Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
New Frontiers of Formal Semantics (FRONTSEM)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Advanced grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: The Human Mind and its complexity
Countries involved: France
Call:  (ERC-2012-ADG_20120411, 2012)
Start date: 2013-05-01
End date: 2019-04-30
Duration (months): 72.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2490488.0
EU funding (EUR): 2490488.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Despite considerable successes in the last 40 years, formal semantics has not quite established itself as a field of great relevance to the broader enterprise of cognitive and social science. Besides the unavoidable technicality of formal semantic theories, there might be two substantive reasons. First, the lingua franca of cognitive science is the issue of the modular decomposition of the mind – but formal semantics has partly moved away from it: the sophisticated logical models of meaning in current use typically lump together all aspects of meaning in a big 'semantics-cum-pragmatics'. Second, formal semantics has remained somewhat parochial: it almost never crosses the frontiers of spoken language - despite the fact that questions of obvious interest arise in sign language; and it rarely addresses the relation between linguistic meaning and other cognitive systems, be it in humans or in related species. While strictly adhering to the formal methodology of contemporary semantics, we will seek to expand the frontiers of the field, with one leading question: what is the modular organization of meaning? (i) First, we will help establish a new subfield of sign language formal semantics, with an initial focus on anaphora; we will ask whether the interaction between an abstract anaphoric module and the special geometric properties of sign language can account for the similarities and differences between sign and spoken language pronouns. (ii) Second, we will revisit issues of modular decomposition between semantics and pragmatics by trying to disentangle modules that have been lumped together in recent semantic theorizing, in particular in the domains of presupposition, anaphora and conventional implicatures. (iii) Third, we will ask whether some semantic modules might have analogues in other cognitive systems by investigating (a) possible precursors of semantics in primate vocalizations, and (b) possible applications of focus in music.

Keywords: formal semantics,formal pragmatics,formal approaches to sign language
Precision dating of the Palaeolithic: chronological mapping of the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic of Eurasia (PALAEOCHRON)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Advanced grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: The study of the human past
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call:  (ERC-2012-ADG_20120411, 2012)
Start date: 2013-05-01
End date: 2019-04-30
Duration (months): 72.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2488734.0
EU funding (EUR): 2488734.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

This proposal addresses the chronology of the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition of Eurasia, the period between ~60-30,000 years ago, during which the first modern humans dispersed out of Africa into the Old World and Neanderthals disappeared. This is a crucially important interval for understanding late human evolution and the reasons leading to the global dominance of our species. The project will allow, for the first time, the construction of a robust chronology for more than 50 key Palaeolithic sites dating to this period from Eastern Europe to Siberia. We will use advanced radiocarbon techniques, as well as other increasingly refined dating methods (OSL, U-series) and Bayesian statistics. Previous radiocarbon dating, the main chronological tool for this period, is known now to be severely problematic, principally because of difficulties in removing contaminants from the samples. The PI and his team have been to the forefront of developing new chemical pretreatment methods, such as the use of ‘ultrafiltration’ to purify bone proteins, which have revolutionized our ability to radiocarbon date reliably old samples. Over the last 5 years, application of these methods in the dating of western European Palaeolithic sites has led to a significant revision in the chronology of the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition. New dating is urgently required to clarify the wider picture of the transition in a much broader geographic area. The proposal will apply these methods to sites in northern Eurasia, principally Russia and Central Asia, which have yet to see the benefits of these recent methodological developments. This project builds on expertise from a wide collaborative network and on the PIs work in the field over the last 8 years. We will obtain groundbreaking new data that will contribute to an improved understanding of the dispersal, extinction and co-existence of different human species, within a concise spatio-temporal framework and environmental context.

Keywords: radiocarbon dating,neanderthals,anatomically modern humans,middle and upper palaeolithic.
Proportionality in Public Policy: Towards a Better Balance between Interests and Rights in Decision-Making (PIPP)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Advanced grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Institutions, values, beliefs and behaviour
Countries involved: Israel
Call:  (ERC-2012-ADG_20120411, 2012)
Start date: 2013-08-01
End date: 2019-07-31
Duration (months): 72.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2396952.0
EU funding (EUR): 2396952.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

