Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : ProtMind (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Cultures and cultural production
Entité participante : University of Oxford — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1910264.0 €

Unlike most traditional forms of behavioural influence, such as rational persuasion, incentivisation and coercion, many novel forms of behavioural influence operate at a subrational level, bypassing the targeted individual's capacity to respond to reasons. Examples include bottomless newsfeeds, randomised rewards, and other 'persuasive' technologies employed by online platforms and computer game designers. They also include biological interventions, such as the use of drugs, nutritional supplements or non-invasive brain stimulation to facilitate criminal rehabilitation. The ethical acceptability of such arational influence depends crucially on whether we possess a moral right to mental integrity, and, if so, what kinds of mental interference it rules out. Unfortunately, these questions are yet to be addressed. Though the right to bodily integrity is well-established, the possibility of a right to mental integrity has attracted little philosophical scrutiny. The purposes of this project are to (1) determine whether and how a moral right to mental integrity can be established; (2) develop a comprehensive and fine-grained account of its scope, weight, and robustness, and (3) determine what forms of arational influence infringe it, and whether and when these might nevertheless be justified. It will deploy a tripartite methodology comprising a bottom-up, casuistic approach, drawing on reflective responses to particular interventions; a horizontal approach, in which lessons for mental integrity will be drawn from analyses of the related phenomena of coercion, manipulation, and bodily integrity; and a top-down approach, drawing on theories of moral rights. The analysis will establish arational influence as a new area of enquiry and yield guidance on controversial novel forms of arational influence including persuasive digital technologies, salience-based nudges, treatments for childhood behavioural disorders, and biological interventions in criminal rehabilitation.

Mots-clés : applied ethics,neuroethics,medical ethics,criminal justice ethics,behaviour modification
Projet ERC : MiMo (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Individuals, Markets and Organisations
Entité participante : Fondation nationale des sciences politiques — Pays : France — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : FNSP
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 102042.5 €

Unobserved differences between economic agents are an important driver behind the differences in their economic outcomes such as schooling decisions, wages, and employment durations. Allowing for such unobserved heterogeneity in economic modeling equips the specification with an additional dimension of realism but presents major challenges for econometric practice. Hence, reconciling heterogeneity in the data with econometric models is an issue of utmost importance. The aim of this project is to develop inference methods for models with unobserved heterogeneity by exploiting the identifying power of longitudinal (panel) data. The project consists of three blocks. Together, they span the largest part of modern applications of panel data. The first block deals with inference on nonlinear models and enhances the performance of statistical hypothesis tests. So far, the literature has focused on point estimation. However, it is statistical inference that accounts for uncertainty in the data and forms the basis for testing economic restrictions. The second block makes progress on the estimation of models for network data. The importance of social and economic connections is well established but few formal results are available. We exploit the fact that network data can be seen as a type of panel data to derive such results. The third block uses panel data to non-parametrically estimate dynamic discrete-choice models with unobserved type heterogeneity and/or latent state variables. Such results are inexistent even though dynamic discrete-choice models are a workhorse tool in labor economics and industrial organization. The performance of the tools will be assessed theoretically and via simulation, and they will be applied to various empirical problems. Two examples of applications that we will study are the extensive margin of labor force participation and the determinants of the import and export behavior of firms and countries.

Mots-clés : discrete choice models,microeconometrics,networks,incidental parameters,statistical inference,panel data,unobserved heterogeneity
Projet ERC : MAGIC (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Earth system science
Entité participante : University of Amsterdam — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : UvA
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 118776.25 €

