Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : HPSuper (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Condensed matter physics
Entité participante : University of Bristol — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1809752.0 €

Superconductors promote electrical currents without loss and are exploited for applications like magnets in medical imaging. Further applications like large scale usage in electrical power generation and transmission, however, are limited by the need to cool materials below a critical temperature Tc. Thus, novel superconductors with higher Tc are highly desirable. High Tc has been predicted almost 50 years ago for hydrogen and hydrogen compounds but was only confirmed in 2015 with the discovery of superconductivity at a record temperature of 203K in hydrogen sulphide H3S at high pressures. This long term effort highlights that finding new superconductors remains challenging as theory is very limited in predicting specific compounds for high-temperature superconductivity. The reason for this is that a favourable combination of materials and electronic properties is needed. This project will unravel the mechanism of high-temperature superconductivity in H3S, derive design principles, and find new high-temperature superconductors. We will measure key parameters of the superconducting state in H3S including the London penetration depth, coherence length, superconducting gap, charge carrier concentration, electron-phonon coupling, and Fermi surface topology as well as the isotope effect on these. This will be achieved through measurements of the critical field, Hall effect, quantum oscillations, and tunnelling spectroscopy. This insight will be used to derive design principles for new superconductors with increased Tc and at lower pressures. We will work together with theory and materials science to predict, synthesise and test novel superconductors working towards hydrogen based high-temperature superconductivity at ambient pressure. We will focus on two materials classes with high hydrogen content: i) phosphanes with excellent control of complementary elements and ii) hydrogen storage materials alanates and borohydrades with light complementary elements.

Mots-clés : high pressure,superconductivity,electronic structure,electron phonon coupling
Projet ERC : NCUscan (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : University of Warwick — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 147279.25 €

Surface defect detection and characterization is a safety-critical non-destructive testing (NDT) process for many regulated industries, including railway networks, oil and gas, energy generation, aerospace, automotive, and civil infrastructure. The cost of repairing and replacing defective or old components can be extremely high, both in terms of the costs of the components and the related economical costs of a system shut-down. There are several NDT approaches in common use, but these have a number of operational drawbacks that impact adversely on in-situ examination cycle times, and can lead to the requirement for destructive testing. Through NonContactUltrasonic (Starting Grant, 202735) we have shown the promise of surface-wave ultrasonics for characterizing surface-breaking defects in metals. We have shown that the geometry of the defects has a significant effect on the scattered waves, and developed theory and industrially viable techniques for characterising individual defects. All measurements have used non-contact ultrasonic techniques, giving the potential for a fast and simple measurement system, removing the need for visual testing or removal of parts from service, and which could operate in hazardous environments. The concept has been tested successfully in the lab and a Proof of Concept unit is now needed to combine the processes for analysing various crack formations into a single device. This project will develop a demonstrator unit using electromagnetic acoustic transducers and laser ultrasound – testing and adopting industrially viable detection methods in place of the lab-based system used previously. This will lead to a simple, on-line measuring system for industry, with the potential for productivity improvements of up to 50% over competing radiographic methods, and with substantially lower capital costs, with the potential to measure even in the presence of thin coatings without requiring their removal prior to testing.

Mots-clés : ultrasound,non destructive testing,surface acoustic waves
Projet ERC : MoDeLLiver (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Products and processes engineering
Entité participante : Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies du numérique — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : Inria
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1991817.5 €

Surgical interventions often require vascular procedures consisting in cutting vessels, removing organ parts or suturing new connections. Intervention planning is based on patient data and surgeons experience. Even the best plans are often revised in real-time during surgery. Can we understand and predict blood flow changes due to a surgery? Complex interactions must be foreseen between three scales: the local point of intervention, whole organ perfusion and function, and the entire circulation. Such complexity calls for modelling and simulation, which should become part of the surgical decision process. Yet, the modelling community does not sufficiently respond to these challenges. Despite great advances in blood flow simulation, clinical translation remains largely unfulfilled, as existing tools are too heavy, pathological interactions complex and multidisciplinary collaboration uneasy. Organ interactions and remodelling due to surgery or diseases are missing from comprehensive models. Besides, simulations must be based on patient data, ideally non-invasive ones. Despite great advances in dynamic imaging, the link between signal and underlying tissue perfusion and function remains to be elucidated, beyond current pharmacokinetics models. Their better understanding will bring new data for personalised simulation. Our ambition is to gear hemodynamics modelling towards diseased organs to guide associated surgical acts, focusing on lung and liver. We will investigate a novel approach of an injected substance model transported through the cardiovascular system; i.e. enhancing pharmacokinetics modelling by transport phenomena based on hemodynamics. Numerical simulations of such models will unravel the interplay between architecture, perfusion and function in diseased organs, and provide peri- & peroperative guiding information. This project will impact bioengineering, pathophysiology, dynamic imaging, and surgery through the final aim of software clinical translation.

