Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : OptiMEG (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Prevention,  Diagnosis and T reatment of Human Diseases
Entité participante : Hôpital de la Timone Adulte — Pays : France — Rôle : Partner
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 374602.0 €

Epilepsy presurgical evaluation consists in mapping the brain regions generating pathological activities, which can be surgically resected. The current method of choice is stereotaxic electroencephalography (SEEG), an invasive procedure which involves implanting a limited number of electrodes in the brain. Thanks to 4-He Optically Pumped Magnetometers (OPMs), a new generation of mobile sensors, I will be able to record magnetic activity non-invasively across the whole brain. Compared to classical magnetoencephalography, OPMs can be placed directly on the scalp, drastically reducing the distance to the brain and opening the way to optimise spatial sampling of magnetic fields. Thus, the OptiMEG project aims to develop a personalized, non-invasive tool based on OPMs for localizing epileptic activity. I will use intracerebral (SEEG) signals recorded simultaneously with OPMs in order to learn how to retrieve the deep signals measured in SEEG from OPM. My expertise in MEG and the collaboration I have already established with clinicians at the Timone Hospital will guarantee the success of OptiMEG.  The questions that I will address are: 1) Design the optimal placement of mobile OPM sensors for retrieving non-invasively activity from deep brain regions 2) Identify the signatures on the surface OPM signals of the different regions seen on the deep SEEG contacts 3) Validate the resulting signatures as biomarkers in a clinical setting  The OptiMEG project will revolutionize clinical practice by retrieving activity from deep brain regions without requiring implantation of depth electrodes, with unprecedented spatial and temporal resolution. It will produce a more precise diagnostic by capturing activity across the whole brain. allow more patients to have access to epilepsy surgery, lowering risks and costs compared to SEEG. It will also bring non-invasive access to deep brain regions in other neurological pathologies and in fundamental neuroscience.

Mots-clés : epilepsy,magnetoencephalography,optically pumped magnetometers,intracerebral eeg
Projet ERC : MohoLAB (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Earth System Science
Entité participante : Institut de physique du globe — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : IPG de Paris
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 3360750.0 €

The Moho and lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary (LAB) are two of the most important boundaries in the Earth. The Moho is the greatest manifestation of the chemically differentiated Earth, separating light rocks in the crust from dense rocks in the mantle whereas the LAB is fundamental for plate tectonics, defining the boundary between the floating rigid lithosphere and the weak, deformable asthenosphere. They are both first born at mid-ocean ridges, where two-thirds of the Earth’s crust and lithosphere are formed, and then evolve with the age, but what happens during the early part of their lives remains an enigma. Together, they serve as the location where coupling and exchange take place between the shallow and deep mantle, and therefore, it is fundamental to understand their formation and evolution during the early stages of their existence. Here, I propose to acquire exceptional seismic data using the most advanced technology available in industry, >2500 Ocean Bottom Nodes, and subject them to the advanced analysis techniques of full waveform inversion, to quantify the nature of the Moho and the LAB during the first 5 Ma of their lives at the fast-spreading East Pacific Rise. This new technology will allow us to record multi-component seismic reflection and refraction data continuously up to 400 km offset at ~200 m interval, thus opening up a new frontier of research. These new seismic data will provide quantitative P-wave and S-wave velocities of the whole crust, the Moho, the upper mantle and the LAB at unprecedented resolution, which combined with petrological studies will allow us to develop a comprehensive geodynamical model for mantle melting, melt migration, crustal accretion, and lithospheric evolution. The quantitative imaging of structures down to 20-30 km depth on a few hundred metre scale would be a revolution, develop synergy between academic and industrial research, and open up new horizons for deep seismic imaging for upper mantle studies.

