Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : FIDAI (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Individuals, Markets and Organisations
Entité participante : École des hautes études commerciales de Paris — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : HEC Paris
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1098700.0 €

Thierry Foucault ERC ADG 2020 Recent years have witnessed a massive growth in the volume and variety of data ("Data Abundance"). In parallel, thanks to progress in computing power, new techniques (“Artificial Intelligence”) have emerged to harness the information in these data. How does this evolution affect the quality and nature of information produced in financial markets? Is there a risk that it induces investors to trade on noisier signals about economic fundamentals? How does it change the horizon at which information is produced? How does it affect the signal-to-noise ratio in securities prices and capital allocation? This project will break new ground on these unanswered, yet fundamental, questions using a combination of analytical and empirical analyses. First, I will develop a theory of optimal data mining to disentangle the effect of Data Abundance (DA) from the effect of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on the quality of predictors used by investors. I will then (i) use this theory to make predictions about the effects of AI and DA on the average quality of investors’ predictors, the dispersion of this quality across investors, and the informativeness of securities prices about economic fundamentals and (ii) test some of these predictions. Second, I will study theoretically and empirically (i) the effects of DA and AI on agents’ allocation of their resources for information production between two tasks: forecasting short-term cash-flows and forecasting long-term cash-flows and (ii) the consequence of these effects for the maturity of corporate investments. In particular, I will focus on whether there is a risk that DA and AI make securities prices more informative about conventional investment projects (whose cash-flows are realized quickly) rather than innovative investment projects (whose cash-flows are realized more slowly), thereby reducing capital available for innovation.

Mots-clés : data abundance,artificial intelligence,information acquisition,price informativeness,corporate investment
Projet ERC : Uniting PV (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Products and processes engineering
Entité participante : IMEC — Pays : Belgique — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1381796.25 €

Thin film (TF) photovoltaics (PV) hold high potential for Building Integrated PV, an important market as European buildings require to be nearly zero-energy by 2020. Currently, Cu(In,Ga)(S,Se)2 (= CIGS(e)) TF solar cells have high efficiency, but also a simple one-dimensional cell design with stability and reliability concerns. Furthermore, its present research has been mainly focused on improving the absorber and buffer layers. Scientifically, Uniting PV aims to study the practical boundaries of CIGS(e) TF solar cell efficiency. For that reason, its goal is to revolutionize the design of CIGS(e) solar cells through implementation of advanced three-dimensional silicon (Si) solar cell concepts. This novel design consists of (i) surface passivation layers and (ii) light management methods integrated into ultra-thin (UT) CIGS(e) solar cells: (i) Passivation layers will be studied to reduce charge carrier recombination at CIGS(e) surfaces. The aim is to create new understanding and thus scientific models. (ii) Light management methods will be studied to optimize optical confinement in UT CIGS(e) layers. The aim is to examine the interaction between light management and charge carrier recombination in UT CIGS(e), and to create scientific models. The main reasons to introduce these developments is to reduce charge carrier recombination at the CIGS(e) surfaces and in the CIGS(e) bulk, while maintaining optical confinement. Technologically, the project targets to establish a solar cell with: (1) Increased cell efficiency, at least 23.0 % and up to 26.0 %; (2) improved stability and reliability, due to reduced CIGS(e) thickness and passivation layers hindering alkali metal movement; and (3) reduced cost, due to the use of less Ga and In, and industrially viable materials, methods and equipment. Hence, its outcome will be upscalable, valuable for other TF PV materials, and start a new wave of innovation in and collaboration between TF and Si PV research fields.

Mots-clés : photovoltaics,solar cells,thin film,cu in,ga se2,cigsse,cigse,cigs,silicon,perc
Projet ERC : socio-bio interplay (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Human Mind and Its Complexity
Entité participante : Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : VU
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1389026.5 €

