Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : PAWTOOLS (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Université d'Aarhus — Pays : Danemark — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Modern web-based software uses the JavaScript programming language together with the Node.js framework and extensively rely on freely available third-party software libraries that provide common functionality. These libraries are continuously improved, and new versions are released frequently. This massive reuse of libraries is essential to the productivity of software developers, however, the dependence on other people's libraries opens the door to security vulnerabilities and programming errors that may have severe consequences to the applications and end users. With current technology, it is extremely difficult for the software developers to adapt programs to breaking changes in libraries, avoid unintended breaking changes, and investigate the possible consequences of security vulnerabilities in libraries.  The ERC project PAW has delivered a range of novel program analysis techniques that can help JavaScript programmers by automating these complex tasks. The analysis techniques have been implemented as prototype software tools, and preliminary experimental results have demonstrated that they are effective on real-world software. The proposed project, PAWTOOLS, aims to explore the commercial and innovative aspects of these scientific results, by further developing the prototype tools into commercial products, performing more extensive evaluations of their effectiveness, and engaging with potential users and industry partners.
Projet ERC : TCOtronics (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : École polytechnique de Milan — Pays : Italie — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : PoliMi
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 73000.0 €

TCOtronics project aims at developing and bridging to the market a revolutionary concept of a low-cost solution process to fabricate transparent conductive oxide-based films optimized for optical, electronic and optoelectronic applications. We will fabricate multilayer photonic structures, for filters and mirrors, and transparent electrodes for visible solar cells and transparent electronic circuits. We will employ only Earth-abundant elements. We will scale-up the fabrication process developing and optimizing nanocrystal inks for printers. Transparent conducting films (TCFs) are very important for many different applications including touch screens, portable and flexible electronics, optics, multifunctional windows or solar cells. The TCF market is anticipated to reach USD 10.2 Billion by 2028 with a CAGR growth of 9.8% in terms of value from 2020 to 2028. It is dominated by transparent conducting oxide (TCOs) thin films for many decades now, as TCOs carefully balance electrical conductivity controlled by doping with other elements and optical transmittance. Nevertheless, the ceramic nature of TCO films make them often brittle and fragile, and also their deposition conditions are not compatible with the printing of electronic components on flexible substrates. This will ultimately affect the flexible and portable electronics sector and hence alternative fabrication protocols are desired. Also the optical properties of thin film oxides are important. In particular the near and mid infrared wavelength range is becoming increasingly important for wireless communication, biophotonics, sensing, or heat shielding. Hence, novel more cost-effective processing techniques are required that replace the current deposition methods of oxides in general and TCOs in particular and that result in similar optical and electric quality as the industrially well-established deposition techniques finding application as transparent electrodes and photonic structures.
Projet ERC : AIFIX (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Université de Barcelone — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

