Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : S-BaXIT (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Condensed matter physics
Entité participante : Consorzio per l'AREA di Ricerca Scientifica e Tecnologica di Trieste — Pays : Italie — Rôle : Partner
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 612500.0 €

This research project will create new ways of doing X-ray imaging based on scattering and data redundancy. Many X-ray imaging techniques are based on simple models that fail to capture important phenomena, such as small-angle or incoherent scattering. Far from being a nuisance, scattering signals often hold valuable information on the finest structure of the investigated sample. For instance X-ray scattering can reveal fibre orientations in a carbon-fibre composite or the early formation of cancerous tissues in mammography. To exploit scattering, adapting data acquisition is often necessary. Collecting diverse but partly redundant datasets is a powerful way to encode information so that it can be subsequently decoded with appropriate software. For this purpose one can, for instance, displace the sample in a non-uniform illumination profile. Another often overlooked source of redundancy is tomography itself, where projection images from different view angles are strongly correlated. The central achievements of this research project will be the introduction of a new formalism that offers a complete picture of scattering in the context of imaging, and the development of techniques that exploit explicitly measurement diversity - in particular tomographic redundancy - to extract complementary information. These new paradigms will be implemented and demonstrated with a range of X-ray imaging techniques: ptychography for high-resolution imaging, speckle-based imaging for lab-based phase-contrast and dark-field, and conventional transmission microCT, for scattering signal extraction. The expected results of this research project will leave a lasting impact on the research community. The full exploitation of data redundancy and scattering-aware models will create imaging modalities that can reveal features that could not be seen before for a broad range of applications, from advanced materials to fragile biological samples, to valuable heritage and archaeological artefacts.

Mots-clés : x ray imaging,x ray nano computed tomography,scattering,ptychography,reconstruction algorithms,diffraction
Projet ERC : SUSTAINABLEOCEAN (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Institutions, Governance and Legal Systems
Entité participante : Utrecht University — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1051500.0 €

This research project will develop a theoretical framework and legal tools to aid scholars and stakeholders (law and policy-makers, private investors, environmental NGOs) in managing competing interests in the offshore economic sector. The offshore sector is expanding and activities at sea are increasing (e.g., deep seabed mining, oil and gas extraction, renewable energy technologies, etc.). This situation threatens the health of the marine environment and its biodiversity. It also impacts traditional uses of the sea, such as navigation and fishing. New activities pose major challenges for the sustainable management of the oceans, and they highlight competing interests that the law needs to accommodate, such as: - protecting the marine environment and conserving its biodiversity; - mitigating climate change effects; - guaranteeing the continuity of the relevant economic activities; - guaranteeing energy efficiency and security; and - protecting the rights of local communities and populations. This project will answer the following research question: how can the law contribute to the sustainable use of the oceans and strike a balance between competing interests at sea? The law pertaining to ocean governance is fragmented into regimes that are imbued by different interests. The project will begin by analysing three legal frameworks, which are the most relevant for the offshore industry: the law of the sea, climate change law and energy law. It will focus on the operation of the offshore industry and on the competing interests, which have influenced the respective fields of law. This will allow identifying patterns of regime interaction and assessing their impact on the different uses of the sea. The research will ultimately offer a theory of interest- and regime-interaction in ocean governance and thus create a comprehensive framework for the development of legal tools(briefs, recommendation, which will contribute to sustainable ocean governance.

Mots-clés : renewable energy,deep seabed mining,regime interaction
Projet ERC : POPCLIMA (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Social World and Its Diversity
Entité participante : University of Bologna — Pays : Italie — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UNIBO
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1569500.0 €

This study is the first to comprehensively address the impacts of climate change (CC) on population trends. Existing studies on population and CC focus either on the effects of population growth on CC or on identification of populations at risks to climatic hazards. There is virtually no literature on the mechanisms and the extent to which CC affects and will affect demographic outcomes. It is even not clear whether CC may increase or decrease fertility, mortality and migration. Being the first study to comprehensively and systematically address this issue, this project is very timely given that CC impacts have already been felt and are forecast to be much stronger in the future. The project has four main objectives: 1) to study the way (direction and extent) in which CC influences demographic outcomes; 2) to examine the differential impacts of CC on subgroups of populations; 3) to identify the mechanisms through which CC influences demographic outcomes; 4) to forecast future population dynamics under climate change. The project will analyse fertility, mortality and migration separately, using a variety of methodologies and datasets. Results from these analyses will then be used to inform the population projections under future CC scenarios. Our methodological approach is innovative. We will utilise and combine geo-referenced climate, demographic and socioeconomic data from different data sources (surveys and social media data) at the individual-, regional and country-level. Structural equation models are employed to identify the causal pathways and machine learning method is used to handle large-scale data. Results will be particularly important for: 1) helping the scientific community in building more realistic scenarios about populations trends under the rapid pace of CC; 2) informing the international debate over the social costs of CC; and 3) providing a set of estimations useful to design better social and environmental policies.

