Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : SympatimmunObesity (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Physiology in Health, Disease and Ageing
Entité participante : University of Oxford — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2029175.0 €

The era of molecular genetics has enabled the mechanistic dissection of brain circuits as well as the immune system in spectacular ways. However, the molecular and cellular organization of the sympathetic nervous system (SNS), which innervates all known organs, is essentially unexplored. In an attempt to push this frontier, we have recently uncovered a direct physical functional connection between the SNS and the adipose tissue. Further, we found this neuro-adipose junction to drive lipolysis and fat mass reduction (1). In this proposal we aim to define the molecular mechanisms that link SNS neurons, the immune system and the adipose tissue. A major entry point is our recent discovery of a novel population of Sympathetic Associated Macrophages (SAMs) that suppress the output of SNS. We propose to unravel their contribution to obesity in rodents (Aim 1) and in humans (Aim 2). Another major objective of this proposal is to establish a functional and molecular neuronanatomical map of the SNS, which defines subpopulations of neurons that specifically innervate fat (Aim 3). To achieve this, we will build molecular genetics tools for rapid non-invasive optocoustic visualization and functional probing of SNS circuits. A molecular and realistic atlas of the SNS will allow us to systematically access the functional anatomy of one of the most elusive tissues of the mammalian body and will form a blueprint upon which our neuroimmune mechanistic studies can be build. Our identification of the fundamental biological mechanisms that govern the neuro-adipose junction will set the stage for a new anti-obesity therapy that would circumvent the challenge of drug delivery to the brain, i.e. by targeting an excitatory drug directly to SAMs or sympathetic inputs in adipose tissue.

Mots-clés : obesity,optoacoustics,macrophages,chemogenetics,optogenetics,mouse models,neurocircuits
Projet ERC : ELECTRON4WATER (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Products and processes engineering
Entité participante : CERCA Institution — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : CERCA;I-CERCA
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1493734.0 €

The ever-increasing environmental input of toxic chemicals is rapidly deteriorating the health of our ecosystems and, above all, jeopardizing human health. Overcoming the challenge of water pollution requires novel water treatment technologies that are sustainable, robust and energy efficient. ELECTRON4WATER proposes a pioneering, chemical-free water purification technology: a three-dimensional (3D) nanoelectrochemical system equipped with low-cost reduced graphene oxide (RGO)-based electrodes. Existing research on graphene-based electrodes has been focused on supercapacitor applications and synthesis of defect-free, superconductive graphene. I will, on the contrary, use the defective structure of RGO to induce the production of reactive oxygen species and enhance electrocatalytic degradation of pollutants. I will investigate for the first time the electrolysis reactions at 3D electrochemically polarized RGO-coated material, which offers high catalytic activity and high surface area available for electrolysis. This breakthrough approach in electrochemical reactor design is expected to greatly enhance the current efficiency and achieve complete removal of persistent contaminants and pathogens from water without using any chemicals, just by applying the current. Also, high capacitance of RGO-based material can enable further energy savings and allow using intermittent energy sources such as photovoltaic panels. These features make 3D nanoelectrochemical systems particularly interesting for distributed, small-scale applications. This project will aim at: i) designing the optimum RGO-based material for specific treatment goals, ii) mechanistic understanding of (electro)catalysis and (electro)sorption of persistent pollutants at RGO and electrochemically polarized RGO, iii) understanding the role of inorganic and organic matrix and recognizing potential process limitations, and iv) developing tailored, adaptable solutions for the treatment of contaminated water.

Mots-clés : electrochemical water treatment,reduced graphene oxide coated electrode materials,persistent organic contaminants removal,disinfection
Projet ERC : CRADLE (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Human Diseases
Entité participante : Netherlands Cancer Institute-Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Hospital — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : NKI-AVL
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 290625.0 €

