Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : NextReason (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Computer Science and Informatics
Entité participante : Université Charles de Prague — Pays : Rép. Tchèque — Rôle : Partner
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 400000.0 €

Galileo said that mathematics is the language of science. It is used to solve arbitrary abstract problems, underpinning hard sciences, technology and engineering. Automation of complex mathematical reasoning, discovery and large-scale formal proofs is today one of the greatest challenges in the fields of Automated Reasoning (AR) and Artificial Intelligence (AI). Compared to human experts, today’s main automated reasoning and theorem proving paradigms are severely one-sided: they largely lack the capability to combine learning, reasoning and conjecturing in complex feedback loops. There is solid evidence that such combinations are the key to building the next generation of advanced reasoning systems for mathematics, computer-assisted proof and formal verification.  The NextReason project will create one of the world’s strongest teams working on such combinations. We will jointly develop (i) logic-aware learning architectures and neuro-symbolic methods for a range of automated and interactive theorem proving paradigms, (ii) novel AI approaches for learning-guided automated decomposition of hard reasoning problems, (iii) methods for automated formalization of human-written mathematics by combining learning-based translation methods with semantic methods such as type-checking and theorem proving, (iv) neuro-symbolic methods for synthesis of interesting mathematical objects, conjectures and explanations, and (v) autonomous systems and positive feedback loops interleaving learning, theory exploration and efficiently guided proof search to attack hard and open problems.  The expected overall outcome is a new generation of strong architectures for reasoning and theorem proving, and their transformative effect on large-scale computer-assisted proof, mathematics and formal verification.

Mots-clés : automated reasoning,automated theorem proving,interactive theorem proving,formal proof,automating mathematics,formalized mathematics,ai and theorem proving
Projet ERC : INHIST (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Study of the Human Past
Entité participante : Université Charles de Prague — Pays : Rép. Tchèque — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2499900.0 €

INHIST is based on the premise that current efforts to build an inclusive society urgently require education that offers an inclusive and multivocal interpretation of our past. Official interpretations of modern European history, especially of East-Central European (ECE) states, are still dominated by a narrow vision of the one-nation state. INHIST offers an alternative in the form of an inclusive history of ECE, in which history from the mid-19th century to present is analyzed from the perspective of three marginalized and internally diverse communities: Roma and Sinti, Jews, and people with disabilities. The project introduces the concept of ‘polyphonic inclusivity,’ inspired by Mikhail Bakhtin, in which intertwined histories of different historical actors are presented without privileging anyone’s voice over another. Geographically, the project focuses on Poland, Ukraine, Czechia, Slovakia, and Hungary. INHIST primarily traces individual and collective efforts at emancipation that show the diverse agency of Roma, Jews, and disabled people in co-shaping the histories of ECE. Methodologically, INHIST pursues an intersectional approach across these three communities and with an emphasis on gender and class, while developing a historical view of everyday life from below and from geographical periphery. Through extensive archival research, INHIST examines previously neglected sources produced by Romani, Jewish, and disabled people, including less-accessible sources in languages including Romanes and Yiddish. The team includes specialists in Romani, Jewish, and disability histories who speak at least ten languages and have also expert knowledge on the history of the individual countries in our focus. INHIST is thus a groundbreaking attempt to radically reinterpret the history of ECE through the paradigm of polyphonic inclusivity that overcomes the ‘methodological nationalism’ and ethnic hierarchies that have so far dominated historiographic research.

Mots-clés : roma and sinti jews disability studies east central europe emancipation
Projet ERC : CENTRIC-BRAIN (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Prevention,  Diagnosis and T reatment of Human Diseases
Entité participante : Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : HGF
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2043637.25 €

