Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : COOKIES (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Individuals, Markets and Organisations
Entité participante : Goethe University Frankfurt — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1998250.0 €

Cookies (or “HTTP cookies”) enable companies to collect and exchange extensive information about users. This information is often used to improve the performance of online advertising, which website publishers rely on in order to finance the “free” content to which their users have become accustomed. Yet, the collection of information leads to a loss of privacy. Accordingly, EU policy makers have put forward initiatives to restrict cookie usage (e.g., General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), upcoming EU ePrivacy Regulation). So far, there exists very little empirical knowledge on the trade-off between user privacy and the economic value that website publishers, advertisers, and even users derive from cookies. As a result, policy makers have no way of telling whether their restrictions on cookies have the intended positive consequences for user privacy, or whether any benefits are outweighed by negative effects on the profits of companies—which policy makers also seek to nurture. This proposal’s vision is to eliminate the gap in knowledge regarding the economic consequences of restrictions on the usage of cookies. I propose four work packages, each outlining the economic consequences of a specific type of restriction. In WP1-3, I will analyze a proprietary and massive (60-65 TB) set of “cookie data” that includes 472 publishers, 842 advertisers, 2.8 billion cookies and the prices of >110 billion ad impressions, that indicate the value of cookies for companies. In WP4, I collect “implementation data” to analyze the steps taken by thousands of the world’s most highly-trafficked websites to become GDPR-compliant. My results will provide a crucial empirical foundation for cookie restrictions in an industry worth more than €10 billion per year in the EU. The required interdisciplinary research will also involve the development of novel methodologies for deriving such information from big data, and theories as to why the observed economic consequences occur.

Mots-clés : marketing,cookies,online advertising,privacy,consumer protection
Projet ERC : EEC (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Individuals, Markets and Organisations
Entité participante : University of Cologne — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 992604.0 €

Cooperation is essential for the functioning of the economy and society. Thus, with inappropriate mechanisms to harness self-interest by aligning it with the common good, the outcome of social and economic interaction can be bleak and even catastrophic. Recent advances in computer technology lead to radical innovation in market design and trading strategies. This creates both, new challenges and exciting opportunities for “engineering cooperation”. This project uses the economic engineering approach (as advocated by Alvin Roth) to address some of the most pressing cooperation problems of modern markets and societies. I propose three work packages, each using innovative experimental methods and (behavioral) game theory in order to address a specific challenge: The first one studies the design of electronic reputation mechanisms that promote cooperation in the digital world. Previous research has shown that mechanisms to promote trust on the Internet are flawed. Yet, there is little empirical and normative guidance on how to repair these systems, and engineer better ones. The second studies the design of mechanisms that avoid arms races for speed in real-time financial and electricity market trading. Traders use algorithmic sniping strategies, even when they are collectively wasteful and seriously threatening market liquidity and stability. Yet, little is known about the robust properties of alternative market designs to eliminate sniping. The third one studies how to design modern markets that align with ethical considerations. People sometimes have a distaste for certain kinds of modern transactions, such as reciprocal kidney exchange and buying pollution rights. Yet, little is known about the underlying nature and robustness of this distaste. My project will generate important knowledge to improve the functioning of modern markets, and at the same time open new horizons in the sciences of cooperation and of “behavioral economic engineering”.

Mots-clés : economic engineering,cooperation
Projet ERC : ChromoSilence (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Cellular, Developmental and Regenerative Biology
Entité participante : Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation — Pays : Portugal — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1999875.0 €