Mots-clés : mathematical modelling,numerical simulations,hemodynamics,pharmacokinetics,lung and liver,diseases,patient data integration,dynamic imaging,surgical decision
Projet ERC : MORPHEUS (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Biotechnology and Biosystems Engineering
Entité participante : Leipzig University — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : Partner
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 0.0 €

Symbiotic bacteria play critical roles in animal evolution, development and metabolism. The molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying these fundamental interactions, however, are largely unknown. To fill this major knowledge gap, I will establish the bacteria-Hydractinia symbiosis as a new model system to fully characterize key cross-kingdom signalling molecules and response mechanisms. The results of my ERC proposal (MORPHEUS) will lead to ground-breaking insights into molecular drivers of eukaryotic morphogenesis, illuminate the evolutionary history of developmental signals for animals – including humans – and provide new chemical scaffolds with intrinsic biological activities that are urgently needed for drug discovery. The marine colonial hydroid Hydractinia belongs to an early branching metazoan lineage, dating back more than 500 million years. The organism reproduces through a larval stage, which upon perception of yet unidentified bacterial morphogenic signals, produced within marine bacterial biofilms, undergoes transformation into the mature organism. In the absence of the bacterial signals, the larva fails to settle and eventually dies. This fundamental process is the basis of this proposal. Capitalizing from my recent pioneering work, I will address the following pressing research questions: Which bacterial signals ensure larval recruitment and metamorphosis? How are bacterial signalling molecules perceived? How is the system protected against alien species? I will apply an innovative combination of state-of-the-art methodologies developed within the fields of natural product and synthetic organic chemistry, microbiology and molecular biology to pursue an in-depth biochemical analysis of this paradigmatic system. Results of MORPHEUS will be transformative for many scientific branches across biological and chemical disciplines, and directly impact the development of sustainable anti-biofouling and drug discovery strategies.

Mots-clés : bioorganic chemistry,biosignaling,biosynthesis,molecular biology,natural products,organic synthesis,metabolomics,antimicrobials,metatranscriptomics,secondary metabolites
Projet ERC : MORPHEUS (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Biotechnology and Biosystems Engineering
Entité participante : Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : GBF;HZI
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 627706.75 €

Symbiotic bacteria play critical roles in animal evolution, development and metabolism. The molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying these fundamental interactions, however, are largely unknown. To fill this major knowledge gap, I will establish the bacteria-Hydractinia symbiosis as a new model system to fully characterize key cross-kingdom signalling molecules and response mechanisms. The results of my ERC proposal (MORPHEUS) will lead to ground-breaking insights into molecular drivers of eukaryotic morphogenesis, illuminate the evolutionary history of developmental signals for animals – including humans – and provide new chemical scaffolds with intrinsic biological activities that are urgently needed for drug discovery. The marine colonial hydroid Hydractinia belongs to an early branching metazoan lineage, dating back more than 500 million years. The organism reproduces through a larval stage, which upon perception of yet unidentified bacterial morphogenic signals, produced within marine bacterial biofilms, undergoes transformation into the mature organism. In the absence of the bacterial signals, the larva fails to settle and eventually dies. This fundamental process is the basis of this proposal. Capitalizing from my recent pioneering work, I will address the following pressing research questions: Which bacterial signals ensure larval recruitment and metamorphosis? How are bacterial signalling molecules perceived? How is the system protected against alien species? I will apply an innovative combination of state-of-the-art methodologies developed within the fields of natural product and synthetic organic chemistry, microbiology and molecular biology to pursue an in-depth biochemical analysis of this paradigmatic system. Results of MORPHEUS will be transformative for many scientific branches across biological and chemical disciplines, and directly impact the development of sustainable anti-biofouling and drug discovery strategies.

