Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : InspiReM (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Universe Sciences
Entité participante : Université Friedrich-Schiller d'Iéna — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1997509.0 €

Binary neutron star mergers (BNSMs) are unique astrophysical laboratories to explore all four fundamental interactions in their extreme regimes. The landmark detection of the gravitational wave GW170817 and its counterparts in the entire electromagnetic spectrum demonstrated the enormous impact of BNSMs observations on fundamental physics and astrophysics, including the nature of matter at supranuclear densities, the origin of high-energy cosmic photons and of heavy elements. The goal of InspiReM is to break new grounds in the theoretical modeling of BNSMs and to deliver first-principles models linking the source dynamics to the observed radiations. The programme timely addresses central open problems in the modeling of the different coalescence phases with a novel, comprehensive, general-relativistic, (3+1)D and multiscale approach. Simulations and analytical relativity methods are combined to deliver full-spectrum gravitational-wave templates for unbiased, high-precision measurements in gravitational-wave astronomy. Merger remnants and outflows are investigated on uncharted postmerger timescales and including, for the first time, all the relevant processes from the four interactions. The self-consistent secular evolution of the outflows up to days and years is further explored to directly connect the strong-gravity engine to the electromagnetic emission. Bayesian approaches with simulation-driven models are developed for the joint analyses of gravitational and electromagnetic signals. InspiReM leverages on recent breakthroughs and the unique interdisciplinary expertise of my team on all the aspects of the research, and develops novel techniques for exascale parallel computations in relativistic astrophysics. If successful, it will shape the rising field of multimessenger astronomy and drive new groundbreaking discoveries in the related fields.
Projet ERC : RELI-GENE (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Studies of Cultures and Arts
Entité participante : Université de Londres — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UoL
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1999883.31 €

RELI-GENE is an interdisciplinary project which examines minorities’ attitudes towards genetic counselling and reproductive options in the case of inherited genetic recessive disorders and analyses how healthcare policies govern communities’ family formations. It focuses on close-knit religious minorities that emphasise consanguineous and endogamous marriages to strengthen communal bonds to provide a sense of solidarity and of safeguarding lineage and purity. Current scholarship focuses predominantly on single national contexts, specific healthcare policies and individual religious communities, neglecting comparable perspectives. RELI-GENE specifically analyses how transnational spaces serve as strategies to navigate and bypass national healthcare policies and legal restrictions related to marriage and reproductive practices. The project adds a new conceptual framework to understanding (a) the broader implications of directive, nondirective and mandatory genetic counselling within diverse national healthcare systems; (b) communities’ own use of biopolitics to construct discourses around lineage and purity; (c) how individuals respond to both state policies and to the religio-cultural norms and expectations within their communities. RELI-GENE offers a perspectival shift on the governmentality and biopolitics of family formation by 1. examining the different forms of power in state-led biopolitics in Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Sweden and Germany and their respective healthcare systems, 2. exploring communities and their transnational links which for religious, cultural and political reasons manifest a biopolitics of purity and examining how these communities construct lineage-oriented narratives to counter their minority status or sense of persecution and marginalisation, 3. analysing how individuals respond to state policies but also to the religio-cultural traditions of their communities, and how they engage in various forms of self-governing.

Mots-clés : family planning,genetic counselling,biopolitics,governmentality,ultra orthodox jews,palestinians,iraqis,syrians,emiratis,israel,sweden,germany,united arab emirates
Projet ERC : REVIVE (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Human Mobility, Environment, and Space
Entité participante : Université de Londres — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UoL
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1353763.0 €

This research investigates how individual transformations in response to a changing climate alter perceptions of habitability in at risk places. By evaluating how individuals react to and understand these changes, this work provides concrete entry points for engaging climate-affected and low-income populations in climate change action. Further, by engaging with the idea of transformation, the project rejects narratives that accept the current socio-economic conditions as necessarily extending into the future. Rather, it focuses on the emotional labour and psychological burden of living with climate risk and interrogates how non-material losses (particularly fear, grief and disempowerment) can be leveraged to reduce current and future vulnerability. The project engages Campbell et al’s (2018) concept of bleak optimism – the agency we acquire when we start learning to accept and live with climate change - to advance understanding of individual transformation in the context of climate change and to identify ways to address emotional and psychological barriers to habitability. Drawing on Freirean praxis to understand how people can shift their perspectives, and drawing on Massey’s theories of a progressive sense of place to find entry points for engagement, the project advances a framework to enact bleak optimism. Employing qualitative methodologies, including arts-based practices, community mapping and ethnography, the project takes an international comparative approach, working with low-income and politically marginalised groups in three locations. Cases are identified where government actors are undertaking transformational adaptation in response to floods (Durban, South Africa and Lismore, Australia), and costal erosion (Happisburgh, UK). The project advances adaptation theory by developing the role of place in individual transformation; and shifting narratives around climate-induced place change to present emancipatory, rather than foreclosed, futures.

