Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : MODULISPACES (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Mathematics
Entité participante : Stockholm University — Pays : Suède — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1091249.39 €

The proposal describes two main projects. Both of them concern cohomology of moduli spaces of Riemann surfaces, but the aims are rather different. The first is a natural continuation of my work on tautological rings, which I intend to work on with Qizheng Yin and Mehdi Tavakol. In this project, we will introduce a new perspective on tautological rings, which is that the tautological cohomology of moduli spaces of pointed Riemann surfaces can be described in terms of tautological cohomology of the moduli space M_g, but with twisted coefficients. In the cases we have been able to compute so far, the tautological cohomology with twisted coefficients is always much simpler to understand, even though it “contains the same information”. In particular we hope to be able to find a systematic way of analyzing the consequences of the recent conjecture that Pixton’s relations are all relations between tautological classes; until now, most concrete consequences of Pixton’s conjecture have been found via extensive computer calculations, which are feasible only when the genus and number of markings is small. The second project has a somewhat different flavor, involving operads and periods of moduli spaces, and builds upon recent work of myself with Johan Alm, who I will continue to collaborate with. This work is strongly informed by Brown’s breakthrough results relating mixed motives over Spec(Z) and multiple zeta values to the periods of moduli spaces of genus zero Riemann surfaces. In brief, Brown introduced a partial compactification of the moduli space M_{0,n} of n-pointed genus zero Riemann surfaces; we have shown that the spaces M_{0,n} and these partial compactifications are connected by a form of dihedral Koszul duality. It seems likely that this Koszul duality should have further ramifications in the study of multiple zeta values and periods of these spaces; optimistically, this could lead to new irrationality results for multiple zeta values.
Projet ERC : MACROTRADE (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Individuals, Markets and Organisations
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 : 1257242.51 €

The proposal is divided into three strands whose main goals are to i) study macroeconomic fluctuations, ii) identify the mechanisms that drive and propagate these fluctuations, and iii) use the empirical findings to inform and formulate models that can be used for quantitative policy and positive analysis. The first strand will exploit a new dataset to study housing markets during the build-up and aftermath of the crisis. We will document a robust pattern of history dependence in housing markets and investigate four main channels to potentially explain this pattern: Down payment requirements; matching quality; learning; and anchoring. Using these results we will build and structurally estimate a model with the aim to use in policy and positive analysis. The second strand studies an unexplored mechanism for the transmission of monetary policy. A main winner from monetary policy expansions in most countries is the government, which sees a reduction in the value of its debt and typically, better borrowing terms. We will investigate how public spending, revenues, and debt management react to changes in monetary policy; the extent to which the response of activity is driven by the public sector; the interactions between public and private sector responses; and the (intra- and inter-generational) distributional effects from monetary policy interventions. We will then formulate a DSGE model embedding a careful description of the government’s role in the transmission mechanism. The third strand studies the effect of terms-of-trade fluctuations on agricultural production and trade. We will focus on the distribution of gains from trade in markets characterized by oligopsonies buying from small farmers and exporting in international markets. We will study how this configuration, characteristic of agricultural markets in low-income economies, alters the gains from trade and the effects of terms-of-trade changes vis-a-vis the standard framework of perfect competition.

Mots-clés : monetary policy,fiscal policy,re distributive effects,vector auto regressive  var  models,central banks
Projet ERC : EMInstr (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : University of Huddersfield — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 149662.0 €

The proposed EMInstr project aims to elevate the important research result, a lab prototype of a new wavelength scanning interferometer (NWSI) developed during the ERC-2008-ADG 228117 SURFUND project and to verify its potential as a commercial product. The EMInstr project intends to set up a commercialisation pathway: from verification/validation of the lab prototype, through to technical optimisation, product prototype design, technological licensing and finally into commercialisation. The expected result of this project is to develop a new generation instrument, a pre-production NWSI, for embedded metrology. The NWSI represents a step-change in manufacturing metrology instruments, being the first of a new generation of micro/nano geometry and surface topography measurement systems. This revolutionary device is the result of integrating several advanced technologies, wavelength/frequency scanning, GPU electronics and a multi-interferometry configuration, to produce the NWSI with unique capabilities in high-speed, large-measurement ratio (range/resolution) and robustness.

