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

The need to accelerate crop breeding programs has never been greater, as the world population is exponentially increasing, the climate is changing, and resources are limited. Breeding relies on genetic variation. However, it is impossible to alter many phenotypes by introducing genetic variation in a single gene due to large gene families with high functional redundancy. For example, in tomato and rice, ~80% of coding genes belong to multi-gene families. Therefore, in many cases, mutating multiple gene family members is required to uncover “hidden” traits that are important for plant resilience and food security. Currently, there is no approach or technology that can dig into the hidden genetic redundancy at a genome-scale level (unbiased forward genetics) and reveal masked agricultural traits. To address these challenges, we developed the Multi-Crop technology - the first genome-scale multi-targeted CRISPR libraries in crops. We have constructed, validated, and patented the approach in Arabidopsis, tomato, and rice, demonstrating that the Multi-Crop technology can uncover hidden genetic traits and is the future of plant breeding programs. Not only is this the first demonstration of a large-scale, multi-targeted CRISPR technology in plants, but the unique approach also overcomes functional gene redundancy under any given conditions, such as the response to drought, pathogen, fruit size, and more. Multi-Crop can be applied to most crops and all breeding traits. Therefore, we expect the new toolbox we develop here to transform how scientists and breeders perform genetics. We believe that Multi-Crop is a game-changing technology. Unlike any other technology available today, it enables uncovering hidden phenotypic variations. Moreover, its high throughput nature of maximizing genetic diversity will enable a tailored fit for specific farmers, markets and growth conditions, enhancing productivity and farmer profitability.
Projet ERC : FibRestoration (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Université Ben Gourion du Néguev — Pays : Israël — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : BGU
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Dietary fiber is well-recognized as beneficial to gut microbiome and has repercussions on human health. Consequently, in recent years, alternative dietary lifestyles favoring the consumption of high amounts of dietary fibers have been proposed. In order to avoid digestive discomfort associated with the increased intake of dietary fiber, we propose to develop probiotics that will target cellulose, the main component of dietary fiber. Indeed, cellulose-degrading bacteria are absent both in gut microbiomes of most human populations and in existing probiotics. During our proposed project, we will isolate unique fiber-degrading bacterium and restore it in the human microbiome via administration of probiotics. Thus, our products will comprise this bacterium either alone or in combination with other fiber-degrading strains and will augment the fiber-degrading potential of the human gut microbiome with concomitant implications in human health. Such probiotics will address the majority of global human populations and will constitute a niche in the global probiotics market, which is projected to further increase in the next decade.
Projet ERC : SusPlasMem (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Université de Potsdam — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Plasmon chemistry is an emerging field in which light energy is converted into chemical energy or heat in metal nanoparticles (NPs). Previously, we have investigated the degradation of small organic molecules such as brominated nucleobases and halogenated thiophenols through excitation of NPs by visible or even near-infrared light. These results inspired us to apply plasmonic nanomaterials to decompose organic micropollutants such as pharmaceuticals in waste water. Many pharmaceuticals are categorized as water pollutants of emerging concern due to their harmful effect even in trace quantities, as they may cause damage in different living organisms present in and around aquatic systems. Many studies have noticed that such micropollutants show a ubiquitous environmental presence owing to their high water solubility and due to inefficient wastewater treatment. To avoid severe environmental, human health and biodiversity problems, novel solutions for water remediation need to be developed. Within the SusPlasMem project a sustainable plasmonic membrane based on nanocellulose and plasmonic nanoparticles will be used for an efficient degradation of micropollutants by visible light. The degradation by visible light is very cost-effective and allows for the use of sunlight. The material is easy to be scaled up and the scope of molecules to be decomposed will be studied by considering representatives of antibiotics, other small-molecule pharmaceutics and polyfluorinated alkyl substances. The SusPlasMem project will focus on validating the effectiveness of the generated membranes with respect to micropollutant removal from wastewater samples. Strategies will be developed to enable water remediation in flow and a demonstrator model will be constructed. Finally, we will work in close collaboration with industry partners to establish the implementation of the technology within an industrially relevant environment.
Projet ERC : REFMAG (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Académie autrichienne des sciences — Pays : Autriche — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : ÖAW
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Permanent magnets are essential components of an enormous amount of consumer and industrial products. Their production rises annually, especially due to their use in fast growing green technologies such as electric mobility. High performance magnets with a large energy product are usually based on the NdFeB material system. The major components are rare-earth elements, which are listed as critical materials. Novel permanent magnets use the concept of magnetic coupling effects. In course of the ERC Starting Grant SPDTuM we have developed a new processing route to synthesize permanent magnets based on this concept. The objective of this ERC PoC Grant is to use this processing route and apply it to the MnBi system, which represent a rare-earth free alternative to the currently used NdFeB magnets. As additional benefit, the magnetic α-MnBi phase exhibits an increasing coercivity with rising temperature. Thus, magnets based on MnBi will be especially well-suited for high temperature applications. We use high-pressure torsion, a severe plastic deformation method, for processing, which has the advantage that the key α-MnBi phase can be directly formed during processing. Coupled to a soft magnetic phase, a high performance permanent magnet with an excellent energy product will be obtained. So far, this type of magnet has only been successfully obtained in limited volumes (thin films, powders). With our processing route it is possible to synthesize magnets in dimensions with about 100000 times larger volume. The novel MnBi permanent magnets will be characterized with state-of-the-art methods in terms of their microstructure and magnetic properties. The up-scaling potential of the developed processes from laboratory to industrial conditions will be further critically evaluated. These activities will be complemented by patent protection to facilitate commercialization and outreach to potential industry partners for the introduction of our novel method and new collaborations.
Projet ERC : ManuscriptAI (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Université Radboud de Nimègue — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 99279.0 €

