Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : OPTORETINA (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Human Diseases
Entité participante : Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale — Pays : France — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : Inserm
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 305337.5 €

For patients suffering from inherited retinal diseases (IRDs), gene and cell therapies offer hope of preserving or restoring vision. Retinal imaging is crucial, to first phenotype patients to determine which cells are degenerated and devise an appropriate therapeutic path; then in the lab for cell therapy development, and finally back in the clinic to monitor therapeutic success in patients who have been treated with gene or cell therapy. To date, the imaging tools used in the clinic do not provide sufficient resolution for visualizing individual cells non-invasively, constituting a major roadblock for the development of gene and cell therapies. My group develops novel optical imaging tools for noninvasive cellular imaging such as full field optical coherence tomography (FFOCT), an interferometric technique, and adaptive optics ophthalmoscopy (AOO), which corrects ocular aberrations, to achieve diffraction limited resolution of in vivo retina. Recently we also devised a dynamic FFOCT method to detect metabolic contrast using intracellular organelle motion to indicate cell activity. These new noninvasive, all optical tools have the potential to provide, for the first time, simultaneous subjective and objective retinal function measurements. Here, I propose to adapt these existing optical setups based on dynamic FFOCT and AOO to allow retinal stimulation with visible light to enable functional testing of i) patients with IRDs in order to evaluate surviving cells and orient their therapy path; ii) in vitro retinal organoids derived from induced pluripotent stem cells; ii) patients being treated in our clinical centre with novel gene and cell therapies to check that vision is being successfully preserved or restored. The new imaging methods developed here will achieve quantitative functional assessment of cellular activity in vivo and in vitro, lifting the major imaging obstacles for successful application of gene and cell therapies in the clinic.

Mots-clés : ophthalmology,inherited retinal disease,optical coherence tomography,adaptive optics,scanning laser ophthalmoscopy,gene cell optogenetic therapies,microscopy,live imaging,retinal organoids,optoretinography,perimetry
Projet ERC : uPET (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Human Diseases
Entité participante : Capital Region of Denmark — Pays : Danemark — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : RH
Type d'entité : Organismes publics (hors enseignement & recherche)
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2072000.0 €

For practice of personalized medicine in cancer, non-invasive tools for diagnosing at the molecular level are needed. Molecular imaging methods are capable of this while at the same time circumventing sampling error as the whole tumor burden is evaluated. We recently developed and performed the first-ever clinical PET scan of uPAR, a proteolytic system known to be strongly associated with metastatic potential in most cancer forms. We believe this new concept of uPAR-PET is a major breakthrough and has the potential to become one of the most used PET tracers as it fulfils unmet needs in prostate and breast cancer. Based on this, together with additional proof-of-concept data we obtained on targeting uPAR for optical imaging and radionuclide therapy, we now plan to develop and take into patients these new technologies for improved outcome. Specific aims are to develop and translate into human use: 1. A PET uPAR imaging ligand platform for visualization of the aggressive phenotype and risk-stratification to be used in tailoring therapy, e.g. in prostate cancer to decide whether prostatectomy is necessary. 2. uPAR-PET combined with simultaneous 13C-hyperpolarized pyruvate MRSI (Warburg effect). This will increase prognostic power, refine tumor phenotyping and thereby allow for better tailoring of therapy and early prediction of treatment response. 3. A uPAR optical imaging technology for guiding removal of cancer tissue during surgery. This will help delineate cancer tissue for removal while leaving healthy tissue behind. We expect better outcome with removal of less tissue. 4. Selective radionuclide therapies targeting uPAR positive, invasive cancer cells using β or α emitters. Dose planning will be performed using uPAR-PET imaging. This image-therapy pairing is also known as theranostics. Our endeavour is ambitious, yet realistic considering our competencies and track-record. We expect cancer patients to benefit from our new methods within the 5 year time-frame.

