Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : SimVisSim (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Spanish National Research Council — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : CSIC
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

The lost of the eye’s capability to accommodate near and far objects (known as presbyopia) affects 100% of the population >45, i.e. 200 million in Europe and 1.200 million worldwide. Multifocal corrections, in the form of contact lenses (CLs), intraocular lenses (IOLs) or corneal surgery are increasingly used solutions to restore vision functionality in presbyopes. These corrections are based on the simultaneous vision principle, where a focused image and a defocused image are simultaneously projected on the retina. How a simultaneous image looks like is difficult to imagine. To date, prescription of a multifocal correction is based on the surgeon’s experience and conversations with the patient. In CLs solutions, the process requires multiple trials and errors with different lenses. In cataract surgery, patient’s unsatisfaction often results in IOL explantation. The PRESBYOPIA ERC-Advanced Grant investigates basic mechanisms of the crystalline lens accommodation, to propose nature-inspired designs to correct presbyopia, multifocal lenses in particular. We have developed Adaptive-Optics visual simulators to simulate corrections before they are manufactured or implanted in a patient. In particular, we have developed novel simultaneous vision simulators (an optical bench instrument, and a see-through portable clinical prototype) that allow patients to see the world under programmed multifocal IOLs. We have demonstrated their capabilities to mimic commercial multifocal designs, visual performance with different design parameters and neural adaptation to simultaneous vision. The SimVisSim ERC-Proof of Concept will evaluate the marketability of the SimVis Technology, generating new IP, develop a technology transfer strategy, and a product commercialization plan, with the ultimate goal of deploying a clinical device in the market. This should bring eye surgery and presbyopia treatments into new paradigms for lens selection and customization.

Mots-clés : simultaneous vision,neural adaptation,intraocular lens designs,presbyopia,crystalline,optical bench instrument
Projet ERC : CRUSLID (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Earth system science
Entité participante : Université Claude Bernard - Lyon 1 — Pays : France — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : Lyon I
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 25814.64 €

The low density of the Earth’s continental crust has been proposed to be at the origin of plate tectonics. Physical studies on the continental crust have shown that its low density was acquired by differentiation of the crust and loss of dense mafic residues. What is the composition and vertical structure of the crusts of the other terrestrial planets, which do not show plate tectonics? How did they form and what are the modifications they have undergone following their formations? Are they far from being of continental-type? To answer these questions, I propose to study from a physical perspective the crust structure and the processes of crust formation and evolution on terrestrial planets other than Earth using innovative thermal, mechanical and dynamical models combined with new planetary observations. Temperature is a crucial control variable as it dictates phase changes, buoyancy, mechanical properties and stress state. In the crust and stagnant lithosphere of terrestrial planets, temperature is controlled by the distribution of heat producing elements. Lithosphere cooling being the most likely cause of quakes on stagnant-lid planets, we propose to constrain the concentration and distribution of heat producing elements on Mars and the Moon by comparing recorded and predicted seismicity from thermal evolution models. From these thermal evolution models, we will also evaluate the potential for planetary crust differentiation and evolution. From magma ascent models, sensitive to crust density and mechanical state, combined with systematic in quantitative observations of volcanic structures and deposits on terrestrial planets, we will constrain the crust structure and thermal state. Finally, we will develop new models of primitive crust formation in a stagnant lid regime of convection to evaluate the characteristics of primitive crusts on terrestrial bodies.

Mots-clés : crust,structure,dynamics,seismicity,stagnant lithosphere,magma ocean,thermal evolution,magma transport
Projet ERC : KEYNESGROWTH (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Starting 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 : 537000.0 €

The macroeconomic literature has traditionally separated the study of business cycles from the analysis of long-run productivity growth. Yet, the interactions between economic fluctuations, productivity growth and stabilization policies are well present in the policy debate, especially since the start of the Great Recession. In this proposal, I will develop a Keynesian growth framework to study business cycles and growth in a unified theory. The framework combines the Keynesian insight that fluctuations might be driven by changes in aggregate demand, with the notion, developed by the endogenous growth literature, that productivity growth is the result of firms’ investment in innovation. In part I, I will develop a novel Keynesian growth model with heterogeneous firms, in the spirit of the state-of-the-art quantitative endogenous growth literature. I will use the framework to study the impact of monetary and fiscal policy on productivity growth; to understand the behavior of productivity during large recessions triggered by financial crises, such as the recent Great Recession; and to investigate the possibility that pessimistic expectations might give rise to periods of stagnation. In part II, I will provide an open economy Keynesian growth model, able to capture the interactions between monetary policy, capital flows and productivity growth. I will use the framework to explain why the inception of the euro was associated with a sharp increase in capital flows across its member countries, and with stagnant productivity growth in countries recipients of capital inflows. In part III, I will test the hypothesis, at the heart of the Keynesian growth framework, that productivity growth responds to business cycle fluctuations and to monetary and fiscal policy interventions. To this end, I will estimate the empirical response of productivity growth to policy and business cycle shocks, both in the United States and in a panel of advanced economies.

