Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : BIFLOW (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Cultures and cultural production
Entité participante : École des hautes études en sciences sociales — Pays : France — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : EHESS
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 100000.0 €

This project will undertake the first systematic investigation of the various literary documents that circulated simultaneously in more than one language in Tuscany, and especially Florence, between the mid-13th Century and the beginning of 15th Century. During that period, Florence was both a prominent literary centre in the vernacular, and home to a renewal of classical Latin eloquence. While both fields are well studied, their interaction remains largely unexplored. This research, at the convergence of several disciplines (literature, philology, linguistics and medieval history), has a strong pioneering character. It aims at changing the perception of medieval Italian culture and interpretation of the break between medieval Culture and Humanism. For this reason, the project will develop research in varying degrees of depth. First, it will provide the first catalogue of bilingual texts and manuscripts of medieval Tuscany. Organized as a database, this tool of analysis will stir innovative research in this field, some of which will be immediately promoted during the project. Secondly, two case studies, considered as important and methodologically exemplary, will be researched in detail, through the publication of two important set of texts, of secular and religious nature : 1. The vernacular translation of the Latin Epistles of Dante Alighieri; 2. A collection of polemical, historiographical, devotional and prophetical documents produced by the Tuscan dissident Franciscans in last decades of the 14th Century. Finally, the entire team, led by the PI, will be involved in the preparation of a synthesis volume on Tuscan culture in the fourteenth century viewed through bilingualism, entitled Cartography of bilingual culture in Fourteenth-Century Tuscany. From this general map of the Italian culture of the time, no literary genre nor field (be it religious or lay) shall be excluded.

Mots-clés : medieval bilingualism and diglossia,medieval culture and humanism,medieval religious history,dante alighieri,volgarizzamenti  and medieval translation,latin and vernacular manuscripts
Projet ERC : FRAME (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Lund University — Pays : Suède — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 32358.75 €

This proof of concept (PoC) project seeks to explore the possibility of commercializing an optical imaging instrument with the unique ability of permitting a single detector to acquire and store several images simultaneously. This new concept, which is named Frequency Recognition Algorithm for Multiple Exposures (FRAME), employs an "image-coding" strategy, where different exposures are given a unique structural “code”. Thanks to this novel coding approach, the camera sensor may be exposed to light several times before readout is necessary – a completely new feature within the field of optical imaging. The ability for a single detector to acquire a number of images simultaneously opens up for a variety of new measurement schemes such as: 1) Ultra-high-speed videography 2) Instantaneous three-dimensional imaging 3) Simultaneous multispectral imaging. The main goal of the ERC Starting Grant funded project “Spray-Imaging” is to develop and apply new optical imaging approaches for the detailed characterization of atomizing spray systems. The need for both ultra-high-speed and three-dimensional (3D) imaging are then of importance especially for the study highly transient two-phase flow phenomena. This PoC will focus both on the development of both a prototype instrument and a control software. Our business idea is to produce an optical instrument – an “add-on” device – that will permit the user to incorporate the FRAME imaging concept. This approach will allow users to seamlessly upgrade any given optical arrangement (e.g. for any given illumination source and detector) with the FRAME functionality.

Mots-clés : ultra high speed videography,instantaneous 3d imaging,simultaneous multispectral imaging
Projet ERC : PSI (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : University of Barcelona — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UB
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 149950.0 €

This proof of concept is based on the ERC Advanced Grant TRAVERSE (2009-2015). It will exploit immersive virtual reality in a new form of psychological clinical intervention akin to Gestalt Therapy. The primary aim of this Proof of Concept project is to generate a business model that would allow us to diffuse our technology to thousands of counsellors and psychologists around the world. In order to accomplish that we commission further trials to extend the evidence base of the approach, investigate through market research the extension of the technique for business practice, develop a commercial prototype with consumer equipment that would be low cost but high quality, exhibit our product at international conferences, and make the system available on loan to psychologists or counsellors who wished to try it, and generally start the process of diffusion. Moreover, we that our low cost system incorporates patentable inventions that would be investigated in an IP strategy. Through this approach we will develop the Business Model and a draft Business Plan for mass take up of our applications.