Data on our cultural heritage hold enormous potential for Europe’s economic growth, for the construction of a more inclusive narrative of its past, and for the future collective identity of its citizens. The biggest obstacle to unlocking that potential is the current lack of integration and interoperability among the countless datasets describing the holdings of European heritage institutions. ManuscriptAI will help remove that obstacle for the data on Europe’s medieval written heritage, manuscripts. Premodern handwritten books are a pivotal category of our heritage, yet they are currently underrepresented in large research infrastructures and their catalog data locked in digital silos. ManuscriptAI will employ machine learning algorithms to construct a model capable of facilitating the automatic integration of distinct data sources describing medieval manuscripts, under a predefined set of machine-understandable vocabulary terms. The model will be made accessible through a human engagement interface and tested during a pilot in a real-world setting. The project will fill two important desiderata: (1) a user-friendly AI-tool to allow heritage professionals to convert their metadata on manuscripts to Linked Open Data, and (2) a dedicated ontology for the description of medieval manuscripts to complete CIDOC-CRM extensions for the cultural heritage domain. The project, building on the achievements of the ERC-2018-stg PASSIM, is supported by a strong consortium of domain experts, heritage professionals and institutes, and (inter)national research infrastructures. ManuscriptAI will advance the EU’s agenda for digital heritage. The tool will help democratise datafication, making Linked Open Data accessible to small heritage institutions and actively involving them in its development. This integration tool for data on medieval manuscripts will be a huge step forward for the digital preservation and usability of Europe’s unique handwritten heritage.
Projet ERC : NeoCure (Horizon Europe, appel 2025, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Institut Weizmann — Pays : Israël — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : WIS
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Non-small-cell-lung-cancer (NSCLC) remains one of the most lethal cancers (≈1.5 million deaths annually), and current treatments fail to achieve universal, lasting remissions. While immune checkpoint therapies have improved NSCLC outcomes, many patients either do not respond or relapse, underscoring an urgent need for new, more effective strategies. NeoCure directly addresses this need by harnessing T-cell receptor (TCR) engineering to target tumor-specific neoantigens. In our prior research (ERC#101094980), we identified two prevalent neoantigens from common KRAS driver mutations (G12V and G12C) and isolated their cognate TCRs, which specifically recognize and eliminate cancer cells bearing these mutations. Notably, these KRAS G12V/C mutations (in the context of HLA-A*03:01) occur in an estimated 120,000 new lung, colon, and pancreatic cancer cases each year, highlighting the broad impact and commercial potential of this targeted approach. We have demonstrated a breakthrough combinatorial therapy: adding a lymphodepleting chemotherapy to KRAS G12V-specific TCR-T cell therapy significantly enhances neoantigen presentation and tumor killing. Building on this finding, NeoCure will evaluate novel combination treatments – pairing our KRAS-specific TCR-T cells with optimized chemotherapy regimens and neoantigen-targeted mRNA vaccines – in advanced humanized mouse models. This PoC is designed as a critical step toward clinical translation, aiming for complete tumor elimination in preclinical models. In parallel, we are executing key pre-commercialization activities to ensure a clear path to clinical application. These include engaging with regulatory authorities (FDA/EMA) to align with fast-track approval pathways, forging industry partnerships for co-development, and strengthening our intellectual property around the NeoCure TCRs and therapy platform. Through this comprehensive approach, NeoCure is positioned as a transformative innovation in cancer immunotherapy.
Projet ERC : TaGaDeDys (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Université de Trente — Pays : Italie — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