Personalized tumor immunotherapy - vaccines and T cell therapies - requires the selection of few immunogenic epitopes recognized by tumor-reactive T cell receptors (TCRs) from thousands of potential tumor antigens in each tumor. This selection is a huge challenge, particularly in brain tumors, where access to tumor tissue is limited and tumor-infiltrating T cells (TILs) are sparse. CENTRIC-BRAIN will reverse this epitope-centric approach by directly harnessing tumor-reactive orphan TCRs from TILs for personalized brain tumor immunotherapy. Using human brain tumor tissue we have developed and experimentally validated predicTCR, a novel approach using machine learning and explainable AI to derive a classifier that predicts tumor-reactivity of such orphan TCRs based on the expression of signature genes with > 90% accuracy across multiple tumour entities. CENTRIC-BRAIN will employ predicTCR to develop a personalized adoptive cell therapy using transgenic T cells with tumor-specific TCRs and improved function. CENTRIC-BRAIN hypothesizes that the signature genes underlying predicTCR determine the phenotypic and functional properties of tumor-reactive T cells and that predicted tumor-reactive orphan TCRs can be employed for adoptive therapy with personalized TCR-transgenic T cells. Aim 1 will refine predicTCR by characterizing the transcriptional programs and spatial distribution of tumor-reactive T cells in human brain tumor samples. Aim 2 will define the functional relevance of transcriptional programs for tumor-reactive T cells in syngeneic humanized and patient-derived xenograft brain tumor models. Aim 3 will validate the predicted tumor-reactive orphan TCRs by adoptive transfer of T cells genetically engineered to express predicted tumor-reactive TCRs. CENTRIC-BRAIN will thus revolutionize precise and efficient implementation of personalized adoptive cell therapy for brain tumors using T cells expressing tumor-reactive patient-derived orphan TCRs.
Projet ERC : DEMCOOP (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Institutions, Governance and Legal Systems
Entité participante : Université de Stockholm — Pays : Suède — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2499939.0 €

One of the most consistent findings in the study of world politics is the positive relationship between democratic regimes and international cooperation. Yet events in recent years suggest a more complicated picture. Several democracies have withered in their support for international organizations, while autocracies simultaneously have stepped up their commitments to cooperation. This project will use recent developments as a backdrop for launching a new research agenda on the relationship between regime type and international cooperation. Guided by the over-arching question of why, how, and under what conditions regime type affects international cooperation, this project will conduct the most systematic and comprehensive analysis so far of this relationship. Theoretically, it will break new ground by developing a novel framework for identifying how regime type may have varying and conditional effects on international cooperation. Empirically, it will be more comprehensive than any previous research effort, examining this relationship over a longer time period and across a broader range of international cooperation, based on an extensive new data collection. Methodologically, it will leverage an ambitious multi-method design, combining large-N statistical analysis, experimental analysis, and in-depth case analysis in a complementary fashion and with a comparative orientation. In addition, the project will be policy relevant by generating insights on the resilience (or not) of international cooperation in an age of democratic decline.

Mots-clés : democracy,autocracy,regime type,international cooperation,international organization,multi method
Projet ERC : TRANSMOD (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Human Mobility, Environment, and Space
Entité participante : Université de Stockholm — Pays : Suède — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2498060.0 €

While the need for sustainability transformations is ubiquitous, understanding why and how they succeed or fail is limited. Explanations often focus on either agency-related or systemic factors. Understanding the complex dynamics of transformations, however, requires approaches that bridge perspectives, and recognize the interdependent personal, political, social and ecological dynamics at play. TRANSMOD addresses this gap through interdisciplinary analysis of transformative change in the context of natural resource governance and food systems across the Global South and North. It focuses on how novel ideas and practices emerge and take root in response to crises, such as resource decline or Covid-19, and in interaction with existing structures and processes, such as dominant narratives, power relations and biophysical dynamics. The project will reach its objectives through an approach that transcends a focus on systemic processes versus agency by analysing change or lack thereof as emerging from their relations. It will achieve this through two methodological advancements: i) combining simulation modelling with empirical research of past transformations, which allows analysing key material and immaterial social and social-ecological processes through in-depth case studies and testing their effect on emergent system dynamics through modelling, and ii) making sense of the complexities of change through engaging in ongoing change-making processes. Together, these activities will serve the development of complexity-aware theories of transformation.  The project will open up new opportunities for sustainability science by establishing the conceptual and methodological foundations for research that goes beyond natural-social divides with the help of building applying a next generation of social-ecological models. This will enable new ways of theorising that account for the complexity of cross-scale and interconnected social-ecological dynamics of the Anthropocene.

