Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : Flow4Algae (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Products and Processes Engineering
Entité participante : Université de technologie de Delft — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : TU Delft
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1994870.0 €

Photosynthetic microalgae hold promise for the sustainable production of high-value products, bioplastics and biofuels. In bioreactors, suspensions of living, soft, and motile cells form an entirely new kind of fluids, which physiologically respond to the environment and the flow conditions. Fundamental knowledge of the flow dynamics of living suspensions is now urgently needed to develop new flow technologies for bioreactors. This project lays out an ambitious multi-scale experimental plan to establish the foundations of the fluid dynamics of living suspensions by revisiting three textbook aspects of flow: (1) turbulence, (2) the dynamics at solid and free interfaces and (3) the response to shear. This endeavour faces a new paradigm in complex flows, where fluid dynamics and cell physiology on different length scales, are deeply entwined. I will tackle this problem with a unique set of multi-scale experiments combining advanced flow diagnostics and rheology tools with new microfluidics and 3-D cell tracking recently developed in my group. These experiments will yield the first tracking measurements of living microalgae in a turbulent flow, and reveal what happens when motile cells on the small scale meet the turbulence cascade. Tracking experiments will provide new insight into the interactions of microalgae with free and textured surfaces, and, combined with rheology, show how shear flow affects cell motility and inversely how motility affects the response to shear of the suspension. Together, these experiments will uncover the interrelations between flow, cell physiology and growth, and determine how cell motility can be leveraged to optimize the turbulent mixing conditions in bioreactors, avoid biofilm formation and mediate cell harvesting.

Mots-clés : fluid mechanics,biofluids,micro swimmers,experimental fluid dynamics
Projet ERC : DEPE (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Study of the Human Past
Entité participante : Université de Jyväskylä — Pays : Finlande — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1964710.0 €

The project reassesses the early history of European political economy. Historians of political economy have traditionally concentrated on the genesis of modern economics, tracing the emergence of economic models, methods and ideas that are today recognized as 'economics' through 'classical political economy', neo-classicism and on to the present.  This new departure treats political economy as a discourse oriented to the improvement of conditions for human life and, as such, one of the Enlightenment’s key contributions to Western thought. However, any direct association of Enlightenment discourse with political economy requires qualification. Therefore, this project explores a very extensive contemporary literature about growth, wealth and welfare that has not fitted easily into the conventional retrospective history. Instead of converting past arguments into modern arguments about methods and models, the project investigates eighteenth-century political economy in terms of practical concerns, as measures and policies for betterment and improvement. Only in this way we can reconstruct what political economy meant to its contemporaries in the early modern period. The Swedish empire – considered by contemporaries as the stronghold of 'oeconomia' – functions as the primary case study, but is constantly compared with other cases, broadening the applicability of the findings. The aim of the project is to study the ways in which the key concepts of improvement – wealth, growth and welfare – were articulated in the main sites of discursive production: the University, the Diet, local and colonial governments, and academic journals. The study of the five institutions is based on the hypothesis that in each of them activities were directed towards improving the organisation of state and society and the living conditions of the people. This project represents a well-founded reassessment of the rise to predominance of economic argument during the eighteenth century.

Mots-clés : european political economy,swedish diet,improvement,economy and development,history of thought,cameral sciences
Projet ERC : FTRC (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Computer Science and Informatics
Entité participante : Université Bar-Ilan — Pays : Israël — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : BIU
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 300000.0 €

Cryptography has repeatedly revolutionized modern technology via its "easy-or-infeasible" design paradigm, classifying computations as either "easy" or "infeasible". Nowadays, however, this foundational paradigm is insufficient for a host of rapidly evolving applications, and a fine-grained accounting of sequential timing guarantees is urgently needed. This has recently led to substantial interest in the classic yet insufficiently-explored vision of timed-release cryptography, enabling cryptographic systems to rely on such guarantees realistically. Despite the significant attention, the vision of timed-release cryptography is still alarmingly far, and the landscape of our current knowledge must rapidly change to facilitate its deployment: Timed-release cryptography suffers from an extreme lack of candidate schemes, and the security of its main candidates is provided directly by assumption (with essentially no supporting evidence other than the lack of successful "speed-up" attacks).  This proposal aims to establish robust foundations for timed-release cryptography by obtaining an in-depth understanding of the computational landscape, building blocks, and schemes required for realizing its premise. Specifically, I plan to direct our effort towards addressing the following three fundamental objectives, which span a broad and interdisciplinary flavor of research directions: (1) Explore sources of computational hardness that enable to base timed-release cryptography on the hardness of well-studied problems, (2) identify the extents to which timed-release primitive building blocks require cryptographic structure and can be utilized in designing more complex schemes, and (3) construct concrete such schemes offering a wide range of security and functionality guarantees. I strongly believe that substantial progress towards our objectives will enable us to realize the premise of timed-release cryptography, and will have a long-lasting impact on cryptography.

