Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : MUSING (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Mathematics
Entité participante : Université de Jyväskylä — Pays : Finlande — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1362842.5 €

The ERC CoG project MUSING aims to make progress in several old problems in geometric measure theory (GMT), including Vitushkin's conjecture from the 60s, and the Furstenberg set conjecture proposed by Wolff in the 90s. Both problems are related to sharpening and generalising some cornerstone results in GMT, such as the projection theorems of Besicovitch and Marstrand. Recent work on these questions combines techniques from GMT, additive combinatorics, harmonic analysis, and incidence geometry. Vitushkin's conjecture is motivated by the Painlevé problem on finding a geometric characterisation for the removable singularities of bounded analytic functions. The Furstenberg conjecture has direct links to other key open problems in continuum incidence geometry, such as Falconer's distance set problem, and the Erdös-Szemerédi sum-product problem. MUSING will tackle its problems with techniques from multi-scale analysis, and via the special case of Ahlfors-regular sets. These sets are uniform at different scales and locations, so they are particularly amenable to multi-scale methods. On the other hand, progress in the Ahlfors-regular special cases can often be extended to more general sets via mechanisms such as the corona decompositions of David and Semmes, and the scale block decomposition technique, devised by Keleti and Shmerkin in their work on Falconer's distance set problem. Apart from being a stepping stone on the way to general sets, Ahlfors-regular sets also have great independent interest. Evidence is accumulating that incidence geometric problems may admit far stronger solutions for Ahlfors-regular sets than for general sets. Conclusive results of this type already exist for classes of dynamically generated sets, notably self-similar sets, due to the works of Hochman, Shmerkin, Wu, and others. To what extent can these results be extended to Ahlfors-regular sets, which share the spatial uniformity of self-similar sets, but lack an underlying dynamical system?

Mots-clés : vitushkin s conjecture,furstenberg sets,projections,visibility problem,distance set problem,hausdorff dimension,incidence geometry,sum product theory,uniform rectifiability
Projet ERC : CAUSEX (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Environmental B iology, Ecology  and E volution
Entité participante : Université de Jyväskylä — Pays : Finlande — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1848004.0 €

Sexual selection and sexual strategies include some of the most fascinating and widely-studied phenomena in evolutionary biology. Yet they are also among the most debated and disputed topics. Our ability to understand causal relationships and to fully engage with disagreements and controversies is limited by the disjointed nature of theory, which does not typically engage with the gamete level where central concepts are defined. CAUSEX will seek a common causal and mathematical structure that applies across models of sexual selection and sexual strategy, and engages explicitly with the defining aspects of sexes and sexual selection. This common foundation will be used to bind together and reconstruct central aspects of classical sexual selection theory, to scrutinise relationships between modelling methods, and to develop new models. In doing so, we will also develop biophysical models (fertilisation functions) which explicitly link gamete level processes to fitness. The overall aim is a conceptually and causally coherent theory which is clearly linked to the gamete level. The unification of a disjointed and controversial field will address unresolved challenges and clarify empirical predictions, and will be a major breakthrough in evolutionary biology.

Mots-clés : evolution sexual selection reproductive strategies fertilisation causality theory modelling
Projet ERC : DIACIDAL (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Environmental B iology, Ecology  and E volution
Entité participante : Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : MBA
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1516704.75 €

Interactions between phytoplankton and bacteria play key roles in mediating carbon and nutrient fluxes in the oceans, yet the mechanistic basis and environmental impacts of such interactions are poorly understood. DIACIDAL addresses crucial unknowns in our understanding of the interactions of one of the most globally abundant phytoplankton, the diatoms, and their bacterial pathogens. This proposal builds on my team’s recent advances developing an innovative sampling pipeline to isolate environmentally relevant bacterial pathogens of diatoms. This work suggests that bacterial pathogenicity towards diatoms is more prevalent than recognised previously. Moreover, we have important new evidence that diatoms can sense bacterial pathogens to evade their attack. Our new framework will be coupled with cutting-edge molecular tools that I have pioneered to study diatom signalling, including biosensors to track real-time signalling responses in single diatom cells. These tools have already made important breakthroughs in our understanding of how diatoms sense their environment. Exploiting these advances, we will use culture-dependent (Tn-Seq, comparative ‘omics, and imaging) and new single-cell culture-independent approaches. By focussing on a model interaction, we will decipher mechanisms mediating bacterial pathogenicity towards diatoms, and elucidate how diatoms sense and evade their pathogens. This will reveal novel effectors and defence signalling systems. Finally, we will leverage the new tools and insights to quantify the prevalence of bacterial pathogenicity and diatom defence in natural ecosystems. This innovative, multidisciplinary program will advance understanding of mechanisms governing bloom dynamics, inform ecosystem models, and shed light on a poorly characterised environmental stressor confronting phytoplankton communities. This also has potential to unlock new translational opportunities for biotechnology e.g. novel antimicrobial and anti-fouling compounds.

