Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : GEO-4D (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Earth system science
Entité participante : École normale supérieure PSL — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : ENS PSL
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1499125.0 €

Recent space-based geodetic measurements of ground deformation suggest a paradigm shift is required in our understanding of the behaviour of active tectonic faults. The classic view of faults classified in two groups – the locked faults prone to generate earthquakes and the creeping faults releasing stress through continuous aseismic slip – is now obscured by more and more studies shedding light on a wide variety of seismic and aseismic slip events of variable duration and size. What physical mechanism controls whether a tectonic fault will generate a dynamic, catastrophic rupture or gently release energy aseismically? Answering such a fundamental question requires a tool for systematic and global detection of all modes of slip along active faults. The launch of the Sentinel 1 constellation is a game changer as it provides, from now on, systematic Radar mapping of all actively deforming regions in the world with a 6-day return period. Such wealth of data represents an opportunity as well as a challenge we need to meet today. In order to expand the detection and characterization of all slip events to a global scale, I will develop a tool based on machine learning procedures merging the detection capabilities of all data types, including Sentinel 1 data, to build time series of ground motion. The first step is the development of a geodetic data assimilation method with forecasting ability toward the first re-analysis of active fault motion and tectonic phenomena. The second step is a validation of the method on three faults, including the well-instrumented San Andreas (USA) and Longitudinal Valley faults (Taiwan) and the North Anatolian Fault (NAF, Turkey). I will deploy a specifically designed GPS network along the NAF to compare with outputs of our method. The third step is the intensive use of the algorithm on a global scale to detect slip events of all temporal and spatial scales for a better understanding of the slip behaviour along all active continental faults.
Projet ERC : ANHARMONIC (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Physical and analytical chemical sciences
Entité participante : Weizmann Institute of Science — Pays : Israël — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1700000.0 €

Recent studies of halide perovskite semiconductors (SCs) showed that they exhibit a unique combination of very-low defect density, self-healing properties and low exciton binding energies that result in excellent photovoltaic activity. I hypothezise that the fundamental property that sets the halide perovskites apart from conventional SCs and gives rise to their beneficial properties is strongly anharmonic lattice dynamics. Large amplitude, local polar fluctuations that result from lattice anharmonicity localize the electronic states and enhance the screening of electric charges within the material. In other words, in some aspects, halide perovskites behave more like a liquid than a crystalline solid. Stimulated by the recent discoveries on halide perovskites, I aim to generalize our understanding of the relationship between lattice anharmonicity and the electronic properties of SCs. The potential outcome of this investigation will be a novel scheme to design SCs with desirable properties where lattice anharmonicity is used as a new material-engineering tool. My strategy is to perform comparative studies in both inorganic ionic crystals and small-molecule organic crystals. We will use low-frequency Raman spectroscopy to quantify anharmonic lattice dynamics and compare between different crystals to identify the factors that induce anharmonicity in solids. Photoluminescence, reflectance, time-resolved terahertz and impedance spectroscopies will be used to probe the SCs optical properties, carrier mobilities and lifetimes, and their dielectric response. I expect to find that as anharmonicity increases, the dielectric response and carrier lifetimes increase while carrier mobility decreases. Finally, we will develop a modulated Raman spectroscopic methodology that will identify specific lattice motions that are coupled to band-edge carriers, thus elucidating the microscopic mechanism of carrier-lattice interactions.

Mots-clés : raman spectroscopy,halide perovskites,organic semiconductors,structural dynamics,electron phonon interaction
Projet ERC : theranoimmuno (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Biotechnology and Biosystems Engineering
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 : 590625.0 €

