Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : DIALECT (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Computer Science and Informatics
Entité participante : Université Louis-et-Maximilien de Munich — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : LMU
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1997815.0 €

Dialects are ubiquitous and for many speakers are part of everyday life. They carry important social and communicative functions. Yet, dialects and non-standard languages in general are a blind spot in research on Natural Language Understanding (NLU). Despite recent breakthroughs, NLU still fails to take linguistic diversity into account. This lack of modeling language variation results in biased language models with high error rates on dialect data. This failure excludes millions of speakers today and prevents the development of future technology that can adapt to such users.  To account for linguistic diversity, a paradigm shift is needed: Away from data-hungry algorithms with passive learning from large data and single ground truth labels, which are known to be biased. To go past current learning practices, the key is to tackle variation at both ends: in input data and label bias. With DIALECT, I propose such an integrated approach, to devise algorithms which aid transfer from rich variability in inputs, and interactive learning which integrates human uncertainty in labels. This will reduce the need for data and enable better adaptation and generalization.  Advances in salient areas of deep learning research now make it possible to tackle this challenge. DIALECT’s objectives are to devise a) new algorithms and insights to address extremely scarce data setups and biased labels; b) novel representations which integrate auxiliary sources of information such as complement text data with speech; and c) new datasets with conversational data in its most natural form. By integrating dialectal variation into models able to learn from scarce data and biased labels, the foundations will be established for fairer and more accurate NLU to break down language and literary barriers. I am privileged to carry out this integration as I have contributed to research in top venues on both cross-lingual learning and learning from biased labels.

Mots-clés : low resource natural language processing nlp,nlp for non standard language,distributed representations for multilingual text
Projet ERC : STAQQ (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Fundamental Constituents of Matter
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 : 1623750.0 €

This proposal will provide five key planks for a new "statistical mechanics of measurement and entanglement" that is made necessary by several lines of progress. Historically, the powerful theory of emergence in complex quantum systems was developed largely for many-body systems evolving with a time-independent Hamiltonian, usually very close to their ground state. Now, we must understand universality and emergence for a much broader range of quantum dynamical systems.  The reasons are several. First, highly controllable quantum simulators are becoming experimental reality: instead of being constrained to Schrödinger dynamics with a fixed Hamiltonian, an ideal device allows arbitrary combinations of unitary evolution, repeated local measurements, and control operations. This larger arena allows new dynamical phases, as demonstrated by the measurement phase transition co-invented by the PI. Second, the "hydrodynamics" of many-body systems far from their ground state - perhaps coupled to an environment - is richer than expected, even for dynamics with a fixed Hamiltonian. New methods also mean it can be understood and computed in detail.  The ambitious objectives of STAQQ are: 1) Develop the theory of criticality due to measurement. Entanglement phase transitions are fundamentally different from simple ordering transitions - they require new tools. 2) Map out the broader landscape of dynamical phases in nonunitary quantum systems (with environmental decoherence and/or control operations). 3) Extend powerful computational tools developed (partly by the PI) in simple random circuit models to realistic condensed matter/cold atom Hamiltonians - yielding a detailed theory for the emergence of hydrodynamics (broadly construed). 4) Develop classical analogues of the measurement transitions above - a new branch of classical critical phenomena. 5) Use insights from quantum dynamics to understand "beyond-field-theory" quantum phase transitions, where standard tools fail.

Mots-clés : quantum measurement,entanglement,decoherence,critical phenomena,universality,random quantum circuits
Projet ERC : EntangledUniversals (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Soci al World and Its Interactions
Entité participante : Université de Leyde — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1996384.0 €

This project examines transnational Islamic charity as a global force. The goals of Islamic charity shifted in the long twentieth century, beyond a community-scale oriented towards rewards in the afterlife and construction of religious infrastructure for Muslims. Islamic charitable networks have invested in public works for all humans: state-of-the-art hospitals, multistorey housing complexes and schools for modern education. Transnational Islamic charity today claims 'humanity' as its constituency. As a universalist category, humanity is no longer the monopoly of Western humanitarianism. The project’s central objective is to study how Islamic charitable networks in seeking to address global needs position themselves as universalist projects, entangled with Western humanitarianism and neoliberal welfare regimes. Theorizing the unstable hierarchies of humanity embedded in transnational Islamic charitable work, it will lend new insights into its moral limits and potential – by addressing three questions:  1. How do Islamic charitable networks rearticulate the category of humanity to address diverse constituencies? 2. How do Islamic charities define and contribute to the public good within globalized neoliberal welfare regimes? 3. How do recipients of aid demonstrate their humanity to meet shifting criteria of worthiness?  Though considered security threats by states, Islamic charities are increasingly recognised by multilateral institutions as important sources of welfare. In a time of multiple crises characterized by climate upheavals, religious polarization, economic instability and social deprivation, it is vital to understand transnational Islamic charity as a force for addressing universal needs. The project develops a novel analytical approach by centering two countries in the global south outside of the ‘traditional’ heartland of the Islamic world, India and Tanzania, to study charitable networks across the Indian Ocean and beyond.

