Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : APCAP (Horizon Europe, appel 2025, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Individuals, Markets and Organisations
Entité participante : KU Leuven — Pays : Belgique — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1494008.0 €

Our economy relies on auctions to efficiently allocate scarce resources, and we use auction models to understand competition in bidding markets. However, traditional auction analysis is limited to existing mechanisms as it relies on bid data to estimate firms' latent values. Instead, APCAP proposes to study the welfare effects of implementing auctions in new markets. Auction values are characterized based on the profits generated from auctioned items and can be estimated using appropriate demand and supply models, bridging two disconnected strands of research in Industrial Organization. This idea is used to study various angles of the pressing airport capacity problem and how to best allocate scarce airport slots to competing airlines. New structural models and estimation techniques are developed to capture the complexities of this issue, made possible by unique access to highly detailed datasets. - Project 1 considers the endogenous formation of a product network with spillovers in costs and demand (to quantify how airlines respond to shocks) and shows how to estimate such a model when entry barriers constrain the observed network. The model estimates highlight the role of capacity constraints in network formation and help understand the competitive pressure of low-cost carriers in slot auctions. - Project 2 captures the differential impacts of extending vs. optimizing existing airport capacity while endogenizing the intensive margin of delays, flight cancellations, and emissions. An estimation strategy is developed to estimate demand when observing only aggregate prices. - Project 3 estimates the magnitude and drivers of slot synergies and uses computer science techniques to assess the welfare impacts of large-scale slot auctions. - A transversal project leverages these methods and data to provide insight into the understudied European airline industry, as well as how auction impacts vary depending on the market structure and (demand) factors local to an airport.

Mots-clés : airline industry,empirical auction analysis,demand and supply,entry models,combinatorial auctions,airport slots,mechanism design,structural estimation
Projet ERC : IMMPACT (Horizon Europe, appel 2025, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Synthetic Chemistry and Materials
Entité participante : KU Leuven — Pays : Belgique — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1589643.0 €

The European Union’s ambition to achieve climate neutrality by 2050 requires us to transition from fossil fuels to sustainable forms of energy. Artificial photosynthesis, which converts solar energy into chemical fuels using abundant resources like CO2 and H2O, represents a real alternative. However, current photocatalytic systems suffer from inefficiencies in sunlight capture, charge recombination, and poor stability in aqueous media.  The IMMPACT project proposes a pioneering strategy: compartmentalising supramolecular catalysts based on metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), photosensitisers, sacrificial reagents, and charge carriers within liposome-based nanoreactors. This innovative approach leverages supramolecular receptors to facilitate transmembrane transport of MOF building blocks, allowing unprecedented control over the bottom-up assembly of MOFs within compartmentalised nanostructures. Using liposomes as bio-inspired nanoreactors will enhance the stability of MOF-based photocatalysts in aqueous media, improve sunlight-absorption efficiency, and accelerate the charge separation by bringing the catalytic centre and the photosensitiser into close proximity.  This groundbreaking research merges material science, supramolecular chemistry, and catalysis to drive the boundaries of solar-fuel technology. The success of the IMMPACT project will not only advance our understanding of compartmentalised photocatalytic systems but also mark the first use of ionophore-facilitated ion transport for nanostructuring hybrid materials, thereby paving the way for new horizons in nanomaterial development and sustainable energy technologies.

Mots-clés : liposome nanoreactor,ion transport,metal organic frameworks,photocatalysis
Projet ERC : FREE-VIEW (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Human Mind and Its Compl exity
Entité participante : Université Humboldt de Berlin — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1499228.0 €

We constantly move our eyes to explore our surroundings. In between short periods of fixation, saccades cause drastic changes to the visual input – yet, we experience a continuous and stable world from the incessant flow of snapshots. While the perceptual consequences of saccadic eye movements are manifold, experiments to study them are surprisingly similar, and lean towards a paradoxically passive investigation of active visual perception. Instead of isolated, stereotyped eye movements directed by artificial cues, everyday gaze is dynamically driven by scene statistics and internal goals. To genuinely understand active perception across eye movements, we need to study it under natural but still precisely controlled conditions – which so far has been hindered by methodological limitations: the transient nature of peri-saccadic phenomena requires real-time knowledge of the upcoming saccade to tailor the perceptual measurement to its predicted spatial and temporal dynamics.  Fortunately, free-viewing saccades are not random, but guided by salient and relevant scene features. My team and I will introduce a methodology that evaluates these factors online, to predict saccades during free exploration on dynamic visual noise. To study active perception through gaze-contingent measures across unconstrained viewing, my approach integrates high-precision yet rigid techniques from classic vision science with more flexible but coarser methods of scene viewing research, where subtle peri-saccadic processes are traditionally not considered.  Combining state-of-the-art psychophysical, computational, and neuroscientific expertise, FREE-VIEW will pioneer our understanding of actually active perception and gaze control, assess the validity of inferences drawn from atypical, instructed saccades, and introduce a versatile tool for testing populations that may struggle to learn or adhere to stringent instructions, such as children, the elderly, patients, or non-human primates.

