Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : V-ECHO (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Earth system science
Entité participante : Centre national de la recherche scientifique — Pays : France — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : CNRS
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 70000.0 €

Rapid global change events such as mass extinctions punctuate Earth’s geological history. These have driven life’s evolution, shaping the world today. However, the exact processes that trigger or modulate them remain enigmatic. Episodes of large-scale volcanism, namely large igneous provinces (LIPs), are a prime contender. A major obstacle to unravelling the role of LIPs in rapid global change has been lack of a direct/unique proxy for volcanism in the sediments that record events. Without one, determining LIP occurrence and exact temporal relations is challenging, especially where the rock record of LIPs is incomplete. Recent studies have revealed the huge promise of mercury (Hg) as a marker of large-scale volcanism. However, while Hg-record acquisition is gaining pace, we still lack the vital process understanding of the proxy needed to realize its full potential. V-ECHO will test the overarching hypothesis: widespread mercury ‘spikes’ in the geological record are definitive evidence of LIP volcanism even in the absence of coeval lavas. V-ECHO will take an integrated and interdisciplinary approach to develop a process understanding of LIP perturbations to the global Hg cycle and how these translate into sedimentary records. It will address key questions on Hg sources (emission from magmas or thermal metamorphism of intruded rocks) and sinks (deposition pathways and sedimentary preservation). It will combine new measurements with novel experimental techniques and explore key differences in the global Hg cycle deep in Earth’s past. V-ECHO will test whether we can ‘sniff out’ the sedimentary echoes of lost LIPs, especially in the Palaeozoic and Neoproterozoic where the LIP record becomes ever sparser. It will explore proposed volcanic triggers for major Earth change events (e.g., oceanic anoxic events, ‘snowball Earths’) in unprecedented ways. V-ECHO promises a step-change in understanding of environmental impacts of LIP volcanism throughout Earth history.

Mots-clés : mercury  hg,large igneous provinces  lips,volcanology,igneous
Projet ERC : V-ECHO (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Earth system science
Entité participante : University of Oxford — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1841744.0 €

Rapid global change events such as mass extinctions punctuate Earth’s geological history. These have driven life’s evolution, shaping the world today. However, the exact processes that trigger or modulate them remain enigmatic. Episodes of large-scale volcanism, namely large igneous provinces (LIPs), are a prime contender. A major obstacle to unravelling the role of LIPs in rapid global change has been lack of a direct/unique proxy for volcanism in the sediments that record events. Without one, determining LIP occurrence and exact temporal relations is challenging, especially where the rock record of LIPs is incomplete. Recent studies have revealed the huge promise of mercury (Hg) as a marker of large-scale volcanism. However, while Hg-record acquisition is gaining pace, we still lack the vital process understanding of the proxy needed to realize its full potential. V-ECHO will test the overarching hypothesis: widespread mercury ‘spikes’ in the geological record are definitive evidence of LIP volcanism even in the absence of coeval lavas. V-ECHO will take an integrated and interdisciplinary approach to develop a process understanding of LIP perturbations to the global Hg cycle and how these translate into sedimentary records. It will address key questions on Hg sources (emission from magmas or thermal metamorphism of intruded rocks) and sinks (deposition pathways and sedimentary preservation). It will combine new measurements with novel experimental techniques and explore key differences in the global Hg cycle deep in Earth’s past. V-ECHO will test whether we can ‘sniff out’ the sedimentary echoes of lost LIPs, especially in the Palaeozoic and Neoproterozoic where the LIP record becomes ever sparser. It will explore proposed volcanic triggers for major Earth change events (e.g., oceanic anoxic events, ‘snowball Earths’) in unprecedented ways. V-ECHO promises a step-change in understanding of environmental impacts of LIP volcanism throughout Earth history.

Mots-clés : mercury  hg,large igneous provinces  lips,volcanology,igneous
Projet ERC : DASMT (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Computer science and informatics
Entité participante : Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : LMU
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1228625.0 €

