Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : DeepBrainVascu (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Université d'Amsterdam — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UvA
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Deep-brain stimulation, DBS in short, is one of the most promising surgical treatments for movement disorders such as Parkinson’s disease (PD), and more recently, neuropsychiatric diseases such as obsessive compulsive disorder. During DBS surgery, a microelectrode is lowered deep into the brain with the aim to stimulate small subcortical nuclei in order to alleviate disease related symptoms such as rigidity and tremor as seen in patients with PD. Studies using DBS in PD patients show that a suboptimal placement of electrodes in, for example, the Subthalamic Nucleus (STN) or Globus Pallidus (GP), can yield changes in cognitive processes (e.g., attention, mental speed, response inhibition) and affective states (e.g., depression, hypomania, anxiety, hypersexuality, and hallucinations). These unwanted side effects of DBS are speculated to be the result of the stimulation of subareas other than the motor zone within these nuclei, the stimulation of white matter connections, or the dysregulation of blood flow to neighboring areas. Our aim is to create an atlas of the human Deep Brain nuclei, connections, and Vasculature (DeepBrainVascu) to substantially improve the outcome of DBS by significantly reducing unwanted side effects.
Projet ERC : EWiC (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Université polytechnique de Catalogne — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 115000.0 €

Domain specialisation (e.g., AI) coupled with skyrocketing manufacturing costs of chips led to a paradigm shift towards chiplet-based computing. However, the current Network-on-Package (NoP) is not suited for the increasing chiplet (CPUs, AI accelerators, etc) count and diverse communication needs. As a result, communication has become the main bottleneck to computing advances. Wireless transmission can enable one-hop communication with low latency parallelism. The wireless links can be reconfigured dynamically for demand-specific services. Finally, the native broadcast capability of wireless transmission will provide natural support for scalability. However wireless communication is limited by the bandwidth. Hence, the ERC Starting Grant WINC explored via simulation combining wireless communication with the high bandwidth of wired connections, proving potential for >5× speedups. In EWiC we aim, for the first time, to emulate and demonstrate wireless communication among chiplets inside a computing system. The goal is to experimentally validate our simulation results, which have shown high speedups in multi-chiplet systems. Successful results will generate interest in the industry for further research and application in various domains, such speeding up computation in pharma for new drug design. EWiC will thus help fully realise the trillion-euro potential of advanced computing, alongside immense social benefits, and establishing EU leadership in this field. The EWiC project will thus assess the commercialization potential of our technology, engaging with key stakeholders such as chipmakers and end-users. Exploitation options including licensing, startup creation, or joint ventures, will be explored based on prototyping results and market entry considerations. Our IPR strategy will involve a thorough analysis to identify and protect the novel results of the project. We will additionally carry out a Freedom to Operate (FTO) analysis to ensure exploitability.

Mots-clés : wireless interconnects emulation multi chip systems computer architecture
Projet ERC : 2D-EMI (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Trinity College — Pays : Irlande — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

With the fast development of wireless communication, especially the new 5G technology, electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding is becoming a challenge. High-performance EMI shielding materials are urgently needed in controlling electromagnetic radiation pollution that seriously affects the normal operation of sensitive electronic apparatus and systems. Metals are the most used shielding materials but suffer from easy corrosion, high density, and poor processibility. Despite the progress, most current research still concentrates on the solo enhancement of the EMI SE. To enable new EMI shielding applications for next-generation devices, multifunctionality and low reflection feature are also important for shielding material, which can significantly improve the application adaptability and reduce the secondary EMI pollution, respectively. Unfortunately, most of the present EMI shielding solutions cannot simultaneously integrate these characteristics. Therefore, pioneering alternative design and fabrication strategies for developing next-generation high-performance shielding materials beyond the usual protocols are urgently needed to meet the escalating demands of modern devices. Furthermore, as a critical component in electronic devices and equipment, EMI shielding materials also meet great challenges from the miniaturization aspect. 2D nanomaterials are promising for EMI-shielding applications due to their outstanding electrical, thermal, and mechanical properties, versatile surface chemistry and their favourable capability to be assembled into macroscopic architectures or serve as conductive fillers for composite fabrication. The aim of this project is to determine the economic and technical feasibility of using readily scalable additive manufacturing technologies for the development of highly efficient and customizable EMI shielding solutions based on two-dimensional (2D) nanosheets for electronic applications.
Projet ERC : 4Dplus_Metaflux (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Trinity College — Pays : Irlande — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

