Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : RANDSTRUCT (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Mathematics
Entité participante : Institute of Science and Technology Austria — Pays : Autriche — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : ISTA
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1343890.0 €

Randomness plays an inseparable role in combinatorics. Indeed, non-constructive probabilistic arguments are a powerful way to prove the existence of various kinds of combinatorial objects, and the study of random discrete structures has illuminated nearly all fields of combinatorics. I propose a program to achieve a deeper understanding of this role of randomness in combinatorics, emphasising the relationship between “structured” (hence explicit) objects, and random or “random-like” objects.  A) There are many situations in combinatorics where probabilistic arguments demonstrate that “almost all” objects satisfy a certain property, but it is difficult to explicitly specify an object with the property. The most notorious examples are in Ramsey theory, which studies how “disordered” it is possible for an object to be. I plan to investigate the structure of Ramsey graphs, with the goals of unifying the area and making decisive progress on important conjectures.  B) Conversely, certain areas of combinatorics have been slower to benefit from the probabilistic method; particularly areas in which algebraic constructions play a major role. Design theory is the study of combinatorial “arrangements” with very strong regularity properties, most naturally obtained by exploiting symmetry/regularity properties of algebraic structures. I plan to investigate probabilistic aspects of design theory, and in particular to build a theory of random designs.  C) Actually, structure and randomness often come together, due to the “structure vs pseudorandomness dichotomy” elucidated by Tao. Indeed, there are many important problems in combinatorics for which it is known how to solve both random instances and “structured” instances; in such cases we hope to decompose general instances into structured and pseudorandom parts, handled by different means. I describe several concrete problems in this vein, whose study will advance our general understanding of this phenomenon.

Mots-clés : design theory,ramsey graphs
Projet ERC : swim2limb (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System
Entité participante : Institute of Science and Technology Austria — Pays : Autriche — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : ISTA
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1500000.0 €

A hallmark of the nervous system is its rich cell-type diversity, its intricate connectivity and its coordinated patterns of activity. Behavior largely is an emergent property of this complexity. Thus, to understand behavior, we must define neurons’ molecular, cellular and functional properties. This task has proven especially challenging for motor circuits with their readily apparent output in motor activity but astonishingly heterogeneous populations of neurons. To parse this complexity, I propose a novel approach harnessing the unique behavioral switch during Xenopus frog metamorphosis. The metamorphic transition from simple swimming to more complex, coordinated limb movement offers an ideal opportunity to study the expansion and diversification of two motor circuits in one organism. Here, I aim to define the molecular, functional and behavioral features of swim2limb circuit complexification during frog metamorphosis— a crucial step in developing this new model (Aim 1: OBSERVE). Next, I will identify the developmental mechanisms that drive the profound change in circuit composition and output, and evaluate the contribution of increasing cellular heterogeneity to pre- and post-metamorphic neuron activity and behavior (Aim 2: PERTURB). Finally, to define the conserved and divergent circuit features for swimming and walking across evolution, I will expand to a cross-species approach comparing frogs/mice and fish/tadpoles (Aim 3: COMPARE). Such intra- and inter- species approaches will deepen our understanding of the origin of tetrapod motor complexity and its relationship to motor circuit composition and output. My work will be the first comprehensive study of the genetics, activity, and behavior of a swim-to-limb transition in a single organism. It will draw bridges between studies of motor control from different species and generate hypotheses and knowledge for understanding motor circuit development, function, and dysfunction all the way to a clinical setting.

Mots-clés : motor circuits,xenopus,spinal cord,metamorphosis,neural development,neuronal cell type,cell type diversity,cell type evolution,motor behavior,tetrapod movement,locomotion,swimming,walking
Projet ERC : COLIBRI (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Study of the Human Past
Entité participante : Université de Rome « La Sapienza » — Pays : Italie — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1495625.0 €