Recent studies on the developments of immune mobilizing monoclonal T-cell receptors against cancer (ImmTAC), bispecific T-cell receptors (TCR) engagers, and chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) cell-based therapies, have highlighted their potential to treat Multiple Myeloma (MM). These treatments, however, are expensive. The manufacturing processes that are employed for their generation are lengthy, and their commercial scale production is reliant on a multitude of equipment and operators that cannot easily be incorporated in the footprint of most local hospitals. Moreover, patient responses to these treatments remain heterogenous. We propose an innovative multidisciplinary approach that aims to develop a novel theranostic immune-cell based compound. This approach is based on the functionalization of the immune cells with theranostic ultrasmall macromolecules (USM); USM having a diameter size below 10 nm to allow renal clearance and minimize toxicity. The clinically-relevant imaging properties of the USM will allow to unveil various challenges remaining in the field of immunotherapy, such as to better elucidate the priming sites of immune cells, to track their migration in the body, as well as to localize their niche upon the establishment of minimal residual disease. By labelling the immune cells ex vivo, the diagnostic imaging properties enabled by the presence of the USM on the immune cell surface will allow to generate better ex vivo immune cells therapeutics (such as simili-CAR NK cells) with a rationalized target selection, will improve the cell dosing, and will help to better stratify the patient population in order to offer an improved personalized treatment plan.
Projet ERC : PhaseAge (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Cellular, Developmental and Regenerative Biology
Entité participante : TU Dresden — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : TUD
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1284801.06 €

Recent studies suggest that defective ribonucleoprotein (RNP) granules and altered RNA processing cause neurodegenerative diseases, including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD). However, defective RNP granules only develop late in life, suggesting that young cells have mechanisms in place to prevent their formation. We recently demonstrated that physiological RNP granules form through phase separation in the cytoplasm and adopt a liquid-like state, but with time transition into an aberrant disease-associated state with solid material properties. Focussing on this conceptual advance, we will 1) investigate the molecular mechanisms of RNP granule formation; 2) pinpoint the molecular events that lead to aberrant RNPs, focusing on disease-associated mutations, changes in environmental conditions, post-translational modifications and molecules with fluidizing or solidifying effects; and 3) define the mechanisms of RNP quality control, which prevent aberrant phase transitions or reverse RNP aggregates to their normal state, thus rescuing a cell from an otherwise fatal condition. Key to the project are recently developed methodologies to reconstitute RNPs from purified proteins and RNAs, and biophysical techniques to analyse the material properties of RNP granules. Combined with our ability to perform time-resolved studies of RNPs in living cells and our thematic focus on the link between RNP dynamics and functionality, this project represents a systematic and realistic approach to tackling the essential question of how RNP granules form and why they cause disease. We expect that our findings will have impact far beyond ALS and FTD, because aberrant phase transitions may be at the heart of many protein-misfolding diseases. We envision that our findings will lead to new therapeutic interventions that may significantly improve the prospects of patients afflicted with these diseases.

Mots-clés : rnp granules,rna metabolism,phase transition,protein aggregation,proteostasis,aging,neurodegenerative disease
Projet ERC : MOSAIC (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Universe sciences
Entité participante : Dutch Research Council — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : NWO
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2400894.0 €

Recent sub-millimeter instruments on the Herschel Space Observatory, operational from 2009-2013, have discovered thousands of sub-millimeter galaxies, whose combined emission forms the cosmic infrared background. A major challenge is to measure their distance, or age, by determining their redshifts, which also has to be based on the sub-millimeter signals (because they do not have an optical counterpart). I propose to develop a new redshift survey instrument, using recent progress in superconducting nanotechnology, which can spectrally resolve a large fraction of the cosmic infrared background from the ground. The instrument is a Multi-Object Spectrometer with an Array of superconducting Integrated Circuits. It consists of a 3D integrated field spectrograph with a 2D array of 25 pixels sparsely filling the re-imaged focal plane of the observatory. For each pixel the instrument measures the radiation spectrum in a 325-905 GHz window with a resolution R=F/δF=500. Additionally the beam of each pixel can be steered electrically to lock onto an individual astronomical object. This allows fast, high accuracy redshift determination of 25 objects simultaneously by measuring the frequency shift of the CII and CO lines. I will develop the instrument, build it, install it on the 10 m Japanese ASTE observatory in Chile and facilitate its use. MOSAIC will be fully based on novel superconducting circuits: a broad-band antenna with electrical beam steering and an on-chip spectrometer, combined on a single chip. The design of the instrument is based on recent developments in superconducting nanotechnology, for signals in the GHz to THz range, in which I am currently playing a leading role. The instrument will be developed with a team of experts in the fields of antennas, spectrometer and readout electronics.
Projet ERC : EXO-ATMOS (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Universe sciences
Entité participante : University of Amsterdam — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UvA
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2000000.0 €