Mots-clés : virtual reality,counselling,therapy,business communication,self counselling
Projet ERC : RoVi (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Proof of concept grants)
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 : 150000.0 €

This proof-of-concept project aims to develop and bring to market a novel visuo-haptic sensor system for robotic manipulators, which allows for multimodal sensing, reduced system complexity and significantly lower costs compared to current systems. It replaces dedicated force sensors with passive components and a camera, providing coherent measurements of both force and contact shape. Three sensor setups for grippers, mobile platforms and tools on the endeffector have already been implemented as research prototypes in the context of the ERC Starting Grant ProHaptics. The commercial prototype to be developed within this project will consist of a standard commercial gripper, the visuo-haptic sensor, as well as soft-ware for manipulation planning. In later stages, it is planned to apply the concept to an entire robotic arm, replacing the dedicated and expensive joint and torque sensors required today. Costs and system complexity are cut considerably by our approach since rigid mechanics as well as highly specialized sensor systems as used by current robot arms are no longer required. The application focus of this proof-of-concept project is collaborative production. This concept helps to keep production competitive in in high-income countries. While our market entry strategy targets the commercially highly relevant production scenario, we believe that this paradigm will open new markets for robotic systems also in interpersonal communication, household robotics and games/entertainment. Such systems need low-cost multimodal sensor systems, which provide a rich representation of the environment. In a recent market study, a high interest for robotic manipulators that operate in un-structured environments and offer natural compliance has been identified, especially in the application areas of robotic commissioning and joint mounting, verification and documentation of components.

Mots-clés : remote manipulation,tactile sensors,visuo haptic sensors,visual perception,remote interaction
Projet ERC : CHIMERA (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Polihub scarl — Pays : Italie — Rôle : Partner
Type d'entité : Autres
Financement ERC de l'entité : 15000.0 €

This proposal aims at bringing to the market a revolutionary device to uniquely identify the chirality of molecules. An object is chiral if it differs from its mirror image, like our left and right hands. Chirality plays an extremely important role in two main fields: (1) Many drugs are chiral and selecting one of the two forms often enables the pharma industry to extend patent franchise, thus increasing profitability, and to improve the quality, safety and efficacy of the drug. (2) Researchers in the chemistry and biophysics labs use chirality as an indication of the 3D structural conformation of proteins and DNA, to study e.g. their secondary structure and stability under external stimuli. Spectrometers for measuring chirality already exist in the market. Many customers in the two aforementioned sectors could be interested in the new product we propose because it presents several advantages, namely a 2-fold reduction of the price, a 4-fold shrinking of the footprint and an increased information content. The ground-breaking concept (under patenting) behind this new spectrometer is to employ an ultra-stable interferometer to measure the chiral spectrum of molecules via a Fourier-transform approach and a heterodyne amplification of the signal. A first working prototype has already been realized and tested. The CHIMERA project has two main goals. (1) We aim at unleashing the innovation potential of the approach, by technically validating two prototypes in a pharmaceutical company and a biochemistry research lab, thus pushing the Technology Readiness Level of the system to the ultimate maturity required to approach the market, corresponding to TRL9. (2) We will design a complete exploitation plan, performing a thorough analysis of the market, developing a financing strategy, benchmarking our instrument against the competitors’ ones, profiling strategic partners and drafting a first version of a Business Plan to decide on the opportunity to found a start-up company.

Mots-clés : chirality,circular dichroism,optical activity,spectropolarimeters,spectroscopy,protein structure,enenatiomers
Projet ERC : SurviDisk (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Proof of concept grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Environmental Biology, Ecology and Evolution
Entité participante : Hebrew University of Jerusalem — Pays : Israël — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : HUJI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

