Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : CERCODE (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System
Entité participante : Spanish National Research Council — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : CSIC
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 894709.26 €

The cerebellum plays a critical role in motor function, but also in cognitive, and social behavioral development. It is proposed that the influence of the cerebellum in high-order processing is via modulatory effects on the cerebral cortex. Importantly, mounting evidences from clinical studies indicate that early cerebellar damage lead to wide range of changes in the structure and function of the developing cerebral cortex. This pathophysiological phenomenon is referred as “developmental diaschisis” and it suggests that the development of cerebral cortical areas is optimized by the guidance of cerebellar input. Thus, abnormalities in the developmental influence between these two brain regions might underlie the emergence of several neurodevelopmental disorders, such as autism spectrum disorders. Yet, the mechanisms by which the cerebellum is influencing the development and maturation of distant cortical circuits remain unknown. Here, we will adopt a multidisciplinary and innovative approach to define the mechanisms by which the cerebellum influences the development of cortical areas. We hypothesize that these mechanisms are orchestrated by the thalamus, a key intermediate region connecting the cerebellum and the cortex. Therefore, a cerebellar malfunctioning might lead to alterations of cortical areas via thalamic reorganizations. Manipulating cerebellar early normal development and function offers us the possibility to shed light onto this issue. Thus, we will embryonically disturb the cerebello-thalamo-cortical output by anatomical, genetic and functional methods to determine the alterations in the development, organization, function and plasticity of the thalamocortical and cortical networks. The successful execution of this high-risk, high-impact research will provide insights on how the atypical cerebellar structure or function is involved in neurodevelopmental disorders.

Mots-clés : cerebellum,cortex,thalamus,neural circuits development
Projet ERC : LinPro (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System
Entité participante : Institute of Science and Technology Austria — Pays : Autriche — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : ISTA
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1996030.0 €

The cerebral cortex consists of an extraordinary number and great diversity of neurons. Yet, how the cortical entity, with all its functional neuronal circuits, arises from the neural stem cells (NSCs) in the developing neuroepithelium is a major unsolved question in Neuroscience. Radial glia progenitors (RGPs) are responsible for producing nearly all neocortical neurons and a certain fraction of cortical glia including astrocytes. Our recent efforts provide evidence for a high degree of non-stochasticity and thus deterministic nature of RGP behavior in the mammalian neocortex. However, the cellular and molecular mechanisms controlling RGP lineage progression through proliferation, neurogenesis and especially gliogenesis are unknown. In a pursuit to obtain definitive insights into these fundamental questions we assess RGP lineage progression at the unprecedented single cell resolution, using the unique genetic MADM (Mosaic Analysis with Double Markers) technology. MADM offers an unparalleled approach to visualize and concomitantly manipulate sparse clones and small subsets of genetically defined neurons. Within the scope of this project we will use multidisciplinary experimental approaches to establish a research program with the following major objectives: We will 1) Functionally dissect the relative contribution of cell-autonomous intrinsic signaling and cell-non-autonomous effects in RGP lineage progression; 2) Define the principles of lineage progression in human RGPs in situ using MADM technology in cerebral organoid system; 3) Decipher the logic of glia lineage progression in the neocortex. The ultimate goal of the proposed research is to establish a definitive quantitative framework and mechanistic model of lineage progression in cortical NSCs. As such, the proposed research shall precipitate into extensive conceptual progress regarding the fundamental cellular and molecular principles of cerebral cortex development.

Mots-clés : cerebral cortex development,neural stem cells,lineage,single cell analysis,neurogenesis,gliogenesis,mosaic analysis with double markers  madm,radial glia progenitors rgps
Projet ERC : ECSAnVis (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Social World and Its Diversity
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 : 2500000.0 €

The challenge of Extreme Citizen Science is to enable any community, regardless of literacy or education, to initiate, run, and use the result of a local citizen science activity, so they can be empowered to address and solve issues that concern them. Citizen Science is understood here as the participation of members of the public in a scientific project, from shaping the question, to collecting the data, analysing it and using the knowledge that emerges from it. Over the past 3 years, under the leadership of Prof. Muki Haklay, the Extreme Citizen Science programme at UCL has demonstrated that non-literate people and those with limited technical literacy can participate in formulating research questions and collecting the data that is important to them. Extreme Citizen Science: Analysis and Visualisation (ECSAnVis) takes the next ambitious step – developing geographical analysis and visualisation tools that can be used, successfully, by people with limited literacy, in a culturally appropriate way. At the core of the proposal is the imperative to see technology as part of socially embedded practices and culture and avoid ‘technical fixes’. The development of novel, socially and culturally accessible Geographic Information System (GIS) interface and underlying algorithms, will provide communities with tools to support them to combine their local environmental knowledge with scientific analysis to improve environmental management. In an exciting collaboration with local indigenous partners on case studies in critically important, yet fragile and menaced ecosystems in the Amazon and the Congo-basin, our network of anthropologists, ecologists, computer scientists, designers and electronic engineers will develop innovative hardware, software and participatory methodologies that will enable any community to use this innovative GIS. The research will contribute to the fields of geography, geographic information science, anthropology, development, agronomy and conservation.

