Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : QUINTESSEnCE (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Fundamental Constituents of Matter
Entité participante : Université de Florence — Pays : Italie — Rôle : Partner
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 375000.0 €

Isolating and addressing individual quantum systems has allowed for breakthrough results in quantum mechanics. Today, increasing the complexity of the system while maintaining control at the single-quantum level is vital for the next generation of quantum devices and research. QUINTESSEnCE will take up this challenge by developing interfaces between single photons, spins and phonons, all within one simple physical system, i.e. a single molecule. Fundamental systems like molecules have the inherent advantage, in comparison to artificial structures, of being nominally identical. A molecule can have the coherence properties of an atom even when embedded in a solid, without losing the access and customization opportunities typical instead of the solid state. Molecules differ from atoms in being more complex systems, with rich energy diagrams structured over multiple scales. We propose to leverage this complexity to coherently connect optical frequency photons with microwave spin excitations and gigahertz phonons. Unprecedented control over the molecules’ degrees of freedom will be achieved by integrating them in nanostructured devices. We will develop a ground-breaking lab-in-a-molecule platform, benefiting from the tunability and scalability of molecules, so as to aim at the following main objectives: • Complex states of light: integrating multiple molecular sources of indistinguishable photons on chip • Single-molecule cavity optomechanics: accessing the regime of single-photon strong coupling in an unconventional cavity optomechanical system • Optical addressing of single molecular spins: providing a crucial knob to read out and control the spin state of a single molecule QUINTESSEnCE will therefore allow us to entering unexplored quantum territories and to develop quantum-technology tools unavailable today. Notably, the outcome of this project will impact a broad scientific community, touching quantum optics, optomechanics and molecular quantum technologies.

Mots-clés : single molecule physics quantum emitters interfaces hybrid systems
Projet ERC : QUINTESSEnCE (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Fundamental Constituents of Matter
Entité participante : Conseil national de la recherche — Pays : Italie — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : CNR
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1473173.0 €

Isolating and addressing individual quantum systems has allowed for breakthrough results in quantum mechanics. Today, increasing the complexity of the system while maintaining control at the single-quantum level is vital for the next generation of quantum devices and research. QUINTESSEnCE will take up this challenge by developing interfaces between single photons, spins and phonons, all within one simple physical system, i.e. a single molecule. Fundamental systems like molecules have the inherent advantage, in comparison to artificial structures, of being nominally identical. A molecule can have the coherence properties of an atom even when embedded in a solid, without losing the access and customization opportunities typical instead of the solid state. Molecules differ from atoms in being more complex systems, with rich energy diagrams structured over multiple scales. We propose to leverage this complexity to coherently connect optical frequency photons with microwave spin excitations and gigahertz phonons. Unprecedented control over the molecules’ degrees of freedom will be achieved by integrating them in nanostructured devices. We will develop a ground-breaking lab-in-a-molecule platform, benefiting from the tunability and scalability of molecules, so as to aim at the following main objectives: • Complex states of light: integrating multiple molecular sources of indistinguishable photons on chip • Single-molecule cavity optomechanics: accessing the regime of single-photon strong coupling in an unconventional cavity optomechanical system • Optical addressing of single molecular spins: providing a crucial knob to read out and control the spin state of a single molecule QUINTESSEnCE will therefore allow us to entering unexplored quantum territories and to develop quantum-technology tools unavailable today. Notably, the outcome of this project will impact a broad scientific community, touching quantum optics, optomechanics and molecular quantum technologies.

Mots-clés : single molecule physics quantum emitters interfaces hybrid systems
Projet ERC : MIRACLE (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Materials Engineering
Entité participante : Université polytechnique de Madrid — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2808686.0 €

