Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
The geometry of topological quantum field theories (TQFT)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Mathematical foundations
Countries involved: Germany,Germany
Call:  (ERC-2007-StG, 2007)
Start date: 2009-01-01
End date: 2014-06-30
Duration (months): 66.0
Total project cost (EUR): 750000.0
EU funding (EUR): 750000.0
Participants: 2
Project status: CLOSED

The predictive power of quantum field theory (QFT) is a perpetual driving force in geometry. Examples include the invention of Frobenius manifolds, mixed twistor structures, primitive forms, and harmonic bundles, up to the discovery of the McKay correspondence, mirror symmetry, and Gromov-Witten invariants. Still seemingly disparate, in fact these all are related to topological (T) QFT and thereby to the work by Cecotti, Vafa et al of more than 20 years ago. The broad aim of the proposed research is to pull the strands together which have evolved from TQFT, by implementing insights from mathematics and physics. The goal is a unified, conclusive picture of the geometry of TQFTs. Solving the fundamental questions on the underlying common structure will open new horizons for all disciplines built on TQFT. Hertling’s “TERP” structures, formally unifying the geometric ingredients, will be key. The work plan is textured into four independent strands which gain full power from their intricate interrelations. (1) To implement TQFT, a construction by Hitchin will be generalised to perform geometric quantisation for spaces with TERP structure. Quasi-classical limits and conformal blocks will be studied as well as TERP structures in the Barannikov-Kontsevich construction of Frobenius manifolds. (2) Relating to singularity theory, a complete picture is aspired, including matrix factorisation and allowing singularities of functions on complete intersections. A main new ingredient are QFT results by Martinec and Moore. (3) Incorporating D-branes, spaces of stability conditions in triangulated categories will be equipped with TERP structures. To use geometric quantisation is a novel approach which should solve the expected convergence issues. (4) For Borcherds automorphic forms and GKM algebras their as yet cryptic relation to “generalised indices” shall be demystified: In a geometric quantisation of TERP structures, generalised theta functions should appear naturally.

Keywords: quantum field theory,algebraic and symplectic geometry,integrable systems
Human Motion Analysis from Image Sequences (HUMANIS)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Materials and Synthesis
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call:  (ERC-2007-StG, 2007)
Start date: 2008-11-01
End date: 2014-10-31
Duration (months): 72.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1478208.0
EU funding (EUR): 1478208.0
Participants: 2
Project status: CLOSED

Recent research has uncovered real potential for humans to interact with computers in natural ways by using their body motion, gestures and facial expressions. This has resulted in a huge surge of research within the Computer Vision community to develop algorithms able to understand, model and interpret human motion using visual information. Commercial motion capture solutions exist that can reconstruct the full motion of a human body or the deformations of a face. However these systems are severely restricted by the need to use markers on the subject and multiple calibrated cameras besides being costly and technically complex. Imagine instead the possibility of pointing a camera at a person for a few seconds and obtaining a fully parameterised detailed 3D model in a completely automated way. This 3D model could subsequently be used for animation tasks, to assist physiotherapists in the rehabilitation of patients with injuries or ultimately to guide a robot in a surgical operation. The aim of this project is to bring this scenario closer to reality by conducting the ground-breaking research needed to crack some of the challenging open problems in visual human motion analysis. So far visual human motion tracking systems have typically modelled the human body as a 3D skeleton ignoring the fact that each of its articulated parts is not strictly rigid but can also deform, since they are surrounded by soft tissue, muscles and clothes. Think of a torso performing small twists, a bicep flexing or a face performing different facial expressions. In this grant I are interested in recovering the full detailed 3D shape of the human body, including a model for the supporting 3D skeleton that captures its underlying articulated structure and a collection of deformable models to describe the non-rigid nature of each of its parts. Crucially, I plan to obtain these models without the use of markers, prior models or exemplars --- purely from image measurements.