Mots-clés : plate tectonics,mid ocean ridges,oceanic crust,moho,lithosphere asthenosphere boundary,mantle melting,mantle heterogeneities
Projet ERC : This_one_there (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Texts and Concepts
Entité participante : Université de Vienne — Pays : Autriche — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : Uni Wien
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2400131.0 €

An individual is a unique, non-repeatable entity which is discernable from all other members of the same species. A theory of individuality is an explanation of the mode of being of the individuals. In the Aristotelian philosophical tradition, which is one of the essential components of Byzantine thought, individuals have a particular status; as primary substances they are both: the ontological foundation of reality and the first object of perception - I see Petros, not humanity - ; but at the same time, according to Aristotle, they cannot be defined as individuals (one can only define the species to which they belong), and there can therefore be no science of them (but only of universals). To resolve this tension, commentators of Aristotle active in the Neoplatonic school of Alexandria advanced the solution that individuals cannot be defined but can be described. The Greek term chosen for description (hupographê) has, according to our research hypothesis, strongly contributed to linking the logical and ontological problematic of individuality to that of representation, so important in Byzantium. By studying the reception of the main explanation of individuality – the solution proposed by Porphyry that individuals are constituted by a unique bundle of non-essential properties –, the elaboration of the Christian concept of hypostasis to designate the individual, the epistemic role of accidental properties in the process of recognizing a given individual and the question of the reference of the proper name, this project aims to reconstruct the theoretical issues of individuality as discussed in Byzantium. It will confront them with the practice of literary and material portraits in order to verify the central hypothesis of the project, which is that the philosophical enquiry about individuality was in Byzantium, in a unique way, strongly influenced by the debate about and practice of representation and that the same logic prevails in description and portrait.

Mots-clés : ontology,individuality,accidental properties,representation,likeness
Projet ERC : WinMicAct (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Environmental B iology, Ecology  and E volution
Entité participante : Université de Vienne — Pays : Autriche — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : Uni Wien
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2242895.5 €

Soil microorganisms are essential drivers of ecosystem processes in drylands that cover ~40% of the Earth’s landmasses. It is widely accepted that microbial activity in arid deserts is confined to rare, short and unpredictable rain pulses. Yet, water could be available for soil microorganism by other processes, such as dew formation, fog deposition and water vapor adsorption. These so-called non-rain water inputs represent significant sources of water, as they are more frequent and reliable. Yet, it is unknown if desert soil microorganism can utilize these water sources for reactivation, nor the associated microbial activities they facilitate and their overall contribution to microbial-driven ecosystem processes. WinMicAct will challenge the rain-centered view of desert microbial activity. I hypothesize that desert microbial communities can use the minute water input provided by non-rain water for reactivation. WinMicAct pushes the boundaries of molecular omics and microbial activity analysis to detect reactivation down to the lowest possible water availabilities. Utilizing spatial upscaling, WinMicAct will estimate the contribution of these microbial activities (respiration, CO2 and N2 fixation) to the ecosystem level. WinMicAct will further reveal the importance of different water sources for survival and thus maintaining desert soil biodiversity that is crucial for ecosystem functioning. Finally, WinMicAct is highly relevant in light of climate change, as future scenarios predict changing patterns of rain and non-rain water inputs. With the knowledge gained in this project on microbial processes driven by the different water sources under climate change predictions, WinMicAct provides the foundation for future investigations and modeling of climate change effects on dryland ecosystem processes. Together, WinMicAct will generate ground-breaking knowledge on non-rain water driving microbial activities and will be a major step forward in arid ecosystem research.

Mots-clés : desert soil microbiology,bacteria archaea,microbial survival and reactivation,microbial diversity,non rain water input,ecosystem processes,climate change scenarios
Projet ERC : Energion (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Systems and Communication Engineering
Entité participante : Université Grenoble Alpes — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UGA
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2858020.0 €