Photovoltaics is called to be a main player in the global transformation of the energy sector the world is facing to fight climate change. Multijunction solar cells, based on classical III-V compound semiconductors, are the most advanced photovoltaic cells holding a record photoconversion efficiency of 38.8%. However, the high cost associated to their manufacturing process has typically relegated this technology to non-terrestrial applications in favour of Si cells. On the contrary, single-junction Si cells are cost-effective, but there is almost no room left to further improve their efficiency, which already approaches its theoretical limit, 29.4%. MIRACLE is created to make true a dream of decades: combining the unbeatable efficiency of multijunction solar cells with the cost-effectiveness of Si technology. The ultimate objective of MIRACLE is the demonstration of both double- and triple-junction solar cells based on III-V materials pseudomorphically grown on top of a Si cell, configurations that promise photoconversion efficiencies of up to 43 and 47%, respectively. Quaternary dilute-nitride alloys are the only III-V compounds that can be grown lattice-matched to Si with ideal band gaps for the fabrication of multijunction solar cells in combination with a bottom Si cell. Nevertheless, despite of their well-known potential, reports on dilute-nitride solar cells are rather scarce yet due to their challenging fabrication with the high structural perfection demanded in photovoltaics. The revolutionary idea of MIRACLE is to make use of quantum engineering to fabricate dilute-nitride compounds lattice matched to Si not as thick layers, as attempted so far, but as short-period superlattices by periodically alternating simpler compounds on atomic-layer scale. Hence, MIRACLE does not only aim to push the efficiency of cost-effective Si-based tandem solar cells to their theoretical limits, but also to unveil the physical properties of unexplored quantum heterostructures.

Mots-clés : dilute nitrides,iii v compound semiconductors,quantum heterostructures,molecular beam epitaxy,and photovoltaic solar cells
Projet ERC : DYNWALL (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Biotechnology and Biosystems E ngineering
Entité participante : Université polytechnique de Madrid — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : Partner
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1676616.88 €

Plants have a strong yet extensible wall as their outermost layer, which is indispensable for the survival of the cell and permits cell adhesion. The plant cell wall (CW) plays an essential role in response to biotic stress, as it constitutes the first contact substrate for microbes. Our findings using the model pathosystem consisting of the plant Arabidopsis thaliana and a root pathogen that can infect it, Fusarium oxysporum (Fo), confirm that the plant CW is not the static barrier it has been seen as until recently. On the contrary, based on our preliminary data, we hypothesize that plant CW remodeling at the subcellular level plays an essential role in the outcome of the plant-microbe interaction, which might explain the sophisticated mechanisms of plant-endophyte (pathogen, neutral or beneficial) co-evolution. Our work has established a foundation of tools that provide a timely and unprecedented opportunity to test this idea. We aim to elucidate the role of root-specific CW composition and its dynamic changes in root-Fo interaction. Then, we will use this knowledge to modulate the CW properties of the root cell layers to reduce Fo pathogenesis while maintaining beneficial endophytism. Through a unique combination of well-established and high-risk/high-gain molecular, biochemical, bioimaging, and genetics approaches, this project will provide groundbreaking insights not only into the molecular mechanisms underlying CW-dependent establishment and regulation of innate immune signaling in plants, but also into general mechanisms that control plant-microbe interaction outside the plasma membranes. The knowledge gained from this work will advance our current understanding of plant-microbe co-evolution. In addition, we will generate innovative methodologies that will be applicable in designing strategies to reduce damage caused by vascular pathogens in crops.

Mots-clés : root vascular pathogen,plant cell wall,fusarium oxysporum
Projet ERC : FROM STONE TO HOME (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Study of the Human Past
Entité participante : Danish Ministry of Climate, Energy and Utilities — Pays : Danemark — Rôle : Partner
Type d'entité : Autres
Financement ERC de l'entité : 121540.0 €

This project explores the emergence of value and wealth as a concept in human history. Social and economic changes accelerated during the Neolithic, but until now it remains unclear what triggered inequality in these communities. Thus, the project aims to nuance how inequality evolved in human history. To approach this key question the study will investigate social and economic transformations initiated by the appearance of polished stone tools (axes, adzes, chisels and wedges) recovered from Neolithic sites, burials, households and quarries from the 7th to the 4th millennium BC in the Aegean. The project hypothesis is linking the Neolithic human awareness of raw material availability and biographies of polished stone tool assemblages with the abstract concepts of the different kinds of value and wealth in these communities. The project will pursue its objectives by initiating four work packages which will, for the first time, document and compare polished stone tools made of rare (jadeitite, nephrite, omphacitite or eclogite) and common (serpentinite, andesite, basalt, gabbro and hematite) raw materials from sites, burials and households in selected synchronic and diachronic case studies. By revealing the location of previously unknown raw material sources and quarry sites of polished stone tools, the project will be able to discover the interrelations between local, regional and superregional exchange networks. Through techno-morphological, use-wear and contextual analysis of polished stone tools, it will be possible to qualify and quantify the different stages of the studied objects, from procurement, manufacture and usage to the final deposition. The data from the polished stone tool assemblages will be related to other materials (lithics, ceramics, bones, shells, obsidian, flint, copper and gold) from the studied sites, burials and households, in order to identify new aspects related to the value of objects and fluctuations in wealth and inequality.

