Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : MUSTANG (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Universe sciences
Entité participante : Heidelberg University — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : Partner
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1273078.81 €

One of the fundamental questions in modern astrophysics is how gas is converted into stars during galaxy formation, and how this may have changed with galactic environment and cosmic time. It is widely accepted that the unknown physics of star formation (SF) in molecular clouds and feedback from massive stars represent the main uncertainties in our understanding of galaxy formation. The key open questions are: which physical mechanisms govern the time-evolution of gas towards SF and its subsequent expulsion by feedback? How do these physics change with environment or cosmic time? How did the most extreme stellar systems in the Universe (i.e. globular clusters) form at high redshift? How do the cloud-scale physics of SF and feedback connect cold dark matter cosmology to the observable galaxy population? It is now possible to answer these questions thanks to two crucial developments. (1) The latest generation of billion-euro observatories allow the necessary observational data to be taken. (2) The techniques needed to solve the problem have been developed, tested, and validated, through major theoretical efforts that I have led. These developments position me ideally to answer the above questions with a unique combination of world-leading observational data, fundamental theory, innovative analysis techniques, and state-of-the-art simulations. I will use these to formulate a multi-scale description of SF and feedback, focussing on the cloud-scale physics and advancing the field beyond the phenomenology of galactic scaling relations. I will introduce an empirically-motivated, physical model for cloud-scale SF and feedback in galaxy formation simulations, thereby overcoming their main limitation and making the crucial step of linking the observable galaxy population to cold dark matter cosmology. This ambitious programme bridges observations, theory, and simulations, and can only be realised with the human resources provided by an ERC Starting Grant.

Mots-clés : star formation,galaxy formation and evolution,globular cluster formation and evolution,galactic archaeology,interstellar medium,cloud formation and evolution,observations,numerical simulations
Projet ERC : srEDM (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Fundamental constituents of matter
Entité participante : University of Ferrara — Pays : Italie — Rôle : Partner
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 628160.0 €

One of the great mysteries in the natural sciences is the dominance of matter over antimatter in the universe. According to our present understanding, the early universe contained the same amount of matter and antimatter. If the universe had behaved symmetrically as it developed, every particle would have been annihilated by one of its antiparticles. We therefore owe our very existence to mechanisms that have led to a world where something that we call matter remains. We propose to study such mechanisms by searching for electric dipole moments (EDMs) of charged hadrons in a new class of precision storage rings. Our project will lay the foundations for a new European flagship research infrastructure. The breaking of the combined charge conjugation and parity symmetries (CP-violation) in the Standard Model is not strong enough to explain the observed excess of matter and further sources of CP-violation must be sought. These sources could manifest themselves in Electric Dipole Moments of elementary particles, which occur when the centroids of positive and negative charges are mutually and permanently displaced. The observation of an electric dipole moment will elucidate the mechanisms which led to the matter that dominates the universe. Although the measurement principle, the time development of the polarization vector subject to a perpendicular electric field, is simple, the smallness of the effect makes this an enormously challenging project. This can only be mastered through the common effort of an international team of accelerator and particle physicists, working closely with engineers. The proponents of this design study and the research environment at the Forschungszentrum Jülich (Germany), including the conventional storage ring COSY, provide the optimal basis for one of the most spectacular possibilities in modern science: finding an EDM as a signal for new physics beyond the Standard Model and perhaps explaining the puzzle of our existence.
Projet ERC : Emergent-BH (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Fundamental constituents of matter
Entité participante : Commissariat à l’énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : CEA
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1495476.0 €

One of the greatest challenges of theoretical physics is to understand the fundamental nature of gravity and how it is reconciled with quantum mechanics. Black holes indicate that gravity is holographic, i.e. it is emergent, together with some of the spacetime dimensions, from a lower-dimensional field theory. The emergence mechanism has just started to be understood in certain special contexts, such as AdS/CFT. However, very little is known about it for the spacetime backgrounds relevant to the real world, due mainly to our lack of knowledge of the underlying field theories. My goal is to uncover the fundamental nature of spacetime and gravity in our universe by: i) formulating and working out the properties of the relevant lower-dimensional field theories and ii) studying the mechanism by which spacetime and gravity emerge from them. I will adress the first problem by concentrating on the near-horizon regions of maximally spinning black holes, for which the dual field theories greatly simplify and can be studied using a combination of conformal field theory and string theory methods. To study the emergence mechanism, I plan to adapt the tools that were succesfully used to understand emergent gravity in anti de-Sitter (AdS) spacetimes - such as holographic quantum entanglement and conformal bootstrap - to non-AdS, more realistic spacetimes.

