Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : MicroWars (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Environmental Biology, Ecology and Evolution
Entité participante : University of Oxford — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2750137.0 €

Many bacteria are extremely aggressive. They assemble poisoned molecular spears to stab neighbours, they release protein machines that punch holes in competitors and, moreover, some cells will commit suicide in order to launch their attack. While there is a large literature on the evolution of combat and competition in animals, this has focused on why animals are generally reluctant to fight. The evolution of extreme aggression in bacteria, therefore, challenges our current understanding of competition in biology. I will develop bacterial warfare as a model for competitive behaviour by asking three key questions that each build in complexity: 1) Why do weapons evolve? 2) What tactics do bacteria use during combat and why? 3) How does ecological complexity influence the value and use of weapons? My group will examine these questions theoretically and test our predictions using two model species, Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which possess very different levels of weaponry. The project has risk and challenges in that bacterial behaviours cannot simply be watched like animal behaviours. To meet these, we will employ a proven combination of individual-based modelling, game theory, competition experiments, experimental evolution, confocal microscopy, molecular genetics, genomics and germ-free mouse work. We will also co-develop new techniques. Freestyle microfluidics will position bacteria and weaponry for study; electron fluorescence cryomicroscopy will image, for the first time, bacterial battlegrounds at the molecular scale. By combining cutting-edge methods with clear evolutionary questions, I aim to provide a major new perspective on combat, and on bacteria. There is currently an intense interest in how bacteria establish in host-associated communities, including the mammalian microbiome. Understanding this will need a new focus on the evolution, and ecology, of bacterial warfare.

Mots-clés : mathematical modelling,social evolution,microbiota
Projet ERC : SMAC-MC (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Synthetic Chemistry and Materials
Entité participante : University of Jyväskylä — Pays : Finlande — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1424190.0 €

Many basic chemical processes involve the activation of small unreactive molecules, such as hydrogen, nitrogen, ammonia, water and carbon dioxide, by transition-metal-based catalysts or by enzymes. This proposal focusses on the interesting and recently observed possibility to perform similar transformations with main-group compounds that consist entirely of cheap earth-abundant elements. The proposed research is split into four work packages of which the first investigates the mechanisms by which different main-group singlet diradicaloids activate small molecules and how their reactivity correlates with their radical character. The second work package focusses on small molecule activation using main-group metalloid clusters, a new emerging field that we have recently pioneered, and compares the reactivity determined for main-group species with that known for related transition-metal clusters. Investigations in the third work package concentrate on the electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide and on the possibility to lower the required overpotential with frustrated Lewis pairs that readily form adducts with small molecules. The fourth work package revolves around activating small molecules by diborenes and, in particular, observing novel reactivity in situ, that is, before the reactive diborene is trapped with a suitable Lewis base. Considered as a whole, the planned initiatives will enable significant breakthroughs in the design of novel main-group element based compounds for the activation of small molecules. The research is not only of fundamental scientific importance but also of potential practical value as many main-group systems, such as frustrated Lewis pairs, are currently being examined as novel catalysts. An ERC consolidator grant would significantly strengthen my position in this interesting subfield of inorganic chemistry and give my research group practical means to continue performing cutting-edge research.

Mots-clés : inorganic chemistry,main group chemistry,computational chemisty,experimental synthesis,small molecule activation,diradicaloids,metalloid clusters,electron precise boron compounds
Projet ERC : SYMCELLS (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Cellular, Developmental and Regenerative Biology
Entité participante : Heidelberg University — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : Partner
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2271235.0 €