Unraveling the cause for Cenozoic global climate cooling is one of the most important unresolved questions challenging the Earth and Environmental sciences community today. Increased erosion and weathering of the uplifted Tibetan Plateau and Himalayas, is advocated as the primary cause for the enigmatic pCO2 drawdown, that led to global cooling 50 to 34 Myrs ago from the warm ice-free Greenhouse world to the bi-polar Icehouse conditions still prevailing today. Asian Monsoons are genetically linked to high orography associated with the India-Asia collision starting ca. 50 Myrs ago, however, the relation between Greenhouse to Icehouse cooling and Asian Monsoons remains to be explore as they were previously thought to intensify only much later ca. 25 Myrs ago. Our recent findings of monsoonal activity in Asia since at least 45 Myrs ago raises the fascinating possibility that Asian Monsoons may have triggered global cooling from Greenhouse to Icehouse conditions. Testing this novel hypothesis and exploring its implications on feedback mechanisms between regional environments, Asian Monsoons and global climate, will constitute the stimulating objectives of MAGIC. 3 PhDs will provide end-member monsoonal archives well-dated during greenhouse to icehouse cooling from 3 key locations (NE Tibet, SE Asia and Paratethys Sea). These will be analyzed by three postdocs expert in novel proxy methods tailored for MAGIC to infer temperatures, precipitation, salinity, seasonality, paleoaltimetry, wind-patterns, paleoecology and paleogeography at infra-annual, orbital and tectonic time scales. Ultimately, these records and boundary conditions will be integrated into climate models by a dedicated postdoc to unravel the role and behavior of Asian Monsoons with respect to long-term Greenhouse to Icehouse cooling, pCO2 levels as well as global hyperthermal and cooling event such as the PETM, MECO and EOT.
Projet ERC : FEASIBLe (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Earth system science
Entité participante : Université de Rennes — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UNIVRENNES
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1348175.25 €

Unravelling how tectonics, climate and surface processes act and interact to shape the Earth’s surface is one of the most challenging unresolved issue in Earth Sciences. The foundations of modern quantitative geomorphology have been built within the paradigm of steady-state landscapes responding to slow changes in climatic or tectonic conditions, mainly rainfall or uplift rate. Yet, recent results demonstrate that landscapes are rhythmed by (potentially extreme) storms and earthquakes. These perturbations catalyse geomorphological processes by triggering numerous landslides and lead to a prolonged and transient evolution of the landscape that dominate records of modern erosion. The FEASIBLe project therefore calls for a complete re-assessment of the role of short-term climatic and tectonic perturbations in shaping mountain landscapes and for a paradigm shift from steady-state to constantly perturbed landscapes. My ambition is to push forward our understanding of the short- to long-term dynamics of perturbed landscapes and in turn to unlock our ability to read landscapes in terms of earthquake and storm activity. To succeed in this endeavour, the FEASIBLe project will rely on the development of a new generation of landscape evolution model and of novel approaches to intimately monitor landscape heterogeneities and evolution in Taiwan, New-Zealand and Himalayas at high-resolution. The first work packages (WP1-2) will combine field-data analysis and numerical modelling to investigate landslide triggering and the post-perturbation sediment evacuation and landscape dynamics. I will then blend these elementary processes with a statistical description of climatic and tectonic perturbations in a new generation of landscape evolution model (WP3). This new model will be then applied to diagnose the geomorphological signature of fault “seismogenic” rheology (WP4) and to explore the role of post-glacial hot-moments of landscape dynamics on Quaternary landscape evolution (WP5).

Mots-clés : geomorphology,numerical modelling,extreme events,landslides,river erosion,earthquakes,storms
Projet ERC : CAMERA (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Human Diseases
Entité participante : Massey University — Pays : Nouvelle-Zélande — Rôle : Partner
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 325000.0 €

Until 20 years ago it was widely believed that asthma was an allergic/atopic disease involving atopic inflammation of the airways. Work that I and others have done has now shown that non-atopic asthma is much more important than was previously recognised. This has been confirmed by my ERC-funded AsthmaPhenotypes study, in both high-income countries (HICs) and low-and-middle-income countries (LMICs). This is important both in terms of the prevention of non-atopic asthma, and also in terms of its treatment. I therefore propose to study the Causes and MEchanisms foR non-atopic Asthma in children (CAMERA) in four different settings where I have shown that NAA is common: New Zealand (HIC, high prevalence), Brazil (LMIC, high prevalence), Ecuador (LMIC, medium prevalence), and Uganda (LMIC, low prevalence). Work-package 1 (WP1): involves a case-control study of risk factors for atopic and non-atopic asthma in these four settings, as well as similar analyses in other available and comparable data sets. Together, these studies have comparable data on asthma, atopy, and a large number of asthma risk factors, on a total of 48,000 participants. I will conduct innovative analyses exploring the different causal pathways in these different settings. Work package II: in each centre, we will then select 160 participants (40 atopic asthmatics, 40 non-atopic asthmatics, 40 atopic non-asthmatic, 40 non-atopic non-asthmatics) for further clinical investigation with regards to three mechanisms that may be particularly relevant to non-atopic asthma: capsaicin challenge, cold-air challenge, and response to interferon-gamma. The unique features of this study include: (i) the inclusion of both high and low prevalence centres from HICs and LMICs; (ii) new analyses of risk factors for NAA, contrasting the findings in various pathways; and (iii) the investigation of three mechanisms which may be involved in non-atopic pathways.

