Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : SESAME (Horizon Europe, appel 2025, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Study of the Human Past
Entité participante : Université d'Umeå — Pays : Suède — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UMU
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1234258.0 €

The Sami, the indigenous population of Sweden, Norway, Finland, and parts of Russia, are usually perceived as a reindeer-herding, nomadic people living in barren mountains and forests. However, the Sami have also for a long time been a part of farming societies dominated by other ethnicities. Despite some research on the “Parish Sami” of Central Sweden, this part of rural history is generally ignored.  The SESAME project aims to unlock hidden history and deliver the first comprehensive study of the Sami living in farming areas before 1900 AD, with a focus on Sami agency without ignoring the importance of external factors. More specifically, SESAME will:  – Provide an extensive overview of the Sami population of farming areas. – Redefine the historical geography of the Sami. – Clarify the dynamics and drivers of migration. – Develop methods to locate and investigate Sami dwelling sites. – Assess the ethnic identity of individuals and describe processes of acculturation and assimilation. – Map connections between the Sami populations of Sweden, Norway, and Finland. – Provide a comprehensive synthesis on the role of Sami in Fennoscandian farming society.  The objectives of SESAME will be achieved through traditional historical research combined with linguistic and archaeological studies, as well as remote analysis, geographical information systems and methods of forest history. The project includes extensive cooperation with other interested parties and the creation of a network across Fennoscandia. The project team will consist of a PI with longtime experience of most of the sources and methods included, and two postdocs with complementary competencies.  The SESAME project will lay a solid foundation for future research, both on Sami and on other indigenous populations and on marginal groups, and provide a truer image of the rural history of Fennoscandia, where the part played by the Sami finally receives the recognition it deserves.

Mots-clés : sami history
Projet ERC : ProFITGut (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Integrative B iology : from Genes and Genomes to S ystems
Entité participante : Université d'Umeå — Pays : Suède — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UMU
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1499980.0 €

The gut microbiome plays a key role in human health. Genomics approaches excel at cataloguing species composition, and associating imbalances with disease. Yet, as we are oblivious to the function of a large proportion of proteins of these organisms, we are limited in our understanding of the molecular mechanisms that drive disease or promote health. In this groundbreaking project we will systematically identify the function and interactions of proteins of microbiome species, deliver compounds to modulate them, and develop strategies to rationally manipulate microbiome composition. We will use a scalable systems biology approach based on high-throughput proteomics, using more than 100 drugs to perturb the proteome of a panel of 38 prevalent and phylogenetically diverse bacterial species that colonize the human gut. Proteins involved in the same biological process have coordinated changes in their levels across perturbations, allowing us to infer function based on annotated proteins. We will further assess which proteins are likely to physically interact as they co-aggregate upon heat-induced denaturation, leading to a map of the functional protein network of these species. We will then identify the mechanisms of action and resistance of the used drugs by using thermal proteome profiling, and by measuring intracellular drug concentrations. This will allow us to identify species that encode the target, but no resistance elements, so we can use the information to specifically deplete disease-associated species from microbial communities. These strategies extend beyond the strains studied in this project, as homologs of these proteins can be identified solely from genome sequences. Overall, this project paves the way for the microbiome field to move from associations to targetable mechanisms, with a vision to design therapies with reduced side effects to restore the microbiome to a healthy state.

Mots-clés : proteomics,microbiome,drugs,drug targets,drug resistance
Projet ERC : PEA (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Texts and Concepts
Entité participante : Université de Gênes — Pays : Italie — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1493753.0 €

