Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : THEATRONOMICS (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Cultures and cultural production
Entité participante : National University of Ireland — Pays : Irlande — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : NUI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1997535.0 €

Eighteenth-century literary studies has taken a ‘theatrical turn’ over the past twenty-five years and the century historically associated with the ‘rise of the novel’ now acknowledges the centrality of the theatre to Georgian cultural and political life. However, we have virtually ignored its remarkable financial archive. Account-books, ledgers, and ephemeral manuscript folios contain rich data on ticket sales, audience members, revenues, actor salaries, repayments to investors, costume, scenery and other costs: this is richly detailed source material that needs to be understood. THEATRONOMICS places money at the heart of eighteenth-century theatrical culture. This project will apply financial and econometric analysis to this data to write a new history of eighteenth-century theatrical culture (1732-1809). Manuscript data for Covent Garden and Drury Lane—the two major theatres of Europe’s biggest city—will be transcribed, digitized, and analysed using econometric methods in order to incorporate the theatres’ underlying commercial operations to our research. Our central goal is the application of economic methodologies so that new perspectives on the careers of managers, playwrights, actors, and plays emerge. When we look at the hard financial data underpinning the performance scheduling decisions; the productivity and profitability of actors; the amounts spent on scenery, costumes, scenery, and candles; and the socioeconomic profiles of the audience, we will have a transformative understanding of the ‘back end’ of the theatre business. By synthesizing this complex data, THEATRONOMICS will further enable us, by interacting with other datasets, to ask new interdisciplinary questions about the place of theatre within the ecology of London. THEATRONOMICS’s insistence on gazing through the financial lens of cultural production gives us an innovative and sustainable basis for the next generation of eighteenth-century theatre studies.

Mots-clés : theatre history,theatre manuscripts,cultural economics,econometrics
Projet ERC : SSID (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Institutions, Governance and Legal Systems
Entité participante : University of London — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : U. London
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2492201.0 €

Eighty million EU citizens are suffering from excessive environmental noise and billions of euros are being spent on noise control, under the EU Directive on Environmental Noise. Unfortunately, the conventional approach, i.e. reduction of ‘sound level’, simply does not deliver the required improvements in quality of life. The growing field of ‘soundscape studies’ is addressing this gap by considering sound environment as perceived, in context, with an interdisciplinary approach. However, soundscapes are hugely complex and measuring them as a basis for environmental design requires a step change to the discipline. This research aims to achieve a ground-breaking development through the establishment of ‘soundscape indices’ (SSID), adequately reflecting levels of human comfort, the impact of which will be reminiscent of that of the Decibel scale created by Bell Systems a century ago. This will provide the underpinning science for soundscape in the field of built environment, with wider intellectual goals of moving from noise control to soundscape creation. Key objectives, as coherent steps for achieving the main aim, are: (1) To characterise soundscapes, by capturing soundscapes and establishing a comprehensive database, which will be a cornerstone for the proposed analysis, and an invaluable resource for scientists for years to come. (2) To determine key factors and their influence on soundscape quality based on the database, by conducting laboratory psychological evaluation, physical/psychoacoustic factors analysis, and more importantly, to research at a physiological/biological level, including the use of functional magnetic resonance imaging. (3) To develop, test and validate the soundscape indices, through analysing the influences by various factors, using a number of inter- & trans-disciplinary approaches. (4) To demonstrate the applicability of the soundscape indices in practice, by establishing frameworks for soundscape prediction, design, and standardisation.

Mots-clés : soundscape,noise,built environment,prediction,design,standardisation,psychological evaluation,psychoacoustic factor,physiological indicator
Projet ERC : PLEDGEDEM (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Institutions, Governance and Legal Systems
Entité participante : Aarhus University — Pays : Danemark — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : AU
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1999255.0 €