Mots-clés : neolithic,stone tools,aegean,value,wealth
Projet ERC : OpENSpinS (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Fundamental Constituents of Matter
Entité participante : Université technique de Munich — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1984375.0 €

A major breakthrough in quantum information processing is expected once “qubits”, carriers of quantum information, can be reliably integrated and controlled in silicon – the basis of today’s advanced classical information technology. Previous qubit realizations used the electronic spin of quantum dots or dopants, i.e. atoms of a different species replacing silicon in the lattice. However, this approach has only allowed for the entanglement of qubits in immediate proximity, which has hindered increasing the size of silicon-based quantum information processing systems. In OpENSpinS, these limitations will be overcome by using the nuclear spins of erbium dopants as qubits. These are initialized, read-out and controllably entangled using photons in the minimal-loss band of existing fiber-optical infrastructure. To demonstrate the unique potential of this approach, the specific objectives of the proposal are: I) The fabrication of nanophotonic resonators with unprecedented Purcell enhancement to enable coherent spin-photon coupling, II) the direct optical addressing and control of nuclear spin qubits with long coherence, and III) the implementation of optically-controlled two-qubit quantum gates and entanglement, both within a node and over distance. The proposed system combines the advantages of two leading platforms for quantum information processing: the bandwidth and long-distance connectivity of photons at telecommunications wavelength with the robust control and hour-long qubit storage achievable with nuclear spins in silicon. As the proposed chip-integrated resonators can be manufactured using established processes of the semiconductor industry, the novel hardware platform implemented in OpENSpinS offers unique prospects for future up-scaling of quantum information processing systems and quantum networks.

Mots-clés : quantum networks,distributed quantum information processing,single emitters,nuclear spin qubits
Projet ERC : FeedbackCircuits (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System
Entité participante : Université technique de Munich — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1818781.0 €

Our ability to flexibly adapt to changing environments depends on how we perceive, prioritize and act on stimuli. This involves actively integrating our current sensory experiences with our prior knowledge of the world and the surrounding context. Stimulus perception is influenced by contextual top-down signals from areas higher up in the processing hierarchy that carry information about internal state, attention and future actions to early processing stages where they are combined with bottom-up inputs. Commonly referred to as “feedback”, these top-down signals are multi-faceted; they come from diverse brain areas and are integrated at different loci in neural circuits. What type of information they carry and where is still unclear despite their fundamental role in shaping even the most mundane tasks. FeedbackCircuits will investigate the mechanistic circuit basis of feedback-driven cortical computations, including contextual modulation and the amplification of unexpected stimuli, and will pinpoint the synaptic plasticity mechanisms governing the wiring logic of feedback projections. Constrained by experimental data from the mouse visual cortex, I will build a multi-scale theoretical framework that unifies diverse experimental findings and links cellular to circuit-level processing. Our strategy leverages new datasets that encompass multiple modalities, from neural responses in various brain regions to detailed synaptic-level wiring diagrams. The proposed mechanistic models will enable the exploration of distinct feedback sources and sites of plasticity, and together with the data, define plausible parameter spaces underlying feedback-driven computations. In contrast to other efforts training hard-to-interpret artificial neural networks, our models promise to elucidate the mechanistic underpinnings of circuit structure-function dynamics involving feedback, to distinguish between competing mechanistic hypotheses and make numerous experimental predictions.
Projet ERC : ChromoMemInMotion (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Molecules of Life: B iological  Mechanisms , Structures  and Functions
Entité participante : Université technique de Munich — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1999575.0 €