Mots-clés : diatoms,algal blooms,pathogenic bacteria,microbial interactions,functional biology
Projet ERC : SPHINX (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Human Mobility, Environment, and Space
Entité participante : Université de technologie de Delft — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : TU Delft
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2000000.0 €

Globally climate change already manifests via physical risks – damages from floods, storms, wildfires, heatwaves, droughts, and sea-level rise. Concerns are rising that these risks may become systemic, adversely affecting the entire socio-economic system. Yet, there is no comprehensive understanding of key processes driving systemic physical climate risks, and surprisingly few quantitative assessments. Scientific progress is hindered by limitations of past data to represent future choices in a changing climate and by the inability of conventional economic models to capture non-linear tipping. To address this gap, SPHINX will fundamentally advance simulation methods and consolidate novel data to understand how systemic physical climate risks emerge in the socio-economic system, and to explore strategies to curtail their spiraling costs. The ground-breaking nature of SPHINX stems from its unique combination of: 1) Theory-based mechanisms hypothesizing causal links in socio-economic systems and decisions under risk; 2) Novel microdata on forward-looking expectations of households and businesses, including diverse views on a fair distribution of public adaptation resources; 3) Advances in agent-based modeling to trace dynamics of cross-scale risk contagion and feedbacks under adaptive expectations of heterogeneous agents; 4) Pioneering methods to integrate bottom-up risk transmission channels into established macroeconomic models conventionally used to trace cascading cross-sectoral and cross-border effects but able to handle marginal changes only. SPHINX lays the scientific foundations for a new way to account for non-linear tipping in socio-economic systems, significantly advancing methods to elicit systemic physical climate risks, while exploring proactive strategies to avert them for archetypes of European regions. Foreseen impacts reach beyond the domain of physical climate risks to other applications where socio-economic tipping points are crucial.

Mots-clés : climate change adaptation agent based model complex socio economic systems survey
Projet ERC : MORASINA (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Products and Processes Engineering
Entité participante : Université de technologie de Delft — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : TU Delft
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1988158.0 €

The target of climate-neutral aviation has led to a strong increase in the size of new propulsion systems, resulting in their lowered distance to the airframe components. This causes new aerodynamic interactions with heavy distortion of the turbulent flow, determining unpredictable sources of noise. Mitigating this interaction noise would allow to deploy radically new aircraft configurations capable of reducing up to 20% of the current aviation emissions. While studies from literature have tried to correct discrepancies larger than 10 dB from acoustic predictions by a-posteriori tuning the models to very specific flow patterns, recent results from my team have shed light on the physics behind the unpredictability of these noise sources. Results hinted that the geometrical deformation of the turbulent flow from its original pattern might explain the origin of interaction noise. To solve this puzzle, with MORASINA I aim at first understanding how the flow and the turbulence are distorted in archetypal interactions between rotating and stationary aerodynamic objects. My objective is to discover the unknown mathematical formulation to model this distortion mechanism and to use it to create the first holistic acoustic model for predictions of interaction noise. By innovatively describing the interaction mechanisms with mathematical functions related to the geometrical distortion of the flow, I will find an answer to whether different flow fields can be assimilated in a unique fundamental flow pattern. With this knowledge, I will create the first acoustic model based on a mathematical “flow twin” to accurately predict interaction noise. For maximum impact on the society, I will extend the model to equipollent interaction mechanisms with a neural network approach trained on the results, allowing the use of the prediction framework for reducing interaction noise in the design of the next generation of zero-emission and silent aircraft.

