Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : EXTORT (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Social World and Its Diversity
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 : 2055718.75 €

Extortion had come to occupy a quintessential position in the global imaginary of mafia-type-criminal organizations. Yet it is also increasingly present beyond clandestine criminal networks and is becoming a normalised profitable source of livelihood and governance and a key visible social relation in many parts of the world. Systematic research on and explanatory models for the apparent expansion and rountinisation of extortion in everyday life (including cyber-extortion) are currently lacking. Timely, the project sets up extortion as an object of anthropological inquiry and charts the first comprehensive cross-cultural account of extortion in social life across South and East Asia, the Americas, Africa and Europe. The proposed program of work consists of 5 main components: 1) Primary research on ‘offers that cannot be refused' across different domains of life in and across 22 settings; 2) Analytical and theoretical development in the study of power, consent and organized crime; 3) Methodological innovation by conducting a simultaneous cross-national ethnographic research and adding a South-to-South comparative angle in an area dominated by single case studies and a focus on the Global North; 4) Capability enhancement by forging an international network of scholars in the emerging field of the anthropology of crime and supporting the careers of the project's 5 Post-docs; 5) Policy relevant research in the fields of violence and consent, organized crime, informal economy and development. The study capitalises on previous research and skills of the PI in the cross-cultural study of bossism, politics and kinship and 'mafias' in the global South. Research will be embedded in anthropology but informed by empirical and analytical questions relevant to criminology, political science, economics and development studies.

Mots-clés : violence  force,intimidation,consent,protection,power,informal,criminal economies,governance,organized crime
Projet ERC : ReservoirDOCs (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Environmental Biology, Ecology and Evolution
Entité participante : KU Leuven — Pays : Belgique — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : KUL
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1311279.14 €

Extracted evolutionary and epidemiological information from pathogen genomes has grown into an important instrument across infectious disease research. By harnessing such information, molecular epidemiologists aim to shed light on the origin and epidemic history of pathogens, from reservoir dynamics to emergence and adaptation to new hosts, and their spatiotemporal spread. However, despite the revolution in genome sequencing technologies and advances in statistical methodology, key questions about pathogen emergence and establishment in human populations remain unresolved for major viral epidemics. When confronted with new viral outbreaks, such as the recent devastating Ebola virus epidemic, we also struggle to deploy these technologies in a systematic and concerted way despite a critical need to support public health interventions. In this project, we propose to unravel crucial steps in the emergence and establishment of key viral pathogens. We will scrutinise the reservoir dynamics of HCV by sequencing complete hepacivirus genomes from infected samples emerging from a large-scale screening of African rodents, and analyze the cross-species transmission history using novel evolutionary methods that accommodate spatial and temporal variability in selective pressures. To test hypotheses about the early establishment of HIV-1, we will carve a genomic window into the past epidemic history of the virus by integrating molecular work on archival samples from Central Africa and on samples representative of the current HIV-1 diversity, with the development of ancestral recombination graphs that accommodate dated tips and spatial diffusion, as well as population dynamic models that incorporate epidemiological information. Finally, we will take the recent Ebola epidemic in West Africa as a model to develop high-performance statistical approaches for extracting practical and timely epidemiological information from virus genome sequences during epidemics as they unfold.

Mots-clés : emerging infectious diseases,molecular epidemiology,bayesian inference
Projet ERC : FACETS (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Cultures and cultural production
Entité participante : University of Turin — Pays : Italie — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UNITO
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1872803.0 €

FACETS studies the meaning of the face in contemporary visual cultures. There are two complementary research foci: widespread practices of face exhibition in social networks like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Tinder; and minority practices of occultation, including the mask in anti-establishment political activism (e.g., Anonymous) and in anti-surveillance artistic provocation (e.g., Leonardo Selvaggio). Arguably, the meaning of the human face is currently changing on a global scale: through the invention and diffusion of new visual technologies (e.g., digital photography, visual filters, as well as software for automatic face recognition); through the creation and establishment of novel genres of face representation (e.g., the selfie); and through new approaches to face perception, reading, and memorization (e.g., the ‘scrolling’ of faces on Tinder). Cognitions, emotions, and actions that people attach to the interaction with one’s and others’ faces might soon be undergoing dramatic shifts. In FACETS, an interdisciplinary but focused approach combines visual history, semiotics, phenomenology, visual anthropology, but also face perception studies and collection, analysis, and social contextualization of big data, so as to study the cultural and technological causes of these changes and their effects in terms of alterations in self-perception and communicative interaction. In the tension between, on the one hand, political and economic agencies pressing for increasing disclosure, detection, and marketing of the human face (for reasons of security and control, for commercial or bureaucratic purposes) and, on the other hand, the counter-trends of face occultation (writers and artists like Banksy, Ferrante, Sia, or Christopher Sievey / Frank Sidebottom choosing not to reveal their faces), the visual syntax, the semantics, and the pragmatics of the human face are rapidly evolving. FACETS carries on an innovative, cross-disciplinary survey of this phenomenon.

