Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Programming with Millions of Examples (PRIME)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Consolidator grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Computer Science and Informatics
Countries involved: Israel
Call:  (ERC-2013-CoG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-03-01
End date: 2019-02-28
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1500000.0
EU funding (EUR): 1500000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The goal of this proposal is to make programming easier and more productive. We propose to develop novel program synthesis techniques, generating procedural code from declarative specifications. Existing techniques apply synthesis at such a fine grain that they can never hope to generate code of the richness and complexity required by application-level programmers. In contrast, we aim to develop synthesis algorithms that leverage the collective programming knowledge captured in millions of open-source projects. By using existing code fragments as components for synthesis, we enable synthesis to work at a higher-level of abstraction and synthesize realistic programs. Our approach represents a conceptual leap as it reduces the problem of generating code to the problem of checking whether existing code (or a combination of existing code fragments) is an appropriate solution. In some cases, this reduces the problem of synthesis to a problem of semantic code search. In other cases, it reduces the problem of synthesis over fine-grained components to synthesis as composition of coarse-grained components. The key problems are how to specify the desired behavior, how to find useful code fragments in the vast existing body of software, and the how to use synthesis to modify and assemble these fragments to form a program. Our approach combines insights and techniques from research on program analysis, program synthesis, software engineering, and machine learning. The outcome of the project will be new research directions.

Keywords: program synthesis,program analysis,static analysis
EXtreme Tectonics and Rapid Erosion in Mountain Environments (EXTREME)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Consolidator grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Earth System Science
Countries involved: Germany
Call:  (ERC-2013-CoG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-04-01
End date: 2019-03-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1999956.0
EU funding (EUR): 1999956.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Tectonic plate corners are hotspots for high rates of continental deformation and erosion, and associated with human-relevant hazards including poorly understood earthquakes, destructive landslides, and extreme climate. A better understanding of continental deformation can mitigate these hazards. However, the coupling between climate and tectonic interactions at plate corners is a key unknown and the focus of this study. My recent work, published in international journals including Science and Nature, quantifies mountain building and climate change and provides a baseline for an innovative study of plate corner dynamics. This proposal challenges the geoscience ‘tectonic aneurysm’ paradigm that rapid deformation and erosion at plate corners is initiated from the “top down” by localized precipitation, and erosion. Rather, I hypothesize that these processes are: 1) initiated from the “bottom up” by the 3D geometry of the subducting plate; and 2) require a threshold rate of both “bottom up” deformation and surface erosion to initiate a feedback between climate and tectonics. I propose, for the first time, a holistic modeling and data collection approach that quantifies the temporal and spatial evolution of all aspects of plate corner evolution, including: 3D thermomechanical modeling of plate corner deformation and uplift for different plate geometries; Atmospheric modeling to quantify the climate response to evolving topography, a topic spearheaded by my research group; And surface process modeling to close the loop and couple the atmospheric and mechanical models. Model predictions will be vetted against observed deformation and erosion histories from existing and new cosmogenic isotope and thermochronometer data from end-member locations including the Himalaya, Alaskan, Olympic, and Andean plate corners. EXTREME will produce a globally integrated atmospheric and solid Earth understanding of continental deformation, a task only possible at the scale of an ERC grant.

Keywords: mountain building,tectonics,geodynamics,and erosion. thermochronology,cosmogenic isotopes,paleoclimate modeling,thermomechanical modeling,and high performance computing.
Understanding evolutionary rates on the Tree of Life in time and space (TOLERATES)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Consolidator grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Evolutionary, Population and Environmental Biology
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call:  (ERC-2013-CoG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-05-01
End date: 2019-04-30
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1717624.0
EU funding (EUR): 1717624.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

