Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : PriME (Horizon Europe, appel 2025, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences
Entité participante : Leibniz-Gemeinschaft — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : WLG
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1499892.0 €

Efficient anticancer immune effects are a prime medical discovery of this century. Molecular alarms drive such immune responses, signaling priming and effector cells to action. Several approaches are studied or clinically used to initiate or support such action. Yet, the perhaps evolutionary old and most conserved mechanism has been mostly off the map so far: reactive oxygen species (Physical-technical applications extend into medicine for diagnostics and also therapies, such as: cancer treatment. Tumor cells present various receptors on the cell surface, and immune cells can interact with these receptors to decide whether a cell should be eliminated or not. Therapies or other external influences can change the spectrum of the presented receptors and thus the interaction, aiming to stimulate an immune response. Once a tumor cell gets identified as harmful, an immune response is initiated to recruit cytotoxic T cells and other adaptive immune cells to reduce tumor growth. Physical plasmas are therapeutic and have antimicrobial efficacy and cancer-killing effects. Plasmas can be generated to operate at low temperatures, which enables them for medical applications, and produced reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (ROS) mainly induce biomedical effects. In tumor cells, plasma treatment leads to redox stress, followed by altered surface marker expression, which has immune-stimulating properties. However, ROS are not absent when the tumor cell dies, and further ROS-mediated mechanisms, such as oxidation of released biomolecules, continue. I hypothesize that immune-stimulatory properties of plasma are combinatory effects of molecular changes and biomolecule oxidation, suggesting that a standardized plasma treatment with maximized ROS, more precisely radical production, optimizes biomolecule oxidation and immunological consequences. My vision is to establish a novel approach to plasma-treated cancers by oxidizing cancer lysates with plasma for use as a therapeutic vaccine.

Mots-clés : cap free radical chemistry gas plasma technology low temperature plasma mass spectrometry non thermal plasma oncology plasma medicine ros redox chemistry
Projet ERC : SOLBATT (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences
Entité participante : Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry — Pays : Rép. Tchèque — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : ÚOCHB AV ČR
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1449034.0 €

While photovoltaics has observed rapid growth in the last decades and utilization of solar energy becomes ever growing part of the total electricity produced by mankind, the lack of control over electrical output caused by fluctuation of solar irradiance is an inevitable drawback of the mass use of solar cells. Solar batteries, addressing intermittent production of solar energy, offer an elegant solution without the need of electricity transport and redistribution. In most examples solar cells are combined with rechargeable batteries (e. g. Li-ion, Pb) which increases the total weight and cost and leads to electricity losses. The approaches for molecular-based storage of light energy, solar thermal batteries, exploit photoswitching molecules (solar fuels) that generate heat upon thermal back isomerization. To this date, no molecular approach for solar energy storage and subsequent direct generation of electric current exists because this requires development of light-activatable molecules capable of hysteric electron storage and release. SOLBATT develops molecular systems for transformation of light energy into chemical bonds and their subsequent transformation to electric current. It uses fully organic redox-driven molecular switches that reversibly form an electron storing bond upon redox process and combines them with suitable redox-active partners that facilitate photoinduced electron transfer. SOLBATT (1) improves our understanding of electron storage into chemical bonds and their subsequent release, (2) delivers redox-responsive molecular systems that can be charged or discharged upon external stimulus, and (3) established design principles for photoactive redox materials suitable for the use in organic solar cells. Ultimately, SOLBATT takes the vital step in finding a solution to a challenging issue: combining organic solar cells with electron storage materials for solar electric batteries buffering the inherent fluctuations in solar electricity production.