Many cells stably integrate microbes to gain ecological advantages for the organism. A remarkable example is the symbiosis between corals and algae, whose provision of photosynthetically fixed nutrients enables coral survival in nutrient-poor habitats. To establish symbiosis, coral cells acquire symbionts via phagocytosis, a process often used for pathogen clearance in other animals. Symbionts reside in phagosomes, and the prevailing view is that, similar to some pathogens, symbionts avoid destruction via phagolysosomal manipulation. Yet, unlike pathogens, symbionts provide nutrients to their host, and this may be key for intracellular persistence. Most research on nutrient translocation has focused on sugars, but surprisingly, sterols may be significant because cnidarians cannot synthesize cholesterol. However, little is known about the underlying molecular mechanisms of symbiosis establishment. Because corals are intractable cell biological models, I will leverage our unique resources and expertise to uncover fundamental aspects of symbiont acquisition and metabolic dependence using the emerging model anemone Aiptasia. To investigate symbiont acquisition (Objective 1), I will distinguish symbiont-phagocytosing cells, test candidate symbiont receptors by gain- and loss-of-function, record symbiont/cell interactions by live-imaging, and generate a symbiosis cell culture system. To understand the significance of symbiont-derived sterols (Objective 2), I will map cellular sterol utilization and identify the sterol transport machinery, test whether symbiont sterols can functionally substitute cholesterol, identify novel sterol-interacting proteins by pull-down assays, and explore symbiont persistence mechanisms using comparative phagosome proteomics. This proposal will for the first time provide a mechanistic understanding of coral-algal symbiosis establishment, a crucial process underpinning coral reefs, economically and ecologically important ecosystems.
Projet ERC : POLEMIC (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Institutions, Governance and Legal Systems
Entité participante : University of Amsterdam — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UvA
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1499664.0 €

Many claim that politicians make more, and more extreme, emotional appeals than ever before, because these appeals win over the emotional citizen. With highly emotive language people like Donald Trump, Geert Wilders or Marine Le Pen are pounding on the portals to power. Do such emotional appeals affect citizens’ political choices? Yes, they can. But, citizens’ existing emotional attachments to parties, leaders or issues moderate the success of emotional appeals. POLEMIC will extend existing theory and use novel methods to explain when (types of) emotional appeals are persuasive, and when emotional attachments prevent persuasion. Do politicians actually make more emotional appeals than in the past? And if so why are they doing it? We lack historical data of emotional appeals so we cannot answer these questions. POLEMIC will provide unique, historical data (1945-now, 9 countries) of emotional appeals by politicians in their speeches. I develop and test 3 alternative theories from different intellectual traditions that explain why politicians make emotional appeals: is it either (1) a vote-maximizing strategy, (2) a product of the personality of a politician or (3) just fashionable? POLEMIC analyses emotional appeals of politicians and the emotional responses of citizens to these appeals. Emotional appeals are texts, and emotions are experiences by the brain. To measure them POLEMIC will use innovative methods in political science: automated text analysis to extract emotion from appeals; physiological measurement to measure emotions. POLEMIC offers a ground-breaking combination of a macro-perspective (what politicians say) and a micro-perspective (how citizens respond) and forms a bridge between party politics and political psychology. The project’s output will indicate the importance of emotion in the decision-making of citizens, and the level of rationality that is behind politicians’ decision to make emotional appeals.

Mots-clés : political strategy,political parties,emotions,emotional appeals,physiological responsiveness,leadership
Projet ERC : CONNECTINGEUROPE (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Cultures and cultural production
Entité participante : Utrecht University — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1992809.0 €

Many immigrants enter Europe both legally and illegally every year. This creates multiple challenges for the Union, including the gender and ethnic segregation of migrant groups, especially women. While it strives for an inclusive and integrated society as envisioned by the EU motto ‘Unity in Diversity’, it is still often perceived more as ‘Fortress Europe.’ This project focuses on the ‘connected migrant’, studying how virtual communities of migrants, or digital diasporas, convey issues of technology, migration, globalisation, alienation and belonging capturing the lives of migrants in their interaction with multiple worlds and media. More specifically, it will investigate whether digital technologies enhance European integration or foster gender and ethnic segregation, and, if so, how. Using a multi-layered and cutting-edge approach that draws from the humanities, social science and new media studies (i.e. internet studies and mobile media), this research considers: 1. How migration and digital technologies enable digital diasporas (Somali, Turkish, Romanian) and the impact these have on identity, gender and belonging in European urban centres; 2. How these entanglements are connected to and perceived from outside Europe by focusing on transnational ties; and 3. How digital connections create new possibilities for cosmopolitan outlooks, rearticulating Europe’s motto of ‘Unity in Diversity.’ The outcomes of this work will be innovative at three levels. a) Empirically, the project gathers, maps and critically grounds online behaviour by migrant women from a European comparative perspective. b) Methodologically, it breaks new ground by developing new methods of analysis for digital diasporas contributing to the development of ‘postcolonial’ digital humanities. c) Conceptually, it integrates colonial and migrant relations into the idea of Europe, elaborating on the notion of cosmopolitan belonging through virtual connectivity.

