Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : PaganTibet (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Texts and Concepts
Entité participante : École pratique des hautes études — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : EPHE PSL
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2492375.0 €

Buddhism was introduced to Tibet in the 7th century CE and became the official national religion in the 8th. A small percentage of Tibetans are followers of a religion called Bön, which its adherents (Bönpos) and Buddhists alike consider to be the country’s indigenous faith. Bön came to acquire many Buddhist features but retained a strand of more archaic traditions. Since there is no evidence that these traditions were actually called Bön prior to the establishment of Buddhism, we refer to them collectively as Tibetan Pagan religion. Until now, all we knew about this religion came from a small number of early (mainly 8-11th c.) manuscripts from the Silk Road, a small cache from southern Tibet, and some ritual narratives in the literature of “reformed” Bön. This situation changed dramatically in 2005 with the discovery of a large number of manuscripts constituting the ritual repertoire of a class of priests, called Leyu, in the Sino-Tibetan borderlands. Although facsimiles of some 35,000 folios of these manuscripts have now been, or are due shortly to be, published in China, other than the PI and members of his team no one has worked on them owing to difficulties of script, language and the concepts conveyed. Preliminary investigations suggest that these texts contain genuinely archaic non-Buddhist rituals and narratives closely resembling those of the early sources that are already known. Using state-of-the-art computational humanities tools such as Handwritten Text Recognition and Natural Language Processing in conjuction with the methods of philology, comparative religion and anthropology, PaganTibet proposes to undertake a systematic study of the Leyu manuscripts, producing a searchable database of the entire corpus, an annotated catalogue of its contents as well as translations and extended summaries of a selection of its works, to provide the first-ever reconstruction of Tibetan Pagan religion.

Mots-clés : tibetan studies,tibetan bon religion,digital humanities,natural language processing,reconstruction of religion
Projet ERC : OrthoScript (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Synthetic Chemistry and Materials
Entité participante : UK Research and Innovation — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UKRI
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1497496.0 €

In OrthoScript, we aim to build a technology platform for the efficient synthesis, replication and evolution of DNA and RNA comprising alternative genetic alphabets that are either orthogonal to the natural alphabet or expand its combinatorial potential and information density. Our approach involves the leveraging of protein design and evolution approaches to generate bespoke DNA and RNA polymerase enzymes for the encoded synthesis and sequencing of expanded genetic alphabets with high efficiency and fidelity. If successful our approach unlocks the potential of these new alphabets for information storage and enables a systematic investigation of the relationship between complexity (informational density), evolvability and phenotypic diversity in informational biopolymers. The same polymerases are critical for the scalable integration of an expanded alphabet into an orthogonal replisome in a living cell. If realised, we provide a technology platform for the encoding of information in expanded, orthogonal genetic alphabets both in vitro and in bacteria with transformative potential in applications like molecular information storage and genetic code expansion.
Projet ERC : Evo-immuno (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Immunity, Infection and I mmunotherapy
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 : 485871.81 €

As we have seen with the emergence of viral pathogens like Ebola, ZIKA and SARS-CoV2, our societies are, and will continue to be, confronted to unknown and perilous viruses. To prepare for this, we propose to explore the diversity of antiviral genes in animals. Important signaling nodes have been conserved throughout evolution and regulate expression of antiviral genes that evolve dynamically in response to viral pressure. Because this occurs in parallel between different lineages, each animal has a unique arsenal of antiviral genes, with a core of conserved genes, but also taxon-specific genes, which represent an unexplored resource of potentially unique antiviral mechanisms. Insects, the largest group of animals, present high potential for such project but lack of information on the viruses infecting most of them prevented broad investigation up to now. Our discovery that the cyclic dinucleotide (CDN) cGAMP triggers a strong STING- and NF-B-dependent antiviral protection in drosophila, provides for the first time a handle to access the repertoire of induced antiviral genes in insects. We will exploit the assets of the drosophila model to address the function of cGAS-like receptors and the CDNs they produce. We will use RNA sequencing of cGAMP-stimulated insects and evolution-guided paradigms to identify among the STING-regulated genes candidates for functional antiviral screens in insect and human cells. Hits will be characterized to understand their mode of action. As proof of principle, we will study the function of Nazo, a fast-evolving STING-regulated gene duplicate in drosophila also strongly upregulated by interferons in bats. Overall, this project will provide a unique evolutionary perspective on the STING pathway and will lay the foundations for exploitation of rapidly increasing genomic data to document original antiviral strategies, with the long-term goal of inspiring innovative therapeutic approaches against viral infections.

