Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : ASAP (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Synthetic Chemistry and Materials
Entité participante : Universität für Bodenkultur. Vienne — Pays : Autriche — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1962685.0 €

Through photosynthesis, marine algae convert gigatonnes of carbon dioxide into carbohydrates every year. In the form of algal polysaccharides, these structurally complex biomolecules determine to a large extent how much carbon is stored in the oceans. Specialised marine bacteria unlock this carbon energy by breaking down the polysaccharides through the action of carbohydrate-active enzymes (CAZymes) and releasing the carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere. However, some of the polysaccharides are not recycled quickly, but sink into the deep sea and sediments, where they can store carbon for millennia. To better understand these processes, great efforts are needed to further explore the marine carbon cycle. The same advances are also important to support emerging efforts to use algal biomass as a new sustainable resource for the bioeconomy.  The enzymatic machinery responsible for the degradation of polysaccharides by marine bacteria has remained largely unexplored because of the size and heterogeneity of algal polysaccharides. Pure and defined oligosaccharides needed for systematic screenings of marine CAZymes are currently not available. Since conventional chemical synthesis is time-consuming and often not general enough, ASAP aims to obtain collections of oligosaccharides related to different classes of algal polysaccharides by using automated glycan assembly (AGA) technology. Oligosaccharides with many different sequences and sulfation patterns will be prepared from small sets of monosaccharide building blocks. Incubation of the synthetic oligosaccharides with samples containing carbohydrate-degrading activity and subsequent HPLC-MS analysis of the degradation products will provide information on: 1) the collective enzyme activities of a bacterial community in seawater and sediment samples; 2) the abilities of individual bacterial strains to degrade specific polysaccharides; 3) the substrate specificities of purified CAZymes.

Mots-clés : synthetic carbohydrate chemistry,automated glycan assembly,carbohydrate active enzymes,polysaccharide degradation,marine polysaccharides,carrageenan,ulvan,fucoidan,alginate
Projet ERC : Glass2Melt (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Earth System Science
Entité participante : GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : GFZ
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1998856.0 €

The starting conditions for the Earth’s evolution were set by gravitational differentiation in the solidifying magma ocean. Yet, a thorough understanding of the magma ocean dynamics and thus of the primordial Earth is lacking. One key unknown is the density of silicate melts at high pressure, which determines whether the crystallizing phases rise or sink. Magma density also governs the storage, spatial distribution, and migration of melts in the present-day Earth. Densities of silicate liquids at mantle pressures and temperatures are extremely difficult to measure because of the tiny sample size, melt chemical reactivity, and its lack of crystalline structure. The use of glasses as proxies of melts lifts some but not all of these challenges. Albeit needed for a holistic picture of planet Earth, no density systematics exists for glasses or melts across the pressure range of the entire mantle.  Glass2Melt will employ and further a novel class of fast white laser spectroscopy methods to measure the density of multicomponent synthetic silicate glasses and melts at mantle pressure-temperature conditions. Our approach is ground-breaking because it allows to thoroughly explore a large compositional space and determine the density of any deep silicate melt. Our results will (i) parametrize a universal silicate melt density model applicable to the entire mantle, and (ii) quantify solid-liquid buoyancy throughout the whole crystallizing magma ocean. Glass2Melt will have a broad, lasting impact on our understanding of the Earth’s interior and its evolution over geologic time. The new density model will provide critical input for future numerical simulations assessing fundamental questions about the solidification of the primordial magma ocean, as well as the initiation and development of physical and chemical heterogeneity in the mantle. It will also be crucial for deciphering deep low seismic velocity structures, and to modeling magma dynamics in the present-day Earth.