Mots-clés : active perception,saccadic eye movements,presaccadic attention,predictive remapping,trans saccadic integration,visual sensitivity,psychophysics,transcranial magnetic stimulation tms,reverse correlation
Projet ERC : X-PECT (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences
Entité participante : KU Leuven — Pays : Belgique — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2035525.0 €

X-rays are widely applied in medical diagnostics, security screening and scientific research. The growing demand for X-ray imaging has increased the frequency with which humans are exposed to ionizing X-rays, directly increasing radiation-related health risks. To minimize these health risks, X-PECT aims to rationally design materials that enable more sensitive X-ray detectors, thus allowing the use of lower operational radiation doses. Metal halide perovskite (MHP) semiconductors have emerged as a highly promising material class for sensitive X-ray detection. Besides their easy processing, the popularity of MHPs arises from their outstanding optoelectronic properties, such as strong high-energy X-ray absorption, and efficient charge carrier generation and transport, outperforming current market standards. However, the intrinsic instability and toxicity of popular lead-based MHPs hinders their large-scale application in sustainable X-ray technology. X-PECT aims for a fundamental understanding of the intrinsic strengths and limitations of MHPs as photoactive material for X-ray detection. In this context, X-PECT will address urging scientific hurdles related to toxicity, structural and chemical stability, intrinsic charge carrier transport efficiency, and processing efforts. The ultimate goal of X-PECT is to rationally develop highly sensitive, sustainable lead-free MHPs through micromanaging their electronic structure by composition and dimensionality engineering. Tailoring their functionality will be guided by applying a full arsenal of both established characterization techniques and unique (micro)spectroscopy platforms for the full assessment of the structural and photophysical properties to identify and suppress the factor(s) currently limiting the X-ray sensitivity and stability. Ultimately, selected candidate materials will be processed into a stable, scalable pixelated X-ray demonstrator device with a 20- to 50-fold improved sensitivity and resolution.

Mots-clés : semiconductor materials synthesis and engineering
Projet ERC : STARTDIALOG (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Human Mind and Its Compl exity
Entité participante : KU Leuven — Pays : Belgique — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1437776.0 €

Aristotelian diagrams, such as the square of opposition, have been widely used throughout the history of philosophy and logic. Nowadays, they also have several applications in other disciplines that are concerned with logical reasoning, such as psychology, linguistics and computer science. However, many of the applications of Aristotelian diagrams suffer from substantial problems, often due to a lack of understanding of the intricate logical properties of these diagrams. Consequently, the tremendous heuristic potential of Aristotelian diagrams has remained vastly underappreciated thus far.  The overarching goal of the STARTDIALOG project is to develop a unified theory of Aristotelian diagrams. We will use a radically new research strategy to accomplish this goal, viz. developing a systematic typology of Aristotelian diagrams in close interplay with a comprehensive diagram database. This empirically informed typology will systematically organize all our (existing and new) knowledge about Aristotelian diagrams, similarly to the role of Mendeleev's periodic table of the elements in chemistry. This will enable us to clarify and solve many of the issues that currently surround the applications of these diagrams, and thereby lead to a more accurate understanding of their methodological importance.  This unified theory will allow us to move beyond the specific details of any given application, and to study Aristotelian diagrams as objects of independent interest. This will constitute a major breakthrough in logical geometry, i.e. the theoretical investigation of Aristotelian diagrams. However, because of the widely interdisciplinary use of these diagrams, the scientific impact of the STARTDIALOG project will reach far beyond the boundaries of logical geometry: its results will be relevant for other philosophical logicians as well, for philosophers in general, and ultimately, for all researchers who make use of Aristotelian diagrams in their research on logical reasoning.