While newly printed books were circulating widely around Europe, when more than half a century had passed since Gutenberg’s invention, Hernando Colón (1488-1539), second son of Christopher Columbus, undertook the extraordinary challenge of keeping physical track of the proliferation of knowledge. He not only purchased everything, incessantly, and everywhere, marking on the books place and date of purchase, the local price, and the conversion to Spanish currency; for accessing, managing and reusing his colossal library, he and his ‘invisible technicians’ also developed a sophisticated cross-indexing and symbols system which is foundational in the history of bibliography and knowledge management. The Colombina library of Seville still preserves over one third of the almost 16,000 titles which Colón left at his death, as well a dozen manuscript indexes and catalogues that, recording all sorts of information, make it possible to reconstruct the lost portions of the collection, including the volumes famously shipwrecked on their way from Venice to Seville in 1521. Financing, gathering, cataloguing and managing a library of such scale required widespread connections, the support of an international network, and a vision deeply intertwined with the politics of knowledge acquisition of the new-born Spanish Empire. COLIBRI aims at opening the doors and explore the legacy of the most important library of the early modern period, completing the reconstruction of its content in order to investigate it; understanding how it worked as the first large-scale information processing system of modern times, and as a place for the production, not only for the storage and preservation, of knowledge; exploring the still new relationship between written and print culture and the early European and intercontinental book market; finally, showing how the movement and the stories of Colon’s books reflect the developments of Western culture of the last five centuries.
Projet ERC : Strong-ESPRESSO (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences
Entité participante : Université de Vilnius — Pays : Lituanie — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2499919.0 €

Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) is a powerful tool employed across various disciplines including structural biology, chemistry, physics, material science, and many others. It provides important and unique information on a local electron spin environment, electronic properties and dynamics of various paramagnetic centers. However, a relatively low sensitivity of this method often limits the range and type of systems that can be studied. Thus, major advancements in EPR sensitivity are crucial to significantly broaden its applicability, encompassing new and highly relevant systems such as single cells. The Strongly Enhanced Sensitivity EPR through Bimodal Resonators and Quantum-Limited Amplifiers (Strong-ESPRESSO) project will ignite a revolution in EPR by employing sophisticated bimodal microwave resonators and intricate ways of noise reduction in tandem with novel microwave amplifiers developed for quantum technologies. We will achieve this by first delivering a new generation of EPR cryoprobeheads, which will utilize the orthogonal-field bimodal cavities, allowing to reach the sensitivity limit of these instruments. Secondly, we will transfer the bimodal cavity concept to planar superconducting microresonators, enabling the employment of these tools to study tiny (pL volume) samples of typical fast-decohering spin systems (e.g. protein droplets). Finally, we will develop an ultra-sensitive EPR setup based on the radiative cooling effect of the bimodal resonators and recent advances in the quantum-limited microwave amplifiers. This revolutionary new setup is expected to provide a ground-breaking 5000x reduction in the EPR measurement time, simultaneously preserving compatibility with ordinary EPR experiments and samples. Throughout the project, we will immediately apply the developed tools to study new and intricate spin systems in the fields of catalysis, protein droplets, and single cells, leading to major impacts far beyond EPR.

Mots-clés : electron paramagnetic resonance cryoprobehead microresonator quantum limited amplifier sensitivity spin labels protein droplets catalysis single cell
Projet ERC : JUPITER (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Molecules of Life: B iological  Mechanisms , Structures  and Functions
Entité participante : Université de Vilnius — Pays : Lituanie — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1499124.0 €

Jumbo phages are large viruses of prokaryotes with 200 to 800 kilo base-pair (kb) genomes, well beyond the size of small phages that average around 50 kb. While investigation of small phages over the last century has transformed fundamental and translational biosciences, jumbo phages research is only in its infancy. The majority of jumbo phage genes are uncharacterized and cannot be annotated by comparative genomics. Thus, it is unknown how the genes function in jumbo phage biology. Importantly, jumbo phages generally carry genes to take over their hosts transcriptional and translational machinery, in addition to harboring factors that may modify and degrade nucleic acids. Many of the unannotated genes might have similar characteristics, which could be exploited for translational enzyme research. However, those genes remain experimentally under-explored.  The JUPITER project tests the hypothesis that some of the uncharacterized genes have properties that affect their hosts transcriptional and translational machinery, and that some of the gene products could modify or degrade nucleic acids. Using an innovative high-throughput in vitro characterization strategy, I will experimentally annotate gene products of unknown function according to their ability to catalyze the above-mentioned reactions. Known and novel jumbo phages will be isolated and characterized to expand our current knowledge of jumbo phage biology. Promising candidate factors will be characterized in vitro and in vivo to understand their function and to facilitate translational enzyme research.  My results will provide (i) an innovative method for experimental gene annotation, unraveling new mechanisms in jumbo phage biology, (ii) an expansion of the available jumbo phage diversity and (iii) detailed insights into the function of novel factors, unlocking future translational applications in biotechnology.

