Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : SEA-THROUGH (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Earth System Science
Entité participante : GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : IFM-GEOMAR
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1997500.0 €

The pelagic deep ocean is the largest but least-understood habitat on Earth, harboring enormous fish stocks, a rich (and largely undiscovered) biodiversity, as well as a large carbon sink in the climate system. As almost all life at depth is ultimately nourished by primary production in the surface ocean, pathways of “vertical connectivity” are critical in linking ecological and biogeochemical processes across several thousands of meters. One of the most enigmatic phenomena is the so far virtually unexplored “ladder of vertical migrations”: this mechanism is hypothesized to link food-webs across the entire oceanic water column through a complex interplay of feeding-interactions and synchronized migrations of a multitude of species, thereby supporting pelagic life at depths of up to several kilometers. So far, very little is known about this phenomenon, mainly due to the methodological challenges of studying organisms and their behavior at ecologically relevant spatial and temporal scales, particularly under the extreme pressure in the deep sea. SEA-THROUGH aims for a breakthrough by providing “a new set of glasses” to study the so far unexplored “ladder of migrations”. To achieve this, we will:  (a) Develop novel in situ imaging technology for unparalleled and highly detailed observations of organisms in the deep sea (to 6000m depth): “who is where at which time and what are they doing” (b) Use this new deep-sea imaging system on ship expeditions for targeted studies of the enigmatic “ladder of migrations”  Pushing the limits of in situ observation technology will reveal a holistic picture of biodiversity and food-web structure, providing novel insights into the functioning of deep-sea ecosystems and their ecological and biogeochemical connectivity across the water column – knowledge that is urgently needed for evaluating the ecosystem services of the deep ocean (e.g. fisheries, CO2 sequestration), as well as the sustainable management of this vast habitat.

Mots-clés : deep sea,in situ imaging,diel vertical migration,zooplankton,micronekton
Projet ERC : SuPerGRandMa (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Mathematics
Entité participante : Université Paris-Saclay — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1691875.0 €

The main purpose of this proposal is to explore random planar metrics. Two canonical models of random continuum surfaces have been introduced in the past decade, namely the Brownian sphere obtained as the scaling limit of uniform random planar triangulations, and the Liouville Quantum Gravity metric obtained formally from the exponential of the Gaussian free field on the sphere. Our objective is to broaden our understanding of random planar metrics to the case of metrics with “holes” or “hubs”, and to the causal (when a time dimension is singled out) paradigm. We also plan on studying random maps in high genus and to connect to models of 2-dimensional hyperbolic geometry such as the Brook–Makover model, random pants decompositions or Weil–Petersson random surfaces. We believe that the tools developed in the context of random planar maps, such as the systematic use of the spatial Markov property, the utilization of random trees to decompose and explore the surfaces, or the fine study of geodesic coalescence can be successfully applied to the aforementioned models. We expect spectacular results and we hope to reinforce the connections between those very active fields of mathematics. This proposal should give rise to exceptionally fruitful interactions between specialists of different domains such as probability theory, two-dimensional hyperbolic geometry, and theoretical physics, as well as mathematicians coming from other areas, in particular from combinatorics. To ensure the best chances of success for the proposed research, we will rely on the unique environment of University Paris-Saclay and neighboring institutions.

Mots-clés : random geometry,scaling limits,random trees,brownian and stable processes,hyperbolic surfaces
Projet ERC : GRACE (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Physiology in Health, Disease and Ageing
Entité participante : Helmholtz Zentrum München — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : HMGU
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 344610.0 €

