Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : OPT4SMART (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Systems and communication engineering
Entité participante : University of Bologna — Pays : Italie — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UNIBO
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 915144.58 €

The combination of embedded electronics and communication capability in almost any mobile or portable device has turned this century into the age of cyber-physical networks. Smart communicating devices with their sensing, computing and control capabilities promise to make our cities, transportation systems, factories and living environments more intelligent, energy-efficient, safe and secure. This extremely complex system has raised a number of new challenges involving ICT disciplines. In particular, a novel peer-to-peer distributed computational model is appearing as a new opportunity in which a service is built-up cooperatively by peers, rather than by a unique provider that knows and owns all data. The interdisciplinary “Optimization Community” is facing this revolution sharing a common need: to find new theories, methodologies and tools to optimize over this complex network system. With this in mind, OPT4SMART has a twofold objective. First, to provide a comprehensive theoretical framework to solve distributed optimization problems over peer-to-peer networks. Second, to develop effective numerical tools, based on this framework, to solve estimation, learning, decision and control problems in cyber-physical networks. To achieve this twofold objective, we will take a systems-theory perspective. Specific problems from these four areas will be abstracted to a common mathematical set-up, and addressed by means of interdisciplinary methodologies arising from a synergic combination of optimization, controls, and graph theories. In particular, OPT4SMART will face the challenge of solving optimization problems under severe communication limitations, very-large-scale problem and data size, and real-time computational constraints. The expected result will be a combination of strong theoretical methods and effective numerical toolboxes available to people in Engineering, Computer Science, Mathematics and other areas, who are facing optimization in cyber-physical networks.

Mots-clés : distributed optimization,distributed control,cooperative control
Projet ERC : DIANA (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Proof of concept grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Products and processes engineering
Entité participante : Neuro-Zone (Italy) — Pays : Italie — Rôle : Partner
Type d'entité : Organismes privés (hors enseignement)
Financement ERC de l'entité : 50000.0 €

The commitment to drug development for brain pathologies is experiencing a fast rate decreasing, a critical situation in a worldwide scenario where the number of patients affected by brain pathologies like Alzheimer’s (AD) or Parkinson’s (PD) disease are expected to greatly increase in the next decades. One critical point is that the development of new drugs is a three-phase process that currently requires 10-15 years and investment of 1-3 billion euros against a failure rate of about 99.6% for AD new drugs. The reasons of this discouraging scenario are multifaceted, but an important percentage of failure depends on weak quality of biological target validation assays, mainly due to the presence of the blood-brain barrier and the complexity of brain physiology that make challenging brain disease modelling. Hence, it is particularly crucial to implement an innovative, reliable in vitro cell model able to predict the potential of a new drug to cross the blood-brain barrier and effectively target the brain. DIANA (Organ-on-a-chip Drug screenIng device to tArget braiN disease) project aims to perform the technical and commercial feasibility of the integrated stand-alone BBB-brain model in-vitro, Chip4D Brain, based on patented organ on chip technology, providing the basis for a new generation of innovative devices. DIANA will be run by a consortium between Politecnico di Milano and an industrial partner, Neuro-Zone srl (Contract Research Organization – CRO - specialized in R&D for drug development in brain diseases for pharma) combining a solid technological expertise and an in-depth knowledge of the market.

Mots-clés : bioengineering,drug screening,in vitro cell model,organ on a chip,miniaturization
Projet ERC : DrugSynergy (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Institut Curie — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