Mots-clés : emergence,social ecological systems,transformation,food systems,natural resource governance,theory building,agent based modelling,dynamical systems modelling
Projet ERC : FunGerm (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Environmental B iology, Ecology  and E volution
Entité participante : Université de Stockholm — Pays : Suède — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2497523.0 €

The FunGerm-project aims to investigate the phenomenon of an early sequestered germline in the fungi. As of today, it is well known that in unitary animals the germline is defined early during development, while in fungi, plants, and other metazoans, the current dogma is that the germline is defined much later in development, meaning that mutations that have accumulated over growth can enter the germline. Recent, and yet unpublished, whole-genome-sequencing data in my group show the unexpected pattern of an early sequestration of the germline in the basidiomycete fungus Marasmius oreades, suggesting convergence in evolution of this key trait among major eukaryote lineages. M. oreades grows in fairy rings: circular, underground mycelia common in lawns and grasslands across the northern hemisphere. At the edge of the ring, the annual, sexual, fruiting bodies (mushrooms) develop from the mycelium. In recent years, we have developed the system as a natural, long-term evolution experiment to study the rise and fate of new mutations over sexual generations. With an ERC Advanced grant we will be able to use this system to fully explore the finding of an early sequestered germline, and also expand it to identify the breadth of occurrence across the fungal kingdom. Specifically, I propose to use a wide range of approaches and M. oreades as model organism to investigate: I) The spatial distribution of the somatic and germline cell-lines in mycelia, II) The mechanism determining and controlling germline segregation, and III) The mutation rate and spectra of the different cell lines. Furthermore, we aim to investigate IV) the prevalence of an early germline sequestration across basidiomycetes and other fungi. With the FunGerm-project we will thoroughly test if, and how, an early germline sequestration has evolved multiple times independently, in different eukaryote kingdoms, and thereby empirically contribute to the conceptual link between development and evolution.

Mots-clés : mycology,development,convergent evolution
Projet ERC : CRIMLIFE (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Soci al World and Its Interactions
Entité participante : Université de Bohême de l'Ouest — Pays : Rép. Tchèque — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : ZČU
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 118500.0 €

How do social contexts determine paths into crime? How do these trajectories vary across different societal circumstances? And how are they narrated? CRIMEGLO is the first-ever large-scale comparative life-course criminological study globally. No research hitherto has addressed criminal careers and storytelling in such detail and on the scale envisaged in this project. The approach will counterweight the current Northern bias in research and theory, a shift necessary to establish a truly global perspective within life-course criminology. Cultural and societal contexts play a large role in defining and responding to crime. Social conditions shape the life-courses of those getting caught up in the criminal justice system. Context is also intertwined with the ways people talk about their lives. CRIMEGLO will explore and compare crime from a life-course and life-story perspective spanning four continents and six countries: Norway, the Czech Republic, Türkiye, Nigeria, Bangladesh, and Colombia. By combining criminological theory with institutional, cultural, and narrative studies, CRIMEGLO’s goal is to establish global comparative research on crime within a life-course perspective. The primary objective is to introduce and theoretically develop a contextually sensitive, comparative global life-course criminology. The secondary objective is to achieve a better empirical understanding of the particular social, economic, institutional, and gendered factors shaping criminal life-courses in different countries with highly divergent societal contexts. Principal Investigator Sveinung Sandberg is a sociologist and one of Europe’s leading qualitative criminologists. He has pioneered the prominent research traditions of Bourdieusian Criminology and Narrative Criminology. With CRIMEGLO, he expands globally his qualitative work on life-courses and life-stories started in Latin America and, for the first time, incorporates quantitative and comparative methods to his research.

Mots-clés : sociology,criminology,narrative criminology,life course analysis,life history analysis,crime
Projet ERC : SONOPHARMAGEN (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Synthetic Chemistry and Materials
Entité participante : Leibniz-Gemeinschaft — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : WLG
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2500000.0 €