The AIFIX project is a transformative initiative aiming to bridge the "healthcare AI divide" by developing an adaptive federated intelligence platform to securely integrate medical imaging data across diverse environments. It specifically targets the inclusion of low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), where limited data availability, privacy concerns, and inadequate legal frameworks have traditionally hindered AI innovation in healthcare.  AIFIX will deliver an adaptive federated learning platform to enable the local training of AI models without the need to transfer raw data, ensuring privacy and compliance with local data protection laws. The platform will be optimised to operate across a variety of computational resource and internet connections, ensuring efficient and stable performance across diverse data centres.  The feasibility of this approach will be demonstrated through an inter-continental obstetric imaging study involving diverse sites across Europe, Africa and Asia. From the outset, AIFIX will involve a wide range of stakeholders including healthcare professionals, AI innovators, data managers, and legal experts to ensure the platform meets diverse needs and overcomes potential adoption barriers. Finally, AIFIX will develop a sustainable business model based on detailed market analysis and financial planning. This model will explore various revenue streams such as licensing, subscriptions, and data monetisation, aiming to attract healthcare institutions and AI innovation organisations. The project will also explore federated IP management strategies to protect and share innovations equitably among all contributors.  The AIFIX project will represent a significant leap towards equitable AI innovation and utilisation in healthcare, promising to deliver substantial clinical, economic, and societal benefits across the globe.
Projet ERC : E-CO-HEAT (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Université de Ljubljana — Pays : Slovénie — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Decarbonization of the heating and cooling sector with renewables is a crucial step for the EU to achieve its energy and climate goals. Although heat pumps are considered renewable technology, they are all (as well as cooling and air-conditioning devices) based on relatively inefficient vapor-compression technology that still uses environmentally harmful refrigerants. The Kigali Amendment mandates phasing out high-global warming potential refrigerants, such as hydrofluorocarbons, in the EU by 2036 and replacing them with eco-friendly natural refrigerants. However, natural refrigerants have their own limitations, including flammability, toxicity, high operating pressure, and lower efficiency in hot climates. Recently, elastocaloric technology has emerged as the most promising non-vapor-compression alternative. It is based on safe, environmentally benign solid-state refrigerants and may offer higher efficiency than vapor-compression. The ERC PoC E-CO-HEAT project evolved from the ERC StG SUPERCOOL project, in which we explored fundamental aspects of elastocaloric technology. Based on this research, we have developed a fatigue-resistant elastocaloric regenerative cooling and heating device with breakthrough performance and an efficient drive mechanism. This device serves as the foundation for the E-CO-HEAT project, with the main objective to elevate the readiness level of elastocaloric technology in various areas, including technical aspects, customer engagement, business strategy and IPR. After fine tuning the elastocaloric device, it will undergo industry-relevant testing to achieve Technology Readiness Level 5 and IP protection of the most innovative solutions. These achievements will form the basis for disseminating the results to our (future) potential industry partners, elaborating a comprehensive business model and pursuing later-stage funding opportunities to further improve the readiness level of the elastocaloric technology and bring it closer to the market.

Mots-clés : elastocaloric cooling heat pump refrigeration shape memory alloys
Projet ERC : PureWater (Horizon Europe, appel 2025, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Université de Ljubljana — Pays : Slovénie — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Escalating water pollution is one of the most critical global crises, jeopardizing the global supply of clean water and threatening public health on an unprecedented scale. Contaminated water, together with poor sanitation can be directly linked to transmission of various diseases such as cholera, diarrhea and hepatitis A. Our successfully completed ERC project (CoG CABUM) has shown that cavitation (almost instantaneous growth and collapse of vapor bubbles due to a local pressure drop) destroys microorganisms by mechanical forces (shear and shockwaves) and that these effects can be enhanced by an elegant manipulation of cavitation conditions. CABUM has also revealed, that low-pressure cavitation region can be used to ignite non-thermal plasma, leading to successful disinfection. To further evolve the technology, PureWater will develop a compact, pilot-scale device that innovatively couples cavitation and plasma (CAP) and builds on the established lab-scale prototype. The novel CAP device will have a dual purpose: • a safe and energy efficient alternative to established disinfection technologies in public and industrial facilities that have problems with Legionella pneumophila outbursts; • a royalty free technology for on-site drinking water treatment in most vulnerable regions of the world. Firstly, the small-scale device will be fine-tuned and scaled up and then tested in a relevant setting, where CAP will be optimized for reliable long-term operation and high efficacy. As access to clean water is a basic human right and a critical component of public health, economic development and environmental sustainability, PureWater will pay particular attention to CAP design so that it could be easily replicated in other settings. By tackling the challenge of providing potable water in developing regions, CAP has the potential to make a significant breakthrough in water treatment and make an important contribution to global water security.