Mots-clés : solar batteries,organic solar cells,photoinduced electron transfer,redox driven molecular switches
Projet ERC : InterDiVE (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Environmental B iology, Ecology  and E volution
Entité participante : Université Bar-Ilan — Pays : Israël — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : BIU
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1868196.0 €

Diatoms shape the global carbon cycle, contributing ~20% of primary production on the planet and nearly half of the carbon sequestration in the ocean. Marine viruses transform ecological, evolutionary and biogeochemical processes, yet the impact of viral infection on diatoms remains a fundamental gap in our understanding of microbial dynamics in the ocean. The landmark discovery of diatom-infecting viruses, together with advances in high throughput sequencing and imaging technologies now enable the exploration of diatom host-virus interactions at unprecedented resolution. We know very little about when, where and how viruses impact diatom populations, despite the potential for viral infection to radically alter diatom ecology and diatom-mediated biogeochemistry. Proposed work seeks to elucidate how virus infection of diatoms manifests along environmental and ecophysiological gradients in the ocean. Our team will pursue three complementary aims: (1) Characterize the impacts of environmental stress on virus production and virus-mediated mortality in diatoms; (2) Determine the ecophysiological frameworks that drive diatom host-virus dynamics; (3) Capture and contextualize diverse host-virus interactions throughout a diatom bloom. Using a multi-tiered and interdisciplinary approach that draws upon molecular biology, biogeochemistry and biological oceanography, we will interrogate diatom host-virus interactions across environmental gradients in model systems and natural communities. Amidst the urgency to decipher how ocean processes respond to global climate change, InterDiVE will provide invaluable ecological, ecophysiological, and molecular insight into how environmental conditions regulate diatom host-virus interactions, advancing our understanding of the microscale dynamics that underpin primary production and biogeochemical cycling in the global ocean.

Mots-clés : biological oceanography,host virus interactions,marine microbes,environmental stress,phytoplankton,diatoms,primary production
Projet ERC : CHIROLE (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Condensed Matter Physics
Entité participante : Conseil national de la recherche — Pays : Italie — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : CNR
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

In the past two decades, extensive research has established that electronic transport through chiral molecules is spin selective. This phenomenon is known as chiral induced spin selectivity (CISS). While a fundamental comprehension of CISS remains elusive, compelling evidence demonstrates that it affects the interaction among chiral molecules through a spin-dependent contribution. As a consequence, its implication in the origin of biological homochirality has been suggested. CISS is an inherently quantum effect that can play a role in various biochemical processes, crucial for biological functions. However, prior investigations of CISS have taken place under conditions incompatible with life, largely preventing to explore its quantum biology implications.  With CHIROLE, I propose a radical shift in the state-of-the-art experimental approach. I aim at investigating CISS by harnessing light as a tool to foster our comprehension of CISS and gain external control on its biological consequences. My objectives are as follows: A) Probing the impact of CISS on biomolecular interactions occurring in physiological environments, by advanced optical spectroscopies and tailored magneto-plasmonic nanosensors. B) Investigating the role of phonons in CISS by nonlinear optics, triggering coherent vibrations in DNA and probing the induced modulation of CISS by integrated spectroscopies. C) Based on the investigations above, establishing biocompatible methods to dynamically tune the CISS strength with light, by modulating its determining conditions.  The breakthrough of CHIROLE will consist in the shift of the investigation to a fully biocompatible platform, and in the proposed use of light as external knob to control CISS biological implications, with a focus on DNA, and epigenetic regulation as final target.  By linking quantum physics with the biological functions, CHIROLE holds the promise of advancing our understanding of the role of chirality in a quantum biology frame.

Mots-clés : chiral induced spin selectivity quantum biology surface enhanced spectroscopy biomolecular interactions dna plasmonic nanosensors biophysics pump probe spectroscopy
Projet ERC : URANUS (Horizon Europe, appel 2025, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences
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 : 608750.0 €

