Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : HYDROGEN (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Proof of concept grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Products and processes engineering
Entité participante : Université de Montpellier — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UM
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 142253.0 €

The project SPINAM (ERC Starting Grant 2012 - FP7 Ideas Programme) introduced a new method of elaboration and assembly based on electrospinning to produce novel energy materials with improved properties. The project focused on the development of core materials (membrane-electrode assemblies, MEAs) of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) and water electrolysers (PEMWEs). Water electrolysis is one promising opportunity to address the challenge of renewable energy storage, since the hydrogen produced offers large storage capacities and can be efficiently reconverted to electricity via fuel cells. Despite its advantages, PEMWE is currently not yet widespread because of the high cost and the low durability of the cell components over time. The membrane is known to be the weakest component for long term performance, with low mechanical strength, high permeation and high creep. Reduction in the thickness of the membrane, while keeping low gas permeability and high mechanical resistance, would represent a real breakthrough, allowing for lower operating cell voltage. The HYDROGEN project (HighlY performing proton exchange membrane water electrolysers with reinforceD membRanes fOr efficient hydrogen GENeration) will tackle these issues with the preparation of novel MEAs based on membranes reinforced with extensive networks of active polymer fibres prepared by electrospinning. This concept was developed under SPINAM, where the results of the work were brought to TRL 3/4, with four-fold improvement in chemical and mechanical stability during electrochemical accelerated aging tests over state-of-the art reinforced membranes. HYDROGEN project technology provides the required disruptive solution for PEMWE to become a competitive option for H2 production up to its extensive adoption and commercialisation.

Mots-clés : hydrogen production,proton exchange membrane water electrolysis,hydrogen compression,electrospinning,nanofibres,reinforced membranes,nanofibre electrodes,membrane electrode assembly
Projet ERC : HYDROGEN (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Proof of concept grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Products and processes engineering
Entité participante : Centre national de la recherche scientifique — Pays : France — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : CNRS
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 7747.0 €

The project SPINAM (ERC Starting Grant 2012 - FP7 Ideas Programme) introduced a new method of elaboration and assembly based on electrospinning to produce novel energy materials with improved properties. The project focused on the development of core materials (membrane-electrode assemblies, MEAs) of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) and water electrolysers (PEMWEs). Water electrolysis is one promising opportunity to address the challenge of renewable energy storage, since the hydrogen produced offers large storage capacities and can be efficiently reconverted to electricity via fuel cells. Despite its advantages, PEMWE is currently not yet widespread because of the high cost and the low durability of the cell components over time. The membrane is known to be the weakest component for long term performance, with low mechanical strength, high permeation and high creep. Reduction in the thickness of the membrane, while keeping low gas permeability and high mechanical resistance, would represent a real breakthrough, allowing for lower operating cell voltage. The HYDROGEN project (HighlY performing proton exchange membrane water electrolysers with reinforceD membRanes fOr efficient hydrogen GENeration) will tackle these issues with the preparation of novel MEAs based on membranes reinforced with extensive networks of active polymer fibres prepared by electrospinning. This concept was developed under SPINAM, where the results of the work were brought to TRL 3/4, with four-fold improvement in chemical and mechanical stability during electrochemical accelerated aging tests over state-of-the art reinforced membranes. HYDROGEN project technology provides the required disruptive solution for PEMWE to become a competitive option for H2 production up to its extensive adoption and commercialisation.

Mots-clés : hydrogen production,proton exchange membrane water electrolysis,hydrogen compression,electrospinning,nanofibres,reinforced membranes,nanofibre electrodes,membrane electrode assembly
Projet ERC : SEMANTAX (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Human Mind and Its Complexity
Entité participante : University of Edinburgh — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1996792.0 €

