Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : THEMISS (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Universe sciences
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 : 1494493.75 €

Comets can be used as tracers of the conditions prevailing during the formation of the solar system. We have been studying them for decades, yet we still have not answered this foreground question: how do comets work? To answer that question is to understand which of comets properties are actually relevant to characterize the early solar system, and how primitive comets really are. Icy objects in the solar system are stored in different reservoirs, where they evolve very slowly owing irradiation, collisions and thermal processing. When they enter the inner solar system, they become comets, i.e. objects loosing mass. If comets are deemed very primitive due, for example, to their high content in very volatile species, some observations including ESA/Rosetta’s, have brought us a conundrum. Indeed, some comet properties indicate that they could have suffered from a long-term processing, which lead their basic properties (like shape, composition or size) to evolve significantly since the time they were formed. This proposal will explore the thermal processing of comets from their storage in the Oort Cloud, the Kuiper Belt and the Main Belt, and the thermally-induced variations in their physical and chemical characteristics, in order to understand whether such effects were important for shaping comets as we observe them today. Based on observational constraints obtained both from the ground and the latest space missions, an unprecedented modeling effort will be undertaken to evaluate under which conditions comets can preserve pristine material, what the long-lasting effects of thermal processing are for the various comet populations, and provide tools for deciphering between primitive properties and properties affected by evolution. Finally, this work will be shared via a web application, allowing the community to work from this foundation to prepare the future of our field, including the next generation of space missions exploring comets from sample returns.

Mots-clés : solar system,comets,asteroids,evolution
Projet ERC : MUCUS (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Products and processes engineering
Entité participante : KTH Royal Institute of Technology — Pays : Suède — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : KTH
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1499987.0 €

Complex fluids transport and flow over surfaces governs the production of many European and global industries, along with natural hazards. Unability to predict and control such flows leads to technological barriers for novel applications (such as 3D printing, with groundbreaking potential from tissue engineering to sustainable foods). Traditional process industries waste energy when trying to improve mixing and prevent clogging (10% of the energy consumption of the world is estimated to come from handling of granular materials, of which complex fluids are an important part). These processes are extremely challenging to control, because theories for complex fluid flows have large gaps, in particular fluids with yield-stress (that flow when sheared strongly, but are solids otherwise). The MUCUS proposal will revolutionize the state-of-the-art understanding of complex fluid flow over surfaces, by simulations which were impossible until now. This will be achieved by our high-fidelity methods that for the first time enabled three-dimensional direct numerical simulations of turbulent yield-stress fluids, suspensions of tens of thousands of particles, and advanced dynamical analyses of complex flows. Processes designed for Newtonian fluids do not work for complex fluids, and there is an urgent need for improved theories and models. In 3D printing important questions relate to flow properties of the ink/gel before it dries and its yield stress. Very little is known about inertial, transient yield-stress fluid flow over surface hills, grooves and wettability patterns. MUCUS proposal aims to: i) reveal unique new insight of the inertial transport, mixing, spreading and impact of complex fluids on surfaces ii) create the first database in the field of yield-stress fluid simulations, experiments and their cross-validation, and iii) develop novel analysis tools, and couplings between micro- and macrostructure, to enable controlled design of complex fluids processes in the future

Mots-clés : complex fluids,wetting,flow instability,computational fluid dynamics
Projet ERC : iCOMM (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Systems and communication engineering
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 : 2737327.0 €

