Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : WaTurSheD (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Products and Processes Engineering
Entité participante : Université norvégienne de sciences et de technologie — Pays : Norvège — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1958705.0 €

The triple interactions of surface waves, turbulence, and shear currents (WTS) in the upper layer of the ocean play a key role in the Earth’s climate and ecology by controlling fluxes of heat, gas, and momentum between ocean and atmosphere. Climate simulations have large systematic errors because the mixing of waters due to WTS flow is not properly modelled, yet these flows remain little investigated and poorly understood. We urgently need to learn how WTS mixing depends on flow parameters, but none of today's research approaches can produce the empirical data which is needed. WaTurSheD presents the only practical way out of this stalemate: an extensive experimental campaign where each WTS parameter is individually controlled and systematically varied. I will make use of the new, large water channel laboratory at NTNU, the only facility where such an experimental campaign is currently possible, and combine experiments with new theory and a novel data analysis method. Through WaTurSheD the WTS-driven mixing in the upper ocean can for the first time be modelled based on direct empirical evidence. WaTurSheD is a unique opportunity for progress, combining my group's specialised expertise on wave-current interactions through both theory and experiment, and one-of-a-kind laboratory where my team can create a faithful, fully tuneable scale model of upper ocean WTS flow. The theory framework for ocean waves and currents must be advanced in order to accommodate the new insights, a task I will attend to myself. We will develop a completely new way to analyse near-surface turbulence: By detecting the imprints they leave on the surface using a computer vision technique, the most essential turbulent structures can be selected, allowing trends in WTS data to emerge which would otherwise be obscured by fast fluctuations. All WaTurSheD's components will unite towards its final goal: a universal scaling law for WTS flows valid from centimetres to hundreds of metres.

Mots-clés : waves,turbulence,shear currents,ocean mixing
Projet ERC : MAMBA (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Study of the Human Past
Entité participante : Swedish Museum of Natural History — Pays : Suède — Rôle : Partner
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 453750.0 €

The discovery of large accumulations of woolly mammoth remains together with Upper Palaeolithic artefacts has fascinated both researchers and the general public since the 19th century. Despite many years of scientific research and dispute our knowledge about these sites and the relationship between mammoths and contemporaneous Upper Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers remains incomplete. This project focuses on the mammoth bone accumulations found in the West Carpathian forelands and seeks to establish why they formed and their function for hunter-gatherer groups 35,000-25,000 years ago – a period of major techno-cultural and environmental change in approaching the Last Glacial Maximum. For the first time we will study materials covering the full chronological range of this archaeological phenomenon, considering both existing collections alongside new fieldwork at the key sites of Dolní Věstonice I, Kraków Spadzista and Langmannersdorf. Site-specific signals of human-mammoth interaction within their local palaeoenvironmental context will be used to investigate chrono-spatial changes in both mammoth populations and hunter-gatherer societies. We will employ standardised field and laboratory protocols that utilise recent methodological and technological advances in ancient DNA research, stable isotope studies, radiometric dating, palaeoenvironmental reconstruction and palaeodemographic modelling. The resulting dataset will allow an integrated investigation of the formation of mammoth bone accumulations and produce a statistically analysable dataset expected to reveal the interactions between human and mammoth populations in Central Europe in the context of palaeoenvironmental changes. This will have great impact not only for Upper Palaeolithic research in Central Europe, but will on a general scale also contribute to an improved understanding of human behaviour, cultural developments, and human adaptation to dynamically changing climatic and environmental conditions.

Mots-clés : upper palaeolithic,pleistocene
Projet ERC : RiDe (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Human Mobility, Environment, and Space
Entité participante : Université de Tartu — Pays : Estonie — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1990195.0 €

Contemporary societies are underpinned by industrial modernity: a set of commonly shared ideas, institutions and practices related to the natural environment and technoscience. Having historically unleashed massive leaps in productivity, economic growth and societal welfare, many traits of industrial modernity have now become maladapted to the current socio-ecological polycrisis. As a result science and technology promise to solve the grand challenges of climate change, resource depletion and loss of biodiversity with one hand, only to keep intensifying them with another. There is thus a fundamental need to rethink industrial modernity.  Attempts to detect signs of this fundamental shift currently remain fragmented within and between disciplines like sustainability science, innovation studies, or history of technology. RiDe will use a new Deep Transitions framework from the sustainability transitions field to provide an overarching synthesis on the acceleration, crisis and transformative prospects of industrial societies from 1900 to the present. It focuses on 3 questions: 1) what are the major historical continuities and emerging ruptures in industrial modernity? 2) what are the mechanisms through which technoscience keeps blocking transformative environmental practices? 3) in which countries is major transformative change most likely to occur?  RiDe will 1) use a mixed method research design, combining text mining, databases, stylized narrative explanation, and process-tracing, which; 2) enables it to discover new empirical patterns in the evolution of industrial modernity, and; 3) develop a composite index for identifying countries currently least hindered by the historical legacy of industrial modernity. The results will be synthesized into the first macro-level middle-range process theory in transitions studies, offering a new comprehensive, historically-informed and empirically-backed interpretation of industrial modernization for sustainability science.

