Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : MALEPREG (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Environmental Biology, Ecology and Evolution
Entité participante : Kiel University — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : CAU
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 644150.5 €

The question of how sex roles and parental investment have evolved belongs to the most controversial unresolved issues in evolutionary biology. The costliest form of reproduction regarding parental investment is viviparity. Its independent evolution in most vertebrate groups has required drastic morphological and genomic reorganisations in the sex bearing the young. Yet our knowledge is heavily biased towards mammals, where changes in the immune system and microbial composition are associated with pregnancy and placentation. Which factors have caused the selection and accompanied evolution of viviparity in other vertebrates remains severely understudied. As the evolution of viviparity is a textbook model of convergent evolution, I plan on using a comparative approach to identify selection and fitness benefits leading to the evolution of viviparity. I propose analysing mating system evolution, focusing on the unique evolution of male pregnancy in sex-role reversed syngnathids (pipefishes and seahorses) that show a gradient from external fertilisation to full viviparity and are, thus, ideal to study the evolution of viviparity. Only this genus allows the role of egg production and viviparity to be disentangled, as both traits co-occur in the female in most other species. As immunological tolerance is fundamentally associated with the evolution of pregnancy, I will investigate how male pregnancy has coevolved with adaptive immune system rearrangements and the broodpouch specific microbiota. Comparative genomics, transcriptomics and genetic engineering utilizing CRISPR/Cas9 will elucidate the genetic basis of trait loss and gain required for male pregnancy. In particular, I will assess whether new functions arose via gene duplication and neo-functionalization, via gene co-option or via de novo gene emergence. This proposal will pave the way for studying viviparity evolution beyond the mammalian model and will provide a fresh look at sex roles and parental investment.

Mots-clés : sex roles,parental investment,viviparity,immune system,microbiota,convergent evolution,male pregnancy,teleosts,pipefish,immunological tolerance
Projet ERC : VictPart (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Institutions, Governance and Legal Systems
Entité participante : Ghent University — Pays : Belgique — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UGent
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1497407.0 €

The question of how to serve justice, facilitate peaceful transitions and empower victims of past large-scale abuses is about as old as the field of transitional justice (TJ) itself. Increasingly, academics and practitioners are turning to participatory approaches as a promising way to make advances regarding these issues. An oft-cited benefit of victim participation in TJ processes is that it allegedly increases the legitimacy of these processes by rendering them more locally relevant, and that it empowers participants. However, little is known about how to organize this participation in practice or under which conditions alleged benefits (for individual victims-participants or for society at large) are likely to materialize. As a result, participation is often organized in an 'add-victims-and-stir' way, with little critical reflection about potential unforeseen or long-term effects. Because TJ processes often face significant practical, financial and political constraints, it is crucial to better understand how participatory approaches can be developed in ways that contribute to a positive and lasting legacy. The main objective of this project is therefore threefold, (1) to conduct a systematic analysis of the scope, nature, modalities and role of victim participation in transitional justice processes, (2) to study empirically and comparatively how participation shapes victims' experience and understandings of justice and their rights, and (3) to develop a critical victimology framework and establish how this framework can be used to conceptualize victim participation in ways that contribute to TJ's goal of engendering just, stable and secure societies. A multi-disciplinary approach, rooted in legal studies, social psychology, political science, public administration and anthropology is proposed, which allows for a multi-dimensional understanding of these issues, both in academic and in practical terms.

Mots-clés : victim participation,transitional justice
Projet ERC : MAGSHAKE (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Condensed matter physics
Entité participante : Lancaster University — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1495297.0 €