Election pledges are supposedly a vital part of representative democracy. Yet we do not in fact know whether and how pledges matter for vote choice and accountability. This project thus asks: Do election pledges matter for voters’ democratic behavior and beliefs? The role of pledges in citizens’ democratic behavior and beliefs is, surprisingly, virtually unexplored. This project’s ambition is therefore to create a new research agenda that redefines how political scientists think about the link between parties and voters. The project not only advances the research frontier by introducing a new, crucial phenomenon for political scientists to study; it also breaks new ground because it provides original theoretical and methodological tools for this new research agenda. The key empirical contribution of this project is to collect two path-breaking datasets in the United States, France, and Norway that produce an unbiased estimate of voters’ awareness and use of pledges. The first consists of a set of innovative panel surveys with embedded conjoint experiments conducted both before and after national elections. The second dataset codes all pledges; whether or not they are broken; and how the mass media report on them. This project is unique in its scientific ambition: It studies the core mechanism of representative democracy as it happens in real time, and does so in several countries. If successful, we will have much firmer knowledge about how voters select parties that best represent them and sanction those that betray their trust – and what this all implies for people’s trust in democracy.

Mots-clés : election pledges,vote choice,accountability,democratic satisfaction,regime support
Projet ERC : DIVI (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Fundamental constituents of matter
Entité participante : University of Konstanz — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 110000.0 €

Electronics is rapidly speeding up. Ultimately, miniaturization will reach atomic dimensions and the switching speed will reach optical frequencies. This ultimate regime of lightwave electronics, where atomic-scale charges are controlled by few-cycle laser fields, holds promise to advance information processing technology from today’s microwave frequencies to the thousand times faster regime of optical light fields. All materials, including dielectrics, semiconductors and molecular crystals, react to such field oscillations with an intricate interplay between atomic-scale charge displacements (polarizations) and collective carrier motion on the nanometer scale (currents). This entanglement provides a rich set of potential mechanisms for switching and control. However, our ability to eventually realize lightwave electronics, or even to make first steps, will critically depend on our ability to actually measure electronic motion in the relevant environment: within/around atoms. The most fundamental approach would be a direct visualization in space and time. This project, if realized, will offer that: a spatiotemporal recording of electronic motion with sub-atomic spatial resolution and sub-optical-cycle time resolution, i.e. picometers and few-femtoseconds/attoseconds. Drawing on our unique combination of expertise covering electron diffraction and few-cycle laser optics likewise, we will replace the photon pulses of conventional attosecond spectroscopy with freely propagating single-electron pulses at picometer de Broglie wavelength, compressed in time by sculpted laser fields. Stroboscopic diffraction/microscopy will provide, after playback of the image sequence, a direct visualization of fundamental electronic activity in space and time. Profound study of atomic-scale light-matter interaction in simple and complex materials will provide a comprehensive picture of the fundamental physics allowing or limiting the high-speed electronics of the future.

Mots-clés : attosecond science,light matter interaction
Projet ERC : PROTEOMICS4D (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Integrative Biology: from Genes and Genomes to Systems
Entité participante : Board of the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology — Pays : Suisse — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : ETH Zurich
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2208150.0 €

Elements operating in the context of a system generate results that are different from the simple addition of the results of each element. This notion is one of the basic tenants of systems science. In systems biology/medicine complex (disease) phenotypes arise from multiple interacting factors, specifically proteins. Yet, the biochemical and mechanistic base of complex phenotypes remain elusive. An array of powerful genomic technologies including GWAS, WGS, transcriptomics, epigenetic analyses and proteomics have identified numerous factors that contribute to complex phenotypes. It can be expected that over the next few years, genetic factors contributing to specific complex phenotypes will be comprehensively identified, while their interactions will remain elusive. The project “Proteomics 4D: The proteome in context “explores the concept, that complex phenotypes arise from the perturbation of modules of interacting proteins and that these modules integrate seemingly independent genomic variants into a single biochemical response. We will develop and apply a generic technology to directly measure the composition, topology and structure of wild type and genetically perturbed protein modules and relate structural changes to their functional output. This will be achieved by a the integration of quantitative proteomic and phosphoproteomic technologies determining molecular phenotypes, and hybrid structural methods consisting of chemical cross-linking and mass spectrometry, cryoEM and computational data integration to probe structural perturbations. The project will focus initially on the structural and functional effects of cancer associated mutations in protein kinase modules and then generalize to study perturbed modules in any tissue and disease state. The resources supporting this technology will be disseminated to catalyze a broad transformation of biology and molecular medicine towards the analysis of the proteome as a modular entity, the proteome in context.