The ultimate goal of the project is to provide a screening and rehabilitation method for the early detection and treatment of developmental dyscalculia (DD), in the form of an entertaining, tablet-based gaming environment. DD is a common learning disability and severely impacts personal and professional development throughout the lifespan. Early diagnosis and interventions increase the possibilities for people with DD to live an independent and productive life. Children with DD have difficulties to map numbers’ representation into space (in contrast, typically developing children understanding of numerical concepts is facilitated by spatial mapping of numbers). We want to develop a tool which will use a gaming environment to evaluate and stimulate Space Number Association (SNA) in children. Kids will be stimulated with game-like SNA tasks and monitored with more general mathematical skills tasks. We will link the device with an online algorithm for on-line extraction of the responses that can compute and analyse each kid’s performance to track it as it changes over time. This project builds on two behavioural tasks I have established to implicitly assess SNA in children and infants. These paradigms can become a first-stage screening tool for individuals at high-risk for DD. We will further advance this method into a tool that allows easy, rapid and automatic testing of space-to-number processing in young children from any cultural and educational background, and in any context. The paradigms will be embedded in a gaming environment which is optimally engaging for the young users, facilitating the spontaneous participation in foundational numerical training targeted to the needs and specific numerical competences of each child. Moreover, we will further validate relationship between SNA and core numerical competence development, providing initial crucial steps for empirical validation of our method as an early screening tool for DD.
Projet ERC : InECFAb (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : HGF
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Antimicrobial resistance is a global health threat, urgently calling for the development of novel anti-infective strategies. We will adopt a multidisciplinary approach to design, synthesize and optimize derivatives targeting ECF transporters as antibacterial agents. The ECF transporters are transmembrane proteins involved in the uptake of vitamins predominantly in Gram-positive pathogens (e.g., Streptococcus pneumoniae, Enterococcus faecalis, E. faecium, Staphylococcus aureus). Their inhibition prevents the uptake of vitamins from the environment, leading to starvation followed by cell death. Due to their critical role in the homeostasis of vitamins in bacteria as well as their absence in humans, ECF transporters are considered a promising novel antimicrobial target. We will thoroughly profile our inhibitors for their in vitro on-target and antibacterial activities. We will, on the one hand, further validate the cellular target through advanced target engagement studies and attempt to achieve a co-crystal structure using cryo-electron microscopy. Furthermore, evaluation of the inhibitors for their in vitro ADME-T properties and in vivo pharmacokinetic profiles will set the stage for in vivo infection models in mice. The extensive data that we will gather will enable us to nominate the most promising compound(s) for further multiparameter optimization en route to the nomination of a preclinical candidate. Ultimately, this opens access to novel anti-infectives with an unprecedented mode of action.
Projet ERC : SuperFusion (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Institut Weizmann — Pays : Israël — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : WIS
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