Coordination between major cellular functions, such as transcription and proliferation, is critical to ensure cell survival. It has long been recognised that while in mitosis, cells switch-off most of their transcriptional activity. While Mitotic Transcriptional Inactivation (MTI) is entrenched as a dogma in cell biology, its functional consequences have been difficult to pin down, as manipulating MTI in the context of a developing organism has been difficult until now. My lab has pioneered the use of acute perturbation approaches to dissect cellular process with unprecedented temporal resolution, which hold the prospect of surpassing current limitations on the identification and manipulation of multiple MTI layers. Using these novel approaches, ChromoSilence aims to test the hypothesis that MTI is a vital process for proper genome partitioning and transcriptional control. We will focus our analysis on chromosome-based events, that we propose as key contributors for MTI regulation, and test how classic chromosome assembly factors impact on mitotic transcriptional shutdown. In parallel, and supported by strong preliminary observations for a putative candidate, we will identify and reveal the function of novel players involved in chromosome-based mechanisms to drive MTI. New knowledge on the MTI mechanisms will be used to develop tools to uncover the role of this transcriptional shutdown in the fidelity of nuclear division and thereby identify novel routes to maintenance of genome stability. We will additionally uncover how the transcriptional silencing during mitosis may impact on maintenance of transcriptional programs in various developmental contexts. Collectively, ChromoSilence will reveal that MTI is not a by-product of passage through mitosis but instead an essential process for accurate chromosome segregation, maintenance of cell identity and organism development.

Mots-clés : mitosis,chromosome condensation,transcription,drosophila
Projet ERC : SHExtreme (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Earth system science
Entité participante : University of Split — Pays : Croatie — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 806250.0 €

Coping with a sea level rise, induced by climate change processes, is one of the most important challenges of modern society. It has been projected that, by the end of the 21st century, mean sea level (MSL) will rise between 40 and 60 cm worldwide. Higher MSLs imply that flood risks associated to extreme sea levels (ESLs) will also increase, with the 100-year return levels of extreme events along European coasts projected to increase between 50 and 90 cm by the 2100. ESLs occur due to a superposition of numerous oceanic phenomena which act over different temporal (from seconds to millennia) and spatial scales (from bays to oceans). Within SHExtreme project, for the first time, contribution of under-researched sub-hourly sea level oscillations to the ESLs along the European coast will be extensively studied. High resolution 1-min sea level data measured at more than 100 tide gauge stations, as well as reanalysis, hindcast and future climate simulations, will be analyzed to achieve project goals: (i) assessing present day distribution of sub-hourly sea level oscillations and estimating their contribution to the overall ESLs; (ii) linking sub-hourly ESLs to governing atmospheric conditions; (iii) estimating future strength and distribution of sub-hourly ESLs. Project SHExtremes will result with the first comprehensive estimate of intensity, frequency, and spatial and temporal distribution of present and future-day sub-hourly ESLs along the European coasts.

Mots-clés : sea level extremes,meteotsunamis,climate change,flood risk
Projet ERC : SPONGE ENGINE (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Environmental Biology, Ecology and Evolution
Entité participante : University of Amsterdam — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UvA
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1465097.0 €

Coral reefs are iconic examples of biological hotspots, highly appreciated because of their ecosystem services. Yet, they are threatened by human impact and climate change, highlighting the need to develop tools and strategies to curtail changes in these ecosystems. Remarkably, ever since Darwin’s descriptions of coral reefs, it has been a mystery how one of Earth’s most productive and diverse ecosystems thrives in oligotrophic seas, as an oasis in a marine desert. My team recently discovered the ‘sponge loop’ pathway (Science, De Goeij et al 2013) that efficiently retains and transfers energy and nutrients on the reef. We recognized sponges as potential (and so far neglected) key ecosystem drivers, and accumulated evidence on sponge loops in other ecosystems, such as deep-sea coral reefs. As a result, current reef food web models, lacking sponge-driven resource cycling, are incomplete and need to be redeveloped. However, mechanisms that determine the capacity of sponge 'engines', how they are fuelled, and drive communities are unknown. This proposal will systematically establish the novel reef food web framework, integrating sponges as key ecosystem drivers. To this end, sponges will be evaluated on functional traits (morphology, associated microbes, pumping rate) in the processing of dissolved food, the main fuel of the engine. At the community level, we will assess to what extent these different traits are a driving force in structuring reef ecosystems, from fuel input (primary producers), to engine output (driving and modulating the consumer food web). This framework derived from a Caribbean reef ecosystem will be implemented in a sponge-driven food web model, a much-needed foundation to test and predict future scenarios of changes in reef communities. Ultimately, I will test and generalize the novel food web framework at a tropical Indo-Pacific, a temperate Mediterranean, and a cold-water North-Atlantic reef, together with my international collaborators.