The complex physiopathology of human chronic diseases includes networks robustness, feedback loops, and cross-talks, which may induce limited efficacy, resistance, and/or excessive toxicity of an individual drug. Learning how to combine drugs in order to improve treatment efficacy and lower undesired toxicity is a major biomedical challenge. Current strategies for drug repositioning and optimization of drug combinations have two man limitations: 1) they mostly use public data and databases, which are based on knowledge of individual drug stimuli and do not specifically analyze interactions, 2) they consider limited number of cellular outputs to analyze the response to a drug. In DrugSynergy, we will use an innovative systems biology large-scale data-driven approach to determine the interaction between two drugs at the highest possible resolution. Our computational analysis workflow has been extensively validated over the past years. It is now robust enough to be applied for the optimization of drug combinations. Our business development strategies will follow several possible non-exclusive scenarios: 1) service providing to pharmaceutical and biotech companies to optimize their own pipeline of drug combinations, 2) generate intellectual property (IP) through identification of new drug combinations, optimization of existing drug combinations by addition of innovative drugs through screening of small molecule libraries, including from our Institute. These goals will be achieved in an academic structure, through licensing new IP to industrial partners, or within a start-up company created around the innovative pipelines and know-how of DrugSynergy. These options will be explored with our business development and industrial partnership department. DrugSynergy is expected to have a strong biomedical and socio-economic impact because of the growing need of efficiently combine multiple drugs to address health challenges such as cancer and chronic inflammatory diseases.

Mots-clés : drug combinations,chronic disease,human pre clinical models,systems biology,signal integration,data driven computational workflow,transcriptomics,biotechnology,drug repositioning
Projet ERC : ToRH (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Computer science and informatics
Entité participante : Max Planck Society — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : MPG
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1235000.0 €

The complexity of computing hardware keeps increasing at a rapid pace, with no end in sight. With growing number of components and ongoing miniaturization, hardware engineers struggle with an increasing number and variety of faults, yet must guarantee correct operation of the system as a whole. This is hindered by a concurrent increase in design complexity, i.e., the trend of integrating ever more diverse circuits into larger systems, which results in a higher complexity of verifying the correctness of a given design - especially when providing for the possibility that some components may fail. The goal of this project is to develop a holistic mathematical approach to modeling fault-tolerant circuits and demonstrate its usefulness in practice. Such a framework will exhibit several advantages over the present methods, which are largely based on simulation and experimentation: (i) mathematical proofs offer parametrized guarantees, which implies that the derived building blocks can easily be re-used in varying configurations and translated to different technologies; (ii) it permits statements about general fault types, entailing that claimed properties do not rely on specific fault behavior (which depends on operational parameters and technology); and (iii) abstract, parametrized reasoning enables to design and optimize for long-term scalability. While this approach to fault-tolerance has been successfully applied in the area of distributed computing for decades, transferring it to low-level hardware design introduces new obstacles, such as very limited computational capabilities of the basic components and the potential for metastability. Overcoming these challenges will pave the way for highly dependable and scalable systems, and thus help in further sustaining the exponential growth in available computing power commonly referred to as Moore's Law.

Mots-clés : byzantine fault tolerance,self stabilization,metastability,complexity analysis of algorithms,hardware implementation,fpga prototyping,clock synchronization,routing,consensus
Projet ERC : PlusOne (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Fundamental constituents of matter
Entité participante : Istituto Nazionale di Ricerca Metrologica — Pays : Italie — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : INRIM
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1496250.0 €

The concept of a localized single impurity in a many-body system is at the base of some of the most celebrated problems in condensed matter. The aim of the PlusOne project is to realize the physical paradigm of a single localized impurity in a many-body system to advance quantum simulation of in- and out-of equilibrium many-body physics. Our quantum simulator will consist of a degenerate gas of fermions as a many-body system, with a single trapped ion playing the role of the impurity. The novel design of our atom-ion hybrid system surpasses all the limitations that prevent current systems from reaching full control of atom-ion interactions because it is energetically closed. Using this system, we will characterize atom-ion collisions in the so-far unexplored ultracold regime. We will use the single trapped ion to induce non-equilibrium dynamics in the many-body system by quenching the atom-ion interactions. This process will cause an entanglement between the many-body dynamics and the ion’s internal state, enabling us to detect the many-body evolution by performing quantum tomography on the ion. By these means, we will observe the emergence of the Anderson Orthogonality Catastrophe for the first time in the time domain, and investigate the universality of this phenomenon. Additionally, we will explore the thermodynamics of a system out of equilibrium by measuring the work distribution of a non-equilibrium transformation, and testing the seminal Tasaki-Crooks fluctuation relation for the first time in a many-body system in the quantum regime. Finally, we will use the single trapped ion as a single atom probe and as a density- and time- correlation detector in a system of atoms loaded in an optical lattice. This achievement will significantly improve current methods for probing many-body physics with ultracold atoms. Our groundbreaking system will hence inaugurate concrete and decisive advances in the quantum simulation of many-body physics with quantum gases.