Mots-clés : citizen science,traditional ecological knowledge,indigenous knowledge,geographical information system usability,ict for development,geographic information science
Projet ERC : LO-ACT (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Institutions, Governance and Legal Systems
Entité participante : Utrecht University — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : Partner
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 25650.0 €

The challenge of LO-ACT is to enable low carbon urban development in medium and small cities in rapidly urbanising areas in East, Central and West Africa, South Asia and South East Asia. The majority of emissions in the next century will be emitted by infrastructures that are yet to be built, particularly in rapidly urbanising areas where infrastructure is lacking. Population forecasts suggest that most population growth will take place in small and medium cities. Yet, to date, research on climate action has focused on showcasing strongly branded, successful initiatives in global cities. The low carbon transition depends on myriad of actions in ordinary cities, that is, cities outside global networks of climate innovation and leadership. LO-ACT will address this critical gap by delivering the first multi-dimensional, large scale assessment of low carbon action in ordinary cities. It will contribute a new framework to understand global environmental politics and urban governance. First, LO-ACT will analyse the imaginaries of local action that have shaped global environmental politics over 30 years (Objective 1). The work programme will also analyse the mobility of low carbon urban policies in transport, energy, and housing across different urban contexts (Objective 2). LO-ACT will deliver a comparative analysis of urban trajectories in 113 ordinary cities, and five in-depth ethnographic case studies (Objective 3). Finally, it will provide a critical assessment of governance theory and a revised framework to acknowledge the messy and ordinary contexts of urban action (Objective 4). LO-ACT will bring together an interdisciplinary, international team of researchers, an international network of academic advisors, and four regional hubs that will support context-specific data collection and analysis. The research will contribute to the fields of human geography, urban studies, environmental politics, sustainability transitions and science and technology studies.

Mots-clés : climate change governance,urban transitions
Projet ERC : ViEWS (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Institutions, Governance and Legal Systems
Entité participante : Peace Research Institute Oslo — Pays : Norvège — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : PRIO
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 121253.75 €

The challenges of preventing, mitigating, and adapting to large-scale political violence are daunting, particularly when violence escalates where it is not expected. Early-warning systems of sufficient quality and transparency do not exist, limiting the ability of the international community to effectively assist affected populations. We propose to develop, test, and iteratively improve a pilot Violence Early-Warning System (ViEWS) that is rigorous, data-based, and publicly available to researchers and the international community. This objective is challenging but feasible. The conflict research community has laid the ground for such a system through careful isolation of theoretically manageable sub-components of complex phenomena, and concomitant systematic, disaggregated data collection efforts. A major innovation in the project is to integrate these isolated research programs into a theoretically and methodologically consistent forecasting system, by means of dynamic simulation techniques in combination with Bayesian Model Averaging, and guided by continuous out-of-sample evaluation. This integration effort will not only allow an early-warning system of unprecedented scope and performance, but also build theoretically informative bridges between numerous compartmentalized conflict research programs. Concentrating on theoretical and methodological development, the pilot will be limited in scope to Africa but be scalable. ViEWS will provide early warnings for four forms of political violence: armed conflict involving states and rebel groups, armed conflict between non-state actors, violence against civilians, and forced population displacement, and apply these to specific actors, sub-national geographical units, and countries. Led by Håvard Hegre, the system will leverage the data resources within the Uppsala Conflict Data program, the world-leading provider of conflict data, in combination with a strong team of highly experienced conflict scholars.
Projet ERC : CT (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The study of the human past
Entité participante : Austrian Academy of Sciences — Pays : Autriche — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : OAW
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1499992.0 €

