Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : MAGNEPIC (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Condensed matter physics
Entité participante : Spanish National Research Council — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : CSIC
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1916585.0 €

New approaches to write, read, and process data are required in order to improve the sustainability of computer technologies. Spintronics offers attractive solutions to these problems. Today, however, the majority of spintronic devices and research efforts rely on a limited set of materials, mostly magnetic conductors. Here I propose to challenge this conventional approach and place magnetic insulators at the core of spintronics by exploiting their advantages over conducting magnets. Magnetic conductors are ubiquitous in spintronics due to their ability to generate and detect spin currents by electrical means. However, we now know that nonmagnetic materials with large spin-orbit coupling can efficiently convert charge currents into spin currents with de-coupled directions. This key feature enables spin current injection into virtually any material, including magnetic insulators where charge currents cannot propagate but spin currents can. The aim of this project is to bridge the long-established knowledge on magnetic insulators with today’s expertise on spintronics and measurement techniques. I will exploit the highly tunable properties of magnetic insulators to achieve efficient magnetization control by electrical means in various schemes. First, I will optimize the current-induced spin-orbit torque control of magnetization in magnetic insulators, a widely used methods in ferromagnetic conductors, but little explored in the context of insulators. Second, I will devise a new electrical method to induce localized spin-flop transitions and harness the magnonic spin currents generated in this process. Third, I will explore the possibilities of dynamically controlling the magnetic properties of insulators by proximity coupling and electric gating. Overall, MAGNEPIC will provide breakthrough knowledge of magnetic insulators for spintronics and demonstrate fast, energy-efficient, and innovative device concepts for magnetic data manipulation beyond the state-of-the art.

Mots-clés : magnetic insulators,ferrimagnetism,spin orbit torques,current induced switching,voltage control of magnetism,magnon generation and detection
Projet ERC : FluidKnowledge (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Social World and Its Diversity
Entité participante : Leiden University — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1500000.0 €

New forms of evaluation are reconfiguring science in ways we are only beginning to understand. Through the rich case of ocean science, this project addresses a key challenge in social-scientific research regarding how evaluations are implicated in scientific understandings of the world. Ocean science is increasingly multivalent. Not only is it expected to contribute to a more systemic understanding of the ocean as an ecosystem, it is also called on to analyze environmental effects of climate change, and help fight effects of intensified exploitation. At the same time, it operates in a highly research-focused and efficiency-oriented academic system whose norms partly work against societal relevance. The ambition of FluidKnowledge is to 1) investigate how research agendas are shaped in ocean scientific research; 2) analyze how the value of ocean science is enacted in European and national science policy contexts; 3) develop concepts on the basis of the outcomes of 1) and 2), to theoretically grasp how research evaluation shapes knowledge making. Ocean science provides a planet-critical research site in which to analyze how steering efforts toward interdisciplinary engagement and societal relevance relate to other norms and criteria of scientific quality (e.g. excellence) in actual practice. This project creates a new interface between longitudinal scientometric analysis and rich ethnographic studies. This paves the way for a new interdisciplinary field. A second contribution is conceptual. Whereas many evaluation experts treat the heterogeneity of practice as a problem, I engage such heterogeneity as a resource. The project will build theory that encourages a more comprehensive understanding of how evolving evaluation and knowledge production are mutually implicated. A third novelty is the focus on ocean science. Systematic analysis of its workings and policy implications is crucial for understanding a world in which trust in scientific knowledge is no longer obvious.
Projet ERC : NanoSOFT (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Condensed matter physics
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 : 1433382.5 €