The rapid move to wireless devices and the advent of cloud-based technologies in the 21st century’s digital economy call for denser, faster and more energy efficient data storage. However, the heat produced by modern data centres has already become a serious limitation to further increase their performance. At present, the data industry lacks a solution for this problem, which is expected to contribute greatly to the global warming and energy crisis in the near future. With MAGSHAKE I aim to pave the way towards a memory device characterized by very low energy consumption and switching times of one trillionth of a second. Very short pulses of electro-magnetic radiation at a terahertz (THz) frequency (i.e. thousand times faster than that in current data communication and processing standards) are among the shortest stimuli in condensed matter physics. These pulses are made from light particles (photons), with their energies naturally matching those of elementary quantum magnets, ‘spins’. These are used to store information in common magnetic hard disk drives. Hence, such THz photons can excite spins on their own energy scale without releasing any significant heat into the surrounding medium. MAGSHAKE will explore the manipulation of spins by a THz electric field, which can modulate the spin-orbit and exchange interactions which are responsible for magnetic ordering. These interactions are orders of magnitude stronger than the Zeeman energy due to an applied magnetic field. Therefore, the THz electric ‘shaking’ of the spins is expected to be strong enough to induce switching of the spins’ orientations, representing an elementary act of writing a bit of information. The proposed research programme aims to investigate the fundamentals of the electric field-driven nonlinear spin dynamics and to explore the basic requirements for the fastest and most energy-efficient spin switching in broad classes of magnetic materials.

Mots-clés : terahertz,antiferromagnets,ultrafast,light matter
Projet ERC : BUNGEE (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Biotechnology and Biosystems Engineering
Entité participante : Federal Department of Economic Affairs Education and Research — Pays : Suisse — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : EAER
Type d'entité : Organismes publics (hors enseignement & recherche)
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1604521.74 €

The rapidly changing climate puts commonly used crop plants under strong pressure. It is therefore essential to develop novel breeding technologies to rapidly enhance crops to better withstand newly emerging stresses. Interestingly, a clear link between transposable elements (TEs), crop improvement and varietal diversification exists. Furthermore, in recent years the importance of (TEs) in evolution and adaptation to stresses has been recognized. However the use of TEs in crop breeding is currently very limited because it is not possible to control TE mobility. My research group has identified a novel highly conserved epigenetic silencing mechanism that represses the activity of TEs in Arabidopsis. We also found drugs capable of inhibiting this mechanism. Because these drugs target highly conserved enzymes we were able to show that our drug treatment is also effective in rice. We are therefore able to produce TE bursts in a controlled manner in virtually any plant. We can thus, for the first time, generate and study TE bursts in crop plants in real time. More importantly, we found that the accumulation of novel insertions of a heat-stress inducible TE produced plants that, at a high frequency, were more resistant to heat stress. This suggests that the stress that was initially applied to activate a specific TE in the parent, lead to an improved tolerance to that specific stress in the progeny of that plant in a very straight-forward manner. In this project I propose to accelerate plant breeding by testing and implementing a revolutionary TE-directed crop improvement technology. For that I plan to 1. Mobilize TEs in crop plants using selected stresses 2. Using these mobilized stress-responsive TEs breed novel crop plants resistant to those selected stresses and 3. Study the genetic and epigenetic impact of TE mobilization on host genomes. This project will have a broad impact on crop improvement and on the basic understanding of the evolutionary importance of TEs.

Mots-clés : new crop breeding technologies,transposable elements,stress tolerance,epigenetics,rice,soybean
Projet ERC : FORCEDMIGDEV (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Individuals, Markets and Organisations
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 : 1280116.5 €

The recent forced migration crisis has reached an impressive magnitude: by 2016, 68.5 million individuals had been forcibly displaced by violence, conflict and natural disasters. This crisis is vastly concentrated in developing countries, which host 85% of the world’s displaced population. Nevertheless, we still know relatively little about the economic consequences of forced migration in these countries. FORCEDMIGDEV seeks to fill this gap. It is organised in complementary parts that analyse the two dimensions of forced migration – internal displacement and international migration (refugees) – which constitute very different economic phenomena. The first part develops a structural model to analyse the long-run impacts of refugee inflows in developing countries. The model is estimated and used to investigate the effects of the Syrian refugees in Turkey, the largest host country in the world. I am able to answer questions that are relevant for developing but also developed host countries. What are the distributional effects of refugee shocks? What are the welfare effects across regions? What are the effects of providing refugees with a legal status? The second part combines reduced-form and structural methods to investigate the effects of severe climate shocks on internal displacement and its impacts on economic development. I take advantage of unique data availability in Brazil to estimate the reduced-form effects of internal displacement on a broad array of outcomes at destination. I then move to develop a novel quantitative spatial model that captures the equilibrium effects in origin and destination regions, while accounting for congestion and agglomeration externalities and labour market frictions. I estimate the model and use it to assess the long-run, micro and macro effects of internal displacement in Brazil. This part lies on the under-explored intersection of climate and development economics, which has a large potential to open new avenues for future research.

