Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : MetaScience (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Cultures and cultural production
Entité participante : University of Bristol — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1995304.0 €

The Metaphysical Unity of Science project will pursue the question of what, if anything, unifies the natural sciences. The project studies the question from the perspective of metaphysics and philosophy of science by way of employing case studies from biology, chemistry, and physics. What does it mean for one scientific phenomenon to be explained in terms of another? Under what conditions does scientific unification take place? In philosophy these questions are often discussed under the rubric of reduction. Typically, in asking whether one phenomenon reduces to another, we aim to understand what the ultimate or fundamental basis of the first phenomenon is. In the mid to late 20th century, there was a hope to reduce all higher level phenomena to fundamental physics. Yet, it was soon discovered that there are phenomena that cannot be easily reduced, so unification may not be available via this route. The project’s ambitious goal is to produce a novel account of unification. This is made possible by recent breakthroughs in the methodology of metaphysics, an area sometimes called “metametaphysics”. The project’s objectives are (1) to establish the criteria for scientific unification; (2) to conduct case studies of actual scientific reductions at the biology-chemistry and the chemistry-physics interfaces; (3) to study the role of dependence relations weaker than reduction. A cross-disciplinarily applicable toolbox for unification would be enormously useful for identifying the kind of expertise needed for studying a given phenomenon. This is not merely a philosophical problem. If there are reasons to think that a given biological phenomenon reduces to chemical phenomena, then biologists studying that phenomenon had better be prepared to consult and collaborate with the chemists. If a unification can be achieved, we can determine when scientists ought to consult their colleagues in other sciences and also when this is likely to be a hindrance instead of an advantage.

Mots-clés : metaphysics of science,realization,reduction,metametaphysics,ontological dependence
Projet ERC : NEOSEA (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The study of the human past
Entité participante : University of Gothenburg — Pays : Suède — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1499973.0 €

The NEOSEA project will investigate Neolithic seafaring and maritime technologies, and their role in shaping a new interconnected world of megalithic societies. Recent research into megalithic temporality, mobility and symbolic identity suggests that the rise of long-distance maritime journeys began in Europe as early as the megalithic era. Megaliths emerged in Northwest France (~4700-4200 cal BC) and then spread over the seaways along Europe’s Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts. This new discovery leads to NEOSEA’s core hypothesis that maritime journeys and new skills in shipbuilding and navigation arose in Europe much earlier than, as previously thought, in the Bronze Age. These discoveries prompt a radical reassessment of the early megalithic horizons and open a new scientific debate regarding the emergence of the maritime mobility of megalithic coastal societies, their internal organisation and what motivated their long-distance voyaging, and the rise of seafaring and maritime networks. Specific aims of the NEOSEA project are: (1) to model the spread of megaliths in Europe and the history of megalithic seafaring with pioneering chronological precision (within 20y) (2) to determine prehistoric maritime linkages, networks and migrations (3) to define the concomitant emergence of monumental stone architecture and the rise of seafaring within sea mammal-hunting societies in Brittany (4) to synthesize a model of the social and economic organization of megalithic seafaring communities, revealing the forces driving their expansion (5) to interpret these findings within a global context of cultural anthropology. The application of Bayesian statistical modelling on a large database of radiocarbon dates coupled with aDNA, eDNA and strontium analysis will produce the first closely detailed sequence for the rise of seafaring megalithic societies and their spread across Europe.

Mots-clés : megaliths,megalithic societies,neolithic,seafaring,maritime mobility,radiocarbon dates,bayesian statistics,ancient and environmental dna
Projet ERC : NEOGENE (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The study of the human past
Entité participante : Middle East Technical University — Pays : Turquie — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : METU;ODTÜ
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2556250.0 €

