Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : CIRCUS (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Proof of concept grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Systems and communication engineering
Entité participante : Politecnico di Milano — Pays : Italie — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : POLIMI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 149463.75 €

Every second, our smart phones deliver a wealth of information that can be used to monitor the traffic, the financial transactions, and even the spread of a dangerous disease. The processing of these big data into a meaningful information requires specific machine learning (ML) algorithms, which essentially consist of regression techniques for inference, classification and prediction. The conventional digital computers are not designed to optimally solve these problems with efficient time and energy consumption, which is one of the reasons why the power consumption by data centers worldwide is expected to triple in the next decade. Such a poor energy efficiency is essentially due to the physical separation between the central processing unit (CPU), where data are computed, and the memory, where data are stored, according to classical von Neumann computer architecture. In the frame of our ERC-CoG RESCUE, my group has developed a new paradigm to efficiently execute ML tasks in just one step within the memory. Instead of moving data from the memory to the digital CPU, an analogue computation is directly operated within the data, thus breaking all previous limits of time and energy consumption (10.000x reduction in the number of operations, hence time, and 1.000x in energy). Our in-memory technology is modular and universal, thus can be implemented in any existing memory and computing technology to accelerate ML tasks in future smartphones and data centers. In the ERC-PoC CIRCUS, we aim at bringing this technology to a higher maturity level, demonstrating its scalability and technical feasibility by simulations and realization of a small-scale prototype. In the meantime, we will also perform a comprehensive market search to recognize opportunities and draft an investor-ready business plan for raising future investments to further advance the solution toward industrial exploitation.

Mots-clés : big data,machine learning,artificial intelligence,in memory computing,deep learning,one shot learning,crosspoint arrays,emerging memories,analogue computing,approximate computing,physical computing,data analytics,linear regression,page rank,machine learning accelerators
Projet ERC : DISCONNECTOME (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Human Mind and Its Complexity
Entité participante : Institut du cerveau — Pays : France — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : ICM
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 542227.05 €

Every year a brain stroke will impair approximately 2 million Europeans. Notwithstanding recent progress, many of these individuals will have persistent cognitive deficits, impacting their personality, degrading their quality of life and preventing their return to work. Early identification of anatomical predictors of brain recovery may significantly reduce the burden of these deficits on patients, their families and wider society, while also leading to the discovery of new targets for treatments. I have pioneered the development of imaging techniques that allow for the exploration of the relationship between brain disconnection and neuropsychological syndromes. With these tools, I aim to demonstrate that the structural organisation of the human brain's connections is the common denominator supporting functional specialisation and, when damaged, neuropsychological disorders. Building on my expertise, I plan to (1) establish an atlas mapping the function of white matter for the entire human brain, (2) fractionate the stroke population according to disconnection profiles, (3) predict neuropsychological symptoms based on disconnection profiles, and (4) characterise and manipulate the fine biology involved in the disconnection recovery.In so doing, this project will introduce a paradigm shift in the relationship between brain structure, function and behavioural/cognitive disorders. I will deliver a comprehensive biological model of the neurocircuitry that supports neuropsychological syndromes, which will gather the modular organisation of primary idiotypic functions with the integrative organisation of highly associative levels of functions. In the long term, this project will allow me to determine if measures of brain ‘connectivity’ can be translated into advanced standard procedures that provide for a more personalised medicine, that focuses upon rehabilitation and improving the prediction of symptom recovery, while providing new targets for pharmacological treatment.

Mots-clés : neuropsychology,cognition,stroke,associationism,connections,model,connectivity,white matter
Projet ERC : TreeMort (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Earth system science
Entité participante : Lund University — Pays : Suède — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 480460.29 €