The development of better immunotherapies is being hammered by our lack of understanding about immune cell metabolism in vivo at the sites of disease. We know that immune cell metabolism is pivotal in controlling immune function. For instance, disrupting Natural Killer cell metabolism prevents them from killing cancer cells. Cellular immunotherapies for diseases like solid cancer are underperforming and one central reason for this is the metabolic pressure exerted on immune cells in solid tumours. The core problem is that we cannot currently measure the metabolism of immune cells at the site of disease. As a result, the biopharma industry is ill equipped to design immmunotherapies that are effective at these sites in the face of the metabolic stress. My ERC-CoG project (DC_Nutrient) has developed a new type of nutrient uptake assay with single cell resolution that can be used to probe metabolism in vivo. This is highly informative because the uptake of nutrients is the first limiting step for cellular metabolism. The core advance in our approach is to use bioorthogonal chemistry to attach a fluorophore to the nutrient after it has been transported into the cell. This bypasses all the pitfalls and failings of previous attempts to develop such assays using fluorophore tags. This PoC will advance this technology to simultaneously measure the uptake of 3 separate nutrients into immune cells at the site of disease, all with single cell resolution. Combined with an in vivo measurement of protein translation this will provide 4 dimensions of metabolic flux analysis for each cell analysed by multiparmetric flow cytometry. This innovative idea will provide a licensable assay technology that will be of high value to the biopharma industry as it will enable preclinical mouse studies to gain a detailed understanding of the metabolic changes occurring in immune cells at the site of disease. This technology will drive innovation towards metabolically enhanced immunotherapies.
Projet ERC : MEMS (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Trinity College — Pays : Irlande — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