Mots-clés : climate change,differential vulnerability,fertility,geo referenced,machine learning,meta analysis,migration,mortality,population projections,scenarios,structural equation model
Projet ERC : IPV_Tanzania (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Social World and Its Diversity
Entité participante : Tanzania Commission for Science and Technology — Pays : Tanzanie — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : COSTECH
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 79488.13 €

This study proposes a major advance in research on intimate partner violence (IPV), a prominent public health and human rights issue. Worldwide, it is estimated that one in three women experience physical and/or sexual violence by a partner in their lifetime, with even higher rates reported in sub-Saharan Africa (WHO 2013). Cross-sectional surveys have documented the adverse health impacts of IPV and the factors that increase risk of female victimisation and male perpetration. Nonetheless, theoretical and programmatic development has stalled due to lack of clarity on the temporality of identified associations: do documented associations represent risk factors for violence or do they reflect the consequences of abuse? This deficit of understanding is especially pressing in low and middle income countries (LMICs) where few longitudinal cohort studies with IPV as an outcome exist. This study seeks to address this gap by following forward in time a cohort of 1200 Tanzanian women, using state of the art methods to measure violence, encourage disclosure and ensure participant safety. Both quantitative and qualitative data will be collected at 4 discrete time points over 5 years, making this the largest longitudinal study of IPV ever undertaken in the developing world. In addition, an in-depth study of 40 men and a cross-sectional survey of 600 men will be conducted. The goal of the research is to advance our understanding of the predictors and consequences of IPV to better inform the design of interventions to reduce violence in LMICs. Specifically the study aims to: 1) advance the theoretical frameworks of intimate partner violence; 2) investigate the temporality of key factors linked to IPV; 3) map the dynamics of partner violence over time; 4) and investigate pathways leading to intimate partner violence. This research is of immediate necessity to address a vital public health challenge of our time and has the strong potential to have a long lasting impact on shaping the research agenda on intimate partner violence.

Mots-clés : violence against women
Projet ERC : Life-Cycle (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Synthetic Chemistry and Materials
Entité participante : Fondation Jean-Marie Lehn — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : CIRFC
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 577438.0 €

This “Life-Cycle” ERC proposal aims to develop a new class of artificial supramolecular materials that are kept in sustained non-equilibrium states by continuous dissipation of chemical fuels. Supramolecular polymers in current artificial materials stick together through weak reversible bonds that can be exchange by thermal energy. In contrast, natural supramolecular polymers such as those in the cytoskeletal network use chemical fuels such as adenosine triphosphate (ATP) to achieve an incredible adaptivity, motility, growth, and response to external inputs. Development of chemically fueled artificial supramolecular polymers should therefore lead to more life-like materials that could perform functions so far reserved only for living beings. The proposed materials are based on supramolecular reaction cycles that have both positive and negative feedback in order to achieve emergent properties, such as oscillations and waves. Two different approaches are used: i) supramolecular polymers that are fueled by redox reactions, and ii) enzyme-switchable supramolecular polymers that consume one of the natural fuels, namely ATP. The proposed polymers self-assemble cooperatively, which is used as a positive feedback mechanism. Using other co-assembling species we can engineer negative feedback in our reaction cycles to obtain unique supramolecular dynamics. Since the building blocks react, but also self-assemble they have built-in chemomechanical properties, much like in living materials such as the cytoskeleton. First we study the temporal behavior (part A) of our reaction cycles in well-stirred environments. Next, we move to non-stirred conditions (part B), where spatiotemporal behavior can be studied. And lastly, we develop free-standing non-equilibrium interactive materials based on our reaction cycles (part C). Overall, our approach opens a new way to obtain more life-like artificial materials that can eventually perform complex (biological) functions.

