Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : MAGNESIA (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Universe sciences
Entité participante : Spanish National Research Council — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : CSIC
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2263148.0 €

The gravitational wave window is now open. It is then imperative to build quantitative models of neutron stars that use all the available tracers to constrain fundamental physics at the highest densities and magnetic fields. The most magnetic neutron stars, the magnetars, have been recently suggested to be powering a large variety of explosive and transient events. The enormous rotational power at birth, and the magnetic energy they can release via large flares, put the magnetars in the (yet) hand-wavy interpretations of gamma-ray bursts, the early phases of double neutron star mergers, super-luminous supernovae, hypernovae, fast radio bursts, and ultra-luminous X-ray sources. However, despite knowing about 30 magnetars, we are lacking a census of how many we expect within the pulsar population, nor we have robust constraints on their flaring rates. The recent discovery of transient magnetars, of magnetar-like flares from sources with measured low dipolar magnetic fields and from typical radio pulsars, clearly showed that the magnetar census in our Galaxy is largely under-estimated. This hampers our understanding not only of the pulsar and magnetar populations, but also of them as possibly related to many of Universe’s explosive events. MAGNESIA will infer a sound Magnetar Census via an innovative approach that will build the first Pulsar Population Synthesis model able to cope with constraints/limits from multi-band observations, and taking into account 3D magnetic field evolution models and flaring rates for neutron stars. Combining expertise in multi-band observations, numerical modeling, nuclear physics, and computation, MAGNESIA will solve the physics, the observational systematic errors, and the computational challenges that inhibited previous works, to finally constrain the spin period and magnetic field distribution at birth of the neutron star population.
Projet ERC : HiNaPc (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Technische Universität Ilmenau — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 149507.5 €

The growing market appeal of rechargeable lithium ion batteries (LIBs) for electric vehicles and portable electronics as well as the high cost and scarcity of lithium are driving research towards developing alternatives to LIBs. Sodium ion batteries (SIBs) have attracted considerable scientific and industrial attention as a potential alternative to LIBs with great economic benefits, which mainly attributes to the low cost and natural abundance of sodium. Moreover, SIBs share many similar characteristics with LIBs, from charge storage mechanism to cell structure, thus facilitating the production of SIBs with the existing LIB production technique and equipment. Currently, the key challenge of commercializing SIBs is to improve their performance to be comparable to LIBs. During the ERC ThreeDSurface project, we have performed both the material designing and 3D electrode designing for largely enhancing the SIB performance. A prototype of rechargeable SIB coin cells with high energy density and supercapacitor-like power density has been achieved, with performance indices that are comparable with the commercial LIBs. In particular, its supercapacitor-like high power density and superior rate capability allow ultrafast charge and discharge without deteriorating the energy density. In this PoC project, we will upscale the SIB coin cells into SIB pouch cells with low cost (< US$ 200 per kWh) and high energy capacity (≥ 30 Ah). Compared to the coin cell with only 1 Ah of a maximum energy capacity, the proposed pouch cell shall be capable of delivering much higher energy capacity in the range of 30-50 Ah, thus realizing battery system with large-scale commercial applications. Meanwhile, we will establish a production-scalable process for mass production of the SIB pouch cells, and hence paving the way towards further developing full SIB battery system for electric vehicles and portable electronics.

Mots-clés : sodium ion batteries,pouch cells,high energy density,high power density,cost per kwh,mass production
Projet ERC : SPINAPSE (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Condensed matter physics
Entité participante : Radboud University Nijmegen — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2357390.0 €

The growing trend in global electricity consumption has created a new challenge for materials-based science: to find computational paradigms toward ICT that are not only smaller and faster, but also energy-efficient. A new source of inspiration is the human brain, which consumes a mere 20 W of energy, while a supercomputer consumes about 10 MW. The emerging field of brain-inspired hardware aims at utilizing physical phenomena in high-quality materials toward pattern recognition and energy- efficient ICT. The goal of this project is to adapt the principles of magnetism toward brain-inspired hardware, utilizing individual and coupled atomic spins. The ultimate aim of SPINAPSE is to probe the feasibility and create proof-of-concept systems, which demonstrate computational principles such as pattern recognition. I define three objectives, which address understanding magnetism in the three most prominent neural models: (1) Hopfield model, (2) Perceptron, (3) Reservoir computing. The strategy is to utilize the so-called spin workbench, based on low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy, as a platform to create tailored spin arrays with atomic-scale control. This method combines single atom magnetic imaging and atom-scale fabrication, enabling the control of the magnetic interactions and dynamics between ensembles of atoms, atom by atom. We will construct bottom-up magnetic nanostructures to implement all-spin and atomic-scale based neural hardware. We will deliver a new state of the art in magnetic imaging, including (a) developing the spin workbench with a newly built 30 mK magnetic STM facility, defining a new state of the art in magnetic imaging worldwide, and (b) time-resolved imaging to probe the magnetization dynamics of stochastic spin arrays at milliKelvin temperatures. The outcome of SPINAPSE will deliver a new state of the art, new fundamental understandings, and create proof-of-concept technologies for atomic-scale brain-inspired hardware.
Projet ERC : NICHEADAPT (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Immunity, Infection and Immunotherapy
Entité participante : Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : Inserm
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1999948.0 €