Mots-clés : high pressure optical properties deep earth density diamond anvil cell laser heating glass melt refractive index
Projet ERC : TabulaRasa (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Texts and Concepts
Entité participante : Université de naples - l'orientale — Pays : Italie — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1225000.0 €

TabulaRasa takes the use of clay and wax tablets in the Ancient Near East, the Classical world, and Medieval to Early Modern Europe as the centerpiece of a comprehensive exploration of the role of rewritability in manuscript cultures. Across diverse societies, the recycling of written surfaces proves not only desirable but essential in contexts such as education, note-taking, literary creation, economy and administration. Its profound implications range from palaeographic developments to the acquisition of writing, memorization and composition practices, and aspects of data storage, information overload and resource recycling that persist to this day. Throughout history, the challenge of devising techniques for effortless reuse has sparked a wealth of clever solutions. Among these, clay and wax tablets can be considered paradigmatic: they played a key role in the history of writing from the third millennium BCE up to modern times, enabling effortless, unlimited rewriting without the need to add or subtract material. TabulaRasa takes them as a benchmark for an interdisciplinary, cross-cultural exploration of rewritability. It integrates codicology, palaeography and the study of manuscript cultures into a holistic historical framework, combining study of original artifacts, material analysis and experimentation. The primary objectives encompass a codicological understanding of clay and wax tablets as material objects, deciphering the biomechanics of inkless writing on clay and wax and its implications for palaeographic developments in cuneiform and Latin script, and comprehending the role of erasable media in key historical contexts. Complementing these integrated lines of inquiry, TabulaRasa will broaden its gaze to include a comparative analysis of re-writing practices, adding historical depth to ongoing research on e-ink and environmental sustainability, and providing a breakthrough in the understanding of a fundamental aspect of writing practices past and present.

Mots-clés : manuscript cultures,writing technologies,ancient near eastern studies,medieval studies,early modern studies,clay tablets,cuneiform,wax tablets,latin script,beeswax,palaeography,palimpsest studies,erasing and rewriting practices,information management
Projet ERC : RaReMem (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Human Mind and Its Compl exity
Entité participante : Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : Inserm
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1995826.0 €

A wealth of evidence in perceptual and economic decision-making research suggests that the subjective value of one option is determined by the range of the values of other available options (i.e., the context). Yet, up until today, this literature has almost exclusively focused on decision situations where contexts are explicit and static, thus ignoring more ecological and realistic scenarios where value ranges are dynamically shaped by past outcomes. This proposal will investigate if and how range adaptation also affects the computation of outcome values that are acquired from experience and stored in memory. We hypothesize that range-adaptation is pervasive in learning, because it addresses a fundamental computational cost-benefit trade-off. Indeed, we propose that, although range adaptation is locally optimal, because it optimizes information processing by tuning the value response function to the experienced outcome distribution, this comes at the price of forfeiting the capacity to generalize learned-values to new contexts. The proposed research will design and validate a comprehensive behavioural and computational framework to test this hypothesis. More precisely, combining original experimental paradigms, behavioural analyses and computational modelling, we will  i) provide a clear algorithmic description of outcome range adaptation, ii) elucidate the nature of the distorted memory representations of outcome values, and, finally, iii) probe the pervasiveness and adaptive value of this process empirically (by running experiments in different cultures) and theoretically (through extensive simulations). We believe this project has the potential to further elucidate new fundamental computational constraints of human learning and decision-making. Our theoretical framework and empirical results will undoubtedly contribute to the debate about the ultimate sources of human bounded rationality, with potential impact beyond cognitive science.

Mots-clés : reinforcement learning cognitive bias computational model
Projet ERC : GettingInShape (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Molecules of Life: B iological  Mechanisms , Structures  and Functions
Entité participante : Université d'Utrecht — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1999963.0 €