Mots-clés : transformational adaptation,praxis,non material loss and damage
Projet ERC : ArtRNA (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Biotechnology and Biosystems E ngineering
Entité participante : Université Friedrich-Schiller d'Iéna — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1999913.0 €

RNA is common to all organisms. Despite its major function as the coding agent for protein synthesis, an increasing number of regulatory roles have been assigned to RNA. In bacteria, small RNAs (sRNAs) constitute the best-studied class of non-coding regulators estimated to control ~20% of all genes in a given organism. Most sRNAs affect gene expression by base-pairing with multiple target mRNAs resulting in either gene repression or activation. sRNA regulators are modular, versatile, and highly programmable, and thus have gathered momentum as control devices in synthetic biology and biotechnology.  My group has recently established artificial sRNAs as a potent genetic tool to screen, detect, and characterize microbial phenotypes. We have now extended this method by a novel sequencing approach, called LIGseq, allowing us to map sRNA-target interactions at the population level and in a high throughput manner. We have further shown that sRNAs expressed from the 3’ untranslated regions (UTRs) of mRNAs can serve as tuneable autoregulatory elements and thus bear ample possibilities for the design of artificial gene networks. I therefore posit that artificial sRNAs are powerful, yet understudied control elements of the synthetic biology toolbox with largely untapped regulatory potentials. I thus propose to: 1) exploit artificial sRNAs to investigate the molecular principles underlying target selection and RNA duplex formation by bacterial non-coding RNAs, 2) harness the power of artificial sRNAs to study essential gene functions and the mechanisms underlying antibiotic resistance in bacteria, 3) employ 3’UTR-derived sRNAs as programmable feedback devices in synthetic gene regulatory circuits. This combined work will generate the molecular framework to employ artificial sRNAs for synthetic biology applications and shed new light on medically relevant processes, such as antibiotic resistance of microbial pathogens.
Projet ERC : DISACT (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Institutions, Governance and Legal Systems
Entité participante : Université de Londres — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : UoL
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 36193.0 €

DISACT will investigate the logic of the crime of disappearances in repressive and (post)conflict settings. Even though combatants have always gone missing on the battlefield, the purposeful disappearance of people is a relatively recent phenomenon. Around 1,000 people now disappear daily, with high levels of public attention to the phenomenon, yet we know relatively little about the historical origins of the crime, the rationale for violent (state and non-state) actors to deploy it, or the processes underpinning its international diffusion. In answering these questions, the project will draw on in-depth analysis of six carefully selected cases, each geared towards documenting a different stage or thematic manifestation in the historical evolution of disappearances. First, DISACT will use archival sources to examine how disappearances emerged in the context of the French colonial counterinsurgency in Algeria (1954-1962). It will then draw on rich ethnographic evidence of violence in Cyprus (1955-1974) to shed light on the logic of the crime in conflict settings. Next, DISACT will investigate the hitherto unexplored role of illiberal intergovernmental organizations in facilitating regional diffusion by analysing the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Eurasia (2005-2020). Finally, the project will innovate methodologically by using forensic evidence to uncover the strategic logic of selective removal of remains of victims from original grave sites, comparing the experiences of Cyprus, Chile, and Bosnia. This comparative, interdisciplinary, and multimethod project will blend ethnographic, forensic, legal, and archival evidence to enrich the understanding of one of the most complex human rights violations of our time. Understanding the motives driving disappearances could identify the unexamined and interlinked dynamics of state repression, colonialism, violent conflict, and post-conflict accountability.
Projet ERC : SAMEY (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Integrative B iology : from Genes and Genomes to S ystems
Entité participante : Université rhénane Frédéric-Guillaume de Bonn — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1977285.0 €