Mots-clés : evolution insects arthropods
Projet ERC : Electrophot (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Systems and Communication Engineering
Entité participante : Université Paris-Saclay — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1981769.5 €

Mid-infrared (mid-IR) spectroscopy is a nearly universal way to identify chemical and biological substances and to perform non-invasive diagnostics. More specifically, the 6-15 µm wavelength range can be exploited to detect small traces of environmentally hazardous and toxic substances for a variety of applications including defense, security and industrial monitoring. While current optical systems in the mid-IR range are based on bulky assemblies of discrete devices, a challenging task is to make mid-IR spectroscopy accessible in remote areas, driving the development of compact and cost-effective solutions to replace table-top systems. In the project we aim at addressing new routes for high resolution spectroscopic systems based on dual-comb spectroscopy by developing innovative frequency comb sources. The strategy developed in ELECTROPHOT is based on the unique properties of graded index Silicon Germanium (SiGe) photonics circuits, which are their transparency in a wide spectral range together with the ability to fine tune both the electronic bandgap and refractive index of SiGe alloys, to make large progress in mid-IR photonics. Based on these capabilities, the original idea of the project is to exploit simultaneously optical nonlinear and electro-optic comb generation, to generate compact frequency comb sources providing simultaneously wideband operation with fine and tunable resolution. Interestingly the photonics circuits will leverage from reliable and high-volume fabrication technologies, already developed for microelectronic integrated circuits to provides a new playground in mid-IR photonics.

Mots-clés : silicon photonics,mid infrared,frequency comb generation opto electronics,non linear optics,
Projet ERC : DEEP-SEE (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Earth System Science
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 : 42412.5 €

Rare earth elements (REE) and transition and post-transition metals (TM) are essential to modern life, yet we know little about how they concentrate at Earth’s surface, especially on the seafloor, which holds vast reserves. The DEEP-SEE project will shift paradigms on marine metal deposits from chemical composition and resource inventories to a holistic view based on atomic-scale observations and modeling. This research will determine geochemical processes that give rise to some of the highest metal partitionings in supergene ores. First, crystal chemistry of 3+ REE in biogenic vs. authigenic sedimentary apatite is proposed as a new proxy for the paleoceanographic enrichment setting with the potential to become an indicator for future exploration sites. Second, crystal chemistry of 3+ REE will elucidate the scavenging history of Fe-Mn crusts and corresponding evolution of seawater REE as recorded in growth layers over millions of years. Third, investigation of the redox chemistry and mineralogy of Fe-Mn crusts and nodules will explain how the redox-sensitive metals Co, Ce, Tl, and Pt are enriched from 109 to 106 times relative to seawater. To date, these processes have been impossible to interrogate because of analytical challenges posed by the multi-elemental composition and mineralogical heterogeneity of seafloor deposits. A promising approach for tackling these challenges is new micro-X-ray emission spectroscopy using a unique high-luminosity compact XES spectrometer at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility. Installation of the spectrometer on a microfocus beamline under construction on the new 4th generation ESRF X-ray source will provide a momentous gain of at least 100 in detection limit and unprecedented sensitivity and precision in the analysis of REE and TM. More broadly, the research will show how new knowledge about Earth processes can be obtained with a fresh look at individual trace elements previously inaccessible by crystal chemical study.
Projet ERC : LISTEN FLASH (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Earth System Science
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 : 1407037.5 €

