Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : CASe (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Mathematics
Entité participante : Leipzig University — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : Partner
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 30000.0 €

Combinatorics, and its interplay with geometry, has fascinated our ancestors as shown by early stone carvings in the Neolithic period. Modern combinatorics is motivated by the ubiquity of its structures in both pure and applied mathematics. The work of Hochster and Stanley, who realized the relation of enumerative questions to commutative algebra and toric geometry made a vital contribution to the development of this subject. Their work was a central contribution to the classification of face numbers of simple polytopes, and the initial success lead to a wealth of research in which combinatorial problems were translated to algebra and geometry and then solved using deep results such as Saito's hard Lefschetz theorem. As a caveat, this also made branches of combinatorics reliant on algebra and geometry to provide new ideas. In this proposal, I want to reverse this approach and extend our understanding of geometry and algebra guided by combinatorial methods. In this spirit I propose new combinatorial approaches to the interplay of curvature and topology, to isoperimetry, geometric analysis, and intersection theory, to name a few. In addition, while these subjects are interesting by themselves, they are also designed to advance classical topics, for example, the diameter of polyhedra (as in the Hirsch conjecture), arrangement theory (and the study of arrangement complements), Hodge theory (as in Grothendieck's standard conjectures), and realization problems of discrete objects (as in Connes embedding problem for type II factors). This proposal is supported by the review of some already developed tools, such as relative Stanley--Reisner theory (which is equipped to deal with combinatorial isoperimetries), combinatorial Hodge theory (which extends the ``K\"ahler package'' to purely combinatorial settings), and discrete PDEs (which were used to construct counterexamples to old problems in discrete geometry).
Projet ERC : CASe (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Mathematics
Entité participante : Hebrew University of Jerusalem — Pays : Israël — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : HUJI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 389705.6 €

Combinatorics, and its interplay with geometry, has fascinated our ancestors as shown by early stone carvings in the Neolithic period. Modern combinatorics is motivated by the ubiquity of its structures in both pure and applied mathematics. The work of Hochster and Stanley, who realized the relation of enumerative questions to commutative algebra and toric geometry made a vital contribution to the development of this subject. Their work was a central contribution to the classification of face numbers of simple polytopes, and the initial success lead to a wealth of research in which combinatorial problems were translated to algebra and geometry and then solved using deep results such as Saito's hard Lefschetz theorem. As a caveat, this also made branches of combinatorics reliant on algebra and geometry to provide new ideas. In this proposal, I want to reverse this approach and extend our understanding of geometry and algebra guided by combinatorial methods. In this spirit I propose new combinatorial approaches to the interplay of curvature and topology, to isoperimetry, geometric analysis, and intersection theory, to name a few. In addition, while these subjects are interesting by themselves, they are also designed to advance classical topics, for example, the diameter of polyhedra (as in the Hirsch conjecture), arrangement theory (and the study of arrangement complements), Hodge theory (as in Grothendieck's standard conjectures), and realization problems of discrete objects (as in Connes embedding problem for type II factors). This proposal is supported by the review of some already developed tools, such as relative Stanley--Reisner theory (which is equipped to deal with combinatorial isoperimetries), combinatorial Hodge theory (which extends the ``K\"ahler package'' to purely combinatorial settings), and discrete PDEs (which were used to construct counterexamples to old problems in discrete geometry).
Projet ERC : PROCOMM (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Proof of concept grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Earth system science
Entité participante : University of Bristol — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Commercialisation of Proteus. We will develop a case for commercialisation our unique, tribrid (quadrupole mass-filter/collision cell/ multi- collector) inductively coupled mass-spectrometer, dubbed Proteus, built in collaboration with industrial partners Thermo Fisher Scientific. We will explore full workflow applications to open up a business case for turning the prototype into a commercial model. We have already demonstrated its unique capabilities in traditional fields for such instrumentation (Earth, Space and Nuclear sciences), but the rationale for building a commercial instrument is best made by showing its utility in developing a new market in screening large numbers of samples for medical research and possible detection of diseases. Here we will assess the potential of Proteus for accurate, high throughput measurements of Ca isotopes in bodily fluids to detect changes in bone mineral balance, indicative of diseases such as osteoporosis and kidney malfunction. We will work together with a spin-off company, osteolabs GmbH, who lead work in this new market, to produce a compelling case to be presented to Thermo Scientific Vertical marketing, the critical step to commercialisation.

