Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : DEGAS (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Earth System Science
Entité participante : Université de Bologne — Pays : Italie — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1999401.0 €

The magnitude and consequences of future climate change depend on how Earth’s climate will respond to atmospheric chemistry alterations – vastly related to human activities. However, the complexity of the climate system makes future scenarios hard to predict. The geological record is our best source of information to constrain these scenarios by studying periods of Earth’s history during which volcanic degassing from outstanding magmatic episodes (Large Igneous Provinces, LIPs) acted as major forcing agents of climate and environmental change. Earth-system models that aim to reconstruct the global consequences of LIPs degassing proliferated in recent years, but they urgently need ground-truth gas emission data. The goal of DEGAS is to offer a new framework for obtaining these data by deconvolving sources and sinks of LIP magmatic volatiles, from the mantle source, across the crustal filter. DEGAS aims to: 1) quantify sulfur and carbon concentrations in LIPs parental magmas, hinging on the S-in-clinopyroxene method, pioneered by the PI; 2) investigate emblematic natural examples of magma-host rock interaction in volcanic basins from a within-sill perspective and with special focus on sulfur; 3) evaluate the role of the “crustal filter” as carbon and sulfur sink, with an unprecedented basin-scale approach. DEGAS investigates carbon and sulfur in LIPs magmas through multiple lenses, from the mineral to the basin-scale, in two natural laboratories, the Skagerrak-centered LIP (Oslo Rift), and the Karoo LIP. Knowing the initial volatile load and the modalities of magma-host-rock interaction is fundamental if we want to gauge the effect of the crustal filter and reconstruct source-sensitive parameters of degassing, such as isotopic signatures. DEGAS will constrain the magmatic side of the intricate volatile exchange between LIP magmas and crust, marking a fundamental step forward towards a full portrait of LIPs degassing, the only past analogue to anthropogenic emissions.

Mots-clés : large igneous provinces,volcanic basins,sulfur,crustal assimilation
Projet ERC : GREASEDLIGHTNING (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Synthetic Chemistry and Materials
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 : 1995621.0 €

-As humankind sets out to move towards a sustainable future, the production of organic commodity and speciality chemicals, drugs and other small molecules of interest will gradually incorporate more biochemical processes. Some of these products may be obtained directly from engineered organisms, while others may be generated ex vivo – either through purely enzymatic processes or by interfacing biological chemistry with organic synthesis. Harnessing the efficiency, selectivity and diversity of enzymatic reactions found in nature is key to reaching the goal of a fully-fledged biobased economy. Some enzymes can carry out demanding reactions that have little or no equivalent in synthetic chemistry. In particular, the ability of certain enzymes to selectively act on unactivated carbon centers has attracted much attention as they can be used to functionalize typically intractable positions with high precision. A particular group of bacteria – Cyanobacteria – tend to incorporate saturated fatty acid-derived moieties into their natural products. In many such structures, we find modifications and decorations that can only be explained by the action of regio- and stereoselective enzymes, many acting on unactivated carbon centers. It is this richness of alkyl-chain modifying biocatalysts that we aim to reveal with this proposal. We will use several unusual structural motifs from acyl moieties in cyanobacterial natural products as starting points for enzyme discovery. These will include C-H bond activating enzymes as well as those acting on C-C bonds. We will bring to light an arsenal of biocatalysts that can be used to selectively functionalize or modify a variety of alkyl chain positions that would otherwise be inaccessible to conventional chemical synthesis. GreasedLightning blends discovery and hypothesis-driven research at the chemistry/biosynthesis interface, drawing on the PI’s experience on the (bio)chemistry of lipidic cyanobacterial metabolites.

Mots-clés : natural products,enzyme discovery,biosynthesis,metagenomics,cyanobacteria
Projet ERC : ANIMETA (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Products and Processes Engineering
Entité participante : Université d'Amsterdam — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UvA
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2936758.75 €