The project addresses the most important open problem in NLP, to develop a robust semantics that is invariant across different linguistic forms within a language and across languages, and embodies aspects of common-sense knowledge. It will be derived by machine-learning from machine-reading of vast amounts of text, using an existing state-of-the-art wide-coverage CCG semantic parser developed under previous ERC funding to the PI, initially to build traditional semantic analyses of sentences relating named entities. Patterns of entailment across semantic expressions relating the same named entities will be then detected across other entities of the same types, to construct directed entailment graphs. Cliques within the graphs constitute paraphrases, and can be collapsed to a single cluster identifier. The paraphrase-clustered entailment graph can then be used to redefine the semantics delivered by the parser as conjunctions of entailed paraphrase clusters, to make it invariant under paraphrase and common-sense entailment, yet compatible with a traditional logical operator semantics. The semantics will be extended to a wide range of logical operators, including tense, modality, aspect, and voice, and to implicative and evidential verbs, light verbs, multi-word expressions, and idioms. The method will be applied to semantic parsing, machine translation, knowledge-graph query, and the construction of large knowledge graphs or semantic nets from text, using spreading activation to limit growth in costs of updating and querying the knowledge graph. In the later stages of the project, the paraphrase-clustered entailment semantics will form the bassi for an incremental semantic parser, using a novel shift-reduce architecture proposed for CCG by the PI in 2000, guided by a modern neural network parsing model acting as a categorial ``supertagger'' and parser action model, for application to language modeling for the machine translation component.
Projet ERC : CompuLaw (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Institutions, Governance and Legal Systems
Entité participante : European University Institute — Pays : Italie — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : EUI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1274200.0 €

The project addresses the regulation of computations (processes and systems) through an innovative legal & technological framework: it provides epistemic, technical and normative guidance for the de-velopment of computable laws and law compliant computations. The context is the ongoing transformation of the social world into a hybrid infosphere, populated by a huge and growing number of increasingly pervasive, autonomous and intelligent computational enti-ties. The scale, speed, ubiquity and autonomy of computations make it impossible for humans to di-rectly monitor them and anticipate all possible illegal computational behaviours. The law can hold the hybrid infosphere under its rule – providing protection, security and trust – only if it be-comes computation-oriented: legal and ethical requirements must be integrated with, mapped onto, and partially translated into, computable representations of legal knowledge and reasoning. Current legal culture still has not adequately addressed risks and potentials of computable law. My project will fill this gap, providing concepts, principles, methods and techniques and normative guide-lines to support law-abiding computations. It has the normative purpose to uphold the principle of rule of law, translating legal norms and legal values into requirements for computable laws and legally-responsive computational agents. My project will provide major methodological and substantive breakthroughs. On the one hand, it pro-poses a socio-technical methodology for regulatory design and evaluation, integrating three discipli-nary clusters: a social-legal one, a philosophical-logical one and a computing-AI one. On the other hand, it develops a framework including: (a) norms, legal values and principles for developers, de-ployers and users; (b) languages and methods to specify requirements of computations and norms directed to them; (c) cognitive architectures for legally-responsive computational agents.

Mots-clés : law and logic,legal informatics,technoregulation,electronic agents,autonomous vehicles,autonomous weapons
Projet ERC : GENESIS (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Fundamental constituents of matter
Entité participante : École polytechnique — Pays : France — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : X
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 180515.0 €

The project aim is to perform the first direct measurements of neutron capture and beta-decay rates related to the “r-process” of nucleosynthesis. This process, based on squeezing at once multiple neutrons in a nucleus, is presently thought to be the main mechanism that forms the heaviest elements in our Solar System and in stars. At present, there are large discrepancies between the observed element abundances in stars and those found from simulations. It is speculated that this problem stems from the uncertainties in nuclear parameters, particularly in the plasma environment. These nuclear parameters have not been experimentally verified due to the too-low flux of current neutron facilities and the lack of means to create on-site hot and dense plasmas. Lasers are not the first thing that comes to mind as a neutron source, but with the upcoming ultra high-power laser facilities (Apollon in 2018 and ELI-NP in 2019), high-density and high-energy protons can be generated. Through spallation, these can then produce neutrons with the needed flux, a flux comparable to that found in Supernovae. To further emulate the astrophysical scenario, auxiliary lasers can be used to turn the target material into a plasma. In practice, this project will aim to measure neutron capture and beta-decay rates, as well as yields and abundances of the products of nucleosynthesis obtained by exposing heavy-ion targets to laser-produced extreme neutron fluxes. These targets will be either in a plasma or a solid state. In plasmas, we will investigate the effect of excited nuclear states, created by the plasma photons and electrons, on neutron capture. In solid targets, we will take advantage of the unique possibility of generating on-site unstable nuclei, and then re-expose them to the neutron beam in order to measure double neutron capture.

