Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : Dyna-Mat (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Materials Engineering
Entité participante : Université Aalto — Pays : Finlande — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2500000.0 €

To fulfil the quest for increasingly functional materials, biology has already offered inspiration towards advances in materials science. So far, bioinspired materials include, e.g., liquid- and dirt-repelling surfaces, structural colours, biomimetic composites, strong fibers, tissue templating, and underwater adhesives. On the other hand, stimulus-responsive, shape memory, and reconfigurable materials have been presented with switchable functional properties. They are typically in global or local energy equilibrium and their properties do not evolve or learn to allow new responses.  The next challenge is to explore whether some of the characteristics considered typical for life could inspire new behaviours of artificial soft matter towards life-inspired materials.  Herein I suggest three approaches: 1) Voltage controlled dynamic out-of-equilibrium dissipative mechanical properties and temperature-based switching between dynamic and static properties. 2) Light and voltage-driven self-regulation with feedback loops for adaptation, homeostasis, and oscillations. 3) Optical spiking for dynamic structural colours.  The impact of this project arises from demonstrators and paradigm changing concepts for materials memory, biological learning-inspired processes, and dynamic feedback control. The underlying embodied intelligence and adaptibility pave ways to new materials concepts. In the long run, materials with such properties are foreseen, e.g., in human-device interfacing, artificial skin, prostheses, technical aids, wearables, soft robots, and medical applications.

Mots-clés : life inspiration,adaptation,responsiveness,feedback,dissipative,out of equilibrium,spiking,gels
Projet ERC : PREDICTION (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Human Mind and Its Compl exity
Entité participante : Université de Maastricht — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : Partner
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 557570.0 €

The human brain exhibits remarkable cognitive abilities, such as imagery, attention and mental simulation, which along with perception reflect our capacity to infer properties of the world. Perceptual inference involves a statistical hierarchical synthesis of information from the senses with prior knowledge of the world. There is empirical evidence in favour of Predictive Processing where functional interaction of descending pathways carrying top-down prediction and precision signals interaction with the ascending pathways to generative prediction errors. PREDICTION will develop a mechanistic and computational understanding of the hierarchical processing underlying inference in vision-related human brain areas and will establish how feedback connections enable generative cognitive functions. Unravelling the neural mechanisms of high-level visual cognitive functions requires novel ways of thinking about biological information processing and an integrated effort to measure and model cognitive functions at multiple brain scales. PREDICTON accomplishes this by integrating concepts and advanced methods from multiple disciplines: 1) Molecular biology to characterise projection cell-types. 2) Psychophysics and sub-millimetre ultra-high-field functional imaging of cortical layers and columns in the human brain, 3) Precision viral tracing to investigate the anatomical origins and targets of generative networks in non-human primates (NHP), 4) Spatio-temporal controlled activation of genetically identified feedback pathways with optogenetics together in multi-areal laminar recordings in NHPs, 4) Biologically realistic multi-scale computational modelling. PREDICTION will describe the functional circuits supporting hierarchical processing and their role in active vision. This will take us to the heart of cortical function and its causative role in perception, cognition, and decision-making, relative to a range of pathologies as well as to understand what makes us human.

Mots-clés : predictive processing,non human primate,anatomy,electrophysiology,human brain imaging
Projet ERC : HYDROGENATE (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Products and Processes Engineering
Entité participante : Université technique de Rhénanie-Westphalie à Aix-la-Chapelle — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2498727.5 €

Chemical energy carriers will play an essential role for future energy systems, where harvesting and utilization of renewable energy occur not necessarily at the same time or place, hence long-time storage and long-range transport of energy are needed. For this, hydrogen-based energy carriers, such as hydrogen and ammonia, hold great promise. Their utilization by combustion-based energy conversion has many advantages, e.g., versatile use for heat and power, robust and flexible technologies, and its suitability for a continuous energy transition. However, combustion of both hydrogen and ammonia is very challenging. For technically relevant conditions, both form intrinsic, so-called thermo-diffusive instabilities (very different from the often-discussed thermo-acoustic instabilities), which can increase burn rates by a stunning factor of three to five! Without considering this, computational design is impossible. Yet, while linear theories exist, little is understood for the more relevant non-linear regime, and beyond some data and observations, virtually nothing is known about the interactions of intrinsic flame instabilities (IFI) with turbulence. Here, rigorous analysis of new data for neat H2 and NH3/H2-blends from simulations and experiments will lead to a quantitative understanding of the relevant aspects. From this, a novel modeling framework with uncertainty estimates will be developed. The key hypothesis then is that combustion processes of hydrogen-based fuels can be improved by targeted weakening or promotion of IFI, and that this kind of instability-controlled combustion can jointly improve efficiency, emissions, stability, and fuel flexibility in different combustion devices, such as spark-ignition engines, gas turbines, and industrial burners. Guided by the developed knowledge and tools, this intrinsic-flame-instability-controlled combustion concept will be demonstrated computationally and experimentally for two sample applications.