Mots-clés : islam,humanity,welfare
Projet ERC : WAVESTORMS (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Universe Sciences
Entité participante : Université d'Helsinki — Pays : Finlande — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1998084.0 €

This project addresses major open questions in plasma physics: the dynamics of collisionless shocks, their impact on the downstream medium and particle acceleration. Collisionless shocks are powerful particle accelerators, ubiquitous in astrophysical plasmas. Recent works suggest that the dynamics of the shock precursor, or foreshock, contributes greatly to shock acceleration. Here we use near-Earth space as a natural laboratory to quantify the impact of transient kinetic structures forming in the foreshock. These foreshock transients are particularly intriguing because in addition to contributing to acceleration at the shock itself, they impact geospace as a whole in driving swift, intense wave storms in Earth's magnetosphere. In this proposal, I present recent data revealing that these waves accelerate energetic electrons in Earth's radiation belts, connecting for the first time the dynamics of two major acceleration sites at Earth. This issue has never been explored because of considerable challenges: multi-point in situ observations and global kinetic simulations are needed to unravel the complex processes at work. The WAVESTORMS project makes full use of recent advances on both of these fronts to resolve the impact of foreshock transients on near-Earth space in a holistic manner. Using a flagship kinetic model of the global magnetosphere and high-fidelity space- and ground-based measurements, we will (1) fully characterise their interaction with the shock and their contribution to shock acceleration, (2) quantify the radiation belt response (acceleration and losses), (3) connect our findings to the solar wind context, to finally (4) quantify their global impact on near-Earth space. My expertise in foreshock physics and in combining multi-mission data and cutting-edge simulations puts me in a unique position to lead this project. Our results will constitute a breakthrough in our understanding of near-Earth space dynamics and particle acceleration in general.

Mots-clés : foreshock foreshock transients bow shock particle acceleration radiation belts ulf waves global hybrid simulations magnetospheric physics
Projet ERC : REVIVE (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Human Mobility, Environment, and Space
Entité participante : Université du KwaZulu-Natal — Pays : Afrique du Sud — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : UKZN
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 219990.0 €

This research investigates how individual transformations in response to a changing climate alter perceptions of habitability in at risk places. By evaluating how individuals react to and understand these changes, this work provides concrete entry points for engaging climate-affected and low-income populations in climate change action. Further, by engaging with the idea of transformation, the project rejects narratives that accept the current socio-economic conditions as necessarily extending into the future. Rather, it focuses on the emotional labour and psychological burden of living with climate risk and interrogates how non-material losses (particularly fear, grief and disempowerment) can be leveraged to reduce current and future vulnerability. The project engages Campbell et al’s (2018) concept of bleak optimism – the agency we acquire when we start learning to accept and live with climate change - to advance understanding of individual transformation in the context of climate change and to identify ways to address emotional and psychological barriers to habitability. Drawing on Freirean praxis to understand how people can shift their perspectives, and drawing on Massey’s theories of a progressive sense of place to find entry points for engagement, the project advances a framework to enact bleak optimism. Employing qualitative methodologies, including arts-based practices, community mapping and ethnography, the project takes an international comparative approach, working with low-income and politically marginalised groups in three locations. Cases are identified where government actors are undertaking transformational adaptation in response to floods (Durban, South Africa and Lismore, Australia), and costal erosion (Happisburgh, UK). The project advances adaptation theory by developing the role of place in individual transformation; and shifting narratives around climate-induced place change to present emancipatory, rather than foreclosed, futures.