Mots-clés : black holes,holography
Projet ERC : SLAM-Dx (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Proof of concept grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Physiology in Health, Disease and Ageing
Entité participante : Research Institute of Molecular Pathology — Pays : Autriche — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : IMP
Type d'entité : Organismes privés (hors enseignement)
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

One of the greatest challenges today is to select the right drug for the right patient at the right time. A lack of diagnostic tools for predicting therapy response currently hampers patient-tailored treatment decisions in the clinic with severe implications for economy and – most importantly – patient survival. Profiling transcriptional responses to drug treatment is a key method for probing the activity of targeted therapeutics and guiding their use in the clinic. A major limitation of established gene expression profiling techniques (such as microarrays and RNA-seq) is their limited time resolution precluding the distinction of direct from secondary transcriptional responses to drug therapy. This hampers their utility for deciphering drug action and guiding patient-tailored treatment decisions. To overcome this problem, as part of an ERC-StG project (Systematic in-vivo analysis of chromatin-associated targets in leukemia, 336860) I have co-developed thiol(SH)-linked alkylation for the metabolic sequencing of RNA (SLAMseq) as a rapid, robust and highly scalable method for the unbiased quantification of changes in mRNA production upon cell perturbations. Its unique features (low input cell numbers, short treatment-to-sample time, 1-day protocol library preparation in 96-well format) may qualify SLAMseq as the first method to probe the function, efficacy and selectivity of candidate therapeutics in primary (tumor) cells with unprecedented precision and on a large scale. In this ERC-PoC project, I propose to establish technical and commercial proof-of-concept for SLAMseq’s application in preclinical and clinical drug development and optimization, and for patient-tailored treatment selection. Upon the successful proof-of-concept for SLAMseq’s application as diagnostic tool, SLAM-Dx has the potential to revolutionize translational research and personalised medicine in a variety of disease areas.

Mots-clés : slamseq,drug response,diagnostic,personalised medicine,drug development
Projet ERC : Ocean-DAS (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Proof of concept grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Systems and communication engineering
Entité participante : University of Alcalá — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

One of the greatest outstanding challenges in seismology is the sparsity of instrumentation across Earth’s oceans. Poor spatial coverage results in biases and low-resolution regions in global tomography models as well as significant location uncertainty for offshore seismicity. Also, the lack of significant seismic instrumentation offshore makes it more complicated to have reliable early warning systems capable of mitigating some of the disastrous consequences of tsunamis. Ocean-bottom seismometers (OBS) are indeed available, but they are generally very expensive and limited by rapid data telemetry and battery life except in near-shore environments. The aim of this proposal is to provide a low-cost deployable solution (basically inexistent so far) for monitoring seismicity in remote areas of the ocean. The idea would be to retrofit existing telecommunication optical fiber cables lying in the ocean and transform them (with no basic change in the cable itself) into powerful seismic sensing arrays. With a single optoelectronic unit in the end of the cable (onshore), a full span of 50 km or more could be monitored, with thousands of measuring points interrogated. The proposed solution would be much cheaper than current alternatives and could easily allow deploying a large number of these sensor arrays, particularly in currently unmonitored areas. Moreover, all the fibre-optic cables used worldwide for communications are suitable for our proposed sensor, hence the same installation methodology could be exported to a large number of scenarios. The proposed solution has been pinpointed by prestigious seismology laboratories worldwide (Caltech Seismology Lab, GFZ Postdam, GeoAzur Nice) as a system with a great potential for adoption in the seismological field. A suitable demonstrator will be developed along the project and will be field tested in collaboration with GeoAzur Nice, in an underwater cable in the coast of Greece.