This research project seeks to improve the quality and consistency of policy decisions by offering a novel approach to the study and practice of proportionality, one of the most important meta-constitutional principles for adjudicating among competing values. Although proportionality is well-established as a legal principle, its abstractness produces inconsistent application across judges and cases. Moreover, proportionality has been poorly integrated into policymaking, where it has the greatest potential to enhance the quality of democratic governance. We propose to shift scholarly attention away from its traditional focus on judicial review to the policy making process. Our aim is to develop procedural guidelines for deeper integration of Proportionality Analysis (PA) into the policy making process, in order to help policymakers make decisions that achieve a better balance between competing public interests and protected constitutional rights, and facilitate judicial review processes. Relying on choice architecture, we hypothesize that it is possible to reduce potential biases and cognitive errors and better protect human rights in policy choices by structuring policy analysis in ways that: (1) integrate elements of proportionality analysis; (2) offer a simultaneous process for the evaluation of alternatives and criteria; and (3) include normative guidelines. In the first stage of the project, we intend to employ comparative legal and policy research in six democracies, in order to better understand the challenges involved with integrating PA into the policymaking world. In the project's second stage, we will conduct a series of empirical behavioural experiments with policymakers in order to test the proposed procedural measures. The fruits of our research will serve legal scholars and students of public policy as well as policy-makers and judges throughout the democratic world.
A Process Ontology for Contemporary Biology (PROBIO)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Advanced grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: The Human Mind and its complexity
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call:  (ERC-2012-ADG_20120411, 2012)
Start date: 2013-05-01
End date: 2018-04-30
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1946147.0
EU funding (EUR): 1946147.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

This project aims, first, to rethink central issues in the philosophy of biology by elaborating an ontology for biology that takes full account of the processual nature of living systems as an interacting hierarchy of processes at diverse spatial and temporal scales. The concept of a stable biological thing will be analysed as a stabilised process relative to an appropriate time scale, and this conception should make possible a better understanding of familiar biological pluralisms (about genes, organisms, species, etc…) in terms of different ways in which distinct scientific practices intersect with biological processes. Second, the concept of process developed will be used to rethink some further highly topical philosophical issues in contemporary philosophy of science. The processual perspective will be deployed to provide a critique of the widely discussed recent versions of mechanism. The project will explore generally the relevance of this perspective to influential contemporary accounts of causation and explanation, especially those that have been derived from mechanism. Finally the project will apply the preceding ideas to some important areas of contemporary biology: systems biology, synthetic biology, and microbiology. These investigations will be carried on in parallel with the more general philosophical enquiries, with the idea that the two will be mutually informative: the philosophical analyses will not only be applied to scientific concepts, but will also themselves be evaluated for their relevance to real cutting edge biology. This evaluation will be guided by interaction with scientific practitioners and an expert Advisory Board, as well as text-based study. The project aims to be of direct relevance to both philosophy and science.

Keywords: process,metaphysics,ontology,mechanism,causality,philosophy of biology,history and philosophy of science,synthetic biology,systems biology,microbiology.
Families in context: Unraveling the ways in which policy, economic, and cultural contexts structure generational interdependencies in families and their life outcomes (FAMILIES IN CONTEXT)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Advanced grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Environment and society
Countries involved: Netherlands
Call:  (ERC-2012-ADG_20120411, 2012)
Start date: 2013-05-01
End date: 2018-04-30
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2179862.0
EU funding (EUR): 2179862.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Recognizing that in ageing societies many parents are also children, even grandchildren, in a multi-generational structure, the project has generational interdependencies in families as its unifying theme. Interdependencies exist when family members are emotionally, financially, practically, and morally reliant on and responsible to each other. The project’s main objective is to unravel the ways in which policy, economic, and cultural contexts structure intergenerational dependencies in families and their life outcomes. Sub-project 1: Transcending space starts from the premise that new insights can be gained from acknowledging the distinction between family and household. It focuses on the ways in which different kinds of intergenerational transfers (emotional, practical, financial) are affected by proximity versus distance. Sub-project 2: Drivers of family behaviour starts from the premise that new insights can be gained from comparing and contrasting different theoretical models underlying generational interdependence. It aims to find out whether family members help each other for different reasons, depending on where they live. Sub-project 3: Back-up functions starts from the premise that new insights can be gained from taking a multigenerational view of family ties, across life phases. It examines the necessity of family members to provide money, practical help, care, and lodging to the young and the old, given limited public safety nets. Sub-project 4: Rethinking men in families starts from the premise that insights can be gained from a more balanced treatment of men and women across topics in the research literature on families. It focuses on men with limited generational interdependencies and men in multigenerational families. The Generations and Gender Surveys (GGS) are the primary source of data. Given the absence of a survey on the family ties of migrants from CEE countries, a new survey will be carried out among Polish migrants to the Netherlands.