Hybrid breeding has been one of the biggest contributors to yield increase of the last century. Hybrids are individuals which have genetically different parents, which results in a “hybrid vigour” effect. This hybrid vigour effect can confer advantages over inbred parent lines in growth, yield, and resilience and tolerance to different types of environmental stresses, important for securing agricultural production in a changing climate. An even greater hybrid vigour effect is possible in autopolyploids, which can have up to four different copies of each chromosome, than in diploids, which have can only have up to two different copies of each chromosome. In effect, “double hybrids” can be made in autopolyploids, with up to four different parents contributing to hybrid vigour in a single individual. However, to date the double hybrid effect has almost never been used for breeding. Most of our crops are not autopolyploids. We can induce autopolyploidy through chromosome doubling, but this causes meiotic instability, where multiple crossovers occur between the four chromosome copies during meiosis. This pairing disruption leads to potential loss of chromosomes and chromosome fragments essential for seed fertility and viability. Although induced autopolyploids are meiotically unstable, this is not the case for established autopolyploids. In the majority of established autopolyploids, a maximum of one crossover per two homologous chromosomes during meiosis is strictly enforced, thus achieving 100% pairing and correct segregation of chromosomes into daughter cells. I propose to stabilise meiosis in induced autopolyploid Brassica rapa (turnip, Chinese cabbage) by knock-out of crossover promoting genes, over-expression of crossover suppressing genes and selection of natural genetic variants. Stable autopolyploids will be used to produce double-hybrid lines, which will be evaluated for hybrid vigour for yield-related traits.

Mots-clés : polyploidy,meiosis,plant breeding,brassica
Projet ERC : DECONSTRUCT (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Molecules of Life: B iological  Mechanisms , Structures  and Functions
Entité participante : Université Louis-et-Maximilien de Munich — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : LMU
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2000000.0 €

Cells are constantly challenged by complex crosslinking damage, which is caused not only by endogenous metabolites, such as reactive aldehydes, but also by various exogenous sources. While crosslinking damage to DNA has been studied extensively, almost all reactive agents act pleiotropically and also damage RNA and proteins. However, due to the complexity of the damage, it is difficult to determine which components of the damage are responsible for specific cellular outcomes. Therefore, it is unknown how crosslinking damage to RNA and proteins affects cellular homeostasis and how it is detected and resolved.  Here, I propose to exploit novel experimental model systems that deconstruct complex crosslinking damage into distinct toxic components. I will combine metabolic labelling with photoactivatable-crosslinking approaches to mimic aldehyde-induced RNA or protein damage in the absence of DNA damage. We will combine these model systems with genetic and proteomic approaches to define the molecular mechanisms that detect and resolve RNA-protein crosslinks and protein-protein crosslinks. To this end, we will capitalize on preliminary work indicating the existence of an entirely uncharacterized translation-coupled quality control mechanism that ubiquitylates and degrades proteins crosslinked to mRNA. Ultimately, I will build on these mechanistic insights to explore the physiological role of RNA and protein damage in (1) the response to endogenous formaldehyde generated during cellular differentiation and (2) the mechanisms-of-action of chemotherapeutic crosslinkers.  My work will provide a comprehensive view on how complex crosslinking damage affects cellular homeostasis and will challenge the current paradigm that DNA damage is solely responsible for the cytotoxicity of crosslinking agents. As such, my work will address a major blind spot in the fields of cellular quality control and genome stability with wide-ranging implications for cancer therapy and ageing.

Mots-clés : genome stability,dna damage,dna protein crosslinks,dna repair,mrna damage,ribosome quality control,protein quality control,proteostasis,ubiquitylation,stress
Projet ERC : ANGRYWATERS (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Products and Processes Engineering
Entité participante : Université technique Carolo-Wilhelmina de Brunswick — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : TU Braunschweig
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2125908.0 €

Many Earth system processes involving multi-physics, multi-phase conditions extend over several orders of magnitude in length- and time-scales. Engineering science, in pursuit of deeper process understanding and solution-oriented design, has used scaling theories to address scale-afflicted, complex processes through experimental work in laboratory environment at reduced scale. The standard scaling approach, the Buckingham π-theorem, is especially deficient when multi-physics and multi-phase processes require the choice of more than a single non-dimensional number, resulting in severe scale effects and typically meaning that accuracies at reduced scale are inadequately quantified. Hence, we choose a demonstrably complex multi-physics, multi-phase process for the investigation of scaling accuracies – the progressive collapsing of residential buildings and the associate debris transport, evolving from extreme flow events from natural hazards, such as flash floods or tsunami. ANGRYWATERS seeks to achieve a breakthrough in modelling these complex processes by deriving novel scaling laws that will be developed in the framework of the Lie group of point scaling transformations. Scaling requirements will be applied to the combined fluid-structure interaction at various scales, developing sophisticated building specimens; here, we employ 3D-printing and appropriately engineered materials to match the scaling requirements. We conduct a comprehensive experimental campaign, using medium- and large-scale facilities, subjecting the specimens to extreme flow conditions in the form of dam-break waves. We consider sub-assemblages, single and multiple buildings, enhancing the understanding of energy losses and debris production upon collapse, elaborating reduced scale accuracies. High-fidelity numerical modelling will complement our experiments, deepening our process understanding; a depth-averaged model with novel debris advection model crucially enhances predictive capabilities.

