of choice for most diseases. This situation has dramatically changed such that in 2017, 4 in 5 of the best-selling drugs were proteins, delivering major healthcare benefits from cancer to infectious disease. Cell-based therapies are also emerging, with the promise of making the incurable, curable (especially in oncology). However, the use of these ‘biologics’ has accelerated beyond the currently available technologies to stabilize these therapeutics against the environmental stresses imposed by the pharmaceutical cold chain. 75 % of current biologics must be cryopreserved to ensure they reach the patient in a functional format, requiring the addition of cryoprotectants (organic solvents) which are toxic, do not enable full post-thaw recovery, are complex to remove, do not stabilize cell membranes efficiently, lead to batch-to-batch post-thaw variabilities in function and cause toxic plasticizers to leach from transport bags. ICE_PACK will develop unprecedented macro-and supra-molecular biomaterials to transform the biologic cold chain with long term impact by making these therapies more effective, cheaper, safer and more widely available. We will synthesize polymeric cryoprotectants, inspired by Nature’s macromolecular ice modulators, capable of inducing ice nucleation, stabilising cell membranes and protecting proteins from denaturation, and apply these to cryopreserve real therapeutics. An integrated approach will be taken whereby ice nucleation and growth control will be studied in parallel to investigating the biochemical and molecular biology impact of cold stresses. Major fundamental scientific advances will also emerge, linking macromolecular structure to ice nucleation and to biochemical pathways of cold tolerance and stress. The long term outcomes of this ground breaking ERC project will be the transformation of cryopreservation strategies, suitable for 21st Century biologic medicines.

Mots-clés : cryopreservation,cell therapies,biologics,controlled radical polymerization
Projet ERC : ThoriumNuclearClock (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Synergy grants)
Entité participante : University of Delaware — Pays : Etats-Unis — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UD
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1554370.0 €

Th-229 has an exceptionally low-energy excited nuclear isomer state with an excitation energy of only a few electron volts, making it accessible to laser manipulation. With a predicted relative radiative linewidth of 1e-19, constructing a Thorium nuclear clock becomes possible that could rival todays most advanced optical atomic clocks. The few-eV transition emerges from a fortunate near-degeneracy of the two lowest nuclear energy levels. However, the Coulomb and strong-force contributions to these level energies differ on the MeV level. This makes the Th-229 nuclear level structure uniquely sensitive to variations of fundamental constants and ultralight dark matter. Very recently, the applicants have proven the long-sought existence of the low-energy isomer, determined the lifetime in different electronic environments, quantified the nuclear moments and charge radius based on the hyperfine splitting, and constrained the isomer energy. However, knowledge on the electronic and nuclear properties is still insufficient to exploit the Th-229 system for fundamental tests. This project aims to close this gap and realize three prototype nuclear Thorium clocks using complementary approaches in trapped ions and solids. We will develop customized VUV laser systems and perform precision spectroscopy of the Th-229 nuclear transition. Comparing these clocks among each other and with state-of-the-art optical clocks will allow us to benchmark the new frequency standard before ultimately applying it to test fundamental physics. This project requires a unique combination of experimental and theoretical expertise in atomic and nuclear physics, high precision metrology and fundamental symmetries. Furthermore, special infrastructure is required for (distributed) clock comparison, precision spectroscopy as well as processing of Th-229. The synergy team is composed to optimally respond to these challenges while being rooted in established and successful collaborations.

Mots-clés : atomic clocks and frequency standards,fundamental constants,dark matter search
Projet ERC : CohesinLooping (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Integrative Biology: from Genes and Genomes to Systems
Entité participante : Netherlands Cancer Institute-Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Hospital — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : NKI-AVL
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1998375.0 €

The 3D organization of chromosomes within the nucleus is of great importance to control gene expression. The cohesin complex plays a key role in such higher-order chromosome organization by looping together regulatory elements in cis. How these often megabase-sized looped structures are formed is one of the main open questions in chromosome biology. Cohesin is a ring-shaped complex that can entrap DNA inside its lumen. However, cohesin’s default behaviour is that it only transiently entraps and then releases DNA. Our recent findings indicate that chromosomes are structured through the processive enlargement of chromatin loops, and that the duration with which cohesin embraces DNA determines the degree to which loops are enlarged. The goal of this proposal is two-fold. First, we plan to investigate the mechanism by which chromatin loops are formed, and secondly we wish to dissect how looped structures are maintained. We will use a multi-disciplinary approach that includes refined genetic screens in haploid human cells, chromosome conformation capture techniques, the tracing in vivo of cohesin on individual DNA molecules, and visualization of chromosome organization by super-resolution imaging. With unbiased genetic screens, we have identified chromatin regulators involved in the formation of chromosomal loops. We will investigate how they drive loop formation, and also whether cohesin’s own enzymatic activity plays a role in the enlargement of loops. We will study whether and how these factors control the movement of cohesin along individual DNA molecules, and whether chromatin loops pass through cohesin rings during their formation. Ultimately, we plan to couple cohesin’s linear trajectory along chromatin to the 3D consequences for chromosomal architecture. Together our experiments will provide vital insight into how cohesin structures chromosomes.

Mots-clés : chromosome biology,chromosome architecture