Keywords: generational interdependence in families
Reasoning About Strategic Interaction and Emotions (STRATEMOTIONS)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Advanced grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Individuals, institutions and markets
Countries involved: Italy
Call:  (ERC-2012-ADG_20120411, 2012)
Start date: 2013-03-01
End date: 2018-02-28
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1210000.0
EU funding (EUR): 1210000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

I propose to develop a general framework to analyze the dynamics of social and economic interaction between intelligent agents, who may nonetheless be affected by their emotions and exhibit time inconsistent preferences. A crucial aspect of the analysis is modelling how agents form and change their beliefs about the environment and about each other, including beliefs about beliefs. The reason is twofold; first, in order to reason strategically, agents try to figure out how other agents think; second, emotions triggered by beliefs, including beliefs about the beliefs and intentions of other agents, may affect choice. Another essential ingredient is the impossibility to commit (even covertly) to any particular contingent course of action, unless such irreversible commitment is allowed by the rules of the game. Intelligent agents with non-Bayesian attitudes toward uncertainty, disappointment aversion, present-bias, and other realistic psychological features should take this into account when planning. This leads to a distinction between actual behaviour and plans, which is essential to express the concept of intentionality and hence the ability to assess the intentionality of other agents’ observed actions. Such assessment is important to figure out the likely future moves of a co-player in a game, or his private information, as well as for the cognitive appraisal that may affect emotional reactions to positive or aversive events in social and economic environments. Developing such methodology is one part of the project of independent interest. Next, I plan to apply it to specific problems such as the analysis of (i) learning and stable patterns of behaviour when agents are ambiguity averse, (ii) the sources and consequences of emotions like anger in social environments, and (iii) how non-binding agreements may induce interactive beliefs that make them self-enforcing.

Keywords: game theory,foundations,learning,psychological games
The medieval plagues: ecology, transmission modalities and routes of the infections. (MEDPLAG)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Advanced grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: The study of the human past
Countries involved: Norway
Call:  (ERC-2012-ADG_20120411, 2012)
Start date: 2013-06-01
End date: 2018-11-30
Duration (months): 66.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2497315.0
EU funding (EUR): 2497315.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The history of late medieval and early modern Europe was deeply affected by epidemics of plague that repeatedly broke out until 1750 AD and caused devastation and death with severe social, political and economic consequences. For decades, historians and scientists have been interested in the ancient pestilences and disputed their origin and epidemiology. One century ago, Yersinia pestis was identified as the causative agent of the current-day pandemic. Only some months ago the MedPlag team conclusively established (Haensch et al. 2010) that this bacterium was responsible for the Black Death (1346-1353 AD) and that two distinct variants of Y. pestis were simultaneously circulating through Europe during this pandemic. These results raise questions concerning the historic Y. pestis strains, their geographical origin, and whether they might have re-circulated in Europe over four centuries or were constantly reintroduced from elsewhere. Other open questions concern the routes of transmission of the medieval plagues and the role played by trade and pilgrimages in their dissemination, the mechanisms of transmission and the implication of wild and anthropochorous fauna, and the interplay between climatic conditions and plague dynamics. In addition, whether the reason for the disappearance of plague from Europe 250 years ago was due to improved hygiene or to genetic or environmental change remains unknown. Finally, while historians and scientists have speculated on the microbe responsible for the Justinian plague (541-542 AD) molecular evidence is still lacking. In this proposal, I outline the methodology by which I will answer these major questions with an inter-domain investigation involving ancient DNA, climatology, ecology, and history. The results of this work will not only settle century-old controversies by giving us valuable information about the past, but also furnish a paradigm for understanding the modality of serious epidemics in Europe; past, present, and future

Keywords: ancient dna,statistical and agent-based modelling,climate,ecology
Devices for Neurocontrol and Neurorehabilitation (DENECOR)