Mots-clés : transformational adaptation,praxis,non material loss and damage
Projet ERC : DeliChoP (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Prevention,  Diagnosis and T reatment of Human Diseases
Entité participante : Vlaams Instituut voor Biotechnologie — Pays : Belgique — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : VIB
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1999756.0 €

CNS disorders, e.g. brain cancer and Alzheimer’s disease, are the most common, debilitating, and underserved diseases. CNS drugs have historically suffered from considerably lower success rates during development than those for non-CNS indications. One of the major reasons is the presence of CNS barriers, including the blood-brain (BBB) and blood-cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) barrier. These blood-brain interfaces severely restrict the cerebral bioavailability of pharmaceutical compounds. While numerous attempts have been done to find methods to efficiently shuttle compounds over the BBB, less work has been done on blood-CSF crossers. Here, I hypothesize that targeting the blood-CSF barrier at the choroid plexus (ChP) is an attractive, innovative and underexplored strategy to deliver therapeutics to the brain. Indeed, this CNS barrier forms a unique interface between blood and CSF and delivery of therapeutics across the ChP epithelial cells may offer added-value for the treatment of CNS diseases. Recently, we could show that the blood-CSF barrier, via hijacking the FOLR1 pathway, is indeed a novel and exciting entry site to deliver therapeutics to the brain. Proof of concept data convincingly show that our in house generated anti-FOLR1 single domain antibody (VHH) is able to deliver a peptide into the brain. Undoubtfully, further validating the use of this VHH as brain shuttle could have major therapeutic implications. Here, I aim to investigate: (1) which cargos can be shuttled into (specific regions of) the brain, (2) which neurological disorders might be targeted and (3) whether other RMT targets at the blood-CSF barrier have similar brain targeting capacity. This project will finally reveal whether the blood-CSF barrier is an interesting entry route to the brain with therapeutic potential. Consequently, I infer that the data generated from this project may provide major impetus to the development of novel therapeutic strategies for the treatment of CNS diseases.

Mots-clés : brain delivery,blood csf barrier,choroid plexus,nanobodies
Projet ERC : EpiGuide (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Prevention,  Diagnosis and T reatment of Human Diseases
Entité participante : Vlaams Instituut voor Biotechnologie — Pays : Belgique — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : VIB
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1998625.0 €

Personalized therapy has revolutionized cancer care during the past decades, but still suffers from frequent drug resistance and relapse. A better understanding of drug resistance mechanisms and their timely tracking and prevention represent areas of urgent clinical unmet need. While novel or clonally selected genetic lesions including DNA mutations and copy number changes are well known causes of therapy failure, emerging evidence supports a role for non-genetic/epigenetic heterogeneity and plasticity in the selective process to escape the pressure of therapy. In addition to unravelling the mechanisms controlling this epigenetic plasticity to identify new therapeutic strategies, there is a growing need for novel tools to detect and monitor epigenetic heterogeneity and plasticity that currently do not exist. EpiGuide aims to establish a blood-based monitoring tool to trace epigenetic mechanisms driving drug resistance development during treatment. I will develop and optimize the EpiGuide assay, an analytic and computational pipeline that measures and monitors methylation and histone modifications of circulating cell-free DNA that tumor cells shed into the blood plasma. In a next step, the efficacy of the EpiGuide assay to detect epigenetic tumor cell state changes will be validated in mouse models and patient samples. The EpiGuide assay will also explore temporal and spatial dynamics of epigenetic switches related to drug resistance, and look for associations with clinical outcome. The long-term goal is to bring the EpiGuide assay into clinical practice for monitoring in clinical trials and personalized cancer care. Major impact of EpiGuide is expected for guiding patient-tailored and disease state-adapted therapies, with a specific benefit of earlier detection of evolving non-genetic tumor cell states leading to drug resistance.

Mots-clés : liquid biopsies epigenetic plasticity therapy resistance dna methylation histone modifications deconvolution
Projet ERC : IQuake (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, 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 : 109434.0 €

While most earthquakes occur near plate boundaries, where the relative motion of tectonic plates is accommodated by slip on active faults, rare and unexpected but destructive earthquakes also occur in Stable Continental Regions. In SCRs, although we do not know why, earthquakes occur everywhere, they cluster, are of all magnitudes and are modulated by surface loads. However, no tectonic, secular strain can be detected and we do not know the origin of the elastic stress fueling these seismic events. Current hypothesis suggests that SCRs are stable reservoirs of elastic stress in which earthquakes can tap to break the crust. However, although tremendous work has been conducted to seismically characterize these regions, existing catalogs are not dense enough to explore potential physical mechanisms. I propose to test the following hypothesis: these rare albeit potentially destructive earthquakes are the result of the static fatigue of continents under stress left by previous phases of deformation in the geological history of a region. I will leverage the latest developments in artificial intelligence to grow the densest and largest global catalog of earthquakes in SCRs from seismological and InSAR data (WP1). I will develop a tool to predict realistic time series of surface loads affecting the crust (WP2). I will implement static fatigue in the form of brittle creep in a numerical model (WP3) to test whether continents are effectively failing today under paleo-stress left by fossil plate boundaries perturbed by todays' modulations of crustal stress, comparing model outcomes with data collected in WP1. This interdisciplinary project combining seismology, geodesy, machine learning and numerical modeling will allow to (1) grow a physical understanding of the seismogenic behavior of SCRs, (2) tune estimates of seismogenic potential (and eventually hazard) for any given SCR (3) test whether a changing climate will affect the seismogenic potential of SCRs in the future.