The pandemic is stressful for many. In response to stress, glucocorticoids are released. They play essential roles as endogenous hormones and clinically as drugs. High levels are associated with cardiometabolic disorders and with aging. In contrast, diets like caloric restriction ameliorate metabolic dysfunction and prolong lifespan. These diets, however, also increase glucocorticoids. Now the open question is: What are the molecular and physiological effects of increased hormone levels, and are these diets beneficial because or in spite of elevated glucocorticoids? We recently found that nutrition reprograms glucocorticoid responses independently of the hormone level and that diurnal glucocorticoid action controls rhythmic gene expression to regulate circulating glucose and triglycerides during day and night. I hypothesize that the benefits of caloric restriction are due to higher glucocorticoid amplitudes, and that their study will uncover transcriptional features prolonging healthspan. I propose to functionally distinguish between diet-induced positive and stress-induced negative glucocorticoid responses. GRACE will identify diet-specific, ‘rejuvenating’ transcriptional complexes and target genes, versus detrimental pathways triggered by excess glucocorticoids such as stress. Glucocorticoid receptor targets unique to caloric restriction will be determined via ChIP- and RNA-seq in Aim 1. The functional impact of diurnal glucocorticoid release will be dissected with a constitutively active receptor allele in Aim 2. I propose to map active transcriptional regulomes in caloric restriction, in youth and old age, by ChIP-MS in Aim 3. I postulate that enhanced glucocorticoid activity at the right time of day may boost circadian rhythms and promote longevity. Ultimately, applying omics to study the molecular mechanisms of stress hormones will identify pathways and genes amenable to pharmacological or nutritional intervention for longer, healthier lives.

Mots-clés : glucocorticoids,transcription,genomics,nuclear receptors,caloric restriction,aging,liver
Projet ERC : PeriPolis (Horizon Europe, appel 2025, Consolidator grants)
Entité participante : Université de Varsovie — Pays : Pologne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1944670.0 €

This project proposes a comprehensive multi-disciplinary study of a Roman provincial capital in the period of the transition from Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages. It is based on a case study of three of the most richly-documented provincial capitals, Antinoopolis, Ravenna and Petra, but encompasses similar provincial centers across the Mediterranean world and beyond in order to build a model of the administration of justice and enforcement of law in Late Antiquity. This topic is closely linked to communication between the provincial capitals and the imperial court in Constantinople and will shed light on the dynamics of the transmission of laws. It also contributes to the understanding of the shared legal culture of Late Antique provincial capitals, a major factor in the successful administration of provinces. The model of provincial government will be based on the formal juridical, legislative and executive powers of the governor, his official staff, and the city council, and an elucidation of their capacity to carry out their functions successfully in the context of new social and cultural realities. Furthermore, it will provide insight into the dynamics of power between the central administrative apparatus, the city apparatus, and prominent landowners, religious institutions and clergy, and the villages. The study focuses on the period between the 5th and 7th c., when it became increasingly challenging for governors and other officials to exercise the powers conferred upon them by the emperors. This was a pervasive phenomenon across the entire Empire, resulting from the emergence of a new landowning class who possessed economic and military capabilities that far exceeded those of their predecessors. Moreover, there were persistent incursions from nomadic groups in the south, as well as a prolonged conflict with the Persian Empire. The project offers a multi-disciplinary and ground-breaking approach to the government of Empire and its legal culture.

Mots-clés : late antiquity,papyrology,roman law,code of justinian,late roman imperial laws,late roman government,history of law
Projet ERC : STONE (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Study of the Human Past
Entité participante : Université de Belgrade — Pays : Serbie — Rôle : Partner
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 73000.0 €

Stećci are medieval tombstones dispersed throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia. Still preserved in situ in tens of thousands in the landscapes, they are common grave markers of the Late Medieval and early Ottoman (12th C - 16th C) Western Balkans’ plural societies. Although erected in the geographical region known for the ‘medley of peoples,’ stećci are not attributed to any ethnic or religious group and have always been considered enigmatic, lacking a clear, explicit belonging. The sheer number and dispersed distribution have hampered stećci scholarship, confining our understanding of this heritage to visual information and historical overviews. This multi-scale, multi-proxy archaeological project will integrate innovative and multidisciplinary approaches to study medieval funerary archaeology. The principal goal is to understand the social life of the society that left us these remarkable monuments. Focusing on medieval Herzegovina, the cradle of the stećci phenomenon, the proposed research into the social lifeways of these monuments will redefine the scholarship of the medieval Western Balkans funerary culture and situate it within a European context, significantly raising its visibility within international scholarship and the public domain. In addition to increasing our understanding of stećci, STONE will establish a discipline of medieval epigraphy in the Western Balkans; introduce epiconography, a conceptually innovative approach to study inscriptions and decorations on stećci; use a prehistoric landscape approach to investigate medieval landscape and initiate a paradigmatic shift away from the current culture-historical approach to the study of past societies. The proposed research will serve as a propulsive force within Western Balkan medieval archaeology, enabling it to make a decades-long leap to align with current medieval European funerary and research trends.

