Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : CONSPIRA (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences
Entité participante : Nanoscience Cooperative Research Center — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2988750.0 €

Elementary nuclear and electronic spins are called to be key components in the second quantum revolution. Their atomic-scale integration into scalable platforms with tunable interactions is a demand that I will address in CONSPIRA by synthetizing graphene architectures with interacting spin chains, using customized on-surface reactions of organic precursors, and by controlling their quantum state through microwave spectroscopies. I envision the formation of collective magnetic states through the assembly of interacting electronic and nuclear spins in periodic arrays with atomically precise spacings. Through rational design and synthesis strategies, we will tune spin interactions via the graphene host and hyperfine coupling, with the goal of bringing the quantum state of the arrays into different regimes of energy, coherence, and topology. To access the broad energy range of such multiscale interacting system and to probe its quantum dynamics, we will combine two antagonist experimental techniques like Scanning Tunnelling Microscopy (STM) and Cavity Quantum Electrodynamics (QED). This will be realized by incorporating superconducting coplanar waveguide resonators (CWRs) as substrate of a low temperature STM. We will use QED techniques to couple the resonant states of spin chains with microwave photons of the resonator, while the STM tip acts as a local gate. The MHz and picometer resolution of this new type of spectrometer will enable us to study the quantum coherence of the spin arrays and undertake the coherent control of distant nuclear states entangled through the electronic spin system, a potential system for QED-based quantum computation. CONSPIRA will provide a new platform for quantum spins, and methods to address and manipulate their coherent state. The combination of QED and STM represents a ground-breaking experimental development, which is called to boost studies of general correlated phenomena in condensed matter physics.

Mots-clés : graphene nanoribbons on surface synthesis scanning tunneling microscopy electron spin resonance microwave resonators nuclear spins hyperfine coupling collective magnetism spin chains and lattices
Projet ERC : CORDheal (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Cell Biology, Development, Stem Cells and R egeneration
Entité participante : Institut de Recherche et d’Innovation en Santé de l’Université de Porto — Pays : Portugal — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : i3S
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2499963.0 €

It is widely documented that the adult mammalian central nervous system (CNS) does not regenerate. This failure results from the inhibitory scar environment and the decline of developmental growth programs. Overturning this dogma, the PI recently demonstrated that the spiny mouse (Acomys cahirinus) regenerates spontaneously the spinal cord, with robust functional recovery. Her current preliminary data support that an early switch occurs in the injured Acomys spinal cord, allowing scar reversion and activation of a regenerative program. In CORDheal, this exceptional non-model organism will be used to address the knowledge gap on the mechanisms enabling a mammal to regenerate the CNS. The pioneering nature of the PI’s data and her unique combined expertise in CNS regeneration and Acomys biology, places the PI at the forefront of the field. To find the roadmap enabling spinal cord regeneration in mammals, a single cell RNAseq/ATACseq atlas of the injured spinal cord of Acomys and Mus (regeneration-incompetent mouse) will allow discovering cell populations that enable activation of pathways supporting scar avoidance and promoting regeneration. The extent to which regeneration recapitulates development, and the possible birth of novel genes that may contribute to adaptive evolutionary innovation will be tested. As major instructive programs that allow regeneration of different Acomys tissues may be similar, comparative analyses amongst different regenerating Acomys organs will follow. Lastly, to determine when regenerative ability evolved in mammals, other members of the Deomyinae subfamily (to which Acomys belongs) will be assessed for regenerative properties. This will allow finding putative close divergent species, providing ideal conditions to narrow down differences between regeneration and scarring. This ambitious and pioneering program will push current research boundaries to unveil vital cell adaptive mechanisms underlying regeneration in mammals.

Mots-clés : spinal cord injury tissue regeneration mammalian cns non model organism
Projet ERC : KAREVO (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Cell Biology, Development, Stem Cells and R egeneration
Entité participante : Institut de Recherche et d’Innovation en Santé de l’Université de Porto — Pays : Portugal — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : i3S
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2955225.0 €