Mots-clés : sustainability transitions sustainability science deep transitions industrial modernity mixed methods
Projet ERC : GROW-AI (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Computer Science and Informatics
Entité participante : IT University of Copenhagen — Pays : Danemark — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1994225.0 €

Despite major advances in the field of artificial intelligence, especially in the field of neural networks, these systems still pale in comparison to even simple biological intelligence. Current machine learning systems take many trials to learn, lack common-sense, and often fail even if the environment only changes slightly. The enormous potential of autonomous machines remains unfulfilled and we still lack robots to fill our dishwashers or go on autonomous search-and-rescue missions. The grand goal of GROW-AI is to create machines with a more general intelligence, allowing rapid adaption in unknown situations. In stark contrast to current neural networks, whose architectures are designed by human experts and whose large number of parameters are optimized directly, evolution does not operate directly on the parameters of biological nervous systems. Instead, these nervous systems are grown and self-organize through a much smaller genetic program that produces rich behavioral capabilities right from birth and the ability to rapidly learn. Neuroscience suggests this "genomic bottleneck" is an important regularizing constraint, allowing animals to generalize to new situations. However, currently there does not exist a solution to creating a similar system artificially. We address this challenge with two ambitious ideas. First, we will learn genomic bottleneck algorithms instead of manually designing them, exploiting recent advances in memory-augmented deep neural networks that can learn complex algorithms. In addition, we will co-optimize task generators that provide the agents with the most effective learning environments. Taking inspiration from the fields of artificial life, neurobiology, and machine learning, we will investigate if algorithmic growth is needed to understand and create intelligence. If successful, this project will greatly improve the autonomy of machines and significantly increase the range of real-world tasks they can solve.

Mots-clés : artificial life,neuroevolution,developmental algorithms,morphogenesis,synaptic plasticity
Projet ERC : BIOMATFAB (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Synthetic Chemistry and Materials
Entité participante : Université nouvelle de Lisbonne — Pays : Portugal — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UNL
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1664661.25 €

Naturally produced fibers have always played central roles in shaping human civilizations. Current hazardous chemical-based manufacturing processes and consumers' preferences for cotton products are putting much strain on the future of cotton’s global economy. Thus, it is urgent to seek future sustainable alternatives. What alternatives and tools are available? Which new avenues are waiting to be explored toward this end? Harnessing biological systems is one of humanity’s ultimate frontiers. Yet, the intrinsic complexity of higher organisms and the lack of in-depth, comprehensive understanding of the underlying mechanisms and their interactions across a multitude of scales has primarily hindered their use to manufacture bio-based materials with desired properties. This project addresses this lack of knowledge by answering key questions concerning the sugar uptake and upwards transport from the roots and biosynthesis of naturally produced fibers at the level of cotton plants while using this body of information to create a roadmap to produce cotton fibers with tailored properties. Our approach will dive into the exploration of a recent and largely unexplored discovery that cotton plants uptake sugar by the roots, transporting them upwards, reaching as far as the fibers (root-to-fiber). In particular, we will dwell on the dynamics of this process using sugar derivatives. This body of information will set the stage for feeding the roots of whole cotton plants with sugar derivatives carrying specific functionalities to become, ultimately, biologically incorporated into the fibers modifying their end properties, particularly fluoro-sugars to yield fibers with increased hydrophobicity. We will demonstrate the feasibility of biological fabrication and material farming in whole cotton plants as a revolutionizing and sustainable alternative to manufacturing current chemical-based strategies and toward a bio-based global economy.