Mots-clés : mesh,molecular imaging,neoplasma,positron emission tomography,nuclear medicine
Projet ERC : PREMUS (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Human Mind and Its Complexity
Entité participante : University of Helsinki — Pays : Finlande — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UH
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1499967.0 €

For the human brain, music is a highly complex and versatile stimulus that is closely linked to speech, executive-motor, emotion, and memory networks. In severe ageing-related neurological disorders, such as post-stroke aphasia and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) dementia, music and singing may provide a valuable alternative route to verbal and emotional expression and to memory and self-awareness. However, the neural processes underlying this are still poorly understood. Moreover, although there is increasing evidence for the efficacy of musical activities in supporting normal neurocognitive ageing and enhancing neurological recovery, the focus has been on individual-level musical activities, overlooking the enormous social potential of music. PREMUS will combine modern behavioural and neuroimaging methods in the unique context of cross-sectional and cohort studies and clinical trials to achieve both fundamental and applied research goals. The fundamental goal of PREMUS is to determine the neural basis of singing, music-evoked emotions and memories, and explicit and implicit musical learning (i) across normal ageing, (ii) in aphasia, and (iii) in different stages of AD. The applied goal of PREMUS is to uncover the rehabilitative potential of social musical activities by (iv) exploring the long-term efficacy of choir singing on neurocognitive, emotional, and social functioning in normal ageing and mild cognitive impairment and (v) determining the rehabilitative efficacy of a novel intervention that utilizes adapted choir singing, melodic intonation therapy, and computer-based singing training on verbal, cognitive, emotional, and social functioning in aphasia, together with uncovering the structural and functional neuroplasticity changes underlying the effects of the singing interventions. The outcome of PREMUS will have major scientific, clinical, and societal value as well as enormous practical impact on promoting healthy ageing, aphasia rehabilitation, and dementia care

Mots-clés : music,language,singing,emotion,wellbeing,memory,learning,cognitive neuroscience,ageing,neuroplasticity,rehabilitation,stroke,aphasia,cognitive impairment,alzheimer s disease
Projet ERC : FLATLIGHT (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Systems and communication engineering
Entité participante : Centre national de la recherche scientifique — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : CNRS
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1946490.0 €

For the last 15 years, optics has undergone a remarkable evolution towards ever decreasing sizes, better integration in complex systems, and more compact devices readily available to mass markets. Whereas traditional optics is at the centimeter scale, newly developed techniques use nanoscale objects to control, guide, and focus light. From the capability to shape metallic and dielectric nanostructures has emerged the field of nanophotonics. Advances in nanophotonics offer the possibility to control the material’s optical properties to create artificial materials with electromagnetic properties not found in nature. Man-made 3D metamaterials have interesting fundamental aspects and present many advantages with respect to conventional devices. Unexpected effects have led to the development of interesting applications like high resolution lenses and cloaking devices. Inspired by this new technology, we have developed new 2D metamaterials. Our flat metamaterials (metasurfaces) are much simpler to manufacture than their 3D counterparts. By depositing a set of nanostructures at an interface, we can immediately control the light properties; unlike refractive optical components, the wavefront is modified without propagation. As of today, these interfaces are created using metallic nanostructures and work in the infrared. In this ERC, we plan to extend the concept of optical metasurfaces in the visible which is the most important wavelength range for applications. By combining with optically active semiconductors such as InGaAlN, we will add optical gain and modulation capability to the system to create new, efficient optoelectronic devices. The response of the metasurfaces is tunable by changing the environment surrounding the nanostructures. We will use this property to create ultrathin reconfigurable flat devices. Metasurfaces will be integrated with AlN/GaN to modulate light at high frequencies and further exploited to control polariton gases in solid state metasystems.

Mots-clés : metamaterials,metasurfaces
Projet ERC : TRADEPOWER (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Institutions, Governance and Legal Systems
Entité participante : University of Salzburg — Pays : Autriche — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : PLUS
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1705833.0 €

For the last twenty years, countries across the globe have negotiated a large number of preferential trade agreements. In parallel, trade negotiations have taken place in the framework of the World Trade Organization. These negotiations not only deal with tariffs, but also cover investments, competition policy, labour standards and much more. With much at stake, the extent to which different countries are able to achieve their preferred outcomes in these negotiations is of broad interest. In this project, I address this topic by asking: what makes some countries have more bargaining power than others in these negotiations? In other words, what explains variation in bargaining power in trade negotiations? My approach to these questions is ground-breaking in terms of theory, empirical research and methodology: 1.) I develop an original theoretical argument that links the globalization of production to bargaining power in trade negotiations. Concretely, I argue that the offshoring of production reduces the importance of market size in trade negotiations. The argument leads to the expectation of systematic variation in bargaining power over time, and across pairs of countries and sectors. 2.) I will collect novel and systematic data to test this argument, going far beyond the empirical evidence currently used to assess bargaining power in trade negotiations. The empirical research will bring together qualitative evidence from case studies with quantitative evidence on both the perception of power and the actual outcomes of trade negotiations. 3.) I will innovate methodologically by combining and comparing three approaches to measuring bargaining power, namely process tracing, attributed influence and preference attainment. The project will make a key contribution not only to the literature on bargaining power in international trade negotiations, but also to research on, e.g., international development, international institutions and the political economy of trade.