Mots-clés : hydrogen,intrinsic instabilities,ammonia,combustion
Projet ERC : ROTAROM17 (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Study of the Human Past
Entité participante : École française de Rome — Pays : France — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : EFR
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 861084.21 €

ROTAROM17 aims to understand the Roman Rota as one of the essential tools of the Catholic Church’s transnational governance in early modern Europe. How did this Rome-based court of appeal, which judged in the pope’s name important civil disputes involving the clergy and members of the social elites, succeed in having its authority respected outside the pontifical state? Why did men and women from Spain, Portugal, or Poland expect to find in Rome a better justice, in spite of the long, cautious and costly Rotal procedure? On which grounds did challenges and criticisms of Rota’s jurisdiction have political significance? Our aim is to study this institution which remains poorly known for this period, but also to see law in action in the settling of disputes, as well as the way in which the court’s jurisprudence, used as a reference by legal experts and disseminated in libraries, contributed to the making of a legal culture founded on negotiation. The project’s second objective is to open a new research field on Europe’s oldest still-active tribunal and facilitate access to its massive and under-used documentation by producing essential research tolls and reference works, thus laying strong foundations for future developments of scholarship. ROTAROM17 brings together an international and multidisciplinary team (social, diplomatic, cultural and intellectual history, legal history) and foregrounds primary research, connecting the Rota’s archival funds with a large set of archival funds and libraries in Europe. By renewing approaches to the Roman Rota, its environment, personal, litigants, and jurisprudence, and by opening up access to hitherto untapped documentation, ROTAROM17 will make a major and original contribution to rethinking the structuring role of the law in European culture and offer new opportunities for historians to explore their local or national fields of research from multiple perspectives in a large set of countries.

Mots-clés : justice,rome,family,nobility,catholic church
Projet ERC : CASAlibra (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Condensed Matter Physics
Entité participante : École polytechnique Chalmers — Pays : Suède — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2469830.0 €

Self-assembly is an important area of research that has numerous practical applications, including in the fields of materials science, nanotechnology, and biotechnology. Despite its widespread use, conventional self-assembly is limited, especially in terms of complexity, scalability, and dynamical control. In this context, a promising solution to these challenges is the use of Casimir self-assembly, which leverages the fundamental physics of the Casimir effect. The Casimir effect refers to the force that arises between two closely spaced metallic plates in free space, which results from zero-point fluctuations of the quantum vacuum. This effect can be harnessed for self-assembly by engineering the surface properties of the plates and the surrounding environment. In my proposal, I will utilize the interplay between fundamental quantum electrodynamics, Casimir physics, strong light-matter interactions, and non-equilibrium thermodynamics to develop a new, highly controlled, versatile and unique form of self-assembly. Crucially, the employed methodology enables the observation of the Casimir effect in aqueous solutions at room temperature with unprecedented precision of 1 nm. This method can be combined with micro- and nanofluidics, frustrated and templated self-assembly approaches, and non-equilibrium thermodynamics. Additionally, the unique combination of self-assembled Fabry-Pérot microcavities and the creation of nano-channels with exceptional material and heat transport properties further enhances the methodology's versatility. By combining these fields, I aim to create a new type of self-assembly that overcomes the limitations of conventional methods, providing greater complexity, flexibility, and dynamical control. In doing so, I will open up new avenues for fundamental physics, materials science, nanotechnology, and biotechnology, and lay the foundation for a new era of self-assembly that is more dynamic, sophisticated, and visionary.