Keywords: computer vision,human motion capture,structure from motion,3d deformable modelling from images
The Formation and Visualisation of the Social and Political Order of Princes in late Medieval Europe. A Comparative Study between the Empire and England (RANK)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Cultures and cultural production
Countries involved: Germany
Call:  (ERC-2007-StG, 2007)
Start date: 2008-10-01
End date: 2014-09-30
Duration (months): 72.0
Total project cost (EUR): 900000.0
EU funding (EUR): 900000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

This project examines the formation and differentiation of princely elites in pre-modern European rank societies. The project concentrates on the late Middle Ages (1200–1500), a key period in these processes, with geographic focus on the Empire and England. In both polities new princely elites emerged during this period. Yet, they did so in the context of the establishment of two different monarchical principles, the elective kingship in the Empire and the hereditary kingship in England. In the Empire, the electoral princes became a distinctive group and constituted themselves as the pillars of the imperium. In England, the title of duke appears to have been introduced to distinguish members of the royal family from other magnates. In examining these complex social and political processes in both polities the project contributes to establish a typology of different ways of constructing societies in pre-modern Europe using an interdisciplinary, comparative approach. The project combines history, architectural and art history, archaeology and semiotics to analyse princely actions, princely architecture and heraldry. In so doing we will endeavour to determine the strategies developed and deployed by princes in late medieval Europe to represent and improve their rank and thus their significance. The comparison sheds light on several key issues such as whether the emperorship, unique in Europe, enabled the development of a king-like position for (electoral) princes, and how in different political contexts the position of the magnates in relation to each other and the king was communicated and perpetuated. This project breaks new ground on several frontiers. Interconnecting different disciplines, it crosses existing subject boundaries and thus opens up new ways of fruitful cooperation. By comparing the Empire with England the project also transgresses the traditional boundaries of national history, thus helping to establish a European perspective in medieval studies.

Keywords: interdisciplinary study,history,art/architectural history,archaeology,auxiliary sciences
STARring a trans-regional network of REGIOnal research-driven marine clusters (STARNETREGIO)

Framework: FP7 — Capacities
Programme: Regions of Knowledge
Destination: Transnational cooperation between regional research-driven clusters
Action type: Coordination and support actions
Countries involved: Italy,Slovenia,Croatia
Call:  (FP7-REGIONS-2007-1, 2007)
Start date: 2008-01-15
End date: 2010-07-14
Duration (months): 30.0
Total project cost (EUR): 981696.8
EU funding (EUR): 799297.0
Participants: 12
Project status: CLOSED

The competitive advantage of the EU in the maritime industry sector has to be sustained and depends mainly on the sector's performance, its flexibility and continuation of competitiveness. In this regard, shipbuilding and port equipment are important and strategic industry in a number of EU member states and for the European Community as a whole. RTD investment for boosting the sector is needed and has to focus on the development of critical and dynamic technologies both for products and production processes, helping the maritime industry compete successfully in global markets and benefit from the exploitation of the so called "motorways of the sea". The STARNETregio project has been conceived to increase the overall capacity of regional players in the regions Friuli Venezia Giulia (Italy), Slovenia and the County of Rijeka (Croatia) to invest in RTD and carry out research activities concerning the marine industry, in specific the shipbuilding and port equipment, intended to strengthen and develop the sector's scientific and technological basis and ultimately the economic growth of the regions. This endeavour will be achieved by encouraging and supporting within the regions, based on the triple helix model, the performance of "regional research-driven clusters", associating universities and research centres (RTD), enterprises (industry cluster) and public regional authorities (PA), and enhance coordination and cooperation among these regions. The project will be implemented during a 30 months period in four main consecutive and complementary phases: 1) Establishment of the institutional cluster framework and thorough mapping of regional development plans and RTD key actors; 2) Cross-regional analysis of regional development plans and RTD actors, aiming at setting the basis for a future trans-national collaborative research environment; 3) Knowledge transfer through mutual learning processes and mentoring activities; 4) Development of a joint Action Plan for improving the integration process.