The evolution in drug regulation of the last 50 years has left pregnant women and their fetuses orphaned. This is particularly problematic for cancer during pregnancy, which raises a difficult and conflicting medical ethical decision process and which has recently become increasingly frequent. In 2012 we published the first prospective study indicating that antenatal exposure to cancer treatment can overall be considered safe. Building on this proof of concept, the current proposal wants to take a groundbreaking step towards developing a standard of care for cancer during pregnancy by addressing –in an integrated fashion- the challenges at the level of the fetus, the mother and the fetomaternal barrier. At the core of this proposal lies an international registry of pregnant women with cancer, along with a registry of their children, and biobanks of maternal, placental, cord blood and tumoral tissues. Research track ‘child’ aims to deliver robust evidence of fetal safety. Research track ‘mother’ aims to address the emerging concerns in the oncological management of the mother, and specifically, the possible distinct biology of pregnancy-associated breast cancer, the most frequent cancer type in pregnancy. The research approach includes large-scale clinical follow-up studies along with laboratory studies on patient biomaterials, including pharmacological investigations and RNA-sequencing studies. Complementary to these studies is research track ‘placenta’ in which cutting-edge models of human placental research are used to address the poorly understood physiological basis of the placental barrier function in this specific situation. This ambitious program will rely on a multidisciplinary team of experts. Not only may the scientific deliverables of this proposal constitute a major step forward to the well-being of both mother and fetus in a pregnancy complicated by cancer, the methodological approach may also provide critical impetus to further research in this field.

Mots-clés : cancer,chemotherapy,pregnancy,pediatric
Projet ERC : Multicellularity (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Environmental Biology, Ecology and Evolution
Entité participante : Hungarian Academy of Sciences — Pays : Hongrie — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : MTA
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1486500.0 €

The evolution of multicellularity (MC) has been one of the major transitions in the history of life. Despite immense interest in its evolutionary origins, the genomic changes leading to the emergence of MC, especially that of complex MC (differentiated 3-dimensional structures) are poorly known. Previous comparative genomics projects aiming to understand the genetic bases of MC in one way or another relied on gene content-based analyses. However, a pattern emerging from these studies is that gene content provides only an incomplete explanation for the evolution of MC even at ancient timescales. We hypothesize that besides gene duplications, changes to cis-regulatory elements and gene expression patterns (including protein isoforms) have significantly contributed to the evolution of MC. To test this hypothesis, we will deploy a combination of computational methods, phylogenomics, comparative transcriptomics and genome-wide assays of regulatory elements. Our research focuses on fungi as a model system, where complex MC evolved convergently and in subsequent two steps. Fungi are ideal models to tackle this question for several reasons: a) multicellularity in fungi evolved multiple times, b) there are rich genomic resources (>500 complete genomes), c) complex multicellular structures can be routinely grown in the lab and d) genetic manipulations are feasible for several cornerstone species. We set out to examine which genes participate in the building of simple and complex multicellular structures and whether the evolution of regulome complexity and gene expression patterns can explain the evolution of MC better than can traditionally assayed sources of genetic innovations (e.g. gene duplications). Ultimately, our goal is to reach a general synthesis on the genetic bases of the evolution of MC and that of organismal complexity.

Mots-clés : bioinformatics,evolutionary genomics,regulatory dna,fungi,multicellularity,single cell methods
Projet ERC : WINDMIL (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Products and processes engineering
Entité participante : Board of the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology — Pays : Suisse — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : ETH Zurich
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1486224.0 €

The excessive energy consumption that Europe is faced with, calls for sustainable resource management and policy-making. Amongst renewable sources of the global energy pool, wind energy holds the lead. Nonetheless, wind turbine (WT) facilities are conjoined with a number of shortcomings relating to their short life-span and the lack of efficient management schemes. With a number of WTs currently reaching their design span, stakeholders and policy makers are convinced of the necessity for reliable life-cycle assessment methodologies. However, existing tools have not yet caught up with the maturity of the WT technology, leaving visual inspection and offline non-destructive evaluation methods as the norm. This proposal aims to establish a smart framework for the monitoring, inspection and life-cycle assessment of WTs, able to guide WT operators in the management of these assets from cradle-to-grave. Our project is founded on a minimal intervention principle, coupling easily deployed and affordable sensor technology with state-of-the-art numerical modeling and data processing tools. An integrated approach is proposed comprising: (i) a new monitoring paradigm for WTs relying on fusion of structural response information, (ii) simulation of influential, yet little explored, factors affecting structural response, such as structure-foundation-soil interaction and fatigue (ii) a stochastic framework for detecting anomalies in both a short- (damage) and long-term (deterioration) scale. Our end goal is to deliver a “protection-suit” for WTs comprising a hardware (sensor) solution and a modular readily implementable software package, titled ETH-WINDMIL. The suggested kit aims to completely redefine the status quo in current Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition systems. This pursuit is well founded on background work of the PI within the area of structural monitoring, with a focus in translating the value of information into quantifiable terms and engineering practice.