Mots-clés : plants,cotton,fibers modification in situ,biomaterials synthesis,cyanobacteria,biofactories,sugar transport
Projet ERC : ASTUTE (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Prevention,  Diagnosis and T reatment of Human Diseases
Entité participante : Institut Karolinska — Pays : Suède — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1995048.0 €

The lifetime risk of receiving a transfusion is almost 20%, meaning that close to 100 million EU citizens will receive a transfusion at some point in their lives. Consequently, the issue of blood transfusion safety—in a wide sense—are highly relevant for population health. It is therefore disconcerting that blood safety is often narrowly defined, focusing almost exclusively on the elimination of known transfusion-transmitted disease, ignoring donor health and failing to consider unconventional pathogens. In this comprehensive research program, proposing a series of Advanced Studies in Transfusion Epidemiology, I will lead research within four distinct work packages, first creating a nationwide vein-to-vein database, with detailed data on blood donors and transfused patients in Sweden between 1968 and 2023, linked to detailed outcomes registers, and then making a version of this database publicly available through anonymization. We will then exploit this database in a series of applied studies divided into three work packages. In the first of these, we will conduct a careful, hypothesis-based investigation where we follow-up a previous publication from my research group, showing possible transfusion transmission of an agent causing intracerebral hemorrhage, seeking to establish the etiology of these hemorrhages, and testing whether it might have been driven by transmission of amyloid β. In the second work package we will perform a series of studies of blood donor health, investigating aspects on donor health behavior, short term risks of donating blood, and the risks of negative intergenerational effects from the iron-depletion suffered by many female blood donors. Lastly, we will perform a comprehensive, phenome-wide study where we search for unknown transfusion-transmitted disease using both traditional epidemiological and state-of-the-art machine learning methods. Together, these tasks have the potential of making important gains for transfusion safety in Europe.

Mots-clés : blood transfusion
Projet ERC : JANUS (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System
Entité participante : Institute of Science and Technology Austria — Pays : Autriche — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : ISTA
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1998430.0 €

In an ever-changing natural world, animals must constantly adapt their behavior by extracting relevant information from the environment in a context-dependent manner. This is a complex task because the relevance of sensory stimuli rapidly changes according to the animal’s internal states, evidence, attention and goals. In the brain, neuromodulatory systems are thought to encode environmental and internal signals, such as novelty, reward, effort and risk, providing critical input to ensure appropriate action selection. However, classically, neuroscientists have opted to study sensorimotor transformations as a reflex arc, largely ignoring complex modulatory contributions due to their experimental inaccessibility. In this proposal, I will explore the neuromodulatory strategies used by the brain to tailor sensorimotor computations according to the immediate needs of the animal. A key node for sensorimotor transformation and spatial attention is the Superior Colliculus (SC). The SC is also a neuromodulatory hub, where retinal streams converge with highly diverse and functionally mysterious neuromodulatory inputs. Here, I will take advantage of the SC’s role as a gatekeeper in sensory processing and behavioral control to unravel the multiplexed logic and function of neuromodulation. To do so, I will first quantitatively describe SC’s visual and non-visual dynamics on a moment-by-moment basis and define their interactions. Next, I will determine the properties, orchestration and influence of SC’s neuromodulatory inputs on sensory processing, goal-directed behaviors and spatial attention. Finally, I will describe the role of neuromodulation mechanistically by developing a novel functional connectomics approach and mapping circuit motif changes. Given the implication of neuromodulation in brain disorders, this work will shed light on the tight orchestration of neuromodulation that ensures appropriate or abnormal selection of actions, according to the animal’s immediate needs

Mots-clés : sensorimotor transformation,vision,neuromodulation,superior colliculus
Projet ERC : UnlockIT (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Physiology in Health, Disease and Ageing
Entité participante : Research Institute of Molecular Pathology — Pays : Autriche — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : IMP
Type d'entité : Organismes privés (hors enseignement)
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2000000.0 €