According to models of adaptive radiation and sexual selection trait divergence is a key step in the speciation process. At a macroevolutionary scale this leads to the prediction that speciation is driven by the rate of trait evolution rather than the state of the trait. Despite the established theoretical links between trait evolution and speciation, most macroevolutionary studies focus on predicting speciation as a state dependent process. To date the hypothesis that rapid speciation is driven by rapid trait evolution has rarely been tested. If the rate or degree of divergence in species traits is an important factor in driving differences in speciation rates among lineages then there must also be variation in rates of trait evolution among lineages. Using my recently completed phylogeny of all extant birds, novel datasets of ecomorphological and secondary sexual traits, and computer simulations, I will carry out the first large-scale analyses to determine the extent to which rates of phenotypic evolution vary among lineages and across space, test the causes of non-constant evolutionary rates, and derive and test predictions on the effects of rates of trait evolution on speciation.
G-quadruplexes in the HIV-1 genome: novel targets for the development of selective antiviral drugs (HIV LTR G-4)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Consolidator grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Diagnostic Tools, Therapies and Public Health
Countries involved: Italy,Italy
Call:  (ERC-2013-CoG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-05-01
End date: 2020-04-30
Duration (months): 72.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1989471.0
EU funding (EUR): 1989471.0
Participants: 2
Project status: CLOSED

G-quadruplexes (G-4) are polymorphic nucleic acid structures identified in gene promoters where they act as transcription regulators. G-4s have been found in eukaryotic and prokaryotic organisms, while very little information is available on viruses. The applicant research group has recently shown that HIV-1, which integrates into the human chromosomes and exploits cellular factors to activate transcription, takes advantage of G-4-mediated transcription regulation. G-4 disruption stimulates promoter activity while G-4 stabilization by small molecules inhibits it, showing a striking parallelism between HIV-1 LTR and eukaryotic promoter G-4s. Preliminary results indicate that similar G-4 structures form also in the viral RNA genome before retrotranscription. Available G-4 ligands, developed as anticancer drugs targeting DNA G-4, recognize both viral and cellular G-4s. Therefore, they cannot be straightforwardly used as anti-HIV compounds. The aim of this project is to develop highly specific anti-HIV-1 drugs targeting LTR DNA and/or RNA G-4s, using both reversible G-4 ligands and G-4-selective alkylating/cleaving agents, triggered by external stimuli. These approaches will be taken: a) to increase selectivity by 1) screening of ligands against LTR G-4s to select the best hits among libraries of G-4 ligands; 2) conjugation of the most promising leads to modified nucleic acids complementing LTR G-4 loop/flanking regions, to deliver the drug to its target; b) to stabilize binding by conjugation of the ligands to 3) an alkylating/cleaving subunit, and 4) an activable moiety (such as quinone methides) that alkylates the target only once the drug has reached it. Physico-chemical, biomolecular, cellular and viral assays will be used to tests the compounds. This approach should deliver reversible and irreversible ligands that selectively inhibit viral transcription and/or reverse transcription, thus preventing virus production and/or integration into the host genome.

Keywords: g-quadruplexes,antiviral compounds,alkylating compounds,activable agents,quinone methides,hiv-1
Multifunctional micro- and nanostructures assembled from nanoscale metal-organic frameworks and inorganic nanoparticles (INANOMOF)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Consolidator grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Synthetic Chemistry and Materials
Countries involved: Spain
Call:  (ERC-2013-CoG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-04-01
End date: 2020-03-31
Duration (months): 72.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1942664.98
EU funding (EUR): 1942664.98
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

In InanoMOF, we aim to develop frontier Supramolecular and Nanochemistry methodologies for the synthesis of a novel class of structures via controlled assembly of nanoscale metal-organic frameworks (nanoMOFs) and inorganic nanoparticles (INPs). These methods will embody the premise that “controlled object-by-object nano-assembly is a ground-breaking approach to explore for producing systems of higher complexity with advanced functions”. The resulting hybrid nanoMOF@INPs will marry the unique properties of INPs (magnetism of iron oxide NPs and optics of Au NPs) to the functional porosity of MOFs. The first part of InanoMOF encompasses the design, synthesis-assembly and characterisation of nanoMOF@INPs - advanced MOF-based sorbents that incorporate the functionality of the INPs used: magnetically controlled movement, in vivo detectability, enhanced biocompatibility and porosity, pollutant removal, or controlled sorption/delivery. The second part of InanoMOF entails studying the physicochemical properties of the synthesised nanoMOF@INPs and ascertaining their utility as drug-delivery/theranostic systems and as magnetic sorbents for pollutant removal. Specifically, we will study their stability in working media and determine their capacities for drug or pollutant sorption/delivery capacities. As proof-of-concept, we will study their toxicity in vitro and in vivo; enhancement of their in vitro therapeutic efficacy; and their capacity to remove pollutants (in real water and gasoline/diesel fuel samples) via magnetic assistance. In InanoMOF we will endeavour to establish the synthetic bases for controlling the spatial ordering of nanoMOF crystals, whether alone or combined with other nanomaterials (e.g. INPs, graphene, etc.). We are confident that our work will ultimately enable researchers to create MOF-based composites having cooperative and synergistic properties and functions for myriad applications (e.g. heterogeneous catalysis, sensing and separation).