This project aims to create a “green” energy storage system that integrates a biological voltage source with a biological supercapacitor to achieve large energy and power capacities in a light-weight sustainable packaging. The project re-defines the concept of “biological engineering” to be one that utilizes proteins, molecules and lipids in combination with synthetic materials to assemble the smart micro/nanostructured energy storage system. There are at least four advantages to this “biological engineering” approach, including (i) the capability for self-assembly, (ii) the easy scalability that follows from using self-assembly, (iii) the easy assembly into 3D structures, and (iv) up to 1000-fold less energy requirements for switching functions compared to state-of-the-art ENODe systems. Moreover, the use of biological components can overcome limitations of existing battery technology, by improving the ecological footprint and environmental sustainability, and by enhancing lifetime, reliability, and safety. The system will be assembled as an array of interconnected vesicles to form a compartmental system to control ion gradients established by co-transport proteins incorporated in the interconnecting vesicle membranes. The system utilises the ion gradient to sustain a stable voltage output, and as a supercapacitor to store energy. The stable voltage output and supercapacitor function are sustained from ion gradients and not catalytic electrochemical reactions. Since the system will function both as a generator and an energy accumulator, we anticipate power management would require an integrated design, rather than a discrete design used for traditional source/supercapacitor systems. The energy capabilities will be tested by packaging the system to provide power for an illustrative device that is either a typical nomadic device (e.g. smartphone), a typical implantable medical device (e.g. cardiac pacemaker), or a typical ambulatory device (e.g. drone).

Mots-clés : ion transport proteins,lipid bilayer membrane,nanobiotechnology systems
Projet ERC : ALTERMAG (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Condensed Matter Physics
Entité participante : FZU  Institute of Physics of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic — Pays : Rép. Tchèque — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : FZU AV ČR;FZU CAS;FZÚ AV ČR
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1874998.75 €

Magnetically ordered crystals are traditionally divided into two basic phases -- ferromagnetism and antiferromagnetism. The ferromagnetic order offers a range of phenomena and device applications. The vanishing net magnetization in antiferromagnets is potentially favorable for spatial and temporal scalability of devices. Recently, our team and others have predicted instances of strong time-reversal symmetry breaking and spin splitting in electronic bands, typical of ferromagnetism, in crystals with antiparallel compensated magnetic order, typical of antiferromagnetism. Our central idea, resolving this apparent fundamental conflict in magnetism, is that symmetry classifies a third basic magnetic phase. Its alternating spin polarizations in both crystal-structure real space and electronic-structure momentum space suggest a term altermagnetism. We will demonstrate that altermagnets combine merits of ferromagnets and antiferromagnets, that were regarded as principally incompatible, and have merits unparalleled in either of the two traditional basic magnetic phases. In Objective 1 we will establish materials landscape of altermagnetism and, in Objective 2, show how its anisotropic (d-wave) nature enriches fundamental physics concepts of lifted Kramers spin-degeneracy, Fermi-liquid instabilities and electron quasiparticles. This will underpin our development of a new avenue in spintronics, elusive within the two traditional magnetic phases, based on strong non-relativistic spin-conserving phenomena, without magnetization imposed scalability limitations, and with complex functionalities. In Objective 3 we will demonstrate altermagnetic giant-magnetoresistive multi-layer memory devices. In Objective 4 we will realize logic-in-memory analog functionalities in single-layer nano-scale devices via atomically-sharp altermagnetic domain walls, written by pulses scaled down to femtoseconds, and forming networks of self-assembled atomic-scale giant-magnetoresitive junctions.

Mots-clés : magnetic phases,altermagnetism,synthesis and characterization of magnetic thin films,electron spectroscopy,kramers degeneracy,fermi liquid instabilities,electron quasiparticles,spintronic devices,ultra fast switching,magnetic nano textures,memory and logic in memory functionalities
Projet ERC : RegTrust (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Institutions, Governance and Legal Systems
Entité participante : Université hébraïque de Jérusalem — Pays : Israël — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : HUJI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2199625.0 €

