Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : OffRoad (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Texts and Concepts
Entité participante : Université de Constance — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1978350.0 €

In times of climate crisis, there is wide agreement that we need a more environmental approach to automobility. “Off the Road” addresses this challenge by highlighting a largely forgotten fact: that automobility was a thoroughly environmental experience before the current system of closed cars on concrete roads emerged. This environmental automobility was particularly widespread in the United States, where much driving occurred in off-road conditions well into the 1920s. Motorists navigated through mud, sand, and water, constantly exposed to the elements and acutely aware of their surroundings. Early automobility thus engendered unprecedented modes of relating to the environment—modes that have never been systematically researched. “Off the Road” recovers this environmental automobility by conceiving it as an aesthetic experience: one that created new sensual perceptions, new strategies of representation, and new formations of environmental knowledge. These aesthetic patterns found their most complex manifestation in road literature. The project assembles researchers from literary studies, environmental history, and the history of knowledge to recover the aesthetics of environmental automobility in three steps. (1) It builds an interactive digital corpus of American road literature from 1890 to 1929 to identify the full range of aesthetic strategies employed to render the experience of environmental automobility. (2) It positions these strategies within the modernist aesthetic innovations of the period, thus bringing into view a previously marginalized modernism inspired by slow driving in rural environments. (3) It examines how the aesthetics of automobility generated a new kind of mobile environmental knowledge that shaped environmental activism and the emergent science of ecology. In sum, the project reveals how early automobility created distinct modes of environmental awareness that can help us reconceive mobility today.

Mots-clés : ecocriticism modernism studies environmental history history of knowledge
Projet ERC : SPOT (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Condensed Matter Physics
Entité participante : Université Charles de Prague — Pays : Rép. Tchèque — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2000000.0 €

Polarons are quasiparticles that form in ionic lattices due to the coupling of excess electrons or holes with lattice vibrations. This leads to a spatial confinement of the charge carrier or even its complete localization, which presents a challenge for theoretical modelling. Polarons play a central role in many materials properties, such as electrical transport, optical properties, surface reactivity, or magnetoresistance, and are always investigated indirectly through such macroscopic characteristics. Here, I propose to develop a methodology for real-space experimental observation of single polarons, based on detecting their electrostatic force by noncontact Atomic Force Microscopy (nc-AFM). I will track localized polarons in the crystal lattice, observe their thermally activated hopping, interaction with light, electric and magnetic field, and coupling to lattice defects. This will provide the missing link between the atomic-scale polaron dynamics and macroscopic materials properties. The nc-AFM represents an excellent tool for watching and explaining the fundamental mechanisms involved in polaron kinetics, yet the method has a limited time resolution. I propose overcoming this limitation by combining nc-AFM with excitation by light, aiming for time resolution of 10-6 to 10-9 s, while maintaining the atomic resolution in real space through plasmonic effects at the tip apex. This will allow investigation of highly mobile polarons that stand behind complex physical phenomena, resolve their mechanisms of charge transport, the nature of their excited and transition states, as well as polaron-polaron interactions. If successful, the result of this project will provide a big leap towards understanding the physics of charge carriers in ionic lattices, open a path towards explaining unresolved polaron-based phenomena, and possibly reveal novel materials properties.

Mots-clés : polarons,stm,afm
Projet ERC : MORETHANMONEY (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Individuals, Markets and Organisations
Entité participante : Université d'Hambourg — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1566010.0 €

Digital technologies, the Covid crisis, rising incomes, and changing work attitudes all contribute to the recent increase in the importance of certain nonmonetary aspects of work - most prominently flexibility and work meaning. What does this mean for gender differences on the labor market and for the future of work? MORETHANMONEY will integrate flexibility and work meaning into the theory and empirics of family labor supply and retirement choices. In three subprojects, I will develop models that combine behavioral, labor and family economics, collect unique data sets that combine administrative, survey and experimental parts, and use structural and reduced-form estimation techniques. A) I will use models of collective labor supply and newly collected data to analyze the choice of hours worked, flexibility, and time spent with children at the family-level. Choosing flexibility may reduce wages and decision power and thus affect the distribution of family resources. A hidden cost of recent policies aimed at increasing flexibility may be that wages and bargaining power of women decrease. B) I will combine the labor economics (flexibility) with the behavioral (meaning of work) perspective and collect data on trade-offs between meaning, flexibility, and wages consistently in several countries. Choosing occupations and sectors with high meaning (like health and education) may restrict the flexibility choice and force women to reduce their labor supply. C) I will take the long-term perspective. While wages translate into retirement incomes, nonwage attributes do not, but they may cause an increase in labor supply. I will model and collect data on trade-offs between wages, hours worked, and nonwage attributes and estimate their effect on retirement decisions over the life cycle. This will greatly increase our understanding of the large differences in retirement incomes between men and women.