Mots-clés : forced migration,economic development,informality
Projet ERC : PINT (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Proof of concept grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Synthetic Chemistry and Materials
Entité participante : Madrid Institute for Advanced Studies — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : IMDEA
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 145937.5 €

The reinforcement of polymers with carbon nanotube fillers has been one of the most active areas of research in CNT science. Several materials where the mechanical and/or electrical properties of polymers have been significantly improved using nanotube fillers have been demonstrated. However, the improvement in mechanical properties of the CNT-polymer composites remains far behind the idealized theoretical predictions. These disappointing experimental results are due to a combination of imperfect individualization of the CNTs and poor load transfer from the polymer to the CNTs. To address these problems, several approaches have been investigated, including covalent and supramolecular modification of the CNTs, and different fabrication methods for the CNT-polymer composites, but none has been completely successful. We will explore the direct connection of the polymer matrix to the macrocycles to form Polymers Interlocked with carbon NanoTubes (PINTs). In PINTs, the polymer and SWNTs are linked through mechanical bonds, and therefore form a single molecular entity, a true conceptual leap from previous approximations. The PINT strategy addresses all the critical issues for SWNT-polymer composites at the same time: effective control of SWNT-polymer interface through non-covalent but very strong mechanical bonds, SWNT-polymer alignment, and individualization of the SWNTs. The IP and business parts of this proposal will be carried out in collaboration with Nanocore (http://www.nanocore.com/), a company based in Denmark specialized in the reinforcement of polymers with carbon nanomaterials. In direct cooperation with Nanocore, we will explore the first steps towards commercialization of the technologies developed.

Mots-clés : mechanically interlocked molecules,carbon nanotubes,polymers,nanocomposites
Projet ERC : MULTIPALEOIBERIA (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The study of the human past
Entité participante : University of Alcalá — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1387515.0 €

The relations between cultural developments and environmental change among hunter-gatherers are crucial for studying population dynamics during the last glaciation (110,000–11,700 years ago). However, proposing solid interpretations on how climate and environment variability affected the social and techno-economic organisation of hominins, requires robust geoarchaeological, chronological, and palaeoecological evidence. In the Iberian Peninsula, a key area for this period due to its geographic position and ecological variability, models on these topics are biased by the poor quality of available evidence for its interior lands. The Iberian interior has been traditionally depicted as a marginal and few populated region due to its harsh ecological conditions compared to the coastal areas. Based on preliminary data suggesting that this picture could be wrong, I hypothesize (1) that the human settlement of interior Iberia during this period was more stable than previously thought and (2) that his has relevant implications at the European scale for problems such as the replacement of Neandertals by modern humans, the first modern human peopling of Europe, and the patterns of land use and mobility during the coldest stages of the last glacial. To test these hypotheses, this project will investigate population dynamics and human-environment interactions of the last Neandertals and first modern humans in interior Iberia based on completely unprecedented evidence gathered by means of a macro-regional and interdisciplinary research project. This involves the participation of a wide team of scholars coordinated by the PI, and a network of methods including field surveys, geoarchaeological excavations and chronometric, paleoecological, zooarchaeological, techno-economic and symbolic studies. The results will significantly change our views on key biocultural and ecological processes of the European prehistory, and the way human societies have dealt with challenging environments.

Mots-clés : geoarchaeology,palaeoecology,hunters gatherers,human environment interactions
Projet ERC : Digital DNA (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Social World and Its Diversity
Entité participante : University of Oslo — Pays : Norvège — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UiO
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1496997.0 €