New models of fluid transport are expected to emerge from the confinement of liquids at the nanoscale, where the behaviour of matter strongly departs from common expectations. This is the field of the Nanofluidics : taking inspiration from the solution found by evolved biological systems, new functionalities will emerge from the nanometre scale, with potential applications in ultrafiltration, desalination and energy conversion. Nevertheless, advancing our fundamental understanding of fluid transport on the smallest scales requires mass and ion dynamics to be ultimately characterized across channels with dimensions close to the molecular size. A major challenge for nanofluidics thus lies in building distinct and well-controlled nanochannels, amenable to the systematic exploration of their properties. This project will tackle several complementary challenges. On the first hand the realization of new kind of fluidic devices allowing the study of fluid and ion transport at the nanoscale: these new experimental devices will be obtained by using nanostructures like building blocks as already shown by realising a fluidics set-up based on transmembrane nanotubes; in parallel a dedicated plateform for the characterization of fluid transport will be developed based on electrokinetics and optical detection set-ups. On the other hand, profiting of such experimental set-ups, I will look for the limit of the classical description of the fluid dynamics, focusing on new functionalities emerging from exotic behaviour of fluids at the nanometer level. This will be done by studying different kind of nanofluidics set-up such as carbon and boron-nitride nanotube, ultrathin pierced graphene and h-BN sheet and composite materials. I aim the creation of a link between fundamental research on soft matter and nanoscience-condensed matter with a an attention on the energy production domain, assuring a fruitful transfer between the fundamental findings and new industrial applications.

Mots-clés : nanofluidics,energy harvesting,blue energy,nanotube,graphene
Projet ERC : FunBlocks (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Products and processes engineering
Entité participante : RWTH Aachen University — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : RWTH
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1499719.0 €

New structural materials with higher strength and temperature capabilities are the key enablers of sustain-able energy conversion and transport technology of the future. The question is: How do we find those central high-performers combining high strength and the essential deformability giving safety in application? It is the aim of FUNBLOCKS to provide the first systematic studies of plasticity mechanisms in the most fundamental building blocks of complex crystals. These will allow us to deduce the missing basic mechanisms and signatures of plasticity. FUNBLOCKS will take a new approach by studying the much simpler sub-units that form the multitude of more complex crystals with large unit cells amongst the intermetallics. This has three major implications: i) the reduction to fundamental units allows suffi-cient time to unravel the major deformation mechanisms to the atomic level, ii) the recurrent nature of the few fundamental building blocks will allow a transfer of this knowledge to a large number of complex phases and iii) together, this will enable data mining from the vast and largely unexplored phase space of intermetallics. The key aspect of FUNBLOCKS is therefore to close the existing gap in knowledge and allow us to find promising new phases by elucidating the fundamental relationships between crystal structure and plasticity beyond what we know in simple metals. To identify and quantify the intrinsic mechanical properties of each sub-unit, state-of-the-art micromechanical testing techniques will be used. Transfer of data and verification of the central hypothesis, that fundamental units govern plasticity in complex crystals, will be achieved via additional alloyed crystals forming ternary variants of the binary structures. Ultimately, FUNBLOCKS will answer fundamental questions in plasticity, most prominently the interplay of deformation and structure in complex crystals, and thereby support the development of new high performance materials.

Mots-clés : plastic deformation of materials,electron microscopy,mechanical properties
Projet ERC : GeCo (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Computer science and informatics
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 : 2500000.0 €

Next-generation sequencing technology has dramatically reduced the cost and time of reading the DNA. Huge investments are targeted to sequencing the DNA of large populations, and repositories of well-curated sequence data are being collected. Answers to fundamental biomedical problems are hidden in these data, e.g. how cancer arises, how driving mutations occur, how much cancer is dependent on environment. But genomic computing has not comparatively evolved. Bioinformatics has been driven by specific needs and distracted from a foundational approach; hundreds of methods solve individual problems, but miss the broad perspective. The objective of GeCo is to rethink genomic computing through the lens of basic data management. We will first design the data model, using few general abstractions that guarantee interoperability between existing data formats. Next, we will design a new-generation query language inspired by classic relational algebra and extended with orthogonal, domain-specific abstractions for genomics. Query processing will trace metadata and computation steps, opening doors to the seamless integration of descriptive statistics and high-level data analysis (e.g., DNA region clustering and extraction of regulatory networks). Genomic computing is a “big data” problem, therefore we will also achieve computational efficiency by using parallel computing on both clusters and public clouds; the choice of a suitable data model and of computational abstractions will boost performance in a principled way. The resulting technology will be applicable to individual and federated repositories, and will be exploited for providing integrated access to curated data, made available by large consortia, through user-friendly search services. Our most far-fetching vision is to move towards an Internet of Genomes exploiting data indexing and crawling. The PI’s background in distributed data, data modelling, query processing and search will drive a radical paradigm shift.