Mots-clés : the proposal focuses on gender migration in europe and digital technologies  it falls under sh5,following an interdisciplinary approach that links to topics under panels sh2 and slightly to sh6
Projet ERC : VANDER (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Condensed matter physics
Entité participante : University of Manchester — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2499580.0 €

Many layered materials can be disassembled into isolated atomic planes, similar to graphite that splits into graphene layers. A few years ago, we demonstrated that such atomic planes – two-dimensional (2D) crystals – can be stacked on top of each other making so-called van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures. This has ignited a new field that is booming and has not disappointed in delivering interesting science. However, research efforts have so far involved only relatively simple structures that are assembled from 2 or 3 crystals and employ only a very limited number of 2D materials. This proposal is based on several recent experimental and technological advances by the applicant’s group. These include access to many new 2D crystals that have become available if their (dis)assembly is done in an inert atmosphere. Little remains known about these materials. We have also mastered the art of vdW assembly to make heterostructures containing dozens of different layers with control of their crystallographic alignment. Dedicated measurement techniques aimed at investigation of the resulting atomically thin structures and devices have been developed, too. The applicant plans to exploit these advances and push the research field forward in several new directions that include the search for 2D materials exhibiting unusual properties and novel functionalities, creation of multilayer vdW devices with designer characteristics and the assembly of artificial thin films with unique electronic spectra. Some of the proposed directions (e.g., studies of molecular transport through angstrom-scale capillaries) are nearly guaranteed to bring a large amount of new science and potential applications, whereas other directions (e.g., artificial films exhibiting enhanced superconductivity) are more adventurous. A unifying goal of all the proposed projects is to explore the myriad of exciting opportunities opened up within the field of 2D materials and vdW heterostructures.

Mots-clés : 2d materials,graphene,van der waals heterostructures
Projet ERC : SemanticCity (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : University of London — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : U. London
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Many massive data sources now exist for large scale 3D measurements in the form of raw pointclouds or polygonal soups. Such raw data, however, have to be cleaned, consolidated, and semantically annotated before they can be consumed by downstream applications (e.g., augmented reality, procedural modeling, energy simulation, etc.). This manual step is a major processing bottleneck resulting in significant economic and efficiency costs. For example, state-of-the-art workflows in location-based services and urban planning industries easily take 2-3 man days to produce accurate semantic labels for small spaces (500-1500 sqm), or several man weeks for a few blocks of street (2-5 sqkm). This makes large-scale semantic annotations unfeasible, and hence, majority of the raw scan data archives remain under-utilized. The proposed "Proof-of-Concept" SemanticCity aims to pre-commercialize a novel software suite utilizing algorithms developed in course of the ERC-funded SmartGeometry project for automating generation of semantically structured models from raw 3D scans of cities to enable next generation augmented reality (AR), urban planning, and semantically tagged location-based services. SemanticCity, in partnership with a major European AR company, a large UK-based city developer, and London local councils, will address this challenge by automatically producing structured output directly from raw 3D measurements, reduce computation times from days/weeks to hours, and evaluate the structured output via the AR City app on multiple large-scale datasets. As case studies, we will work with governmental agencies and identified partner companies to meaningfully utilize their large archives of 3D measurements which are currently largely under-utilized.

Mots-clés : structure,range scans,3d acquisition,augmented reality,urban planning,semantics
Projet ERC : GermlineChrom (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Environmental Biology, Ecology and Evolution
Entité participante : Leibniz Association — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : LG
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1885403.39 €

Many multicellular organisms have a division between germline and soma. It has been long-standing dogma that all these cells have the same genome as they develop from a single cell. However, programmed DNA elimination can remove DNA during germline–soma differentiation and thereby lead to dramatic differences in genome organization between tissues. The evolution and function of programmed DNA elimination remains mysterious due to technological limitations and lack of an evolutionary framework. However, a role of this phenomenon in minimizing germline–soma genetic conflict has been suggested. This conflict arises when developmental gene expression is beneficial for the germline but deleterious for the soma. The aim of this proposal is to test whether programmed DNA elimination allows germline-specific expression of developmental genes to minimize germline–soma conflict. Using the germline-restricted chromosome (GRC) of the zebra finch as a unique study system, I have recently pioneered high-throughput genomics to overcome previous limitations. Combining my novel approach with transcriptomics, proteomics, cytogenetics, and developmental and functional genomics will provide unprecedented insights into the evolution and function of germline–soma genome differences. First, I will establish the so far first GRC study system by generating a zebra finch GRC reference assembly. Second, I will test how the GRC is inherited and maintained in zebra finch populations. Third, I will elucidate the long-term evolutionary history of GRCs across songbirds to reveal genes that are most conserved and thus candidates for GRC function. Fourth, I will trace GRC expression and elimination across zebra finch development, and functionally validate candidate genes. Altogether, I will establish an evolutionary framework which will significantly advance our understanding of programmed DNA elimination during germline–soma differentiation, a phenomenon likely widespread across the Tree of Life.