This proposal aims to develop a low-cost diagnostic tool (SurviDisk) that can evaluate the killing efficacy of antibiotic treatments on bacterial strains isolated from patients. Current methods, such as the disk diffusion assay, only evaluate the ability of antibiotics to arrest the growth of bacteria. The size of the inhibition zone in the disk diffusion assay indicates the Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) i.e. the resistance level of the strain, but cannot distinguish between a cidal drug from an antibiotic that only stops the growth of bacteria without killing. It is today recognized that antibiotics that are able to kill bacteria are crucial for hard to treat infections that persist for many days despite treatment. However, bacterial strains can evolve to become tolerant and avoid killing by antibiotics. This tolerance is distinct from resistance, and only allows the strains to survive under antibiotic treatments but does not increase their MIC. The enhanced survival of these strains under antibiotics is not detected in the current antibiotic susceptibility tests done in hospitals. In the parent ERC-CoG grant, we have recently shown that measuring the survival of clinical strains isolated from life-threatening bloodstream infections enables to choose better treatments. Based on these results, we propose to develop a single disk easy-to-use low-cost assay for a semi-quantitative measurement of survival of bacteria under antibiotics, the Survidisk. We will develop the Survidisk prototype and evaluate its efficacy at predicting the treatment outcome on a retrospect analysis of a collection of clinical strains. Contacts for the production and commercialization by companies selling disk diffusion assays will be developed. We expect that the routine use of the SurviDisk for guiding antibiotic therapy in persistent infections should greatly treatment outcome, reducing death rates and shortening significantly hospitalization duration.

Mots-clés : antibiotic persistence,tolerance,antibiotic susceptibility testing
Projet ERC : RESUSCITATION (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Immunity, Infection and Immunotherapy
Entité participante : Imperial College London — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1499996.0 €

This proposal aims to provide insight into persister resuscitation. Persisters are multidrug-tolerant cells that are transiently non-growing and able to generate viable offspring by resuming growth when antibiotic pressure is removed. Despite their implication in relapses of many infectious diseases, and progress in understanding how persisters form through the action of toxin-antitoxin modules, the mechanisms underlying resuscitation of these persisters are still unknown. The interaction between Salmonella and host macrophages has proven to be a powerful and relevant model to study persister biology since the bacteria specifically respond to engulfment by the host defence cells by forming high proportions of persisters. Upon encounter with the host, Salmonella activates 14 toxins to arrest growth and persist in this environment. With the recent discovery of a detoxifying enzyme (Pth) counteracting the action of a persister-inducing toxin (TacT), thus allowing growth resumption of Salmonella persisters, we can now begin to address the pending question of persister regrowth. The consolidation of my research group around the experimental plan proposed here, will enable us to dissect the balance between intoxication vs. detoxification or entry vs. exit from persistence induced by Tact and Pth respectively. This is the first couple of toxin/detoxifying enzymes to be identified. I intend to extend this knowledge to the whole repertoire of toxins involved in Salmonella persister formation through systematic identification and characterization of the detoxifying mechanisms allowing resuscitation. Additionally I will investigate the lag phase leading to regrowth of persisters; and target the toxins involved in persister formation to force persisters out of growth arrest. This work will unravel persister resuscitation and could ultimately provide ways to force persisters out of that state so they become re-sensitized to antibiotics.

Mots-clés : antimicrobial resistance,antibiotic tolerance,persisters,growth arrest
Projet ERC : DRANOEL (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Universe sciences
Entité participante : National Institute for Astrophysics — Pays : Italie — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : INAF
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 180750.0 €

This proposal aims to understand the origin of the radio emission detected in the most massive objects in our Universe: galaxy clusters. The extreme physical conditions in the intra-cluster medium of galaxy clusters are beyond anything achievable in any laboratory on Earth. The space in between the galaxies is filled with an extremely hot and diluted gas that hosts the largest-scale magnetic fields known so far. A big challenge of modern astrophysics is understanding the origin of radio emission spread over huge swathes in some clusters. This emission is a mystery because it requires relativistic electrons moving around magnetic field lines, but both the origin of the magnetic fields and of the electrons are unknown. Absolutely fundamental to the understanding of the radio emission are a detailed knowledge of the magnetic fields and of the energy spectrum of the emitting particles. We are stepping into a new era of observational astronomy, in which surveys will be conducted rather than single pointed observations. This survey era is changing our approach to observational data. It enables to perform all-sky studies but calls for numerical and technological efforts for the data handling. Taking advantage of the advent of new radio and X-ray facilities, such as LOFAR, the JVLA, ASKAP, and eROSITA, this project wants to understand the origin of the radio emission, its evolution and its connections with the cluster dynamics. We have today the unprecedented opportunity to discover the physical processes at work in these unique environments, that link the micro-physical processes at work in galaxy clusters with the clusters' macro-physics. The proposed study will address fundamental questions not restricted to the physics of galaxy clusters but having impact on several inter-connected physical disciplines, such as cosmology, astro-particle physics and plasma physics.