Mots-clés : genotype phenotype,genotypic variability,protein modules,structure function,kinase complexes
Projet ERC : CHANGINGELITES (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Social World and Its Diversity
Entité participante : University of London — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : U. London
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 38421.25 €

Elites reveal the nature of inequality, allowing us to see the underlying structure of society. But, elites can also be the engines of inequality, driving forward changes ensuring the accumulation of power. So, when the people occupying elite positions change it says something about how the production of inequalities may have changed too. Most would agree (despite the paucity of data) that elites are different today than they were; but, what is contested is whether such changes signal a radical restructuring of the processes of elite formation. Two questions remain unresolved: 1) how has the composition of elites changed over time? and 2) did the major social, political, and economic upheavals of the last 200 years reconfigure elites through altering processes of elite formation? It has been difficult to answer these questions because of limited longitudinal data on elites. CHANGINGELITES will address these questions by creating a catalogue of the elite that is without equal in its empirical and temporal scope. This data set will combine information on education (schools and universities), club membership, parental wealth, economic capital, and family structure for around 120,000 people born since 1800. Alongside this data, we will also conduct 100 interviews with elites born in different periods, illuminating the varied trajectories that underpin this huge historical database. CHANGINGELITES will both shed light on the social composition of elites over time and seek to explain the changes and continuities within elites by exploring how institutional and policy shifts constrain and enable processes of elite reproduction. This ambitious, interdisciplinary study will radically alter our understanding of elite reproduction but, more than this, it will speak to a contradiction seen in many countries recently between the opening up of elite institutions and the massive accumulation of wealth, and in so doing will seek new ways to understand how inequalities are produced.

Mots-clés : elites,gender,education,institutions,policy
Projet ERC : AutoCPS (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Systems and communication engineering
Entité participante : Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : LMU
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1470800.0 €

Embedded Control software plays a critical role in many safety-critical applications. For instance, modern vehicles use interacting software and hardware components to control steering and braking. Control software forms the main core of autonomous transportation, power networks, and aerospace. These applications are examples of cyber-physical systems (CPS), where distributed software systems interact tightly with spatially distributed physical systems with complex dynamics. CPS are becoming ubiquitous due to rapid advances in computation, communication, and memory. However, the development of core control software running in these systems is still ad hoc and error-prone and much of the engineering costs today go into ensuring that control software works correctly. In order to reduce the design costs and guaranteeing its correctness, I aim to develop an innovative design process, in which the embedded control software is synthesized from high-level correctness requirements in a push-button and formal manner. Requirements for modern CPS applications go beyond conventional properties in control theory (e.g. stability) and in computer science (e.g. protocol design). Here, I propose a compositional methodology for automated synthesis of control software by combining compositional techniques from computer science (e.g. assume-guarantee rules) with those from control theory (e.g. small-gain theorems). I will leverage decomposition and abstraction as two key tools to tackle the design complexity, by either breaking the design object into semi-independent parts or by aggregating components and eliminating unnecessary details. My project is high-risk because it requires a fundamental re-thinking of design techniques till now studied in separate disciplines. It is high-gain because a successful method for automated synthesis of control software will make it finally possible to develop complex yet reliable CPS applications while considerably reducing the engineering cost.

Mots-clés : interconnected systems,compositionality,finite abstractions,symbolic control,correct by construction controller synthesis
Projet ERC : MECSPEC (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Cellular, Developmental and Regenerative Biology
Entité participante : Institute of Science and Technology Austria — Pays : Autriche — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : ISTA
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2306862.0 €

Embryogenesis is achieved by the close interplay between the gene regulatory networks that control cell fate specification and the physical processes by which the embryo takes shape. While each of these systems has been extensively investigated over the past decades, comparably little is yet known about how they functionally interact across different scales of organization within the physiological context of the developing embryo. The central aim of this proposal is to elucidate the fundamental principles underlying the interaction and feedback between cell mechanics and fate specification during vertebrate gastrulation. Using zebrafish as a vertebrate model organism, we will explore how germ layer progenitor cell fate specification affects the physical processes by which the gastrula takes shape, and, vice versa, how alterations in cell/tissue mechanics feed back onto the gene regulatory networks and signals controlling progenitor cell fate specification during gastrulation. To dissect the fundamental mechanisms underlying this crosstalk, we will combine genetic, cell biological and biophysical experimentation with mathematical modeling. We expect that this transdisciplinary approach will provide answers to a central yet unresolved question in developmental biology: how the interplay between cell mechanics, dynamics and fate specification drives embryo morphogenesis and patterning.