Mots-clés : self assembly,reaction cycle,feedback,supramolecular materials
Projet ERC : ROSA (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Social World and Its Diversity
Entité participante : Max Planck Society — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : MPG
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 412374.23 €

Those who question or do not conform to dominant local religious tradition(s) and/or religion as such have, of course, faced serious problems and difficulties in a number of different historical periods and locations. This project examines the forms in which individuals and communities raise, in the open or in more hidden transcripts, questions over the dominant religious norms in South Asia. This project is also interested in how such people are being targeted as distinct minorities by various religious and political groups. However, the effects of these encounters extend beyond this region: a significant number of community members now seek asylum in European countries. In consequence, these countries are now debating whether, or to what extent, varieties of religious non-conformism can be legitimate reasons for granting asylum. While much recent academic work has focused on religious revivalism and reformist movements, critical engagement and sceptical attitudes towards dominant religious norms in South Asia are so far under-researched. A key aim of this study is to correct this absence and thereby to transform our understanding of the kinds of positions, individuals and communities that flourish but also, and critically, face challenges and provoke social contentions in South Asia. It will provide three national ‘deep contextualisations’ of debates and criticism faced by secularists and religious sceptics in South Asia, asking: What are the specific circumstances in which criticism targeting these communities and positions evolve? This study also investigates the assumptions that inform European countries’ responses to cases in which asylum is sought on the basis of claimants’ religious nonconformism, and also those informing advocacy work performed by global secular networks on their behalf. Thus, while this project is ethnographically grounded in South Asia, it also extends beyond this region to examine global implications of critical debates and actions that are taking place there.
Projet ERC : PLEIO-RANK (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Physiology in Health, Disease and Ageing
Entité participante : Institut d'Investigació Biomédica de Bellvitge — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : IDIBELL;IDIBELL-CERCA
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 835691.87 €

Thousands of cancer patients worldwide are taking RANKL inhibitors for the management of bone metastasis, based on the key role of RANKL and its receptor, RANK, in osteoclasts. RANK signaling has multiple divergent effects in immunity and inflammation, both in the generation of active immune responses, as well as in the induction of tolerance. We showed that RANK overexpression induces stemness and interferes with differentiation in non transformed mammary epithelial cells and promotes mammary tumorigenesis, acting as a paracrine mediator of progesterone. However, the therapeutic potential of inhibiting RANK signaling once tumors develop and its effects on tumor immunity remain unexplored. Our proposal tackles novel concepts: Is RANK a better therapeutic target than RANKL? Does RANK induce "stemness" in other epithelia and solid tumors and how? Does RANK regulate the tumor-immune cell crosstalk? Would inhibition of RANK signaling in tumor and immune cells result in synergistic or opposing effects on tumor outcome? We hypotesize that RANK activation in solid tumors expands the cancer stem cells pool and induces an immnunosuppressive environment leading to tumor recurrence and metastasis. In PLEIO-RANK we aim to: 1. Define the contribution of RANK to the epithelial hierarchy in mammary, skin and colon, during homeostasis and tumorigenesis, undertaking lineage tracing approaches. 2. Dissect the impact of RANK loss in the epithelial or the immune compartment in tumor outcome, exploiting tissue inducible models, in breast cancer and solid tumors driven by chronic inflammation. 3. Validate the clinical implications of our findings using patient derived xenografts and human tumor samples. Based on the results of our proposal RANK inhibition could become a unique targeted therapy able to reduce metastasis and mortality in solid tumors for its pleiotropic antitumor effects in cancer stem cells, immune cells and their crosstalk.

Mots-clés : mammary gland development,breast cancer,tumor immunology,rank,therapy,cancer stem cells
Projet ERC : WHIPLASH (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Universe sciences
Entité participante : Université Côte d'Azur — Pays : France — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : UCA
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 55620.0 €

Thousands of exoplanets have now been found. In the next decade, the grand challenge is to characterize their atmospheres. This is the only way to unravel the origin of the wild, unexpected diversity we have uncovered. For this task, there are several planned missions—JWST being our next best opportunity. However, to be ready for the analysis and interpretation of such high-precision observations, we need new-generation tools fit to address the multiple challenges they will raise. Indeed, until now, most atmospheric characterization observations—e.g. transit/eclipse spectroscopy—are analyzed with spherically symmetric, steady state 1D models that cannot accurately represent the very anisotropic atmospheres of most transiting exoplanets. This issue is worsened by the ubiquity of clouds, whose inhomogeneous spatial distribution—patchiness—prevents any satisfactory treatment in 1D. In this project, we will develop a new framework to constrain the physics and composition of exo-atmospheres that will allow us to overcome these difficulties when analyzing and interpreting observations. This will be done by exploiting a new 3D planetary atmosphere simulator that integrates a global climate model and a 3D Monte Carlo radiative transfer code to generate observables. Using such an innovative approach, this ERC project will thus answer the following fundamental questions: - What are the necessary conditions to sustain liquid water on terrestrial exoplanets? How can we infer observationally whether an atmosphere meeting these requirements is actually present? - Can clouds explain the puzzling features of observed hot, gaseous exoplanets? What can these observations tell us on the dynamical and microphysical properties of clouds inside these atmospheres? If we want theory to keep pace with the quality of future data, such a project is the necessary counterpart to the huge ongoing observational effort made by the community.