Mots-clés : asthma,non atopic asthma,causes,mechanisms
Projet ERC : CAMERA (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Human Diseases
Entité participante : University of London — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : U. London
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1637117.0 €

Until 20 years ago it was widely believed that asthma was an allergic/atopic disease involving atopic inflammation of the airways. Work that I and others have done has now shown that non-atopic asthma is much more important than was previously recognised. This has been confirmed by my ERC-funded AsthmaPhenotypes study, in both high-income countries (HICs) and low-and-middle-income countries (LMICs). This is important both in terms of the prevention of non-atopic asthma, and also in terms of its treatment. I therefore propose to study the Causes and MEchanisms foR non-atopic Asthma in children (CAMERA) in four different settings where I have shown that NAA is common: New Zealand (HIC, high prevalence), Brazil (LMIC, high prevalence), Ecuador (LMIC, medium prevalence), and Uganda (LMIC, low prevalence). Work-package 1 (WP1): involves a case-control study of risk factors for atopic and non-atopic asthma in these four settings, as well as similar analyses in other available and comparable data sets. Together, these studies have comparable data on asthma, atopy, and a large number of asthma risk factors, on a total of 48,000 participants. I will conduct innovative analyses exploring the different causal pathways in these different settings. Work package II: in each centre, we will then select 160 participants (40 atopic asthmatics, 40 non-atopic asthmatics, 40 atopic non-asthmatic, 40 non-atopic non-asthmatics) for further clinical investigation with regards to three mechanisms that may be particularly relevant to non-atopic asthma: capsaicin challenge, cold-air challenge, and response to interferon-gamma. The unique features of this study include: (i) the inclusion of both high and low prevalence centres from HICs and LMICs; (ii) new analyses of risk factors for NAA, contrasting the findings in various pathways; and (iii) the investigation of three mechanisms which may be involved in non-atopic pathways.

Mots-clés : asthma,non atopic asthma,causes,mechanisms
Projet ERC : iHEAR (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Human Diseases
Entité participante : Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland — Pays : Irlande — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : RCSI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1781622.96 €

Up to one fifth of young people have had the experience of psychotic symptoms, such as hearing voices when there is no-one around, or seeing visions. We now know that young people who experience these symptoms are at increased risk of developing psychotic disorders in adulthood. We also know that these young people are at higher risk of a range of co-morbid disorders such as depression and anxiety, and particularly suicidal behaviours. On the other hand, many of these young people will remain well and, for them, the psychotic experiences were merely a transitory phenomenon. Childhood trauma is known to be associated with increased risk for psychotic symptoms and is a promising target for intervention. However we do not yet know enough about what types or timing of stressors are involved in the pathogenesis of psychotic symptoms, nor the mechanism by which early life stress may lead to changes in brain structure and function resulting in symptoms such as hallucinations. We also need to be able to identify those young people who will benefit most from intervention. This ground-breaking, multi-disciplinary programme of work sets out to address these issues by drawing together epidemiology, social science, anthropology and neuroscience to devise a comprehensive programme of work examining the relationship between early life stress and psychotic symptoms among young people. Designed as three inter-related work packages, this iHEAR programme will exploit a large population-based cohort and will capitalise on my existing unique cohort of young people, who were known to have experienced psychotic symptoms in childhood, as they enter young adulthood. This iHEAR programme will result in new information which will allow the development of innovative interventions to prevent or pre-empt severe mental illness in later life.

Mots-clés : psychosis,early life stress,trauma,childhood,brain development,psychiatry,neuroimaging,qualitative methods,cohort,adolescent,biomarkers,cognition,mental health
Projet ERC : USECFrontiers (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Computer science and informatics
Entité participante : University of Bonn — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1498976.0 €