Mots-clés : mass spectrometry,collision cell,isotope ratio measurement,bone mineral balance,medical diagnosis
Projet ERC : PECREGEN (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Technion – Israel Institute of Technology — Pays : Israël — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Commercialization of photoelectrochemical cells for solar hydrogen production from water is challenging due to the competitive low cost of hydrogen derived from natural gas. Renewable (solar-derived) hydrogen from alternative sources with more favorable economics is therefore being explored. Currently, caustic scrubbers for H2S abatement from sour gas and wastewater produce NaHS, a hazardous commodity chemical that is produced in the Kraft process, to produce wood pulp from wood for the production of paper, tissues, cardboard, and similar end products. However, due to large transport distances between H2S sources and paper mills, oversupply of NaHS, or impurities in the NaHS, there are many scrubbers that produce a large excess of waste NaHS. To address this economic pain point, we have invented a regenerator system that uses a photoelectrochemical cell to split NaHS, producing saleable high-value commodity sulfur and renewably-derived hydrogen gas, while regenerating the NaOH so that it can be re-used for H2S adsorption. Our photoelectrochemical regeneration system uses sunlight to produce hydrogen from waste H2S using less than a third the energy that is required for H2O splitting, while simultaneously removing a hazardous caustic waste stream from the environment. For this project, we will build a proof-of-concept regenerator system that can be integrated into a regenerative scrubber prototype. This will accomplish three goals: Production of renewable hydrogen potentially using 1/3rd the energy of water splitting; Reduce the need for caustic scrubbers to continue to buy NaOH by regenerating it from NaHS; Eliminate waste NaHS economically by turning it into hydrogen fuel and non-hazardous sulfur. Intellectual property will be developed, and an analysis of end-user pain points and product-market fit will be accomplished by combining data from customer interviews, technical reports, and economic forecasts.

Mots-clés : water energy nexus,solar energy,wastewater treatment,photoelectrochemical cells
Projet ERC : FACEDIFF (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Human Mind and Its Complexity
Entité participante : University of Portsmouth — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : Partner
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 26999.37 €

Communicating with others via the face is crucial for navigating our social world. Deficits in facial expression production can have debilitating effects on social interaction, characterising several clinical conditions such as autism spectrum disorder, schizophrenia and Parkinson’s disease. Despite this, we know surprisingly little about individual differences in facial expressivity in the typical population, what causes these differences and whether such differences impact on individual lives. In part, this could be due to an historical focus on the universal nature of facial expression, assigning individual difference to random ‘noise’, rather than an evolutionarily relevant characteristic. The FACEDIFF project will diverge from this classic approach and test the novel hypothesis that individual differences in facial expressivity equip individuals’ differentially to engage with their social environment: expressivity has a benefit (social engagement) but also a cost (over-exposure and thus risk of being cheated by others) and is related to the size and quality of an individual’s social network. FACEDIFF will combine psychological, anatomical and cross-species methods to provide the first thorough interdisciplinary investigation of individual differences. First, individual variation in production and perception of facial expressions will be measured via laboratory experiments and in relation to social network size and quality. Second, variation in human facial musculature will be documented through cadaveric dissection and existing MRI databases. Third, facial expressivity will be examined in a primate model to determine whether patterns are unique to humans. This project will be the first to provide a comprehensive and interdisciplinary perspective on individual differences in facial expression and will stimulate new theories on the function and evolution of individual differences in humans.

Mots-clés : facial expression,communication,universality,anatomy,evolution
Projet ERC : TOSSIBERG (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Mathematics
Entité participante : Université de Caen Normandie — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UNICAEN
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1153750.0 €