Mots-clés : data modelling,query language,cloud based and federated data for genomics,genomic data search,genomic open questions
Projet ERC : NSstop (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : University of Antwerp — Pays : Belgique — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UAntwerp
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 149687.5 €

Nodding syndrome (NS) is a form of epilepsy, characterized by head-nodding, often associated with severe intellectual disability, psychiatric problems, and early death. Initially, NS was reported only in onchocerciasis-endemic regions in Tanzania, Uganda and South Sudan. Until recently, the cause of the syndrome was unknown. Therefore, no strategy for prevention and cure was possible. Our ERC project (NSETHIO) discovered that NS is only one of the clinical presentations of onchocerciasis associated epilepsy (OAE) and that this form of epilepsy is probably present in all onchocerciasis endemic regions where onchocerciasis is insufficiently controlled. We estimate that the number of excess cases of epilepsy due to onchocerciasis could be as much as 100,000. Based on NSETHIO findings we will develop an innovative comprehensive OAE policy plan that will prevent children from developing OAE and that will reduce the negative consequences of OAE for the economy and society. This plan includes the following components: strengthening community directed ivermectin (IVM) treatment programs (IVM will stop OAE), establishing an SMS based epilepsy surveillance system by epilepsy trained community-directed IVM distributors, developing a community-based care system using evidence based OAE treatment algorithms, and a community-awareness program. We will fine tune the plan during 2 OAE stakeholder workshops, field test it in a high OAE prevalence health zone and calculate its cost. We will create an international OAE alliance including scientists and health care workers, representatives of communities and advocacy groups, WHO, Ministries of Health, non-governmental organizations, the pharmaceutical industry and donors to scale up the implementation of these interventions after the end of the NSstop project. Reducing the burden of disease caused by OAE will have great positive cultural, societal and economic impacts on affected families and villages in many parts of Africa.

Mots-clés : nodding syndrome,onchocerciasis,epilepsy,policy,africa
Projet ERC : SensStabComp (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Mathematics
Entité participante : Hebrew University of Jerusalem — Pays : Israël — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : HUJI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 185000.0 €

Noise sensitivity and noise stability of Boolean functions, percolation, and other models were introduced in a paper by Benjamini, Kalai, and Schramm (1999) and were extensively studied in the last two decades. We propose to extend this study to various stochastic and combinatorial models, and to explore connections with computer science, quantum information, voting methods and other areas. The first goal of our proposed project is to push the mathematical theory of noise stability and noise sensitivity forward for various models in probabilistic combinatorics and statistical physics. A main mathematical tool, going back to Kahn, Kalai, and Linial (1988), is applications of (high-dimensional) Fourier methods, and our second goal is to extend and develop these discrete Fourier methods. Our third goal is to find applications toward central old-standing problems in combinatorics, probability and the theory of computing. The fourth goal of our project is to further develop the ``argument against quantum computers'' which is based on the insight that noisy intermediate scale quantum computing is noise stable. This follows the work of Kalai and Kindler (2014) for the case of noisy non-interacting bosons. The fifth goal of our proposal is to enrich our mathematical understanding and to apply it, by studying connections of the theory with various areas of theoretical computer science, and with the theory of social choice.

Mots-clés : boolean functions,noise stability,noise sensitivity,combinatorics,extremal combinatorics,probabilistic combinatorics,percolation,noisy quantum computing,bosonsampling
Projet ERC : BARINAFLD (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Physiology in Health, Disease and Ageing
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 : 1499354.0 €

Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD), a disease characterized by accumulation of lipid droplets in the liver, is the major precursor for liver failure and liver cancer, and constitutes a global health challenge. An estimated 25% of the adult population suffers from NAFLD, but no FDA approved drugs are available to treat this condition. Obesity is a major NAFLD risk factor and weight-loss improves disease severity in obese patients. Bariatric surgeries are an effective treatment for obesity when lifestyle modifications fail and often lead to improvement in NAFLD and type 2 diabetes. The overreaching objective of this proposal is to combine bariatric surgery in mice and humans with advanced molecular and computational analyses to discover novel, weight-loss independent mechanisms that lead to NAFLD alleviation, and harness them to treat NAFLD. In preliminary studies, I discovered that bariatric surgery clears lipid droplets from the livers of obese db/db mice without inducing weight-loss. Using metabolic and computational analysis, I found that bariatric surgery shifts hepatic gene expression and blood metabolome of post-bariatric patients to a new trajectory, distinct from lean or sick patients. Data analysis revealed the transcription factor Egr1 and one-carbon and choline metabolism to be key drivers of weight-loss independent effects of bariatric surgery. I will use two NAFLD mouse models that do not lose weight after bariatric surgery to characterize livers of mice post-surgery. Human patients do lose weight following surgery, therefore I will use computational methods to elucidate weight-independent pathways induced by surgery, by comparing livers of lean patients to those of NAFLD patients before and shortly after bariatric surgery. Candidate pathways will be studied by metabolic flux analysis and manipulated genetically, with the ultimate goal of reaching systems-levels understanding of NAFLD and identifying surgery-mimetic therapies for this disease.
Projet ERC : TICK (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Proof of concept grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Biotechnology and Biosystems Engineering
Entité participante : University of Milan — Pays : Italie — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UNIMI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Non-invasive Control of Neuronal Activity can in principle contribute to the medical treatment of pathologic states in which the electrical activity of neurons is impaired, as in seizures and in chronic pain (CP). To this end, we are developing and validating proteins regulated by non-toxic external stimuli that freely penetrate tissues. TICK (Temperature InduCed K+ channel) is a K+ Channel reversibly regulated by Temperature in a very narrow range (37-40 °C). The open channel drives a large K+ efflux that hyperpolarizes the neuronal cell and prevents action potential firing. The effect is reversible and the channel closes when the temperature drops below 40°C. The perfect match with the temperature requirement for humans, prompts us to consider TICK as a promising medical tool for neuronal inhibition, in the treatment of CP. Chronic pain (CP) is a medical condition affecting around 20% of adults in Europe, characterised by an abnormal duration of pain (> 12 weeks). CP is extremely hard to treat, with only about half of patients reporting adequate pain relief. This situation is even worse for neuropathic pain (NP), a specific class of CP affecting 8% of global population, which leads the brain to interpret as pain normally non-painful stimuli. NP is difficult to treat and to diagnose, due to the large number of entities involved (cells, genes and proteins working in synergy). Drugs targeting the central nervous system (e.g. antidepressants and opioids) provide only partial pain relief and are nonspecific, also causing side effects like addiction and nausea, thus restraining their adoption for prolonged treatments. TICK has no side effects and also overcomes the unavoidable limit of similar optogenetic treatment previously proposed: the need of fiber optic implant to bring light. The first version of these channels, has already been tested preliminary on rats. During this project we plan to further validate the treatment and explore its commercial potential.

Mots-clés : neuropathic pain,ion channel,thermogenetics
Projet ERC : NorFish (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The study of the human past
Entité participante : Trinity College Dublin — Pays : Irlande — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : TCD
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2499265.0 €

NorFish aims to understand the restructuring of the North Atlantic fisheries, fish markets and fishery-dependent communities in the late medieval and early modern world. The project exploits a multi-disciplinary, humanities-led approach to marine environmental history, assessing and synthesizing the dynamics and significance of the North Atlantic fish revolution, equipped by methodological advances in which the PI has been to the fore in delivering. It establishes a robust quantitative framework of extractions, supplies and prices, while also charting the qualitative preferences and politics that motivated actors of the fish revolution across the North Atlantic. Fish contributed to environmental and societal change in the North Atlantic for over 300 years, shifting from being a high-priced, limited resource in the late Middle Ages to a low-priced, abundant one by early modern times. Conditioned by market forces, the ‘fish revolution’ of the 1500s and 1600s reshaped alignments in economic power, demography, and politics. With acute consequences in peripheral Atlantic settlements from Newfoundland to Scandinavia, it held strategic importance to all the major western European powers. While the fish revolution catalysed the globalization of the Atlantic world, we lack adequate baselines and trajectories for key questions of natural abundance, supply and demand, cultural preferences, marketing technologies, plus national and regional strategies. In short, the core questions are what were the natural and economic causes of the fish revolution, how did marginal societies adapt to changing international trade and consumption patterns around the North Atlantic, and how did economic and political actors respond? The answers will help explain the historic role of environment and climate change, how markets impacted marginal communities, and how humans perceived long-term change.

Mots-clés : environmental history