The Neolithic Transition in the Near East (c.10,000-6,000 BC) was a period of singular sociocultural change, when societies adopted sedentary life and agriculture for the first time in human history. This project will jointly use genomic and quantitative cultural data to explore Transition societies’ organisation, interactions, and their social and demographic evolution in time. (1) We will start by dissecting social structures within Neolithic communities in Anatolia, studying the role of kinship, postmarital residence customs, and endogamy. For this end, we will produce genotype data for c.250 individuals interred within five Pre-Pottery and Pottery Neolithic villages in South East and Central Anatolia, and analyse genomic relatedness patterns in the context of bioarchaeological similarity (e.g. by measuring genetic relatedness among Çatalhöyük individuals buried within the same house over generations). (2) We will study the means of cultural interaction among Near Eastern Neolithic societies by documenting which cultural traits -from skull removal customs to pottery- were most likely propagated through emulation and acculturation, and which ones by gene flow, when and where. Here we will produce whole genome data, compile genomic and material culture similarity matrices for >30 Near Eastern pre-Neolithic and Neolithic populations, and develop frameworks for integrated analysis of quantitative material culture and genomic similarity among populations (also including obsidian and sheep exchange connections as factors). The data will be analysed on multiple levels: within regions, interregional, and diachronic. (3) The work will conclude by examining the evolution of social organisation and population interaction patterns through the Neolithic Transition. While enriching and revising current Transition models, the project will set precedents for employing archaeogenomics to study social structures and for systematic co-analysis of genomic and archaeological data.

Mots-clés : neolithic transition,near east,pre pottery neolithic,pottery neolithic,archaeogenomics,human adna,kinship,patrilocality,demography,population admixture,migration,sheep ancient dna
Projet ERC : OPEN3GEN (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Fundamental constituents of matter
Entité participante : University of Warwick — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : Partner
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 0.0 €

The OPEN3GEN project will access an entirely new phase space to discover long-lived particles at the Large Hadron Collider. Current data-recording algorithms (“triggers”) do not record directly this type of event at the LHC. My team and I will maximise the experimental sensitivity by developing trigger strategies and reconstruction methods to yield the first datasets that will be sensitive to long-lived particles decaying to third generation particles. This will result, for the first time, in limits on, or observations of, long-lived particles in new lifetime regimes and signatures. In the case of a discovery, a program is proposed to measure the underlying dynamics of the New Physics by accessing information on the mass scale, lifetimes and spin information of the new particles. This proposal evidences my qualities as a creative PI applying specialised abilities to seek out orthogonal, novel activities to push back the boundaries of science.
Projet ERC : PRIMASKOTI (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : University of Tübingen — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 149238.0 €

The PRIMASKOTI project will prepare the commercialization of SKOTI—the Swiss Knife for Optical Tweezers and Imaging. The scientific instrument SKOTI is designed to measure interactions between single biomolecules with a focus on cytoskeletal molecular machines. SKOTI combines several state-of-the-art microscopy techniques with contact-less mechanical manipulation, so-called optical tweezers. Because of its ultra high stability, SKOTI has its particular strengths in experiments requiring a solid support such as a glass surface. This requirement is often the case for cytoskeletal motor protein studies. Since these molecular machines are key to many essential cellular processes such as transport or cell division, being able to study their interactions is an important step towards understanding diseases such as cancer or neurodegeneration. However, due to the highly specialized knowledge necessary to build and operate such instruments, hardly commercially available, single-molecule experiments are difficult. By commercializing SKOTI, we aim to provide a simple-to-access tool which will broaden the scope of applications and users. SKOTI will provide a modular microscope and optical manipulation platform with unprecedented force- and displacement-resolution, ease of operation through motorization and automatization, flexibility, and overall stability of the system. The key idea is to commercialize a complete solution, where the instrument is supplemented with an isolation from the environment, operation and analysis software, specialized probes, service contracts, and kits for experiments that help to minimize preparation times. This approach will simplify single-molecule experiments, increase throughput, and lower barriers to engage in such studies. In the long term, our novel, cutting-edge research tool for life sciences will provide insight to essential cellular processes and pave the way for new medical approaches.