The gut microbiota plays an integral part in driving the postnatal maturation of the gut immune system and in protecting the host from pathogens. The commensal segmented filamentous bacteria (SFB) plays a critical role in these processes through its intimate attachment to the ileal epithelium using a unique pointed tip structure on its unicellular ‘infectious’ particle. SFB induces a broad pro-inflammatory immune activation, and notably a striking induction of IgA and Th17 cell responses, that fosters pathogen resistance but can also exacerbate disease severity in a number of autoimmune models, making SFB an important microbe in health and disease. SFB is found in many vertebrate species, including humans, and SFB monocolonization has allowed a detail study of its immunostimulatory potential. However, the unique and complex life-cycle of SFB and SFB’s interaction with the host has remained poorly understood due to a lack of in vitro culturing techniques. We recently overcame this hurdle by establishing the first in vitro SFB-host cell co-culturing system. Using this system, unicellular SFB were discovered to be flagellated and to stimulate TLR5 signaling, revealing a missing link of immunological importance in the SFB life-cycle. This important developmental stage will now be further characterized and its immunological consequence assessed using gnotobiology. State-of-the-art microscopy techniques will be employed to characterize in detail the SFB life-cycle and novel structures discovered during in vitro growth. Unicellular SFB surface proteins will be identified using mass spectrometry, localized on the bacterium and tested for their ability to mediate host cell attachment. In addition, next generation sequencing and transcriptomics will be used to assess SFB genome evolution and SFB niche constraints. Together, this work will lead to a detailed view of the SFB life-cycle and how SFB has adapted to its unique replicative niche at the epithelial surface.

Mots-clés : gut microbiota,immune stimulation,bacterial adhesin,flagella,cryo em,nutrient acquisition,genome evolution,life cycle,intracellular offspring,host bacterial cross talk,niche constraints
Projet ERC : NeurogenesisCode (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System
Entité participante : Weizmann Institute of Science — Pays : Israël — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1500000.0 €

The hippocampal dentate gyrus (DG) is one of the few areas in the adult mammalian brain that exhibits neurogenesis, the continuous generation of new neurons. Much evidence indicates that adult neurogenesis contributes to hippocampal-dependent cognition, but the nature of this contribution remains elusive. I envisioned that the clearest path towards understanding the function of adult neurogenesis would be to reveal the changes that occur in the coding properties of DG neurons throughout their development, and the changes that these neurons impose on neural codes generated by the hippocampus. The study of such coding dynamics requires longitudinal recordings of neuronal ensembles in both the DG and CA1 over periods of weeks, since this is the timescale on which new DG neurons mature. Until recently, however, it has been technically impossible to obtain such data. This urgent need drove me to develop a new method, which allows for the optical recording of Ca2+ dynamics from up to 1,200 of the same genetically defined neurons in the hippocampus of freely behaving mice for periods of months. Here, I propose to combine this method with established tools for manipulation of neurogenesis rates or newborn neuron activity, to determine how neurogenesis contributes to coding dynamics in downstream CA1 while mice repeatedly explore familiar environments or preform a long-term memory task. Furthermore, we will establish time-lapse imaging of Ca2+ dynamics in populations of newborn DG neurons while mice perform tasks that engage the DG, and find how newborn neuron coding properties evolve as a function of their maturation. Our work will advance the understanding of how the hippocampus supports long-term memory by resolving fundamental questions that pertain to a nearly unexplored facet of memory: how memory codes change with time, while their behavioral manifestations persist.