Mots-clés : atom ion hybrid systems,anderson orthogonality catastrophe,quantum thermodynamics,quantum simulation
Projet ERC : NEMUS (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Cultures and cultural production
Entité participante : University of Bologna — Pays : Italie — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UNIBO
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1497265.0 €

The conservation, restoration and maintenance of rare and precious musical instruments is currently problematic, and will become increasingly so in the future: most instruments in museum collections are already out of playing condition, and deteriorating to the extent that their unique sounds will eventually be lost. Curators are well aware of the ethical problems associated with restoration and maintenance, and digital technology offers a solution to the problem of saving the sound of historical musical instruments. However, current digitisation practices are largely inadequate for a deeper understanding of musical instruments, as they have so far been limited to photogrammetric or sampling techniques. The applicant believes that museum collections would benefit from a new approach to digitising musical instruments. A comprehensive understanding of musical instruments can only be achieved by a focused acoustical and mathematical study, ultimately yielding a wealth of efficient and realistic simulation techniques which could be used for real-time emulation: this is the context in which NEMUS will operate. By developing the most advanced mathematical models yet describing sound propagation and transmission in musical instruments, NEMUS will create sustainable, durable and realistic digital emulations of historical musical instruments that are currently out of playing condition. NEMUS will also generate computer-aided simulation studies of a number of harpsichords of the Ruckers/Couchet tradition, to complement organological studies on Ioseph Ioannes Couchet craftmanship. For the first time, complex musical systems will be solved under real-time, on standard consumer hardware, using mainstream numerical methods such as finite difference schemes, including the player’s interaction with the instrument. Appropriate controllers with haptic feedback will be devised, so as to facilitate use in virtual and augmented reality environments.
Projet ERC : ToothPic (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Societa per la gestione dell' incubatore d' impresa del politecnico scpa — Pays : Italie — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : I3p
Type d'entité : Autres
Financement ERC de l'entité : 10000.0 €

The continuously growing amount of photos posted and distributed over the Internet poses several important problems related to improper use of images, such as exploiting them for commercial purposes, re-posting others’ photos without consent or infringing copyright, posting photos containing unethical or illegal contents, and so forth. Camera identification, which refers to identifying which digital imaging sensor has shot a given picture, exploiting the fact that each sensor leaves a unique fingerprint in all pictures, is a key ingredient in the solution to the aforementioned problems. The ToothPic project aims at validating a breakthrough camera identification technology developed during ERC starting grant “CRISP”. This technology is based on a novel compressed fingerprint format and outperforms state-of-the art techniques by orders of magnitude in terms of storage requirements and identification speed. As a consequence, it enables the deployment of camera-identification services on an unprecedented scale, paving the way for application to popular image sharing and social media sites. The proof-of-concept will consist in a very high-speed implementation of the camera identification core functionality, which will be used to validate the capability of the proposed technology to handle scenarios involving 100+ millions of sensor fingerprints, in real time and at a low cost. A set of demo applications, including a public search engine, taking as input a camera fingerprint or a photo and returning a list of photos acquired by the same camera, will also be implemented in order to raise a broad public interest and attract industries and venture capitalists. Upon successful validation, a European start-up company named “ToothPic” will be created to commercialise the proposed technology.

Mots-clés : camera identification,social networks,large scale systems,compressed sensing
Projet ERC : QUENOCOBA (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Fundamental constituents of matter
Entité participante : Max Planck Society — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : MPG
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1872968.75 €