Sperm are highly specialised cells whose structure is optimised for a defined function. Although the distinctive sperm ultrastructure has been known for many years thanks to electron microscopy, an understanding of the molecular details of sperm specialisation is severely lagging. The gap in our molecular understanding relates to the difficulties in genetically manipulating sperm. Over the past five years, my lab has pioneered the use of cryo-electron tomography to study mature mammalian sperm at the molecular level. We developed workflows based on cryo-focused ion beam milling and sub-tomogram averaging that allowed us to provide the first in-cell structures of mammalian sperm flagella, revealing unique microtubule inner proteins. We further showed that the sperm centrioles and their surrounding matrix form a dynamic basal complex that facilitates a cascade of internal sliding, coupling tail beating with asymmetric head kinking. Although these findings contribute profoundly to the field, the resolution achieved in these studies (~20Å) precluded protein identification in most cases. Now I plan to develop a workflow based on single particle analysis, achieving near-atomic resolution, but without purification. I will apply this workflow, together with biochemical assays and cellular cryo-electron tomography, to humans and other species to resolve how germ cells get into shape and acquire motility. Specifically, the mechanisms underlining 1) nuclear shaping 2) centriole remodelling 3) mitochondrial sheath assembly 4) motor apparatus activation. Understanding how male germ cells get into shape is of clinical relevance, as sperm morphological defects are often observed in infertility. Moreover, the success rate of assisted reproduction technologies can be improved with better diagnosis and we expect that the new proteins we identify will help this process. Conversely, understanding the acquisition of motility could potentially be used to develop a male contraceptive.

Mots-clés : spermiogenesis,sperm epididymal maturation,nucleus shaping,centrioles remodelling,axoneme,mitochondrial maturation,cellular cryo electron tomography,cryo electron microscopy single particle analysis
Projet ERC : UNI PROB (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Human Mind and Its Compl exity
Entité participante : Université de Canterbury — Pays : Nouvelle-Zélande — Rôle : Partner
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 281542.61 €

Is the human mind an evolutionary one-off? Or does it reflect a ‘universal mind’ in which similar cognitive mechanisms repeatedly evolve via convergent evolution? Avian cognition offers a powerful model system for answering this fundamental question about the nature of our mind, because birds last shared a common ancestor with humans 312 million years ago and have evolved brains with a very different structure. However, to unlock the potential of this model system we need to robustly test whether mechanistic convergence has occurred between the minds of birds and humans (the convergent mind hypothesis) and rule out cognitive similarities between birds and humans due to shared ancestry (the ancestral mind hypothesis). UNI PROB takes advantage of decades of research on probabilistic inference, a central, but imperfect aspect of human cognition, to overcome these challenges. To test for mechanistic convergence, UNI PROB will use the cognitive biases and errors humans show in their probabilistic inferences (e.g. the conjunction fallacy, base rate neglect and the hot hand fallacy) as diagnostic signatures for the presence of a similar cognitive system in a species demonstrating the best performances on probabilistic inference tasks of any animal tested to date: the kea parrot. To test for shared ancestry, UNI PROB will present novel, non-verbal probabilistic inference problems not only to humans and kea, but also to a phylogenetic control for shared ancestry: rats. If convergent evolution has occurred, then only humans and kea will solve these problems while showing the same cognitive biases and errors. By testing for the convergent evolution of this cognitive system, UNI PROB can generate conclusive evidence that probabilistic biases are adaptive features of the human mind and discover if there is a new frontier in cognitive science, namely a universal mind that evolves repeatedly via convergent evolution.

Mots-clés : comparative cognition,intelligence,probabilistic inference,evolution
Projet ERC : TODO (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Texts and Concepts
Entité participante : Université Humboldt de Berlin — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1999957.5 €

Migration is almost always framed as the result of exceptional circumstances, as in the 2015 refugee crisis for instance. This impacts the reception of narratives produced by those living in the diaspora. Works by Black and ethnic minority artists are overwhelmingly associated with labels that set them apart from the unmarked norm. These frameworks favour generational models such as the Windrush generation in Britain, so-called guest worker literature in Germany, and ethnic and area studies designations in the US. Such formulas reinforce an understanding of migration as perpetually new. By turning to what we call Tales of the Diasporic Ordinary, this project asks what happens if we instead apply a ‘normalising’ perspective to the study of contemporary diasporic art. Extending PI Haschemi Yekani’s pathbreaking work on entangled tonalities in the rise of the British novel, TODO mobilises three conceptual terms: aesthetics, affects, and archives. This, firstly, disrupts models of national canon formation and considers (queer) diasporic artistic practice and aesthetics as entangled with post-World War II global histories of the decline of empire, neo-imperialism, and the more recent rise of the New Right. Secondly, drawing on innovative methods from autotheory and queer diasporic critique, TODO stipulates that “ordinary” diasporic texts promote an affective bearing that exceeds the binary of romanticising the homeland of once and neoliberal ideals of assimilation and integration. Thirdly, the analysed texts complicate official historiographies and contribute to an archive of the lived experiences of migrants and their children across generations, exposing the continuity of racism. Artistic practice can acknowledge negative affects and contribute to a reimagination of community that goes beyond national and heteronormative constraints. Thus, the project underlines the relevance of Tales of the Diasporic Ordinary to challenge racism and foster new modes of belonging.