Mots-clés : face,digital sphere,visual history,visual studies,face perception studies,visual semiotics,visual anthropology,digital social networks studies,art history,art theory,phenomenology
Projet ERC : FLOS (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Cultures and cultural production
Entité participante : Ca' Foscari University of Venice — Pays : Italie — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1343175.0 €

FLOS will focus on the metamorphoses of Greek Christian thought in Syriac (Aramaic) and Arabic in Late Antiquity, within the timeframe of the first millennium CE. Syriac Christianity was a pivotal mediator of culture in the Late Antique epistemic space, but is little-known today. FLOS aims to bring to light for the first time a body of highly relevant Syriac and Christian Arabic sources that have hardly ever been studied before. At the end of the millennium, in Islamic-ruled Syria, Mesopotamia, and Iran, Syriac Christians strived to define their religious identity. One of their strategies was the production of florilegia, i.e. anthologies that they used to excerpt and reinvent the patristic canon, a corpus of Greek Christian works of the 2nd–6th centuries shared by European and Middle Eastern Christian cultures. A Greco-centric bias has prevented scholars from viewing these florilegia as laboratories of cultural creativity. FLOS will reverse the state of the art through two groundbreaking endeavours: 1) open-access digital editions of a set of Syriac florilegia of the 8th–10th centuries; 2) a study of many neglected writings of Syriac and Christian Arabic authors of the 8th–11th centuries. These tremendously important writings drew from Syriac patristic florilegia to pinpoint topics like incarnation and the Trinity against other Christians or Islam, showing how patristic sources were used to create new knowledge for the entangled environment of the Abbasid era. FLOS will thus dramatically improve our understanding of the cultural dynamics of Late Antiquity; patristic Christianity will emerge as a bridge between the intellectual history of Europe and of the Middle East. By studying how this shared patrimony was transformed in situations of interreligious interaction, especially with Islam, FLOS will facilitate the comprehension of Europe’s current religious discourses, and the preservation of the endangered cultural heritage of the Syriac Christians.

Mots-clés : eastern christian studies,entangled cultural dynamics in late antiquity
Projet ERC : FOODCULT (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The study of the human past
Entité participante : National University of Ireland — Pays : Irlande — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : NUI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 224672.2 €

FOODCULT is the first project to establish both the fundamentals of everyday diet, and the cultural ‘meaning’ of food and drink, in early modern Ireland. Exploring the period 1550-1650, one of major economic development, unprecedented intercultural contact, but also of conquest, colonisation and war, it focusses on Ireland as a case-study for understanding the role of food in the demonstration and negotiation of authority and power, and as a site for the development of emergent ‘national’ food cultures. Moving well beyond the colonial narrative of Irish social and economic development, however, it enlarges the study of food to examine neglected themes in Irish historiography, including gender, class, kinship and religious identities, as expressed through the consumption and exchange of food and drink. Taking advantage of recent archaeological discoveries and the unprecedented accessibility of the archaeological evidence, the project develops a ground-breaking interdisciplinary approach, merging micro-historical analytical techniques with science and experimental archaeology, to examine what was eaten, where, why and by whom, at a level of detail deemed impossible for Irish history. Such questions will be explored in a comparative British Isles context, situating Irish developments within a broader analytical framework, whilst moving English food historiography beyond its current insular focus. As a corollary, the project will produce the first major database of diet-related archaeological evidence for this period Mapping Diet: Comparative Food-Ways in Early Modern Ireland, while making accessible the only existing household accounts, a hugely significant, and previously overlooked, quantitative and qualitative source for dietary trends. These resources will shed light, not just on consumption patterns, but on Ireland’s broader economic and social development, whilst significantly furthering research agendas in early modern historical and archaeological scholarship.