Everything that lives must die. Yet when it comes to the world's forests, we know much more about the processes governing their life than those governing their death. Global forests hold enormous amounts of carbon in their biomass, which has absorbed about 20% of anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions over recent decades. Whether the size of this sink will persist, intensify, decrease or even become a source is highly uncertain, yet knowing this is crucial to the calculation of carbon emission budgets consistent with limiting global temperature rise. One of the most compelling explanations for this uncertainty is a lack of knowledge of how tree mortality affects forest carbon storage on a global scale. Mortality rates and mechanisms are closely tied to forest structure and composition, and thus the storage of carbon in biomass, but mechanistic complexity and the difficulty of measurement have hindered understanding, resulting in a striking lack of consensus in existing assessments. TreeMort will remedy this, combining newly available sources of data with appropriate conceptualisation and innovative modelling, to provide quantifications of the rates and causes of tree death, and their relation to environmental drivers, that set new standards for robustness, comprehensiveness and consistency at the global scale. This breaking-out of the narrower foci of previous work will be a game-changer, finally enabling globally-comprehensive investigation of the extent to which whole forest structure and function are governed by and interact with mortality, and their likely evolution under environmental change. TreeMort will assess this using state-of-the-art ecosystem modelling, which will then be employed to make a fundamental reassessment of the current and future carbon storage capacity of global forests. TreeMort will thus bring us significantly closer to understanding fully how forests interact with the global carbon cycle, assisting efforts to mitigate climate change.

Mots-clés : terrestrial carbon cycle,terrestrial carbon sink,tree mortality,vegetation dynamics,forest structure,global,terrestrial biosphere modelling,carbon turnover
Projet ERC : TreeMort (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Earth system science
Entité participante : University of Leeds — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : Partner
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 116164.0 €

Everything that lives must die. Yet when it comes to the world's forests, we know much more about the processes governing their life than those governing their death. Global forests hold enormous amounts of carbon in their biomass, which has absorbed about 20% of anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions over recent decades. Whether the size of this sink will persist, intensify, decrease or even become a source is highly uncertain, yet knowing this is crucial to the calculation of carbon emission budgets consistent with limiting global temperature rise. One of the most compelling explanations for this uncertainty is a lack of knowledge of how tree mortality affects forest carbon storage on a global scale. Mortality rates and mechanisms are closely tied to forest structure and composition, and thus the storage of carbon in biomass, but mechanistic complexity and the difficulty of measurement have hindered understanding, resulting in a striking lack of consensus in existing assessments. TreeMort will remedy this, combining newly available sources of data with appropriate conceptualisation and innovative modelling, to provide quantifications of the rates and causes of tree death, and their relation to environmental drivers, that set new standards for robustness, comprehensiveness and consistency at the global scale. This breaking-out of the narrower foci of previous work will be a game-changer, finally enabling globally-comprehensive investigation of the extent to which whole forest structure and function are governed by and interact with mortality, and their likely evolution under environmental change. TreeMort will assess this using state-of-the-art ecosystem modelling, which will then be employed to make a fundamental reassessment of the current and future carbon storage capacity of global forests. TreeMort will thus bring us significantly closer to understanding fully how forests interact with the global carbon cycle, assisting efforts to mitigate climate change.

Mots-clés : terrestrial carbon cycle,terrestrial carbon sink,tree mortality,vegetation dynamics,forest structure,global,terrestrial biosphere modelling,carbon turnover
Projet ERC : TreeMort (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Earth system science
Entité participante : University of Birmingham — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : Partner
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 876345.71 €

Everything that lives must die. Yet when it comes to the world's forests, we know much more about the processes governing their life than those governing their death. Global forests hold enormous amounts of carbon in their biomass, which has absorbed about 20% of anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions over recent decades. Whether the size of this sink will persist, intensify, decrease or even become a source is highly uncertain, yet knowing this is crucial to the calculation of carbon emission budgets consistent with limiting global temperature rise. One of the most compelling explanations for this uncertainty is a lack of knowledge of how tree mortality affects forest carbon storage on a global scale. Mortality rates and mechanisms are closely tied to forest structure and composition, and thus the storage of carbon in biomass, but mechanistic complexity and the difficulty of measurement have hindered understanding, resulting in a striking lack of consensus in existing assessments. TreeMort will remedy this, combining newly available sources of data with appropriate conceptualisation and innovative modelling, to provide quantifications of the rates and causes of tree death, and their relation to environmental drivers, that set new standards for robustness, comprehensiveness and consistency at the global scale. This breaking-out of the narrower foci of previous work will be a game-changer, finally enabling globally-comprehensive investigation of the extent to which whole forest structure and function are governed by and interact with mortality, and their likely evolution under environmental change. TreeMort will assess this using state-of-the-art ecosystem modelling, which will then be employed to make a fundamental reassessment of the current and future carbon storage capacity of global forests. TreeMort will thus bring us significantly closer to understanding fully how forests interact with the global carbon cycle, assisting efforts to mitigate climate change.