Mots-clés : bioorganic chemistry,biosignaling,biosynthesis,molecular biology,natural products,organic synthesis,metabolomics,antimicrobials,metatranscriptomics,secondary metabolites
Projet ERC : MORPHEUS (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Biotechnology and Biosystems Engineering
Entité participante : Leibniz Association — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : LG
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 871043.25 €

Symbiotic bacteria play critical roles in animal evolution, development and metabolism. The molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying these fundamental interactions, however, are largely unknown. To fill this major knowledge gap, I will establish the bacteria-Hydractinia symbiosis as a new model system to fully characterize key cross-kingdom signalling molecules and response mechanisms. The results of my ERC proposal (MORPHEUS) will lead to ground-breaking insights into molecular drivers of eukaryotic morphogenesis, illuminate the evolutionary history of developmental signals for animals – including humans – and provide new chemical scaffolds with intrinsic biological activities that are urgently needed for drug discovery. The marine colonial hydroid Hydractinia belongs to an early branching metazoan lineage, dating back more than 500 million years. The organism reproduces through a larval stage, which upon perception of yet unidentified bacterial morphogenic signals, produced within marine bacterial biofilms, undergoes transformation into the mature organism. In the absence of the bacterial signals, the larva fails to settle and eventually dies. This fundamental process is the basis of this proposal. Capitalizing from my recent pioneering work, I will address the following pressing research questions: Which bacterial signals ensure larval recruitment and metamorphosis? How are bacterial signalling molecules perceived? How is the system protected against alien species? I will apply an innovative combination of state-of-the-art methodologies developed within the fields of natural product and synthetic organic chemistry, microbiology and molecular biology to pursue an in-depth biochemical analysis of this paradigmatic system. Results of MORPHEUS will be transformative for many scientific branches across biological and chemical disciplines, and directly impact the development of sustainable anti-biofouling and drug discovery strategies.

Mots-clés : bioorganic chemistry,biosignaling,biosynthesis,molecular biology,natural products,organic synthesis,metabolomics,antimicrobials,metatranscriptomics,secondary metabolites
Projet ERC : SEQUAM (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Fundamental constituents of matter
Entité participante : University of Vienna — Pays : Autriche — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : Univie
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1953375.0 €

Symmetries are at the heart of quantum many-body phenomena in quantum chemistry, condensed matter, and high energy physics. They govern the structure of physical laws, and explain different phases through the mechanism of symmetry breaking. The discovery of novel unconventional phases such as the fractional quantum Hall effect has challenged this view: These phases instead display a global ordering in their entanglement, hindering a characterization in terms of local symmetries. The goal of my project is to develop a comprehensive symmetry-centered framework for the study of quantum many-body systems across physics, based on the structure of their entanglement. It is placed at the interface between Quantum Information and Quantum Many-Body Physics, and uses the language of Tensor Networks which allows to reconcile locality with global entanglement. Our starting point is the physical symmetry structure of the system of interest. Using Tensor Networks, we move to entanglement space, where we classify the symmetries in the entanglement induced by the physical symmetries, and the way in which the entanglement orders under those symmetries – the entanglement phase. By mapping back to the physical space, we can study the ways in which the entanglement order manifests physically, and obtain a spectrum of powerful analytical, numerical, and experimental probes for unconventional phases. We will apply this framework to a wide range of systems which appear in condensed matter and high energy physics, or are realizable in quantum simulators e.g. with cold gases. The results of the project will give a unified understanding of unconventional phases, based on physical symmetries and the resulting entanglement order. It will yield their physical manifestations, numerical probes for their detection, and simple ways to realize and probe these models in experimental scenarios, and thus significantly advance our ability to understand, study, and realize complex quantum phases.

Mots-clés : entanglement theory,tensor networks,strongly interacting quantum systems,quantum many body systems
Projet ERC : SEQUAM (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Fundamental constituents of matter
Entité participante : Max Planck Society — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : MPG
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 0.0 €