Mots-clés : cavitation,plasma,water treatment
Projet ERC : MC-Nano (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Université de Groningue — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : RUG
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Diagnostic limitations in healthcare form a major societal challenge, especially in the case of heart failure. More than 15 million Europeans suffer from heart failure, with a projected increase of up to 33% in heart failure patients globally by 2060. An important instrument for better diagnoses of heart failure comes from natriuresis-guided therapy, offering potential for personalized treatment. Monitoring natriuresis through urinalysis via Point of Care Testing (POCT) helps manage severe heart failure. However, POCT presents several complications, as it can only be performed by health care professionals and long-term costs are high. Responding to these challenges, this ERC Proof of Concept (PoC) proposal introduces "Multianalyte Continuum Nanopores Sensing" (MC-Nano), led by Prof. Giovanni Maglia. MC-Nano aims to develop a biological nanopore tool for real-time continuous patient health monitoring to improve possibilities of POCT. MC-Nano will develop a nanopore system to detect sodium ions, electrolytes, proteins, and heart failure biomarkers in liquid samples like urine. By utilising multiple nanopores, the system improves accuracy and reliability in identifying pathologies related to heart failure, including kidney failure. The project's advantages include its potential for miniaturisation, minimal need for specialised solutions, and compatibility with low-powered electronic devices. Built upon the foundations of a previous project, ERC CoG De-Nano, which successfully developed biological nanopores for peptide and protein sequencing, this proposal aspires to take the first steps toward the design of an innovative diagnostic device tailored for continuous monitoring of heart failure patients, tracing natriuretic activity in real-time. The resulting technology aims to substantially reduce the limitations of current diagnostic methods for heart failure patients globally and paves the way for precise and efficient medical interventions in the future.
Projet ERC : NEURO2D (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : École polytechnique de Milan — Pays : Italie — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : PoliMi
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

The detection and classification of electrophysiological signals (EPSs), such as electroencephalography (EEG) and electromyography (EMG) recordings, are the gold standard in neuroscience, enabling the identification of digital biomarkers capable of health monitoring, personalised medicine and advanced brain-computer interfaces (BCIs). The state-of-the-art technology in this field, however, still relies on bulky, inefficient microelectronic systems which relies on artificial intelligence (AI) in the cloud. The energy efficiency and classification accuracy can be largely improved by neuromorphic computing with emerging materials and devices capable of mimicking the neural mechanisms in our brain. This project aims at developing a novel class of neuromorphic systems based on reservoir computing (RC) in charge trap memory (CTM) based on 2D semiconductors. 2D-CTM devices are able to extracted features from EPSs at extremely low power and high accuracy of classification, thus providing efficient biomarkers for medical diagnosis and BCIs. The project will develop the RC system based on the 2D-CTM technology for a broad application space, with the goal of establishing a novel technology platform for scalable, lowpower implantable/wearable chips for real-time EPS monitoring and classification.

Mots-clés : neuromorphic engineering,2d semiconductors,reservoir computing
Projet ERC : Core (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : École polytechnique de Milan — Pays : Italie — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : PoliMi
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 120000.0 €

The EU's manufacturing sector is facing a crucial challenge to achieve ambitious sustainability goals in the transition towards a circular economy. While repair and remanufacturing are key solutions to this issue, current techniques fall short due to limitations in handling complex (geometry and material-wise) parts, heat damage and a lack of automation. This results in a staggering amount of waste – over 167 million tons generated annually by the EU manufacturing industry alone. CoRe offers a solution based on Cold Spray (CS), a solid state (no melting) deposition technique, with significant potential to revolutionize the repair sector. Currently, the widespread establishment of CS in the repair realm is hindered by the limited geometrical accuracy and the lack of automation in deposit shape control. CoRe will pair the physics-based analytical concept developed within the originating ERC project, with computational models, ad-hoc experiments and artificial intelligence to develop a disruptively robust, unprecedentedly accurate and computationally efficient CS repair planning tool. This fully automated tool will be made interoperable with commercial robots to readily offer customized nozzle trajectory to minimize post-processing, material waste and lead time in repair. The accomplishment of CoRe objectives will set out a unique synergy between CS performance metrics (material flexibility, high deposition efficiency, unlimited build volume) and automation with geometrical accuracy, advancing the repair sector towards an extremely flexible, unprecedentedly scalable and remarkably customizable and sustainable level; this will open the door to the coveted "freedom and accessibility in repair" to a wide range of applications. CoRe will also explore target applications, production impact, and marketability of its output. This future-focused approach positions CoRe to lead a sustainable repair revolution.