Recent surveys have revealed an amazing, and yet unexplained, diversity of planets orbiting other stars. The key to understanding and exploiting this diversity is to study their atmospheres. This is because exoplanets’ atmospheres are unique laboratories that hold the potential to transform our understanding of planet formation, physics, and habitability. This is a new opportunity to place the Solar System and the Earth’s ecosystem in a broader context; one of the main goals of modern astrophysics. The aim of this proposal is to leverage exoplanet detections, as well as observational capabilities and theoretical frameworks, to deepen and broaden our understanding of planetary physics. This project will transform the field of exoplanet atmospheres by contributing to three major advances. We will: i) push exoplanet characterization new frontiers by providing the largest in-depth study of atmospheres through the measurements of precise spectra, and the retrieval of their composition, in order to constrain their origins; ii) reveal for the first time global exo-climate through a novel method to probe atmospheric structure and dynamics; and iii) pioneer an innovative approach that uses robotic small telescopes to estimate the impact of stellar radiation on atmospheres, with a particular focus on their habitability. Theses objectives will be achieved via an ambitious portfolio of cutting-edge observations, combined with state-of-the-art modelling for their interpretation. Their accomplishment would be a major breakthrough, culminating in a comprehensive comparative exoplanetology, which in turn will open up new key discoveries in planetary formation and evolution. Our expertise will also enable predictions on conditions for habitability and direct the search atmospheric biosignatures with upcoming capabilities. The impact of our discoveries will go well beyond the scientific community since the quest of our origins is of interest to mankind.

Mots-clés : exoplanet atmospheres,exoplanets
Projet ERC : aSCEND (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Computer science and informatics
Entité participante : Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies du numérique — Pays : France — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : Inria
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 29691.25 €

Recent trends in computing have prompted users and organizations to store an increasingly large amount of sensitive data at third party locations in the cloud outside of their direct control. Storing data remotely poses an acute security threat as these data are outside our control and could potentially be accessed by untrusted parties. Indeed, the reality of these threats have been borne out by the Snowden leaks and hundreds of data breaches each year. In order to protect our data, we will need to encrypt it. Functional encryption is a novel paradigm for public-key encryption that enables both fine-grained access control and selective computation on encrypted data, as is necessary to protect big, complex data in the cloud. Functional encryption also enables searches on encrypted travel records and surveillance video as well as medical studies on encrypted medical records in a privacy-preserving manner; we can give out restricted secret keys that reveal only the outcome of specific searches and tests. These mechanisms allow us to maintain public safety without compromising on civil liberties, and to facilitate medical break-throughs without compromising on individual privacy. The goals of the aSCEND project are (i) to design pairing and lattice-based functional encryption that are more efficient and ultimately viable in practice; and (ii) to obtain a richer understanding of expressive functional encryption schemes and to push the boundaries from encrypting data to encrypting software. My long-term vision is the ubiquitous use of functional encryption to secure our data and our computation, just as public-key encryption is widely used today to secure our communication. Realizing this vision requires new advances in the foundations of functional encryption, which is the target of this project.

Mots-clés : cryptography,public key encryption,secure computation
Projet ERC : HRNUDGE (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Institutions, Governance and Legal Systems
Entité participante : University of Cambridge — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : U. Cambridge
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 0.0 €

Recent years have seen a renewed interest in the effectiveness of human rights law and judgments, yet almost no attention has been given to the impact of remedies on states’ compliance practices or the internalisation of human rights into their domestic legal systems. Through a combination of quantitative and qualitative research in six countries, the project aims to expose the dynamics of the (non)compliant state and the efficacy of different types of remedies in changing the behaviour of human rights violators. These goals will be achieved through three sub-studies: (1) an empirical study of the case law of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) to determine the compliance and internalisation practices and their link to different remedies; (2) the exploration and analysis of states’ internalisation practices and policies (including the identification of players that shape this practice) to determine whether remedies play a crucial role in shifting states’ actions; (3) a computer simulation to discover how we can change the architecture of human rights remedies to increase compliance and internalisation, and to deter future violations. The central aim of the project is to identify new remedy options – incentives or nudges – which human rights institutions can use to deter future violations. Using the example of the ECtHR and its caselaw, the research will build on insights from behavioural economics to interrogate widespread assumptions about monetisation of human rights, public shaming, and deference shown to states in the specification of remedies. Through computer simulation, the project will aim to predict how monetary and non-monetary remedies could be used separately or together to alter the behaviour of states and their key players. The research will be ground-breaking in many ways, reshaping the field of human rights remedies and contributing crucially to the emerging field of behavioural international law.
Projet ERC : MusAI (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Cultures and cultural production
Entité participante : University of London — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : U. London
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 104041.25 €