Mots-clés : casimir effect,nanophotonics,microcavity,self assembly,strong light matter coupling,polariton
Projet ERC : Arrachnobarrier2.0 (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Physiology in Health, Disease and Ageing
Entité participante : Université d'Uppsala — Pays : Suède — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2500000.0 €

Less is known about the structural and functional importance of the arachnoid barrier than any other CNS barrier, including the blood-brain barrier. Animal models of arachnoid barrier impairment are not known/have not been analyzed. The sophisticated architecture and cellular specialization of the arachnoid barrier includes tight- and tricellular junctions joining two cell layers, direct contact with other arachnoid cells, and the specific expression of a broad repertoire of influx and efflux transporters, suggest major importance. Lack of understanding of the arachnoid barrier represents a conspicuous knowledge void in neurobiology. The Arrachnobarrier2.0 project seeks to elucidate and understand these features and to examine their pathophysiological importance. We will test the hypothesis that arachnoid barrier disruption may have serious consequences for CNS function. We will also test the hypothesis that the arachnoid barrier is responsive to diverse disease conditions and can contribute to disease pathophysiology. We hypothesize that the arachnoid barrier has regional cellular and molecular adaptations that underlie CSF transit from the subarachnoid space to dural lymphatics. Some of these sites are known, such as olfactory nerve and cranial nerve exit sites, whereas others are more speculative, such as arachnoid granulations and sites of bridging vein crossing. The three Specific Aims in this proposal will address these aspects of arachnoid barrier structure, function, molecular and regional heterogeneity, and pathophysiology. This proposal is innovative and has potential for ground-breaking discovery because arachnoid structure and function has remained elusive since its anatomic description ≈500 years ago and the discovery of its barrier properties ≈50 years ago. The project offers unique insights into the cellular and molecular composition of the arachnoid, its physiological function, regenerative capacity and pathophysiological roles.

Mots-clés : meninges,arachnoid mater,arachnoid barrier,single cell rna sequencing,fibroblasts,cell junctions,traumatic brain injury,leptomeningeal metastasis
Projet ERC : IGTaFT (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Fundamental Constituents of Matter
Entité participante : Université d'Uppsala — Pays : Suède — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2456500.0 €

We propose a project to explore the properties of supersymmetric gauge theories at finite temperature, with special emphasis on those that are integrable in the large N limit. In particular we study the de-confinement of these theories using the newest integrability methods which have recently proved to be a powerful tool in finding the Hagedorn temperature as a function of the theory's coupling. Progress in this field can lead to better understanding of the long unsolved problem of confinement in gauge theories and the de-confinement of confining theories such as QCD at finite temperature. The project will also investigate string theories on curved space with background fields. The results of the Hagedorn temperature at strong coupling provide sharp predictions for how the string theory duals should behave, but showing it directly has so far proved elusive. The project will use the results for the Hagedorn temperature and its higher order effects to as a guide-post to determine the correct world-sheet structure for both type IIB and IIA string theories on AdS spaces. Uppsala University has been a world leader in developing techniques for exploring supersymmetric gauge theories, including integrability and localization, which have led to powerful results. The project would fund a total of five post-doc positions and two graduate students over the five year period to investigate these questions, providing excellent scientific opportunities for young theoretical physicists.

Mots-clés : quantum field theory,string theory,integrability
Projet ERC : ALMEDA (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Texts and Concepts
Entité participante : Université d'Uppsala — Pays : Suède — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2042388.0 €

Recent years have seen something of a renaissance in African literature, with African novelists becoming global best-sellers and achieving the world’s highest literary accolades. But published novels are restrictively expensive in Africa itself and the novel form is ill-suited to African everyday life, where people are more likely to spend their leisure time engaging with informal, ephemeral and not-for-profit literary and oratory cultural forms, such as spoken-word poetry, street theatre, and a variety of online genres. These informal African literatures are rarely catalogued and therefore exist outside of any structured metadata system. The consequence is that formally published English and French African novels are hyper-visible globally, while the rich literary and oratory cultures of the continent itself are caught in a perpetual state of structural ephemerality. The ALMEDA project addresses this problem in three ways. First, by providing the first history of literary metadata on the African continent, the project will provide a diachronic understanding of how colonial cataloguing systems came to construct the idea of the ‘literary work’ as book-based and thus dismissive of Africa’s oral cultures. Secondly, ALMEDA aims to develop and publish a metadata scheme specifically designed for these informal literary materials. This scheme will be multilingual, which will enable a unique descriptive model that allows African-language genres to inhabit their own categories, rather than having to be forced into European literary ontologies. Thirdly, the project will develop a linked open metadata repository, populated via an interface that allows non-specialist entry of metadata on literary materials. By creating and linking metadata on this body of work, this repository will constitute a major intervention in African literature by making these literatures searchable and their records enduring, thereby opening up entirely new possibilities for scholarship.