Ancient Greeks used one word, techne, to designate both technical and artistic practices. It is only in modern times that art gained autonomy, becoming the object of one philosophical discipline: aesthetics. However, the emergence of mass media, and then of digital media, has brought art close to technology, challenging its autonomy. In this situation, some basic philosophical questions about art regain centrality: Why art? What is art for? What is the role of art in a technological society like ours? The traditional answer stresses the uniqueness of art, pointing to the essential difference between artworks and technical artifacts. The increasing interchange between art and technology, however, encourages us to question this statement, pursuing an alternative strategy. The hypothesis is that artworks belong to a technical kind which has been overlooked so far: the kind of experiential artifacts whose function consists in triggering experiences. Art is severed from technology only if one focuses on artifacts such as drills or lathes whose function consists in producing concrete effects. Yet, once experiential artifacts have been recognized, one can fruitfully connect art to technology, rethinking forms of art as techniques for generating different types of experiences. The PEA project launches the philosophy of experiential artifacts as a new area of inquiry in which the relationship between art and technology can be properly theorized, thereby offering a new conceptual toolbox for historical and empirical research. This will be done through a fourfold methodology in which aesthetics and the philosophy of mind analyze the experiences that experiential artifacts are meant to trigger, while metaphysics and the philosophy of technology investigate the structure in virtue of which they perform this function. PEA will thus reconceptualize artworks as technical artifacts that we value for the way in which they enable us to enrich, share and coordinate our experiences.

Mots-clés : philosophy of technology phenomenology philosophy of art
Projet ERC : TEMPADAPT (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Molecules of Life: B iological  Mechanisms , Structures  and Functions
Entité participante : Université Aalto — Pays : Finlande — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1237076.25 €

Most microorganisms lack homeothermic regulation which subjects them to unpredictable fluctuations in environmental temperature. Nevertheless, many bacteria and archaea can grow across a large range of up to 40°C. Most biochemical reactions in bacteria occur in the highly crowded cytoplasm constituting a complex and dynamic interaction network of a cell. Temperature affects the rate of both intra- and intermolecular reactions, and large-scale perturbations by temperature could be disastrous to cellular function, homeostasis, and sub-cellular organization. It is still largely unknown, how temperature affects the properties of the cytoplasm and what the consequences to cellular processes are. The driving hypothesis of this project is that bacteria can actively modulate their cytoplasmic state to avoid the detrimental effects of temperature fluctuations.  To test this, I have established cutting-edge super-resolution single-molecule tracking tools to directly observe molecule dynamics in live bacteria in real time. First, we will quantify the diffusion and activity of macromolecules and other probes as a function of temperature to uncover the changes in the cytoplasmic state. Second, we will probe different bacteria growing at temperatures from 0°C up to 100°C to characterize evolutionary differences in the cytoplasmic dynamics and temperature scaling of reaction rates. Finally, we will uncover mechanisms by which bacteria obtain different cytoplasmic properties. Overall, these approaches will reveal how the cytoplasmic state in bacteria changes with temperature and how this contributes to the cellular processes, which has significant implications on how microorganisms adapt to temperatures and what are the limits of cellular life.

Mots-clés : single molecule tracking,extremophile,cytoplasm
Projet ERC : SWARM (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Condensed Matter Physics
Entité participante : Université Aalto — Pays : Finlande — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1500000.0 €

Swimming is ubiquitous in nature and crucial for the survival of a wide range of organisms. Many swimmers move together in intricate swarms, widely believed to save energy through collective hydrodynamic interactions. While the physics behind swimming and swarming of viscosity-dominated microswimmers and inertia-dominated macroswimmers has been extensively studied, little is known about the intermediate regime (~ 0.1–10 cm), where both viscous and inertial forces are important. This mesoscale is full of living organisms, such as small larvae, shrimps, and jellyfish, and the physics behind their swimming and swarming is strongly complicated by non-linear and time-dependent effects at increasing swimming speeds and organism sizes. A breakthrough in our understanding of mesoscale swarming dynamics is hindered by an absence of force-based experiments on collective mesoswimming. Here, I will perform pioneering experiments on the swimming forces of brine shrimps as model organisms. I aim to discover how they adapt their motility in different environments and perform the first direct measurements on the binary and many-body swimming and hydrodynamic interaction forces within pairs and small swarms of brine shrimps. I aim to resolve several major questions on mesoscale motility and swimming interactions, with the grand goal to discover new insights into how and why swarms of mesoswimmers are formed in nature. My experiments will open a new living matter physics research avenue at the mesoscale, and provide sensitive and important force and fluid dynamics data for theorists to use in their future models and for engineers to use in their biomimicry design of new mesorobots. The indirect impact of my work is the creation of new biomedical and engineering applications at the mesoscale, such as swallowable surgery with swarming mesorobots capable of optimising their swarm geometry to minimise power consumption in different environments.

