Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : POSALG (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Mathematics
Entité participante : Université de Copenhague — Pays : Danemark — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : KU
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1782649.0 €

Many real-world problems are reduced to the study of polynomial equations in the non-negative orthant, and this is in particular the case for models of the abundance of the species in a biochemical reaction network. The polynomials associated with realistic models are huge, with many parameters and variables, making qualitative analyses, without fixing parameter values, challenging. This results in a mismatch between the needs in biology and the available mathematical tools. The driving aim of this proposal is to narrow the gap by developing novel mathematical theory within applied algebra to ultimately advance in the systematic analysis of biochemical models. Motivated by specific applications in the field of reaction networks, we consider parametrized systems of polynomial equations, and address questions regarding the number of positive solutions, connected components of semi-algebraic sets, and signs of vectors. Specifically, we (1) pursue a generalization of the Descartes' rule of signs to hypersurfaces, to bound the number of negative and of positive connected components of the complement of a hypersurface in the positive orthant, in terms of the signs of the coefficients of the hypersurface; (2) follow a new strategy to prove the Global Attractor Conjecture; and, (3) develop new results to count the number of positive solutions or find parametrizations.  The novelty and strength of this proposal resides in the interplay between the advance in the analysis of reaction networks and the development of theory in real algebraic geometry. The research problems are studied in full generality for arbitrary parametrized polynomial systems, but each question has a well-defined purpose, directed to the ultimate goal of having a scanning tool to automatically analyze the models used in systems and synthetic biology. Therefore, this proposal will strengthen the bridge between applied algebra and real-world applications, through the study of reaction networks.

Mots-clés : positive real algebraic geometry,sign vectors,steady states,biochemical reaction networks,connected components semi algebraic set
Projet ERC : PlasticSite (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System
Entité participante : Université de Copenhague — Pays : Danemark — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : KU
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2000000.0 €

Virtually all neural computation relies on synaptic plasticity, the dynamic change of chemical synaptic communication achieved by transmitter exocytosis from vesicles at presynaptic release sites to activate postsynaptic receptors. Plasticity mechanisms must be powerful, scalable and sustainable over all timescales of neural processing. Which part of the synaptic machinery is the best suited plasticity target? The number of synaptic vesicles greatly outnumbers that of release sites, essentially making the sites gatekeepers of all neural communication. Release site plasticity could thus be pivotal to all neural processing. We recently discovered the molecular identity of release sites (conserved Unc13 proteins) and found evidence of potent release site plasticity on timescales of milliseconds, minutes and days. We are now in the position to use this molecular handle to unravel the principles of this plasticity which will be key to understand neural function, behaviour and disease. Owing to the conserved process and machinery, we will harness the power of Drosophila genetics to elucidate general mechanisms and broad relevance of three distinct release-site plasticity phenomena: 1. Release site switching for millisecond facilitation of transmission and its contribution to network pattern generation as needed for locomotion. 2. Release site activation for minutes’ potentiation of transmitter release and its role in homeostasis and learning. 3. Release site accumulation for long-lasting potentiation with regained dynamic range and its role in homeostasis and memory. Finally, disease mutations accumulate in proteins relating to release site function. We will thus (4.) investigate whether these mutations affect release site plasticity in flies and attempt treatment of their induced defects by artificial enhancement of plasticity. My work will set the stage to establish the investigation of the role of this novel and fundamental plasticity in neural function and disease.

Mots-clés : synaptic transmission,synaptic plasticity,neurotransmitter release sites,drosophila melanogaster
Projet ERC : THEAGENT (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Texts and Concepts
Entité participante : Université de Londres — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : UoL
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 441166.49 €