Mots-clés : cryptography foundations
Projet ERC : GlueSatLight (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Fundamental Constituents of Matter
Entité participante : Université de Jyväskylä — Pays : Finlande — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1989289.0 €

In this project the properties of hadronic matter with emergent non-linear saturation phenomena at extremely large parton densities are theoretically determined. This is achieved by studying Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD), describing the strong interactions between quarks and gluons, at high energies.  There are solid theoretical arguments formulated in the Color Glass Condensate (CGC) effective field theory to suggest that saturation effects play a major role in hadronic interactions at high energies. However, so far no clear signal of gluon saturation have been observed. This will change when the Electron-Ion Collider (EIC) starts to measure photon-mediated electron-nucleus collisions allowing for precision studies of high density hadronic matter in heavy nuclei.  We develop the CGC approach to high-energy QCD to the level where, for the first time, multiple scattering processes can be simultaneously described from the unified framework at next-to-leading order accuracy. These developments are necessary to bring the theoretical framework to the level required to probe non-linear dynamics in the EIC era.  We extract the non-perturbative proton structure from global analyses and determine if non-linear QCD dynamics is observable in current collider energies. We calculate predictions for the EIC and determine how different processes at the EIC probe gluon saturation. Before the EIC, photon-induced processes at high energies are available at the LHC in ultra peripheral collisions that we use to extract, for the first time, the effect of non-linear dynamics on the nuclear high-energy structure at NLO accuracy. The fundamentally important results are applied to develop a new description for the initial condition of heavy ion collisions where Quark Gluon Plasma (QGP) is produced. We determine the effect of NLO initial state description on the extraction of fundamental QGP properties, and quantify the synergies between the LHC heavy ion program and future EIC.

Mots-clés : lhc,color glass condensate,gluon saturation,electron ion collider
Projet ERC : TriboMed (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Systems and Communication Engineering
Entité participante : Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : ICN2
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1998273.0 €

Based on intense research efforts in the fields of technology development and materials science, a new generation of medical devices has flourished. But this medical technology still relies on conventional energy sources (bulky batteries). These batteries typically have shorter lifetimes than the implant itself, meaning limitations on patients´ activities, infections and additional surgeries. In an ideal scenario, active implantable medical devices (AIMDs) would be powered using integrated and fully implantable energy suppliers, not needed to be recharged or replaced. An integrated implantable energy harvesting device to power AIMDs is the crucial missing component that would unlock this future. TriboMed aims to implement triboelectric energy generators (TENGs) for powering AIMDs, taking vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) as proof-of-concept. I will show that TENGs can be produced at larger scale, while being miniaturized and tuned, supplying energy levels suitable for driving stimulation implants. By coupling to a supercapacitor, I aim to develop a fully integrated energy autonomous VNS implant on a conformable and biocompatible substrate. My approach is timely and innovative because it responds to the increasing needs of energy harvesting and comes when the maturity level reached by thin films technologies allows to start working on device integration. My background in materials science and my current experience in device technology provides me with the tools necessary for the successful development of TriboMed. I have the privilege to be working at the forefront of the biomedical research, affording insight into the latest achievements and emerging requirements of VNS technology. TriboMed will unlock the use of triboelectricity for feeding other AIMDs and beyond, on the Internet of Things. Turning the medical implants into self-powered systems will broaden the acceptance of the neuromodulation therapies, with a life-changing impact on a very large patient population.