Think about the day you took your child to kindergarten for the first time. You were worried. Worried about the social experiences of your child. Would peers like your child, or would it get bullied, or rejected by classmates? Many children have positive social school experiences, but 10-15% of children become rejected, victim of bullying, have few friends and have poor relations with teachers. Such experiences have been linked to aggression development, but we poorly understand how. I hypothesize that adverse social experiences in kindergarten and elementary school affect the neurobiology of children. Specifically, I aim to study how adverse social experiences (1) affect DNA methylation of genes implicated with stress regulation, and (2) affect neurocognitive functions underlying self-regulation, thereby increasing aggression. I will use a multidisciplinary approach to comprehensively study these hypotheses by using the strengths of twin-, observational and experimental studies. I will first study the impact of bully-victimization on children’s methylation of DNA and neurocognitive function development in monozygotic twins differing in bully-victimization, to test whether bully-victimization affects the neurobiology above and beyond possible genetic effects. I will then focuses on cross-time influences of multiple social experiences on DNA methylation and neurocognitive functions. Adverse versus protective effects of peer- and teacher-relations on DNA methylation and neurocognitive functions will be studied to explore possible cascading, accentuation, and buffering effects. Further, sex differences will be addressed. In the final set of (lab-experimental) studies I aim to unravel how DNA methylation of genes implicated with stress system responses, and altered neurocognitive functions lead to aggression by studying differences between chronically rejected and stable non-rejected children in stress-, and self-regulation following a social exclusion experience.
Projet ERC : GLOBE (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Universe sciences
Entité participante : University of Edinburgh — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1995797.0 €

This ERC Consolidator grant will push forward the boundaries in our understanding of gravity by confronting the most advanced theoretical framework for modified gravity models with this decade’s ultimate set of observations. Using three state-of-the-art, same-sky lensing spectroscopy surveys, which are the only deep surveys currently in existence to have this unique complementarity, we will undertake a ground-breaking gravity experiment on some of the largest scales observed in the Universe. Our findings could show that we need to go beyond Einstein to bring about a revolution in our understanding of gravity on cosmological scales, transforming our understanding of the dark universe. My analysis will combine two gravity probes; the non-relativistic motion of galaxies detected through redshift-space distortions, and the relativistic motion of light detected through the weak gravitational lensing of distant galaxies. The same-sky combination of these probes provides the best long-term prospect for observing if matter bends space differently to time, and if the gravitational constant G evolves. As the main objective of this research could be so far reaching, it is imperative that it is approached with care, using a meticulous analysis. Using novel techniques that exploit the same-sky nature of these surveys, we will improve the accuracy and precision of our results, understanding and removing sources of systematic errors inherent in both gravity probes. This will enable my ERC team to carry out pioneering dark universe science, confident that our results are truly probing fundamental physics rather than residual systematic subtleties of the data.

Mots-clés : observational and theoretical cosmology,gravitational lensing and galaxy redshift surveys,modified gravity
Projet ERC : NONABVD (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Physical and analytical chemical sciences
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 : 587773.26 €

This ERC Starting Grant 2018 aims at the fundamental understanding of ultrafast biomolecular vibrational dynamics in the mid-IR/THz region and respective impact of nonadiabatic effects in dipolar liquids, within nano-confined environments and in the vicinity of biological interfaces. The understanding of these processes via underlying interactions is of fundamental importance with applications covering microscopic descriptions of elementary proton transfer reactions, mechanisms of energy dissipation upon vibrational excitation and solvation dynamics in biological relevant crowded environments. In particular knowledge on anisotropy of ultrafast vibrational energy relaxation together with information about distinguished intra- or inter-molecular acceptor modes, is scarce. As such the ERC Starting Grant 2018 transfers the paradigm of nonadiabatic relaxation, that has proven tremendous predictive power for descriptions of ultrafast electronic relaxation, to the low energy mid-IR/THz domain of biomolecular vibrational (energy relaxation) dynamics. As such the approach provides a description of microscopic phenomena like structural fluctuations, vibrational lifetimes and dissipation of excess energy. The proposed nonadiabatic approach to vibrational dynamics fully accounts for the strong impact of the fluctuating environment and will facilitate a concise theoretical descriptions of proton solvation structure, dynamics and transport within the confinement imposed by proton transport channel proteins. The investigation of proton mobility within reverse micelles will further facilitate the understating of proton structural diffusion within nanoscopic volumes. Such interfacial processes in the vicinity of biological membranes and proton translocation within transmembrane proteins are highly relevant as microscopic foundation of cell respiration driven by the gradient of proton concentration across membranes.