Alterations in chromosome number and size are hallmarks of cancer, and yet they are also crucial for species evolution. Recent insight on chromosome structure and segregation, together with significant advances in genomic sequencing, established previously underappreciated parallels between the mechanisms of karyotypic evolution during speciation and cancer. Importantly, alterations in chromosome number and size pose significant challenges for the cell division machinery. However, how dividing cells adapt to cope with karyotypic alterations remains an outstanding fundamental question with strong clinical implications. To address this, we propose an innovative approach that integrates super-resolution microscopy, large-scale 3D cryo-electron tomography reconstructions, computational modelling and cell fusion experiments in Indian and Chinese muntjacs, two closely related deer species with identical genomes, but extremely divergent chromosome number (2n=6/7 vs. 2n=46, respectively) and size. We will focus on dissecting mechanistic aspects underlying mitotic spindle organization, chromosome dynamics, checkpoint control of mitotic progression and segregation fidelity in both muntjac species, with the goal of identifying genes differentially required for efficient mitosis in cells with karyotypic alterations. In parallel, we will exploit functional genomics in Cervidae, including telomere-to-telomere sequencing of Indian and Chinese muntjac genomes, to determine and manipulate the exact chromosome fusion sites between both species, while testing the novel hypothesis of a viral mechanism in the evolution of their karyotypes. Lastly, to test the limits of karyotypic evolution for chromosome segregation, we will engineer mammalian cells with only 1 or 2 chromosomes and investigate whether and how cell division tolerates this extreme genome reorganization. This pioneer work will unveil vital cell adaptive mechanisms to karyotypic evolution relevant for speciation and cancer.

Mots-clés : cell division mitosis karyotype diversity karyotype evolution aneuploidy cancer speciation genome organization chromosome segregation atypical model systems
Projet ERC : HIMMS (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Condensed Matter Physics
Entité participante : Nanocenter — Pays : Slovénie — Rôle : Partner
Type d'entité : Autres
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1887242.5 €

Non-equilibrium states of matter have become of great fundamental and practical interest in recent years because of their wide importance in diverse areas of physics. With the rapid development of new time-resolved techniques, the temporal dynamics of competing processes and interactions were recently elucidated in a wide variety of complex condensed matter systems. However, the physics of metastable mesoscopically non-periodic quantum textures emerging from phase transitions has been largely experimentally inaccessible till now: current state of the art time-resolved methods using x-rays, electron diffraction, photoemission, THz and optical spectroscopy all average over multiple transition outcomes. Moreover, they cannot resolve irregular nonperiodic nanoscale structures. Thus, a large field of mesoscopic quantum physics of metastable quantum states remains largely unexplored. Here we propose to develop a unique set of tools to investigate mesoscopic metastable irregular textures created under controlled non-equilibrium conditions in quantum materials, with focus on topological transitions and quantum jamming phenomena. Temporally tempered excitation techniques combined with time-resolved scanning tunnelling microscopy will be used to studying single and multiple transition outcomes with atomic spatial resolution on timescales from picoseconds to hours. Experiments supplemented by new theoretical approaches will address the creation processes, relaxation dynamics and quantum decoherence of metastable mesoscopic structures, as well as manipulation and control. Theoretical approaches for addressing resulting quantum states include fracton-derived models and quantum annealing on a quantum computer. The project opens the path to detailed exploration of a new class of physical phenomena of wide fundamental interest in different areas of physics, while opening new avenues in non-equilibrium solid state quantum systems technology.

Mots-clés : nonequilibrium phenomena,jamming transitions,topological transitions,femtosecond spectroscopy,electronic ordering,scanning tunneling microscopy
Projet ERC : DATASTORIES (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Human Mobility, Environment, and Space
Entité participante : Université nationale d'Irlande à Maynooth — Pays : Irlande — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : MU
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2441425.0 €

Planning and property data are the key evidence base for how cities are understood, planned and developed, informing public perception, guiding investments, and shaping policy. Yet, little critical attention has been paid to planning and property data and their lifecycles, circulation, politics, power and use in policy and stakeholder decision-making. This lacuna raises two important challenges that require redress if the validity of analysis, interpretation and decision-making is to be improved. First, transforming the ontological and epistemological understanding of planning and property data amongst those that utilise them. Second, fostering a reflexive approach to data politics and power in organisations that produce, share and use planning and property data. DATASTORIES will tackle these challenges by conducting research in a creative, highly engaged way with key stakeholders across three domains (state, business, NGOs/civil society). It will develop an innovative methodological approach that blends social science and research-creation methods, working with creative writers and artists, to map an entire data ecosystem (Dublin, Ireland), unpack data assemblages and produce a variety of data stories. 12 in-depth case studies will produce 36 data stories about and with planning and property data. The project will produce four key advances: new knowledge about the evidence-base for planning and property and its use; critical insight into the politics and praxes of data; novel research-creation methods and an assessment of their efficacy; and an extended conception of data stories and an understanding of their production and utility for different audiences. DATASTORIES will produce three ground-breaking impacts: conceptual – transforming the epistemology of planning and property research; applied – positively influencing the data processes and practices of key stakeholders; methodological – validating research-creation and data stories as social sciences methods.