Recent years have seen escalating concern about the impacts of artificial intelligence (AI). While growing academic and policy literatures address the social and ethical implications of AI, as yet no major research initiative examines AI’s cultural implications. Music has long been a site of AI experimentation and commercial development in culture; yet although considerable research resources are going to scientific and artistic projects in this area, critical research on music AI – despite the urgent need for such work – is at an early stage. In this context, the MusAI project is groundbreaking in two ways. First, it takes music as the medium through which to create a field of critical interdisciplinary AI studies, indicative of AI’s wider influence on culture. Second, a guiding principle embodied in the project structure is that, to address the complex challenges posed by AI, radically new approaches are required that cut across entrenched disciplinary, methodological and epistemological divisions, as well as creating bridges between academia and industry. To these ends the project will: 1) build a knowledge base addressing core critical issues in music AI through a coordinated group of 12 studies designed to move beyond existing impasses between the AI sciences and critics; 2) enable music AI scientists and social scientists and humanists to engage in unprecedentedly rich and sustained interdisciplinary dialogues; and 3) through these engagements, develop new forms of interdisciplinarity for music AI and for the digital humanities, feeding the results into innovative interdisciplinary AI pedagogies. The project integrates 6 early career and 10 world-leading researchers with links to key institutions (BBC, Spotify, Anghami, Mila, Google Brain, Oxford University’s Institute for Ethics in AI). Based at Oxford, MusAI is led by an anthropologist expert in music technology and digital media studies, Chair of the British Academy’s Culture, Media and Performance Section.

Mots-clés : music,artificial intelligence,interdisciplinarity,anthropology,musicology,science and technology,studies,digital media studies,critical digital humanities,machine learning,computational modeling
Projet ERC : BHianca (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Universe sciences
Entité participante : University of Rome Tor Vergata — Pays : Italie — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1974000.0 €

Recent years witnessed a blossoming of multi-messenger astrophysics, in which gravitational waves (GWs), neutrinos, and photons provide complementary views of the universe and its most enigmatic objects, such as black holes (BHs) and neutron stars (NSs). The staggering dataset collected for the compact binary merger GW170817 -- including fundamental contribution by the PI -- showed the tremendous discovery potential of this field, which will unfold in the years ahead of us. The global network of interferometers will progressively sharpen its view of the gravitational wave sky and could soon allow us to see a new kind of light, arising from the encounter of a NS with a stellar mass BH. At the same time, wide-field gamma-ray instruments will continue to pinpoint these violent collisions in distant galaxies, and sensitive all-sky surveys might soon reveal the collision aftermath without the aid of gravitational or gamma-ray alerts. On the verge of a transformational era in the study of transients, I propose a cutting-edge investigation of compact binary mergers harnessing the unprecedented wealth of multi-messenger and multi-wavelength data. By combining a vigorous observational program with theoretical research at the forefront, this project will allow my team to fully exploit the discovery potential of a vastly uncharted territory and tackle the following emerging questions. Do all compact binary mergers launch relativistic jets? Are they the primary cosmic source of heavy metals? What are the properties of cold ultra-dense matter, and how do they affect the observed light? Can we use these mergers for precision cosmology? Stemming from the PI’s pioneering results, BHianca is uniquely positioned to timely address these central questions, and lead to seminal results in the nascent field of multi-messenger astronomy.

Mots-clés : black holes,neutron stars,gamma ray bursts,gravitational waves,nucleosynthesis,abundances