Mots-clés : business cycles,productivity growth,monetary policy,fiscal policy,international macroeconomics,innovation,heterogeneous firms,monetary union
Projet ERC : ASTRUm (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Fundamental constituents of matter
Entité participante : GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : GSI
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1874750.0 €

The main goal of ASTRUm is to employ stored and cooled radioactive ions for forefront nuclear astrophysics research. Four key experiments are proposed to be conducted at GSI in Darmstadt, which holds the only facility to date capable of storing highly charged radionuclides in the required element and energy range. The proposed experiments can hardly be conducted by any other technique or method. The weak decay matrix element for the transition between the 2.3 keV state in 205Pb and the ground state of 205Tl will be measured via the bound state beta decay measurement of fully ionized 205Tl81+. This will provide the required data to determine the solar pp-neutrino flux integrated over the last 5 million years and will allow us to unveil the astrophysical conditions prior to the formation of the solar system. The measurements of the alpha-decay width of the 4.033 MeV excited state in 19Ne will allow us to constrain the conditions for the ignition of the rp-process in X-ray bursters. ASTRUm will open a new field by enabling for the first time measurements of proton- and alpha-capture reaction cross-sections on radioactive nuclei of interest for the p-process of nucleosynthesis. Last but not least, broad band mass and half-life measurements in a ring is the only technique to precisely determine these key nuclear properties for nuclei with half-lives as short as a millisecond and production rates of below one ion per day. To accomplish these measurements with highest efficiency, sensitivity and precision, improved detector systems will be developed within ASTRUm. Possible applications of these systems go beyond ASTRUm objectives and will be used in particular in accelerator physics. The instrumentation and experience gained within ASTRUm will be indispensable for planning the future, next generation storage ring projects, which are launched or proposed at several radioactive ion beam facilities.

Mots-clés : heavy ion storage rings,highly charged radioactive ions
Projet ERC : NovelExperiSENSE (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System
Entité participante : Reichman University — Pays : Israël — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1745618.75 €

The main goal of my research is to understand the origins of brain specialization and its flexibility across the lifespan. In our modern society Novel Sensory Experiences (NSE) and augmenting technologies are increasingly part of our everyday life (e.g. www.pokemongo.com). How does our brain deal with processing these new experiences? How much of its functional specializations and organization principle (e.g. topography in early sensory and motor brain areas) are already predefined by evolution and are locked after critical periods (i.e. early in life)? Our main hypothesis is that computational tasks, cognitive goals and partially innate network connectivity patterns, rather than sensory input per se, drive the emergence of brain specializations even after the critical periods pass. We base this also on our extensive experience with teaching blind to "see" with their ears using sensory substitution devices (SSDs) and the resulting brain specializations (including putative mechanisms). Here, we will extend, generalize and consolidate this theory by tracking in healthy adults the development of NSE (Novel since never experienced it before during life nor evolution). We suggest here to build 5 novel topographic devices (e.g. we developed recently the IRThermoSense for perceiving heat information and beyond walls thermal images without interfering with regular vision). We will also work with providing novel experiences to congenitally sensory deprived populations (e.g. deaf) to promote sensory restoration. In both cases, we aim to characterize the integration of NSEs in the brain using longitudinal self and supervised learning in virtual and real world environments and cutting-edge biologically inspired computational neuroimaging tools, with special emphasis on topography (similar to how natural senses are represented e.g. body homunculus and retinotopy), task-selective specializations, multisensory and sensorimotor binding, and the emergence of distal attribution.