Mots-clés : non thermal emission,magnetic fields,radio observations
Projet ERC : 3DCellPhase- (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions
Entité participante : European Molecular Biology Laboratory — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : EMBL
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1228125.0 €

This proposal brings together two fields in biology, namely the emerging field of phase-separated assemblies in cell biology and state-of-the-art cellular cryo-electron tomography, to advance our understanding on a fundamental, yet illusive, question: the molecular organization of the cytoplasm. Eukaryotes organize their biochemical reactions into functionally distinct compartments. Intriguingly, many, if not most, cellular compartments are not membrane enclosed. Rather, they assemble dynamically by phase separation, typically triggered upon a specific event. Despite significant progress on reconstituting such liquid-like assemblies in vitro, we lack information as to whether these compartments in vivo are indeed amorphous liquids, or whether they exhibit structural features such as gels or fibers. My recent work on sample preparation of cells for cryo-electron tomography, including cryo-focused ion beam thinning, guided by 3D correlative fluorescence microscopy, shows that we can now prepare site-specific ‘electron-transparent windows’ in suitable eukaryotic systems, which allow direct examination of structural features of cellular compartments in their cellular context. Here, we will use these techniques to elucidate the structural principles and cytoplasmic environment driving the dynamic assembly of two phase-separated compartments: Stress granules, which are RNA bodies that form rapidly in the cytoplasm upon cellular stress, and centrosomes, which are sites of microtubule nucleation. We will combine these studies with a quantitative description of the crowded nature of cytoplasm and of its local variations, to provide a direct readout of the impact of excluded volume on molecular assembly in living cells. Taken together, these studies will provide fundamental insights into the structural basis by which cells form biochemical compartments.

Mots-clés : phase separated compartments,liquid like compartments,self assembly,cryo electron tomography,cryo focused ion beam,3d correlative microscopy,centrosome,rna granules,caenorhabditis elegans
Projet ERC : CGCglasmaQGP (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Fundamental constituents of matter
Entité participante : University of Jyväskylä — Pays : Finlande — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1935000.0 €

This proposal concentrates on Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) in its least well understood "final frontier": the high energy limit. The aim is to treat the formation of quark gluon plasma in relativistic nuclear collisions together with other high energy processes in a consistent QCD framework. This project is topical now in order to fully understand the results from the maturing LHC heavy ion program. The high energy regime is characterized by a high density of gluons, whose nonlinear interactions are beyond the reach of simple perturbative calculations. High energy particles also propagate nearly on the light cone, unaccessible to Euclidean lattice calculations. The nonlinear interactions at high density lead to the phenomenon of gluon saturation. The emergence of the "saturation scale", a semihard typical transverse momentum, enables a weak coupling expansion around a nonperturbatively large color field. This project aims to make progress both in collider phenomenology and in more conceptual aspects of nonabelian gauge field dynamics at high energy density: 1. Significant advances towards higher order accuracy will be made in cross section calculations for processes where a dilute probe collides with the strong color field of a high energy nucleus. 2. The quantum fluctuations around the strong color fields in the initial stages of a relativistic heavy ion collision will be analyzed with a new numerical method based on an explicit linearization of the equations of motion, maintaining a well defined weak coupling limit. 3. Initial conditions for fluid dynamical descriptions of the quark gluon plasma phase in heavy ion collisions will be obtained from a constrained QCD calculation. We propose to achieve these goals with modern analytical and numerical methods, on which the P.I. is a leading expert. This project would represent a leap in the field towards better quantitative first principles understanding of QCD in a new kinematical domain.

Mots-clés : quark gluon plasma,small x physics