Mots-clés : adult neurogenesis,hippocampus,dentate gyrus,place cells,neuronal ensembles,ca2  imaging,population coding,long term memory,representation of space
Projet ERC : FORMSofLABOUR (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The study of the human past
Entité participante : University of Bristol — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : Partner
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 54926.0 €

The history of labour and its role in Europe’s preindustrial development has very largely been the history of adult men. FORMSofLABOUR seeks to put other workers in the picture, particularly women and servants, not simply by ‘adding them on’ but by showing how a full understanding of women’s work and of service offers a radical critique of existing approaches to work and to the idea of free labour. It focuses on England in the period 1300-1700 viewed in a comparative Western European perspective, and addressed these issues through three themes. (1) A revolutionary research technique which collects evidence of work tasks from court records to simulate a time-use study is used to explore the experience of work. This technique allows the work activities of women and men, young and old, employees and family members to be illuminated, with evidence of tasks, location and timing of work, creating an entirely new perspective on England’s early modern economy. (2) The theoretical underpinnings of the history of women’s work in the preindustrial economy are explored, reassessing key debates using interdisciplinary perspectives from economics and political science, as well as new archival evidence from themes 1 and 3. Gendered work patterns are viewed through the lens of freedom, rather than patriarchy, to create a step-change in our understanding of gender and work. (3) The issue of the extent to which labour was ‘free’ after the end of serfdom is interrogated through a careful examination of the range of forms of labour and the nature of labour laws, using a variety of archival evidence combined with a comparisons with serfdom and slavery, and the adoption of insights from development economics and anthropology. Together these interlocking themes create a new history of work in the economy which formed the background to grand narratives of Smith and Marx, arguing that with women and servants had been in picture, the story of economic development is transformed.

Mots-clés : work,labour,gender,freedom,labour laws,servants,household economy,youth,women,time use
Projet ERC : MULTIDIMSPEC (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Universe sciences
Entité participante : Stockholm University — Pays : Suède — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1500000.0 €

The history of the cosmos is written in starlight. The stellar surface contains a fossil fingerprint of the chemical composition of its birth cloud, modulu evolutionary effects. It is therefore possible to extract detailed knowledge about the history of galaxies like the Milky Way by studying stars born at different locations and ages: Galactic archaeology. Deciphering the stellar spectra in terms of stellar properties like temperature and chemical composition, however, requires realistic 3-dimensional models of the stellar atmospheres and non-equilibrium spectral line formation, which is the focus of this ambitious and timely project. Together with unprecedented large stellar spectroscopic surveys of the Milky Way, this project will usher in a new era in stellar astrophysics and Galactic archaeology. We will develop highly realistic 3D hydrodynamical simulations of stellar atmospheres for a very wide range of stellar temperatures, gravities and chemical compositions, which will be used to predict the detailed stellar spectra. I will extend the pioneering work I have done in developing comprehensive 3D non-equilibrium (non-LTE) radiative transfer calculations to a large number of elements of key astrophysical importance, thus removing a major systematic error in current spectroscopic analyses. Our endeavours in this field are unique world-wide and ensure that observations with the new generation of telescopes and instruments will be analysed in an optimal manner. I am spearheading the spectroscopic analyses to determine stellar parameters and chemical compositions for many millions of stars in spectroscopic surveys of the Milky Way, like the 200MEUR 4MOST project. This ERC project will guarantee the success of these major investments by providing the critical manpower for the analysis. I will also exploit these huge surveys to study the very first stars born after the Big Bang and the build-up of the ancient Milky Way halo through accretion of smaller galaxies.

Mots-clés : stellar spectroscopy    stellar abundances    radiative transfer    milky way    pop ii stars    atomic physics    hydrodynamic simulations    late type stars    the sun    fundamental parameters of stars
Projet ERC : PEGASUS (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The study of the human past
Entité participante : Centre national de la recherche scientifique — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : CNRS
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1952961.25 €