Living materials such as cells, tissues and simple organisms are animate. They autonomously and adaptively navigate their environment and are resilient to damage. Can we take inspiration from Nature and create synthetic animate materials? This dream has now become tangible thanks to major progress in the field of mechanical metamaterials. Metamaterials are composites that exhibit exceptional properties by leveraging geometric effects within their architecture. For example, they exhibit on-demand shape-changes and guide waves unidirectionally. Such functionalities are extremely promising to achieve animacy: pairing unidirectional waves with shape-changes can power locomotion—a crucial aspect of animacy. Yet, the locomotion of such metamaterials remains poorly understood and we lack design principles for their design and control. Therefore, metamaterials cannot locomote in complex and unpredictable terrains.  I propose to overcome these limitations by introducing a new class of shape-changing metamaterials that are non-reciprocal. I will add robotics to the metamaterials toolbox by using distributed sensors, actuators and feedback control to break mechanical reciprocity, viz. Newton’s third law. These non-reciprocal metamaterials are described by asymmetric matrices and tensors and display unidirectional patterns of shape-changes. I will harness these patterns to create three-dimensional metamaterials that can autonomously roll, crawl and jump, and that display optimal locomotion performances in complex and unpredictable terrains.  Just as living materials have deeply integrated and distributed functions, metamaterials will achieve animacy by interweaving shape-changes and non-reciprocity. ANIMETA will blur the boundary between metamaterials and robotics, provide new insights into metamaterial design and pattern formation in a distinctive setting where reciprocity is broken and will bring about new concepts for a new generation of distributed robots.

Mots-clés : mechanical metamaterials,non reciprocity,robotic metamaterials,odd elasticity,robophysics
Projet ERC : QuickBlitz (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Universe Sciences
Entité participante : Université d'Amsterdam — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UvA
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1451676.25 €

Neutron stars are the densest objects in the Universe, but an ongoing mystery is how massive can they get? By examining what happens when two neutron stars merge, we can help unravel this mystery. Some mergers will leave behind a black hole, while others instead make an even more massive neutron star. This massive neutron star will be spinning exceptionally fast and have a huge magnetic field (known as a magnetar). How long this magnetar lives completely depends on its mass, its spin energy and its magnetism. By studying this magnetar, we can learn about the maximum mass of neutron stars and emission mechanisms in extreme environments. By studying emission in X-rays and optical wavelengths following these mergers, we have seen observational features associated with magnetars, but these features are not conclusive. Newly formed magnetars are predicted to give bright, short duration, flashes of coherent radio emission. If the magnetar is too massive, it will collapse to a black hole with its magnetic energy being released as a burst of radio emission – these sources are called Blitzars. Excitingly, I have made a first candidate detection of a radio flash following the likely merger of two neutron stars. The goal of QuickBlitz is to search for coherent radio emission following the merger of two neutron stars, advancing our fundamental understanding of neutron star behaviour at extreme masses and magnetic fields. Neutron star mergers power gravitational wave emission and a short burst of gamma-rays. By automatically triggering on these, QuickBlitz will obtain radio observations that will be used to study the origin and emission mechanism of coherent radio flashes. Many of these mergers are poorly localised, so it is essential to know the underlying population of radio transients to confirm associations between radio transients and neutron star mergers. Thus, QuickBlitz will also conduct a deep legacy survey for radio transients, with durations of seconds to minutes.

Mots-clés : radio astronomy
Projet ERC : ULTIMASero (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Prevention,  Diagnosis and T reatment of Human Diseases
Entité participante : Centre pasteur cameroon — Pays : Cameroun — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : CPC
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 250000.0 €

Enormous progress is being made in the fight against parasitic diseases such as malaria in sub-Saharan Africa, which is driving a long-term epidemiological shift in the burden of infectious diseases. Until recently, most febrile patients presenting to rural health facilities were presumptively treated for malaria. However, the decline in malaria cases coupled with the roll out of rapid diagnostic tests has revealed a substantial burden of non-malaria fevers. I hypothesise that the predominant disease burden in Africa is changing from parasites to viruses, and that the diversity of infecting pathogens is increasing over time.  ULTIMASero aims to investigate long-term trends in the epidemiology of infectious diseases by taking a multi-pathogen approach using multiplex serological and molecular assays, epidemiological studies, and statistical modelling. This will be achieved through four aims: (i) Investigate febrile patients in longitudinal studies in Senegal, Cameroon, and Madagascar; (ii) Develop a multiplex serological assay for viral, parasitic, and bacterial pathogens in Africa; (iii) Create statistical and machine learning tools for multiplex data; and (iv) Implement sero-epidemiological analyses of long-term trends in infectious disease in general populations.  The key technological output will be a multiplex serological assay using Luminex bead-based technology to measure antibodies to infectious diseases transmitted in Africa. The assay will test small volume blood samples for antibodies to >300 antigens from >100 pathogens. We will test samples from prospective cohorts of febrile patients to provide an in-depth assessment of the burden of febrile illness, and from 50,000 biobanked samples dating back over 30 years to assess long-term trends in multi-pathogen epidemiology in the general population.  The knowledge generated from this interdisciplinary project will have major implications for how we study, track, prevent and treat febrile illness in Africa.