Mots-clés : metrology,instrument,wavelength scanning interferometer,manufacturing
Projet ERC : FUTURES (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : University of Exeter — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 149938.0 €

The proposed FUTURES project will use the novel UAV-Lidar technology conceived and developed in the current ERC-funded PAST project, in collaboration with the Brazilian National Institute for Space Research, in an entirely different socio-economic application aimed at helping Extractive Reserves (RESEXs) of the Brazilian Amazon. FUTURES proposes to utilise the UAV-Lidar system for creating 3D maps of forest structure and ground digital terrain models with unprecedented detail and interpret these data to improve the sustainable relationship between the RESEX forest residents and their environment, while maintaining and strengthening their economy and culture, and providing information to help them address emerging challenges. More specifically, FUTURES proposes to test the UAV-Lidar system for the following applications tailored to RESEXs: a) develop alternative options for sustainable extraction of non-timber forest products; b) design flood mitigation strategies, such as route planning for easier access to healthcare and emergency services, schools and local consumer markets during the rainy season; c) identify new, sustainable, under-forest fisheries; and d) increase the awareness of archaeological heritage in RESEXs with implications to develop cultural heritage tourism. Addressing the above challenges are also important for RESEXs and the Brazilian government in materialising their REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation) initiative, and for the European Union to ensure its success and leadership in implementing its forest conservation, sustainability and carbon mitigation goal of reducing tropical deforestation to at least 50% by 2020.

Mots-clés : sustainable amazonian futures,rainforest conservation,extractive reserves,flood mitigation,european space agency,lidar,brazil,cultural heritage tourism,sustainable fisheries,archaeology
Projet ERC : LaDIST (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Mathematics
Entité participante : Jagiellonian University — Pays : Pologne — Rôle : Partner
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 124625.0 €

The proposed project seeks to introduce novel methods to analyze and approximate large graphs and other discrete structures and to apply the developed methods to solve specific open problems. A need for such methods comes from computer science where the sizes of input structures are often enormous. Specifically, the project will advance the recently emerged theory of combinatorial limits by developing new insights in the structure of limit objects and by proposing a robust theory bridging the sparse and dense cases. The analytic methods from the theory of combinatorial limits will be used to analyze possible asymptotic behavior of large graphs and they will be applied in conjunction with structural arguments to provide solutions to specific problems in extremal combinatorics. The obtained insights will also be combined with methods from discrete optimization and logic to provide new algorithmic frameworks.

Mots-clés : combinatorial limits,discrete mathematics,extremal combinatorics,graph theory
Projet ERC : UneqDems (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Social World and Its Diversity
Entité participante : University of Geneva — Pays : Suisse — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UNIGE
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2497525.0 €

The proposed research program explores the implications of rising income inequality for the political process in advanced democracies and for the policies produced by competition among political parties and organized interests. The program posits that the political implications of inequality operates through two channels: inequality influences what citizens want from government, but it also affects political participation and influence and hence, by extension, government responsiveness to the preferences of different citizens. Students of the politics of inequality have tended to focus on only one channel, to the neglect of the other. The fundamental objective of the proposed research program is to develop a unified framework that draws on both research traditions and, in so doing, addresses lacunae in each. Another objective is to explore how the political consequences of low-end inequality (growing separation of the poor from the middle class) differ from the political consequences of high-end inequality (the growing concentration of income at the very top of the income distribution). The core questions that animate the research program are “macro” questions, pertaining processes and outcomes that are observed at the country level (or, in other words, the political-system level), but these questions will be addressed, in part, through analyses of individual attitudes, preferences and behavior. The latter analyses will involve a couple of original surveys, including a survey of attitudes towards the rich, as well as the use of existing national and cross-national survey data. With respect to macro-level comparisons, the research program will emphasize changes over time: changes in the structure of inequality as well as the level of inequality, changes in preferences and coalitions among citizens and organized interests and, finally, changes in income (or class) bias in democratic representation.