Mots-clés : thin film technology development and integration,materials engineering,biomedical applications,triboelectric generators development
Projet ERC : ATOMISTIC (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Synthetic Chemistry and Materials
Entité participante : Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : ICN2
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1999774.0 €

Electrochemical methane activation and direct conversion to methanol is highly attractive – a dream reaction that would convert a greenhouse gas into a valuable liquid fuel in a dream device, on-site, and powered by renewable electricity. However, sustainable C-H activation and direct methane to methanol conversion at ambient conditions remain as great fundamental challenges. My aim with ATOMISTIC is: (i) to develop new methods for electrochemical methane activation and partial oxidation, (ii) to control the structure of the electrochemical interface and the catalytically active site, in order to tune selectivity for the synthesis of valuable fuels and chemicals (such as methanol) from methane, and dimethyl carbonate from methanol. I will use 3 main strategies: - To establish the ideal structures and electrolytes, using well-defined tailored materials that enable methane activation by its direct adsorption on the electrode material. - To realise advanced materials that enable the indirect electrochemical activation of methane through the generation of solution phase radicals. - To tailor the active site at the atomic level for selective methane to methanol and methanol to dimethyl carbonate oxidation reactions on functional materials. I will elucidate the design principles and unveil the structure-reactivity-selectivity relations and the molecular mechanisms of these reactions as well as the atomic-scale structure of the catalyst materials. I will achieve these ambitious goals by leveraging my work combining the insight from model studies with experiments under realistic conditions to discover new materials. I will combine electrochemical methods, electrochemical scanning probe microscopy, in situ optical spectroscopy, online mass spectrometry and operando synchrotron-based x-ray techniques. The success of ATOMISTIC will result in significant breakthroughs in the fields of chemistry and catalysis, opening up new sustainable ways to produce valuable chemicals.

Mots-clés : functional materials methane small molecule activation methane activation surface modifiers structure sensitivity advanced materials direct methane oxidation,electrochemistry catalysis surface chemistry electrocatalysis energy materials electrosynthesis active site engineering electrolyte effects surface properties relations nanomaterials engineering radical reactions value added chemicals
Projet ERC : ARGON (Horizon Europe, appel 2025, Consolidator grants)
Entité participante : Université de technologie de Delft — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : TU Delft
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1999388.0 €

The European society relies heavily on large-scale infrastructures, e.g. power and gas grids, transportation networks, with interconnected and self-interested sub-systems, e.g. networked control units, semi-autonomous robots, intelligent machines and humans. Due to high complexity, variability and uncertainty of their real-life operations, accurate dynamic, behavioral and interference models are hardly available. Nevertheless, the deployed control systems are either simplistic regulators or advanced controllers based on unreliable models. Model-based game theory and distributed optimization have attracted extraordinary research attention but in real-life practice are ineffective for control design due to the unavailability of reliable models and the limited information exchange between sub-systems. Data-driven optimal control has emerged as a practical control approach to mitigate model awareness, but only for cooperative systems. A paradigm shift is thus necessary to ensure safe, fair and efficient operation in systems with self-interested sub-systems. With this aim, ARGON will initiate the whole new area of data-driven dynamic game theory for constrained systems and in this scientific context it will pursue the twofold objective to: (i) conceive a general data-driven game-theoretic control framework; (ii) provide fast and scalable computational methods for solving data-driven decision and control problems. Towards these objectives, ARGON will develop novel methodologies based on distributionally robust operator theory and feedback control for equilibrium seeking, and integrate new ideas across monotone game theory, Lyapunov stability theory for constrained systems, data-driven control of switched systems. The expected outcomes are a mathematical theory and computational algorithms to support control synthesis in systems with self-interested, constrained sub-systems, robustly to model uncertainty, with high impact on fundamental sciences and system engineering.

Mots-clés : generalized nash equilibrium seeking,control lyapunov functions,constrained switched systems
Projet ERC : PolarRobustness (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Cell Biology, Development, Stem Cells and R egeneration
Entité participante : Université de technologie de Delft — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : TU Delft
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2000000.0 €