The relationship between digital technologies, DNA and evidence is changing so rapidly and profoundly that in-depth and creative analyses of the links between them are urgently needed. Digital innovations within forensic DNA analysis affect the making of DNA evidence. For example, new computer programs create identikit pictures from DNA. At the same time, DNA and evidence-based reasoning also change digital technologies, for example when DNA is used as a storage medium for digital data. Digital DNA provides pioneering empirical insights and theorization on the reciprocal influence of digital technologies, DNA and evidence. The project defines an emerging field: the digitization of forensic biology and the influence of the biosciences on digital technologies. It provides systematic interdisciplinary studies on three sets of developments. 1. Changes in hardware. It investigates how smaller and more mobile hardware influences the production of DNA evidence, and how DNA is used as hardware in computing. 2. Changes in databases and analytic instruments. It studies how a growth in DNA databases and their algorithmic analysis influence the production of DNA evidence, and to what extent digital databases and algorithms are associated with evidence-based reasoning. 3. Changes in information per se. It discusses how the ability to alter DNA influences the production of forensic evidence, and how DNA influences the concept of digital data. Current debates tend to focus on ethical, legal and societal aspects of forensic innovation or on the roles that big data and algorithms play in society. Digital DNA focuses on more fundamental developments: how DNA evidence changes when it is integrated with digital technologies, and the re-orientation that digital data and technologies undergo when they are integrated with biology. A unique combination of methods from the social sciences, information studies and natural sciences is used in the project.

Mots-clés : science and technology studies,digital sociology,digital data,dna evidence,digital technologies and society,qualitative methods,criminology,forensic biology
Projet ERC : ERAD_SELMA (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, 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 €

The removal of misfolded proteins is an essential process in all cells. Failure to dispose of such proteins often results in disease. A particularly intriguing process serves to discard misfolded proteins from the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). The ER does not itself degrade proteins, so machinery has evolved that moves misfolded proteins into the cytosol where they can be degraded by the proteasome. This retro-translocation process is called ERAD (for ER-associated protein degradation). By comparison with other membrane translocation processes, the mechanism of ERAD is poorly understood. How are misfolded proteins distinguished from folding intermediates? How are proteins moved across the membrane? How is the energy for membrane translocation provided? To answer these fundamental questions I will use a combination of in vitro reconstitution experiments with purified proteins from S. cerevisiae and experiments in intact yeast cells. It appears that some ERAD components have been adapted to function in protein translocation in a very different setting. Many parasites like the malaria causing P. falciparum contain a plastid-like organelle, called the apicoplast. It is the site of several metabolic pathways essential for the parasite’s survival, and thus an important drug target. Like other organelles of endosymbiotic origin, the apicoplast lost most of its genetic information and has to import proteins. This is a particularly challenging endeavour because four membranes surround the apicoplast. It is thought that symbiont specific ERAD-like machinery (SELMA) mediates proteins translocation across the second-outermost membrane. However, not much is known about SELMA. What is its molecular composition? Which aspects of SELMA are conserved in comparison to the classical ERAD machinery? I will address these important questions using a completely novel combination of biochemical and genetic approaches.

Mots-clés : endoplasmic reticulum associated protein degradation,protein translocation,apicoplast,membrane protein biochemistry
Projet ERC : POWDER (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Institutions, Governance and Legal Systems
Entité participante : Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : HU
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 745878.31 €

The research project aims to analyze the interrelationship between protest and political order under the contextual conditions of the changing shape of modern western democracy. Two groups of ques-tions are connected to this study perspective, which will be answered by means of a democratic-theoretically-led synchronous comparison of selected contemporary protest movements – anonymous digi-tal protest movements, transnationally organized alter-globalization protest movements, the No Border movement and the rightwing identitarian protest movement: The aim is to clarify firstly (1) the extent to which the new forms of protest question the premises of democratic orders, what potential for further de-velopment lies within the new forms of protest on the one hand, and what are the challenges to democracy on the other. Secondly, the aim is to determine (2) the influence and relevance held by the democratic order itself in an age of the changing shape of democracy with regard to the specific formation of the new forms of protest, and what statements can be made on how the formation of the order is changed, in turn, by the new forms of protest themselves. In order to achieve these study perspectives, POWDER consists of an overarching democratic-theoretical framework project (TFP) and four empirical subprojects (SP 1-4), which each analyze one of the protest movements mentioned in the context of a qualitative approach (documentary analysis, participatory observation, qualitative interviews). The comparison of these protest movements investigates (I) recurring patterns, but also contrasting assessments with regard to the interre-lationship between the political order and the protest movements, examines at a second level (II) the dif-ferent manners in which the new forms of protest challenge democratic-theoretical dimensions, and at-tempts at the third level (III) to reconstruct a general democratic-theoretical determination of meaning of present-day protest movements.

Mots-clés : democratic theory,political protest,movements,democratic order,contentious politics,political theory,social and political philosophy