Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : LEMAP (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Earth system science
Entité participante : Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : HZDR
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2493250.0 €

Cosmic magnetic fields, including those of planets, stars, and galaxies, are being generated by the homogenous dynamo effect in flowing electrically conducting fluids. Once produced, these fields may play an active role in cosmic structure formation by fostering angular momentum transport and mass accretion onto central objects, like protostars or black holes, by means of the magnetorotational instability (MRI). Complementary to the decades-long theoretical research into both effects, the last years have seen great progress in respective experimental investigations. The dynamo effect had been verified in three liquid sodium experiments in Riga, Karlsruhe and Cadarache. The helical and the azimuthal versions of the MRI, as well as the current-driven Tayler instability (TI), were demonstrated at Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden - Rossendorf (HZDR). Here, I propose to make three further breakthroughs in this research field. First, I plan to demonstrate dynamo action based on a precession driven flow of liquid sodium in a cylindrical vessel. Besides thermal and compositional buoyancy, precession has been discussed as a complementary power source of the dynamos of the Earth, the ancient Moon, and other cosmic bodies. A second experiment will deal with magnetically triggered flow instabilities of astrophysical importance, with the main focus on attaining standard MRI, and various combinations of MRI and TI. Both experiments will be carried out at the DRESDYN facility at HZDR which has been conceived by me and which will enter into operation in 2019. In contrast to these well-advanced experimental concepts, my third liquid sodium experiment, which aims at showing the magnetic destabilization of rotating flows with radially increasing angular velocity, still requires more numerical simulations and design engineering. Given the comparatively less demanding technical parameters of this set-up, I expect first experimental results within the funding period, too.

Mots-clés : magnetohydrodynamics,dynamo experiments,accretion disks,instabilities
Projet ERC : PHYSIC (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca — Pays : Italie — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 149500.0 €

Cracks in silicon solar cells composing photovoltaic (PV) modules are induced during production (soldering of busbars onto solar cells, other defects), transportation, installation and exposure to the environment. The economic impact of cracking in PV modules has been assessed in about 6 Euro/(kWp year) due to the cost of repair/substitution and the missing production while cracks are not yet observable with the naked eye. This has a clear huge technological and economic impact on the market that can be estimated in 180 MEuro/year of losses, by considering a conservative amount of 30 GWp of new installations in the World per year. If cracking cannot be avoided due to the brittleness of Silicon, the proposed idea to be taken to proof of concept is to limit its effect as much as possible. A new generation of PV modules displaying a superior resistance against cracking is proposed, starting from the fundamental discovery within the CA2PVM ERC StG project that residual thermo-mechanical compressive stresses in Silicon cells are beneficial to induce crack face contact and electric recovery. An innovative pre-stressing technique will be designed to increase the residual compressive stresses in Silicon and achieve the crack closure state for any crack and therefore avoid electrical power-losses. An exploitation strategy based on patenting of the technical solution, writing of a business plan, and founding a spin-off/start-up company with a team with interdisciplinary skills will be implemented. This will allow for fund raising and exploitation of the idea also based on the already established industrial contacts.

Mots-clés : photovoltaics,cracks,durability,optimized residual stresses,innovative pre stressing technique,increase lifetime and energy production
Projet ERC : CAD4FACE (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Human Diseases
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 : 1498772.0 €

Craniosynostosis is a group of congenital craniofacial abnormalities consisting in premature fusion (ossification) of one or more cranial sutures during infancy. This results in growth restriction perpendicular to the axis of the suture and promotes growth parallel to it, causing physical deformation of the cranial and facial skeleton, as well as distortion of the underling brain, with potential detrimental effects on its function: visual loss, sleep apnoea, feeding and breathing difficulties, and neurodevelopment delay. Conventional management of craniosynostosis involves craniofacial surgery delivered by excision of the prematurely fused sutures, multiple bone cuts and remodelling of the skull deformities, with the primary goal of improving patient function, while normalising their appearance. Cranial vault remodelling surgical procedures, aided by internal and external devices, have proven functionally and aesthetically effective in correcting skull deformities, but final results remain unpredictable and often suboptimal because of an incomplete understanding of the biomechanical interaction between the device and the skull. The overall aim of this grant is to create a validated and robust computational framework that integrates patient information and device design to deliver personalised care in paediatric craniofacial surgery in order to improve clinical outcomes. A virtual model of the infant skull with craniosynostosis, including viscoelastic properties and mechano-biology regulation, will be developed to simulate device implantation and performance over time, and will be validated using clinical data from patient populations treated with current devices. Bespoke new devices will be designed allowing for pre-programmed 3D shapes to be delivered with continuous force during the implantation period. Patient specific skull models will be used to virtually test and optimise the personalised devices, and to tailor the surgical approach for each individual case.