The chronology of ancient Egypt is a golden thread for the memory of early civilisation. It is not only the scaffolding of four millennia of Egyptian history, but also one of the pillars of the chronology of the entire ancient Near East and eastern Mediterranean. The basic division of Egyptian history into 31 dynasties was introduced by Manetho, an Egyptian historian (c. 280 BC) writing in Greek for the Ptolemaic kings. Despite the fact that this scheme was adopted by Egyptologists 200 years ago and remains in use until today, there has never been an in-depth analysis of Manetho’s kinglist and of the names in it. Until now, identifying the Greek renderings of royal names with their hieroglyphic counterparts was more or less educated guesswork. It is thus essential to introduce the principles of textual criticism, to evaluate royal names on a firm linguistic basis and to provide for the first time ever an Egyptological commentary on Manetho’s kinglist. Just like Manetho did long ago, now it is necessary to gather all inscriptional evidence on Egyptian history: dated inscriptions, biographic and prosopographic data of royalty and commoners, genuine Egyptian kinglists and annals. These data must be critically evaluated in context, their assignment to specific reigns must be reconsidered, and genealogies and sequences of officials must be reviewed. The results are not only important for Egyptian historical chronology and for our understanding of the Egyptian perception of history, but also for the interpretation of chronological data gained from archaeological excavations (material culture) and sciences (14C dates, which are interpreted on the basis of historical chronology, e.g., via ‘Bayesian modelling’). The applicant has already shown the significance of this approach in pilot studies on the pyramid age. Further work in cooperation with international specialists will thus shed new light on ancient sources in order to determine the chronology of early civilisation.

Mots-clés : egypt,history,egyptian chronology,dating system,manetho,kinglists,written evidence,prosopography,philology,linguistics,textual criticism
Projet ERC : Bismuth Goes Radical (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Synthetic Chemistry and Materials
Entité participante : University of Würzburg — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : Partner
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 112919.6 €

The classical distinction between transition metal and main group compounds has recently been challenged. This is due to the extraordinary properties and reactivity of low-valent and radical main group species, which chemists have begun to unveil. The development of reliable synthetic approaches to new types of low-valent main group compounds and the thorough understanding of their bonding situation, (electronic) structure, and reactivity is one of the major challenges of modern main group chemistry. Bismuth (Bi), a non-precious, non-toxic, heavy p-block element, offers unique properties for the use in synthesis and catalysis. Its large and diffuse atomic orbitals (AOs) result in an inefficient overlap with AOs of other atoms, leading to low homolytic bond dissociation energies. Also, relativistic effects contribute to the stabilisation of Bi radical species. In combination, these effects allow for reversible homolytic bond dissociations of molecular Bi species. Due to the lack of effective strategies for the exploitation of these remarkable properties, Bi compounds remain underexplored. This ERC proposal is designed to tackle this challenge by creating innovative methods to explore novel Bi compounds in radical reactions and unlocking their tremendous potential in synthetic chemistry. It comprises three projects: P1) Bi complexes tailored to undergo (reversible) homolytic bond dissociations, P2) novel strategies for the generation of Bi(I) species with unique (singlet vs. triplet) electronic structures, and P3) geometrically constrained complexes with Bi−Bi bonds susceptible to tuneable homolysis. The compounds targeted in P1-P3 will be exploited in novel radical reactions aimed at element–element bond formation, CH activation, small-molecule activation, and catalysis for organic synthesis. The ERC project will benefit from the extensive experience gained by the applicant’s group in Bi chemistry. Preliminary results have been obtained for all three sub-projects.

Mots-clés : main group chemistry,radical chemistry,organometallic chemistry,bismuth chemistry,low valent compounds
Projet ERC : Bismuth Goes Radical (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Synthetic Chemistry and Materials
Entité participante : Philipps University of Marburg — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1357833.4 €

The classical distinction between transition metal and main group compounds has recently been challenged. This is due to the extraordinary properties and reactivity of low-valent and radical main group species, which chemists have begun to unveil. The development of reliable synthetic approaches to new types of low-valent main group compounds and the thorough understanding of their bonding situation, (electronic) structure, and reactivity is one of the major challenges of modern main group chemistry. Bismuth (Bi), a non-precious, non-toxic, heavy p-block element, offers unique properties for the use in synthesis and catalysis. Its large and diffuse atomic orbitals (AOs) result in an inefficient overlap with AOs of other atoms, leading to low homolytic bond dissociation energies. Also, relativistic effects contribute to the stabilisation of Bi radical species. In combination, these effects allow for reversible homolytic bond dissociations of molecular Bi species. Due to the lack of effective strategies for the exploitation of these remarkable properties, Bi compounds remain underexplored. This ERC proposal is designed to tackle this challenge by creating innovative methods to explore novel Bi compounds in radical reactions and unlocking their tremendous potential in synthetic chemistry. It comprises three projects: P1) Bi complexes tailored to undergo (reversible) homolytic bond dissociations, P2) novel strategies for the generation of Bi(I) species with unique (singlet vs. triplet) electronic structures, and P3) geometrically constrained complexes with Bi−Bi bonds susceptible to tuneable homolysis. The compounds targeted in P1-P3 will be exploited in novel radical reactions aimed at element–element bond formation, CH activation, small-molecule activation, and catalysis for organic synthesis. The ERC project will benefit from the extensive experience gained by the applicant’s group in Bi chemistry. Preliminary results have been obtained for all three sub-projects.