Since the European Middle Ages, the fates of theatre and the city have been intertwined. Mystery plays thrived amidst the urban guilds of medieval Paris, city comedies heralded merchant capitalism in seventeenth-century London, and Ottoman shadow puppetry shaped coffeehouse culture in nineteenth-century Istanbul. The emergence of the modern European city in particular was linked to the development of both state-sponsored and independent theatre institutions; theatre and performance practices drew on the human proximity that city living made possible, and shaped the visions of cultural heterogeneity that emerged from urban cohabitation. Today, unprecedented dynamics of migration, globalization, and rapid gentrification are fundamentally changing theatre’s importance in the urban environment. Theatre and performance practices are all but absent from urban studies, however, and theatre scholarship often views the urban question through a limited analytic lens. Combining multi-sited ethnographic and archival research, this interdisciplinary research project will focus on the key cities of London, Paris, Berlin, Warsaw and Istanbul to analyze the complicated and often ambivalent relationship between theatre practices and urban transformation in twenty-first-century Europe. Following key thematic threads like migration and memory, Theatre and Gentrification’s original case studies will illustrate the diversity of property relations and housing tenure across the European continent, as well as the complex roles that theatre and performance practices play in producing urban subjectivities and structuring the cultural politics of gentrification. Groundbreaking in its use of theatre as its vantage point, this ambitious project will change the way we think about the contradictions of culture in the twenty-first century city, from its role in securing claims to global urban stature, to its position within imaginaries of authentic local resistance.

Mots-clés : theatre,urbanity,gentrification,memory,migration
Projet ERC : HETREPAIR (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Integrative B iology : from Genes and Genomes to S ystems
Entité participante : University Medical Center Utrecht — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UMC
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1999825.0 €

Cells face continuous challenges from insults that damage their DNA. To safeguard DNA integrity, a range of repair mechanisms have evolved, which are crucial for organismal survival. However, the eukaryotic nucleus contains different chromatin domains, each requiring specific repair mechanisms to ensure genome stability. In particular, the compact and transcriptionally silenced heterochromatin domains, which are riddled with repetitive DNA and developmental genes, are a challenging environment to repair DNA damage. Despite covering a substantial amount of our genome and being essential for organismal viability and development, heterochromatin remains poorly understood in its response to DNA damage. Heterochromatin domains possess specific molecular and biophysical properties, which I hypothesize necessitate unique chromatin responses at the damaged site to ensure effective repair and maintain genome stability. The aim of this proposal is to identify the dynamic responses to DNA damage in heterochromatin domains and determine their role in maintaining genome stability and tissue health. I will study this across scales, utilizing our recently developed in vitro reconstitution systems that mimic DNA damage in heterochromatin, as well as our unique in vivo systems to study and manipulate heterochromatin repair in fruit fly tissue. These approaches will be integrated with state-of-the-art proteomics, single-cell chromatin analyses and live imaging to identify the mechanisms of DNA repair in heterochromatin, and ultimately determine their impact on genome maintenance and tissue homeostasis. Unravelling chromatin dynamics during DNA repair in heterochromatin has the potential to yield broader insights into their role in other essential nuclear processes such as DNA -replication and -transcription. Importantly, HETREPAIR could in the long-term shed light on how heterochromatin repair processes are disrupted in disease and how these can be exploited during treatment.

Mots-clés : heterochromatin,dna damage repair,genome instability
Projet ERC : OTTOMANCORE (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Study of the Human Past
Entité participante : Université Saint-Clément-d'Ohrid de Sofia — Pays : Bulgarie — Rôle : Partner
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 143625.0 €

The OTTOMANCORE project seeks to redefine the understanding of how the Ottoman Empire was governed during its much-debated formative period (14th–16th centuries). It challenges the prevalent statist narrative in historiography that envisages Ottoman rulership as a top-down, preordained construct and proposes a novel regional perspective to examine governance practices from a spatially aware and actor-centered viewpoint. Leveraging a robust analytical foundation that assimilates information from a diverse array of Ottoman and Central European narrative and documentary sources, as well as archaeological data, the project explores the local mechanisms and socio-economic grounding of Ottoman governance. OTTOMANCORE proposes to ‘deconstruct’ the essential constituents of governance and ‘deanonymize’ numerous provincial stakeholders to unearth the grassroots of Ottoman rulership. The project is structured into three interlocking modules. The first is dedicated to developing innovative Handwritten Text Recognition (HTR) models and automated data extraction from Ottoman sources. The second module delves into a complex geospatial analysis of diverse data, probing the local governance practices, landholding patterns, and socio-economic dynamics by examining several interrelated components: i) land regime; ii) settlement network; iii) population geography; iv) connectivity and communication; v) revenue distribution. The final module aims to synthesize these findings into a coherent spatial narrative, rearticulating the history of Ottoman governance from a regional standpoint. OTTOMANCORE’s approach, blending history with cutting-edge technology, pushes the boundaries of Ottoman historiography and sets a new standard for empirical research. By challenging existing narratives and introducing novel methodologies, it holds the potential to foster a more nuanced appreciation of Ottoman governance and reshape our understanding of the ruling practices of pre-modern empires.