Rapid translation between European languages is a cornerstone of good governance in the EU, and of great academic and commercial interest. Statistical approaches to machine translation constitute the state-of-the-art. The basic knowledge source is a parallel corpus, texts and their translations. For domains where large parallel corpora are available, such as the proceedings of the European Parliament, a high level of translation quality is reached. However, in countless other domains where large parallel corpora are not available, such as medical literature or legal decisions, translation quality is unacceptably poor. Domain adaptation as a problem of statistical machine translation (SMT) is a relatively new research area, and there are no standard solutions. The literature contains inconsistent results and heuristics are widely used. We will solve the problem of domain adaptation for SMT on a larger scale than has been previously attempted, and base our results on standardized corpora and open source translation systems. We will solve two basic problems. The first problem is determining how to benefit from large out-of-domain parallel corpora in domain-specific translation systems. This is an unsolved problem. The second problem is mining and appropriately weighting knowledge available from in-domain texts which are not parallel. While there is initial promising work on mining, weighting is not well studied, an omission which we will correct. We will scale mining by first using Wikipedia, and then mining from the entire web. Our work will lead to a break-through in translation quality for the vast number of domains with less parallel text available, and have a direct impact on SMEs providing translation services. The academic impact of our work will be large because solutions to the challenge of domain adaptation apply to all natural language processing systems and in numerous other areas of artificial intelligence research based on machine learning approaches.

Mots-clés : machine translation,domain adaptation,statistical machine translation,natural language processing
Projet ERC : StopIG (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Proof of concept grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Physiology in Health, Disease and Ageing
Entité participante : Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : Inserm
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis (RPGN) is a syndrome of the kidney that is characterized by a rapid loss of renal function, with severe damage of glomeruli, the filtering units of the kidney through glomerular crescent formation (crescentshaped scars) seen on kidney biopsies. If left untreated, it rapidly progresses into acute renal failure and death within months. Regardless of the underlying cause, RPGN involves severe injury to the kidneys' glomeruli, with many of the glomeruli containing characteristic glomerular crescents. Currently RPGN is treated with broad-spectrum immunosuppression causing remission of the immune injury achieved in the majority of patients. Nevertheless, risk of end- stage renal failure at 5 years is still near 30 %, with a number of patients developing chronic kidney disease (CKD). Moreover, such treatments are associated with significant morbidity due to infections and malignancy. ERC-supported efforts in our lab have unravelled local mediators and transcription factors that critically control the tolerance of intrinsic glomerular cells to inflammatory insult. My team has shown that the PPARγ (peroxisome proliferatoractivated receptors gamma) pathway is instrumental in the protection of the inflammatory response during immunecomplex mediated RPGN, in large part through protection of kidney cells, named podocytes. We now plan to move forward to transform this finding from our TARGET-GLOMDIS ERC grant into a clinically effective innovative therapy. We expect to bring original therapeutic effect by preventing podocytes death and dysfunction in addition to promoting anti-inflammatory actions. The STOPIG project represents a unique opportunity to provide proof-of-concept for a new and cost-effective therapy for patients with RPGN based on stimulation of PPARγ with repurposed pioglitazone.

Mots-clés : vasculitis,podocyte,drug repurposing,rare disease,therapy,animal model,glomerulonephritis,glomerular disease
Projet ERC : MILEPOST (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Products and processes engineering
Entité participante : Heriot-Watt University — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2810198.0 €

Reactive transport modelling is a key tool in understanding the extremely complex interplay of flow, transport and reactions occurring over various temporal and spatial scales in the subsurface. The most difficult challenge in reactive transport is the capture of scale dependence, and upscaling reactive transport will ultimately only be successful if there is a detailed understanding of fundamental mechanisms at the pore level and the supporting data are available. State-of-the-art tools (e.g. X-ray microtomography and on-chip porous media) are not sufficient to understand reactive flow, as they do not provide real-time mapping of propagation of fronts (e.g. temperature, pressure, concentration) that are critical to refine and validate simulations. The ambition is to progress beyond the state of the art via additive manufacturing tools to print 3D replicas of porous cores that enable monitoring the properties within the pores. Our unique approach is to develop for the first time three-dimensional instrumented replicas of porous structures, so we can gain much needed dynamic data at the pore scale that can be incorporated into validated simulations coupling flow and reactive transport processes. We combine expertise and integrating ground-breaking work in: (i) additive manufacturing to produce three dimensional replicas of porous structures; (ii) tools to embed sensors to determine in-vivo propagation of fronts (pressure, temperature, pH) within complex structures; and (iii) novel high-fidelity in-silico pore models coupling relative permeability functions and critical saturations with compositional changes and validated using virtual reality tools. The ERC MILEPOST project will transform our ability to analyse and predict the behaviour of a wide range of pore-scale processes governing the macroscopic behaviour of complex subsurface systems and open up new horizons for science in other areas, e.g porosity controlled in polymers and bioprinting.