Mots-clés : bespoke devices,tailored surgical procedures,craniosynostosis
Projet ERC : INTENT (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Products and processes engineering
Entité participante : Politecnico di Milano — Pays : Italie — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : POLIMI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2484648.0 €

Critically important heterogeneous catalytic reactions for energy conversion and chemicals production have been run for several decades in fixed bed reactors randomly packed with catalyst pellets, whose operation is intrinsically limited by slow heat removal/supply. There is urgent need for a new generation of process equipment and chemical reactors to address the current quest for process intensification. I propose that a game-changing alternative is provided by structured reactors wherein the catalyst is washcoated onto or packed into structured substrates, like honeycomb monoliths, open-cell foams or other cellular materials, fabricated with highly conductive metallic (Al, Cu) materials. The goal of this project is to fully elucidate fundamental and engineering properties of such novel conductive structured catalysts, investigate new concepts for their design, manufacturing, catalytic activation and operation (e.g. 3D printing, packed foams, energy supply by solar irradiation), and demonstrate their potential for a quantum leap in the intensification of three crucial catalytic processes for the production of energy vectors: i) distributed H2 generation via efficient small-size reformers; ii) conversion of syngas to clean synthetic fuels in compact (e.g. skid-mounted) reactors; iii) production of solar H2. To this purpose I will combine advanced CFD modelling with lab-scale experimentation in order to identify the optimal structure-performance relation of existing and novel substrates, use such new knowledge to design optimized prototypes, apply unconventional additive manufacturing technologies for their production, and construct a semi-industrial tubular pilot reactor to test them at a representative scale. The project results will enable novel reactor designs based on tuning geometry, materials and configurations of the conductive internals to match the activity - selectivity demands of specific process applications, while impacting also other research areas.

Mots-clés : structured catalysts and reactors,open cell foams,advanced materials for process intensification
Projet ERC : SWORD (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Computer science and informatics
Entité participante : Université Catholique de Louvain — Pays : Belgique — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UCL
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1997661.34 €

Cryptographic implementations are traditionally evaluated based on a trade-off between security and efficiency. However, when it comes to physical security against attacks exploiting side-channel leakages or fault insertions, this approach is limited by the difficulty to define the adversaries (e.g. their knowledge about the target implementation) and to specify sound physical assumptions. Quite naturally, the problem becomes even more challenging in contexts where implementations can be maliciously modified during design or fabrication via so-called hardware Trojans. To a large extent, these vulnerabilities echo the general challenge of restoring trust that is faced by cryptographic research in view of the recent Snowden revelations. In this context, we believe that the design of small components able to perform secure computations locally will be an important building block of future information systems. For this purpose, the SWORD project envisions a paradigm shift in embedded security, by adding trust as an essential element in the evaluation of physically secure objects. Our two main ingredients to reach this ambitious goal are a good separation between mathematics and physics, and improved transparency in security evaluations. That is, we want cryptographic implementations to rely on physical assumptions that can be empirically verified, in order to obtain sound security guarantees based on mathematical proofs or arguments. And we want to make the empirical verification of physical assumptions more transparent, by considering open source hardware and software. By allowing adversaries and evaluators to know implementation details, we expect to enable a better understanding of the fundamentals of physical security, therefore leading to improved security, efficiency and trust in the longer term. That is, we hope to establish security guarantees based on a good understanding of the physics, rather than the (relative) misunderstanding caused by closed systems.