Mots-clés : logical geometry,square of opposition,history of logic,aristotelian diagrams in knowledge representation
Projet ERC : IMMUNO-TEX (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Prevention,  Diagnosis and T reatment of Human Diseases
Entité participante : Université technique de Munich — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1650778.0 €

Tumor immunotherapy with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) has unprecedented therapeutic potential, but its success is limited to a minority of patients with preexisting antitumor T-cell immunity. For patients with poorly-immunogenic tumors, combinatorial immunotherapies are urgently needed. With a vast and bioactive cargo (proteins, lipids, nucleic acids), extracellular vesicles (EVs) have intrinsic property to regulate complex pathways in distant target cells. Even though they can transfer tumor antigens which potentially activate T cells, tumor-derived EVs (TEX) have mainly been associated with immunosuppressive function. I have recently identified innate immune pathways within tumor cells that regulate TEX biogenesis and immunogenicity. This allows for the first time to “force” tumor cells to release a defined immunostimulatory (is)TEX product. The unconventional objective of IMMUNO-TEX is to generate a platform for the pioneering therapeutic use of tumor-derived isTEX as multifunctional cell-free anticancer agents. isTEX combine a cargo of a plethora of patient-specific tumor (neo-) antigens and immunostimulatory constituents within a single, non-toxic delivery vehicle, that allows for efficient priming of tumor antigen-specific T cells. The ability to harness the vast potential of isTEX is directly interwoven with a more detailed mechanistic understanding how tumor-specific cargo packaging in EVs occurs and how they alter immune cell function. Therefore, IMMUNO-TEX will identify and exploit the intracellular machinery in tumor cells for optimal isTEX generation, investigate how isTEX enable an immune-supportive tumor microenvironment, and validate isTEX to overcome ICI resistance in relevant murine and human model systems. Hereby, IMMUNO-TEX will eliminate current limitations of ICI immunotherapy by rationally designed combination with isTEX to allow responsiveness in patients with poorly immunogenic tumors.

Mots-clés : extracellular vesicles
Projet ERC : CODE-PFAS (Horizon Europe, appel 2025, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Biotechnology and Biosystems E ngineering
Entité participante : École polytechnique fédérale de Zurich — Pays : Suisse — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : ETH Zurich
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 419327.0 €

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are persistent and pervasive environmental contaminants. Long-chain PFAS bioaccumulate in plants, humans, and wildlife, amplifying their toxicity and health risks, leading to increasing governmental regulations. Shorter-chain PFAS are being phased in by industry to replace longer-chain PFAS, but their toxicity is less known and they are harder to detect, highlighting the need for increased monitoring. The overall situation calls for rapid, accessible, and on-site methods to detect, differentiate, and break down diverse chain-length PFAS. To address this challenge, I propose to investigate ‘fluoro-selectivity’: the capacity of enzymes to differentiate between PFAS of varying chain-lengths and fluorinated versus non-fluorinated compounds. Strikingly, fluoro-selectivity already occurs in enzymes in nature. Here, I propose to use a combination of bioluminescence and machine learning to decipher the fluoro-selectivity code of natural enzymes that undergo conformational changes in response to different PFAS. In tandem, I will establish a new method using a fluoro-selective resistance mechanism to discover environmental enzymes capable of breaking down fluorinated compounds. Finally, I will take advantage of the close structural similarity between firefly luciferases - the enzymes that enable fireflies to glow - and natural PFAS-activating enzymes known as acyl-CoA ligases. Leveraging this evolutionary relationship, I will construct fluoro-selective, bioluminescent enzymes to enable the design of real-time, in situ, and chain length-specific PFAS biosensors. Mapping the first blueprint of enzymatic fluoro-selectivity will enable precision applications in environmental PFAS monitoring and remediation. More fundamentally, this work aims to reveal the underlying biochemical and evolutionary drivers of fluoro-selectivity from bacteria to fireflies, uncovering paths for the emergence of metabolic traits across the tree of life.

Mots-clés : per and polyfluoroalkyl substances pfas enzyme specificity firefly luciferase coenzyme a ligase biotransformation biosensor ion exporter metagenomic library protein engineering wastewater microbiome
Projet ERC : UniversalContracts (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Computer Science and Informatics
Entité participante : KU Leuven — Pays : Belgique — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1500000.0 €