Mots-clés : exoplanets,planetary atmospheres,observational characterization,jwst,data analysis,habitability
Projet ERC : BioPrint4All (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Proof of concept grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Products and processes engineering
Entité participante : University of Minho — Pays : Portugal — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Three-dimensional (3D) bioprinting has been projected as one of the technologies with higher prospects to engineer tissue surrogates, which are i) an unquestionable demand for regenerative medicine and ii) an acknowledged upgrade of 2D in vitro cultures as reliable and predictive testing/screening systems for pharma and cosmetic industries. Despite the important milestones achieved so far, bioprinting functional tissues surrogates has proved difficult. The biggest challenge still is the fabrication of complex (different cell types and extracellular components) structures that work, as a whole, as in the native tissue, thus being physiologically relevant. The key 3D bioprinting elements are the printer – more specifically the printing head – and the bioinks (live cells plus extracellular components). As the print head controls the deposition of the bioink, one cannot be dissociated from the other. Thus, the successful 3D bioprinting of functional tissue surrogates is directly linked to the possibility to have a 3D printer that supports the characteristics of each bioink designed explicitly for each compartment of a specific tissue. Therefore, a new mind-set in which an integrated development of the print heads (guaranteeing processability and cell-friendly conditions) and the bioinks (ideal combination of biomaterial and cell designed explicitly for each compartment of a specific tissue) is required. This project proposes to prove the feasibility of having an on-demand 3D printing platform that can combine multiple print heads with different features, virtually at any combination. This strategy will foster reaching significant milestones in a shorter time and expectably at lower costs due to more straightforward and highly innovative scientifically-driven approaches.

Mots-clés : 3d printing,bioprinting,bioinks,processability,print heads,biotechnology,in vitro models,drug screening,cosmetic testing,tissue engineering
Projet ERC : NANO-MEMEC (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions
Entité participante : Institute of Photonic Sciences — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : ICFO;ICFO-CERCA
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2212063.0 €

Through evolution, cells have developed the exquisite ability to sense, transduce and integrate mechanical and biochemical signals (i.e. mechanobiology) to generate appropriate responses. These key events are rooted at the molecular and nanoscale levels, a size regime difficult to access, hindering our progress towards mechanistic understanding of mechanobiology. Recent evidence from my Lab (and others) shows that the lateral nanoscale organisation of mechanosensitive membrane receptors and signalling molecules is crucial for cell function. Yet, current models of mechanosensing are based on force-induced molecular conformations, completely overlooking the chief role of mechanical forces on the nanoscale spatiotemporal organisation of the plasma membrane. The GOAL of NANO-MEMEC is to provide mechanistic understanding on the role of mechanical stimuli in the spatiotemporal nanoarchitecture of adhesion signalling platforms at the cell membrane. To overcome the technical challenges of probing these processes at the relevant spatiotemporal scales, I will exploit cuttingedge biophysical tools exclusively developed in my Lab that combine super-resolution optical nanoscopy and single molecule dynamics in conjunction with simultaneous mechanical stimulation of living cells. Using this integrated approach, I will: First: dissect mechanical and biochemical coupling of membrane mechanosensing at the nanoscale. Second: visualise the coordinated recruitment of integrin-associated signalling proteins in response to force, i.e., mechanotransduction. Third: test how force-induced spatiotemporal membrane remodelling influences the migratory capacity of immune cells, i.e., mechanoresponse. NANO-MEMEC conveys a new fundamental concept to the field of mechanobiology: the roles of mechanical stimuli in the dynamic remodelling of membrane nanocompartments, modulating signal transduction and ultimately affecting cell response, opening new-fangled research avenues in the years to come.

Mots-clés : membrane organisation and signalling,nanoscale mechanobiology,integrin nanoassemblies,quantitative super resolution,single molecule fluorescence,shear flow,stretching,micro and nano patterning