Framework: FP7 — Cooperation
Programme: Joint Technology Initiatives (Annex IV-SP1)
Theme: Public-private partnerships
Destination: Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer
Action type: Collaborative project
Partnership: ENIAC (Art-185)
Countries involved: Netherlands,Netherlands,Netherlands,Italy,Italy,Italy,Austria,Austria,United Kingdom,United Kingdom,Czechia,Czechia,Spain,Germany,United Kingdom,Germany,Germany
Call:  (ENIAC-2012-1, 2012)
Start date: 2013-06-01
End date: 2016-03-31
Duration (months): 34.0
Total project cost (EUR): 19905452.0
EU funding (EUR): 2985820.0
Participants: 22
Project status: CLOSED

The primary aim of DeNeCor is to resolve this top issue such that electronic neuromodulation therapy becomes mainstream and full market potential can be obtained. We will increase acceptance by neurologists by demonstrating designed co-existency between therapy devices and diagnostic systems. The second aim of DeNeCor is to extrapolate the ‘bilateral’ agreements between AIMD and MRI manufactures in IEC/ISO 10974 to other diagnostic systems and the interaction between diagnostic systems, like EEG and UltraSound (US) and non-invasive electronics based neuromodulation therapies (paving the way for image guided neuromodulation therapy). Also in this case technical challenges have to be solved. In particular DeNeCor targets: • Focused spatial localization with a transcranial magnetic stimulator (TMS), which requires the design of a coil array with compact distributed power electronic modules and control electronics; • Arrays for neural sensing, invasive and non-invasive, based on new sensor arrays and packaging technology, with connection to modulation and rehabilitation devices. • Replacing piezo-electric US transducers by Capacitive Micromachined Ultrasound Transducers (CMUT) including 3D packaging, ASIC development and integration in an endoscopic system The third aim of DeNeCor is to develop test methods such that the development of therapy devices and diagnostic systems can be decoupled which increases the efficiency of the demonstrator developments and enables technical evolution of all systems at their own pace. In addition test methods are currently missing from the Technical Specification IEC/ISO 10974 and are essential for its transformation in to an international safety standard.

Keywords: neurocontrol neurorehabilitation eeg tms sensor deep brain stimulation
Organic Phosphor for Efficient Remote LED Applications (OPERA)

Framework: FP7 — Cooperation
Programme: Joint Technology Initiatives (Annex IV-SP1)
Theme: Public-private partnerships
Destination: Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer
Action type: Collaborative project
Partnership: ENIAC (Art-185)
Countries involved: Netherlands,Netherlands,Netherlands,United Kingdom,United Kingdom,Switzerland
Call:  (ENIAC-2012-1, 2012)
Start date: 2013-03-01
End date: 2016-02-29
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 5649803.0
EU funding (EUR): 847471.0
Participants: 7
Project status: CLOSED

White light sources based on Inorganic LED is an emerging technology which will dominate the lighting market. There remain significant research challenges before a high efficacy, high lumen output, retrofit lamp with high quality white light can be made at an affordable price. In mainstream LED lighting, white light is obtained from a phosphor layer which is placed on top of a blue light-emitting LED. OPERA will place the LEDs in a highly-reflective light-mixing chamber with the phosphor at the exit surface, reducing phosphor temperature to 80oC and light intensity 1000x less, inexpensive and wavelength-tunable organic phosphors used instead of costly and export-restricted rare-earth based inorganic phosphors. We introduce two new innovations improving the system efficiency: 1) Introduce a new set of organic phosphors with significantly higher efficiencies and long lifetimes (50000hrs). 2) Increase the efficacy of the LED light engine by replacing state-of-the-art inefficient light diffusers with efficient diffractive optics complemented with an improved reflectivity of the mixing chambers. OPERA will demonstrate a breakthrough in LED light engines which will DOUBLE the luminous efficacy of the state-of-the-art direct phosphor-converted LED modules. Resulting in two demonstrators: 1) LED engine with efficacy of 130Lm/Watt CCT 2700K with CRI 90 Incandescent 2) LED engine with efficacy of 150Lm/W at CCT 4000K with CRI 80 Fluorescent tube. The consortium addresses the research challenges associated with the remote phosphor optical configuration, efficient stable organic phosphor definition and components for light engine construction. We give European industry an important role in design and manufacturing of optical components based on alternative phosphors for light conversion and light engine construction. We make highly efficient white light engines, based on new organic phosphor materials and compact optics, provide a long-term set of knowledge control points.

Keywords: a breakthrough in new led light engines,double luminous efficacy,efficient diffractive element,improvement of mixing chamber with a better design and diffractive optics.