Mots-clés : life sciences,biophysics,optical tweezers,single molecule,force spectroscopy,high resolution,motor protein,membrane proteins,scientific instrument,fluorescence microscopy
Projet ERC : PhenoTECH (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Proof of concept grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System
Entité participante : Asociatia transylvanian institute of neuroscience — Pays : Roumanie — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

The PhenoTECH project aims to develop a novel technology with high-throughput capacity for screening and phenotyping of genetic models of disease. PhenoTECH will enable an unprecedented capability to monitor and control multiple parameters that will significantly contribute to advancing fundamental and biopharmaceutical research, strongly accelerating discovery of novel treatments for debilitating neurodegenerative diseases. PhenoTECH’s immediate impact will be on the ERC Consolidator Grant, ALS-Networks, where we intend to utilize the power of zebrafish for high-throughput functional screens to uncover defective cellular pathways and to identify therapeutic targets for ALS and related neurodegenerative disorders. High-throughput phenotype-based screening efforts have until now been hampered by the lack of technology that would allow for parallel monitoring of behavioral, cellular and physiological markers of disease. To overcome this limitation, PhenoTECH will build an innovative platform for automated phenotypic analysis consisting of three modules: i) custom designed multiwell plates with the capacity for in-well perfusion of solutions, greatly facilitating and optimizing drug delivery, wash-out, temperature and oxygenation control; ii) state of the art motion (motor) tracking with analysis of spontaneous and evoked locomotion of zebrafish larvae; iii) fluorescence detection of genetically-encoded transgenic line reporters to enable live monitoring and imaging of cellular processes and neuronal activity. By combining these three capabilities, PhenoTECH will surpass any existing commercial product on the market and will enable low-cost, large-scale screening capability for development of efficient treatments to neurodegenerative diseases. PhenoTECH will have a strong societal and economic impact by providing a technological leap forward that will boost fundamental and biopharmaceutical research & development.

Mots-clés : zebrafish,neurological disorders,amyotrophic lateral sclerosis,epilepsy,motor neurons,locomotion,fluorescent imaging,high throughput screening,detection assays,therapeutic targets,pharmacological screening,genetic models
Projet ERC : INTAC (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : École des hautes études en sciences sociales — Pays : France — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : EHESS
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 79375.0 €

The Proof of Concept INTAC project will create a prototype of an online Register which systematically lists, explains and compares formal job categories and status positions of research- and teaching staff in 575 higher education institutions in France, Germany and Great Britain. It will set up the Register on a public multilingual platform and provide resources for career-relevant decision-making (such as career guidelines, CV templates, visualisation and mapping tools for career tracks and status systems, identifier of job equivalents, a community forum). While international academic mobility is growing at high rates and academic systems are rapidly changing, job-seekers as well as recruiting institutions often grapple with the fact that job and status categories in academic institutions (such as PRAG, Akademische Rätin or Teaching Fellow) are difficult to understand for those coming from other institutions or systems. As a consequence, academics may not recognize the most suitable career paths and academic institutions may not receive the best applications. Responding to a demand from academics, employers, unions, associations and organisations in the higher education sector, the INTAC Register aims to facilitate academic recruitments, make national and international academic job markets more transparent and help academic career planning in the European Research Area. In order to bring the Register to the market, INTAC will create a diversified revenue stream, including regular premium user fees and licensing to academic social media. Future sponsors from the public sector will be invited to commission more institutions, countries and service functions to be included into the Register. INTAC draws on the comparative research of the ERC DISCONEX (“The Discursive Construction of Academic Excellence”) project on categorizations and careers of academic researchers in the UK, France, Germany and the U.S.

Mots-clés : higher education,european research area,academic careers,institutional status categories of academics
Projet ERC : QaSLA (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Cultures and cultural production
Entité participante : University of Tübingen — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1900268.0 €

The Qur’an’s message to the populations of Mecca and Medina can only be fully understood in the context of its sustained and critical engagement with the Jewish and the Christian traditions. QaSLA complements and redevelops this approach from the ground up by utilizing the Qur’an across disciplines as witness to the history of Judaism and Christianity. Its innovation is twofold. The Qur’an, firstly, will become the primary literary source allowing us to sketch the religious landscape of the Arabian Peninsula, for which no comparable late antique witness exists. Secondly, the Qur’an’s testimony to the religious culture of its contemporaries will enable us to approach the development of Jewish and Christian traditions throughout Late Antiquity from a new perspective. QaSLA’s main innovation consists in turning the table on the predominant hermeneutics of Western approaches to the Qur’an, which tend to focus on the question of how the Qur’an is influenced by Judaism and Christianity. By taxonomizing the religious profiles reflected in the demonstrable interface between the Qur’an and its Jewish and Christian contemporaries, the project first reorients and then revamps this approach. QaSLA initially analyses the affinity between the Qur’an and known forms of Judaism and Christianity surrounding Arabia in order to identify which biblical, exegetical, homiletic, legal, narrative, ritual, and poetic discourses and practices circulated within the peninsula. It then employs the Qur’an as a new vantage point from which to reconsider broader late antique religious trends across the Middle East. QaSLA combines expertise across disciplines to create a novel local Arabian and an enhanced longitudinal Middle Eastern understanding of Rabbinic Jewish and Syriac, Ethiopic and Arabic Christian cultures. In a final step, the project then returns to portray the Qur’an in sharper contradistinction to more clearly defined forms of Judaism and Christianity.