Mots-clés : infectious disease epidemiology serological diagnostics malaria statistical models machine learning surveillance fever
Projet ERC : RELANTRA (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Mathematics
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 : 1409559.0 €

The Langlands program is a web of vast and far-reaching conjectures connecting seemingly distinct areas of mathematics that are number theory and representation theory. At the heart of this program lies an important principle called functoriality, that postulates the existence of deep relations between the automorphic representations of different groups, as well as related central analytic objects called automorphic L-functions. Recently, a new and particularly promising way to look at these notions, and that has come to be called the relative Langlands program, has emerged. It essentially consists in replacing groups by certain homogeneous spaces and to study their automorphic or local spectra. As for the usual Langlands program, trace formulas are essential tools in the relative setting both to tackle new conjectures than to deepen our understanding of the underlying principles. A main theme of this proposal would be to make fundamental new contributions to the development of these central objects in the local setting notably by: (1) Studying systematically the spectral expansions of certain simple versions especially in the presence of an outer automorphism (twisted trace formula) (2) Developing far-reaching local relative trace formulas for general spherical varieties making in particular original new connections to the geometry of cotangent bundles. These progress would then be applied to establish new and important instances of relative Langlands correspondences/functorialities. In a slightly different but related direction, I also aim to study and develop other important tools of harmonic analysis in a relative context, including Plancherel formulas and new kind of Paley-Wiener theorems, with possible applications to new global comparison of trace formulas and factorization of automorphic periods.

Mots-clés : automorphic forms langlands program l functions trace formula harmonic analysis
Projet ERC : ReticulOme (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System
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 : 1998045.0 €

The execution of coordinated and adaptive movements is the final manifestation of virtually all brain processes. Altered motor function is hence an associate feature of almost all conditions that affect the nervous system and is highly debilitating. This program will shed new light on the neuronal basis of movements with a focus on the cooperative roles of the brain and the spinal cord for composing and orchestrating multifaceted and adaptive motor behaviors. Reticulospinal (RS) neurons of the brainstem reticular formation (RF) are pivotal for controlling the most vital movements. They have long been seen as a unified relay of command signals from various integrative centers upstream, to most, if not all, “executory” motor circuits downstream. Yet, based on recent findings and our ongoing work, we posit that RS neurons rather exhibit a substantial diversity and specialization by inputs and outputs that may support a form of selection and mixing of unitary components of composite motor behaviors. Imprinting from the advent of “multi-omics” strategies in the mouse model, we will intersect functional connectomics and single-cell gene expression (the transcriptome) to achieve a most comprehensive characterization of RS neurons’ diversity, specialization, and interactions with their upstream and downstream brain areas. We will first investigate the anatomo-functional organization of an already circumscribed subset of RS neurons for orchestrating orienting motor actions. We will in parallel investigate the role and connectivity of other RS neurons, and provide genetic hallmarks of new functionally-relevant subsets. Our results will propel forward our understanding of the complex organization of the RF, its role in orchestrating composite movements, and its links with the rest of the brain. They will also provide new genetic hallmarks of RS neurons’ diversity which will be precious handles to ultimately examine and act on specific cell types in post-traumatic contexts.

Mots-clés : motor control neuronal circuits spinal cord brainstem reticular formation reticulospinal neurons optogenetics calcium imaging synaptic viral tracings
Projet ERC : EUNICE (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Human Mobility, Environment, and Space
Entité participante : CMCC Foundation - Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change — Pays : Italie — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : CMCC
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 265000.0 €