Mots-clés : main group chemistry,radical chemistry,organometallic chemistry,bismuth chemistry,low valent compounds
Projet ERC : ADJUV-ANT VACCINES (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Synthetic Chemistry and Materials
Entité participante : CIC bioGUNE — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1499218.75 €

The clinical success of anticancer and antiviral vaccines often requires the use of an adjuvant, a substance that helps stimulate the body’s immune response to the vaccine, making it work better. However, few adjuvants are sufficiently potent and non-toxic for clinical use; moreover, it is not really known how they work. Current vaccine approaches based on weak carbohydrate and glycopeptide antigens are not being particularly effective to induce the human immune system to mount an effective fight against cancer. Despite intensive research and several clinical trials, no such carbohydrate-based antitumor vaccine has yet been approved for public use. In this context, the proposed project has a double, ultimate goal based on applying chemistry to address the above clear gaps in the adjuvant-vaccine field. First, I will develop new improved adjuvants and novel chemical strategies towards more effective, self-adjuvanting synthetic vaccines. Second, I will probe deeply into the molecular mechanisms of the synthetic constructs by combining extensive immunological evaluations with molecular target identification and detailed conformational studies. Thus, the singularity of this multidisciplinary proposal stems from the integration of its main objectives and approaches connecting chemical synthesis and chemical/structural biology with cellular and molecular immunology. This ground-breaking project at the chemistry-biology frontier will allow me to establish my own independent research group and explore key unresolved mechanistic questions in the adjuvant/vaccine arena with extraordinary chemical precision. Therefore, with this transformative and timely research program I aim to (a) develop novel synthetic antitumor and antiviral vaccines with improved properties and efficacy for their prospective translation into the clinic and (b) gain new critical insights into the molecular basis and three-dimensional structure underlying the biological activity of these constructs.

Mots-clés : chemical immunology,carbohydrates,glyco peptides,immunoadjuvant,synthetic cancer vaccines,photoaffinity probes,nmr conformational analysis,chemical proteomics,molecular target identification
Projet ERC : T-FRAME (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions
Entité participante : Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : GBF;HZI
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1499852.0 €

The coding region of many genes contains sequence elements that constitute roadblocks during mRNA translation. These roadblocks present problems, but also opportunities for the cell to increase the coding capacity of the genome by so-called programmed ribosome frameshifting (PRF). PRF is a universal gene expression strategy that brings plasticity to the proteome. It is widely studied in viruses and bacteria, yet poorly understood in humans. My own mechanistic discoveries have highlighted that, regardless of various stimulatory structures and slippery nucleotides involved, PRF in bacterial and viral mRNAs follows one of the two general pathways depending on substrate. In contrast, many questions remain regarding the occurrences of PRF in humans and its regulation by recently discovered trans-acting viral and cellular factors. In T-FRAME, I will investigate the mechanism of PRF and its role in disease using HIV infection of human-T lymphocytes as an in vivo paradigm. To study molecular details of how trans-factors modulate PRF, I will leverage cutting-edge ensemble and single-molecule techniques to monitor the ribosome as it moves along the mRNA codon per codon. In addition, I will assess mRNA interactions with PRF factors during this process. Using a PRF-RNA-interactome capture assay that we have recently developed, I will search for new trans- factors in human cells. Finally, I will study the translation of T cells and HIV-1 on a global level during infection to understand the full scope and dynamic nature of PRF in this model system. To summarize, T-FRAME will advance our understanding of how RNA structure and trans-factors shape translation regimes in higher eukaryotes and how deviations from the standard decoding path impact infection and innate immunity. I envision harnessing these findings to develop novel tools for synthetic biology and new design principles for RNA-centric antiviral and immune therapies.

Mots-clés : mechanisms of infections,immunity,frameshifting,translation,hiv 1,recoding