Keywords: metal-organic frameworks,mofs,nanotechnology,nanochemistry,synthesis,nano-assembly,inorganic nanoparticles,hybrid nanomaterials,superstructures,multifunctionality,pollutant removal,biomedicine
Acquisition processes in maximally diverse languages: Min(d)ing the ambient language (ACQDIV)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Consolidator grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: The Human Mind and its Complexity
Countries involved: Switzerland
Call:  (ERC-2013-CoG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-09-01
End date: 2019-08-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1998438.0
EU funding (EUR): 1998438.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Children learn any language that they grow up with, adapting to any of the ca. 7000 languages of the world, no matter how divergent or complex their structures are. What cognitive processes make this extreme flexibility possible? This is one of the most burning questions in cognitive science and the ACQDIV project aims at answering it by testing and refining the following leading hypothesis: Language acquisition is flexible and adaptive to any kind of language because it relies on a small set of universal cognitive processes that variably target different structures at different times during acquisition in every language. The project aims at establishing the precise set of processes and at determining the conditions of variation across maximally diverse languages. This project focuses on three processes: (i) distributional learning, (ii) generalization-based learning and (iii) interaction-based learning. To investigate these processes I will work with a sample of five clusters of languages including longitudinal data of two languages each. The clusters were determined by a clustering algorithm seeking the structurally most divergent languages in a typological database. The languages are: Cluster 1: Slavey and Cree, Cluster 2: Indonesian and Yucatec, Cluster 3: Inuktitut and Chintang, Cluster 4: Sesotho and Russian, Cluster 5: Japanese and Turkish. For all languages, corpora are available, except for Slavey where fieldwork is planned. The leading hypothesis will be tested against the acquisition of aspect and negation in each language of the sample and also against the two structures in each language that are most salient and challenging in them (e. g. complex morphology in Chintang). The acquisition processes also depend on statistical patterns in the input children receive. I will examine these patterns across the sample with respect to repetitiveness effects, applying data-mining methods and systematically comparing child-directed and child-surrounding speech.

Keywords: linguistic typology,first language acquisition,comparative corpus research
Stardust to asteroids: Unravelling the formation and earliest evolution of a habitable solar system (STARDUST2ASTEROIDS)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Consolidator grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Earth System Science
Countries involved: Denmark
Call:  (ERC-2013-CoG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-02-01
End date: 2019-01-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1910889.0
EU funding (EUR): 1910889.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

As far as we know, our solar system is unique. It could, in principle, be the only planetary system in the Universe to harbor intelligent life or, indeed, life at all. As such, attempting to reconstruct its history is one of the most fundamental pursuits in the natural sciences. Whereas astronomical observations of star- forming regions provide a framework for understanding the formation of low-mass stars and the early evolution of planetary systems in general, direct information about the earliest solar system can only come from primitive meteorites and their components and some differentiated meteorites that record the birth of the solar system. The main objective of this proposal is to investigate the timescales and processes – including the role of supernovas – leading to the formation of the solar system by measurement of isotopic variations in meteorites. To achieve our objectives, we will integrate long-lived and short-lived radioisotope chronometers with the presence/absence of nucleosynthetic anomalies in various meteorites and meteoritic components. Our isotopic measurements will be obtained using state-of-the-art technologies such as second-generation mass spectrometers housed in laboratories directed by the PI and fully dedicated to cosmochemistry. This will allow us to: 1) define the mechanism and timescale for the collapse of the protosolar molecular cloud and emergence of the protoplanetary disk, 2) constrain the source and locale of chondrule-forming event(s) as well as the nature of the mechanism(s) required to transport chondrules to the accretion regions of chondrites, and 3) provide robust estimates of the timing and mechanism of asteroidal differentiation. We aim to understand how the variable initial conditions imposed by the range of possible stellar environments and protoplanetary disk properties regulated the formation and assemblage of disk solids into asteroidal and planetary bodies comprising our solar system.