The coupling of quantum emitters to a common bath gives rise to intriguing quantum optical phenomena, like super-radiance, non-Markovian dynamics, or dipole-dipole interactions. In recent years, new experimental setups are emerging where non-conventional baths, with tailored dispersion relations, can be produced. In particular, atoms (the emitters) can be kept in the proximity of photonic crystals (the bath), whose properties can be engineered thanks to the spectacular progress experienced in nano-fabrication techniques. Low dimensional mate- rials, dispersion relations with Dirac points, or exotic topological features can be designed in photonic crystals, which will dramatically affect the behavior of the emitters. In this scenario, exotic phenomena, unique possibilities for quantum simulation of both coherent and dissipa- tive dynamics, as well as advanced applications are expected to appear. Presently, a new research area is emerging to investigate the physics of emitters coupled to non- conventional baths. In this project we will: (i) develop the theoretical tools required to investigate this new area; (ii) explore and characterize novel phenomena; and (iii) propose and analyze other physical setups where those phenomena can be observed and exploited (in the context of quantum information and simulation). The research will involve the development of innovative tech- niques to describe new scenarios in quantum optics and many-body physics, as well as re- search on atoms interacting with photonic crystals, in optical lattices, and quantum dots in- teracting with surface acoustic waves. This interdisciplinary project involves concepts and ideas from quantum optics, many-body quantum physics, and quantum information, research fields where the PI has a vast experi- ence. This, together with a close collaboration with leading experimentalists will provide us with a unique environment for the successful accomplishment of the objectives of the project.
Projet ERC : ImagiDem (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Institutions, Governance and Legal Systems
Entité participante : University of Helsinki — Pays : Finlande — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UH
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1352007.75 €

The current political and institutional crises render the future of European democracy uncertain. To gain deeper insights into what the current discontent may lead to, and how to address it for the good of an equal and inclusive democracy, we have to study future political actors, today’s young citizens, and examine what are the means of political action prevalent to them. The public sphere of today’s youth is increasingly dominated by visual content, and therefore the visual dimension of political participation is to be a key concern in research thereof. The current youth’s understanding of political action – building arguments, mobilizing, and participating – is likely to become firmly anchored in repertoires of visual participation. ImagiDem will explore, analyze, and conceptualize visual participation of young European citizens in order to formulate a model of democratic practices in the 2020s. ImagiDem addresses visual political participation and democratic practices among young citizens in the European context using a radical triple-strategy: it combines visual ethnography with computational big data minining and analysis, and deploys this combination to a comparative research setting. The project design includes four countries of comparison – Finland, France, Germany, and Portugal – with both an ethnographic and a computational subproject realized in each of them. Both methodological approaches – comparative online ethnography, and computational, machine learning based analysis of large sets of social media image data – are risky and hitherto scarcely explored. The theoretical challenge ImagiDem takes is to develop pragmatist theorizing of visual justification and engagements on the one hand, and visual cultural toolkits and frames, on the other. With this methodologico-theoretical toolkit, ImagiDem provides overarching analysis of the future of European democracy.

Mots-clés : participation,ethnography,big data,visual sociology,pragmatism
Projet ERC : TriboMetGlass (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Proof of concept grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Products and processes engineering
Entité participante : Austrian Academy of Sciences — Pays : Autriche — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : OAW
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

The current proposal aims to demonstrate the potential of thin film metallic glasses as novel tribological coating materials, used to improve the performance of tools, dies, and moulds in many different applications. These coatings are characterized by a high hardness, as well as high wear- and oxidation resistance. Thin film metallic glasses are promising materials to fulfil these demands. Due to their amorphous structure they have excellent mechanical properties such as high specific strengths and large elastic limits above 2%. The absence of defects like grain boundaries also makes them resistant against corrosion and wear. In comparison to conventional protective coatings based on transition metal nitrides, thin film metallic glasses have the added benefit of a relatively low elastic modulus, making them tougher and able to accommodate a certain degree of substrate deformation without delaminating. In this study, amorphous WZrB coatings will be deposited by a combinatorial dc magnetron sputter process from three elemental targets onto commercially relevant substrate materials. The primary refractory element W provides the necessary temperature stability for tribological applications, while Zr and B have both been shown to enhance the glass forming ability in W-based alloys. Experimental activities will be supported by our company partner CERATIZIT Austria GmbH, a global leader in the hard metal tooling industry. The thin film metallic glass/substrate systems will be characterized with state-of-the-art methods in terms of their chemical, mechanical, thermal, and tribological properties. Results will be critically evaluated regarding the up-scaling potential of developed processes and materials systems from laboratory to industrial conditions.

Mots-clés : metallic glass,thin film,coating,tribology,physical vapour deposition,wear,amorphous,material