Mots-clés : interdisciplinary approaches to consumption,history and archaeology of food and nutrition
Projet ERC : FOODCULT (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The study of the human past
Entité participante : Trinity College Dublin — Pays : Irlande — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : TCD
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 905088.04 €

FOODCULT is the first project to establish both the fundamentals of everyday diet, and the cultural ‘meaning’ of food and drink, in early modern Ireland. Exploring the period 1550-1650, one of major economic development, unprecedented intercultural contact, but also of conquest, colonisation and war, it focusses on Ireland as a case-study for understanding the role of food in the demonstration and negotiation of authority and power, and as a site for the development of emergent ‘national’ food cultures. Moving well beyond the colonial narrative of Irish social and economic development, however, it enlarges the study of food to examine neglected themes in Irish historiography, including gender, class, kinship and religious identities, as expressed through the consumption and exchange of food and drink. Taking advantage of recent archaeological discoveries and the unprecedented accessibility of the archaeological evidence, the project develops a ground-breaking interdisciplinary approach, merging micro-historical analytical techniques with science and experimental archaeology, to examine what was eaten, where, why and by whom, at a level of detail deemed impossible for Irish history. Such questions will be explored in a comparative British Isles context, situating Irish developments within a broader analytical framework, whilst moving English food historiography beyond its current insular focus. As a corollary, the project will produce the first major database of diet-related archaeological evidence for this period Mapping Diet: Comparative Food-Ways in Early Modern Ireland, while making accessible the only existing household accounts, a hugely significant, and previously overlooked, quantitative and qualitative source for dietary trends. These resources will shed light, not just on consumption patterns, but on Ireland’s broader economic and social development, whilst significantly furthering research agendas in early modern historical and archaeological scholarship.

Mots-clés : interdisciplinary approaches to consumption,history and archaeology of food and nutrition
Projet ERC : DYNAMIC (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Environmental Biology, Ecology and Evolution
Entité participante : Centre national de la recherche scientifique — Pays : France — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : CNRS
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 180303.75 €

Facing the therapeutic impasse of antibiotics, farming systems, among which aquaculture, should consider the extraordinary resource of phages, the natural bacterial predators, for environmental friendly practices. It is, however, crucial to understand how phages can control pathogens in a sustainable and safety manner. The goal of this project is to shed light on key ecological and evolutionary processes underlying phage-bacteria dynamics in the marine environment. An oyster bacterial pathogen, Vibrio crassostreae and its infecting phages will be used as model system to investigate the molecular bases and evolution of phage infections in nature. Based on a field approach, we will determine whether phages influence V. crassostreae dynamics in the wild by reducing bacterial density via predation and if co-evolution applies in this natural system. Combining comparative and functional genomics we will identify genes involved in the phage host range, host resistance, and phage–host coevolution. Exploring phage-vibrio interactions in culture, we will analyze whether fitness costs can constrain evolution of resistance in oyster hemolymph. We will identify vibrio virulence genes that are negatively selected by phages. In addition we will study whether phages in combination act synergistically to control V. crassostreae. Focusing on a T4-giant phage as a model, we will assess the molecular mechanisms underpinning its broad host range and decipher its potential to spread bacterial genes by horizontal gene transfer. We will finally revisit the phylogenomics of T4-related phages, and reconstruct the T4-giant phage ancestral genome to determine how the ability to infect multiple hosts has evolved in this group. This project has significant potential to make truly ground breaking discoveries on phage-bacteria coevolution providing new and major knowledge for the future generation of phage therapy in aquaculture.

Mots-clés : vibrio,phage,aquaculture,evolution ecology,trade off,synergy,horizontal gene transfers
Projet ERC : MERMAID (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The study of the human past
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 : 1915462.25 €

Facing today’s radical deterioration of marine ecosystems, marine historical ecology has a pivotal role in measuring the impacts of past environmental and human pressures on marine biodiversity, with the aim of understanding the resilience of socio-ecosystems and proposing a sustainable management of marine resources. Recent studies confirm that human groups begun “fishing down the food web” earlier than previously believed. The Mediterranean, this palimpsest landscape, offers a unique archive of undisrupted sea-harvesting activities and a precious palaeoenvironmental indicator, i.e., the remains of marine organisms from archaeological excavations. Although independent studies have increased our knowledge of how Mediterranean resources were exploited, MERMAID proposes an integrated long-term study to understand: a) how marine resources have been influenced by environmental/human pressures, b) when human impact can first be identified, and c) the ways ancient societies depended on these resources and adapted exploitation strategies. MERMAID will first produce an unprecedented archaeofisheries synthesis (M-ARCHIVES Database) of every available dataset, covering several millennia from the Palaeolithic to the Roman era and Mediterranean biogeographical subdivisions. An unconventional combination of approaches (zooarchaeology, marine biology, isotope analysis, fisheries science, ecological modelling, statistics, input of anthropological, geomorphological and palaeoclimatological data) will then be applied on a critical sample from major spatiotemporal contexts (9,000 specimens from 154 sites) at a multi-scale resolution never envisioned before. The results will be key to reconstruct marine ecosystem states (baselines) through time, provide robust evidence of shifting baselines, and assess the nature and degree of human adaptations to shifting ecosystems. The project aspires to make archaeological data exploitable within historical syntheses and marine management studies.