Mots-clés : reactive transport,chemical rates,pore modelling
Projet ERC : SOUNDSCENE (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System
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 : 1999999.0 €

Real-world listening involves making sense of the numerous competing sound sources that exist around us. The neuro-computational challenge faced by the brain is to reconstruct these sources from the composite waveform that arrives at the ear; a process known as auditory scene analysis. While young normal hearing listeners can parse an auditory scene with ease, the neural mechanisms that allow the brain to do this are unknown – and we are not yet able to recreate them with digital technology. Hearing loss, aging, impairments in central auditory processing, or an inability to appropriately engage attentional mechanisms can negatively impact the ability to listen in complex and noisy situations and an understanding of how the healthy brain organizes a sound mixture into perceptual sources may guide rehabilitative strategies targeting these problems. While functional imaging studies in humans highlight a network of brain regions that support auditory scene analysis, little is known about the cellular and circuit based mechanisms that operate within these brain networks. A critical barrier to advancing our understanding of how the brain solves the challenge of scene analysis has been a failure to combine behavioural testing, which provides a crucial measure of how any given sound mixture is perceived, with methods to record and manipulate neuronal activity in animal models. Here, I propose to use a novel behavioural paradigm in conjunction with high-channel count electrophysiological recordings and optogenetic manipulation to elucidate how auditory cortex, prefrontal cortex and hippocampus enable scene analysis during active listening. These methods will allow us to record single cell activity from a number of brain regions more typical of functional imaging studies in order to understand how processing within each area, and the interactions between these areas, underpins auditory scene analysis.

Mots-clés : auditory cortex,auditory scene analysis,behavioural neurophysiology
Projet ERC : BHIVE (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Biotechnology and Biosystems Engineering
Entité participante : Aalto University — Pays : Finlande — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1977781.0 €

Recent advances in systems-level study of cells and organisms have revealed the enormous potential to live more sustainably through better use of biological processes. Plants sustainably synthesize the most abundant and diverse materials on Earth. By applying recent advances in life science technology, we can better harness renewable plant resources and bioconversion processes, to develop environmentally and politically sustainable human enterprise and lifestyles. At the same time, the global market for high-value biochemicals and bioplastics from forest and agricultural sources is rapidly increasing, which presents new opportunities for forest and agricultural sectors. The overall aim of BHIVE is to illuminate uncharted regions of genome and metagenome sequences to discover entirely new protein families that can be used to sustainably synthesize novel, high-value biomaterials from renewable plant resources. The approach will include three parallel research thrusts: 1) strategic analysis of transcriptome and metagenome sequences to identify proteins with entirely unknown function relevant to biomass (lignocellulose) transformation, 2) mapping of uncharted regions within phylogenetic trees of poorly characterized enzyme families with recognized potential to modify the chemistry and biophysical properties of plant polysaccharides, and 3) the design and development of novel enzyme screens to directly address the increasing limitations of existing assays to uncover entirely new protein functions. BHIVE will be unique in its undivided focus on characterizing lignocellulose-active proteins encoded by the 30-40% of un-annotated sequence, or genomic “dark matter”, typical of nearly all genome sequences. In this way, BHIVE tackles a key constraint to fully realizing the societal and environmental benefits of the genomics era.

Mots-clés : enzymology,recombinant protein expression,analytical chemistry,mass spectrometry,comparative transcriptomics,metagenome mining,bioeconomoy,biotechnology,biorefinery
Projet ERC : COMMIOS (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The study of the human past
Entité participante : University of York — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2084315.0 €

Recent breakthroughs in ancient DNA and isotope analysis are transforming our understanding of diversity, mobility and social dynamics in the human past. COMMIOS integrates these cutting-edge methods on a scale not previously attempted, within a ground-breaking interdisciplinary framework, to provide a radically new vision of Iron Age communities in Britain (800 BC – AD 100) within their wider European context. At the broad scale, we will conduct the first concerted programme of genome-wide ancient DNA analysis on Iron Age populations anywhere in the world (c. 1000 individuals in the UK, 250 in Europe), mapping genetic clusters to shed light on ancient populations themselves and on their relationships to modern genetic patterning. Together with isotope analysis, and underpinned by both osteoarchaeological and cultural archaeological approaches, this will also enable us to directly address critical issues of population movement and inter-regional connectivity in Iron Age Europe. We will utilise the power of these new scientific methods to examine the structure and social dynamics of Iron Age societies in Britain, including household and kin-group composition, the identification of familial relationships, gender-specific mobility, and the development of social inequalities. Previously the preserve of cultural anthropologists studying recent societies, we will draw these questions into the archaeological domain, opening up new areas of enquiry for prehistoric societies. The scope and scale of the project represents a new departure for European archaeology, made possible by the coming-of-age of new analytical methods. Many of these have been pioneered by the project team, which comprises world-leaders in the fields of ancient DNA, isotope analysis, osteoarchaeology, chronological modelling and cultural archaeology. Although focussed on Iron Age Britain, the project will establish a new benchmark for future analyses of other regions and periods in Europe and beyond.