Mots-clés : terrestrial carbon cycle,terrestrial carbon sink,tree mortality,vegetation dynamics,forest structure,global,terrestrial biosphere modelling,carbon turnover
Projet ERC : CannaPreg (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : Inserm
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Excessive activation of the cannabinoid type-1 receptor (CB1) in the brain by synthetic, endogenous or plant-derived (cannabis sativa) cannabinoids can lead to pathological states, which could be ameliorated by blocking receptor signalling. However, due to the large number of functions involving the CB1 receptor, direct CB1 antagonist drugs induce side effects limiting their therapeutic use. During the ERC-StG funded project, we found that a particular endogenous and labile lipid compound, pregnenolone, acts as an allosteric and signal-specific inhibitor of CB1 receptors in the brain. Thus, stable pregnenolone-derivative drugs have been produced to exploit the therapeutic potential of allosteric inhibition of CB1 receptor signalling, which can be used to decrease pathological over-activation of CB1 receptors. One clear pathological state where over-activation of CB1 receptors plays a key role is schizophrenia and psychotic syndromes. Indeed, cannabis and synthetic cannabinoids can induce psychotic states and excessive CB1 receptor signalling has been proposed to participate in the etiopathogenesis of human schizophrenia. Thus, the present project aims at establishing the innovative and commercial potential of this new class of drugs, stable derivatives of pregnenolone, as allosteric inhibitors of the CB1 receptor for the treatment of psychotic syndromes. The following issues will be addressed: 1. Technical activities will identify the compounds with the best therapeutic potential. 2. Market studies will determine the potential competitiveness of these compounds. 3. Additional industry partnerships will be sought for later stages of commercial development. By covering these essential steps bridging a scientific idea from basic research to therapeutic applications, the present project is fully integrated in the spirit of the ERC PoC program and, if successful, will provide key medical, economical and societal benefits to Europe.

Mots-clés : allosteric modulation,cb1 cannabinoid receptors,pregnenolone,non metabolizable pregnenolone derivatives  nmpds,schizophrenia,psychotic syndromes,therapy,market study
Projet ERC : BrainBIT (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Fundamental constituents of matter
Entité participante : Italian Institute of Technology — Pays : Italie — Rôle : Partner
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 233000.0 €

Exchange of information between different brains usually takes place through the interaction between bodies and the external environment. The ultimate goal of this project is to establish a novel paradigm of brain-to-brain communication based on direct full-optical recording and controlled stimulation of neuronal activity in different subjects. To pursue this challenging objective, we propose to develop optical technologies well beyond the state of the art for simultaneous neuronal “reading” and “writing” across large volumes and with high spatial and temporal resolution, targeted to the transfer of advantageous behaviour in physiological and pathological conditions. We will perform whole-brain high-resolution imaging in zebrafish larvae to disentangle the activity patterns related to different tasks. We will then use these patterns as stimulation templates in other larvae to investigate spatio-temporal subject-invariant signatures of specific behavioural states. This ‘pump and probe’ strategy will allow gaining deep insights into the complex relationship between neuronal activity and subject behaviour. To move towards clinics-oriented studies on brain stimulation therapies, we will complement whole-brain experiments in zebrafish with large area functional imaging and optostimulation in mammals. We will investigate all-optical brain-to-brain information transfer to boost an advantageous behaviour, i.e. motor recovery, in a mouse model of stroke. Mice showing more effective responses to rehabilitation will provide neuronal activity templates to be elicited in other animals, in order to increase rehabilitation efficiency. We strongly believe that the implementation of new technologies for all-optical transfer of behaviour between different subjects will offer unprecedented views of neuronal activity in healthy and injured brain, paving the way to more effective brain stimulation therapies.
Projet ERC : BrightSens (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Synthetic Chemistry and Materials
Entité participante : Université de Strasbourg — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UNISTRA
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1496725.0 €