Mots-clés : marine historical ecology,oceans past,marine zooarchaeology  shells,fish bones from archaeological excavations,mediterranean,ancient marine resources,marine trophic levels,shifting baselines,environmental change,marine resource exploitation,impact of fishing activities,prehistory antiquity
Projet ERC : CENEVO (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Integrative Biology: from Genes and Genomes to Systems
Entité participante : Centre national de la recherche scientifique — Pays : France — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : CNRS
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 329529.55 €

Faithful chromosome segregation in all eukaryotes relies on centromeres, the chromosomal sites that recruit kinetochore proteins and mediate spindle attachment during cell division. Fundamental to centromere function is a histone H3 variant, CenH3, that initiates kinetochore assembly on centromeric DNA. CenH3 is conserved throughout most eukaryotes; its deletion is lethal in all organisms tested. These findings established the paradigm that CenH3 is an absolute requirement for centromere function. My recent findings undermined this paradigm of CenH3 essentiality. I showed that CenH3 was lost independently in four lineages of insects. These losses are concomitant with dramatic changes in their centromeric architecture, in which each lineage independently transitioned from monocentromeres (where microtubules attach to a single chromosomal region) to holocentromeres (where microtubules attach along the entire length of the chromosome). Here, I aim to characterize this unique CenH3-deficient chromosome segregation pathway. Using proteomic and genomic approaches in lepidopteran cell lines, I will determine the mechanism of CenH3-independent kinetochore assembly that led to the establishment of their holocentric architecture. Using comparative genomic approaches, I will determine whether this kinetochore assembly pathway has recurrently evolved over the course of 400 million years of evolution and its impact on the chromosome segregation machinery. My discovery of CenH3 loss in holocentric insects establishes a new class of centromeres. My research will reveal how CenH3 that is essential in most other eukaryotes, could have become dispensable in holocentric insects. Since the evolution of this CenH3-independent chromosome segregation pathway is associated with the independent rises of holocentric architectures, my research will also provide the first insights into the transition from a monocentromere to a holocentromere.

Mots-clés : centromere evolution,chromatin,cenh3,cenp a,cenp t,kinetochore
Projet ERC : REPLISOMEBYPASS (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions
Entité participante : Max Planck Society — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : MPG
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1500000.0 €

Faithful duplication and transmission of genetic and epigenetic information is the most vital cellular function for the preservation and proliferation of life. In cells, this process is conducted by large macromolecular complexes, known as replisomes, that coordinate the sequence of enzymatic events during chromosome duplication. While recently developed single-molecule techniques promise unprecedented access to the complex inner workings of these sophisticated machines, most studies conducted have focused on individual factors, operating on non-physiological substrates, which has provided an incomplete molecular picture. My recent development of a multidimensional, single-molecule imaging approach that allows for real-time visualisation of coordination during replication represents a significant breakthrough in our ability to study macromolecular machines in vitro. Building on this success, here I describe single-molecule imaging approaches to address one of the long-standing questions in chromosome biology: How do replisomes maintain efficiency and coordination during collisions with obstacles on the chromosome? Our objective is to develop a complete molecular understanding of the consequences of replisome collisions and the underlying mechanisms that allow for bypass or trigger replication fork collapse. We will begin this long-term research effort by addressing several issues fundamental to chromosome replication: How does replisome coordination and composition change during encounters with topological barriers in chromosomes? What are the dynamic events that underlie nucleosome disassembly by histone chaperones during replication? How does the eukaryotic replisome collaborate with histone chaperones to ensure faithful inheritance of epigenetic information encoded on histones? These studies will provide a framework for understanding the dynamics of replisome collisions and the molecular origin of chromosome damage underlying many diseases.