Mots-clés : nucleosynthesis,neutron source,r process,proton source
Projet ERC : OurMythicalChildhood (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Cultures and cultural production
Entité participante : University of New England — Pays : Australie — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : UNE
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 159625.0 €

The project aims at developing a pioneering approach to the reception of Classical Antiquity in children’s and young adults’ contemporary culture. This newly identified research field offers valuable insights into the processes leading to the formation of the culture recipients’ identities along with their initiation into adulthood. However, the most vital potential of this phenomenon remains unexploited, for the research is still selective, focused mainly on Western culture. With my project, I intend to overcome these limitations by applying regional perspectives without the pejorative implication of regional as parochial or inferior. I recognize regions as extremely valuable contexts of the reception of Antiquity, which is not only passively taken in, but also actively reshaped in children’s and young adults’ culture in response to regional and global challenges. Thus, the essence of this innovative approach consists in comparative studies of differing reception models not only across Europe but also America, Australia & New Zealand and – a bold but necessary step – in parts of the world not commonly associated with Graeco-Roman tradition: Africa and Asia. The shared heritage of Classical Antiquity, recently enhanced by the global influence of popular culture (movies, Internet activities, computer games inspired by the classical tradition), gives a unique opportunity – through the reception filter – to gain deeper understanding of the key social, political and cultural transformations underway at various locations. The added value of this original research, carried out by an international team of scholars, will be its extremely broad impact on the frontiers of scholarship, education and culture: we will elaborate a supra-regional survey of classical references, publish a number of analyses of crucial reception cases, and prepare materials on how to use ancient myths in work with disabled children, thus contributing to integration and stimulating cultural exchange.

Mots-clés : classics,classical reception studies,children s literature,children s culture,young adults  literature,young adults  culture,classical mythology,ancient greece,ancient rome
Projet ERC : UpTEMPO (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Fundamental constituents of matter
Entité participante : University of Luxembourg — Pays : Luxembourg — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1999509.0 €

The project aims at imaging electronic dynamics in molecules with atomic precision and sub-femtosecond temporal resolution. This result will be achieved by establishing new experiments at the boundary of ultrafast optics and scanning probe microscopy where the electric field of single-cycle light pulses is harnessed to control currents in nanojunctions. The basic concept relies on the fact that state-of-the-art femtosecond optical wave packets exhibit only one cycle of radiation with a defined electric field maximum. These pulses need to be phase locked to a “cosine-like” electric field profile. If such radiation is focused onto a junction with a nonlinear current-voltage characteristics, a net charge flow results solely due to the bias induced by the optical field. In detail, we want to exploit the time resolution provided by this new technique and induce electron transport at the probe tip of a scanning tunneling microscope (STM). The optical control of the current over a sub-optical-cycle interval will guarantee a temporal resolution better that one femtosecond, thus improving by several orders of magnitude what can be achieved with standard electronic bias. The core of the experimental system will be an ultrabroadband and passively phase-locked Er:fiber laser that is designed to generate single-cycle optical pulses in the near/mid-infrared, i.e. off resonant to the transition energies of III-V and II-VI semiconductors and large molecules. This laser will operate at 80-MHz repetition rate for enhanced sensitivity and stability when coupled to an ultra-high-vacuum STM. The setup will allow for the direct combination of independent pulse trains to resonantly excite few-femtosecond dynamics and then probe the electron density via the optically driven tunneling. In this pump-probe scheme it will be possible to map with atomic resolution the coherent evolution of electronic wavefunctions that in molecules and nanosystems follows an impulsive photoexcitation.

Mots-clés : ultrafast physics,scanning tunneling microscopy,ultrafast spectroscopy
Projet ERC : RitualModes (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Human Mind and Its Complexity
Entité participante : University of Hertfordshire — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : Partner
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 40376.35 €