Mots-clés : stable continental regions,earthquakes,insar,gnss,rock mechanics
Projet ERC : N-GINE (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Universe Sciences
Entité participante : Université de Leyde — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : Partner
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1048294.0 €

The prevalence of metals in exoplanet atmospheres is considered an important tracer of the formation of gas giants. However, the current theoretical framework is founded on the critical assumption that such planets are composed of a core surrounded by a homogeneous and well-mixed envelope. Recent data from Cassini and Juno show differently, resulting in a paradigm shift in the interiors of Jupiter and Saturn. Jupiter's envelope is now shown to be non-homogeneous, leading to new pathways for studying the interactions between giant planet interiors with their atmospheric constituents. This new knowledge desperately needs to be incorporated in exoplanet studies. This is the aim of N-GINE. We are in a unique time for this study. We have extraordinary data to study the giants in the solar system, and the JWST will provide exceptional data on exoplanets’ atmospheres. Now is the time to gather the stunning amount of exoplanet data and the detailed insights supplied by our solar system and get integrated knowledge coming from all giant planets. I have unique expertise in these fields to fill this gap and lead a team of 3 PhD students and 2 postdocs to work at the frontier of exoplanets and solar system science. We will provide the community with the first open-source retrieval tool for exoplanet interiors based on my state-of-the-art models for Jupiter, use JWST to compile the first database on refractory species in exoplanet atmospheres (indicating the solids accreted during formation), study atmosphere-interior interactions with self-consistent atmospheric radiative transfer and interior models, and go beyond the state-of-the-art with new interior models for Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune with non-homogenous interiors and using Neural Networks. The impact of the new interior models developed in N-GINE will also affect atmospheric chemical and retrieval calculations, revolutionizing the way of interpreting observations in exoplanets and learning about their origins.

Mots-clés : exoplanets,giant planets,planet formation,exoplanet atmospheres,planet interiors
Projet ERC : CompleX (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Fundamental Constituents of Matter
Entité participante : Fondazione Bruno Kessler — Pays : Italie — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : FBK
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 400163.5 €

Silicon sensors have been extensively exploited in high-energy physics experiments in the past 40 years, from their first use in NA11 at the SPS (CERN) to their application in the present-day design of very large particle trackers. The capability of silicon sensors to work in environments with high radiation levels has been of utmost importance for experiments at accelerating machines with very energetic and intense particle beams. Presently available silicon sensors can operate efficiently up to particle fluences of 2E16/cm2, while future frontier accelerators envisage the use of silicon sensors in environments with fluences exceeding 5E17/cm2. If not overcome, this gap will prevent the use of silicon sensors in future hadron-collider experiments.  CompleX aims at extending the range of operation of silicon detectors by more than one order of magnitude, up to a fluence of 5E17/cm2. The idea behind this unprecedented target in radiation tolerance relies on a novel understanding of the saturation of the radiation damage and on the advantages that compensated implants bring to radiation hardness. The application of these two breakthroughs to thin silicon sensors (20–40 microns) with an internal gain of 10–20 will allow the design of sensors able to operate up to the target fluence.  I am the PI of three projects to develop silicon sensors for extreme fluences (eXFlu – INFN, eXFlu-innova – AIDAinnova, FLEX – UNITO), which represent preparatory developments for the CompleX proposal. In this context, I introduced the principle of doping compensation in silicon sensors to the detector community. My expertise in the design and testing of silicon sensors, my involvement in radiation hardness studies, and my experience in project coordination qualify me as a recognised expert in the development of sensors for extreme fluences and enable me, as PI, to target the CompleX goals.

Mots-clés : particle tracking,silicon sensors,extreme fluences,lgad