Mots-clés : planning,housing,property,critical data studies,data ecosystem,data stories,research creation,evidence base
Projet ERC : ORBITERA (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Condensed Matter Physics
Entité participante : Université libre de Berlin — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2494296.0 €

The spin angular momentum (S) of the electron has significantly extended conventional electronics, which relies on the electron charge (C), by new, so-called spintronic functionalities. Examples include magnetization switching, the transport of S and its detection, even down to femtosecond time scales. To boost the efficiency of spintronics, the so far neglected yet equally fascinating and important orbital angular momentum (L) of electrons is considered to be a powerful pathway. Orbitronic phenomena such as L-based transport, torques and magneto-optic effects have much larger magnitude than their S counterparts and may, thus, efficiently complement or even replace spintronic functionalities. Microscopically, L is completely different from S. Its dynamics involves new physics that needs to be understood, in particular on ultrafast time scales.  In the ORBITERA project, my team and I will obtain unprecedented insights into L dynamics by using femtosecond optical pulses and terahertz (THz) electric fields, which couple directly to the motion of conduction electrons at their natural frequencies and relaxation rates. We will tackle important challenges of general orbitronics and, in particular, separate L- and S-based effects despite their identical macroscopic symmetry properties, build ultrafast generators and detectors of exclusively L currents, reveal the nature of L transport (e.g., ballistic, diffusive, tunneling), measure the magnetic moments forming an L current, probe the interaction of L with the crystal lattice, temporally resolve L-S and L-C interconversion, and apply THz L torque to ultimately switch magnetic order ultrafast.  By establishing THz orbitronics, new methodology (such as ultrafast drivers of L currents and L-conductance spectroscopy at 0.1-50 THz) and applications (such as the detection of THz electric fields without relying on the weak spin-orbit coupling) will be developed that can be used by a community beyond specialized THz labs.

Mots-clés : orbitronics,spintronics,terahertz,ultrafast
Projet ERC : syn4cem (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Materials Engineering
Entité participante : Université de Malaga — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2497880.0 €

Concrete, made from Portland cement (PC), water, aggregates, mineral additions and chemical admixtures, is the most manufactured world commodity, 5 t/person/yr. PCs are environmentally contentious, accounting for 8% of anthropogenic CO2 emissions. Hence, developing more durable concretes with lower embodied carbon contents is central to maintaining our well-being. The main drawback of the most ambitious proposals for sustainable low-carbon cements is their slow hydration kinetics in the first three days. Following our breakthrough in synchrotron ptychographic nanotomography for building materials, syn4cem will tailor coherence-based submicron 4D (3D+time) techniques for in situ hydration studies. These techniques should simultaneously provide: - spatial resolution better than 100 nm, - time resolution better than 100 minutes, and – very good electron density contrast. If attained, it will allow a better understanding of cement hydration at early ages. Chiefly, the transition from the accelerated to the decelerated stage will be understood which should allow a rational enhancement of the early age reactivity through admixtures like C-S-H seeding and alkanolamines. Based on the 4D understanding of cement hydration, syn4cem will develop binders with lower CO2 footprints. The focus will be on limestone calcined clay cements, where the highest possible amount of clinker will be replaced by these abundant supplementary cementitious materials. The hydration reactions of these systems must be accelerated to have competitive mechanical strengths at one day which is key for on-site applications. The proposed approach will allow ground-breaking interdisciplinary advances like a) quantification of etch-pit growth rates as a function of the particle sizes, b) mass transport in confined spaces, and c) water/air porosity evolution. The X-ray tools will zoom in during early hydration to optimise the admixture performances for attaining more sustainable buildings and infrastructures

Mots-clés : co2 footprint reduction,sustainability,durability,amorphous phases,cement hydration,multiscale characterization techniques,coherence based synchrotron 4d imaging techniques
Projet ERC : VIRLUMINOUS (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Immunity, Infection and I mmunotherapy
Entité participante : Université d'Utrecht — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2396392.0 €