Symmetries are at the heart of quantum many-body phenomena in quantum chemistry, condensed matter, and high energy physics. They govern the structure of physical laws, and explain different phases through the mechanism of symmetry breaking. The discovery of novel unconventional phases such as the fractional quantum Hall effect has challenged this view: These phases instead display a global ordering in their entanglement, hindering a characterization in terms of local symmetries. The goal of my project is to develop a comprehensive symmetry-centered framework for the study of quantum many-body systems across physics, based on the structure of their entanglement. It is placed at the interface between Quantum Information and Quantum Many-Body Physics, and uses the language of Tensor Networks which allows to reconcile locality with global entanglement. Our starting point is the physical symmetry structure of the system of interest. Using Tensor Networks, we move to entanglement space, where we classify the symmetries in the entanglement induced by the physical symmetries, and the way in which the entanglement orders under those symmetries – the entanglement phase. By mapping back to the physical space, we can study the ways in which the entanglement order manifests physically, and obtain a spectrum of powerful analytical, numerical, and experimental probes for unconventional phases. We will apply this framework to a wide range of systems which appear in condensed matter and high energy physics, or are realizable in quantum simulators e.g. with cold gases. The results of the project will give a unified understanding of unconventional phases, based on physical symmetries and the resulting entanglement order. It will yield their physical manifestations, numerical probes for their detection, and simple ways to realize and probe these models in experimental scenarios, and thus significantly advance our ability to understand, study, and realize complex quantum phases.

Mots-clés : entanglement theory,tensor networks,strongly interacting quantum systems,quantum many body systems
Projet ERC : ENGAGES (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Computer science and informatics
Entité participante : Technical University of Darmstadt — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1645758.66 €

Symmetry is a phenomenon that appears in many different contexts. Algorithmic symmetry detection and exploitation is the concept of finding intrinsic symmetries of a given object and then using these symmetries to our advantage. Application areas of algorithmic symmetry detection and exploitation range from convolutional neural networks in machine learning to computer graphics, chemical data bases and beyond. In contrast to this widespread use, our understanding of the theoretical foundation (namely the graph isomorphism problem) is incomplete and current algorithmic symmetry tools are inadequate for big data applications. Hence, EngageS addresses these key challenges in the field using a systematic approach to the theory and practice of symmetry detection. It thereby also fixes the existing lack of interplay between theory and practice, which is part of the problem. EngageS' main aims are to tackle the classical and descriptive complexity of the graph isomorphism problem and to design the next generation of symmetry detection algorithms. As key ideas to resolve the complexity, EngageS offers three new approaches on how to prove lower bounds and a new method to settle the descriptive complexity. EngageS will also develop practical symmetry detection algorithms for big data, exploiting parallelism and memory hierarchies of modern machines, and will introduce the concept of and a road map to exploiting absence of symmetry. Overall EngageS will establish a comprehensive software library that will serve as a platform for integrated research on the algorithmic treatment of symmetry. In summary, EngageS will develop fast, efficient and accessible symmetry detection tools that will be used to solve complex algorithmic problems in a range of fields including combinatorial algorithms, generation problems, and canonization.

Mots-clés : algorithmic symmetry detection and exploitation,the graph isomorphism problem,interplay between theory and practice
Projet ERC : TAP (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Condensed matter physics
Entité participante : University of Edinburgh — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1499950.0 €

Synthetic and biological polymers are everywhere, they make up a wide range of materials, from every-day plastics to living cell. The study of how polymers behave in solution is a well-established research field that allows the informed design of commercial products, from plastics to rocket propellant. Most of the polymers used in everyday applications have a fixed structure that cannot be changed in time and this assumption lies at the heart of classic polymer physics. In this project, I propose to shift this paradigm by considering polymers whose architecture can be modified in time via topological operations that cut and glue the polymers' backbone at the expense of energy. Polymers undergoing these operations can dynamically and selectively alter their architecture or topology and I thus name them "topologically active polymers" (TAPs). This project is inspired by the facts that the DNA in every living entity is constantly topologically altered in time to fulfil a range of basic functions (e.g. cell division) and that DNA is increasingly employed as a building block for responsive and multifunctional materials. I propose to computationally design and explore generic systems of TAPs and then experimentally realise them as solutions of DNA functionalised by special classes of ATP-consuming proteins. These active complex fluids are expected to display unconventional behaviours intimately linked to the accessible space of topologies, their dynamic morphology and non-equilibrium kinetics. For instance, they are expected to selectively respond to the concentration of certain proteins, e.g. Topoisomerase, that are enriched in cancer cells. Given the fundamental importance of polymer science and the ubiquity of topology-altering proteins in vivo, this exciting bottom-up project will not only open a new area of fundamental research with potential far-reaching applications but will also shed new light into the workings of certain vitally important classes of proteins.

Mots-clés : polymer physics,topology,microrheology,dna biophysics,active matter