Mots-clés : flexibility work meaning work mission family economics collective labor supply gender wage gaps retirement gaps data collection hypothetical choice experiment administrative data
Projet ERC : BETELGEUSE (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Synthetic Chemistry and Materials
Entité participante : Université technique de Rhénanie-Westphalie à Aix-la-Chapelle — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1999250.0 €

Our ability to construct organic molecules is central to the wellbeing of our society. Boron-containing compounds are some of the most used tools to aid this. These materials are used as building blocks when “stitching” molecules together and also as catalysts in many different settings. The invention of innovative strategies to prepare and exploit borylated molecules is integral to discover and manufacture many products that we use daily. The overarching aim of this proposal is to innovate organic chemistry by inventing novel catalysis concepts based on the reactivity of boryl radicals, an underutilized class of reactive intermediates. My group has introduced a novel approach to generate these species from amine-borane precursors and here I aim to:  1. Establish a general platform to borylate aromatics using boryl radicals. This blueprint for C–B bond formation will introduce amine-borane functionalities instead of standard boronic acids/esters. This will provide unprecedented synthetic capacity because the amine-borane will serve a dual role acting first as directing group for ortho/meta functionalization and then cross-coupling handle.  2. Explore boryl radicals in innovative cascades reactions leading to the divergent assembly of sp3-rich fragments. These methods will expedite the preparation of poly-functionalized materials tapping into unexplored areas of chemical space.  3. Establish boryl radicals as “H-atom transfer” catalysts to achieve the “philicity umpolung” of nucleophilic radicals. This concept will introduce unprecedented retrosynthetic tactics and enable the merge of boryl radical reactivity with asymmetric organocatalysis. Overall, this cohesive and innovative research plan offers the unique opportunity to discover novel and exciting transformations that go far beyond what currently possible. Achieving this project will provide unprecedented tools for the preparation and the use of borylated materials in synthesis and catalysis.

Mots-clés : radical chemistry,borylation,photoredox catalysis,cross coupligs,synthetic chemistry,dual catalysis,asymmetric organocatalysis
Projet ERC : TailorPlast (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Materials Engineering
Entité participante : Université technique de Rhénanie-Westphalie à Aix-la-Chapelle — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1999794.0 €

TAILORPLAST focuses on understanding and predicting plastic deformation mechanisms in intermetallic phases for advanced structural and functional materials. The traditional approach of manipulating microstructures in metal-based alloys has been immensely successful, but new materials and predictive materials design strategies are needed to enable new functionalities and sustainability in transportation, production, energy conversion and storage. TAILORPLAST seeks to address this challenge by adopting a generalised approach and leveraging recent experimental and computational insights into the atomic mechanisms of dislocation motion in intermetallics in combination with graph neural networks and their reach towards extensive databases.  Recently, we could show that small changes in intermetallic composition can lead to dramatic property changes. We uncovered the details of the essential dislocation mechanisms and energy barriers in the intermetallic crystals and have demonstrated how this knowledge enables tailoring of properties. Within a single crystal structure, the critical stresses for deformation may be varied across a large range by inducing sublattice order, even in a binary intermetallic.  The project's objectives are to expand the understanding of fundamental plasticity mechanisms beyond metals, transfer these mechanisms to a large class of topologically close-packed intermetallic phases, and ultimately identify promising intermetallics for tailored plasticity and predict the plastic properties of complex intermetallic precipitate phases in high-performance alloys. The success of TAILORPLAST will lead to purposeful application-oriented material selection, accelerated alloy design, and the ability to tailor structural materials for extreme conditions and functional materials for new applications.