Mots-clés : programmed dna elimination,germline soma genome differences,genetic conflict,molecular cytogenetics,single molecule genomics,comparative genomics,population genomics
Projet ERC : SALTED (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 149250.0 €

Many of the world’s oil and gas reservoirs occur in the vicinity of salt structures within sedimentary basins. Because salt is a weak and low-density rock, it flows on geological timescales and forms kilometre-high structures that strongly deform nearby sedimentary layers. This poses several challenges for the industry: 1) Finding new oil and gas fields requires a geological reconstruction of how the sedimentary basin evolved with time, in order to understand where hydrocarbons formed, how they migrated and where they might be stored now. Existing geological reconstruction methods use simple kinematic rules, which don’t work well in regions that are affected by salt tectonics as salt flows in a 3D manner and over large distances. 2) Drilling through or nearby salt structures can pose a risk, as they perturb the stresses within the basin, which can cause drill holes to collapse and other costly delays in the drilling process. To guide and assist oil exploration, we propose a radically different technique that relies on combining advanced computer simulations of the sedimentary basin with available data. Our method is able to reconstruct in a physically consistent manner the geological evolution of the basin, even if it is strongly affected by salt tectonics. It also predicts the 3D stress field of the subsurface together with uncertainty bounds, which will allow companies to design future drilling campaigns to be safer and more efficient. The recent drop in the price of oil has concentrated the industry’s exploration effort on increased-value projects, both by cutting costs for existing exploration methods and by further leveraging already acquired data via new interpretation techniques. We will address both of these industry requirements in areas where salt tectonics are prevalent. Within this proof of concept grant, we will work with industry partners to apply our methods to natural case studies and demonstrate its economic viability and cost-saving potential.

Mots-clés : geosciences,hydrocarbon exploration,geothermics,numerical modelling,salt structures,sedimentary basins
Projet ERC : BEYOND (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Institutions, Governance and Legal Systems
Entité participante : University of Oslo — Pays : Norvège — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UiO
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1499580.0 €

Many of the world’s top refugee-hosting countries have neither signed nor ratified the 1951 Refugee Convention. So do international conventions make a difference? The Refugee Convention represents a paradigmatic – and exceptionally timely – test of this theoretical and empirical puzzle, for refugee protection is increasingly politicized and has wide-ranging implications for state sovereignty. The BEYOND project fundamentally reconsiders the impact of international refugee law by developing the first genuinely global and systematic theoretical framework for understanding the behaviour and position of states that have chosen not to sign the Refugee Convention – especially those that still accept the lion’s share of the world’s refugees. These non-party states, overlooked by scholarship and seen as ‘exceptions’ to the international refugee law regime, are at the core of this project rather than the margins. BEYOND asks: 1. What is the influence of the Refugee Convention in non-party states? 2. How do these non-party states engage with and help create the international refugee law regime? BEYOND exposes and analyzes the various ways non-party states relate to international refugee law. It brings an innovative combination of methods to bear, including case studies on 4 of the world’s top 7 refugee-hosting states–Turkey, Lebanon, Pakistan and Bangladesh. The sub-projects investigate BEYOND’s two basic hypotheses: 1. The Refugee Convention has a significant influence on the behaviour of non-party states; and 2. Non-party states engage with, and help shape developments within, international refugee law. BEYOND sheds crucial, empirically grounded light on the prevailing assumptions about whether and why non-party states are exceptional. It also advances our theoretical and scientific understanding of the complex effects of international conventions more generally.

Mots-clés : refugees,united nations,unhcr,refugee convention,international conventions,ratification,international protection