Mots-clés : medieval archaeology,funerary archaeology,social archaeology,social memory,archaeological science,digital humanities
Projet ERC : Abortion Figurations (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Soci al World and Its Interactions
Entité participante : Université de Varsovie — Pays : Pologne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1998869.0 €

Abortion laws are the crux of human rights diversity today. Abortion laws evidence best how differently human rights meanings are construed in various local settings. However, we know very little about how this diversity is generated in practice. This project will scrutinize the communication processes that use human rights as arguments to change abortion laws. We will contrast abortion debates from the last ten years in pairs of countries that represent three regional human rights systems: Mozambique and Senegal (the African Union), Poland and Ireland (the Council of Europe), and Argentina and Honduras (the Organization of American States). These debates show the ambivalence of human rights: they were used successfully to argue both for more liberal and more restrictive abortion laws. To explain this ambivalence, we will apply concepts of argumentative architecture and involvement patterns, coined by the PI as part of her figurational sociology of law, based on Norbert Elias’s theory of the process of civilization. Using a mixed-methods approach that combines qualitative sociology, legal analysis, and corpus linguistics, we will offer a multi-dimensional model for a globally comparative, interdisciplinary socio-legal study of human rights. We will study the structure, composition, and embedding of arguments, along with group perspectives, emotions, and circles of identification of arguing actors so as to arrive at a heat map that will show the distribution of involvement in argumentative architectures. By constructing a global meta-typology of argumentative architectures and involvement patterns in abortion debates, we will explore the integrative, civilizing potential of human rights and identify the centrifugal forces in human rights figuration that comprise the local, regional, and global levels. Finally, we will revisit the role of human rights as a universal toolbox for ideologies in order to plead their conditional rehabilitation.

Mots-clés : sociology of human rights,abortion,law and society studies,figurational sociology,law and corpus linguistics
Projet ERC : TIME-LINES (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Environmental B iology, Ecology  and E volution
Entité participante : Université de Tromsø — Pays : Norvège — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : UiT
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 130000.0 €

One of the most exciting and important research questions in ecology and palaeoecology is how fast, where, and why biodiversity is changing; heated debate on the topic within the scientific community reflects observations of apparently heterogeneous rates of change across the world. Biodiversity responses to different types of drivers of change remain underexplored, because to study these phenomena over the necessary span of years (often centuries to millennia) patterns and processes must be inferred from fossil records. There is also evidence that geographical attributes may mediate biodiversity responses to drivers of change, creating further complexity. That biodiversity change is spatially structured is the main hypothesis of TIME-LINES, which will examine ~5000 years of plant biodiversity change and the drivers of that change using a range of high-quality palaeoecological records derived from sedimentary sequences from islands worldwide. Islands are often described as hotspots of biodiversity and natural laboratories with legacies of relatively recent human impacts. For the first time, it is feasible to build palaeoecological networks at biogeographical scales. TIME-LINES will first establish the historical ranges of variability for both drivers of change and biodiversity. Aligning information on the magnitude of biodiversity change with the geographic properties of islands can then address whether change both at taxonomic and functional levels, is mediated by geographical context. The results will open new research horizons, bringing palaeoecology and biogeography together, and developing methods to quantify the effects of drivers of change—not only for islands but elsewhere, and in much greater depth than has been possible to date. From these findings, we can address to what degree historically informed baselines and change trajectories have utility for sustainable biodiversity management.

Mots-clés : anthropocene,baselines,biogeography,drivers of change,fossil pollen,holocene,human impacts,island ecology,sedadna
Projet ERC : PlantDevComm (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Cell Biology, Development, Stem Cells and R egeneration
Entité participante : Université Ben Gourion du Néguev — Pays : Israël — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : BGU
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2028750.0 €

