Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : CarbOcean (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Earth system science
Entité participante : Centre national de la recherche scientifique — Pays : France — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : CNRS
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 0.0 €

The ocean’s biological carbon pump plays a crucial role in storing atmospheric carbon dioxide in the deep ocean, thereby isolating carbon from the atmosphere for decades to centuries. Yet, its capacity to do so is under-constrained and its mechanisms poorly understood. CarbOcean will develop a mechanistic and quantitative understanding of the biological carbon pump using a novel integrative approach that accounts for its two component pumps: (1) the organic carbon pump, which concerns the photosynthetic production of particulate organic carbon, POC, and (2) the carbonate pump, which concerns the production of particulate inorganic carbon, PIC. These pumps have opposite effects on the ocean-atmosphere exchange of carbon dioxide. I will nurture the development of a breakthrough autonomous robotic ocean profiler, uniquely capable of simultaneous observations of PIC and POC fluxes and physicochemical parameters from the well-lit surface ocean through the underlying twilight zone (roughly 100 – 1000 m depth) over a continuum of spatiotemporal scales. The robotic profilers will be deployed in a wide variety of oceanic environments and the collected data will allow investigation of links between the export and sequestration of POC and PIC, examination of pump interconnection, and detection of pump drivers. New parameterizations of carbon flux processes will be developed and implemented in a biogeochemical model. Lastly, the carbon flux data collected will be up-scaled to the global ocean using artificial intelligence approaches, thereby exploiting synergies among various observational platforms, including remote sensing. CarbOcean is a strongly interdisciplinary project, connecting fundamental and applied optical oceanography with biogeochemistry, carbonate chemistry, advanced statistics, and technological development that will allow a quantum leap in understanding the ocean’s biological carbon pump.

Mots-clés : biological carbon pump,autonomous ocean observations,biogeochemical model,remote sensing
Projet ERC : exoZoo (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Universe sciences
Entité participante : University of Oxford — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1386358.39 €

The ongoing search for a second Earth has revealed an astounding diversity in the population of planets orbiting other stars. This eclectic zoo of other worlds shows little similarity with our own solar system. The key to understanding this diversity lies in exoplanet atmospheres, which hold vital information on their formation histories and evolutionary pathways. To access them, I propose three ambitious new windows into exoplanet characterization that will: i) Deliver the largest homogenous study of exoplanet atmospheres at high spectral resolution, and provide a novel framework that combines multi-resolution data to deliver precise atmospheric measurements. This will place unprecedented constraints on the physical causes of exoplanet diversity and is a game changer in understanding their origins. ii) Perform the first robust study of the reflective properties of exoplanet atmospheres at high spectral resolution, constraining their evolution and demonstrating how to interpret, and crucially, optimise high-resolution observations for the upcoming biomarker hunt with the extremely large telescopes. This may be our only way to characterize the nearest habitable worlds. iii) Pioneer an innovative photometric monitoring technique for exoplanet atmospheres and use it to measure their rotation, detect giant storms, and hunt for occulting moons to begin surveying their demographics. The achievement of these three main objectives will be a ground-breaking step forward in our understanding of exoplanets and Earth’s place amongst them, bringing us ever closer to answering the question: are we alone?

Mots-clés : exoplanet atmospheres
Projet ERC : Lost Frontiers (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The study of the human past
Entité participante : University of Birmingham — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : Partner
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 98712.5 €

The only lands on Earth that have not been explored in any depth by science are those that have been lost to the oceans. Global warming at the end of the last Ice Age led to the inundation of vast landscapes that had once been home to thousands of people. These lost lands hold a unique and largely unexplored record of settlement and colonisation linked to climate change over millennia. Amongst the most significant is Doggerland. Occupying much of the North Sea basin between continental Europe and Britain it would have been a heartland of human occupation and central to the process of re-settlement and colonisation of north Western Europe during the Mesolithic and the Neolithic. Within this submerged landscape lies fragmentary yet valuable evidence for the lifestyles of its inhabitants including the changes resulting from both the encroaching sea and the introduction of Neolithic technologies. This inundated landscape cannot be explored conventionally, however pioneering work by the applicant’s research group has led to the rediscovery of Doggerland through the creation of the first detailed topographic maps relating to human occupation in the Early Holocene. Within this project world-leading innovators in the fields of archaeo-geophysics, molecular biology and computer simulation will develop a ground-breaking new paradigm for the study of past environments, ecological change and the transition between hunter gathering societies and farming in north west Europe. It will: 1) use the latest seismic reflectance data available to generate topographical maps of the whole of early Holocene Doggerland that are as accurate and complete as possible. 2) reconstruct and simulate the palaeo-environments of Doggerland using ancient DNA extracted directly from sediment cores. 3) explore the Mesolithic landscapes and also identify incipient Neolithic signals indicating early contact and development within the region of Doggerland.