The global population is expected to reach 9 billion mark by 2050 which will cause an increase of 70% on the global demand for food. However, if the global trends of meat and animal products consumption continue at the current rate, the global mean temperature will rise by over 2C despite the emissions of non-agricultural sectors being drastically decreased. Therefore, a growing need exists to develop more efficient protein production options. During embryonic muscle development, myoblasts proliferate and undergo differentiation, a multistep process which requires cell cycle withdrawal, initiation of a muscle specific gene transcriptional program, differentiation into fusion competent myoblasts, and ultimately cell-to-cell fusion to form nascent multinucleated myotubes that mature to form contractile muscle fibers. We have identified a novel signaling cascade, that is easily controlled by a small molecule inhibitor, leading to faster and more robust in vitro muscle formation than can be achieved with the conventional differentiation medium. This occurs through the induction of synchronous differentiation and ultimately enhanced cell-to-cell fusion of the muscle progenitor cells. The discovery of a signaling cascade which enhances myoblast fusion draws parallels to the needs of the newly established and ever-growing field of cultured meat, which builds upon the techniques used for decades in the in vitro study of myogenesis. The cultured meat industry is actively seeking ways to increase production efficiency in order to reach price-parity with the current meat industry. Therefore, taking advantage of processes that can speed up and enhance efficiency of myoblast fusion would facilitate this achievement. The goals of the PoC project are to improve the maturity of our idea by bringing it to higher TRLs (Technology Readiness Levels), implement a pre-commercial prototype of the proposed product and explore its commercialization potential.
Projet ERC : NEWREPUBLIC (Horizon Europe, appel 2025, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Institutions, Governance and Legal Systems
Entité participante : Université du Sussex — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : US
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1499437.0 €

NEWREPUBLIC is about the democracy movements which struggle against authoritarian regimes, especially in Africa. It focuses on the ideas of these movements. Past research has read their ideas as pro-democratic, but this oversimplifies. My recent exploratory research argues that at least some of these movements express visions of democracy which resemble those of small-r republican political theory; they emphasise themes of domination and power. However, this research, and its implications, have gone untested and unverified. In NEWREPUBLIC, I will lead a postdoctoral and two doctoral researchers. We will develop and apply innovative, reliable and replicable methodologies which will test those implications. First, we will develop a content analysis to distinguish between republican, liberal and illiberal ideas. The doctoral researchers will apply this methodology to movement leaders’ speech transcripts in three countries: Cameroon, Tanzania and Uganda. I expect to demonstrate with rigour that there is a set of republican democracy movements which is wider than recognised hitherto. Second, the postdoctoral researcher and I will develop questions designed to distinguish between republican, liberal and illiberal attitudes and place them in surveys in the same three countries. I expect to show that republican attitudes are common. This will reveal that these movements’ ideologies are reflected in public opinion. Third, through survey experiments, I expect to find that: (1) republican messages delegitimise authoritarian regimes more than liberal ones do; and (2) that if republican messages foreground violent regime domination, they also inadvertently deter protest participation. These findings will have urgent implications for how democracy movements shape their messages. I will impart these findings to those movements in two policy seminars as part of the impact plan. In sum, I will radically change how these movements and the ideas at their core are understood.

Mots-clés : democracy anti authoritarianism ideology republicanism liberalism
Projet ERC : Spectres-Camouflage (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Texts and Concepts
Entité participante : University College Dublin — Pays : Irlande — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UCD
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1499586.0 €

Silence is a rare - often beautiful, sometimes discomfiting - phenomenon. Harnessed in different manners, silence has multiple cultural, societal, scientific, psychological, artistic and military implications. In the 20th C., the impact and exploitation of silence manifested in the technological search for the soundless environment: a search which centred upon environmental control and design. It was shaped by disciplinary and international transfers of knowledge. Ultimately, the technology became known as anechoic (free from echo). However, despite touching on numerous disciplines, and its relevance to a complex interplay of global knowledge-transfer, conflict and culture, very little is known of the architectural, military, and cultural history underpinning the development of this technology. SPECTRES-CAMOUFLAGE examines the catalysts and implications inherent in that technological search, exploring its impact on design and experimentation, military strategy and cultural production. It will explore how the developmental interplay that supported a culturally iconic medium also positioned it at the vanguard of technology and inserted it into global politics and conflict in the 20th C. The timeframe of the project extends from the eve of WWII to 1970. This project will draw together this intricate history, take account of transfers of knowledge and establish the resultant transformations of knowledge. It will integrate the histories of architecture, music, technology and war studies examining how developments in each propelled one another forward. The project?s multidisciplinary strands drawn together will constitute a new prism for learning more about technology transfer across the globe and across disciplines. At its core, this research could reposition the role of technology and environmental design in 20th C. global conflict, culture, and knowledge transfer, offering a new concept of environmental silence as a catalyst, mapped across disciplines.

Mots-clés : construction history,environmental design in architecture,architectural acoustics