Mots-clés : trade negotiations,bargaining power,preferential trade agreements
Projet ERC : SNOWISO (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Earth system science
Entité participante : University of Copenhagen — Pays : Danemark — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : UCPH
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 0.0 €

For the past 50 years, our use of ice core records as climate archives has relied on the fundamental assumption that the isotopic composition of precipitation deposited on the ice sheet surface determines the ice core water isotopic composition. Since the isotopic composition in precipitation is assumed to be governed by the state of the climate this has made ice core isotope records one of the most important proxies for reconstructing the past climate. New simultaneous measurements of snow and water vapor isotopes have shown that the surface snow exchanges with the atmospheric water vapor isotope signal, altering the deposited precipitation isotope signal. This severely questions the standard paradigm for interpreting the ice core proxy record and gives rise to the hypothesis that the isotope record from an ice core is determined by a combination of the atmospheric water vapor isotope signal and the precipitation isotope signal. The SNOWISO project will verify this new hypothesis by combining laboratory and field experiments with in-situ observations of snow and water vapor isotopes in Greenland and Antarctica. This will enable me to quantify and parameterize the snow-air isotope exchange and post-depositional processes. I will implement these results into an isotope-enabled Regional Climate Model with a snowpack module and benchmarked against in-situ observations. Using the coupled snow-atmosphere isotope model I will establish the isotopic shift due to post-depositional processes under different climate conditions. This will facilitate the use of the full suite of water isotopes to infer past changes in the climate system, specifically changes in ocean sea surface temperature and relative humidity. By establishing how the water isotope signal is recorded in the snow, the SNOWISO project will build the foundation for future integration of isotope-enabled General Circulation Models with ice core records; this opens a new frontier in climate reconstruction.

Mots-clés : ice core records,water stable isotopes,snow air exchange,post depositional snow processes
Projet ERC : PoroFrac (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Products and processes engineering
Entité participante : University of Sheffield — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2329520.0 €

Fracture in heterogeneous, (partially) fluid-saturated porous media is a multi-scale problem with moving internal boundaries, characterised by a high degree of complexity and uncertainty. Nevertheless, in spite of an abundance of research on fracture in solid materials, there is relatively little work on fluid-saturated porous materials. Herein, a robust, flexible simulation technology will be developed for existing faults and propagating fractures in such media. The project consists of three pillars, each of which will have a scientific impact in its own right, complemented by a horizontal, application-oriented theme, which links the pillars, creates synergy and added value, and applies and elaborates the technology for hydraulic fracturing and for fault dynamics during earthquakes. In pillar 1 a mesoscopic, multi-phase model will be developed for fluid transport in cracks which are embedded in a fluid-saturated porous medium. The development of an adaptive spline technology in pillar 2 will enable to capture crack propagation and branching in arbitrary directions on arbitrary discretisations. The reliability method of pillar 3 will make it possible to make a quantitative assessment of the probability that, in a layered, heterogeneous medium, a crack propagates in a certain direction. Its successful completion will pave the way for a wider acceptance and use of reliability methods in fracture analyses, well beyond the primary application area of porous media. The linking theme will showcase some direct applications, in hydraulic fracturing and in earthquake analysis, but has a much wider range of applicability, e.g. for the safety analysis of CO₂ or nuclear waste storage in sub-surface formations, or fracture in fluid-saturated human tissues. Thus, the project will result in a robust simulation tool for fracture propagation in fluid-saturated porous media with unprecedented predictive capabilities for societal issues in energy, health, environment, and safety.