Mots-clés : smart wind turbine infrastructure,structural health monitoring,scada,operation and maintenance,life cycle assessment,damage,fatigue prediction,uncertainty quantification,data driven modeling
Projet ERC : MessMapp (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Universe sciences
Entité participante : University of Würzburg — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1498652.0 €

The existence of cosmic rays proves that our Universe hosts elusive astrophysical "monsters" capable of continuously and efficiently accelerating particles at extreme energies. High-energy photons and neutrinos are the key to ultimately decipher the mystery of cosmic rays. In 2017, the discovery of neutrino emission from the direction of the γ-ray flaring blazar TXS 0506+056 has put forward γ-ray blazars as promising neutrino point-sources, hence cosmic-ray accelerators. However, to date there is neither a consistent picture for the physical mechanism nor a theoretical framework capable of convincingly explain the full set of multimessenger observations. The aim of this proposal is to conduct the first systematic multimessenger (electromagnetic and neutrino) and time-domain study of the blazar population. Differently from any previous attempt, I will tackle the challenge from both the theoretical and observational angle on a large sample. The primary goal is to establish blazars as the first class of extragalactic neutrino sources at high confidence. The holy grail of multimessenger astrophysics is to prove - both from the observational and physical point of view - an incontrovertible causality connection between diverse population of particles. This study will revolutionize our understanding of the blazar astrophysical framework, as well as lay the foundations for future discoveries and serve as guidance for the next-generation multimessenger observatories.

Mots-clés : active galaxies,blazars,multimessenger,gamma rays
Projet ERC : IberLAND (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The study of the human past
Entité participante : Leibniz University Hannover — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1760343.76 €

The experience of empire decisively shaped the institution of private property in land. From a global perspective, however, the history of this institution is far from straightforward. While European scholarship places the advent of individual property rights in the late 18th century, scholarship on Asia, Africa, and the Americas often attributes the onset of the paradigm of private property to the arrival of Europeans in the 16th century. This discrepancy of almost 300 years is difficult to reconcile. If Europeans had not yet experienced it themselves, how could they introduce the paradigm of proprietary rights across the world during the process of colonization? IberLAND revisits these incongruent historiographical narratives by studying the development of land tenure regimes in the African, American, Asian, and European territories of the Portuguese and Spanish empires. IberLAND takes a unique approach to the study of land tenure by departing from traditional approaches that assume that Europeans ‘invented’ ideas of private property and then ‘transplanted’ them to their overseas possessions. By contrast, IberLAND aims to construct a non-Eurocentric history of the development of land tenure from a global perspective. The research approach cuts across traditional research frontiers not only by integrating diverse regional historiographies but also by combining European and colonial (legal) history. The project will focus on six case studies and build on extensive research in local archives. The research will be strongly interdisciplinary and will gain insights from global, legal, and ethno-history in dialogue with legal theory, postcolonial studies, and decolonial perspectives. By providing a decentered history of land tenure, IberLAND should influence research in the fields of law, anthropology, and history, and provide a global perspective of law for an interconnected world in which conflicts about land use and extractivism are becoming increasingly important.

Mots-clés : land,empire,legal history,colonization
Projet ERC : HOMInG (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Institutions, Governance and Legal Systems
Entité participante : University of Trento — Pays : Italie — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1499678.0 €