Plants communicate through various mechanisms to adapt to their environment and coordinate survival and reproduction. Understanding plant communication is crucial for developing resilient crops, reducing agricultural environmental impact, and decoding natural ecosystem dynamics. While studies have focused on "alarm" signaling, in which a plant that is exposed to a stressor emits signals that cause neighboring plants to activate stress-coping mechanisms, the realm of constitutive, "steady-state" plant-to-plant communication, though suggested, remains largely unknown. This research aims to uncover the rules governing steady-state plant communication, particularly how plants transmit their identity and how neighbor identity perception influences plant survival. The role of plant species and developmental status in generating routine communication signals is unknown. Our novel and exciting discovery reveals that plant species and developmental stage influence emitted communication signals. We have found that plants can recognize airborne communication from their species ("self") and from other species ("non-self"), and tailor their response to the type of communication perceived. This novel mechanism impacts both development and pathogen resistance in neighboring plants. In this proposal, we will characterize this novel form of plant-to-plant communication, defining the developmental rules of emission and response to different, "suppressive" and "supportive" volatile signatures that constitute the plant species and developmental "volatile ID". We will examine the relationship of the plant volatile ID with the phyllosphere microbial community, and identify novel plant mechanisms that are required for volatile ID sensing and response. Our work will elucidate the role of plant species and developmental identity in the emission, sensing, and response to communication signals, advancing our understanding of plant interactions in diverse communities.

Mots-clés : plant communication,plant development,volatile organic compounds
Projet ERC : GLOCO (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Texts and Concepts
Entité participante : Université de Vienne — Pays : Autriche — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : Uni Wien
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1932878.0 €

Today, museums in Europe and the USA are under heightened scrutiny in light of increasing requests for artworks to be returned to their country of origin and growing questions about the appropriate display of ethnographic collections. Conservation practices are changing to include multiple experts to choose the most appropriate methods to preserve material culture. However, while museums display artefacts from many origins and deal daily with complex conservation practices, there is no comprehensive monograph or array of vetted online resources about the legacies of conservation on a global scale. Global Conservation: Histories and Theories (GloCo) will be the first academic research project studying the histories and theories of conservation of material culture at a global level from the sixteenth to the twenty-first century. GloCo approaches conservation as a set of cultural and technological practices that aim to preserve and give access to art and material culture. GloCo develops an innovative framework centered around the study of a selection of objects – Mesoamerican featherwork; Asian ceramic; and West African wooden sculpture – and organized around key transversal concepts: forms and fragments; surface and time; and visibility and vulnerability. The importance and innovative dimension of GloCo lies in its broad historical and geographical scope as well as in its contemporary relevance. GloCo considers histories, theories, and forms of conservation within and beyond the West to restore a plurality of perspectives. We will publish four books (PhDs and PI), three articles (PDs), host two workshops, and create an online polyphonic dictionary (PDs and PI) that presents a range of notions tied to various cultures of conservation. These new definitions will become an essential resource for academics, museum professionals, and beyond. Thus, GloCo will reshape the current understanding of conservation through a deep rethinking of its histories and theories.

Mots-clés : museum,conservation,objects,materiality,practices,art,restoration,heritage
Projet ERC : explainProt (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Integrative B iology : from Genes and Genomes to S ystems
Entité participante : Université de Potsdam — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1992500.0 €

Mass spectrometry driven proteomics allows deep insights into the working of cells. Still, the vast majority of proteoforms, representing the full heterogeneity of molecular forms of protein products in a sample, currently remain undetected in proteomics experiments. This lack of information strongly restricts our knowledge of disease progression, possible biomarkers, and therapeutic targets across a large number of diseases. Several machine learning approaches have been developed for proteomics data, but not being trained end-to-end, they cannot capture the full wealth of proteomic mass spectra and commonly remain unexplained black boxes. Within explAInProt, my team and I will develop representations of spectra that allow deploying explainable, end-to-end machine learning models on the wealth of proteomic data available, regarding both bottom-up and topdown spectra to identify novel protein variants. Explanations will allow identifying the origin of predictions and allow reducing bias and building up the trustworthiness of AI systems required for clinical applications. To verify results, we will pioneer orthogonal real-time strategies based on selective sequencing approaches and calling of amino acids that we will introduce for nanopore sequencing devices as a complementary acquisition method. All combined, this will allow to drastically increase our knowledge about the current dark matter of mass spectrometry driven proteomics: those proteins and peptides that are non-canonically modified, non-tryptic, have potentially multiple amino acid substation, or no close match in databases or result from structural variants such as fusion proteins that they remain undetected in current analyses. We will highlight applicability in two areas of particular concern in current approaches: the detection of structural variants in proteomic mass spectra and the characterization of novel microbial organisms without sufficient database information.

Mots-clés : protein identification,data integration,explainable ai,disease bioinformatics,metaproteomics