Mots-clés : fracture,computational mechanics,porous media
Projet ERC : FREESPACE (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Proof of concept grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Systems and communication engineering
Entité participante : Chalmers University of Technology — Pays : Suède — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Free-space optical communication links provide higher capacity and smaller beam divergence than their radio-frequency counterpart, and are increasingly being used for relatively short links often established for temporary purposes (e.g. outdoor sporting and concert events). They are also explored for extremely long reaches (e.g. between satellites, to the moon and beyond). In both cases, the sensitivity is fundamentally limited by the effect of diffraction, which results in the divergence of a free-space beam as it travels from the transmitter to the receiver. As there are practical limits on the size of the aperture permitted at both the transmitter and receiver, the diffraction results in a signal loss that limits the capacity and reach of the link. Our approach, which is to implement a unique noiseless optical amplifier in the receiver, is expected to result in a 40% transmission reach extension, or for a given reach target, reduce the aperture size of the optics (significant cost reduction) and increase the capacity. Our technique will help enable the transition from radio-frequency links to lightwave based links as it add significant performance benefits to the latter approach. We wish to use our new knowledge and expertise from our recent ERC AdG project to demonstrate, verify, and explore the commercial prospects of FSO transmission using phase-sensitive amplifiers in the receiver to improve the sensitivity, thus maximizing the possible link power budget, beyond what is possible with today’s approaches. We will work on market evaluation, technology verification, and commercialization strategy with the support from the Chalmers innovation office on our campus which has expertize on commercialization in the early stage. A goal of this project is to reach an agreement with commercial and/or institutional entities to pursue a field test of the PSA-based FSO technology.

Mots-clés : optical communication,low noise optical amplifiers,free space transmission
Projet ERC : FriendOrigins (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Human Mind and Its Complexity
Entité participante : University of Exeter — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1999716.0 €

Friendship is crucial for human health and well-being. People who are socially isolated have a greater risk of heart disease than heavy smokers, drinkers, and the obese, and halting social isolation’s ongoing rise is a growing priority for public health and political policy. But coming to grips with our need for friends and the consequences we face in their absence requires we not only look at how friendship is manifested in contemporary societies but to its origins in our evolutionary past. Yet, the evolutionary origins of friendship and the degree to which friendship’s components reflect human specializations are unclear. Studying nonhuman primates allows us to identify the causes and consequences of friendship in evolutionary time and the extent of its human uniqueness. Nevertheless, we know surprisingly little about the contexts that drove friendly social bonds to emerge, whether friendship-relevant cognitive abilities reflect primate universals, and the reasons why evolution allows social isolation to persist despite being detrimental. In this project, I will conduct a series of landmark studies to reveal critical insights into the evolutionary origins of friendship. I will generate an unparalleled cross-species dataset on the best-known taxa of group-living primates, the macaques, and will perform innovative social experiments on a unique macaque population. I have three key aims: (1) to test the environmental forces driving variation in social bonds across species; (2) to establish whether having information on the friendships of unrelated others is a uniquely human skill; and (3) to test whether social isolation is the result of competitive exclusion. Friendship may be one of the most important strategies humans have for surviving in large groups. Understanding friendship from an evolutionary perspective is therefore a critical component of understanding what it means to be human. The proposed project represents a major step forward in that endeavour.

Mots-clés : social networks,social isolation,primate behaviour
Projet ERC : PoliticsOfPatents (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Social World and Its Diversity
Entité participante : University of London — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : U. London
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1802154.0 €

From Victorian women cyclists, who suffered social stigma for daring to replace their skirts with bloomers a century ago, to the recent French burkini ban, where women were forcibly removed from beaches, specifically clothed bodies have long been sites of debate about gender, race, class and religion in public space. Clothing is directly connected to social life and the political world and as such is central to ideas around the politics of identity, participation and belonging. Yet, it is under explored in relation to citizenship studies. This five-year project undertakes for the first time a transnational sociological investigation of 200 years of clothing inventions. It focuses on clothing patents in Espacenet, the European Patent Office’s free online database. Inventors are the focus as they operate on the cutting edge of social and political change; building on the past to make claims on the present and imagine different futures. Central to this research is the idea that clothing inventors can be explored as citizen-makers and that clothing patents are rich untapped sources of data that render visible alternative citizenship possibilities, which may provoke new questions about things we take for granted. The research will be located in a Patent Lab using an inventive mixed-methods approach including quantitative and in-depth visual and document analysis, interviews with inventors and garment reconstruction.

Mots-clés : invention,citizenship,clothing,patents,gender,inventive methods