Enteroviruses are highly prevalent pathogens that have enormous clinical and socio-economic impact. Well-known examples are poliovirus, coxsackievirus, enterovirus-A71, enterovirus-D68, and rhinovirus. Although important insights have been obtained in the enteroviral life cycle, many important questions remain unanswered due to shortcomings of current imaging and biochemical methodologies. There is a high need for novel technologies that allow sensitive and real-time observation of the dynamics and localisation of viral RNA, viral proteins, and host factors at the single-cell level. My long-term goal is to understand enterovirus replication and translate knowledge into the development of antiviral drugs. My lab has a long-standing track record and has made many important contributions to understanding the molecular mechanisms of enterovirus replication and the formation of viral replication organelles. Recently, we constructed a reporter virus that in combination with high-resolution microscopy allowed for the first time to visualize translation, and the regulation thereof, of single (entero)viral RNAs in living cells. The goal of this project is to visualize and dissect the spatial and temporal regulation of different phases of the enterovirus life cycle. As a first step, novel recombinant reporter viruses for application in real-time imaging technologies will be developed. These viruses will be used to study viral RNA replication, virus assembly, and pre-lytic virus release in living cells. Moreover, they will be instrumental to study the structure and composition of the viral replication organelles and the associated replication complexes through advanced cryo-electron microscopy and tomography technologies, and proteomics/lipidomics analysis, respectively.  This project will lead to important new insights into the molecular interplay between enteroviruses and their hosts, which is essential for developing urgently needed antiviral drugs.

Mots-clés : enterovirus,replication,encapsidation,release,replication organelles,host factors,virus host interactions
Projet ERC : FLEX (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Mathematics
Entité participante : Nederlandse organisatie voor wetenschappelijk onderzoek — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : NWO
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2499461.0 €

Most statistical methods require that all aspects of data collection and inference are determined in advance, independently of the data. These include when to stop collecting data, what decisions can be made (e.g. accept/reject hypothesis, classify new point) and how to measure their quality (e.g. loss function/significance level). This is wildly at odds with the flexibility required in practice! It makes it impossible to achieve error control in meta-analyses, and contributes to the replication crisis in the applied sciences.  I will develop a novel statistical theory in which all data-collection and decision-aspects may be unknown in advance, possibly imposed post-hoc, depending on data itself in unknowable ways. Yet this new theory will provide small-sample frequentist error control, risk bounds and confidence sets.  I base myself on far-reaching extensions of e-values/processes. These generalize likelihood ratios and replace p-values, capturing 'evidence' in a much cleaner fashion. As lead author of the first paper (2019) that gave e-values a name and demonstrated their enormous potential, I kicked off and then played an essential role in the extremely rapid development of anytime-valid inference, the one aspect of flexibility that is by now well-studied. Still, efficient e-value design principles for many standard problems (e.g. GLMs and other settings with covariates) are still lacking, and I will provide them. I will also develop theory for full decision-task flexibility, about which currently almost nothing is known. A major innovation is the e-posterior, which behaves differently from the Bayesian one: if priors are chosen badly, e-posterior based confidence intervals get wide rather than wrong. Both the existing Wald-Neyman-Pearson and Bayesian statistical theories will arise as special, extreme cases of the new theory, based on perfect (hence unrealistic) knowledge of the data-collection/decision problem or the underlying distribution(s), respectively.

Mots-clés : e values,anytime valid hypothesis testing,anytime valid confidence sets,foundations of statistics
Projet ERC : BOHR21 (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Human Mind and Its Compl exity
Entité participante : Université d'Utrecht — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2500000.0 €

Niels Bohr has been hugely influential both in physics and outside physics, but he is also hugely misunderstood, partly because a few of his writings have been overstudied at the expense of many others. This ERC project is devoted to his philosophical legacy, and will establish an unprejudiced understanding of Bohr, building on a current revival of interest in Bohr’s ideas in the philosophy of physics, and extending it among other things to his wider influence in other scientific disciplines, specifically in biology, and on general debates such as on science and objectivity. The project will systematically exploit the resources of the Niels Bohr Archive in Copenhagen, which has only recently started digitising its collections.  This ERC project has the ambition to rectify historical misjudgements and to build bridges between physics and philosophy, between different schools in philosophy of physics, between philosophy of physics and philosophy of biology, and even between analytic philosophy and continental philosophy. The relevant resources are only now becoming more widely available. It is a large and methodologically novel project, combining philosophy and history, involving the systematic study of extensive sources, and including applications to philosophy of physics, philosophy of biology and general philosophy of science. Historically informed analysis has long proved to be an important tool in the philosophy of science, and the project will lead the way in applying a historically accurate understanding of Bohr’s thought to 21st-century debates.

Mots-clés : niels bohr,physics,biology,complementarity,interpretations of quantum mechanics,objectivity,emergence,kantianism