An osteochondral (OC) defect is a focal area of joint damage that involves both the articular cartilage and the underlying subchondral bone. Such joint damage is strongly associated with the development of premature osteoarthritis, motivating the development of novel strategies to regenerate OC defects. 3D printing is enabling the manufacturing of geometrically complex biomaterial implants with user defined compositions and architectures, which can potentially be used as single stage, off-the-shelf scaffolds for treating complex injuries. Despite significant progress in this field, 3D printed scaffolds capable of regenerating OC defects remain elusive. This can potentially be linked to the spatial resolution possible using traditional additive manufacturing techniques. The melt electrowriting (MEW) technique has recently emerged as a novel additive manufacturing platform capable of producing polymeric scaffolds with fiber diameters in the submicron range in a highly controllable manner. We have recently developed MEW scaffolds that support superior bone regeneration compared to scaffolds produced using traditional additive manufacturing techniques. Furthermore, we have generated preliminary data demonstrating that multi-layered scaffolds generated by MEW are capable of enhancing the repair of critically sized OC defects in a pre-clinical large animal model. The MEMS project aims to further enhance the regenerative capacity of these MEW OC scaffolds by (i) optimising their architecture, and (ii) functionalizing their surface with extracellular matrix (ECM) components supportive of tissue-specific regeneration. The output of MEMS will be an off-the-shelf implant capable of directing endogenous OC defect regeneration without the need for delivering exogenous cells to the defect site.
Projet ERC : INTROPY (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : IBEC
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Increased tissue stiffness is a hallmark of many solid tumours, driving tumour progression. This occurs through mechanotransduction, the process by which cells sense and respond to mechanical signals. Our lab has identified a key interaction between two proteins, essential for mechanotransduction. This interaction is triggered by force-induced unfolding of a target protein, which occurs only in stiff tissues. Hence, we propose a novel therapeutic approach that targets mechanotransduction by inhibiting the stiffness-induced unfolding of the target protein. This innovative approach has the potential to transform cancer therapy and provide new insights into the role of mechanical signals in disease progression. We developed a thermal shift assay to identify molecules that stabilize the target and inhibit its unfolding. High throughput Screening (HTS) of ~5,000 molecules resulted in 4 hits with confirmed specific binding by NMR analysis. Two additional hits were identified each through structure-based virtual screening and a peptide-based approach, with confirmed binding through NMR analysis. In this project, we aim to validate these 6 hits, and to provide proof-of-concept evidence of their potential for cancer therapy. First, we will validate hits in vitro and in cellular assays. Second, we will optimize them with medicinal chemists to obtain lead molecules. Third, we will evaluate resulting lead molecules in an in vivo mouse breast cancer model. By the end of the project, we expect our data to be sufficient to attract private investment and establish a spin-off company to pursue drug development into clinical phases. This will lead to a first-inclass mechanoinhibitor drug, with potential applications in cancer (with a focus on breast and pancreatic cancer) and other conditions characterized by mechanical stress, such as fibrosis.
Projet ERC : FACTORINK (Horizon Europe, appel 2025, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : IBEC
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Bioinks are materials that hold cells during bioprinting. They perform key functions, including protecting cells from high shear stress during the printing process but also, and importantly, provide the extracellular environment for cells after printing. Bioinks must be made of biocompatible materials that in addition should provide the functional environment needed for cells to perform their functions. This is critical as bioprinting underpins developments of in vitro tissue models to advance biomedical research and drug testing. The functionality of bioinks must recapitulate aspects of the extracellular matrix (ECM) and should include mechanical and biochemical considerations. For example, bioinks should result in constructs of well-defined rigidity as this influences processes such as stem cell differentiation or cancer progression. Also, bioinks must provide cells with controlled density of adhesion proteins and growth factors – this is key to induce relevant signalling pathways. Yet bioinks that are currently in the market are limited to basic adhesion peptides and lack the ability to retain growth factors that instead quickly diffuse out of the system after printing. We have recently developed a new class of bioinks that incorporate ECM proteins (like fibronectin and laminin) that are incorporated into a hydrogel matrix without crosslinking, enabling an easy and robust printing process. We want to unleash the potential of the bioinks by demonstrating their ability to hold multiphasic models containing stem cells, endothelial cells and the immune system. The data gathered through this application should help define the commercial route of the products and would lead to creating new intellectual properties.
Projet ERC : EVOaware (Horizon Europe, appel 2025, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : IBEC
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Solid tumours frequently develop resistance to therapies, leading to treatment failure. This resistance arises from the complex interplay between heterogeneous cancer cell populations and their microenvironment, driving tumour evolution and local adaptation. Current drug discovery pipelines fall short in addressing this complexity. In this ERC-PoC, we will develop EVOaware, a groundbreaking platform that integrates genome editing, spatial barcoding, high-throughput drug screening, multimodal spatial omics, and spatial pattern analysis, to address the critical challenge of therapeutic resistance in cancer from the lens of evolution. Ultimately, EVOaware will accelerate the discovery and development of novel cancer therapies, leading to improved patient outcomes.
Projet ERC : MARMoT (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Université d'Helsinki — Pays : Finlande — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Recent innovations in language technologies have introduced large language models that industry players often pitch as one-size-fit-all solutions. These systems are however rarely reusable in novel contexts, nor sustainable given their massive parameter counts, nor scalable across the thousands of languages spoken in the world. In response, we intend to build upon the findings of ERC funded project FoTran, and develop modular architectures in which parts of a network are designed to be specialized for a given task, and specialized components can be added throughout the lifetime of a model. This approach has the potential to significantly reduce the growing carbon footprint of generative AI, and will allow us to reach a broad language coverage and target under-served languages.  Our MARMoT projects focuses more specifically on two goals: (i) converting our research prototypes of scalable modular architectures for language modeling and translation into production-ready software with broad applicability and (ii) developing pretrained models that can readily be used and adapted to a wide range of languages, scenarios and real-world applications. We will emphasize the support of under-resourced languages and domains in order to push for inclusiveness and language service equality.  This PoC will focus on developing open tools that can be used not only in computer-assisted translation, but also in related language services such as summarization, paraphrasing and text simplification. We will produce customizable language processing assets based on a modular design that will put the emphasis on scalability, reusability, and sustainability, thereby making them efficient during inference and easily deployable by key stakeholders, from industry to government agencies. This platform will deliver language technology solutions that can be customized at the task level so as to fit a broad array of language and application contexts.