Mots-clés : iron age britain,iron age europe,ancient dna,isotope analysis,osteoarchaeology,social dynamics,funerary archaeology
Projet ERC : NIRV_HOST_INT (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Environmental Biology, Ecology and Evolution
Entité participante : University of Pavia — Pays : Italie — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UNIPV
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1466875.0 €

Recent discoveries clearly show that non-retroviral RNA viruses, despite not coding for reverse transcriptase and integrase, can transfer genetic material to their hosts, similarly to DNA viruses and retroviruses. The distribution of non-retroviral integrated RNA viruses (NIRVs) in host populations, mechanisms of NIRVs formation and effects on hosts are unclear. The main objective of this proposal is to uncover the complex biological interactions between non-retroviral RNA viruses and their hosts using the model system “Aedes albopictus and Flavivirus”. This system is ideal because Ae. albopictus is a known vector of non-retroviral RNA viruses, including several highly relevant for public health such as dengue viruses (Flaviviridae, Flavivirus) and NIRVs phylogenetically related to Flaviviruses have been identified in its genome. First, a population genomic approach will be used to interrogate the genome of Ae. albopictus from different geographic populations at their DNA and RNA levels. This approach will permit the systematic characterization of the distributions of NIRVs in natural host populations, the analyses of correlations between the presence of NIRVs and viral infections and the description of NIRVs genomic context, from which insights on mechanisms of NIRVs formation can be derived. Secondly, tissue-specificity of the NIRVs, their trans-generational stability and impact on mosquito biology will be analysed in a controlled laboratory environment. Somatic integrations could contribute to acquired immunity to their respective viruses or establishment of persistent viral infection. Germ-line integrations could have an evolutionary impact. If NIRVs affect Ae. albopictus vector competence or the genome of emerging viral populations, they could be manipulated for vector control purposes. Additionally, results on NIRV distribution in natural host populations and mechanisms of NIRVs formation will have implications in medicine because several non-retroviral RNA viruses are emerging as delivery systems for gene therapy applications.

Mots-clés : virus host interaction,vector competence,vector control
Projet ERC : NIRV_HOST_INT (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Environmental Biology, Ecology and Evolution
Entité participante : Institut Pasteur — Pays : France — Rôle : Partner
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 220000.0 €

Recent discoveries clearly show that non-retroviral RNA viruses, despite not coding for reverse transcriptase and integrase, can transfer genetic material to their hosts, similarly to DNA viruses and retroviruses. The distribution of non-retroviral integrated RNA viruses (NIRVs) in host populations, mechanisms of NIRVs formation and effects on hosts are unclear. The main objective of this proposal is to uncover the complex biological interactions between non-retroviral RNA viruses and their hosts using the model system “Aedes albopictus and Flavivirus”. This system is ideal because Ae. albopictus is a known vector of non-retroviral RNA viruses, including several highly relevant for public health such as dengue viruses (Flaviviridae, Flavivirus) and NIRVs phylogenetically related to Flaviviruses have been identified in its genome. First, a population genomic approach will be used to interrogate the genome of Ae. albopictus from different geographic populations at their DNA and RNA levels. This approach will permit the systematic characterization of the distributions of NIRVs in natural host populations, the analyses of correlations between the presence of NIRVs and viral infections and the description of NIRVs genomic context, from which insights on mechanisms of NIRVs formation can be derived. Secondly, tissue-specificity of the NIRVs, their trans-generational stability and impact on mosquito biology will be analysed in a controlled laboratory environment. Somatic integrations could contribute to acquired immunity to their respective viruses or establishment of persistent viral infection. Germ-line integrations could have an evolutionary impact. If NIRVs affect Ae. albopictus vector competence or the genome of emerging viral populations, they could be manipulated for vector control purposes. Additionally, results on NIRV distribution in natural host populations and mechanisms of NIRVs formation will have implications in medicine because several non-retroviral RNA viruses are emerging as delivery systems for gene therapy applications.

Mots-clés : virus host interaction,vector competence,vector control