Mots-clés : coral reef ecosystem,sponge physiology,dissolved organic matter  dom  cycling
Projet ERC : TempoQ (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Fundamental constituents of matter
Entité participante : University of Siegen — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1673875.0 €

Correlations are central for our modern view on the foundations of quantum theory and applications like quantum information processing. So far, research concentrated on correlations between two or more particles. Indeed, for this situation it is well established that spatial quantum correlations are a useful resource for tasks like quantum cryptography and quantum metrology. There are, however, other types of correlations in quantum mechanics, which arise if a sequence of measurements on a single quantum system is made. These temporal quantum correlations have recently attracted attention, because they are central for the understanding of some differences between the quantum and the classical world. Moreover, due to experimental progress their observation has become feasible with trapped ions, polarized photons, or other quantum optical systems. This project aims at a full understanding and characterization of temporal quantum correlations. For that, we will derive criteria and measures for temporal quantum correlations and investigate their connection to information theory. Then, we will elucidate to which extent temporal correlations can be used to prove that a system is quantum and not classical. Finally, we consider implementations of temporal quantum correlations using continuous variable systems like nanomechanical oscillators and applications in quantum information processing.

Mots-clés : foundations of quantum mechanics,quantum information theory,quantum correlations
Projet ERC : SynPlex (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Biotechnology and Biosystems Engineering
Entité participante : Board of the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology — Pays : Suisse — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : ETH Zurich
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2495755.0 €

Creating true molecular complexity in a modular, combinatorial fashion is one of the great visions in applied enzymology and chemistry. Nature achieves this feat by using modular biosynthetic enzymes. These microbial proteins generate many of the most important natural products of therapeutic value, including antiinfective, anticancer, and immunosuppressive agents. To construct such compounds, each enzyme module incorporates and often modifies one building block in an assembly line-like process. Among the known modular enzymes, the recently discovered trans-acyltransferase polyketide synthases (trans-AT PKSs) exhibit an unparalleled biosynthetic diversity and tendency to form extensively mosaic-like hybrid enzymes during evolution. As a consequence, many bioactive polyketides generated by these enzymes exhibit combinatorial-like hybrid structures. This phenomenon provides unprecedented opportunities to understand the evolution of metabolic complexity and to apply these principles to metabolic engineering through parts-based synthetic biology. SynPlex will use a novel hypothesis-driven, multi-faceted strategy to interrogate and utilize the distinct combinatorial properties and metabolic richness of trans-AT PKSs. This multidisciplinary project aims to (i) unravel principles of how mosaic PKSs and their metabolites are formed in Nature, (ii) characterize non-canonical PKS components, (iii) create a toolbox of PKS parts for synthetic biology based on these evolutionary and biochemical principles, and (iv) harness the combinatorial potential of trans-AT systems to access complex natural as well as non-natural products. This innovative concept that merges evolutionary biology, enzymology, synthetic biology, and chemistry will result in a broad understanding of these most complex of all known proteins. It has the potential to provide generic, robust synthetic biology platforms to engineer complex polyketides with a wide range of features in a predictable way.

Mots-clés : bioactive natural products,secondary metabolism
Projet ERC : SMALLOSTERY (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Physical and analytical chemical sciences
Entité participante : Weizmann Institute of Science — Pays : Israël — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2484722.0 €

Critical for the function of many proteins, allosteric communication involves transmission of the effect of binding at one site of a protein to another through conformational changes. Yet the structural and dynamic basis for allostery remains poorly understood. In particular, there is no method to follow coordinated large-scale motions of domains and subunits in proteins as they occur. Since the subunits of allosteric proteins often contain multiple domains, any such method entails probing the dynamics along several intra-protein distances simultaneously. This proposal aims at ameliorating this deficiency by creating the experimental framework for exploring time-dependent coordination of allosteric transitions of multiple units within proteins. Our methodology will rely on single-molecule FRET spectroscopy with multiple labels on the same protein and advanced analysis. We will explore fundamental issues in protein dynamics: relative motions of domains within subunits, propagation of conformational change between subunits, and synchronization of these motions by effector molecules. To investigate these issues, we have carefully selected three model systems, each representing an important scenario of allosteric regulation. While the homo-oligomeric protein-folder GroEL conserves symmetry in a concerted transition between major structural states, the symmetry of the homo-oligomeric disaggregating machine ClpB is broken via a sequential transition. Symmetry is attained only after binding to DNA and ligands in the third system, the family of RXR heterodimers. This exciting project will provide the very first catalogue of coordinated and time-ordered motions within and between subunits of allosteric proteins and the first measurement of the time scale of the conformational spread through a large protein. It will enhance dramatically our understanding of how allostery contributes to protein function, influencing future efforts to design drugs for allosteric proteins.