Mots-clés : african literature,literary metadata,bibliographic metadata,informal literature
Projet ERC : DISEQUAL (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Soci al World and Its Interactions
Entité participante : Fondation nationale des sciences politiques — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : FNSP
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2499511.0 €

Social science research has made impressive strides in studying discrimination (unequal treatment) and inequality (unequal outcomes), but often examines them separately. DISEQUAL bridges this gap by exploring the mutually reinforcing relations between discrimination and inequality – conceptualized as the Discrimination-Inequality Cycle. The project advances the field through three key objectives: 1) Assessing the relations between discrimination and inequality combining experimental and observational data; 2) Understanding how social-psychological mediators such as attitudes, beliefs and experiences perpetuate the Discrimination-Inequality Cycle; 3) Analyzing the role of policies in shaping and potentially breaking the cycle. DISEQUAL collects and harmonizes high-quality cross-national data encompassing various discrimination categories, with a focus on gender and ethnoracial groups, across multiple spheres of interactions, particularly hiring and rental housing. Using advanced quantitative and meta-analytical techniques, DISEQUAL synthesizes fragmented evidence on discrimination from field experiments and combines it with inequality data assessing their relations across up to 35 countries between 1970 and 2024. The project further integrates experimental sources with large-scale real-life datasets merged at the regional and workplace levels within countries to analyze how social-psychological factors mediate the cyclical relation between discrimination and inequality. DISEQUAL also incorporates field experiments in policy analysis frameworks, systematically comparing the effects of gender and ethnoracial policies. Combining multidisciplinary insights from sociology, economics, political science and social psychology, DISEQUAL aims to deepen our understanding of how discrimination and inequality perpetuate each other and enhance the effectiveness of policies designed to combat these pervasive societal challenges.

Mots-clés : gender,ethnicity,race,urban segregation,housing,workplaces
Projet ERC : WAR-ON-CIVILIANS (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Study of the Human Past
Entité participante : Fondation nationale des sciences politiques — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : FNSP
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2308229.5 €

This may be one of the most ambitious efforts to apply the methods of global history to the study of war and society in several countries around the world. We explore the evolution of types of warfare that explicitly targeted the enemy’s civil population. WAR-ON-CIVILIANS focuses on (1) aerial bombardment, and civil defense against it, (2) food blockades, and home front campaigns to ration food, and (3) efforts to “demoralize” enemy civilians, while boosting “morale” at home. This is much more than a comparison of discrete case studies. Global or transnational history emphasizes the connections between nations. Here we investigate how the circulation of knowledge and practices culminated by World War II in systematic attacks on civilians and the creation of home fronts that mobilized civilians. The spatial sweep is global, going well beyond conventional Eurocentric accounts. We will connect Japan’s long World War II in China and Asia-Pacific with that in Britain, Germany, France, and USA—plus the seldom-integrated cases of Italy, Spanish Civil War, and Soviet Union. The PI is uniquely positioned to direct the project. A leading historian of Japan, he also writes transnational histories based on extensive archival research in Britain, Germany, and France. And in its temporal sweep, WAR-ON-CIVILIANS breaks new ground by researching transnational developments going back to 1905, when Japan demonstrated new forms of mobilizing civilians in defeating Russia, and the British Admiralty began planning a wartime blockade of the German food supply. We examine the “lessons” of World War I, smaller wars, and developments in the oft-neglected interwar decades that led to the assault on cities in World War II. The project analyzes the impact of political regimes. Bombing, blockade, and civilian morale became common features in a variety of warring states—from democracies to authoritarian regimes on Right and Left, despite important differences.

Mots-clés : war and society,civilians in war,total war,home fronts,aerial bombardment,blockades,food insecurity,civilian morale,global history,international law,psychological warfare,gender and war