Mots-clés : human brain plasticity,brain specializations,multisensory perception,novel sensory experiences,neural recycling theory,neuroimaging,homunculus,topographical organization,sensory restoration
Projet ERC : IBIS (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Institute of Photonic Sciences — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : ICFO;ICFO-CERCA
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

The main objective of the IBIS project is to develop an ultrasensitive, compact and low cost platform for the label-free quantitative detection of single proteins, and specifically the characterisation of nanometric extracellular vesicles. We will develop a prototype to transfer our novel detection scheme from the laboratory to the clinical environment and, based on user-feedback, develop a commercialization plan. In the fight against cancer and neurodegenerative diseases, exosomes are being perceived as potential biomarkers that can be sampled non-invasively. Reliable quantitative detection and analysis is needed to exploit the full potential of exosomes in diagnostics and therapy. The proposed innovation comprises a novel all optical approach: In-line Balanced Interference Scattering (IBIS). The balanced detection is implemented by a tailor-made attenuation mask into the back-focal-plane of a microscope, allowing the detection of particles as small as 15 kDa. The IBIS signal is directly proportional to the particle volume and can hence be used to quantify size distributions of nanoparticles reliably. IBIS microscopy only requires low-cost consumer grade detectors and an extremely simple optical setup. Specific goals of this proposed PoC project are: (i) Simplification of the current laboratory implementation to improve robustness and further reduce the cost, (ii) Careful characterisation of extracellular vesicle signals and binding behaviour under laboratory conditions, (iii) Construction of a compact benchtop prototype and implementation under clinical conditions, (iv) Feedback guided optimisation of the prototype by comparing laboratory (high sensitivity, specialist) and clinical (reduced sensitivity, non-specialist) results, (v) Design-optimisation of commercial implementations based on market research from clinical settings and national healthcare buyers. Definition of IP and market positioning and strategy.

Mots-clés : label free detection,exosomes,single proteins,interference scattering,extracellular vesicles,particle tracking,biosensing platform,ibis microscopy,phase locked interference detection,benchtop
Projet ERC : SPOCkS MS (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions
Entité participante : Leibniz Association — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : LG
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1999000.0 €

The main question to be addressed by SPOCk’S MS is how protein complex conformation adapts to local changes, such as processing of polyproteins, protein phosphorylation or conversion of substrates. While labelling strategies combined with mass spectrometry (MS), such as hydrogen deuterium exchange and hydroxyl footprinting, are very versatile in studying protein structure, these techniques are employed on bulk samples averaging over all species present. SPOCk’S MS will remedy these by studying the footprinting and therefore exposed surface area on conformation and mass selected species. Labelling still happens in solution avoiding gas phase associated artefacts. The labelling positions are then read out using newly developed top-down MS technology. Ultra-violet and free-electron lasers will be employed to fragment the protein complexes in the gas phase. In order to achieve the highest possible sequence and thus structural coverage, lasers will be complemented by additional dissociation and separation stages to allow MS^N. SPOCk’S MS will allow sampling conformational space of proteins and protein complexes and especially report about the transient nature of protein interfaces. Constraints derived in MS will be fed into a dedicated software pipeline to derive atomistic models. SPOCk’S MS will be used to study intracellular viral protein complexes, especially coronaviral replication/transcription complexes, which are highly flexible and often resist crystallisation and are barely accessible by conventional structural biology techniques. Objectives: - Integrate labelling with complex species selective native MS for time-resolved structural studies - Combine fragmentation techniques to maximise information content from MS - Develop software suite to analyse data and model protein complex structures based on MS constraints - Apply SPOCk’S MS to protein complexes of human pathogenic viruses

Mots-clés : mass spectrometry,fragmentation techniques,labelling,structural proteomics,structural and biophysical virology,free electron lasers
Projet ERC : ESCADA (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Computer science and informatics
Entité participante : Radboud University Nijmegen — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2500000.0 €