Complex, structured optical beams have unique properties offering new degrees of freedom for achieving unusual wavefront, polarisation and optical angular momentum demanded in microscopy, optical trapping and manipulation of nano-objects, information encoding in optical communications, holography, quantum technologies and laser micromachining. Metasurfaces, a subwavelength-thin nanostructured films, which were initially developed for controlling the phase of light and its reflection and transmission beyond the Snell’s law, provide a rich playground for generation and manipulation of structured beams. iCOMM will establish a metasurface platform for generating and controlling complex vector beams in space and time and develop its applications in sensing and identification of chiral molecules and nonlinear optical trapping. Using unique optical properties of designer-metasurfaces capable of controlling both phase and amplitude of light, nonlinear interactions of pulsed vector beams will be optimised and explored. We will aim to develop a series of active metamaterial chips for nonlinear control of CVBs, linear and nonlinear sensing of chiral molecules and optical trapping applications, opening new application areas in information processing and biochemical technologies. This will be a transformative development for the applications of complex vector beams and metasurfaces in optical communications, displays, security and bio- and chemical sensing and optical trapping. The success of the project will unlock the potential of metasurfaces in providing tuneability for the improvement of the real-world photonic devices and provide insight into physical phenomena which are vital for various areas of photonics and sensing, demonstrating commercially-viable application of metasurfaces and complex beams. It will transform the areas of both complex beams and metasurfaces by introducing real-time active control and consolidate and enhance the European leadership in this field.

Mots-clés : metamaterials and metasurfaces,optical information processing,nonlinear photonics,optical trapping,bio  and chemical sensing
Projet ERC : LanAsCat (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Synthetic Chemistry and Materials
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 : 1499928.87 €

Complexes containing redox non-innocent ligands have been well developed in the last decade with transition metal ions and have led to very important chemical transformations at lowest environmental and economic costs. Nonetheless examples with f-element are very rare and the field is almost empty with lanthanides. This is unfortunate since divalent lanthanides are excellent sources of single electron and would provide a good control of the ligand reduction because of strong electron correlation in these systems. Thus, this proposal aims at developing this field with organolanthanides. The synthesis of original complexes containing lanthanides, redox non-innocent ligands and transitions metals is herein proposed: the first providing reversible electron(s) source(s) (remote control), the second acting as electron(s) reservoir and controlling the electron correlation strength (“dimmer switch”), and the last being the site of the selective catalytic reaction. Because of this regulated electron transfer, the oxidation state of the transition metal will be modified only at specific steps, allowing the establishment of a new paradigm is organometallic catalysis with group 9 and 10 transition metals. These original complexes will be synthetized and deeply characterized by specific spectroscopic and theoretical analyses. The principal goal is to synthetize active catalysts toward C-H bonds activation, and methane activation is regarded as an ultimate achievement as is hydroalkylation of olefins. To increase the chances of success, the proposal is based on preliminary results obtained recently in the group. Several examples of original heterobimetallic and heterotrimetallic complexes containing lanthanides and transition metals of group 10 will be discussed as a good starting point for the feasibility of this challenging project that aims at answering a large societal concern: the reduction of atmospheric pollutants, such as methane, and transformation in valuable products.

Mots-clés : organometallic chemistry,lanthanides complexes,electron transfer,theory,spectroscopy
Projet ERC : LIFEGATE (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Systems and communication engineering
Entité participante : Leibniz Association — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : LG
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1997973.0 €

Complexity of living matter currently poses the most significant barrier to modern in-vivo microscopy. Fuelled by various branches of life sciences, the race is now to increase the penetration depth of super-resolution imaging inside living organisms. Additionally, no high-resolution in-vivo imaging technique has ever been introduced into medical, particularly surgical practice. This proposal sets out to develop new, ultra-thin endoscopic devices exceeding by orders of magnitude the performance of the current state of the art, thus paving the way for acquiring high-quality images from unprecedented depths of the most delicate tissues of living organisms. A team of transdisciplinary experts will push the fundamental and technological limits of the enabling principle - holographic control of light propagation in multimode fibres. Through advanced analytical and numerical modelling and major advancement of experimental methods, the project will develop a powerful platform for fast and efficient recovery of randomised imagery, retrieved from both rigid and flexible single-fibre endoscopes. This ‘gate-through-life’ will enable the team to deploy several prominent light-based imaging methods, including super-resolution approaches, inside freely moving animal models and ultimately humans. Supported by partners with broad expertise in in-vivo imaging, I will apply this methodology in the first instance to Neuroscience. This will provide a new, minimally invasive window into fundamental processes behind sub-cellular-scale functional connectivity of neurons and onset of common disabling neuronal disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease. Lastly, I will introduce the first technological basis for keyhole clinical diagnostics, enabling intra-operative live histology and microsurgery. This new imaging capacity will be able to reach currently inaccessible regions of the human body, while providing images with sub-cellular resolution in-situ.