Mots-clés : aeroacoustics,modeling,interaction,noise,flow structures,instabilities
Projet ERC : MarDepend (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Study of the Human Past
Entité participante : Université de Trèves — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1548174.75 €

MarDepend seeks to understand the existential dependency of states and communities on maritime trade. It aims to analyse and quantify how trade, geography, and conflict were interrelated in antiquity, with a focus on the city-state of Syracuse in Sicily. The study will explore economic structures, trade balance, and the impact of maritime routes on trade during both peace and war. Syracuse, a key maritime power from the early 5th century BCE until being conquered by Rome in 212 BCE, serves as an ideal case study. Its position at the crossroads of ancient maritime trade, from which it engaged with a wide range of actors, and its largely consistent trade policies over centuries make it particularly relevant and provide a wealth of evidence, in quantity and quality, conducive to quantitative economic analysis. Building on the case of Syracuse, MarDepend establishes maritime dependencies as a framework for comprehending global trade and political dynamics across diverse historical periods. MarDepend, characterised by an innovative interdisciplinary approach and a broad methodological basis, combines historical research, archaeology, marine engineering, oceanography, and economic theory through modelling of wind, waves, and currents, measuring the performance of ancient ships with the help of Computational Fluid Dynamics, reconstructing trade routes through simulations, analysing material evidence (coins, inscriptions, amphorae), and developing a formal economic model for ancient trade. Advanced software and digital tools analyse the data and synthesise it in an open-access GIS. The unique approach provides a foundation for applying analogous methodologies to investigate the trade dependencies in a much broader historical and geographical context, such as a diachronic investigation of the relationship between trade and conflict. The research holds the potential to reshape our understanding of ancient economies and maritime history.
Projet ERC : CarbFunction (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Synthetic Chemistry and Materials
Entité participante : Université de la Ruhr à Bochum — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2000000.0 €

Carbanionic compounds such as organolithium or Grignard reagents are important organometallic reagents and commonly used in organic synthesis for difficult deprotonation or C-C bond formation reactions. Due to the strongly polarized metal carbon bond these reagents are usually highly reactive and sensitive towards air and moisture and thus must be handled under strictly anhydrous conditions. Owing to this intrinsic reactivity, carbanionic compounds are usually only prepared in situ and scarcely applied beyond their classical use as strong bases or alkylation reagents. Free carbanions without stabilizing metal-carbon inter¬action are usually even more reactive but can be isolated when being stabilized by electron withdrawing groups. These naked carbanions are isoelectronic to simple amines. Yet, whereas amines are applied in various fields of chemistry not only as bases but also as versatile building blocks and functional groups, applications of free carbanions are very limited. This project will change the perspective on carbanionic compounds. By careful molecular design the reactivity of carbanions will be controlled to enable their use as broadly applicable building blocks and functional groups. Experimental and computational methods will provide a fundamental understanding of the electronic structure and its influencing factors, thus allowing for a systematic use of the anionic nature and donor capacity of carbanions to reach properties and reactivities, which are not accessible via conventional strategies. Thus, we will provide a new toolbox for the design of smart anionic reagents and catalysts. The power of this concept will be demonstrated by applying carbanions in different research directions ranging from the stabilization of main group species with unusual electronic properties, to designing new bifunctional catalysts with abundant s- and p-block elements and the generation of versatile weakly coordinating anions.

Mots-clés : main group chemistry,organometallic chemistry,carbanions,ligand design
Projet ERC : OCN (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Texts and Concepts
Entité participante : Université des îles Baléares — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2000000.0 €

With the latest international Law of the Sea (UNCLOS 1982), narratives on environmental crimes and harms at sea have changed their views of ocean governance, sustainability, and human rights, and are now shaping an international, hegemonic discourse. A growing, under-examined corpus of contemporary literary and filmic narratives discusses environmental criminality at sea as subject to contested international and state jurisdiction, harmful to oceanic sustainability and threatening human rights, and uncertainly poised between crime and harm. Literature and film are only part of the discourse around environmental criminality at sea, since policymakers, lawyers and scientists are its main producers. How do discourses in the cultural and scientific realms co-create conceptions, arguments and ideas that underpin the actual international regulations and policy negotiations around environmental crime and harm at sea? OCN responds to this new challenge with three objectives: 1) to analyze the narratives around environmental crime and harm at sea in a new, hitherto unexamined corpus of post-1982 literature and film; 2) to conduct a novel narrative analysis of environmental sea crime and harm discourses aiming for dissemination and governance from the perspective of oceanography, green criminology, and political ecology; 3) to produce a polyhedral assessment of hegemonic, international discourse on environmental crime and harm at sea today. OCN examines a post-1982 corpus of literary, filmic and expert narratives dealing with three areas of harm and crime: a) exploitation of biological and mineral marine resources; b) toxic waste and plastic dumping; c) harmful climate-change effects on oceanic ecosystems. The project tests an interdisciplinary analysis of discursive practices to provide a fresher, critical view of hegemonic, international environmental crime discourses at sea, which determine definitions of criminality and aim to safeguard the future sustainability of our oceans.