Complex Stein spaces may be thought of as analytic analogues of the affine schemes of algebraic geometry. They may be characterized in several manners: using convergence of holomorphic functions, topological properties or potential-theoretic properties, for instance. Especially useful for applications is the fact that their coherent cohomology vanishes. Despite the crucial importance of this theory in complex analytic geometry, its p-adic counterpart has hardly been sketched. In the setting of Berkovich geometry (one among the several notions of p-adic geometry), recent developments have enabled to get a fine understanding of the topology of the spaces (work of Berkovich and Hrushovski-Loeser) and to define the basic tools of potential theory (work of Baker-Rumely, Thuillier, Boucksom-Favre-Jonsson and Chambert-Loir-Ducros). The conditions for a comprehensive study of p-adic Stein spaces are now met; this will be our first goal. The theory will then be used to investigate envelopes of holomorphy and meromorphy. As an application, I plan to derive rationality criteria for power series over function fields. The second part of the project is devoted to the theory of Stein spaces for Berkovich spaces over rings of integers of number fields (where all the places appear on an equal footing). Those spaces have hardly been studied and only a very small part of the usual analytic machinery is available in this setting. Here, my main goal will consist in proving the basic and fundamental fact that relative polydisks are Stein spaces (in the cohomological sense). This will allow a deeper investigation of rings of convergent arithmetic power series (i.e. with integral coefficients) and will lead up to properties related to commutative algebra but also to the inverse Galois problem. Knowing that the coherent cohomology of polydisks vanishes also opens the road towards computing global cohomology groups for projective analytic spaces over ring of integers of number fields.

Mots-clés : p adic analytic geometry,berkovich spaces,stein spaces,potential theory,inverse galois problem
Projet ERC : NEUROCODE (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System
Entité participante : Spanish National Research Council — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : CSIC
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1997500.0 €

Complex brain functions require a remarkable degree of cellular specialization. Understanding the mechanisms guiding neuronal specification programs remains a major challenge. Here we use the nematode C. elegans, an essential animal model for studying the general principles of neuron specification, to provide answers to four fundamental questions: 1) How are regulatory landscapes coordinately activated in each type of neuron? We previously showed that complex combinations of transcription factors (TFs) implement neuron-type specific programs. TF behaviour at the genome-wide level is not well-understood. Our expertise on dopaminergic and serotonergic neuron specification will be instrumental in answering this question. 2) How are TF interactions mirrored by syntax rules of the regulatory genome? Our preliminary data demonstrate extensive TF-TF cooperativity that is mirrored by specific syntax in the target enhancers. We will use massively parallel reporter assays and bioinformatics to begin decoding the rules of the neuronal regulatory genome. 3) Does regulation of basic translational machinery play a role in neuronal differentiation? The mechanisms regulating the basal translational machinery are emerging as a new dimension in the regulation of cell type specification. We recently found the conserved translation initiation factor eIF3A is required for serotonergic terminal differentiation, opening the door to the study of this novel regulatory role for eIF3 complex. 4) How do new types of neurons emerge during evolution? We will combine our unique expertise on neuron specification with the amenability of the Caenorhabditis species and novel single-cell technologies to unravel the regulatory mechanisms underlying the appearance of new neuronal types in evolution. Our work will unravel novel principles on the regulation of neuronal specification and the evolution of cell types in the nervous system, fundamental for our understanding of brain development and function.

Mots-clés : caenorhabditis elegans,neuron differentiation,regulatory genome,translational regulation,transcriptional regulation,evolution,neuronal diversity
Projet ERC : BioMatrix (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Environmental Biology, Ecology and Evolution
Entité participante : University of Copenhagen — Pays : Danemark — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UCPH
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1978602.0 €

Complex microbial communities are comprised of diverse, interacting species. Often, such interactions result in outcomes that cannot be predicted from studies of their individual components in isolation. However, the underlying mechanisms resulting in such community intrinsic properties remain unidentified. The overarching aim of BioMatrix is to identify the molecular mechanisms underpinning community intrinsic properties of bacterial communities. In nature, bacterial communities are predominantly organized as biofilms in which the cells are encased in a self-produced polymeric matrix. I hypothesize that the altered matrix composition of multispecies biofilms is the primary cause of community intrinsic properties defining bacterial communities. BioMatrix will test this hypothesis using expression studies of genes encoding matrix components and functional assessments of gene deletions leading to loss of specific matrix components. These will be addressed in settings of increasing environmental and community complexity, thus ensuring ecological relevance. High-resolution methodologies for single-cell detection will be combined with advanced image analysis to enable crucial micro-scale studies of bacterial communities. New approaches, such as printing 3D leaves suitable for manipulation and microscopy analysis, will be developed and applied to expand exploration to in situ conditions. BioMatrix will close a primary knowledge gap in microbial ecology, by identifying fundamental mechanisms shaping bacterial communities. The impact of these mechanisms for community function and protection will be validated in settings of high community and environmental complexity. This will theoretically and experimentally advance biofilm research, addressing a severe bias towards in vitro studies of model organisms. The fundamental findings of BioMatrix will be directly applicable in a variety of biotechnological industries depending on community activity, interaction and resilience.