To date, light has been employed as a widespread trigger to achieve control over the activity of drugs and protein function establishing the fields of photopharmacology and optogenetics, respectively. Both techniques led to promising new therapies, the elucidation of brain function or understanding of neural disorders. However, serious limitations resulting from the low penetration depth of light into tissues are severely hampering progress in these fields. In contrast to photons, ultrasound deeply penetrates tissue and can be applied with sub-millimeter resolution and consequently has been widely established in the clinic over many decades for therapy and diagnostics. In this ERC Advanced Grant, I will develop a radically new approach to control the activity of drugs, proteins and genes by biocompatible ultrasound. Polynucleic acid carriers, which can bind a wide variety of bioactive payloads, will be designed to be sensitive to different ultrasound sources, which can be applied in clinical settings and do not harm cells or tissues. Upon ultrasound irradiation, these carriers liberate their bioactive payloads by mechanochemical principles to switch on drugs and control cellular functions. To achieve this aim, I will: investigate the effect of ultrasound (US) on nucleic acid architectures; study the loading of polynucleic acids with different payloads and their release by US; develop a technology platform to activate small molecule drugs, proteins and oligonucleotides; and showcase the huge potential of these technologies for cancer immunotherapy, diabetes research and tissue engineering. This project will boost sonopharmacology and sonogenetics. Its outcomes will enable spatiotemporal control of drug action to minimize side effects in pharmacotherapy like cancer. The remote controlled orchestration of protein and gene function by US will strongly advance medicine and the life sciences by answering fundamental questions in these fields.

Mots-clés : stimulus responsive polymers mechanochemistry ultrasound nucleic acids drug carriers
Projet ERC : Xspect (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Environmental B iology, Ecology  and E volution
Entité participante : Université d'Aarhus — Pays : Danemark — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2499369.0 €

Primate X chromosomes evolve extraordinary fast and are also tightly associated with the establishment of reproductive barriers between emerging species.  The hypothesis of this proposal is that genetic conflicts between the X chromosome and the rest of the genome during spermatogenesis cause rapid X chromosome evolution and build reproductive barriers. Genetic conflicts for transmission to haploid gametes, called meiotic drive, will cause non-adaptive evolution, which is expected to be countered by other genomic elements that will then be under selection. Such an arms race is expected to lead to a very rapid evolution of the X chromosome and a fast accumulation of incompatibilities between isolated populations, leading to speciation. The goal of the project is to identify the underlying mechanisms and the genes responsible for meiotic drive using primates as the study system. A priori candidate processes include X-linked genes under repeated fast evolution with a focus on genes targeted by pachytene piRNAs and on ampliconic genes. Population genomics analysis will generate specific hypotheses that will then be tested by following expression of candidate genes during spermatogenesis through scRNAseq, and validate findings by ultrasensitive, in situ, staining of single transcripts and immunohistochemistry. Finally, the behaviour of key genes and processes will then be investigated in incipient speciation events.  Specifically, 850 individuals of 250 species of primates with full genome data will be analysed for candidate genes on the X chromosome. These genes will be investigated in large scale comparative scRNA sequencing analyses of >10,000 individual testicular cells from 14 primate species, including all great ape species, thus allowing expression trajectories through spermatogenesis to be inferred and followed up in functional experiments.  The success criterion is to report on primate speciation genes together with their biological mode of action.

Mots-clés : primates,spermatogenesis,meiotic drive,speciation,natural selection,scrna sequencing,genetic conflict,incomplete lineage sorting,haploid selection
Projet ERC : HoloGW (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Fundamental Constituents of Matter
Entité participante : Université de Barcelone — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2499451.0 €

The revolution unleashed by the discovery of gravitational waves will gradually unfold over the coming decades. The detection of a neutron star merger by LIGO and Virgo opened a new era in multi-messenger astronomy. Future ground-based interferometers, such as the Cosmic Explorer and the Einstein Telescope, will extend the range of detection to the entire Universe, and the frequency to millions of detections per year. Space-based missions like LISA may discover gravitational waves from phase transitions in the early Universe. Reaping the benefits of this experimental revolution requires a theoretical understanding of quantum matter coupled to dynamical classical gravity. The fact that the relevant physics is often out-of-equilibrium and/or strongly coupled makes this a challenging regime for conventional approaches. The purpose of this project is to use holography, also known as gauge/string duality, to make essential contributions in this direction. I have recently pioneered and provided proof of concept that this line of research is both powerful and feasible. In the next five years I will turn these initial investigations into a fully-fledged research program to improve our understanding of: (i) Cosmological phase transitions, in particular of bubble dynamics and baryogenesis; (ii) Neutron stars, with a focus on out-of-equilibrium physics in binary mergers; (iii) Spacetime singularities, specifically in the presence of quantum matter effects. These three main objectives are interconnected by two horizontal lines: (i) Identification of universal observables, which hold the best potential to make contact with experiment; (ii) Communication with other fields, which is crucial for the success of an interdisciplinary proposal.

Mots-clés : holography,gravitational waves,cosmological phase transitions,neutron stars,spacetime singularities