Mots-clés : protein dynamics,allostery,single molecule fret
Projet ERC : CryForm (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Products and processes engineering
Entité participante : Polytechnic University of Turin — Pays : Italie — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1963562.0 €

CryForm aims at progressing our fundamental knowledge in organic materials crystallization and crystal engineering by: (1) gleaning a mechanistic understanding of the relationship between crystal structure and surface properties; (2) uncovering the thermodynamic and kinetic mechanisms of crystal nucleation and growth at liquid/liquid and liquid/gas interfaces; (3) understanding the role of large biomolecules in the modification of crystal growth and nucleation kinetics. This knowledge will enable the design of novel sustainable, biocompatible and stimuli responsive multiphase formulations (e.g., emulsions, foams) for the encapsulation and controlled release of active ingredients. Developing formulations with enhanced dissolution rate and bioavailability is critical for many industrial sectors: about 40% of the active pharmaceutical ingredients on the market and 60% of the ones in development are poorly soluble or scarcely bioavailable. Agrochemicals and food nutraceuticals present similar problems. Currently, synthetic excipients, surfactants and specialty polymers are used to create formulations with enhanced properties. However, these compounds are derived from non-renewable resources through some of the most greenhouse gas-intensive manufacturing processes. The production and incineration of polymeric materials will produce, in 2019, more than 850 million metric tons of greenhouse gases. Furthermore, the chemical synthesis of many polymers involves highly toxic, flammable and polluting reagents such as ethylene oxide, responsible for the 2004 explosion at Sterigenics International in California. It is clearly necessary to move away from polymer-based formulations and find more sustainable and safer alternatives. CryForm proposes a unique approach whereby synthetic additives will be replaced with natural crystals specifically engineered to enable controlled release of active ingredients via a unique mechanism based on stimuli-triggered solid form transformations.

Mots-clés : crystal engineering,formulation science,drug delivery
Projet ERC : AlmaCrypt (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Computer science and informatics
Entité participante : Helmholtz Center for Information Security — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : CISPA
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1024775.0 €

Cryptology is a foundation of information security in the digital world. Today's internet is protected by a form of cryptography based on complexity theoretic hardness assumptions. Ideally, they should be strong to ensure security and versatile to offer a wide range of functionalities and allow efficient implementations. However, these assumptions are largely untested and internet security could be built on sand. The main ambition of Almacrypt is to remedy this issue by challenging the assumptions through an advanced algorithmic analysis. In particular, this proposal questions the two pillars of public-key encryption: factoring and discrete logarithms. Recently, the PI contributed to show that in some cases, the discrete logarithm problem is considerably weaker than previously assumed. A main objective is to ponder the security of other cases of the discrete logarithm problem, including elliptic curves, and of factoring. We will study the generalization of the recent techniques and search for new algorithmic options with comparable or better efficiency. We will also study hardness assumptions based on codes and subset-sum, two candidates for post-quantum cryptography. We will consider the applicability of recent algorithmic and mathematical techniques to the resolution of the corresponding putative hard problems, refine the analysis of the algorithms and design new algorithm tools. Cryptology is not limited to the above assumptions: other hard problems have been proposed to aim at post-quantum security and/or to offer extra functionalities. Should the security of these other assumptions become critical, they would be added to Almacrypt's scope. They could also serve to demonstrate other applications of our algorithmic progress. In addition to its scientific goal, Almacrypt also aims at seeding a strengthened research community dedicated to algorithmic and mathematical cryptology. --