Mots-clés : multimode optical waveguides,endoscopes,super resolution and multi photon imaging
Projet ERC : Inhomogeneities (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Products and processes engineering
Entité participante : University of Erlangen-Nuremberg — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : FAU
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 884863.24 €

Compressed fluid systems handled in high pressure processes feature diffusivities smaller than the kinematic viscosity. Therefore during mixing the lifetime of micro(µ)-scale(s) inhomogeneities exceeds that one of macro(m)-scale(s) inhomogeneities. Thus m-s homogeneous systems can still exhibit µ-s inhomogeneities. They affect the functioning-chain of processes, e.g. reactions and phase-transitions or –separations, which themselves also take place on a sub-macro-scale. Therefore it will be analyzed in situ how µ-s inhomogeneities influence the functioning chain of the particle generation (supercritical antisolvent technology), the reaction (high pressure combustion), and the phase-separation or phase-transition mechanisms (surfactant-free CO2-based micro-emulsions and gas hydrates) and to which extend these inhomogeneities are responsible for the characteristics of the product, such as unfavourable size distributions of particulate products and/or pollutant emissions. On this purpose the here proposed and self-developed non-invasive and in situ Raman spectroscopic technique considers the INTENSITY-ratios of Raman signals to analyze the m-s composition and the SIGNATURE of the OH stretch vibration Raman signal of water (or alcohols) to analyze the µ-s composition of fluid mixtures. The SIGNATURE of the OH stretch vibration Raman signal is influenced by the development of the hydrogen bonds -an intermolecular interaction- and thus provides the µ-s composition, though the probe volume of the Raman sensor is m-s. The signal-INTENSITY-ratio and signal-SIGNATURE are extracted both from one and the same “m-s” Raman spectrum of the mixture. This allows the comparison of the degree of mixing on m-s and µ-s simultaneously, and enables the analysis of whether a system at any instance of mixing (instance of the onset of a reaction or a phase transition or –separation) has reached the favourable µ-s homogeneity, which would result in homogeneous and uniform products.
Projet ERC : PonD (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Advanced 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 : 2448750.0 €

Computational fluid dynamics achieved undeniable success in many sectors of flowing matter. However, with the variety of different physical phenomena involved, also the computational methods have specialized and a uniform platform for high-quality simulations has long been in pursuit. With its roots in kinetic theory and statistical mechanics, the lattice Boltzmann method was conceived as an alternative paradigm for fluid dynamics but only partially succeeded in a subclass of incompressible flows. The reasons for that are structural: fixed particles’ velocities in traditional approaches imply rigid constraints on Mach number and temperature in the simulations, and which can only be mitigated at a price of ever increased number of particles’ speeds. A novel formulation of fluid dynamics as a kinetic theory with a small number of tailored, on-demand constructed particles removes any restrictions on flow speed and temperature as compared the lattice Boltzmann methods and their modifications. Particles-on-Demand method is a disruptive change of perspective on computational fluid dynamics through kinetic theory that opens up an unprecedented wide domain of applications, and for the first time delivers a seamless and universal computing of any type of flow, from high Knudsen number rarefied gas to supersonic flow and turbulence. Our approach is inherently physical and rigorous, with kinetic theory translated onto a fully discrete framework in position, momentum, time and space system. Particle-on-Demand shall deliver new solutions to hypersonic flows involving fluid-structure interaction and makes it easy to incorporate mixing and chemical reactions. The strength and universality of PonD method shall be demonstrated with simulations of a wide spectrum of multiscale problems such as atmospheric reentry, geostrophic turbulence, micro-flows and multiphase flow.