Keywords: maritime industry,shipbuilding,concerted research strategies
RNA directed DNA elimination in Tetrahymena (TETRAHYMENA)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Molecular and Structural Biology and Biochemistry
Countries involved: Austria
Call:  (ERC-2007-StG, 2007)
Start date: 2008-09-01
End date: 2013-12-31
Duration (months): 64.0
Total project cost (EUR): 900000.0
EU funding (EUR): 900000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Tetrahymena eliminates micronuclear-limited sequences from the developing macronucleus during sexual reproduction (DNA elimination). It is believed that the DNA to be eliminated is identified by their homology with ~28 nt small RNAs (scnRNAs) which are made by a RNAi-related mechanism. Detailed mechanisms as well as exact biological functions of the RNA-directed DNA elimination remain obscure. The goal of this specific project is to understand: (i) How a RNAi-related mechanism directs DNA elimination. (ii) How the mating types are determined as a consequence of DNA elimination. We recently revealed that scnRNAs are processed by Dicer protein Dcl1p and form complex with Argonaute protein Twi1p. The RNA helicase Ema1p facilitates interaction of scnRNA and chromatin and this interaction induces H3K9 and K27 methylations that are catalyzed by the histone methyltransferase Ezl1p. To understand how these proteins are connected to each other, their detailed functions and novel proteins interacting with them will be analyzed. One of the possible biological functions of the DNA elimination is mating type determination. Tetrahymena possesses seven mating types and the different mating types are thought to be determined by alternative DNA elimination of a single locus. But how mating types are determined is totally unknown. We aim to identify mating type determinants using microarray screening, proteomics and mating type transformation with a cDNA library. Then, we will analyze how expression of those molecules is controlled by DNA elimination. In diverse eukaryotes, RNA silencing mechanisms mediate heterochromatin formation and regulate many chromatin functions. Through our study, we could gain deeper insights not only into DNA elimination in a curious microbe, but also into how chromatin functions are epigenetically controlled by small RNAs in most of the eukaryotes. We are confident that this work will provide a big impact on RNA silencing and chromatin studies.

Keywords: rnai,rna silencing,heterochromatin,tetrahymena,mating-type
Mechanisms of specificity during symbiosis signalling (SYMBIOSIS)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Diagnostic tools, therapies and public health
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call:  (ERC-2007-StG, 2007)
Start date: 2008-05-01
End date: 2013-04-30
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1992272.0
EU funding (EUR): 1992272.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The availability of nitrogen and phosphate are the major limitations to plant growth and many species of plants have entered symbiotic interactions with microbial partners that aid in the uptake of these nutrients from the surrounding environment. Legumes form symbiotic interactions with mycorrhizal fungi that aid in the uptake of phosphate and with nitrogen fixing rhizobial bacteria that provide the plant with a source of nitrogen in the form of ammonium. A better understanding of these symbiotic processes will provide opportunities to improve and expand these symbiotic interactions in important crop species, which could greatly enhance agricultural productivity and sustainability. In both of these symbiotic interactions signal exchange between the plant and the symbiont is crucial for the establishment of the interaction. While these two symbioses initiate very different developmental responses in the plant, they share a common symbiosis signalling pathway, that is involved in the recognition of the symbiotic signalling molecules. Despite this conservation in signalling, specificity must be maintained in order to ensure appropriate responses in the plant to the two different symbionts. Calcium acts as a central secondary messenger in the symbiosis signalling pathway and we have evidence suggesting the nature of the calcium signature defines the mechanism of specificity. This proposal will address how the two symbionts are differentially perceived and the mechanisms by which the calcium signal can define specific symbiotic responses, despite this conservation in the signalling pathway.

Keywords: plant-microbe interactions
Development of ab initio based classical interaction potentials for the study of the structure and dynamics of aqueous solutions and interfaces. (SIMULAQI)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: International Re-integration Grants
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Greece
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2007-4-3-IRG, 2007)
Start date: 2007-09-03
End date: 2010-09-02
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 75000.0
EU funding (EUR): 75000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

We propose theoretical and computational studies aimed at understanding the role of aqueous solutions and interfaces relevant to atmospheric problems. In particular, we propose to study the effect of ions, salts and acids on the structural and dynamical properties of the aqueous/vapor interface. These chemical species have been known to play an important role in various atmospheric processes. Understanding their solvation, propensity and transport at aqueous interfaces is necessary in order to address atmospheric problems resulting from man made chemical processing. Experimental techniques, such as vibrational spectroscopy, provide only indirect structural information of pure liquids and surface-active solutes in the region of interface. A more direct determination of the interfacial properties can be achieved via molecular simulation. A caveat in interpreting the results of molecular simulations and comparing them with experiment lies in the accuracy of the representation of the underlying molecular interactions. In order to achieve the objectives of this study, we propose (i) to develop accurate classical models of the intermolecular interactions based on the use of high-level electronic structure calculations (ii) to develop general codes for classical and quantum statistical mechanical simulations and their efficient implementation on parallel computer architectures, (iii) to perform simulations of the structural and dynamical properties of the aqueous/vapor interface with an emphasis on the importance of nuclear quantum effects and (iv) to directly compare our theoretical predictions with experimental (spectroscopic) measurements.