Immuno- and targeted therapies have revolutionized the treatment of cancer patients, and more innovative therapeutics, such as KRAS inhibitors (KRASi), are entering the clinic. However, their use as monotherapies fails to achieve durable tumor control in most patients, and the development of combination therapies remains challenging without an understanding of the complex and dynamic biology that unfolds upon therapeutic challenge in the tumor microenvironment (TME). Most of our knowledge on combination therapies is based on primary, treatment-naïve tumors, but how signaling networks of cancer cells and their interactions with immune cells evolve under therapeutic challenge over time is poorly understood, and strategies to overcome immune-evasive TMEs are lacking. Here, we build on our expertise in modeling the dynamic changes of cancer cells in all phases of therapy to move towardsstrategic, mechanism-based combination therapies. Our vision is to Unlock a T cell-mediated Immune response in therapy-challenged Tumors, “UnlockIT”, to achieve durable therapy responses in cancer patients. (1) We will use our improved molecular time machine, CaTCHseq, together with novel KRASi and unique KRAS-driven tumor models to understand tumor-TME co-evolution under KRASi and related mechanisms of drug-resistance. (2) We will characterize mediators of antigen processing and presentation in treatment naïve, therapy-challenged and immune evasive cancer cell states by using state-of-the-art genome-wide CRISPR/Cas9 screens in combination with innovative phenotypic readouts. This approach offers a sought-after opportunity to uncover mechanisms that make cancer cells “visible” to immunity. (3) Finally, we aim to overcome immune-evasive TMEs by understanding and targeting antigen-presenting cells in the TME. Taken together, UnlockIT will provide new mechanistic links between oncogenic pathways and immunity, and thereby establish a rational basis for combining targeted and immunotherapies.
Projet ERC : fitsCAN (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Products and Processes Engineering
Entité participante : KTH Institut royal de technologie — Pays : Suède — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1719655.0 €

In extracorporeal organ support (ECOS), one or more organ functions fail and are replaced by an artificial device. Kidney failure requires hemodialysis, at least until transplantation. Temporary lung- and/or heart-failure may be treated by Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO). About 1.5 Million patients require hemodialysis worldwide. ECMO has an essential life-saving role during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, as during the Influenzae H1N1 pandemic in 2009. In ECOS, two or more accesses are used; one for blood drainage and another to return oxygenated blood. The flow rate in the cannula and the cannulated blood vessels is often significantly higher than physiologically experienced. The high flow velocity implies larger forces (stress) acting on the blood cells and the vessel walls. Thromboembolism and morphological and mechanical changes in the affected blood vessel are common complications in ECOS. This project focus on the impact of blood flow on these complications. Patient-specific data (CT, MRI and Ultrasound based) will be used to construct laboratory and simulation relevant frameworks. Set-ups for measurement of flow and mixing in-vitro will be used. Simulations will include modeling of transport of chemical species and blood cells along with modeling of platelet activation and risk for thrombus formation. The different tools will enable a considerably better understanding of the underlying pathological processes. The results will support further model development of these processes and facilitate improved cannulation techniques and new devices. These propositions are to be assessed by our clinical partners. Therefore, the project group includes, fluid mechanical expertise, and also clinical specialist in nephrology, intensive care/ECMO, and radiology. The outcome of research will enable device development and clinical decision-making reducing overall treatment complications.

Mots-clés : blood flow,ecmo,hemodialysis,cannula flow,thrombosis,stenosis,cross disciplinary
Projet ERC : High-TheQ (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Fundamental Constituents of Matter
Entité participante : Université de Gand — Pays : Belgique — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UGent
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1950000.0 €

Thermalization of closed quantum systems is central to the modern understanding of matter, from ultracold to ultrahot. High-TheQ studies thermalization of quantum fields excited by nuclear collisions at RHIC and LHC to energy densities equivalent to trillions of Kelvins. In such extreme environments hadrons melt and the equilibrium state is the quark-gluon plasma. Theoretical control over thermalization at high energies is crucially needed for understanding when and how this equilibrium phase emerges in the experiments.  The current theoretical paradigm for thermalization in quantum chromodynamics is based on hydrodynamic and non-thermal attractors (fixed points). They are novel examples of universal dynamics of non-equilibrium quantum fields. Both were found in idealized settings of nuclear collisions with high degree of symmetries and in particular corners of a microscopic parameter space. The goal of High-TheQ is to understand thermalization in quantum field theory beyond these idealizations. Do hydrodynamic attractors appear for off-central nuclear collisions? Is there a gravity dual to a non-thermal attractor? Do non-thermal and hydrodynamic attractors have a common origin, such as spontaneous symmetry breaking?  To answer these questions, High-TheQ will adopt an interdisciplinary methodology, including data-driven approaches, mathematics of transseries and higher-curvature gravity. High-TheQ is firmly rooted in my long-term efforts on ab initio modelling of thermalization at strong coupling, pioneering the use of transseries in non-equilibrium dynamics of relativistic systems and introducing hydrodynamic attractors. This gives me a unique opportunity to decisively advance the field with High-TheQ.

Mots-clés : relativistic hydrodynamics,hydrodynamic attractors,holography,gauge gravity duality,ads cft,non thermal fixed points,non thermal attractors,resurgence,thermalization in quantum field theory,nuclear collisions