Mots-clés : swimming forces,collective swimming,microswimming,mesoscale
Projet ERC : AmplifAI (Horizon Europe, appel 2025, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Computer Science and Informatics
Entité participante : Université Aalto — Pays : Finlande — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1498118.0 €

Imagine a world where the limits of human intelligence are stepping stones to greater potential. By integrating artificial intelligence (AI) systems, we can amplify and expand our cognitive abilities beyond current boundaries. Yet, there is a challenge of effectively assessing and self-assessing the combined performance of humans and AI to fully harness this potential. My project will lay the groundwork for enhancing human intellect through AI integration by addressing three ambitious objectives:  (1) making AI-augmented intelligence measurable through comprehensive human-AI assessment; (2) unconstraining metacognition in human-AI interaction to improve self-assessment and empower users; (3) building AI interfaces with a metacognitive interaction model in an ability-centric design process.  To achieve these goals, the AmplifAI project will undertake three interlinked work packages. WP1 focuses on conceptualizing and measuring AI-augmented intelligence by developing tasks and metrics to assess human-AI composite performance, conducting large-scale testing, and exploring neural correlates via neuroimaging studies. WP2 aims to understand and remove metacognitive constraints by studying how users assess their performance with AI assistance, using Brain-Computer interfaces to track metacognitive processes, and developing adaptive interfaces to enhance self-awareness in decision-making. WP3 involves creating new AI interfaces with a metacognitive interaction model, iteratively testing prototypes, and launching the AmplifAI Challenge. Ultimately, I envision AI seamlessly integrated into human cognition, maximizing user control and enhancing capabilities. By making both assessment and self-assessment in human-AI interactions possible, we can set the stage for breakthroughs in human-AI synergy and empower people to solve complex global challenges with AI.

Mots-clés : human ai interaction,intelligence,metacognition,psychology of hci,human augmentation
Projet ERC : MacroTaxReforms (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Individuals, Markets and Organisations
Entité participante : Université Pompeu Fabra — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UPF
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1077500.0 €

Taxes paid by companies are a key source of government revenue. Among OECD countries, corporate taxes in 2018 accounted for an average of 10% of total tax revenue, 3.1% of GDP, and 5.7% of gross business profits. Beyond their importance for fiscal revenue, corporate taxes have large economic effects through their impact on private investment, a key driver of short-run fluctuations and long-run growth. Moreover, recent developments revived the interest in corporate taxation, including the massive debts accumulated during the pandemic, the exhaustion of monetary policy, the secular increase in business profits, and tax competition. I will develop and apply new structural frameworks to assess the macroeconomic impact of corporate tax reforms on business cycle fluctuations, capital misallocation, capital valuation. Relative to the literature, my investigation integrates important dimensions that have not been jointly examined before due to their complexity, including (1) the interaction of corporate taxes and empirically relevant investment frictions, (2) the richness of firm heterogeneity in the microdata, (3) the general equilibrium feedback and dynamic effects that differentiate short and the long-run responses, and (4) the relationship with monetary policy. I will apply methodological advances that I recently developed which overcome the technical challenges and allow me to contribute to the state-of-the-art by incorporating all of these dimensions into the analysis.  Part I develops the theory to formalize how corporate taxes determine macroeconomic outcomes and conduct counterfactuals. Part II combines the theory with cross-country data to provide systematic evidence on the impact of corporate tax reforms, organize the historical experience, and derive policy recommendations. Part III examines how the corporate tax regime mediates the effects of monetary policy, and how the stance of monetary policy shapes the effects of tax reforms.