Mots-clés : marine archaeology,palaeolandscapes,coastal shelf prehistoric research
Projet ERC : PQTEI (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Proof of concept grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Fundamental constituents of matter
Entité participante : Aarhus University — Pays : Danemark — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : AU
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

The onset of the “second quantum revolution” has catapulted quantum technologies from basement laboratories into the commercial sector. This has led to a growing need for an associated quantum-savvy workforce. Not all of these workers need to have formal post-secondary education in physics, as this revolution needs, for example, mechanical engineers and business managers as much as it needs quantum physicists. However, some quantum competence is immeasurably helpful when working within the field of quantum technologies. Therefore, in order to train this population of educated non-quantum-experts, we propose to develop a series of modules tailored to industry needs. These modules will be cost-effective means of rapidly bringing employees up to speed in the relevant aspects of quantum mechanics without the burden of advanced mathematics and time-commitment of traditional schooling. For the purposes of this project, we will deploy an already developed introductory quantum module online for use in both secondary and tertiary education, free of charge. In parallel with this, we will work closely with our partners in industry to develop a more advanced and focused prototype of a custom module that will then be tested and refined in the corporate setting to meet the particular needs of our partner companies. The results from this project will be used to develop a roadmap for future commercialization that will maximize both the economic benefit (via collaboration with industry partners) and societal benefit (via collaboration with educational institutions) of our unique product.

Mots-clés : quantum technology education
Projet ERC : BRuSH (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Human Diseases
Entité participante : University of Bergen — Pays : Norvège — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1412728.0 €

The oral cavity is the gateway to the lower respiratory tract, and oral bacteria are likely to play a role in lung health. This may be the case for pathogens as well as commensal bacteria and the balance between species. The oral bacterial community of patients with periodontitis is dominated by gram-negative bacteria and a higher lipopolysaccharide (LPS) activity than in healthy microbiota. Furthermore, bacteria with especially potent pro-inflammatory LPS have been shown to be more common in the lungs of asthmatic than in healthy individuals. The working hypothesis of BRuSH is that microbiome communities dominated by LPS-producing bacteria which induce a particularly strong pro-inflammatory immune response in the host, will have a negative effect on respiratory health. I will test this hypothesis in two longitudinally designed population-based lung health studies. I aim to identify whether specific bacterial composition and types of LPS producing bacteria in oral and dust samples predict lung function and respiratory health over time; and if the different types of LPS-producing bacteria affect LPS in saliva saliva and dust. BRuSH will apply functional genome annotation that can assign biological significance to raw bacterial DNA sequences. With this bioinformatics tool I will cluster microbiome data into various LPS-producers: bacteria with LPS with strong inflammatory effects and others with weak- or antagonistic effects. The epidemiological studies will be supported by mice-models of asthma and cell assays of human bronchial epithelial cells, by exposing mice and bronchial cells to chemically synthesized Lipid A (the component that drive the LPS-induced immune responses) of various potency. The goal of BRuSH is to prove a causal relationship between oral microbiome and lung health, and gain knowledge that will enable us to make oral health a feasible target for intervention programs aimed at optimizing lung health and preventing respiratory disease.