Mots-clés : scaling theory,natural hazard,flooding,extreme flow condition,building collapse,tsunami,flash flood
Projet ERC : ElCapiTex (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Products and Processes Engineering
Entité participante : Centre national de la recherche scientifique — Pays : France — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : CNRS
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 50497.5 €

Fibrous media are ubiquitous in natural and engineered systems, due to their versatility, flexibility and functionality. Nonwovens (i.e. entangled fibrous networks), and especially natural fibre -based materials such as paper or flax mats, are heavily used for a variety of applications, and could be largely developed as a sustainable alternative for plastics. The first limitation of their widespread use is their response to humidity, wetting or drying, which is unavoidable in many applications, and is a key step of their manufacturing processes. The ElCapiTex project aims at characterizing and modelling the specific behaviour and properties of wet non-woven textiles (consolidation, imbibition, mechanical response, deformation) and of their manufacturing processes. In order to characterize the complex interplay between the various physical mechanisms that gives rise to the global properties of textiles (hydrodynamics, capillarity, elasticity, swelling), we will combine different approaches coming from three recent active research areas of fluid-structure interactions: the transport of suspensions of elastic objects, elastocapillarity (i.e. the deformation induced by the capillary forces associated with liquid-air interfaces), and poroelasticity. We will work with a hierarchy of experimental model systems of increasing complexity, in particular by fabricating model nonwoven sheets from gel fibre suspensions. We will further build theoretical models, based on recent statistical approaches used to describe the mechanical properties of dry textiles. Understanding these physical mechanisms is mandatory to develop innovative processes and materials; reconciling fundamental pore-scale mechanisms with network behaviour will allow for the design of tailored fibrous media with specific properties.

Mots-clés : capillarity textiles swelling fibres imbibition drops
Projet ERC : RatInhalRNA (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Prevention,  Diagnosis and T reatment of Human Diseases
Entité participante : Université Louis-et-Maximilien de Munich — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : LMU
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2000000.0 €

The overarching goal of RatInhalRNA is to computationally predict and develop efficient formulations for pulmonary RNA therapy. New RNA formulations are imperative for clinical RNA delivery beyond the liver. The lung offers undruggable targets which could be treated with RNA therapeutics. However, approved siRNA formulations are not suited for pulmonary delivery due to instability in lung surfactant and during nebulization. Hence, it is my aim to rationally design inhalable and biocompatible polymer-based siRNA formulations for efficient siRNA delivery to the lung. While biomaterials are commonly optimized empirically via one-variable-at-a-time experimentation, I am the first to combine Design-of-Experiments (DoE) with Molecular Dynamics (MD) Simulations and Machine Learning (ML) to accelerate the discovery and optimization process of siRNA nanocarriers towards the metrics of gene silencing efficacy and biocompatibility at reduced wet-lab resources. In RatInhalRNA, I will synthesize amphiphilic polyspermines and will prepare siRNA-loaded nanoparticles by microfluidic assembly for experimental assessment of physico-chemical parameters as well as in vitro and in vivo gene silencing efficacy in coronavirus infection models. I will assess siRNA binding of the polyspermines via MD simulations and will analyze the contribution of the nanoparticle design factors on experimental and computational readout responses of the DoE. I will train a support vector machine for supervised ML and will generate models to identify areas of interest. Based on the predictions, I will test additional formulations to obtain a validation dataset for the assessment the ability of the ML algorithm to identify design properties of efficient siRNA nanoparticles for pulmonary delivery. RatInhalRNA will enable me to predict favorable siRNA nanoparticle characteristics in the future prior to polymer synthesis thereby reducing experimental work and improving sustainability and animal welfare.

Mots-clés : sirna,delivery,formulation,nanoparticle,nanomedicine,gene silencing,inhalation,lung,pulmonary,aerosol,air liquid interface,sars cov 2,covid 19,polymer,simulation,design of experiments,machine learning