Mots-clés : jumbo phage,high throughput screening,cell free transcription and translation,novel enzymes for biotechnology,phage biology
Projet ERC : SYNergize (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Integrative B iology : from Genes and Genomes to S ystems
Entité participante : University College Cork — Pays : Irlande — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1499503.0 €

Our intestinal microbiota consists of a dense community of microorganisms, highly adapted to the human gastrointestinal tract. Shared species between individuals indicates the presence of evolved and efficient transmission routes that ensure colonisation of beneficial bacterial species. Research has traditionally focussed on blocking enteric pathogen transmission routes as a means to prevent disease. However, a greater focus on understanding the transmission routes of commensal gut bacteria is required to promote health. Spores are resilient structures that maintain bacterial integrity in a dormant state for extended periods. My previous work has shown that spore-formation is a prevalent phenotype in the intestinal microbiota that promotes transmission of anaerobic gut bacteria, by maintaining viability in adverse aerobic environmental conditions until ingested by a new host. However, despite its importance, sporulation processes in commensal gut bacteria remain poorly understood.  SYNergize will characterise the metabolic capabilities of gut spore-formers, spore composition and the environmental cues involved in spore formation and germination. By identifying combinations of bacteria and nutrients that inhibit enteric pathogens, SYNergize also seeks to provide new approaches to target the problem of increasing antimicrobial resistance in European healthcare systems. These probiotic isolate and prebiotic nutrient combinations can be used to create ‘synbiotics’, rationally designed and ingested to decolonise gut pathogens. A deeper understanding of sporulation processes could also allow spores to be used to effectively deliver anaerobic probiotic bacteria to the gut. By exploring transmission and colonisation processes of intestinal spore-forming bacteria, SYNergize seeks to understand fundamental adaptations of our intestinal microbiota, which could provide new tools to target antibiotic resistant pathogens.

Mots-clés : intestinal microbiome,gut bacteria,spore forming bacteria,microbiome therapeutics,probiotics,microbial biotechnology
Projet ERC : RECONNECT (Horizon Europe, appel 2025, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Environmental B iology, Ecology  and E volution
Entité participante : Université de Lancaster — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : Partner
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 27665.0 €

In order to maximise the potential for habitat restoration initiatives to mitigate our grandest environmental challenges, we urgently need to understand how differing approaches to forest creation affect the recovery of belowground foodwebs and the carbon cycling processes they underpin. This is a formidable challenge: we know startlingly little about how natural climate solutions, such as large-scale reforestation, influence biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in the soil, the place where most species on the planet live and where 75% of terrestrial carbon stocks are found. Meeting this challenge not only requires a step change in our understanding of the form and function of complex soil biotic networks and the factors that mediate their reassembly with reforestation, but it also requires new knowledge of the mechanisms that underpin the formation of stable soil carbon stocks. The overarching aim of the RECONNECT project is to address these gaps by building the first complete picture of how contrasting reforestation approaches mediate the whole ecosystem movement of carbon from assimilation to stabilisation in the soil via differences in the reassembly of belowground biotic networks. To achieve this, I will use a unique and powerful combination of landscape scale field experiments, state-of-the-art molecular tools, isotopic tracing and cutting-edge biogeochemistry, to: (i) develop our mechanistic understanding of how contrasting woodland creation approaches (planting versus natural colonisation of trees) impact the flow, stabilisation and storage of carbon in forest soils, and (ii) determine how differing routes to forest creation influence the reassembly and functioning of interconnected mycorrhizal networks. In doing so, I will make major breakthroughs in our understanding of the functioning of terrestrial systems and provide a much-needed evidence-base to inform he way we reforest millions of hectares of the Earth’s surface.

Mots-clés : soil biodiversity,forest ecology,mycorrhizal fungi,carbon cycling,ecosystem restoration
Projet ERC : CompExDyn (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Condensed Matter Physics
Entité participante : Institut Weizmann — Pays : Israël — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : WIS
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1700000.0 €

Understanding the energetics and dynamics of excited states formed by light-matter interactions is essential for applications across optoelectronics and photophysics. In systems of reduced dimensionality, strongly-bound excitons serve as the main energy carriers, with long diffusion and relaxation lifetimes. As exciton dynamics are coupled to optical selection rules that stem from the atomic structure, enhanced exciton transport efficiency can be achieved through local structural modifications, such as atomic impurities and interface design, as well as crystal fluctuations. Yet current theories lack a predictive description of the underlying interactions due to such structural modifications, highlighting the need for new tools that can capture these complex exciton dynamics.  Taking advantage of ever-growing computational frontiers, in this ERC project, we will derive and apply a new theoretical approach, based on the predictive many-body perturbation theory, to compute exciton dynamics as a function of structural complexity in emerging materials. We will derive and examine our approach on three emerging excitonic systems of reduced dimensionality: organic molecular crystals, layered transition metal dichalcogenides, and two-dimensional hybrid perovskites [Obj.I]. As proof-of-concept, we will use our theory to study the effect of atomic defects and heterostructure compositions [Obj.II], as well as lattice fluctuations [Obj.III], on the mechanisms dominating exciton relaxation and diffusion and their resulting mobility and lifetime.  Our research will thus allow for a comprehensive and predictive understanding of the underlying physics dominating exciton decay processes in materials of emerging interest via front-line computations, offering novel and tunable design principles for optimized functionality.