Mots-clés : vibrational spectroscopy,ultrafast dynamics,solvation dynamics
Projet ERC : THINK (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Proof of concept grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Systems and communication engineering
Entité participante : University of Sussex — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

This ERC proof-of-concept (PoC) award will enable the creation of application-ready prototypes of THINK, i.e. Terahertz (THz) emitting ink. Terahertz radiation (typically 0.3-3THz) is one of the less-accessible parts of the electromagnetic spectrum, as many technologies and methodologies available in optics and microwaves, which limit the THz band at the two sides of the spectrum, cannot be directly applied there. THz technologies are still relatively expensive, they are very difficult to scale on large areas and are, in the most popular forms, bulky. Most importantly, embedding and engineering THz features in existing arbitrary objects are very challenging. THINK is a working prototype, developed within the framework of the ERC-CoG project TIMING. At the present state-of-the-art THINK (we named this ink after this proposal) is the first “THz ink” of its kind. This project will develop the first steps towards the commercial engagement of THINK by identifying the appropriate market area, creating application-ready embodiments, protecting the relevant foreground and engaging with relevant industrial partners.

Mots-clés : photonics,terahertz ink,terahertz watermarking
Projet ERC : ORGANITRA (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Synthetic Chemistry and Materials
Entité participante : Université Libre de Bruxelles — Pays : Belgique — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : ULB
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1485274.0 €

This ORGANITRA project addresses transmembrane transport. Lipid bilayer membranes not only define the borders of cells and their compartments but are also implicated in metabolic processes and signal transduction. Membranes function as impermeable barriers for ionic and hydrophilic species which can only cross the membrane with the aid of dedicated membrane proteins. For biotechnological and biophysical applications, the development of anion carriers that can bind an anion and transport it across the lipid bilayer could be of great relevance. In this project, synthetic anion receptors will be developed to bind biologically relevant organic phosphorylated compounds, like nucleotides. These receptors will then be used to transport these organophosphates across membranes. The receptors will be synthesised by dynamic combinatorial chemistry. Building blocks containing urea or thiourea groups, for efficient phosphate binding, will be connected to multi-armed scaffolds by hydrazone groups. The dynamic character of these bonds will be used to identify efficient receptors from libraries of compounds, using different phosphorylated compounds as templates. With this approach, selective receptors for different nucleotides and related compounds can be obtained. The transport performance of the receptors will be evaluated with newly developed assays. Liposomes will be used as model systems and transport will be monitored by fluorescence spectroscopy using the quenching of the emission of an encapsulated phosphate sensitive dye. Additionally, the mechanism of the transport processes will be elucidated by fluorescence and 1H and 31P NMR spectroscopies. Transmembrane carriers for phosphorylated compounds will make it possible to selectively introduce nucleotides into liposomes and cells, opening the way to fuel enzymes with adenosine triphosphate (ATP) in liposomes as biotechnological nanoreactors and to study nucleotide-dependent biochemical processes in cells.

Mots-clés : anion recognition,anion transport,dynamic combinatorial chemistry,transmembrane transport,liposomes,anionophores,nucleotides
Projet ERC : SPIN-PORICS (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Products and processes engineering
Entité participante : Autonomous University of Barcelona — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UAB
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1794380.0 €

This Project aims to integrate engineered nanoporous materials into novel energy-efficient spintronic applications. Magnetic storage and magneto-electronic devices are conventionally controlled by means of magnetic fields (via electromagnetic induction) or using spin-polarized electric currents (spin-transfer torque). Both principles involve significant energy loss by heat dissipation (Joule effect). The replacement of electric current with electric field would drastically reduce the overall power consumption. Strain-mediated magneto-electric coupling in piezoelectric-magnetostrictive bilayers might appear a proper strategy to achieve this goal. However, this approach is not suitable in spintronics because of the clamping effects with the substrate, need of epitaxial interfaces and risk of fatigue-induced mechanical failure. The exciting possibility to control ferromagnetism of metals and semiconductors directly with electric field (without strain) has been recently reported, but most significant effects occur below 300 K and only in ultra-thin films or nanoparticles. This Project tackles the development of a new type of nanocomposite material, comprising an electrically conducting or semiconducting nanoporous layer filled with a suitable dielectric material, where the magnetic properties of the metal/semiconductor will be largely tuned at room temperature (RT) by simply applying a voltage, via electric charge accumulation. The porous layer will consist of specific alloys (Cu-Ni or Fe-Rh) or oxide diluted magnetic semiconductors, where surface magnetic properties have been recently reported to be sensitive to electric field at RT. Based on these new materials, three technological applications are envisaged: electrically-assisted magnetic recording, voltage-driven switching of magnetic random-access memories and spin field-effect transistors. The obtained results are likely to open new paradigms in the field of spintronics and could be of high economic transcendence.