Mots-clés : intermetallics,plasticity,dislocations,electron microscopy,nanomechanics,atomistic simulations,neural networks
Projet ERC : CYANITE (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Earth System Science
Entité participante : Université technique de Rhénanie-Westphalie à Aix-la-Chapelle — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2282351.69 €

Global surface temperatures are increasing in a manner unprecedented in modern Earth history. The extent of future warming on regional to global scales is difficult to predict but crucial for developing climate-resilient pathways and strategies for adaptation and sustainability. The study of ancient climates allows a mechanistic exploration of the Earth system and the opportunity to quantitatively and qualitatively evaluate and improve new generations of climate models. Particularly on the continents, however, the spatiotemporal reconstruction of ancient climates is often associated with large uncertainties due to the scarcity of proxy records. CYANITE takes an innovative approach to fill the ‘proxy record’ gap by tapping lacustrine sediment deposits as high-resolution archives of continental climate change. This will, for the first time, be feasible by the PI’s recent discovery of a novel suite of lipids, known as heterocyte glycolipids (HGs), that are ubiquitously present in lakes worldwide. CYANITE will interrogate the sensitivity of HGs to climate forcing in space and time and will develop, validate and apply HG-based lipid palaeothermometers that will provide essential new insights on the magnitude and timing of past continental climate change. CYANITE will go beyond the current state-of-the-art and through an integrated approach deliver i) culture and sediment calibrations to transfer HG-based proxy values to absolute temperatures and ii) high-resolution Cenozoic proxy records of continental climate change to facilitate palaeoclimate model-data comparison. As such, CYANITE will open new pathways in palaeoclimate research and significantly advance our capabilities to reliably forecast future climate change.

Mots-clés : cyanobacteria,lipid palaeothermometer,biomarkers
Projet ERC : HigherHyper (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Mathematics
Entité participante : Université d'Oxford — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1999258.0 €

Hyperbolicity pervades modern mathematics. It is the dominant type of geometry both in low-dimensional topology and group theory, and in such regimes it is a well-understood concept. Such a comprehensive understanding, however, does not extend to higher dimensions and other higher manifestations of hyperbolicity, and this proposal will attempt to change that by focusing on fibring, volume, isoperimetric inequalities, and the Atiyah conjecture.  One of the most pressing problems that geometric topology faces today is to devise a way of adapting Thurston's philosophy to high dimensions. In particular, it is paramount that we answer the question of whether all hyperbolic manifolds in odd dimensions virtually fibre over the circle. One of the main goals of this proposal is to prove this conjecture for manifolds with cubical fundamental groups, a crucial and rich class, and to introduce an original, robust, and flexible method of producing positive examples.  Much of the study of hyperbolic three-dimensional manifolds revolves around the concept of their volume. I will advance a natural notion of volume that covers all hyperbolic groups, whether of geometric provenance or not. This will consolidate the field, and will vastly extend the range of currently existing tools.  Homologically, hyperbolicity manifests itself as a linear isoperimetric inequality in dimension one. I plan to shed light on the deeply mysterious meaning of such an inequality in higher dimensions, weaving together multiple recent advances like theorems of Kleiner--Lang and my work with Kropholler and Nowak into a single fruitful thread.  The three most important classical open questions about hyperbolic groups are residual finiteness, soficity, and the Atiyah conjecture. I intend to prove the last one using a fundamentally new approach. In the process, fresh insights into the structure of approximate subgroups will be gained that will open new avenues of inquiry into the problem of soficity.

Mots-clés : hyperbolicity,hyperbolic manifolds,hyperbolic groups,fibring,volume,isoperimetric inequality,atiyah conjecture
Projet ERC : SPARTAN-FX (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Universe Sciences
Entité participante : Université d'Oxford — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2999974.0 €

The emerging technology of superconducting parametric amplifiers (SPAs) can achieve quantum-limited sensitivity over a broad bandwidth by utilizing the wave-mixing mechanism in a nonlinear transmission medium. They are compact, easy to fabricate with planar circuit technology, have ultra-low heat dissipation, and can be integrated directly with other detector circuits. Their performance surpasses that of the state-of-the-art high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) amplifiers, and they can operate from radio to THz frequencies. Therefore, they have the potential to revolutionize almost every kind of microwave, millimetre (mm), and sub-mm instrumentation, from observational astronomy to fundamental physics experiments such as dark matter searches, quantum information platforms, and neutrino mass determination.  In this proposal, I will: 1. Develop practical ultra-broadband quantum amplifiers for deployment to mm/sub-mm/THz astronomical receivers and fundamental physics experiments. 2. Develop novel ultra-compact parametric frequency converters to replace traditional superconductor-insulator-superconductor (SIS) mixers and Schottky local oscillator (LO) technologies, enabling the construction of large pixel-count systems for mm-wave heterodyne receivers such as the Atacama Large Millimetre/sub-mm Array (ALMA) and Event Horizon Telescopes (EHT). 3. Explore high critical temperature superconductors to extend the operation of these parametric devices into higher bath temperatures and frequencies in the supra-THz regime, potentially replacing hot electron bolometer (HEB) mixers and quantum cascade lasers (QCLs).  The successful delivery of these outcomes marks a paradigm shift in mm/sub-mm/THz instrumentation, replacing all the core technologies used in this regime with a single integratable SPA technology. This will also have a significant impact on many other fields such as telecommunications, medical applications, and remote sensing, among others.