Mots-clés : biofilm,multispecies biofilm,bacterial interactions,emergent behavior,microbial communities,soil,ecology,enzymatic activity,matrix formation,extracellular polymers,3d printing,metaproteomics
Projet ERC : LIFEGATE (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Systems and communication engineering
Entité participante : University of Dundee — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : Partner
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 0.0 €

Complexity of living matter currently poses the most significant barrier to modern in-vivo microscopy. Fuelled by various branches of life sciences, the race is now to increase the penetration depth of super-resolution imaging inside living organisms. Additionally, no high-resolution in-vivo imaging technique has ever been introduced into medical, particularly surgical practice. This proposal sets out to develop new, ultra-thin endoscopic devices exceeding by orders of magnitude the performance of the current state of the art, thus paving the way for acquiring high-quality images from unprecedented depths of the most delicate tissues of living organisms. A team of transdisciplinary experts will push the fundamental and technological limits of the enabling principle - holographic control of light propagation in multimode fibres. Through advanced analytical and numerical modelling and major advancement of experimental methods, the project will develop a powerful platform for fast and efficient recovery of randomised imagery, retrieved from both rigid and flexible single-fibre endoscopes. This ‘gate-through-life’ will enable the team to deploy several prominent light-based imaging methods, including super-resolution approaches, inside freely moving animal models and ultimately humans. Supported by partners with broad expertise in in-vivo imaging, I will apply this methodology in the first instance to Neuroscience. This will provide a new, minimally invasive window into fundamental processes behind sub-cellular-scale functional connectivity of neurons and onset of common disabling neuronal disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease. Lastly, I will introduce the first technological basis for keyhole clinical diagnostics, enabling intra-operative live histology and microsurgery. This new imaging capacity will be able to reach currently inaccessible regions of the human body, while providing images with sub-cellular resolution in-situ.

Mots-clés : multimode optical waveguides,endoscopes,super resolution and multi photon imaging
Projet ERC : AMETIST (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Products and processes engineering
Entité participante : Tampere University — Pays : Finlande — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2492719.0 €

Compound semiconductor solar cells are providing the highest photovoltaic conversion efficiency, yet their performance lacks far behind the theoretical potential. This is a position we will challenge by engineering advanced III-V optoelectronics materials and heterostructures for better utilization of the solar spectrum, enabling efficiencies approaching practical limits. The work is strongly motivated by the global need for renewable energy sources. To this end, AMETIST framework is based on three vectors of excellence in: i) material science and epitaxial processes, ii) advanced solar cells exploiting nanophotonics concepts, and iii) new device fabrication technologies. Novel heterostructures (e.g. GaInNAsSb, GaNAsBi), providing absorption in a broad spectral range from 0.7 eV to 1.4 eV, will be synthesized and monolithically integrated in tandem cells with up to 8-junctions. Nanophotonic methods for light-trapping, spectral and spatial control of solar radiation will be developed to further enhance the absorption. To ensure a high long-term impact, the project will validate the use of state-of-the-art molecular-beam-epitaxy processes for fabrication of economically viable ultra-high efficiency solar cells. The ultimate efficiency target is to reach a level of 55%. This would enable to generate renewable/ecological/sustainable energy at a levelized production cost below ~7 ¢/kWh, comparable or cheaper than fossil fuels. The work will also bring a new breath of developments for more efficient space photovoltaic systems. AMETIST will leverage the leading position of the applicant in topical technology areas relevant for the project (i.e. epitaxy of III-N/Bi-V alloys and key achievements concerning GaInNAsSb-based tandem solar cells). Thus it renders a unique opportunity to capitalize on the group expertize and position Europe at the forefront in the global competition for demonstrating more efficient and economically viable photovoltaic technologies.

Mots-clés : photovoltaics,high efficiency solar cells,iii v solar cells,dilute nitride solar cells,multi junction solar cells,molecular beam epitaxy,satellite solar cells