Mots-clés : computational fluid dynamics,lattice boltzmann method,supersonic flow,rarefied gas dynamics,turbulence,shock wave,multiphase flow,high performance computing,kinetic theory,chemical kinetics,fluid dynamics
Projet ERC : PCPABF (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Computer science and informatics
Entité participante : Tel Aviv University — Pays : Israël — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : TAU
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2059375.0 €

Computer Science, in particular, Analysis of Algorithms and Computational-Complexity theory, classify algorithmic-problems into feasible ones and those that cannot be efficiently-solved. Many fundamental problems were shown NP-hard, therefore, unless P=NP, they are infeasible. Consequently, research efforts shifted towards approximation algorithms, which find close-to-optimal solutions for NP-hard optimization problems. The PCP Theorem and its application to infeasibility of approximation establish that, unless P=NP, there are no efficient approximation algorithms for numerous classical problems; research that won the authors --the PI included-- the 2001 Godel prize. To show infeasibility of approximation of some fundamental problems, however, a stronger PCP was postulated in 2002, namely, Khot's Unique-Games Conjecture. It has transformed our understanding of optimization problems, provoked new tools in order to refute it and motivating new sophisticated techniques aimed at proving it. Recently Khot, Minzer (a student of the PI) and the PI proved a related conjecture: the 2-to-2-Games conjecture (our paper just won Best Paper award at FOCS'18). In light of that progress, recognized by the community as half the distance towards the Unique-Games conjecture, resolving the Unique-Games conjecture seems much more likely. A field that plays a crucial role in this progress is Analysis of Boolean-functions. For the recent breakthrough we had to dive deep into expansion properties of the Grassmann-graph. The insight was subsequently applied to achieve much awaited progress on fundamental properties of the Johnson-graph. With the emergence of cloud-computing, cryptocurrency, public-ledger and Blockchain technologies, the PCP methodology has found new and exciting applications. This framework governs SNARKs, which is a new, emerging technology, and the ZCASH technology on top of Blockchain. This is a thriving research area, but also an extremely vibrant High-Tech sector.

Mots-clés : computational complexity,hardness of approximation,inapproximability,unique games,analysis of boolean functions,sharp threshold
Projet ERC : VESTA (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Computer science and informatics
Entité participante : École normale supérieure de Rennes — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : ENS de Rennes
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1649501.0 €

Computer software pervades our life but far too much of it contains programming errors (bugs). Software is more and more complex and such errors are unavoidable if programmers are not accompanied with some tools that help auditing software codes. Static analysis is an increasingly popular technique that aims at automatically compute properties of software. These properties then help finding bugs, or proving absence of them. Industrial static analysers are flourishing. Facebook, Google, Microsoft develop their own static analysis tools to help maintaining their huge code base. Critical software industry (aircraft, railways, nuclear, etc.) has embraced the use of advanced static analysis tool as Astrée to companion and sometimes, ligthen their traditional software validation campaigns based on meticulous testing and reviews. Unfortunately, designing advanced static analyses like Astrée requires a very rare expertise in Abstract Interpretation, a foundational landmark in the research area, and implementing these ideas efficiently and correctly is specially tricky. The VESTA project will propose guidance and tool-support to the designers of static analysis, in order to build advanced but reliable static analysis tools. We focus on analyzing low-level softwares written in C, leveraging on the CompCert verified compiler. This compiler toolchain is fully verified in the Coq proof assistant. Verasco is a verified static analyser that I have architected. It analyses C programs and follows many of the advanced abstract interpretation technique developped for Astrée, but it is formally verified. The outcome of the VESTA project will be a platform that help designing other verified advanced abstract interpreters like Verasco, without starting from a white page. We will apply this technique to develop security analyses for C programs. The platform will be open-source and will help the adoption of abstract interpretation techniques.

Mots-clés : program verification,proof assistant,semantics,programming langages