Mots-clés : ocean bottom seismometry,distributed optical fibre sensors,early warning of tsunamis
Projet ERC : AutoProbe (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Computer science and informatics
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 : 2000000.0 €

One of the longstanding challenges in Computer Science has been the development of methods and tools providing rigorous guarantees about systems’ behavior, performance, and security. There have been many successes in overcoming this challenge, notably the invention and widespread use of model checking. However, existing methods are impaired by the tension between the need of fast developing systems and the slowdown caused by the complexity of providing a model against which running systems can be verified. Automata learning – automated discovery of automata models from system observations such as test logs – is emerging as a highly effective bug-finding technique with applications in verification of bank cards and basic network communication protocols. The design of algorithms for automata learning is a fundamental research problem and in the last years much progress has been made in developing and understanding of new algorithms (including the PI’s own work). Yet, existing algorithms do not support crucial quantitative or concurrency aspects that are essential in modelling properties such as network congestion and fault-tolerance. The central objective of this project is to develop a new verification framework that enables automated model- based verification for probabilistic and concurrent systems, motivated by applications in networks. We will provide active learning algorithms, in the style of Angluin’s seminal L* algorithm, for automata models that were so far too complex to be tackled. We will base our development on rigorous semantic foundations, developed by the PI in recent years, which provide correctness for the algorithms in a modular way. The project will significantly advance model-based verification in new and previously unexplored directions. This line of research will not only result in fundamental theoretical contributions and insights in their own right but will also impact the practice of concurrent and probabilistic network verification.

Mots-clés : active automata learning,probabilistic automata,weighted automata,probabilistic network verification
Projet ERC : NEST (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Products and processes engineering
Entité participante : Spanish National Research Council — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : CSIC
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1999965.0 €

One of the major challenges in modern society is the early diagnosis and treatment of diseases. Cancer is one of the most relevant diseases worldwide because of its incidence, prevalence and mortality. During the past decades, considerable efforts have been devoted to understand the origin of the disease, find early detection methods that could improve the survival rate of cancer patients or develop treatments and devices that could reduce or eradicate cancer. The application of nanotechnology to medicine (nanomedicine) has become one of the most promising routes for the diagnosis and treatment of diseases. The small size of nanomaterials, large surface area and high reactivity impart unique physicochemical properties to these materials, in such a way that several therapeutics based on nanomaterials (liposomes, nanoparticles, polymers) have already been approved for clinical use in humans. However, there are still limitations that need to be overcome to obtain novel and efficient nanocarriers for oncology applications. NEST presents an innovative approach that aims to engineer ultra-sensitive imaging and therapeutic agents. An unprecedented amount of ‘hot’ radionuclides, in the form of crystals, will be hermetically sealed in the interior of hollow nanostructures (seeds), thus preventing leakage and interaction of the radionuclides with the biological milieu. The in vivo fate will thus be merely governed by the nanocarrier and will be alien to the encaged radionuclides. Rational engineering of the nanoseeds in terms of size, shape and surface properties will be employed to tune their pharmacokinetic profile and biodistribution, including tumour targeting. The large amount of radionuclides encased in each of the seeds is expected to allow a more personalised treatment of cancer and ultra-sensitive imaging, for an early diagnosis.

Mots-clés : nanocomposites,inorganic seeds,ceramic particles,metal particles,encasing,cancer therapy,diagnosis
Projet ERC : QUESTDO (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Condensed matter physics
Entité participante : University of St Andrews — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1999825.0 €

One of the most active challenges of modern solid state physics and chemistry is harnessing the unique and varied physical properties of transition-metal oxides. From improved electrodes for solar cells to loss-less transmission of power, these compounds hold the potential to transform our daily lives. Subtle collective quantum states underpin their diverse properties. These complicate their physical understanding but render them extremely sensitive to their local crystalline environment, offering enormous potential to tune their functional behaviour. To date, the vast majority of work has focussed on transition-metal oxides based around cubic “perovskite” building blocks. In contrast, exploiting the layered traingular network of the delafossite structure, the QUESTDO project aims to establish delafossite oxides as a completely novel class of interacting electron system with properties and potential not known in more established systems. Its scope bridges three of the most important current themes in condensed matter, investigating and controlling the delicate interplay of (i) frustrated triangular and honeycomb lattice geometries, (ii) interacting electrons, and (iii) effects of strong spin-orbit interactions. It brings together advanced spectroscopic measurement with precise materials fabrication. Through these studies, QUESTDO promises critical new insight on the quantum many-body problem in solids, and will advance our understanding and demonstrate atomic-scale control of the physical properties of delafossites. Ultimately, it seeks to establish new design methodologies for the targeted creation of emergent and topological phases in this little-studied family of transition-metal oxides, paving the route for their further study and ultimate application.