Mots-clés : microbiome,genome annotation,endotoxin,immunology,asthma,lung function
Projet ERC : EARTHBLOOM (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Earth system science
Entité participante : Centre national de la recherche scientifique — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : CNRS
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1717435.0 €

The origin of oxygenic photosynthesis is one of the most dramatic evolutionary events that the Earth has ever experienced. At some point in Earth’s first two billion years, primitive bacteria acquired the ability to harness sunlight, oxidize water, release O2, and transform CO2 to organic carbon, and all with unprecedented efficiency. Today, oxygenic photosynthesis accounts for nearly all of the biomass on the planet, and exerts significant control over the carbon cycle. Since 2 billion years ago (Ga), it has regulated the climate of our planet, ensuring liquid water at the surface and enough oxygen to support complex life. The biological and geological consequences of oxygenic photosynthesis are so great that they effectively underpin what we think of as a habitable planet. Understanding the origins of photosynthesis is a paramount scientific challenge at the heart of some of humanity’s greatest questions: how did life evolve? how did Earth become a habitable planet? EARTHBLOOM addresses these questions head-on through the first comprehensive scientific study of Earth’s first blooming photosynthetic ecosystem, preserved as Earth’s oldest carbonate platform. This relatively unknown, >450m thick deposit, comprised largely of 2.9 Ga fossil photosynthetic structures (stromatolites), is one of the most important early Earth fossil localities ever identified, and EARTHBLOOM is carefully positioned for major discovery. EARTHBLOOM will push the frontier of field data collection and sample screening using new XRF methods for carbonate analysis. EARTHBLOOM will also push the analytical frontier in the lab by applying the most sensitive metal stable isotope tracers for O2 at ultra-low levels (Mo, U, and Ce) coupled with novel isotopic “age of oxidation” constraints. By providing new constraints on atmospheric CO2, ocean pH, oxygen production, and nutrient availability, EARTHBLOOM is poised to redefine Earth’s surface environment at the dawn of photosynthetic life.

Mots-clés : geobiology,paleoredox,metal isotopes
Projet ERC : NebuFlox (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : University of Crete — Pays : Grèce — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UOC
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

The original ERC grant focused on proving the power that oxygen from the air had in synthesis when its light-excited state was exploited. During the ERC program, we were able to show how simple & readily accessible start materials could be transformed into high value-high interest chemicals through straightforward “one pot” operations. We were also able to show that the diversity of structures accessible using this chemistry is remarkable. Furthermore, it is highly sustainable; representing a very efficient, benign & extremely low waste approach to the production of sought-after chemical frameworks. However, one problem prevailed. While it worked exceptionally well on a small research scale, its overall usefulness and its industrial relevance were severely curtailed by scale-up issues, even when the latest continuous flow technologies were applied. The need to achieve good light penetration, combined with the poor solubility of oxygen, seemed to castrate the potential of this chemistry to provide global solutions. A key breakthrough was made towards the end of the ERC program with the realization that creating and projecting a cloud (using a nebulizer to make fine droplets) into a light filled chamber could solve ALL the problems and lead to large scale reactions. With the current proposal, we seek to explore and fully automate this highly innovative nebulizer process in order to develop a robust prototype reactor with excellent prospects for further dimension enlarging (to industrial pilot plant scales & beyond). Furthermore, it is obvious that this “nebulizer fix” may also be superbly suited to other biphasic reactions. Our plan has the support of pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca in the form of an automation expert who will act as mentor to the program. The PI & the advisory team will pursue a number of different commercialization opportunities delineated herein and look at how best to exploit and amplify the impact of the extremely efficient prototype reactor(s).

Mots-clés : continuous flow reactor,synthesis of fine chemicals,singlet oxygen,sustainable synthesis,nebulizers,one pot reactions,aerosol,biphasic reactions
Projet ERC : 14Constraint (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Earth system science
Entité participante : Max Planck Society — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : MPG
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1853872.0 €

The overall goal of 14Constraint is to enhance the availability and use of radiocarbon data as constraints for process-based understanding of the age distribution of carbon in and respired by soils and ecosystems. Carbon enters ecosystems by a single process, photosynthesis. It returns by a range of processes that depend on plant allocation and turnover, the efficiency and rate of litter decomposition and the mechanisms stabilizing C in soils. Thus the age distribution of respired CO2 and the age of C residing in plants, litter and soils are diagnostic properties of ecosystems that provide key constraints for testing carbon cycle models. Radiocarbon, especially the transit of ‘bomb’ 14C created in the 1960s, is a powerful tool for tracing C exchange on decadal to centennial timescales. 14Constraint will assemble a global database of existing radiocarbon data (WP1) and demonstrate how they can constrain and test ecosystem carbon cycle models. WP2 will fill data gaps and add new data from sites in key biomes that have ancillary data sufficient to construct belowground C and 14C budgets. These detailed investigations will focus on the role of time lags caused in necromass and fine roots, as well as the dynamics of deep soil C. Spatial extrapolation beyond the WP2 sites will require sampling along global gradients designed to explore the relative roles of mineralogy, vegetation and climate on the age of C in and respired from soil (WP3). Products of this 14Constraint will include the first publicly available global synthesis of terrestrial 14C data, and will add over 5000 new measurements. This project is urgently needed before atmospheric 14C levels decline to below 1950 levels as expected in the next decade.
Projet ERC : RecoverInFlame (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System
Entité participante : Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : LMU
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1487500.0 €