Evaluating and fabricating sustainable materials for the energy sector is crucial in addressing the current energy crisis and climate change. Despite safety and sustainability concerns, especially as the early generations of nuclear power plants (NPP) near the end of their operational lifespans, NPPs produce almost one-fifth of the world’s electrical energy. However, controlling material degradation and reprocessing issues in NPPs remains surprisingly understudied due to the extreme operating conditions. Up to 95% of uranium from spent nuclear fuel can be recycled through reprocessing in concentrated nitric acid at temperatures exceeding 100°C, although the underlying mechanisms and the role of alloying elements in the fuel container are not yet well understood. Electrochemical methods have been applied in these extreme electrolytes to investigate materials degradation mechanisms providing in situ global responses. However, these methods are limited as they rely on assumptions developed in aqueous media and do not provide direct, element-specific information, necessitating complementary ex situ surface characterizations. To bridge the gap, the URANUS project will develop a novel element-resolved electrochemistry setup for extreme electrolytes, leveraging the unique expertise of the PI in this field. Element-by-element degradation mechanisms of metallic materials in concentrated nitric acid will be elucidated for the first time, tracking the fate of each alloying element. Other non-aqueous electrolytes including molten salt systems will also be investigated with this approach. This will open new avenues for controlling the corrosion of materials in the energy sector. The unique element-resolved database generated from this project will serve as input parameters for training machine learning models aimed at efficiently discovering optimal alloys in specific environments, thereby reducing the consumption of raw and scarce materials during the materials design process.

Mots-clés : in situ element resolved electrochemistry aesec corrosion mechanism in extreme electrolytes spent nuclear waste reprocessing stainless steels ni alloys database for alloy design
Projet ERC : MOMENTOUS (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Computer Science and Informatics
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 : 460943.1 €

We are witnessing a massive shift in the way people consume information. In the past, people had an active role in selecting the news they read. More recently, the information started to appear on people's social media feeds as a byproduct of one's social relations. At present, we see a new shift brought by the emergence of online advertising platforms where third parties can pay ad platforms to show specific information to particular groups of people through paid targeted ads. These targeting technologies are powered by AI-driven algorithms. Using these technologies to promote information, rather than promote products as they have been initially designed for, opens the way for self-interested groups to use user's personal data to manipulate them. European Institutions recognize the risks, and many fear a weaponization of the technology to engineer polarization or manipulate voters. The goal of this project is to study the risks with AI-driven information targeting at three levels: (1) human-level--in which conditions targeted information can influence an individual's beliefs; (2) algorithmic- level--in which conditions AI-driven targeting algorithms can exploit people's vulnerabilities; and (3) platform-level--are targeting technologies leading to biases in the quality of information different groups of people receive and assimilate. Then, we will use this understanding to propose protection mechanisms for platforms, regulators, and users. This proposal's key asset is the novel measurement methodology I propose that will allow for a rigorous and realistic evaluation of risks by enabling randomized controlled trials in social media. The measurement methodology builds on advances in multiple disciplines and takes advantage of our recent breakthrough in designing independent auditing systems for social media advertising. Successful execution will provide a solid foundation for sustainable targeting technologies that ensure healthy information targeting.

Mots-clés : online advertising,micro targeting,cognitive biases,information exposure,online threats and manipulation
Projet ERC : Brokers-of-NAM (Horizon Europe, appel 2025, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Study of the Human Past
Entité participante : Institut za novejso zgodovino — Pays : Slovénie — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : INSTITUTE FOR CONTEMPORARY HISTORY
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1499080.0 €

Brokers-of-NAM will make a groundbreaking contribution to the literature on the Cold War by analyzing the history of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) through the lens of transnational political networks and relying on an innovative methodological approach combining biographical and network analysis. It will study the lives of five characters who played a central part in the global politics of non-alignment by crafting political networks across Latin America, the Balkans, the Eastern Mediterranean, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia, and by mobilizing political parties, movements, and trade unions on the basis of common ideas of neutralism, anticolonialism, and international solidarity during the Cold War. Drawing on personal archives, writings, photographic collections and the press, Brokers-of-NAM will study their biographies, produce structured data about their political networks, and draw on network analysis to analyze how they were composed and structured, and how they shifted over time and across multiple geographies. The project will produce a truly polycentric narrative of the NAM from the perspective of actors who participated in the making of non-alignment and who have nevertheless remained anonymous. It will change our understanding of the politics of the Cold War by showing how local agents shaped a global movement through transnational connections. It will bring about a groundbreaking leap in the methodological toolkit of Cold War history, introducing the best practices in digital history, facilitating cross-disciplinary knowledge transfer and implementing a data model and a methodological approach that will help increase data interoperability and reusability in future digital history projects.