The horse provided us with rapid transportation, an almost unrivaled secondary product that tremendously impacted the politico-economical trajectory of our societies, revolutionizing the circulation of ideas, people, languages, religions and communication. Horse chariotry and cavalry also changed warfare and beyond the battlefield new equestrian technologies have stimulated agricultural productivity. However, the 5,500 year long history of horse domestication and management, which transformed the natural evolutionary trajectory of wild horses into the more than 625 domestic breeds living today, is difficult to reconstruct from archaeology, history and modern genetics alone. Yet, with archaeogenetics, one can access the genetic information from past individuals and track in great detail past population trajectories. In this project, I propose to build on the latest advances in the analysis of ancient DNA molecules to gather new genomic, epigenomic and metagenomic information from ancient horses. This will be integrated with archaeozoological, isotopic and historical data to enhance our understanding of the multiple processes underlying the transformation of the animal that perhaps most impacted our history. Starting from the characterization of pre-domestic populations of wild horses, I will evaluate the genomic and dietary impact of early domestication stages and will explore whether horses were independently domesticated in Iberia and the Pontic-Caspian steppe. I will follow how the emergence of chariotry and the development of heavy cavalry impacted the horse’s behavioural, physiological and biological makeup. I will reveal the horse characteristics that were preferred in various historical contexts and will investigate a diversity of management strategies and husbandry conditions to reveal their impact on horses, from classical and late antique periods until the recent creation of modern breeds by means of intensive selective breeding.

Mots-clés : ancient dna,horse domestication,animal management,animal husbandry,evolutionary genomics,diet,artificial selection,natural selection,biological adaptation
Projet ERC : TRAIN-OLD (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Physiology in Health, Disease and Ageing
Entité participante : Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : RUNMC
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2262500.0 €

The host defense, especially the adaptive immunity, is defective in the elderly, with a dramatic drop for the efficacy of vaccination with old age. Interestingly however, the innate immunity of older individuals is relatively intact, and we recently described that epigenetic and functional reprogramming of innate immune cells by certain vaccines and mild infections, termed ‘trained immunity’, induces potent heterologous protection against infections. I propose that induction of trained immunity is an important novel approach to improved vaccination in the elderly. Induction of trained immunity is regulated by the interaction between the host genome, microbiome, and the epigenetic and metabolic programs of specific populations of myeloid cells, and we need to understand how these factors are impacted by age and gender of the host. By understanding the factors that impact the response to BCG (Bacille Calmette-Guerin), the prototype vaccine that induces trained immunity, we will be able to design better vaccines for the elderly. The Key objectives of the project are: Key objective 1: To describe the innate immune cell (sub)populations, and their heterogeneity at single-cell level, responsible for mediating trained immunity in the young and elderly adults. Key objective 2: To identify the complex genetic, epigenetic, microbiome, and metabolic programs that represent the molecular and biochemical substrates of trained immunity in the myeloid cells of the elderly individuals. Key objective 3: To use systems biology to map the heterogeneity of trained immunity response determined by host (epi)genome, microbiome, and environmental factors in the elderly. Expected results: We will understand the main cellular and molecular mechanisms for the induction of trained immunity responses in vivo and the specificities of the response in the elderly. These findings will enable the design of innovative approaches to improve vaccination strategies.

Mots-clés : immune senescence,vaccination,innate immune memory,trained immunity
Projet ERC : Tumor microbiome (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Physiology in Health, Disease and Ageing
Entité participante : Weizmann Institute of Science — Pays : Israël — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2000000.0 €

The human body is host to a huge number of bacteria. While bacteria were first detected in human tumors over 150 years ago, our knowledge about their number, identity or effects in different human tumor types is still mostly rudimentary. Over the last few years we focused on studying the tumor microbiome. We developed multiple methods to characterize and visualize intra-tumor bacteria, taking special measures to tell apart true tumor-bacteria from contamination. Profiling over 1,800 human tumors and normal adjacent tissues demostrated that bacteria are prevalent in many tumor types and that each tumor type has a unique microbial signature. This application aims to capitalize on our cutting-edge research tools, vast experience and comprehensive preliminary data to shed light on the uncharted field of the tumor microbiome. We plan to: (1) Characterize the different microbial communities (bacteria, fungi, others) and their dynamics in human tumors. We strive to provide a near complete narrative of how bacteria are distributed in the tumor, their association with immune cells and their dynamic changes with tumor development, metastasis and drug treatments. (2) Study the effects that microbial communities may have on tumor biology, focusing primarily on tumor microbiome-mediated drug resistance and on tumor microbiome effects on tumor-associated macrophages. (3) Exploit intra-tumor microbial communities for translational opportunities and novel therapeutics, in particular as an adjunct to current mainstay therapy or delivering innovative therapeutics via live bacteria. Thus, this project will transform our understanding of the structure and function of intra-tumor microbial communities and will pave the way for us, as well as many others, to translate our findings into novel therapeutic options for cancer patients.

Mots-clés : cancer,microbiome,tumor microbiome,drug resistance,tumor associated macrophages,mycobiome