Mots-clés : ottoman empire balkans land ownership settlement geography landscape archaeology population geography connectivity taxation htr historical gis spatial analysis
Projet ERC : TWISTOPTICS (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Condensed Matter Physics
Entité participante : Université d'Oviedo — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1999500.0 €

Van der Waals (vdW) materials are ideal platforms to host light at the nanoscale (nanolight) with unprecedented properties such as strong in-plane anisotropy, arbitrarily large momenta and high density of optical states, opening the door to develop planar optical nanodevices compatible with current on-chip technologies. Remarkably, the in-plane anisotropic propagation of nanolight can be steered by stacking two slabs of a vdW material rotated with respect to each other, resulting, for example, in canalization along one specific direction. Inspired by this breakthrough in nano-optics, which extends the exciting prospects of twistronics to the optics realm, this ERC project aims to develop the field of Twistoptics, where stacks of twisted layers of vdW materials enable unprecedented active control of light and light-matter interactions at the nanoscale. In a first stage, we will carry out a study of the most fundamental optical phenomena in Twistoptics - reflection and refraction of nanolight in twisted vdW structures-, and develop a technological platform that will enable active manipulation of nanolight via strain fields. In a second stage, we will make use of this knowledge and technological capabilities to design and fabricate functional nanodevices to explore directional strong coupling between nanolight and molecular vibrations, as well as inter-subband transitions in 2D semiconductors -in order to develop quantum Twistoptics. This proposal envisions the modification of material properties and dynamics at the nanoscale and the realization of efficient and compact sources of IR radiation and polaritons working at room temperature. These fundamental scientific advances will be of enormous relevance for the development of new nanotechnologies that will have a broad impact in various fields, such as molecular nano-sensing, quantum nanosciences, or nano-chemistry, where active control of fundamental light-matter processes at the nanoscale is of vital importance.

Mots-clés : nano optics,van der waals materials,surface polaritons,nanoimaging
Projet ERC : FGR PODS (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Prevention,  Diagnosis and T reatment of Human Diseases
Entité participante : Nemo Healthcare (Netherlands) — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : Partner
Type d'entité : Organismes privés (hors enseignement)
Financement ERC de l'entité : 100000.0 €

Early-onset foetal growth restriction <32 weeks’ gestation is a severe pregnancy disorder that affects an estimated 15,000 European pregnancies annually and puts the babies at risk of severe morbidity and mortality. The underlying mechanism of the disorder is placental insufficiency leading to failure to meet the foetal metabolic and respiratory demands (the first leading to the growth disorder, the latter leading to fetal demise). Birth of the foetus prevents further damage from the intrauterine environment, but exposes the neonate to the challenges of severe prematurity. When women are admitted to the hospital with this complication of pregnancy, the obstetrician monitors the progressive signs of placental insufficiency and decides to expedite birth when the risks of foetal demise outweigh the risks of prematurity. Currently, there is lacking evidence how to weigh all prognosticators in this balance, therefore it takes place in the black box of the obstetrician's mind. In FGR PODS (Fetal Growth Restriction Perinatal Outcome Decision Support), I aim to develop and validate a ground-breaking decision support tool that will aid the obstetrician with objectively determining the optimal timing of birth. The decision support tool will integrate a combination of foetal and maternal prognosticators, and can be implemented in electronic patient charts. Provided as freeware, centres that have implemented the tool will feed back pseudonymized patient data in order to continuously refine the model. Also, within FGR PODS, I will perform innovative analysis (including machine learning) of fetal heart rate signals and of serially measured biomarkers to pick up placental respiratory failure. These studies will further our understanding of the foetal pathophysiological mechanisms resulting from placental insufficiency and will potentially identify targets for therapeutic interventions.