The Instruction Set Architecture (ISA) is the interface that processor hardware offers to software developers. Current ISAs do not explicitly specify the security properties guaranteed by that interface, so that, for example, recent severe micro-architectural side-channel vulnerabilities like Spectre did not even violate the specifications. This project proposes a fundamentally new approach to specify ISA security properties by using what we call universal contracts. These are formal contracts in a compositional program logic that automatically hold for arbitrary code. Such contracts capture ISA-enforced upper bounds on the effects of arbitrary (even attacker-controlled) software. While this approach is widely different from traditional specifications, the approach looks extremely promising: universal contracts can be applied to general security primitives, mechanically verified against the ISA's operational semantics and they make it possible to obtain full-system security proofs by manually verifying only the trusted code of a sytem.  In this project, we will contribute reusable techniques and tools for applying universal contracts in realistic ISAs. To this end, we will (1) design, prove and evaluate universal contracts for ISAs with state-of-practice security primitives, (2) develop semi-automation machinery for verifying universal contracts of ISAs, (3) extend universal contracts to deal with semantic complications like concurrency or micro-architectural side-channels and (4) design, implement and evaluate techniques which facilitate the construction of trusted software that relies on universal contracts, particularly assembly-level reasoning support and secure compilers. If successful, the project has the potential to fundamentally improve the security foundations of all software-based systems, by (1) clearly dividing the security responsibilities between hardware and software developers and (2) enabling scalable, rigorous, full-system security proofs.

Mots-clés : instruction set architectures,security primitives,program logics,separation logic,semi automatic verification
Projet ERC : LIQUIDLAT (Horizon Europe, appel 2025, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Systems and Communication Engineering
Entité participante : École polytechnique fédérale de Zurich — Pays : Suisse — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : ETH Zurich
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1874830.0 €

Optical Frequency Combs (OFCs), states of light with equally spaced and phase-locked frequencies, revolutionized metrology across a wide range of metrological applications. Current OFC sources are highly accurate but also bulky. Miniaturizing OFC sources to on-chip scale, small enough to be placed in your hand, will enable a second revolution with applications such as distributed pollution tracking, medical detection equipment, compact LIDARs and dense communication channels (DWDM). OFC devices supporting these applications require: (a) in-situ control over the spectrum with power management of ~90% for every spectral line (b) bandwidth of 10-15THz (c) power per line of ~3mW while maintaining wall plug efficiency of >20%  In LIQUIDLAT I will develop on-chip OFC devices with (a)-(c), by taking a new approach and leveraging on the recently demonstrated, by me and coauthors, quantum walk comb: generate monolithic lasers with fast gain recovery and apply photonic lattice schemes, both in real and frequency spaces through inter-device coupling and modulation, for controllable, broadband and powerful OFCs. This method is general and can be implemented in other wavelengths.  Unlike current on-chip OFC approaches, typically producing pulses, I will use the following elements: (1) fast gain recovery that forces quasi constant intensity and grants the light liquid properties, stabilizing on broadband and stable states (2) direct control over OFC expansion via modulation by radio-frequency sources (3) use topological photonic lattice schemes, both in real and frequency domains, to lock coherently many OFCs to a single powerful output. The study of liquid light dynamics in photonic lattices challenges our understanding of nonlinear dynamics and interaction in semiconductors. The outcome is the development of tools for broadband power-efficient OFC devices that support applications in environmental tracking or efficient data links that reduce the datacentre footprint.
Projet ERC : DANTE (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Products and Processes Engineering
Entité participante : École supérieure Sainte-Anne de Pise — Pays : Italie — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1450560.0 €

The share of the world’s population living in cities is rapidly increasing, and it is expected to rise to 80% by 2050. It is therefore crucial to develop new efficient and reliable methods to model the urban microclimate; in fact, these models can support urban planners and policymakers to create more comfortable and sustainable cities. High computational requirements limit existing numerical methodologies, and DANTE fits in this context and aims to create a new paradigm for fast and reliable numerical simulations bridging the fields of model order reduction, machine learning, and data assimilation. The idea is to create a research team to answer many unresolved questions in model order reduction for complex and real-life urban microclimate simulations. Particular emphasis will be given to advanced machine learning tools, which incorporate physics knowledge, aiming to improve the accuracy, interpretability, and reliability of predictive models. The identified tasks cover a wide range of different topics: dimensionality reduction of the solution manifold in problems governed by complex physical principles, uncertainty quantification, data assimilation, and inverse modeling. The new tools will have the agility of data-driven methods in complex nonlinear settings and the physical rigor of projection-based methods with quantified errors. The developed methods will significantly impact digital transformation, enabling digital twins of urban environments. Possible applications include, but are not limited to, urban air pollution, heat island modeling, wind loads on buildings, and inverse modeling approaches.

Mots-clés : reduced order modelling,scientific machine learning,digital twins,autoencoder,nonlinear model order reduction,computational mechanics,uncertainty quantification,urban microclimate