Mots-clés : parametric amplifiers,travelling wave,quantum electronics,tunnel junctions,kinetic inductance,thin films,high gap superconductor,high critical temperature,millimetre,sub millimetre,terahertz,dark matter,neutrino mass,quantum information,astronomical detectors,receiver,telescope,event horizon telescope
Projet ERC : Let T Be (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Immunity, Infection and I mmunotherapy
Entité participante : Conseil supérieur de la recherche scientifique — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : CSIC
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1999944.0 €

With the increase in human life expectancy, there is an urgent need to understand the common molecular pathways by which aging results in a progressively higher susceptibility to chronic morbidity, disability, and frailty. In the last years, immunometabolism has emerged as a new field to boost immune responses for cancer immunotherapies as well as to dampen autoimmune diseases. A recent discovery from my lab has revealed the critical role of T cell metabolism in accelerating the onset of age-associated diseases and multimorbidity. This finding has opened a new path to investigate the diverse T cell intrinsic and external stimuli that instruct T cell differentiation towards a dysfunctional state during aging, with the final goal of designing effective strategies to promote healthy aging. LetTBe will address the hypothesis that the time-dependent deterioration of T lymphocytes contributes not only to immunosenescence but also to the general aging process. The LetTBe project proposes to use multidisciplinary approaches to target age-associated T cells for preventing inflammaging, senescence and age-associated multimorbidity. Our central goals are: 1) To define age-associated T cells heterogeneity with special focus in their cellular origin, clonality, metabolic vulnerabilities and transcriptomic signatures; 2) To decode the environmental signals that are imprinted on age-associated T cells and contribute to their development; 3) To identify new strategies to targeting age-associated T cells for slowing down immunosenescence, and for boosting resilience to inflammaging, systemic senescence and age-related multimorbidity. In sum, LetTBe puts forward an ambitious but feasible program with the wide purpose of understanding the specific molecular mechanisms and metabolic requirements of age-associated T cells, with the final goal to guide new strategies to improve healthy aging.

Mots-clés : immunosenescence,immunometabolism,aging,age related diseases
Projet ERC : THERMO2DEAL (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Products and Processes Engineering
Entité participante : Conseil supérieur de la recherche scientifique — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : CSIC
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1988794.0 €

Batteries represent the present and future of our electrified society. One of the challenges within this field is ineffective battery thermal management (BTM), leading to device failure, limited performance, and lifetime reduction. BTM require a) effective dissipation of heat in warm environments to avoid thermal runaways, while b) the retention of heat in cold environments to avoid energy drops. This relates to the inevitable compromise of cooling (dissipate heat) and insulating (retain internal heat) in batteries depending on the needs. Current BTM are too bulky and provide mostly cooling capabilities, hampering batteries to perform optimally. Solid-state thermal modulators represent the ultimate solution for regulating batteries’ temperature. However, their performances and sizes are far from sufficient to deploy them for BTM. THERMO2DEAL aims to develop a novel interfacial thermal modulator that enables dynamic heat management in batteries to achieve nearly isothermal performance. We will develop specific types of large area 2D transitional metal carbides materials, i.e. MXenes, that will be tuned electrochemically to modulate their thermal properties. These MXenes will be the essence of a new thermal modulator design for facile integration in batteries. The scalability, its quickly and repeatedly toggle on and off, and its large hot to cold switching contrast makes it pioneer in the field. I will address scientific challenges in the synthesis of scalable and unique MXenes, demonstration of thermal tuning on them and their integration in pouch cells,e.g. basic battery stack units in cars or house appliances,for temperature modulation. Experiments and theory using a nano- to macro-scale approach will be used to overcome these challenges.  This proposal will be a key stepping stone in developing advanced BTM for improved battery performance and lifetime. In the long term, this project will be at the frontier of new thermal technology for energy recovery or storage

Mots-clés : battery thermal management mxene materials solid state thermal modulators microscale heat transport