Regulation is sometimes a manifestation of distrust, but on other times it is a manifestation of trust. When do trust and regulation compete, substitute for and mutually-support each other? How can we maximize the benefits of both? Is the proliferation of rules around us a manifestation of growing distrust or trust? Is the regulatory state necessarily a low-trust state? To answer these questions, RegTrust introduces intermediation as a governance mechanism and intermediaries as third parties in trust and regulatory interactions. Intermediaries certify products, report compliance, rank organizations, label products, monitor performance, screen behavior, whistle-blow misbehavior, and audit organizations. The regulation literature treats them as regulatory actors; the trust literature, as trustees. Yet intermediaries are both trustees and regulatees, both subjects and objects of trust and regulation. Most importantly, they may determine successes and failures, winners and losers, of trust and regulation. At their best, intermediaries reinforce regulation and trust, and promote polycentric (pluralist) structures of governance. At their worst, they undermine trust in regulation, leading to vicious cycles of failure and re/centralization (monocentric governance). RegTrust examines under which conditions, why, how, and to what effects trust and regulation compete, substitute for, or mutually-support each other. We problematize the role of intermediaries, develop a three-actor (triadic) model of governance, and assess its institutional macro-political consequences. Going beyond the state of the art, this project sheds light on the multiple interactions of trust and regulation in policy and politics. It advances the theory of intermediation; advances the interaction of trust and regulation as a central element of the governance literature; And explores the conditions that may make a regulatory state into a high-trust state.

Mots-clés : regulation,trust,governance,intermediaries
Projet ERC : StatCell (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Condensed Matter Physics
Entité participante : Université hébraïque de Jérusalem — Pays : Israël — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : HUJI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2497500.0 €

Statistical physics successfully accounts for phenomena involving a large number of components using a probabilistic approach with predictions for collective properties of the system. While biological cells contain a very large number of interacting components, (proteins, RNA molecules, metabolites, etc.), the cellular network is understood as a particular, highly specific, choice of interactions shaped by evolution, and therefore not amenable to a statistical physics description. My premise is that when a cell encounters an acute, but non-lethal, stress, its perturbed state can be modelled as random network dynamics, rather than as a regulated response. Strong perturbations may therefore reveal the dynamics of the underlying network that are amenable to a statistical physics description. Based on the striking similarity between our data on stressed bacteria and physical aging in disordered systems, my goal is to develop an experimental and theoretical framework for the statistical physics description of cells exposed to strong perturbations. We will critically probe the predictions of the statistical model using a multidisciplinary approach combining three frontline methodologies: (1) dynamics of single bacteria under acute stress in microfluidic devices and single cell transcriptomics; (2) theoretical framework and simulations for cellular networks under acute stress; and (3) new biophysical measurements of the transition from the regulated to the disrupted cellular network. This approach should provide a paradigm shift in the analysis of cells under stress, differentiating between conditions described by the regulation of gene networks from those that can be quantitatively predicted by a statistical physics framework. The new knowledge should lead to innovative ways of controlling the cellular network under strong perturbations, with implications ranging from new methodologies for synthetic biology to new avenues for treating bacterial infections and cancer.

Mots-clés : physical aging,antibiotic persistence,tolerance
Projet ERC : ADVANSYNT (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Computer Science and Informatics
Entité participante : Université hébraïque de Jérusalem — Pays : Israël — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : HUJI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2328750.0 €

The rapid development of complex and safety-critical systems requires reliable verification methods. In automated synthesis, we transform a specification into a correct-by-construction system. In recent years, there have been significant advances in the algorithmic front of synthesis. Still, the integration of synthesis in industry has been slow. This project addresses two critical reasons why synthesis has been hindered. First, while verification offers designers a tool to check their designs, synthesis aims to replace manual design. Designers will give up manual design only after being convinced that the automatic process replacing it indeed generates systems of comparable quality, which current definitions of synthesis ignores. Second, designers can cope manually with simple settings. Thus, automated synthesis is needed in complex settings, which are not covered by current definitions of the problem.  My overarching objective is to develop the theoretical foundations of advanced synthesis, namely the next generation of synthesis concepts and algorithms, taking into account the complex settings in which synthesis is needed and the many considerations that are abstracted in current definitions of the problem. I will formalize and study the following three aspects of advanced synthesis: (1) Quality and complexity measures: behavioral quality as well as complexity measures that refer to resources needed by the synthesized system. (2) Game-theoretic considerations: settings with components that may or may not collaborate in order to cooperatively or selfishly achieve individual and common objectives. (3) Evolving and unpredictable environments: behavioral, structural, and conceptual assumptions on the environment. The research will be based on clean mathematical foundations and will combine the above methodological contributions with advances in the theory and applications of automata on infinite objects.

Mots-clés : automated synthesis,automata on infinite objects,game theory,temporal logic