Mots-clés : digital history,biographical approaches,network analysis,cold war
Projet ERC : BENASTA (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Study of the Human Past
Entité participante : Institut za novejso zgodovino — Pays : Slovénie — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : INSTITUTE FOR CONTEMPORARY HISTORY
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1414815.5 €

Based on transnational comparisons, our project probes into non-elite adherence to minority nationalisms in rural Eastern Europe between the 1870s and the First World War. We compare six case studies. We focus on state agency as a driving factor, to offer a corrective to the currently predominant, one-sided emphasis on the nexus between nationalist activists and the people. In the broader Eastern Europe, most national movements defined their constituencies in disregard of existing borders. We try to demonstrate that the states structures in which these populations lived inadvertently conspired with national movements to constitute minorities disaffected with them. They did so on two levels. First, by expanding their infrastructural reach, they inflicted harm especially on rural people and made themselves an easier target for economic and social grievances. Second, they reinterpreted certain populations as foreign, a problem and a threat to the security and integrity of the state. They implemented special policies to assimilate or contain them and proactively framed their dissatisfaction as a sign of nationalist yearnings. By retrieving voices from below, we propose to clarify how far these processes aided successful national mobilization in minority. Some of our more specific research questions are the following. What hopes did rural people attach to national movements? Were they interested in modern public services from a state controlled by their coethnics – or rather, did they expect national movements to shield them from any kind of state interference? What state policies did they react against, and how did these differ from the ones that the elites of national movements resented? Did popular voices about the state administration and policies echo elite framings? Finally, did popular understandings shape more democratic, twentieth-century (right or left-wing) brands of nationalism?

Mots-clés : eastern europe,nationalism,nineteenth century
Projet ERC : AstroMol (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences
Entité participante : Université hébraïque de Jérusalem — Pays : Israël — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : HUJI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1461701.0 €

Until the beginning of the last century, the scientific convention was that the material in the interstellar medium (ISM) between stars and galaxies was mostly in atomic and ionic form – thus the formation of complex molecules was improbable. Today, however, large complex molecules are being discovered at a dazzling rate – demonstrating the molecular nature of our universe. The physical conditions in the ISM are extremely different than on Earth: in addition to extreme temperatures and low density, there are radiation fields, which, when interacting with atoms and molecules, result in unique chemistry occurring in excited electronic states. This interaction is responsible for many of the chemical phenomena observed in the ISM. Currently, very little is known about the formation mechanisms of molecules in the ISM. The efforts to uncover the chemistry of the ISM are multidisciplinary, yielding experimental, observational, and theoretical results. Theoretical results are crucial for obtaining a molecular-level understanding of chemical phenomena – theoretical results help to guide and decipher experimental and observational results. However, up to now, the toolkit of modern quantum chemistry cannot model the dynamic of large molecules in a highly excited electronic state. The aim of this proposed study is to fill this gap: I will develop new theoretical capabilities within quantum chemistry (specifically, ensemble density functional theory) that will enable us to model the dynamic of highly excited large molecules such as polyaromatic hydrocarbons (which play a crucial role in the chemical evolution of the ISM). The ability to accurately model the dynamics of excited states will significantly advance the field of computational chemistry, giving it the ability to model systems that are currently outside its reach – and provide a leap in our current understanding of the chemistry of the ISM.

Mots-clés : astrochemistry,theoretical chemistry,computational chemistry,photochemistry,ab initio molecular dynamics,excited state dynamics,static electron correlation,density functional theory