Mots-clés : natural language processing,nlp,machine translation,language models,artificial intelligence,ai,language technology,neural machine translation,multilingual nlp
Projet ERC : MiniOrgans (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Max Delbrück Center — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : MDC
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Organoids have been developed as advanced 3D cell culture systems that resemble aspects of the in vivo tissues and provide an alternative to study the mechanisms of human disease and identify novel treatments. The last years have witnessed tremendous developments in the field of stem cell and organoid research, but the full potential of these systems remains to be exploited. Two major challenges facing the organoid field are reproducibility and scalability. The manual production of organoids is a labor-intensive and expensive process. The development of cost-effective, fast, and reliable methods is a prerequisite for transferring organoid technologies to the industry for high-throughput approaches. We have recently established a novel complex human neuromuscular organoid (NMO) model from human pluripotent stem cell-derived neuromesodermal progenitors. NMOs self-organize into spinal cord neurons and skeletal muscle compartments that contract by forming functional neuromuscular junctions. The ERC consolidator grant “GPSorganoids” focuses on the generation of position-specific (GPS) NMOs representing distinct spinal cord segments and the use of such NMOs models to study the selective vulnerability of specific spinal cord neurons to neuromuscular diseases like amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and spinal muscular atrophy. The PoC grant goes beyond the scope of our ERC consolidator grant and focuses on the commercialization of the NMO model through the establishment of an automated, reliable, and high throughput production line that could apply to industry settings. Our ultimate goal is to establish NMOs as a leading model in the market for high throughput drug screening approaches and accelerate the development of novel therapies for neuromuscular disorders.
Projet ERC : ModernArgonauts (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Université de Varsovie — Pays : Pologne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

The Preamble to the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights speaks of the peoples of Europe who are conscious of its heritage and wish to share a peaceful future based on such common values as dignity, equality and solidarity. One of the crucial sources of these values is Classical Antiquity, which laid the foundations for many ideas shaping our contemporary world. In particular, the ancient myths and their reception build a sense of community and a code of reciprocal understanding – so important in times of growing separatist tendencies – and they permit us to address issues relevant for our societies, e.g. war (Troy), migration (Aeneas), disability (Minotaur), ecology (dryads) and pandemics (Oedipus). Even the “dark sides” of the Classics, like slavery and the discrimination of women, offer vital impulses for discussion of our current challenges, with a limited risk of trauma, for the myths are perceived as both close to and detached from our reality. This heritage of such amazing potential is vanishing, however, from school education, which loses its connection with research. We respond to this problem with a unique programme conveyed via a Handbook for high schoolers. The Handbook will draw on materials from the Our Mythical Childhood Consolidator Grant, incl. the ground-breaking animations of ancient vases. Its chapters will contain examples of myth reception from all the EU member states, along with the extra-European contexts covered by my team members and experts from Australia, Cameroon, Israel, UK, USA, etc. It will have a game format: its users will play Modern Argonauts on a voyage of discovery of the shared mythical heritage. Owing to the collaboration established by the PI, the Handbook will be promoted by such leading bodies as Fédération Internationale des Associations d’Etudes Classiques, Cambridge School Classics Project and Associazione Italiana di Cultura Classica, thus providing societies worldwide with an innovative model for research-based education.
Projet ERC : REVEAL (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Université du Luxembourg — Pays : Luxembourg — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

The Internet of Things (IoT), Industry 4.0, and the increased availability and performance of sensors have led to new generations of ‘smart’ products that can communicate real-time status information, improving energy balance, increasing safety, and opening for better, more seamless experiences for consumers. Mechanical sensors—often measuring strain—are key components in many scenarios. However, current technology typically employs point-based or one-dimensional (1D) strain sensors of resistive, piezoelectric or optical fiber type, with low spatial resolution (one sensor, one value), giving limited information about complex deformations and even missing dangerous strains slightly away from the sensor. There is thus a need for new solutions that offer 2D distributed strain sensing with high resolution. We recently proposed two new concepts for non-electronic strain sensing, both based on the mechanochromic response of Cholesteric Liquid Crystal Elastomers (CLCEs), changing colour in response to mechanical deformation. The value proposition of REVEAL comprises simple and scalable procedures for making CLCE sheets of large size and fibers of arbitrary length, which exhibit excellent local mechanochromic response (from red to violet) upon strains of up to 200%. Within REVEAL, we will produce CLCE sheets and fibers and assess their application potential, for instance, in structural health monitoring of the built environment, smart clothing and sports gear. The challenges we wish to take on in REVEAL are: ensuring consistent and tuneable relaxed colour with sufficient time stability of our CLCE sheets and fibers; allowing adjustable and well-defined diameter of the CLCE fibers; reducing tackiness of the fibers, thus enabling easy manipulation and processability at large scale; ensuring strong full-area bonding to each relevant target surface of the CLCE sheets; and assessing the usefulness in four specific target applications, two for each CLCE type.