Mots-clés : narrative analysis,oceans,environmental crime
Projet ERC : BiNet (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Systems and Communication Engineering
Entité participante : Université d'Oulu — Pays : Finlande — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2000000.0 €

Bifurcating networks are ubiquitous in nature such as vasculature/pulmonary networks, kidney urinary tract, and branching in plants. In addition to their role of transporting the carrying fluid, these networks distribute discrete particles suspended in the fluid leading to intricate spatiotemporal particle flow dynamics. The heterogenous distribution of red blood cells (RBC) in microcirculation is an example of this behaviour, consequences of which are not well-understood. Our objective is to explain the fundamental principles and implications of nonuniform particle distributions in bifurcating networks using RBC flow in vasculature as a model system. Currently there is no systematic approach to study such complex particle distribution dynamics. We propose using droplet microfluidic as an analogue of the biological network. Microfluidics provide superb control of the droplets/particles, carrying fluid and network properties in highly engineered microfabricated devices. We aim to understand RBC distribution patterns in capillary network and the consequences during vascularization and organogenesis. Our approach is (i) to observe the in vivo RBC fractionation in chick embryo vasculature, (ii) to develop its in vitro analogue using droplet microfluidics, (iii) to develop in silico model and determine the governing parameters. This project will discover the foundations of particle transport phenomena in nonlinear bifurcating networks and address the long-lasting question of RBC nonuniformity in microcirculation and its implications as a groundbreaking contribution. Another key outcome will be correlating RBC heterogeneity to corresponding organ growth by visualising two bifurcating networks simultaneously: vasculature and urinary tree, using kidney organoid xenotransplantation. The project will advance (i) the fundamental understanding of particle distribution in nonlinear bifurcating networks and (ii) the research in vascularization and artificial kidney development.

Mots-clés : microfluidics,microdroplets,red blood cells
Projet ERC : NANOVOLC (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Earth System Science
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 : 1664925.41 €

Volcanism is virtually ubiquitous in space and time across the universe. Its explosive expression impacts planetary evolution, life and history on Earth. The brittle – molecular – failure of magma is central to trigger explosive eruptions and yet, its occurrence is elusive to us. The mechanistic understanding of magma dynamics, combined with monitoring activities, form the basis for forecasting eruptions. This is central for modelling the impact on volcanic eruptions and determining the risk scenario in populated areas and along flight routes. A lack of understanding of magma failure thus hampers our ability to study the local and global impact of volcanism. It is only in the last years that nanosized crystals (nanolites) have been exponentially identified in products of explosive eruptions. Pioneering experiments and in situ observations of magmas dynamics, I showed that nanolite formation can occur within seconds and has the potential to set the conditions for brittle magma fragmentation. It is time to observe in situ, under volcanic conditions the formation of nanolites and unravel their role in triggering explosive eruptions. This cutting-edge approach requires interdisciplinary research combined with technological advances. Through NANOVOLC, I will integrate earth sciences with materials science and artificial intelligence to lift the veil on the process of nanolite formation and its role in magma failure. I will deliver a numerical model of magma ascent and eruption to forecast and quantify the impacts of explosive eruptions. To this end, I will i) perform in situ observations of nanolite formation in magmas, ii) build a unique magma fragmentation apparatus that will push the experimental boundaries explored so far, and iii) use artificial intelligence to support numerical model of non-linear volcanic processes. Beyond volcanology, NANOVOLC will provide fundamental understanding of nanocrystal formation in technical glasses, relevant to glass-ceramic industry.