Keywords: chemical physics,aqueous interfaces,interaction potentials,computer simulations,molecular dynamics,statistical mechanics,ab initio electronic structure,atmosphere
Unlocking Animal Food Quality Research Potential in Baltic Region by Developing Scientific and Technical Capacities of the Research Institute “Sigra” (BALTFOODQUAL)

Framework: FP7 — Capacities
Programme: Research Potential
Destination: Unlocking and developing the Research Potential of research entities established in the EU�s Convergence regions and Outermost Regions
Action type: Coordination and support actions
Countries involved: Latvia
Call:  (FP7-REGPOT-2007-1, 2007)
Start date: 2008-02-01
End date: 2011-01-31
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 1100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The scope of the project is to develop S&T potential of the promising research centre of Latvia - Research Institute Sigra, in order to enforce high level research on animal feed and food quality in collaboration with research teams from other EU countries, as well as contribute to the development of research capacity of Baltic region and its integration in the European Research Area. Long term objective: To stimulate realisation of full research potential of the enlarged European Union by unlocking and developing existing research potential in one of the convergence regions – Baltic. Short term objectives: 1.To strengthen capacity of researchers of the Research Institute Sigra to participate at EU level in the research projects and activities on animal feed and food quality. 2.To improve technical capacity of the Research Institute Sigra to carry out high quality research on animal feed and food quality and their impact on consumers health. 3.To promote collaboration with other research institutions in European Research Area, having similar scientific interest in order to use research capacity more synergetic and efficiently. Main activities planned: 1.Secondments of research staff. 2.Development of “Collaboration Research Program”. 3.Acquisition and development of research equipment. 4.Conferences and workshops, organised by the RI Sigra. 5.Participation in international exhibitions and congresses, in order to disseminate information about the project and the research institute. 6.Publishing and dissemination of the brochure. 7.Publications in scientific journals. Results expected: 1.RTD capacity and the quality of research upgraded.2.Better integration of the research team of RI Sigra in the European Research Area (ERA)achieved. 3.The capacity of RI Sigra for participation in FP7 projects improved. Duration of the project - 36 months. Total budget - EUR 1 100 000.

Keywords: unlocking research potential,by improvement of capacity of research staff,and developing of research equipment.
Precision measurements on cold molecules in a fountain (MOLFOUNTAIN)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Fundamental constituents of matter
Countries involved: Netherlands
Call:  (ERC-2007-StG, 2007)
Start date: 2008-08-01
End date: 2013-07-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 1100000.0
Participants: 2
Project status: CLOSED

In a recent series of experiments, it has been shown that polar molecules can be decelerated, bunched, cooled, and trapped using time-varying electric fields. These experiments demonstrate an unprecedented level of control over molecules, which enables a variety of applications of great scientific interest. Here, I propose to use these techniques to create a molecular fountain. In this fountain, the first of its kind, polar molecules are decelerated, cooled, and subsequently launched upwards some 10-50 cm before falling back under gravity, thereby passing a microwave cavity or laser beam twice – as they fly up and as they fall back down. The effective interrogation time in such a Ramsey type measurement scheme includes the entire flight time between the two traversals through the driving field, which can be up to a second. This long interrogation time will allow for extreme precision measurements on molecular structure to a level at which fundamental physics theories can be tested. I will use the inversion frequency in ammonia around 23 GHz as a test case. This transition is very well studied and was used in the first ‘atomic’ clock and the first demonstration of a MASER. The fountain should make it possible to measure the inversion frequency with a relative accuracy of 10^{-12}–10^{-14}; that is more than a thousand fold improvement as compared to the best previous measurement. Besides serving as a proof-of-principle, this measurement may be used as a test of the time-variation of fundamental constants – an issue that has profound implications on how we understand the universe. The inversion frequency in ammonia is determined by the tunneling rate of the protons through the barrier between the two equivalent configurations of the molecule, and is exponentially dependent on the proton mass. By monitoring the inversion frequency over a period of a few years, a possible variation of the proton-electron mass ratio can be constrained or measured.

Keywords: cold molecules,precision tests,molecular clock,fundamental constants,stark deceleration