Mots-clés : diaspora,queer theory,postcolonial studies,affect,archive,narrative,media
Projet ERC : STEP-CHANGE (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Earth System Science
Entité participante : Université d'Oslo — Pays : Norvège — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UiO
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2249666.0 €

The ways in which clouds change with global warming remain elusive, as are the associated cloud-climate feedbacks that govern most of the spread in climate sensitivity simulated by current Earth System Models. This uncertainty in turn limits society's ability to take necessary action to avoid dangerous climate change. Despite considerable research progress in recent decades, additional complexities have been uncovered that further add to the uncertainty. For example, the understanding that many cloud-climate feedbacks change with time, due to their dependence on warming levels or patterns, is relatively recent. Cloud thermodynamic phase changes are the root cause of some of this state-dependence, and new research has revealed that these feedbacks could shift Earth's climate into a state that is more sensitive to greenhouse gas forcing than at present. Understanding and quantifying this state-dependence is therefore critically important, but such progress will require deep understanding of processes on a range of scales, from the microphysics that control cloud phase to large-scale impacts on climate. Furthermore, it has become evident that different cloud-climate feedback regimes are governed by different processes with their own unique state dependence that must be investigated separately. Therefore, the overall objective of STEP-CHANGE is to understand and quantify feedbacks associated with cloud phase changes, including their state-dependence, for three distinct cloud regimes in the following regions: the Arctic, the Tropical deep convective region, and the Southern Hemisphere storm tracks. This will be achieved through a bold and innovative research strategy which includes aircraft measurements, lab experiments, space-borne remote sensing, and a hierarchy of numerical model simulations. STEP-CHANGE builds on recent discoveries and innovations within the PIs research group, and is motivated by key knowledge gaps identified in recent IPCC assessment reports.

Mots-clés : clouds,precipitation,radiation,feedbacks,sensitivity
Projet ERC : GeoGen (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Soci al World and Its Interactions
Entité participante : Université d'Oslo — Pays : Norvège — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UiO
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2158630.0 €

Surging inequality is a defining feature of the world children grow up in today. The neighborhood they live in stages a primary developmental context where this feature of our present time plays out. Children’s demographic and socio-economic status (SES) is given by the status of their parents. Parental and neighborhood SES is associated with child mental health and educational performance, and childhood is a vulnerable period. To understand how and why early life socioeconomic position is linked to mental health and educational performance, I propose a groundbreaking paradigm generalizing temporal, spatial, social, genetic, and individual levels of inference. I will do this by having genomically similar children growing up in different families at different places at different times. These multitudes of counterfactuals will allow me to jointly evaluate hypotheses on selection and causation and risk and protection factors for mental health and academic outcomes.  The GeoGen study will render a new understanding of (a) how transmission of risk is transmitted across generations, (b) how early mental health is an antecedent of academic failure, (c) the interactions between genetic risk and protective contextual factors, and (c) characteristics of schools and neighborhoods that are optimal for children’s psychological development.  I will use Norway since 1940 as a laboratory (n=8 400 000) with registries giving full genealogy and year-by-year event data on place of residence, indicators of SES, mental health, and educational performance. Within this, I will nest a population-based cohort study comprising genotyping of families (n=240 000 in 110 000 families) and a wide array of survey data, such as non-cognitive skills. The combination of having data on all people in all schools and neighborhoods over time allows me to do an unprecedented study on the gene-environment interplay between risk and protective factors for mental health and academic outcomes.

Mots-clés : gene environment interaction,public health,education