Cells are often viewed as intricate machines, in which specific proteins work together in a tightly coordinated fashion to give rise to cellular functions. Surprisingly however, some proteins that are essential for core cellular functions in one species are absent in closely related species, while the core function itself is maintained. How this robustness is achieved, while the underlying molecular networks dramatically diversify during evolution is currently not understood. As a post-doc I showed that the polarity network in yeast can evolutionarily adapt to the loss of an important protein by losing three more proteins. My lab showed that these losses repair polarity through a collective adaptive response, affecting many cellular processes rather than only a few proteins. How do intricate cellular networks collectively achieve such evolutionary robustness? We will address this question with a library of experimentally evolved polarity networks in budding yeast to (1) investigate how general a collective adaptive response is, (2) examine which spatiotemporal aspects of polarity establishment are evolutionary robust, (3) determine how changes in (i) protein copy-numbers, (ii) post-translational modifications (PTMs), and (iii) buffering by self-organization, contribute to evolutionary robustness, and (4) dissect the molecular mechanisms. We will use transposon sequencing to identify the cellular processes involved, live cell microscopy to compare the robustness of various aspects of polarity, and mass spectrometry to compare changes in gene expression, PTMs and interaction partners. We will use multiscale simulations, rooted in statistical physics and constrained by our experimental results, to dissect how molecular changes propagate through the polarity network to achieve evolutionary robustness. Our approach will go beyond yeast polarity, because it can be applied to any functional protein network to deepen our understanding of how life works and evolves.

Mots-clés : cell polarity evolutionary robustness
Projet ERC : StrangeScatt (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Fundamental Constituents of Matter
Entité participante : Université de la Ruhr à Bochum — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1996125.0 €

StrangeScatt will assess the role of strange quarks in nuclear physics by performing first-principles computations of scattering amplitudes to study interactions between hadrons with strange quarks. The presence of strange quarks alters the properties of atomic nuclei and nuclear matter. For instance, the relationship between the mass and radius of neutron stars depends on the dynamics of strange quarks produced in their core. However, quantitative predictions of neutron star masses and radii are complicated by our ignorance of the fundamental interactions of baryons with strange quarks (hyperons). Such predictions are timely given the advent of dedicated neutron star observatories, multi-messenger astronomy, and earth-based experiments involving baryon resonances and nuclear matter.  Nuclear interactions are rooted in QCD, the fundamental force which binds quarks inside hadrons and hadrons inside nuclei. The bridge between few-body and many-body dynamics is made systematically with effective theories of the strong nuclear force, which require as input few-hadron scattering amplitudes as well as their quark-mass dependence. This project will compute two- and three-hadron scattering amplitudes between nucleons and hyperons directly from QCD using high-performance computer simulations on a space-time lattice.  Lattice QCD computations of scattering amplitudes have improved markedly thanks to algorithms developed by the PI, so that accurate and precise first-principles computations of are finally within reach. The unique ability of lattice computations to vary the up, down, and strange quark masses near their physical values is necessary for fully predictive effective theories. The PI's experience in lattice QCD computations of scattering amplitudes makes him ideally suited for StrangeScatt, which supports ground-based experiments and astrophysical observations by probing the role of strangeness in hadron interactions, nuclei, and nuclear matter.

Mots-clés : lattice qcd,hadron scattering amplitudes,hypernuclear physics,neutron stars,effective field theory
Projet ERC : DANAE (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Fundamental Constituents of Matter
Entité participante : Istituto nazionale di fisica nucleare — Pays : Italie — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : INFN
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 687500.0 €

In Particle Physics the research on neutrinos is continuously producing new results and further discoveries might just be around the corner. They could provide answers to crucial questions on how matter was created in the Universe or reveal the existence of new types of fundamental interactions between elementary particles. Possibly even more intriguing is the search for Dark Matter, an unknown form of matter that, according to astrophysical observations, outweighs the ordinary matter in our Universe by more than 5 times. Dark Matter particles have been searched for since 30 years, and invariably eluded discovery. DANAE intends to enable unprecedented sensitivities in the study low energy neutrinos and in the search for Dark Matter, by measuring the tiny nuclear recoils that these particles induce in their passage through matter. The goal is to create a pilot experiment by introducing for the first time monolithic, and at the same time highly segmented, arrays of thousands multiplexed superconducting detectors. If successful, precision measurements of a recently discovered process, the coherent and elastic neutrino scattering off nuclei, could be made. In the Dark Matter field new hypothesized particles could be sensed, lighter than those searched and never found so far.

Mots-clés : neutrinos,dark matter,cryogenic detectors,kinetic inductance detectors