Mots-clés : solid state deposition,toolpath planning,cold spay,repair
Projet ERC : PYPAINT (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : École polytechnique de Milan — Pays : Italie — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : PoliMi
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 120000.0 €

The art market has always had to deal with an endemic problem: counterfeiting. All art is historically at risk of being copied and sold fraudulently by counterfeiters. A report by the Swiss Fine Art Expert Institute estimates that over half of all the artwork in circulation is fake. All this creates an incalculable loss of value for the entire market, including artists, auction houses, insurance companies and of course the end buyers, who often find themselves spending considerable sums of money only to end up with worthless pieces or even get into legal trouble. Works of art are generally not protected with dedicated security devices that uniquely identify the work itself. The problem historically originates from the requirement not to visibly alter the artwork itself and from the relative lack of security of existing non-invasive solutions. Our team at Politecnico di Milano aims to develop a printable new anti-counterfeiting system (PYPAINT) based on carbon-based nanostructures with a specific optoelectronic response, which makes it possible to create an artwork's unique identifier code that is invisible to the human eye. Thanks to the invisibility of inks, it is possible to print them directly on the artwork, or on a transparent label. The inks will be printed through an inkjet printer forming a pattern of spots able to create almost infinite codes readable using a special optical reader. Without the need for heavy metals or toxic compounds, PYPAINT is environmental-friendly. The verification of PYPAINT allows access to a remote database to guarantee not only its authenticity but also its history and relationship with the rest of the artist's works, creating a true digital reliable medium, available to the owner. It only takes a few seconds to identify and retrieve all the information of interest through a multi-level security protocol. With PYPAINT we aim at contributing to securing the extreme value of artworks in Europe and worldwide.
Projet ERC : PhotoSERS (Horizon Europe, appel 2025, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : ICIQ
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), commonly known as forever chemicals, are persistent organic pollutants of global environmental concern with serious health risks. Their extensive industrial use and toxic effects have led to the implementation of stringent regulations worldwide, highlighting the urgent need for more efficient and sensitive PFAS detection technologies. Current detection methods are often inefficient, time-consuming, and lack the sensitivity required for trace-level analysis and accurate identification. This project, PhotoSERS, aims to develop an innovative technology based on light-driven microswimmers capable of both capturing and detecting PFAS in water. These microscale devices combine active motion with selective molecular recognition. By integrating advanced spectroscopic detection and portable instrumentation, the system aims to enable real-time, sensitive, and reproducible monitoring of these contaminants. Collaboration with industrial partners will ensure the industrial relevance of our technology by providing critical feedback on performance requirements, and supporting validation in real operational settings, ultimately accelerating its path to commercialization. Therefore, this innovative portable microswimmer-based device could contribute significantly to water monitoring technologies and environmental protection efforts by providing an efficient, field-deployable solution for PFAS capture and detection.
Projet ERC : NanoCroptective (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Université de Malaga — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Seed germination is the first step of a sequence of events that promote the transit of seeds from dormancy to vegetative growth. Therefore, it is a tightly regulated program that ensures further plant growth and survival in a supportive environment. The emergency provoked by continuous deterioration of the environment due to non-respectful crop management strategies and potentiated with climate change has increased the focus on this primordial stage of the plant growth as a primary target of strategies that help mitigating unsustainable issues. Beneficial microbes live in association with all plants, and we know how to take advantage of this benefit for the wealth of adult plants; however, little is known on their contribution to seed resilience and adaptation to a changing environment. This lack of knowledge may lead to unfeasible and weak bio-stimulant results undermining their credibility and entry into the market. Supported by findings of our deep investigation on the mutualistic interaction microbe-seed, we propose a proof of concept for a precise and customizable strategy based on the use of fengycin, a molecule produced by Bacillus cells in the interaction with seeds, and a fine-tuned nanotechnology platform to improve and increase the mobilization of nutrients of oil bodies containing seeds. We do expect a better adaptation of plantlets to the environment, major adult plant growth and immunization against microbial pathogens, and an average 50% reduction in the use of fertilizers and pesticides. Altogether our methodology should serve to improve the credibility of biological solutions as potent bio-stimulant of seed growth and thus potentiate their inclusion in sustainable programs of crop production and protection.