The gene expression patterns that define specific cell types are determined in part by epigenetic information encoded in histone marks that guide chromatin organization. During chromosome duplication, new histones lacking this information must be deposited to support the doubling of chromatin. However, the molecular mechanism of histone deposition and the coordination pathways that ensure epigenetic information is transmitted remain unknown. Determining the mechanics of chromosome assembly promises to open a new frontier in our understanding of the propagation of cell fate decisions that support multicellular life. Due to the antiparallel configuration of DNA, different DNA synthesis mechanisms are used on the daughter strands during DNA replication. How this is coordinated with the symmetric duplication of chromatin organization on daughter chromosomes is not known. I hypothesize that the replisome contains an extensive network of molecular wiring encoding the fundamental logic that governs histone transfer and deposition that is essential for the preservation of epigenetic cell identity and chromosome integrity. To discover this network, I propose a research program combining structural, biochemical, and single-molecule imaging approaches. To gain access to critical missing information, we will develop techniques that reveal the dynamics of histone transfer and deposition independently on each daughter strand in real-time for single replisomes.  The proposed research will determine the structural basis of new histone deposition, reveal the dynamics of replication-coupled chromatin assembly, and address how epigenetic states are re-established on daughter chromosomes. Realizing these objectives will represent a major breakthrough in our understanding of the molecular mechanics of chromosome assembly, the transmission of epigenetic cell memory, and allow for transformative biomedical technologies through engineered reprogramming of epigenetic memories.

Mots-clés : dna replication,chromatin,single molecule
Projet ERC : DEPICT (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Condensed Matter Physics
Entité participante : Université technique de Munich — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2620750.0 €

X-ray microtomography is increasingly popular at synchrotron sources worldwide. The high flux and excellent beam properties allow for a fast three-dimensional visualization of various kinds of specimens at micrometre spatial resolution and exceptionally high image quality. But all these imaging instruments use the unique synchrotron sources merely to depict the objects’ internal structure. All further quantitative information encoded into the data remains unused. The reason is a lack of an image retrieval method, which accurately models the whole image formation process with highly-coherent radiation on the micrometre scale to extract all contained information from a single exposure. Consequently, these microtomographic images always contain a mixture of different signals based on various interaction effects – namely attenuation, refraction and scattering. Accurately separating all the signals will allow to quantify concentration and microstructure of materials of interest and to locate them inside the object, which is unattainable in a single exposure at the moment. The main goal of this project is to enable simple and fast X-ray microtomography at highly-coherent sources to fully exploit the disregarded information contained in the imaging data. My team will develop a robust algorithm for accurate signal separation modelling all interaction effects and demonstrate the benefit of material decomposition for highlighted applications. With this tool at hand our ambition is to fundamentally change the way of imaging at modern synchrotron sources: Imaging will no longer be solely a morphological method, as quantitative and material-specific information will become standardly available in fast microtomography at all coherent sources worldwide.

Mots-clés : quantitative imaging,material decomposition,coherent sources,phase retrieval
Projet ERC : GLUCO-SCAN (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Prevention,  Diagnosis and T reatment of Human Diseases
Entité participante : Université de médecine de Vienne — Pays : Autriche — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2495924.0 €

The targeted scientific breakthrough of GLUCO-SCAN is the development and clinical evaluation of a disruptive whole-body molecular imaging concept for cancer assessment. The only currently established whole-body molecular imaging device is positron emission tomography (PET). Glucose (Glc)-sensitive PET is widely used in cancer diagnosis and treatment assessment, but has several major limitations: PET involves harmful ionizing radiation, is expensive, not widely available, and cannot differentiate between cancer-specific and normal cellular glucose uptake. These limitations prohibit an even more widespread use of PET, e.g. for screening. We propose a new Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) concept, whole-body deuterium metabolic imaging (DMI) that will overcome these limitations. Deuteration is a simple chemical procedure with which it is possible to artificially label a broad range of molecules with an equally broad range of potential applications, e.g., targeting Glc metabolism in cancer. After ingestion, this labeled Glc is metabolized in cells and the label is transferred to all metabolic products, which can be tracked by DMI. Building on our recent preliminary results in Nature Biomed, we propose a combination of novel MRI hardware, dynamic spectroscopic data sampling, deep learning algorithms, and a clinical validation to answer the following three research questions in a 5-year project: (i) Is DMI a viable alternative for whole-body cancer assessment? (ii) How is DMI positioned compared to Glc-sensitive PET? (iii) Can DMI be performed on widely available MRI systems and simultaneous with standard MRI? GLUCO-SCAN will fill a gap in current medical imaging by offering an alternative for whole-body PET examinations and potentially even for screening of high risk populations. Ultimately, it will pave the way for a new generation of MR scanners with all-in-one whole-body imaging capability that would capture morphologic and molecular information simultaneously.

Mots-clés : magnetic resonance imaging,magnetic resonance spectroscopy,ultra high field,glucose metabolism,oxidative glycolytic metabolism,cancer diagnosis,oncology