Mots-clés : islam,judaism,christianity,late antiquity,religious studies,islamic studies,arabia,middle east
Projet ERC : UB-RASDisease (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Physiology in Health, Disease and Ageing
Entité participante : Vlaams Instituut voor Biotechnologie — Pays : Belgique — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : VIB
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1999796.0 €

The RAS pathway is the most frequently activated signaling node in human disease. Despite intensive efforts, effective therapeutic strategies for RAS-driven disease remain daunting. Elucidation of the mechanisms of RAS activation promises to lead toward novel therapeutic approaches to inhibit RAS activity, and may permit identification of patients who might benefit from RAS pathway inhibitors. Our preliminary studies show that reversible ubiquitylation controls RAS activity by altering its interaction network, thus representing a conceptually novel mechanism of RAS regulation. Our initial steps towards the understanding of the RAS ubiquitylation machinery have shown that positive regulators of RAS ubiquitylation are frequently mutated or down-regulated in RAS-driven diseases, whereas negative regulators are commonly up-regulated. These striking initial results suggest that dysregulation of RAS ubiquitylation may be an alternative mechanism that drives RAS activation in human disease. Here, we aim to elucidate the role of the ubiquitin system in RAS-driven disease. We will unravel the molecular machinery controlling RAS ubiquitylation and ascertain alterations of the identified machinery in RAS-driven disease. To assess the functional impact of these alterations, we will create genetically modified mouse models and CRISPR-engineered human cell models. We will employ cutting-edge proteomic approaches to determine how disease-associated dysregulation of RAS ubiquitylation perturbs RAS interactions and signalling. Using a synthetic biologic approach, we will obtain insights into mechanisms by which ubiquitylation modulates RAS interactions. It is significant that, in contrast to the majority of known RAS regulators, the ubiquitin enzymes are “druggable”, which implicates them as promising targets for inhibiting RAS activity. Thus, our studies could lead to new ways of defeating RAS-driven disease.

Mots-clés : post translational modifications
Projet ERC : Reintegrate (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Institutions, Governance and Legal Systems
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 : 1487586.59 €

The Reintegrate project will combine the fields of reintegration and migration governance to establish a new sub-field of reintegration governance (RG). This project will develop a conceptual understanding of what is reintegration governance, its implementation and effectiveness and a new theoretical framework of how different forms of reintegration governance shape returnees reintegration outcomes across an in-depth comparative analysis of four different states: Ethiopia, Morocco, Nepal, and Serbia. The project is rooted in the nexus between policies and migrants agency by using a trajectories approach and active navigators to illustrate the role that returnees play in their own reintegration outcomes. The project makes several original contributions. First, this will be the first study that examines how reintegration is governed and will take a global approach to compare different regimes of RG. Second, the project uses an original analytical and empirical approach to compare RG across four case study countries that are each selected to represent a different form of RG. Ethiopia represents origin country led RG wherein the state has a national reintegration proclamation. Morocco represents supranational led RG characterized be an EU Readmission Agreement, IOM Assisted Voluntary Return Programmes (AVR), and a GIZ Migration Advisory Centre. Serbia represents high RG including both supranational and origin country led RG. Nepal represents low RG wherein only an IOM AVR programme is operational. Third, the reintegrate project addresses a gap in migration governance by bringing in the trajectories and navigation of returnees as a critical dimension in the analysis. The reintegrate project will have an impact on migration studies, human geography and political science through the establishment of the new sub-field of reintegration governance.

Mots-clés : return,reintegration,governance,migration