Terrestrial Planetary Seismology aims to revolutionize our understanding of planetary interiors and seismic activity. After the Mars interior exploration by InSight seismometer, the next steps will be on the Moon, with three seismometer deployments planned for 2026/2027 : NASA's Far Side Seismic Suite (FSS) with a French spare InSight sensor, NASA's Artemis-3 Lunar Environment Monitoring Station, and the Chinese Chang'E-7 Lunar Seismometer. This ERC project hinges on detecting and locating lunar impacts, essential for constraining interior models, akin to seismic studies on Mars. It does this by deploying a network of three Earth-based telescopes to monitor Lunar Impact Flashes, complementing data from FSS and other lunar seismometers. This synergy enables precise impact location and timing, crucial for mapping lunar crustal and mantle structures of the lunar south hemisphere, including Schrödinger impact basin and South Pole shallow layers. Moreover, the project pioneers a multi-messenger approach in planetary science by combining seismic waveforms from impacts, high-resolution imaging of impact craters and impact digital twins to understand impact dynamics, lunar scattering and attenuation and lunar subsurface properties comprehensively. It aims to establish empirical relations between impact characteristics, seismic source parameters and seismic signals, enhancing our understanding of impact processes and enabling “natural” controlled seismology using impacts for future planetary exploration. With a robust implementation plan aligned with lunar mission timelines, this ERC project is based on partnership between IPGP and CNRS and promises to deliver groundbreaking insights into planetary seismology. It leverages expertise from planetary seismology, impact observations, and instrumentation, supported by international collaborations, to address fundamental questions about planetary interiors and enhance our understanding of planetary formation and impacts processes.

Mots-clés : planetary seismology moon mars lunar impact flash
Projet ERC : QtCilia (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Physiology in Health, Disease and Ageing
Entité participante : Istituti di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico — Pays : Italie — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : IRCCS
Type d'entité : Organismes privés (hors enseignement)
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2500000.0 €

Primary cilia are single, microtubule-based, organelles protruding as antennae at the surface of most cells. Their dysfunction is associated with several genetic disorders, called the ciliopathies. We recently identified a new, previously undescribed, role for primary cilia as sensors of cellular nutrient availability. In this novel mTORC1-independent pathway, cilia directly communicate with mitochondria to drive metabolic reprogramming under nutrient stress, when glutamine (Q) becomes an obligated carbon source. Here, we will tackle two fundamental questions: i. why mammalian cells “taste” the extracellular milieu via a sensory monocilium, and how is the resulting information conveyed to mitochondria? ii. what are the consequences when the cross-communication is impaired? While our newly identified cilia pathway is relevant in multiple cell types, here we focus on renal epithelia, because the kidney is severely affected in the ciliopathies and because we contributed defining the crucial role of metabolic balancing in this organ. The goals are: 1) to identify the precise mechanism(s) underlying the ciliary response to nutrients; 2) to test the hypothesis that primary cilia directly cross-communicate with mitochondria via protein exchange; 3) to define the relevance of this pathway for the pathogenesis and treatment of ciliopathies. We will use newly developed methods and combine high-throughput with hypothesis-driven approaches in a broad program designed to balance high-risk/high-gain with low-risk/high-gain tasks. The project has two inherent souls: one devoted to the understanding of a novel, very basic biological process; the second to the translation of novel basic concepts to decipher disease pathophysiology. QtCilia (Q tasting Cilia) benefits from a unique across-disciplines background and expertise of the PI, who positions herself strategically to make paradigm-changing discoveries, for which exceptional resources via innovative funding schemes are sought.

Mots-clés : cilia,mitochondria,glutamine anaplerosis,metabolic stress,metabolic reprogramming,polycystic kidney disease,genetic diseases of the kidney,inborn errors of metabolism,metabolic reprogramming in cancer
Projet ERC : POLIMPACT (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Human Mobility, Environment, and Space
Entité participante : Institut de recherche pour la paix — Pays : Norvège — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : PRIO
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2405085.5 €

What are key climate-driven social risks, and how might societal development moderate these risks? The SSP-RCP scenario framework has been developed by the IPCC community to study long-term interactions between climate and society and constitutes the cornerstone of current assessments of climate change impacts. The RCPs represent alternative warming scenarios (hazards) whereas the SSPs describe alternative development scenarios that define exposure and vulnerability to these hazards. Despite their widespread use, the quantitative SSP scenarios suffer from two major shortcomings: (i) they ignore political dimensions of vulnerability, implicitly assuming that governance does not matter for climate-driven risk; (ii) they use economic models that ignore growth disruption risks, resulting in future growth projections for low-income countries that vastly exceed past growth even in the most pessimistic scenarios. The joint result of these shortcomings is a quantified scenario framework that severely underestimates future vulnerability to climate change.  POLIMPACT aspires to remedy this problem. Using cutting-edge methods, including dynamic statistical simulations, machine learning, and expert elicitation, the project will develop a new portfolio of empirically grounded and rigorously validated governance, conflict, and economic development scenario projections, consistent with the SSPs, that for the first time enables accounting for political sources of vulnerability in climate change impact assessments. The scientific merit of the novel scenario products will be demonstrated by comparing impact estimates for poverty and hunger relying on the existing SSP framework with updated results using the extended, politically sensitive projections. If successful, POLIMPACT will initiate a step-change in climate change impact modeling, radically improving the quality and real-world relevance of climate change impact assessments for key social risks over the 21st century.