Mots-clés : cell biology,signal transduction,organogenesis,developmental genetics,pattern formation in plants and animals,stem cell biology
Projet ERC : ICARUS (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Universe sciences
Entité participante : Centre national de la recherche scientifique — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : CNRS
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1747666.99 €

Enabling disruptive technologies has always been crucial to trigger revolutionary science discoveries. The daring challenges in astronomy and astrophysics are extremely demanding in terms of high angular resolution and high contrast imaging, and require extreme stability and image quality. Instruments based on current classical designs tend to get bigger and more complex, and are faced to ever increasing difficulties to meet science requirements. This proposal has the clear objective to propose breakthrough compact optical architectures for the next generation of giant observatories. The project focus on the niche of active components and is structured in two main research pillars to (I) enable the use of additive manufacturing (3D-printing) to produce affordable deformable mirrors for VIS or NIR observations, (II) pave the road for a common use of curved and deformable detectors. Extensive finite element analysis will allow to cover the parameter space and broad prototyping will demonstrate and characterize the performance of such devices. Both pillars are extremely challenging, the fields of detectors and optical fabrication being driven by the market. We will then orientate the activities towards a mass production method. To maximize the impact of this high gain R&D, the pillars are surrounded by two transverse activities: (i) design and optimization of a new zoo of optical systems using active mirrors and flexible detectors, and (ii) build a solid plan of technology transfer to end-user industrial companies, through a patenting and licensing strategy, to maximize the financial return and then perpetuate the activities. The pathway proposed here is mandatory to develop affordable components in the near future, and will enable compact and high performance instrumentation. These high potential activities will dramatically reduce the complexity of instruments in the era of giant observatories, simplify the operability of systems and offer increased performance.

Mots-clés : optical fabrication and testing,active optics,freeforms,curved detectors,innovative focal plane arrays
Projet ERC : FGC (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Computer science and informatics
Entité participante : Bocconi University — Pays : Italie — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2493750.0 €

Encryption and authentication have long been the workhorse of secure systems, but with the shift towards a decentralized mode of data processing, contemporary cryptographic tools such as secure computation and homomorphic encryption are taking center stage. Unlike their “private-key” counterparts, for which efficient candidate instantiations abound, these “public-key” types of primitives rely on a remarkably narrow base of computational hardness assumptions. Developing and understanding new assumptions upon which such primitives can be based is a necessity; the Fine-Grained Cryptography project aims to do exactly that. Traditionally, cryptography has been based on problems for which there is a conjectured exponential complexity gap between the “easy” and “hard” directions; in contrast, we propose to investigate alternatives where the underlying gap is a sufficiently large polynomial. Practically speaking, fixed polynomial gaps should suffice for concrete security parameter instantiations. From a theoretical standpoint, they yield meaningful results even if P = NP -- a scenario in which most cryptography is (asymptotically) broken. While a rich “fine-grained” complexity theory of moderately hard problems has been developed in the past two decades, its consequences to cryptography remain relatively unexplored. Moderately hard problems abound, and many of them enjoy algebraic and combinatorial structure. This, combined with the existence of tools for average-case analysis, points to their promise as a new base for advanced cryptographic applications. Our initial focus will be on lower-level cryptographic primitives, such as one-way functions and public-key encryption. However, we expect our approach to also have direct impact on the feasibility and practical efficiency of higher-level cryptographic tasks, including advanced forms of encryption and even obfuscation.

Mots-clés : cryptography,fine grained complexity,average case hardness,public key encryption,obfuscation