Mots-clés : democratic representation,public opinion,electoral participation
Projet ERC : GQCOP (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Fundamental constituents of matter
Entité participante : University of Nottingham — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1351461.0 €

The proposed research programme addresses issues of fundamental and technological importance in quantum information science and its interplay with complexity. The main aim of this project is to provide a new paradigmatic foundation for the characterisation of quantumness in cooperative phenomena and to develop novel platforms for its practical utilisation in quantum technology applications. To reach its main goal, this programme will target five specific objectives: O1. Constructing a quantitative theory of quantumness in composite systems; O2. Benchmarking genuine quantumness in information and communication protocols; O3. Devising practical solutions for quantum-enhanced metrology in noisy conditions; O4. Developing quantum thermal engineering for refrigerators and heat engines; O5. Establishing a cybernetics framework for regulative phenomena in the quantum domain. This project is deeply driven by the scientific curiosity to explore the ultimate range of applicability of quantum mechanics. Along the route to satisfying such curiosity, this project will fulfill a crucial two-fold mission. On the fundamental side, it will lead to a radically new level of understanding of quantumness, in its various manifestations, and the functional role it plays for natural and artificial complex systems traditionally confined to a classical domain of investigation. On the practical side, it will deliver novel concrete recipes for communication, sensing and cooling technologies in realistic conditions, rigorously assessing in which ways and to which extent these can be enhanced by engineering and harnessing quantumness. Along with a skillful team which this grant will allow to assemble, benefitting from the vivid research environment at Nottingham, and mainly thanks to his creativity, broad mathematical and physical preparation and relevant inter-disciplinary expertise, the applicant is in a unique position to accomplish this timely and ambitious mission.

Mots-clés : measures of quantumness,quantum correlations,quantum classical border,quantum enhanced technology,quantum engineering,cooperative phenomena,complex systems,statistical complexity,cybernetics
Projet ERC : SuperProtected (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Condensed matter physics
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 : 2132595.0 €

The quantum computer dream is driven by promises of unprecedented capabilities but is also facing a stark reality: quantum coherence is as powerful as it is difficult to protect. Quantum Error Correction (QEC) aims to extend coherence using redundancies but leads to solutions that are extremely resource-intensive: at present, protecting one bit of information requires at least ten thousand physical qubits. The main objective of this proposal is to engineer a new type of superconducting qubit, which will be intrinsically protected against de-coherence. Instead of matching the qubit states to the number of Cooper pairs or flux quanta of a given circuit, as is usually done, SuperProtected will exploit a completely new encoding scheme: quantum information will be stored as the parity of the number of Cooper pairs. This will be achieved by building a circuit component where charge transport occurs as pairs of Cooper pairs (4e-tunneling) while the standard single pair transport (2e-tunneling), or Josephson current, is reduced to zero. This new paradigm implies inductances with unprecedented value (10μH), also known as superinductances. The novel approach builds on two technological steps: a new high-kinetic inductance superconductor (InOx) and suspended silicon membranes. Improvement of the coherence time over current state-of-the-art is expected to be two orders of magnitude. The proposed qubits offer another major advantage: protected gates can be implemented using a simple modification of the architecture. The resulting protected qubit will extend the frontiers of the current knowledge in QEC and bring down the hardware requirements for a logical qubit by several orders of magnitude. Such a result would considerably change the quantum computing landscape.
Projet ERC : ExCOM-cCEO (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Condensed matter physics
Entité participante : Board of the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology — Pays : Suisse — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : ETH Zurich
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2496000.0 €

The quest for mechanical oscillators with ultralow dissipation is motivated by classical and quantum sensing and technology, and precision measurements. For decades, the most coherent mechanical oscillators were acoustic vibrations in kg-scale crystalline bars. Recently a paradigm shift has occurred. The combination of elastic strain engineering – a technique used in microelectronics – with phononic mode engineering has resulted in 1D nano-strings with a mechanical quality factor Q of 0.8 billion – the highest ever achieved at room temperature. Remarkably, these new techniques have major untapped potential, as they have only been applied to non-crystalline materials in 1D. We propose a new generation of strain-engineered crystalline and superconducting mechanical oscillators whose Q-factors are predicted to exceed 100 billion in up to 2 dimensions. We will seek to reach this theoretical limit, probe new dissipation mechanisms, and utilize these oscillators for quantum optomechanics in new regimes and achieve room temperature ground state cooling and ponderomotive squeezing. Likewise, we will apply these techniques to create highly coherent superconducting electromechanical devices at milli-Kelvin temperatures, enabling quantum-enhanced force sensing and 1 second decoherence times. Secondly, we will explore a fundamentally new method for measurement and manipulation of microwave fields with optical fields – the nascent field of circuit Cavity-Electro-Optics (cCEO). First recognized over a decade ago, it is possible with optical fields to cool, amplify or interferometrically read out microwaves. Yet to date this regime has remained in accessible due to insufficient coupling strength between the microwave and optical fields. We will overcome this challenge based on a new circuit architecture, allowing laser cooling and laser amplification of microwaves and electro-optical masing using optical backaction, and thereby opening an entirely new way to manipulate microwaves.