Keywords: solar system,formation,meteorites,cosmochemistry,nucleosynthesis,isotopes,age-dating
Quantifying Aerosol Nanoparticle Dynamics by High Time Resolution Experiments (NANODYNAMITE)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Consolidator grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Earth System Science
Countries involved: Austria
Call:  (ERC-2013-CoG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-03-01
End date: 2019-02-28
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1810698.0
EU funding (EUR): 1810698.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The formation of aerosol nanoparticles by vapour nucleation and condensational growth is currently considered the dominant source of cloud condensation nuclei on global scale, hence impacting radiative properties of the atmosphere and precipitation patterns of clouds. Despite considerable experimental and theoretical efforts, the mechanisms of the gas-to-particle conversion are still poorly understood, and so are the parameterizations of this process in climate models. Improving the situation critically depends on the continuous development of experimental techniques. For the quantitative characterization of nanoparticle dynamics especially time resolution deserves more attention. I am thus proposing to design instruments that will improve time resolution by up to five orders of magnitude. Specifically, I am planning the design of a fast-scanning electrical mobility based nanoparticle spectrometer delivering size distributions from 1 nm upwards at 1 Hz, for number concentrations as low as 100 cm-3. Secondly, in a new approach to the study of secondary organic aerosol formation I am planning to apply small angle x-ray scattering providing direct information on particle size and number at sub-millisecond time-resolution. Thirdly, the study of fundamental growth kinetics by Mie scattering at short wavelengths will constitute an important part of my research. And finally, an application oriented research task will deal with the design and construction of a nucleation based trace-gas removal system capable of generating liquid water from plain ambient air. The research on phase transition processes constitutes a vital link between molecular scale interactions and macroscopically relevant outcome. The current proposal aims at identifying and quantifying nanoparticle formation mechanisms by new experimental approaches. Thereby it will be possible to reliably predict and utilize macroscopic effects caused by aerosol mechanisms on the nano-scale.

Keywords: nucleation and growth of aerosol nanoparticles
Neural and Immune Orchestrators of Forebrain Wiring (NIMO)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Consolidator grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Neurosciences and Neural Disorders
Countries involved: France
Call:  (ERC-2013-CoG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-09-01
End date: 2020-08-31
Duration (months): 72.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1994659.0
EU funding (EUR): 1994659.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Forebrain functioning relies on complex circuits that begin to be established in the embryo by intrinsic developmental programs. Such programs coordinate the assembly of millions of neurons via an integrated choreography of neuronal migration and axonal navigation, which remains largely to be explored. In addition, intrinsic programs can be modulated by maternal environment, as illustrated by the fact that prenatal inflammation is a major risk factor for schizophrenia and autism. Understanding how embryonic programs and maternal signals control forebrain wiring is essential not only to progress in our comprehension of cerebral morphogenesis but also to provide a framework for assessing the etiology of neuropsychiatric disorders. We have shown that two cell populations, corridor neurons and more recently microglia, act by their specific positioning and properties as orchestrators of forebrain wiring. Migrating corridor neurons regulate the ordering of thalamocortical axons, a main input to the neocortex. Microglia, the resident brain macrophages that are activated by prenatal inflammation, specifically regulate the progression of cortical and dopaminergic axons and the positioning of migrating cortical interneurons. Our work not only reveals the complex interactions governing forebrain wiring, but also a remarkable interplay in the development of the neural and immune systems. We now aim at deciphering the roles of these neural and immune cells during embryonic wiring of the forebrain. By multi-disciplinary approaches in mice we will investigate: i) how corridor neurons govern the ordering of thalamic axons; ii) how microglia regulate axonal progression and neuronal migration; iii) how microglia depletion or prenatal activation impacts in the long-term on forebrain functions. This ambitious project will provide essential knowledge on the intrinsic and extrinsic mechanisms governing forebrain wiring during normal and pathological development.

Keywords: neocortex,axon guidance,cell migration,microglia,inflammation,thalamus,dopaminergic axons,cortical axons,interneurons.