Usability problems are a major cause of many of today’s IT-security incidents. Security systems are often too complicated, time-consuming, and error prone. For more than a decade researchers in the domain of usable security (USEC) have attempted to combat these problems by conducting interdisciplinary research focusing on the root causes of the problems and on the creation of usable security mechanisms. While major improvements have been made, to date USEC research has focused almost entirely on the non-expert end-user. However, many of the most catastrophic security incidents were not caused by end-users, but by developers or administrators. Heartbleed and Shellshock were both caused by single developers yet had global consequences. The recent Sony hack compromised an entire multi-national IT-infrastructure and misappropriated over 100 TB of data, unnoticed. Fundamentally, every software vulnerability and misconfigured system is caused by developers or administrators making mistakes, but very little research has been done into the underlying causalities and possible mitigation strategies. I aim to extend the frontiers of usable security by conducting foundational research into USEC methods for developers and administrators. To this end I will research and systemize the hitherto unexamined human factors in a carefully selected set of problems currently faced by developers and administrators, specifically: authentication, secure messaging, systems configuration, intrusion detection, and public key infrastructures. From this pioneering research I will extract and develop principles, methods, and best practices for conducting usability studies and research with these actors and establish a foundation for this emerging research field. In addition to these foundational methodological results, I expect to make fundamental advancements in the above application research domains by including the human factors in these currently purely technical research areas.

Mots-clés : usable security and privacy,methods reserach
Projet ERC : SWIRL (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Proof of concept grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Physical and analytical chemical sciences
Entité participante : University of Vienna — Pays : Autriche — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : Univie
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Usage of therapeutic monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) has over the past 20 years become one of the most powerful pharmacological strategies in the treatment of various types of cancer, cardiovascular diseases and autoimmune disorders. Importantly, a central challenge in developing the required high protein concentration formulations of mAb therapeutics is the issue of protein solubility. The current approaches for addressing this challenge typically involve using different osmolyte excipients such as salts, carbohydrates, amino acids or surfactants, but they suffer from various problems including insufficient activity, low specificity, allergenic reactivity and others. Clearly, there exists an unmet need for novel strategies to increase the solubility of mAbs in pharmaceutical formulations in an efficient, cost-effective, target-specific manner. We propose to address this challenge by exploiting one of the central biological interaction partners of proteins, the RNA molecules. Specifically, we will: 1) bring to a product stage a computational software suite for designing short, weakly interacting RNA ligands (SWIRLs) that improve the solubility of aggregation-prone mAb therapeutics in a sequence- specific manner, and 2) commercialize the software for usage in a biopharmaceutical context. The designed SWIRLs increase the solubility of target proteins and shield them from unwanted aggregation through weak, specific interactions and a simultaneous alteration of solvent structure. Moreover, a major advantage of using short, standard unmodified RNAs is that they are non-immunogenic and are degradable in the blood, which makes them a unique material for formulation development. Importantly, the sequence-specific design of SWIRLs for a particular target protein will be based on fundamental physicochemical principles of RNA-protein interactions, recently elucidated by us in the context of our ERC Starting Independent grant project.

Mots-clés : monoclonal antibodies,therapeutics,protein solubility
Projet ERC : UbiProPox (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Immunity, Infection and Immunotherapy
Entité participante : University of Birmingham — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 516178.75 €

Vaccinia virus (VACV), the prototypic poxvirus, is a large, enveloped, DNA virus characterized by its cytoplasmic site of replication and large subset of genes. Due to the complexity of VACV, the majority of studies focus on the virus rather than the host cell. Thus the repertoire of cell factors and functions required for its replication remain largely unknown. Our previous work to define a subset of these, revealed the cellular degradation machinery as a key requirement of VACV replication. Our findings indicated that ubiquitin (Ub), Ub ligase activity, and proteasome-mediated degradation are required for multiple stages of the virus lifecycle. The aim of this proposal is to reveal how VACV differentially modulates or takes advantage of the Ub proteasome system during genome uncoating, the initiation of DNA replication, and the assembly of progeny virions. For genome uncoating we will characterize the spatial and temporal interactions between ubiquitinated viral proteins, proteasomes, the viral uncoating factor, and the viral genome that occur on cytoplasmic cores. To ascertain how Cullin-3 based ubiquitination and proteasome degradation facilitate the switch from uncoating to replication of the viral genome, we will identify the relevant Cullin-3 substrates in the context of a detailed characterization of viral replication initiation sites. Coming full circle, we will explore the mechanisms used by VACV to modulate cellular degradation such that ubiquitinated viral core proteins are packaged into newly forming virions without being degraded. Using systems biology, virology, cell biology, biochemistry, molecular biology and a wide range of microscopy approaches we will unravel the complex interactions between poxviruses and the host cell degradation machinery. In turn, as viruses often serve as valuable tools to study cell function, this work is likely to uncover new insights into how cells spatially and temporally regulate their own degradative capacities.

Mots-clés : virus genome uncoating,viral dna replication,virus assembly,ubiquitin proteasome system,proteomics,rnai screening