Mots-clés : side channel analysis,fault attacks,hardware trojans,secure implementations,open source implementations,trust,cryptographic hardware,leakage resilience,embedded security
Projet ERC : PREP-CRYPTO (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Computer science and informatics
Entité participante : Karlsruhe Institute of Technology — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : KIT
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1085346.27 €

Cryptography currently faces fundamentally new challenges. Modern applications like Big Data or Cloud Computing require cryptographic methods that go far beyond secure communication. Such cryptographic methods have only been invented in recent years: namely, since 2009, several unexpected and game-changing *new cryptographic building blocks* have been introduced. Most prominently, constructions of fully homomorphic encryption, code obfuscation, and multilinear maps have been proposed. These constructions have opened the door to applications that were previously believed unattainable, such as the secure outsourcing of computations. However, the concrete schemes proposed are currently scrutinized for cryptanalytic attacks, and it appears that many of them are *considerably less secure* than initially hoped for. Moreover, most constructions of new cryptographic building blocks still constitute "possibility results" rather than practically relevant schemes. In fact, while being improved continuously, most existing constructions are still far too inefficient for practical use cases. The goal of this project is to *prepare these new building blocks for modern applications*. Specifically, we will give new constructions of these new building blocks that - are *secure in a strong sense*, - have a *significantly extended functionality*, and - are *efficient* when tailored to specific applications. The technical means to achieve our goals is to *combine* these new building blocks with well-established *algebraic* cryptographic tools. For instance, we plan to mesh obfuscation with cyclic groups, in order to obtain more secure and more powerful multilinear maps. Our work prepares the ground for *practical real-life applications* from new cryptographic building blocks.

Mots-clés : obfuscation,multilinear maps,fully homomorphic encryption
Projet ERC : MuDiLingo (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Products and processes engineering
Entité participante : Forschungszentrum Jülich — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : FZJ
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 644584.43 €

Crystalline defects in metals and semiconductors are responsible for a wide range of mechanical, optical and electronic properties. Controlling the evolution of dislocations, i.e. line-like defects and the carrier of plastic deformation, interacting both among themselves and with other microstructure elements allows tailoring material behaviors on the micro and nanoscale. This is essential for rational design approaches towards next generation materials with superior mechanical properties. For nearly a century, materials scientists have been seeking to understand how dislocation systems evolve. In-situ microscopy now reveals complex dislocation networks in great detail. However, without a sufficiently versatile and general methodology for extracting, assembling and compressing dislocation-related information the analysis of such data often stays at the level of “looking at images” to identify mechanisms or structures. Simulations are increasingly capable of predicting the evolution of dislocations in full detail. Yet, direct comparison, automated analysis or even data transfer between small scale plasticity experiments and simulations is impossible, and a large amount of data cannot be reused. The vision of MuDiLingo is to develop and establish for the first time a Unifying Multiscale Language of Dislocation Microstructures. Bearing analogy to audio data conversion into MP3, this description of dislocations uses statistical methods to determine data compression while preserving the relevant physics. It allows for a completely new type of high-throughput data mining and analysis, tailored to the specifics of dislocation systems. This revolutionary data-driven approach links models and experiments on different length scales thereby guaranteeing true interoperability of simulation and experiment. The application to technologically relevant materials will answer fundamental scientific questions and guide towards design of superior structural and functional materials.

Mots-clés : computational materials science,small scale plasticity,machine learning,data driven materials science,dislocations,microstructure property relation
Projet ERC : PRISM (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Synthetic Chemistry and Materials
Entité participante : Eindhoven University of Technology — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : TU/e
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1661605.0 €

Crystallization of water into ice is lethal to most organisms and detrimental to many soft materials. Freeze-tolerant fish living in polar seas evolved to tackle this problem with an unusual coping strategy. They produce ‘antifreeze’ proteins that block the growth of nascent ice crystals within a narrow temperature range known as the ‘thermal hysteresis gap’ enabling survival under extreme conditions. Encoding this functionality into synthetic polymers would open up new avenues in biomedicine, agrifood and materials science for e.g. cryopreservation, crop hardiness, ice-templating, dispersion stability, and advanced coatings. Progress requires a profound understanding of the mechanism of non-colligative freezing point depression at the molecular level and allows for efficient strategies for the design and preparation of powerful macromolecular antifreezes. I propose to unravel how antifreeze proteins work and to build upon these insights to explore effective routes towards ice-binding polymers aiming to make sensitive soft materials freeze-resistant. Within this challenge we first focus on single-molecule experiments to visualize bound proteins and study the strength of the non-covalent interaction with ice. We will study if and when adsorption on ‘foreign’ interfaces and solution assembly impact activity. These fundamental insights will guide our research towards synthetic antifreeze agents with superior functionality to achieve record supercooling in complex environments. This knowledge-based design of polymers with high affinity for crystalline interfaces holds great promise for many areas of science and technology in which crystallization plays a decisive role.