Mots-clés : climate change,governance,conflict,economic development,scenario analysis,statistical simulation,forecasting,shared socioeconomic pathways,impact assessment
Projet ERC : SOLROUTES (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Soci al World and Its Interactions
Entité participante : Université de Gênes — Pays : Italie — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2498653.75 €

Unauthorized migration has always been a contentious issue in the EU. Yet, many of the policies adopted thus far have proved ineffective in containing arrivals and blocking circulations of migrants and refugees within the EU. Furthermore, unauthorized migration has continued to challenge EU borders even during the pandemic. SOLROUTES’ core research question is: how can the turbulence, persistence, and intensity of unauthorized movements and of the production of migrants’ routes across “Europe at Large” – originating from the externalization of EU borders to non-EU countries – be understood? The project addresses this challenge from an innovative angle, through an ethnographic exploration of the nexus between unauthorized movements and the networks of solidarity with migrants in transit, which involve actors and practices that have been addressed just recently in migration studies. This will be achieved by exploring and observing 50 crucial nodes in migration routes within Europe, in selected countries on its fringes (Turkey, Tunisia, Morocco) and in the Outermost Regions of the EU (French Guiana, Mayotte). SOLROUTES will aim to: a) explore the functioning, articulations, and representations of local and trans-local networks which share shelter, knowledge and resources with migrants in transit; b) assess how routes are continuously reshaped by the encounter between unauthorized movements and solidarity networks; c) develop a large-scale multi-sited ethnographic approach based on live and collaborative methods and digital research; d) develop an innovative theory in migrations studies on the nexus between solidarity with migrants in transit and unauthorized movements, contributing to structure the emerging perspective of solidarities studies; e) generate Special Features – a web series, an art exhibit, a graphic novel – linked to the research, offering new narratives for policy makers, local communities, and other relevant audiences in the spirit of public sociology.

Mots-clés : borders,solidarity,ethnography,visual sociology
Projet ERC : PARADOX (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Physiology in Health, Disease and Ageing
Entité participante : Antoni van Leeuwenhoekziekenhuis — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : AVL
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2500000.0 €

Cancer cell homeostasis requires a balance between activated oncogenic pathways driving tumorigenesis and engagement of stress-response programs to counteract the inherent toxicity of such aberrant signaling. Indeed, emerging evidence suggests that hyperactivated oncogenic signaling can also be toxic to cancer cells, indicating that cancer cells select optimal levels of oncogenic signaling rather than maximal levels. I propose here a fundamentally different approach to the treatment of cancer, based on deliberate hyperactivation of oncogenic signaling, combined with perturbation of the activated stress responses to selectively kill cancer cells. We will use drugs that further activate oncogenic signaling in cancer cells (protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A) inhibitors, GSK3 inhibitors, PKC activators, DUSP inhibitors) and study the associated toxicities using single cell omics technologies. We will then use CRISPR and compound screens to identify the vulnerabilities of such drug-treated cells. This will identify effective combination therapies using this paradoxical approach. We have delivered initial proof of concept for this notion by demonstrating that hyper-activation of oncogenic signaling in colon cancer by small molecule inhibition of PP2A, combined with inhibition of the mitotic kinase WEE1 results in dramatic anti-tumor responses in vivo. Most strikingly, we found that cancer cells develop resistance to this therapy through selective downregulation of oncogenic signaling to evade the stress imposed by hyperactivation of oncogenic signaling. Consequently, resistance to this hyperactivation therapy was associated with both reduced oncogenic signaling and oncogenic traits in vivo. Here, we aim to understand and exploit toxicities associated with paradoxical activation of oncogenic signaling using multi-omics technologies, study how cancer cells can develop tumor suppressive drug resistance and address the effects of this type of therapy on pre-malignant lesions.

Mots-clés : cancer therapy signaling stress responses