Existing fluorescent molecular probes, due to limited brightness, do not allow imaging individual biomolecules directly in living cells, whereas bright fluorescent nanoparticles are unable to respond to single molecular stimuli and their inorganic core is not biodegradable. The aim of BrightSens is to develop ultrabright fluorescent organic nanoparticles (FONs) capable to convert single molecular stimuli into collective turn-on response of >100 encapsulated dyes, and to apply them in amplified molecular sensing of specific targets at the cell surface (receptors) and in the cytosol (mRNA). The project is composed of three work packages. (1) Synthesis of FONs: Dye-doped polymer and micellar FONs will be obtained by self-assembly. Molecular design of dyes and the use of bulky hydrophobic counterions will enable precise control of dyes organization inside FONs, which will resolve the fundamental problems of self-quenching and cooperative on/off switching in dye ensembles. (2) Synthesis of nanoprobes: Using cooperative Forster Resonance Energy Transfer from FONs to originally designed acceptor-sensor unit, we propose synthesis of the first nanoprobes that (a) undergo complete turn-on or colour switch in response to single molecular targets and (b) harvest light energy into photochemical disruption of cell membrane barriers. (3) Cellular applications: The obtained nanoprobes will be applied in 2D and 3D cultures of cancer cells for background-free single-molecule detection of membrane receptors and intracellular mRNA, which are important markers of cancer and apoptosis. An original concept of amplified photochemical internalization is proposed to trigger by light entry of nanoprobes into the cytosol. This high-risk/high-gain multidisciplinary project will result in new organic nanomaterials with unique photophysical properties that will enable visualization of biomolecules at work in living cells with expected impact on cancer research.

Mots-clés : fluorescent organic nanoparticles,responsive nanoparticles,polymers,dyes,fluorescent probes,energy transfer,fluorescence spectroscopy,cellular imaging,membrane receptors,nucleic acids,mrna
Projet ERC : HIEXP (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Mathematics
Entité participante : Hebrew University of Jerusalem — Pays : Israël — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : HUJI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1592500.0 €

Expander graphs have been playing a fundamental role in many areas of computer science. During the last 15 years they have also found important and unexpected applications in pure mathematics. The goal of the current research is to develop systematically high-dimensional (HD) theory of expanders, i.e., simplicial complexes and hypergraphs which resemble in dimension d, the role of expander graphs for d = 1. There are several motivations for developing such a theory, some from pure mathematics and some from computer science. For example, Ramanujan complexes (the HD versions of the "optimal" expanders, the Ramanujan graphs) have already been useful for extremal hypergraph theory. One of the main goals of this research is to use them to solve other problems, such as Gromov's problem: are there bounded degree simplicial complexes with the topological overlapping property ("topological expanders"). Other directions of HD expanders have applications in property testing, a very important subject in theoretical computer science. Moreover they can be a tool for the construction of locally testable codes, an important question of theoretical and practical importance in the theory of error correcting codes. In addition, the study of these simplicial complexes suggests new quantum error correcting codes (QECC). It is hoped that it will lead to such codes which are also low density parity check (LDPC). The huge success and impact of the theory of expander graphs suggests that the high dimensional theory will also bring additional unexpected applications beside those which can be foreseen as of now.

Mots-clés : expanders,buildings,codes
Projet ERC : Expanding Agency (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Cultures and cultural production
Entité participante : National University of Ireland — Pays : Irlande — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : NUI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2082906.0 €

Expanding Agency will explore the role that women and members of ethnic minorities, primarily African-Americans, played in transmitting modern architecture and design internationally, including within Europe, between 1920 and 1970. Strands devoted to patronage, journalism, entrepreneurship, and institution building will offer alternatives to accounts that focus primarily on architects. This will expand our understanding of who had agency in this important story and more generally in the shaping of the built environment. Taking a global approach that stresses comparisons across continents will also help build a more nuanced understanding of how architecture, landscape architecture, interior decoration, and the design of furnishing are transformed by new ideas that emanate from a multiplicity of sources. This in turn can help support a more diverse profession that, in the wake of #metoo and Black Lives Matter, is better prepared to engage with a broad public, including to address such social challenges as the integration of migrants and sustainability.

Mots-clés : history of architecture,design history,modernism,gender,race,african american,global histories,print culture