Mots-clés : delafossite oxides,angle resolved photoemission,frustrated systems,spin orbit coupling,heterostructures
Projet ERC : U-SPEC (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Institut Català d'Investigació Química — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : ICIQ;ICIQ-CERCA
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

One of the most appealing opportunities in the field of Materials Science is the development of multifunctionality. Thus, it is becoming crucial to characterize materials upon acting on more than one physical property at a time. Magnetoelectric, photomagnetic or photoelectric phenomena are some of the bases of future technologies. Most of the equipment available nowadays for materials characterization includes options to study materials (magnetic, electric, etc.) under light irradiation. However, the effect of temperature or magnetic fields upon light-matter interactions is not commonly studied due to the intrinsic difficulties of such a set-up. We have designed a novel insertion probe (U-SPEC), which allows collecting transmitted light through a sample in a cryogenic confined environment. Our probe can be adjusted and used with any cryogenic equipment (using nitrogen or helium as carrier, or under high vacuum). We have validated its correct function in the 1.7 - 400 K range and under magnetic fields up to 7 T. In these conditions, U-SPEC allows studying UV-Vis and IR spectroscopy, but also dichroic phenomena, since it is able to maintain light polarization. Such features are unparalleled in the market place of scientific instrumentation, and confer to our invention high commercial value. Our aim is to develop a product concept, protect the intellectual property, and design a business model to bring our technology to market. Beyond the commercial interest, U-SPEC will also have a strong scientific impact in the long term. The availability to gather spectroscopic experimental data in such a controlled environment, routinely, represents a breakthrough in materials science. Nowadays, such studies are exclusively accessible to few specialized groups around the world. U-SPEC will bring extraordinary capabilities to standard labs and research institutions.

Mots-clés : spectroscopy,cryogenics,materials science
Projet ERC : cenRNA (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions
Entité participante : Karlsruhe Institute of Technology — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : KIT
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 0.0 €

One of the most astonishing processes in the life of a cell is the division into two daughter cells. Such a highly organized process would presumably be regulated tightly by the underlying centromeric DNA sequence; however, the sites of chromosome attachment to the microtubule spindle are regulated by epigenetic mechanisms. The best-characterized epigenetic mark for centromeres is the histone H3-variant CENP-A, which replaces H3 in some of the nucleosomes within centromeric chromatin. Centromeres are embedded in pericentromeric heterochromatin and it has become apparent in recent years that heterochromatin is transcribed into non-coding RNAs. We have recently shown that a long non-coding RNA from pericentromeric heterochromatin of the X chromosome (SATIII) in Drosophila melanogaster localizes in trans to centromeres of all other chromosomes and is an essential component for correct loading and maintenance of CENP-A and, therefore, genome stability. Additional RNAs in Drosophila and RNAs from other species have been linked to centromeric chromatin, but their function is not understood. We propose that a complex, RNA-based epigenetic mechanism regulates centromere establishment and function. This proposal is designed to the precise function of SATIII RNA by identifying the associated protein complexes as well as structural and post-transcriptional features of SATIII. We will evaluate the mechanisms by which SATIII functions as a heritable mark of centromeres through generations, during the developing germ line, and species separation. In parallel, we will systematically identify and characterize centromere-associated RNAs (cenRNAs) in Drosophila and human cells. We will elucidate their function in centromere biology and chromosome segregation, essentially as we have done and propose to do for SATIII. These experiments are designed to provide a detailed understanding of the essential, RNA-based epigenetic regulation of centromeres.

Mots-clés : centromeres,non coding rna,heterochromatin