The project aims to establish an authoritative scientific framework for understanding the relationship between group ritual, social cohesion, and pro-group behaviour. Rituals have shaped human societies for millennia, but the exact social consequences of rituals are poorly understood. The proposed research will identify the fundamental components of rituals worldwide and chart their effects on patterns of group alignment and action. Doing so will have a lasting impact on basic understandings of the nature, causes, and consequences of ritual dynamics as well as open up exciting new avenues of inquiry that bridge the humanities and social sciences. It is proposed that within numerous cultures and group types, collective rituals come in two main forms with distinct consequences: 1) affectively-intense, rarely-enacted rituals bond group members tightly and motivate extreme self-sacrifice; 2) frequently repeated rituals create allegiance to broad collectives and motivate ingroup bias. Using this model as a starting point, the proposed research programme will seek to achieve three tightly linked objectives. Objective 1 will examine psychological mechanisms underlying rituals’ effects on group cohesion and behaviour in ten nations. Objective 2 will focus on the ritual dynamics of special populations exposed to group-related violence (e.g., war veterans, ex-convicts, war-torn communities). Objective 3 will examine the functions of ritual and cohesion in cultural group selection. Using new techniques, we will quantitatively code and analyse qualitative data on ritual and cohesion in large historical databases from hundreds of groups over the past 12,000 years. Overall, these research objectives aim to provide insights into key questions (e.g., what are the fundamental building blocks of group rituals?), understudied groups (e.g., revolutionary combatants), and unresolved debates in many fields (e.g., what motivates self-sacrifice?).

Mots-clés : anthropology,cognitive science of religion,social psychology,evolutionary theory,ritual and identity,prosociality,intergroup conflict
Projet ERC : UnRef (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The study of the human past
Entité participante : Czech Academy of Sciences — Pays : Rép. Tchèque — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : AVČR;CAS
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1995950.0 €

The project aims to write refugees back into the history of East-Central Europe in the 20th century. In this “age of refugees”, the region became a destination of large refugee migrations, forcing civil societies and governments to negotiate difficult decisions about protection for those fleeing the war and persecution. Yet, at the same time, East-Central Europe does not enjoy the reputation as a welcoming place for people persecuted for political persuasion, for their “racial”, ethnic identity or any other reason. It would appear that the histories of ethnic conflict and violence, political oppression and economic underdevelopment make it a place to leave behind rather than to search for as a safe harbour. Studies about specific groups and instances notwithstanding, historical research remains highly unsatisfactory, failing to address refugee protection in a systematic comparative way and transcending national master narratives. Worse than this, historical writing about refugees in the “East” often re-inscribes the very (ethnic, political) categories which lead to the production of refugees in the first place. Comparative research spanning across a longer period and a wider territory promises therefore not only major insights about the “East” as a refuge, but also a significant contribution to the emerging field of global refugee history. In this project, an international research team led by the PI will, using comparative historical research combined with multi-disciplinary approaches, probe the multifaceted entanglements with refugees in countries created in 1918 on the ruins of the Habsburg Monarchy (Poland, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Hungary, Yugoslavia) over the 20th century. By doing so, it wishes to return the discussion of protection of refugees into the region’s history and to contribute – from a scholarly perspective – to the cultivation of current and future public debate about this divisive subject.

Mots-clés : refugees,citizenship,east central europe,borders,multiethnic societies
Projet ERC : MoCoS (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Mathematics
Entité participante : Centre national de la recherche scientifique — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : CNRS
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1635650.0 €

The project belongs to the field of arithmetic algebraic geometry and is centred around algebraic K-theory, motivic cohomology, and topological cyclic homology. The overall goal is to develop a general theory of motivic cohomology for arbitrary schemes, extending the existing theory of Bloch, Levine, Suslin, Voevodsky, and others in the special case of smooth algebraic varieties. This will describe non-connective algebraic K-theory via an Atiyah--Hirzebruch spectral sequence. The project relies on very recent breakthroughs in algebraic K-theory and topological cyclic homology. In the case of singular algebraic varieties, our goal will be to develop a theory of motivic cohomology which both satisfies singular analogous of the Beilinson--Lichtenbaum conjectures and is also compatible with the trace maps to negative cyclic and topological cyclic homology. Its properties will refine those of K-theory in the presence of singularities; for example, we will study a motivic refinement of Weibel's vanishing conjecture and a theory of ``infinitesimal motivic cohomology'' satisfying cdh descent. In the case of regular arithmetic schemes we will propose a new approach to the theory of p-adic motivic cohomology, based on topological cyclic homology and syntomic cohomology, which works in much greater generality than previous approaches. Perfectoid techniques will play an important role and we will establish the p-adic Beilinson--Lichtenbaum and Bloch--Kato conjectures.

Mots-clés : motivic cohomology,k theory,topological cyclic homology,syntomic cohomology,p adic schemes