The main scientific contribution of this project will be a breakthrough in the understanding of cryptanalytic and side channel attacks of symmetric cryptosystems. We will do this by a unification of attacks that will a stepping stone to the holy grail of symmetric cryptography: provable security of concrete cryptosystems. The main real-world impact is that we will build cryptosystems that are much more efficient than those used today while having the same strength. Depending on the platform, higher efficiency translates to lower energy/power (in-body sensors, contactless payment cards etc.), but also lower latency (authentication for e.g car brakes or airbags) and/or lower heat dissipation (on-the-fly encryption of high bandwidth data streams). In a software implementation it simply means less CPU cycles per byte. We build our cryptosystems as modes, on top of block ciphers or permutations. For these primitives we adopt the classical technique of iterating a simple round function (more rounds means more security but less efficiency). We focus on round functions of algebraic degree 2. Their relative simplicity will allow a unification of all cryptanalytic attacks that exploit propagation of affine varieties and polynomial ideals (their dual) through the rounds and to precisely estimate their success rates. Moreover, we will design modes that strongly restrict the exposure of the primitive(s) to attackers and that permit security reductions to specific properties of the underlying primitive(s) in a formally verifiable way. In comparison to the classical pseudorandom and ideal permutation models, this will allow reducing the number of rounds while preserving security with high assurance. We will also study side channel attacks of our round functions and ways to defend against them. We will make ASIC prototypes and implement novel efficient countermeasures against side channel attacks and use this to evaluate their effectiveness in practice.

Mots-clés : symmetric cryptography
Projet ERC : ENERCAPSULE (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Synthetic Chemistry and Materials
Entité participante : University of Liverpool — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2004500.0 €

The main vision of the project ENERCAPSULE is the development of nanoencapsulation technologies based on switchable nanoscale barriers for novel generation of controlled energy storage and delivery systems. These systems will be based on the “smart” nanocontainers (size below 200 nm) loaded with the energy-enriched active components: materials for thermal energy (both latent and based on chemical reactions) storage and substances for bioenergy (ATP or its components) storage for synthetic biology platforms. First novelty of the proposed project is the protection of the nanoscaled energy-enriched materials against environment during storage and controlled release of the encapsulated energy on demand only using both inherent properties of nanocontainer shell or biomimetic nanovalves introduced as shell components. Another main objective of the project is to study the structure and surface-to-volume properties of the energy enriched materials dispersed and encapsulated on nanoscale. The questions of stability of energy nanomaterials, influence of the nanocontainer shell on their energy capacity, homogeneity and operation lifetime will be investigated. Polymer organic nanocapsules with hollow interior and mesoporous carbon nanoparticles are chosen in the project as main types of the nanocontainer scaffolds for energy-enriched materials due to their high loading capacity and potential to design their shells to attain them controlled permeability properties. At the end of the project, developed novel energy storage and delivery systems will be combined within one network having several mechanisms for release and uptake of energy, which can be activated depending on type and intensity of the external impact (demand). The potential applications of such multienergy storage systems will be tested by industrial companies supporting the project.

Mots-clés : nanoencapsulation,energy storage,controlled release,energy capsules,nanodispersed energy,nanomaterials
Projet ERC : CoachingRituals (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Social World and Its Diversity
Entité participante : Université Saint-Louis — Pays : Belgique — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : USLB
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1499686.25 €

The major goal of this project is to establish a greater understanding of the pervasive and elusive practice of coaching (empowering people so that they produce themselves the changes they need) as a ritual action which is specific to liberal-individualistic societies that support the idea of a hidden potential in each of us. This project will focus on the ways the coaching logic transforms three specific common social activities (parenting, teaching and mental health care) that have traditionally been characterized by an asymmetry between a person in a lower position and a person in a higher position. The multiplication of coaching devices in these fields however signals a loss of legitimacy of this feature. Through a comparative and empirically-grounded perspective, we will make the coaching ritual, its language game, applications and effects, into salient analysers of how we act nowadays on other peoples’ behaviour and emotions. We will combine three levels of analysis: the macro-level analysis of the transformations of the moral environment, the meso-level analysis of the institutional and actors’ practices and the micro-level analysis of coaching ritual’s effects. Macro-level will require an international comparison between the United Kingdom, Italy, and France/French-speaking Belgium. Meso and micro-level will focus on the last area. The study will also combine three methods: a comparative content analysis of controversies, participant observations of coaching performances in 6 different contexts, and semi-structured interviews with around 100 participants (coaching promotors; parents, teachers, caregivers providing coaching; adolescents, students and care receivers to which this logic is applied). By taking the coaching ritual seriously and keeping at distance celebration or criticism, this project seeks not only to produce new theoretical knowledge, but also to shed light on coaching-related tensions and raise awareness among stakeholders.

Mots-clés : sociology of liberal individualistic societies,hidden potential ideal,performance and reception studies