The experience of home lies at the core of everyday life, but only through migration is it revealed as a complex and elusive social construction, whose micro analysis illuminates macro social issues and problems. How home works in the life trajectories of those who left it behind, and what the search for home says of immigrant integration and of the influence of mobility on domesticity, are the central questions of HOMInG. By deconstructing the tension between the static face of home and the dynamic face of migrant lives, this programme marks a turning point in the study of the social and emotional appropriation of space. It builds on a mixed-method research design on home as experienced by labour and forced migrants, under different household arrangements, compared across several countries and groups of reference. HOMInG’s objectives are to: 1. Analyze migrant “ways of homing” in a multi-sited and comparative framework, highlighting the distinctive influence of ethnicity and mobility on the home experience; 2. Advance the theoretical connection between home, mobility and circulation, by understanding how (far) the physical, relational and emotional bases of home are reproduced over space, and how (far) pre-existing home cultures are affected by transnational migration; 3. Implement a research design that innovates the comparative study of belonging and place attachment among mobile and sedentary populations; 4. Assess the conditions under which private and public spaces may be more or less conducive to an inclusive home experience – marked by familiarity, security, routine – in migrants’ and natives’ everyday lives. HOMInG breaks new ground in migration, mobility and home studies, by demonstrating how apparently mundane details, such as the ways of experiencing home, provide an original research window into social change in multi-ethnic societies. Based on unprecedented cross-country data, it will enable a fresh understanding of home, as affected by migration.

Mots-clés : home,migration,mobility
Projet ERC : NEO-NAT (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Fundamental constituents of matter
Entité participante : European Organization for Nuclear Research — Pays : Suisse — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : CERN
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1037036.25 €

The experimental results of the first run of the Large Hadron Collider lead to the discovery of the Higgs boson but have not confirmed the dominant theoretical paradigm about the naturalness of the electro-weak scale, according to which the Higgs boson should have been accompanied by supersymmetric particles or by some other new physics able of protecting the Higgs boson mass from quadratically divergent quantum corrections. While the second LHC run is going to explore physics at higher energies in the next years, it is now the right moment to explore and develop new non conventional ideas about the origin of mass scales in nature and in particular of the electro-weak scale. Indeed, new theoretical ideas prompted by the fact that the standard paradigm is challenged by experiments, have been emerging in the past 1-2 years and are acquiring interest. Furthermore, in view of the large backgrounds unavoidably present at the Large Hadron Collider, unexpected discoveries could be delayed or even missed if experimentalists are not searching in the right direction. The experimental signatures of the new non-conventional models need to be identified now. Research performed by the PI and by the senior team members shows that concrete progress can be achieved in developing new non-conventional ideas about how the electroweak scale and the gravitational Planck scale can be dynamically generated with a vastly different ratio, as observed in nature. However, dedicated funding is needed for younger researches that want to explore such directions outside the mainstream. The main goal of this project is developing such new ideas and identifying their experimental signals.
Projet ERC : UNIGLASS (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Condensed matter physics
Entité participante : Centre national de la recherche scientifique — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : CNRS
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1929479.0 €

The explanation for the distinct low temperature behavior of amorphous solids (glasses) is a long-standing open question. Specific puzzles include the nature of the low energy excitations (LEEs) that are responsible for their low temperature thermal and mechanical behavior and the origin of the remarkable universality of their low temperature mechanical dissipation. The phenomenological tunneling model proposes that the LEEs are atomic-scale tunneling two level systems (TLSs) and successfully explains much of the low temperature behavior of glass, but not the universality. Recently, individual TLSs were probed in the amorphous tunnel junction of superconducting qubits, but such dielectric measurements might not access the LEEs responsible for universality. In contrast, I propose to search for individual TLSs using purely mechanical measurements. The glass samples containing the TLSs will be nanomechanical resonators, and the strain coupling between the mechanical mode and the TLS will be used to control the quantum state of the latter. This strain coupling allows coherent state transfer between the mechanical mode and the TLS. Identifying individual TLSs and controlling their quantum state in this manner will demonstrate that the LEEs responsible for the characteristic low temperature properties of glass are indeed TLSs. Furthermore, these measurements will reveal the characteristics of individual TLSs and their interactions with their environment, in contrast to bulk measurements in which, according to the model, the effects of many TLSs are averaged. The results of the proposed study may therefore strongly support the tunneling model. This would require reconsideration of potential explanations for universality which are thought to be inconsistent with the existence of TLSs. Alternatively, if the hypothesized TLSs are absent, then the tunneling model must be replaced by a new interpretation of the low temperature properties of glass.

Mots-clés : tunneling two level systems  tlss,amorphous solids at low temperatures,nanomechanical resonators in the quantum regime,hybrid quantum systems