Mots-clés : exciton dynamics,many body perturbation theory,gw bse,two dimensional semiconductors,organic semiconductors,excited state phenomena,bandstructure methods
Projet ERC : CHLOE-PET (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Prevention,  Diagnosis and T reatment of Human Diseases
Entité participante : Institute for High Energy Physics — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : IFAE
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1384755.0 €

Time-of-flight positron emission tomography (TOF-PET) is the standard-of-care in cancer detection. TOF-PET scanners’ performance is dependent on the radiation detectors they use. Improving time and spatial detection features in such detectors will dramatically impact the diagnostic capacity of TOF-PET systems. The goal of this project is to build a gamma detector concept for TOF-PET able to improve the time resolution and spatial segmentation of state-of-the-art detectors by a factor of up to 7 and 10, respectively, without additional production costs. CHLOE-PET is a forward-looking gamma detector design for TOF-PET able to exploit the new photodetector technologies that are currently under development and will become available within the next 5-to-10 years. The novelty of the proposed design lies in using Cherenkov light as a prompt time source, using an innovative geometry optimized to maximize light collection, and employing photodetectors with small pixel pitch. This project is the first attempt to build a detector module scalable to a full-size system that can be used in a hospital setting. The CHLOE-PET detector will consist of bismuth germanate (BGO) crystals with 12 mm thickness and will combine the readout of scintillation and Cherenkov light. CHLOE-PET will provide an effective 3D segmentation of 2x2x2 mm3, an intrinsic photon time spread of 20 ps, and no intrinsic radiation background (unlike state-of-the-art TOF-PET detectors). Such improvements will allow increasing the signal-to-noise ratio of images by >2-fold, to be able to detect lesions of 2 mm size (>3 times the current performance), to build portable high-performance organ-dedicated TOF-PET systems, and to universalize the use of dynamic TOF-PET studies. The combination of these outcomes will provide significantly better diagnostic capabilities in a range of fields such as oncology, neurology, or cardiology, among others, and ultimately boost treatment efficacy and patient comfort.

Mots-clés : nuclear medicine time of flight positron emission tomography tof pet gamma ray detector scintillation crystal detector
Projet ERC : DisSeCT (Horizon Europe, appel 2025, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System
Entité participante : Champalimaud Foundation — Pays : Portugal — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1499768.0 €

The initiation of movement, whether triggered by an internal (self-paced) or external stimulus (cued), relies on complex neural circuitry involving the pre-motor and motor cortex, basal ganglia, cerebellum, midbrain, and thalamus. The motor thalamus (mThal) integrates inputs from these structures to orchestrate the shift of cortical activity from a preparatory into an execution mode, resulting in action initiation. However, it is unclear whether the activity in the mThal that releases the motor program is different for externally cued and self-paced movements. Projections from the cerebellum and from the midbrain to the mThal have a critical role in cued movement initiation, while substantia nigra compacta (SNc) dopamine neurons, which send important projections to the basal ganglia, have been show to gate and invigorate self-paced actions. The loss of these neurons in Parkinson’s disease (PD) perturbs basal ganglia inputs to the mThal, leading to impairments in movement initiation. Interestingly, PD disrupts self-paced movements more than those triggered by external cues. We propose that self-paced movement initiation depends on the basal ganglia projections to the mThal, whereas external cues can engage the mThal through cerebellar and/or midbrain circuits to promote movement initiation. To test this hypothesis, we propose a novel behaviour task where mice initiate the same action in a cued or a self-paced manner, combined with recordings and optogenetic manipulation of input-defined mThal populations. We expand this approach to a mouse model of PD to further test if our hypothesis can explain why the use of external cues has a beneficial effect in PD. Our ground-breaking experiments will advance the fundamental understanding of the neural circuits that support self-paced and cued movement initiations, while establishing a framework to understand the positive effect of cues in PD.

Mots-clés : action initiation,self paced,cueing,motor control circuits,circuit tracing,parkinson s disease,optogenetics,electrophysiology,calcium imaging