The overall goal of this project is to investigate T cells as “Trojan horses” to improve recovery from brain injuries – we will gain novel insights on how T cells promote neurologic recovery by modulating the cerebral micromilieu and how these pathomechanisms can be therapeutically targeted. Inflammation is a common response to acute brain injuries, which are a leading cause of morbidity and mortality. I have recently identified continuous cerebral T cell recruitment as a hallmark of a long-lasting and profound neuroinflammation after acute brain injury. While a detrimental effect of T cells in the acute phase has been well documented, the pathophysiological consequences and therapeutic potential of T cell-driven chronic inflammation for recovery after brain injury are unknown. Interestingly, my recent findings indicate that T cell fate is orchestrated in the gut via modulation of commensal bacteria and that T cells potently promote stroke recovery. Building up on these recent findings, I hypothesize that T cells contribute substantially to the recovery after brain injury by inflammation-driven remodeling. Using several innovative methodologies applied for the first time to recovery after brain injury, we will firstly investigate the contribution of T cells on cortical connectivity, spine plasticity and mechanisms of glial responses. Next, we will analyze the contribution of the gut microbiota to modulate the chronic neuroinflammatory response via a pro-regenerative polarization of T helper cells. Finally, we will test the generalizability and translational robustness of our findings in models of various acute brain injuries and common comorbidities. Results from this project are likely to open up a new research field on T cell-driven neurologic recovery after brain injury, thereby revolutionizing our pathomechanistic understanding and provide novel therapeutic strategies for one of the most pressing medical problems.

Mots-clés : stroke,traumatic brain injury,neuroinflammation,t cells,microbiota,gut brain axis,microglia
Projet ERC : BODY-POLITICS (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The study of the human past
Entité participante : University of Leicester — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1499492.0 €

The overall objective of BODY-POLITICS is to provide an original and creative analysis of body-politics and personhood in first millennium Northern Europe. It is the first large-scale research project that seeks to understand political development through the battleground of the body and through the construction of the person in the Scandinavian Iron and Viking Ages. BODY-POLITICS will break new ground in combining cutting-edge natural science methods (aDNA, isotope analyses, osteobiography) with core social and philosophical concerns. The project will moreover provide problematizing research on challenging topics: sexual assault, subalterns as non-persons, and ritual violence, in an era that is frequently romanticized and has never seen more popular attention. Through an interdisciplinary research programme, the body will be centred as a political medium targeting three core themes: personhood, sexuality, and death. To operationalize the overall objective, BODY-POLITICS will conduct ground-breaking analyses of five interlinked datasets: 1) a never-before studied database of bodies deposited in settlements in the first millennium; 2) an in-depth study of infants, who are situated between sentient object and full social persons; 3) a novel dataset of sexuality and sexual violence in texts and things; 4) body imagery as it exposes body concepts; and 5) textual evidence of distinctions in personhood. In combination, these analyses provide glimpses of radically diverse concepts of the body: of ‘proper’ death, of sexuality as an instrument of violence and medium for power, of complex interplay between bodies and body imagery, and of blurring between bodies as social subjects and meaningful objects. Ultimately, the question of who could be a person in Iron and Viking Age Scandinavia is not marginal but integral to understand social and political development. It is a question that would – through migrations, raids, and violence – fundamentally shape the history of Europe.

Mots-clés : personhood,the body,iron age,viking age,mortuary ritual,ritual deposition,sexuality in the past,childhood in prehistory,body imagery,old norse literature,bioarchaeology,adna