Mathematical models have become central tools in global environmental assessments. To serve society well, climate change stabilization assessments need to capture the uncertainties of the deep future, be statistically sound and track near-term disruptions. Up to now, conceptual, computational and data constraints have limited the quantification of uncertainties of climate stabilization pathways to a narrow set, focused on the current century. The statistical interpretation of scenarios generated by multi-model ensembles is problematic due to availability biases and model dependencies. Scenario plausibility assessments are scant. Simplified, single-objective decision criteria frameworks are used to translate decarbonization uncertainties into decision rules whose understanding is not validated.  EUNICE aims to transform the methodological and experimental foundations of model-based climate assessments through quantification and debiasing of uncertainties in climate stabilization pathways. Our approach is threefold: construct, consolidate and convert. We first apply simulation and statistical methods for extending scenarios into the deep future (beyond the current century and status quo), quantifying and attributing deep uncertainties. We consolidate model ensembles through machine learning and human ingenuity to eliminate statistical biases, pin down near-term correlates of long-term targets, and identify early signals of scenario plausibility through prediction polls. Finally, we use decision-theoretic methods to convert model-generated maps of the future into resilient recommendations and experimentally test how to communicate them effectively. By advancing the state of the art in mathematical modelling, statistics, and behavioural decision-making, we strengthen the scientific basis of climate assessments, such as those of the IPCC. The approach and insights of EUNICE can be applied to other high-stakes environmental, social and technological evaluations.

Mots-clés : climate change mitigation climate emission pathways model ensembles uncertainty quantification uncertainty communication behavioural science
Projet ERC : REASSESS (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Earth System Science
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 : 2960956.0 €

Over just three decades, the Greenland Ice Sheet contribution to sea-level rise has grown six-fold. Increased basal slipperiness from increased surface melt was initially proposed as a key mechanism reinforcing ice loss, but a wealth of studies deconstructed this idea, leading the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to conclude that increased surface melt “has not led to sustained increases in glacier flux”. Last year, however, my group re-established meltwater as a primary mechanism driving ice dynamics, albeit in a different manner than previously envisioned. Basal slipperiness is not set by melt rates but by ice-sheet morphology, which drives low slipperiness in steep and fast glaciers that terminate into the ocean, and high slipperiness in gentle and slow glaciers that terminate on land. As a result, a previously unforeseen meltwater-ice dynamics feedback potentially drives a higher than anticipated mass loss as glaciers transition from marine- to land-terminating in the future. In this project, I plan to REASSESS the control of surface meltwater on ice loss from the changed paradigm that glacier morphology rather than melt rates controls its impact. (AIM1) will probe the mechanisms responsible for the morphology control on basal slipperiness by overcoming long-lasting observational challenges through an innovative seismologically- and geodetically-based monitoring scheme exporting recently established proofs of concept for the first time to Greenland. (AIM2) will predict the control of meltwater on ice-sheet evolution from incorporating the new observational insights from AIM1 into a hierarchy of small-scale physical to large-scale parametrized models. With this strategy, we will, for the first time, fully evaluate the dynamical response of the Greenland Ice Sheet to surface meltwater and its impact on sea-level variations under deglaciation as inferred in the past and expected over the coming centuries.

Mots-clés : ice sheet dynamics,subglacial hydrology,basal friction,seismology,geodesy,geophysics,instrumentation,modelling,climate change,sea level
Projet ERC : AUTISMS-3D (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Human Mind and Its Compl exity
Entité participante : Italian Institute of Technology — Pays : Italie — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1220875.0 €

Autism is an early developing condition diagnosed on the basis of difficulties in the domains of social-communication and restricted repetitive behaviors. However, the single label of ‘autism’ masks a large degree of heterogeneity at multiple scales, from genome to phenome, and may not signal differential needs and services required for some types of profoundly affected individuals. In order to better understand autism and develop more impactful ways to facilitate positive outcomes at an individualized-level, we need better models that help to explain how autism may be differentiated in meaningful ways that help explain variability in developmental paths, responses to treatment, and differential underlying neurobiological mechanisms. This research program develops and tests the AUTISMS-3D model – disability versus difference over development - as a first-level major distinction for explaining heterogeneity within the autism population. AUTISMS-3D postulates that the major first-level split within the autism population is between subtypes described by profound disability versus difference in developmental outcomes. Stratification models using standardized clinical measures of intellectual functioning, language, and adaptive behavior will be used to predict ‘disability’ versus ‘difference’ subtypes. These stratification models are based on highly reproducible data-driven clustering analyses from very large phenotypic datasets. We will then test how the subtypes may develop differently with analyses of big clinical longitudinal datasets and also within the context of early intervention. Finally, we will test the subtypes for neurobiological differences via neuroimaging (MRI, fMRI, DTI) and electrophysiological (EEG) and gaze phenotypes (e.g., eye tracking) under static and naturalistic viewing conditions. The research will help refine our understanding and concepts of autism and will be an important next step on the path to precision medicine for the autisms.

Mots-clés : autism,heterogeneity,precision medicine,neuroimaging,electrophysiology,eye tracking,early intervention