Mots-clés : nanoporous materials,interfacial magnetic effects,energy efficiency
Projet ERC : ECO-ZEN (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Synthetic Chemistry and Materials
Entité participante : University of Edinburgh — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1803454.25 €

This high-impact, challenging CoG Proposal integrates multiple novel ideas in boron and zinc chemistry into an overarching project to open up new horizons across synthesis and catalysis. The Applicant’s successful ERC StG has opened up new avenues of pioneering research in main group element mediated transformations that were not conceivable before the work was done. Components of this proposal extend out from the StG into new, exciting research areas that are completely different. Developing low toxicity earth abundant catalysts for important transformations is vital to the EU with the focus herein being on; (i) the Suzuki-Miyaura (S-M) cross coupling reaction which is ubiquitous in industry and academia, and (ii) the formation of organoboranes that are essential synthetic intermediates. Both of these are currently dominated by toxic, expensive and low abundance precious metal catalysts (e.g. Pd, Ir). This project will deliver innovation through utilising combinations of main group Lewis acids and nucleophilic anions that do not react with each other, i.e. are frustrated pairs. This “frustration” enables the two species to concertedly transform substrates to achieve: (i) precious metal-free S-M cross coupling reactions of sp3C electrophiles catalysed by zinc and boron compounds, including stereospecific couplings and one pot two step cross electrophile couplings (ii) trans-elementoboration of alkynes, including the unprecedented fluoroboration of alkynes Other new approaches will be developed to access novel (hetero)arylboronic acid derivatives using only simple boranes and without requiring noble metal catalysts, specifically: (i) boron directed C-H borylation and (ii) directed ortho borylation to enable subsequent meta selective SEAr C-H functionalisation. This CoG will afford the freedom and impetus via consolidated funding to undertake fundamental research to deliver high impact results, including developing a new area of cross coupling catalysis research.

Mots-clés : cross coupling,borylation
Projet ERC : ECO-METABOLISTIC-ARC (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Institutions, Governance and Legal Systems
Entité participante : Royal Danish Academy – Architecture, Design, Conservation — Pays : Danemark — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2410027.0 €

This interdisciplinary project asks how we can rethink sustainable building practices through a bio-based material paradigm in response to the increasing global crisis of material depletion. Despite well-organised calls for action maturing into legislation and an attentive profession, architecture is proving reticent in this transition. Bio-based materials are fundamentally different to current building materials being characterised by their complex heterogeneity, unpredictable behaviours and limited lifespans. This project identifies that the key impediments to this transition lie with architecture’s inability to represent, conceptualise and operationalise bio-based materials. It argues that to design with bio-based materials we must challenge the fundamental value proposition of architecture and expand our conception of material lifespan to find new practices of construction. It proposes a holistic eco-metabolistic framework, that allows for carbon-neutral, renewable and materially optimised design solutions. It employs a research-by-design method to investigate three bio-based material perspectives (glulam, bio-polymer composites and bioluminescent bacteria) and instrumentalises them through three advanced computational modelling networks for the predictive modelling, adaptive fabrication and environmental sensing of bio-based materials. It challenges our preconception of design agency as restricted to the traditional cut-off point of building completion, proposing new participatory practices of continual construction to recast the short lifespans of bio-based materials as effective properties of a new sustainable practice. By enabling us to think of buildings as co-present and actively engaged through processes of maintenance and intervention, the project responds to the search for sustainable, more socially conscious and more democratic models of production.

Mots-clés : architecture,computational design,bio design,robotic fabrication,predictive modelling for fabrication,environmental sensing for architecture,material specification,bio based building materials