Mots-clés : corporate taxes,investment frictions,fixed costs,partial irreversibility,capital misallocation,propagation of aggregate shocks,business cycle fluctuations,oecd countries,microdata
Projet ERC : TICK-TOCK Do and Die (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Biotechnology and Biosystems E ngineering
Entité participante : Université Pompeu Fabra — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UPF
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2327816.0 €

Living cells are endowed with encoded programs that allow them to execute vital tasks and respond to relevant stimuli. The use of analogous (synthetic) programs has an enormous potential, yet we are highly limited in our ability to program cellular actions over time. We rely on precisely-timed human intervention or on molecular oscillators that control repetitive processes, but we are still unable to program cells to autonomously execute custom actions at desired times.  I now intend to make a big leap toward this goal by producing control systems (molecular timers) and associated, ready-to-use applications, for the precise and self-sufficient control of cellular actions over time. Specifically, I will engineer timer gene circuits into E. coli that compute time and perform desired actions at specified moments. Timers will be highly programmable, re-usable, and scalable, and I will exploit their potential by using them for different applications, including bioproduction and biosensing.  In sum, I will develop the highly-needed, ground-breaking ability to measure and program time in cells. My results will unleash a myriad of new possibilities, both fundamental and applied.

Mots-clés : synthetic biology,gene circuit,crispri circuit,dynamic circuit,molecular oscillator,molecular clock,molecular timer,cell programming,biocontainment,biocomputing,molecular recording
Projet ERC : SAFECRISES (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Individuals, Markets and Organisations
Entité participante : Université Pompeu Fabra — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UPF
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1496462.5 €

Over the past 15 years, the euro area experienced two large financial crises (global financial; debt crisis), and two non-financial crises (Covid, war/energy) with spillovers to the financial system. Curiously, all these crises involved distress in markets for assets which were supposedly liquid and safe: for example, repos and MBS in 2008, and sovereign bonds in the 2010 euro-area and October 2022 UK crises. But even though liquidity and safety play a key role in theories and narrative accounts of crises, most empirical studies of crises focus on risk, creating a key gap in the literature.  My proposal will fill this gap by conducting the first systematic study of the role market liquidity and safe assets play in financial crisis events. To do this, I will collect new long-run data on i). Quantities of safe and liquid assets (produced by financials and governments), and ii). Prices of liquidity and safety (measured by bid-ask and yield spreads), for 17 advanced economies during 1870–2020.  I will use these data to better understand which assets are safe and liquid, and what role liquidity and safety play in the build-up and aftermath of systemic crisis events. To do this, I propose five projects to study  1. How quantities of safe assets evolve over the long run, and around crises. 2. How safety & liquidity vary across & within asset classes, and over time. 3. How market liquidity relates to crisis risk and real activity. 4. How liquidity and solvency stress transmit and interact at bank level during crises. 5. How changes in quantities of safe and liquid assets affect their prices.  The initial analysis will be empirical, done at macro level. It will be complemented by theory (project 1), and micro-level security/bank-level evidence (projects 2–4) to improve identification and understand the mechanisms at play.

Mots-clés : safe assets,market liquidity,financial crises,bid ask spreads,liquidity premia,safety premia,bond yields,macro finance,long run data,cross country data
Projet ERC : DYNPRESS (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Products and Processes Engineering
Entité participante : KTH Institut royal de technologie — Pays : Suède — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1496873.0 €

The project aims at developing robust, reliable and effective techniques for generation of extreme conditions. Positive TPa as well as negative MPa pressures in liquids will be produced with limited resources available in everyday research environment.  The project offers a unique integration of approaches and resources in high voltage engineering and plasma physics applications towards classical problems of compressible fluid mechanics. It investigates by experiment, computation and theory the major physical properties of imploding shock waves in liquids and offers approaches to enhance efficiency of the focal energy concentration. The project develops a novel method for generation of imploding rarefaction waves, a well controlled scenario that provides with exactly opposite range of extreme conditions, namely negative pressures in liquids. The approaches comprise a single generator facility that opens research on a broad spectrum of basic-to-applied subjects, promising a long-term investment towards studies of materials at extremes.  The facility is applied on a selected subject of mechanical treatment of cellulose fibers, aiming at enhancing the efficiency of fibres disintegration, homogenization and fibrillation processes by applying, both selectively and combined, compression and tension pulses on a broad range of intensities, from strong to extreme.

Mots-clés : shock wave,implosion,rarefaction wave,expansion,extreme conditions