Mots-clés : soft materials,experimental soft matter,antifreeze protein,ice binding polymer,interface science,surface activity,adsorption,self assembly
Projet ERC : NeuroTRACK (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Human Diseases
Entité participante : Istituti di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico — Pays : Italie — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : IRCCS
Type d'entité : Organismes privés (hors enseignement)
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1496994.0 €

Current knowledge of neurodegenerative diseases is limited by poor understanding of how they progress through the central nervous system (CNS). It has recently been hypothesized that clinical progression in these conditions involves the systematic spreading of protein misfolding along neuronal pathways. Protein aggregates would trigger misfolding of adjacent homologue proteins in newly-affected regions, and this would propagate in a “prion-like” fashion across anatomical connections. This proposal seeks to decipher the mechanisms of network-based neurodegeneration by understanding how the complex architecture of brain networks (the connectome) shapes the evolving pathology of neurodegenerative diseases, and to develop tools for monitoring disease progression from presymptomatic to later stages of the disease. NeuroTRACK will apply emerging network science tools to longitudinal, structural and functional brain connectivity 3T magnetic resonance imaging data from patients with frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) – a devastating, relentlessly progressive, young onset, neurodegenerative disorder. The study will involve both sporadic and familial cases, including presymptomatic gene mutation carriers. The proposal addresses the following fundamental questions: i) How and where does pathological protein propagation occur in the FTLD phenotypes? ii) Can pathological spreading be predicted from brain connectome fingerprinting? iii) How do different protein abnormalities translate into large-scale network degeneration? iv) How early are brain network changes detectable in the (even presymptomatic) course of the disease? The ground-breaking nature of the experiments planned in this proposal will pave the way to the development of novel tools for understanding the biological underpinnings of other CNS proteinopathies such as Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease, and to identifying individualized, early interventions to modify disease progression.

Mots-clés : brain connectome,brain connectivity,monitoring disease progression,predicting prognosis,presymptomatic,mutation carriers,frontotemporal dementia,amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
Projet ERC : OXIDISE (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Biotechnology and Biosystems Engineering
Entité participante : University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna — Pays : Autriche — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : BOKU
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1929319.0 €

Current processes for lignocellulose deconstruction are unspecific and produce some constituents in poor quality. Specific biocatalysts could achieve optimal segregation together with minimal damage to cellulose and lignin and provide high-quality feedstocks for industry. Naturally occurring fungal oxidoreductases perform this task, but their characterisation – and hence their optimisation for industrial application – is difficult because of the experimental challenges. The mission of OXIDISE to develop appropriate methods to characterise lignocellulose degrading oxidoreductases, i.e. elucidate their conversions rates and to resolve their distribution and interaction in vicinity of their polymeric substrates. High-resolution techniques will be adapted to specifically detect fungal oxidoreductases like lytic polysaccharide monooxygenase, cellobiose dehydrogenase, laccase, lignin peroxidase, or members of the GMC oxidoreductase superfamily. These enzymes are all involved in the oxidative attack of recalcitrant biopolymers and are present in over 90% of fungal genomes. To overcome problems of current assaying techniques such as their low spatial and temporal resolution, OXIDISE will develop and apply techniques based on microelectrodes, scanning electron microscopy, surface plasmon resonance and fluorescence microscopy thereby pursuing three objectives: 1) study the interaction of all major oxidoreductases secreted by fungi in regard to electron transfer, regeneration of redox species and substrate cascading; 2) resolve the distribution of secreted oxidoreductases on cellulosic and lignocellulosic substrates at high resolution; 3) transfer the developed techniques to natural lignocellulose samples with growing fungal hyphae and study the secreted oxidoreductase activities. OXIDISE strives to establish new techniques to elucidate the kinetics and interactions of oxidoreductases – a long neglected enzyme class for lignocellulose depolymerisation.

Mots-clés : biosensors,extracellular electron transfer,wood degrading fungi,lignocellulose depolymerisation,oxidoreductases