Mots-clés : fetal growth restriction cardiotocography perinatal outcomes clinical decision support tool maternal biomarkers fetal heart monitoring syncytiotrophoblast machine learning deep learning
Projet ERC : SYMBIVORE (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Environmental B iology, Ecology  and E volution
Entité participante : John Innes Centre — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : JIC
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1999758.0 €

Herbivorous beetles represent one of the most successful animal radiations. The cooption of microbial enzymes is cited as a key innovation that endowed beetles with the catalytic tools to breach the plant cell wall and facilitated the evolution of remarkably diverse herbivorous habits. Beetles incorporated microbial plant cell wall-degrading enzymes either through horizontal gene transfer or symbiosis. This binary distribution is most evident in leaf beetles (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae), where the loss of horizontally acquired pectinases coincided with the evolution of functionally convergent digestive symbioses. Prior efforts either examined the role of horizontal gene transfer or symbiosis in shaping the phenotypic complexity of herbivorous beetles. But a comprehensive approach reconciling both fields is lacking. SYMBIVORE aims to fill this gap by defining the metabolic requirements and determining the physiological and ecological conditions favoring symbiosis as an alternative strategy for beetles to deconstruct pectin. The proposed research is integrative and extends beyond the state-of-the-art by examining the adaptive importance of symbiosis relative to horizontal gene transfer across multiple scales of biological organization. From the molecular and genetic mechanisms underlying symbiont acquisition, to the biochemical, physiological, and ecological consequences of outsourcing a key metabolic trait. Through comparative genomics, transcriptomics, structural biochemistry, bioassays, and nutritional geometry, SYMBIVORE will address the hypothesis that symbiosis upgraded the digestive physiology in a subset of beetle clades, thereby relaxing selection for these insects to endogenously maintain essential genes. SYMBIVORE capitalizes on the functional overlap conferred by symbiosis and horizontal gene transfer to define how these processes differentially shape the adaptive potential of beetles, Earth’s most speciose animal order.

Mots-clés : symbiosis,host microbe interactions,nutritional symbiosis
Projet ERC : TIFUUN (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Universe Sciences
Entité participante : Université de technologie de Delft — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : TU Delft
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2993579.0 €

The next challenge in millimeter-submillimeter (mm-submm) astronomy is to generate 3D maps of statistically large cosmic volumes with complete spectral information, to uncover the history of cold matter back to the first billion years of the Universe, the evolution of hot matter in galaxy clusters, and the emergence of cosmic large-scale structure from those baryonic materials.  Vital for this endeavor is the integral field unit (IFU), which is a 2D array of spectrometers that instantaneously measures the spectrum of all points in the image. The IFU has reshaped astronomy at shorter visible wavelengths, but it is totally absent for mm-submm waves, because it falls out of reach of any existing technology.  Here I propose to revolutionize astronomy by developing a Terahertz Integral Field Unit with Universal Nanotechnology (TIFUUN). TIFUUN hosts mm-submm IFUs that each have up to 217 spectrometer pixels (spaxels), a wide instantaneous bandwidth up to 1:2, and a sufficiently high spectral resolving power up to R = 1,000, operating at photon-noise limited sensitivity. The breakthrough is the integrated superconducting spectrometer (ISS) technology, which allows to miniaturize the entire IFU onto a commercial 150-mm diameter silicon wafer.  I will take TIFUUN to the ASTE 10-m telescope with a set of science-tailored IFUs, and perform ground-breaking observations in 1) ultra-wideband spectroscopy of dusty star-forming galaxies, 2) unbiased mapping of high-redshift line-emitting galaxies, 3) line-intensity mapping of the cosmic large-scale structure, and 4) diagnosis of galaxy clusters using the Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect. I will make the tools for designing the IFU open source, encouraging the astronomical community to propose science in combination with optimized IFU designs. This cost-effective "open-hardware" concept marks a new paradigm that opens the specialized field of superconducting instrumentation to the world, bridging cutting-edge nanotechnology and cosmology.

Mots-clés : integral field unit,spectrometers,superconducting detectors