Mots-clés : optomechanics
Projet ERC : Rural Riches (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The study of the human past
Entité participante : University of Liège — Pays : Belgique — Rôle : Partner
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 145318.91 €

The question as to how Europe emerged from the collapse of the Roman state in the West has been the subject of academic debate for over a century. Most modern authors agree on the idea that the post-Roman economic development was the result of the initiatives and the demand of the elite. This paradigm of elite control of production and (long-distance) trade seems to be at odds with the vast amounts of objects, often precious and of exotic origin, that are found in the thousands of richly furnished cemeteries of even the smallest rural communities. This project will analyse the importance of the rural population as consumers with access to global trade networks to the post-Roman economic development in northwestern Europe. It is of great importance to analyse the early economic development of this region because it became ever more important in the economic development of Europe as a whole in the Middle Ages and the Modern Period. With this ambitious archaeological project we aim to contribute substantially to the age-old debate on the origins of the European economy and to a general debate on the role of the mass of the population in economic processes in the past. The project consists of five subprojects aimed at studying the ‘lay of the land’, the development of burial rite, the circulation of objects and the exchange mechanisms in place, the development of production and how it was embedded in social contexts and related to cosmology, and the presence and character of the elite. The main body of data will be the cemeteries and the vast amount of objects they contained. Sophisticated analyses of the objects’ deposition contexts and distribution patterns, using GIS and data from the ‘lay of the land’ project will be carried out to better understand these ‘Rural Riches’. An intensive programme of scientific research will contribute to understanding exchange, production and the use of objects in the communication and internalisation of shared values in rituals.

Mots-clés : merovingian archaeology
Projet ERC : VerteBrain (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Environmental Biology, Ecology and Evolution
Entité participante : Heidelberg University — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2497500.0 €

The question of how new organs originate and evolve is fundamental to understanding the evolution of complex animals. Recent single-cell genomics technologies permit detailed investigations of the evolutionary "birth" of organs and constituent cell types. Here, we will scrutinize the origins and cellular evolution of the vertebrate brain by generating and analyzing extensive single-cell transcriptomic, epigenomic, and spatial transcriptomic data across species representing all major vertebrate lineages. The project has three interlaced aims: In Aim 1, we will infer the cell type repertoire of the ancestral vertebrate brain and its regulatory and molecular foundations, by comparing single-cell data across the most diverged vertebrate species. In Aim 2, we will trace the cell type diversification of the ancestral brain during evolution and underlying regulatory and molecular changes. We will first investigate the origination of two key cell types (oligodendrocytes and Purkinje cells) that underlie the emergence of neuron insulation and the cerebellum, respectively, thus facilitating functional elaborations of the jawed vertebrate brain. We will then compare rates of cellular evolution across brain structures and test the hypothesis that cell type innovation was most frequent in the pallium, which affords advanced cognitive functions and experienced massive structural changes during evolution. In Aim 3, we will focus on the amniote pallium, a preeminent model for understanding neural tissue diversification. We will scrutinize the origins, development, and evolutionary relationships of cell types in three new structures: neocortex, dorsal ventricular ridge, and Wulst. Two of these structures – the neocortex in mammals and Wulst in birds – facilitated the convergent evolution of advanced cognitive abilities. Overall, our work will provide an overview of the cellular evolution of the vertebrate brain and, more generally, illuminate principles of cell type evolution.

Mots-clés : evolution,origins,cell types,brain,vertebrates,gene expression,transcriptome,epigenome,regulatory networks,gene duplication