Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Statistical Mechanics of Active Matter (SMART)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Condensed matter physics
Countries involved: Italy
Call:  (ERC-2012-StG_20111012, 2012)
Start date: 2012-11-01
End date: 2017-10-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1448400.0
EU funding (EUR): 1448400.0
Participants: 2
Project status: CLOSED

The study of living matter has to be considered as an exciting and substantive part of the modern definition of physics. Whether a general statistical mechanics exists for broad classes of of active systems and what is the quantitative predictive power that we could expect from those theories remain still open and debated questions. Reductionism and approximations, the most powerful weapons of theoretical physicists have to face a degree of complexity that has no analogue in non living matter. That results in a number of phenomenological parameters whose connection to microscopic quantities is rarely supported by experimental data. Moreover some of the most peculiar and potentially groundbreaking properties of active matter can only be evidenced in the presence of external force fields and are still largely unexplored. We propose to combine frontier research tools for 3D holographic micromanipulation and 3D two-photon microfabrication to gain an unprecedented active role in probing active matter dynamics, from few bodies interactions up to collective behavior. For example, we will study bacteria interactions by grabbing, orienting and releasing individual bacteria in a sort of bacteria-bacteria scattering experiments. On the other hand optical energy landscapes, which can be structured in space and time, will allow to study collective response to the tunable and smooth fields that are particularly suited for theoretical treatment. Furthermore two-photon lithography will allow the microfabrication of arbitrarily shaped 3D structures that will be used as probes for the highly non-trivial correlations and response functions in non equilibrium active baths. Besides providing a playground for theoretical developments in non-equilibrium physics, this project will explore novel opportunities to exploit active matter as a SMART material, capable of performing useful tasks in micro and nano engineered devices.

Keywords: active matter,non-equilibrium,self-propulsion,optical tweezers
Life Long Learning for Visual Scene Understanding (L3ViSU) (L3VISU)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Computer science and informatics
Countries involved: Austria
Call:  (ERC-2012-StG_20111012, 2012)
Start date: 2013-01-01
End date: 2018-12-31
Duration (months): 72.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1464711.68
EU funding (EUR): 1464711.68
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

My goal in the project is to develop and analyze algorithms that use continuous, open-ended machine learning from visual input data (images and videos) in order to interpret visual scenes on a level comparable to humans. L3ViSU is based on the hypothesis that we can only significantly improve the state of the art in computer vision algorithms by giving them access to background and contextual knowledge about the visual world, and that the most feasible way to obtain such knowledge is by extracting it (semi-) automatically from incoming visual stimuli. Consequently, at the core of L3ViSU lies the idea of life-long visual learning. Sufficient data for such an effort is readily available, e.g. through digital TV-channels and media- sharing Internet platforms, but the question of how to use these resources for building better computer vision systems is wide open. In L3ViSU we will rely on modern machine learning concepts, representing task-independent prior knowledge as prior distributions and function regularizers. This functional form allows them to help solving specific tasks by guiding the solution to "reasonable" ones, and to suppress mistakes that violate "common sense". The result will not only be improved prediction quality, but also a reduction in the amount of manual supervision necessary, and the possibility to introduce more semantics into computer vision, which has recently been identified as one of the major tasks for the next decade. L3ViSU is a project on the interface between computer vision and machine learning. Solving it requires expertise in both areas, as it is represented in my research group at IST Austria. The life-long learning concepts developed within L3ViSU, however, will have impact outside of both areas, let it be as basis of life-long learning system with a different focus, such as in bioinformatics, or as a foundation for projects of commercial value, such as more intelligent driver assistance or video surveillance systems.

Keywords: computer vision,lifelong learning,transfer learning,machine learning,visual scene understanding,attribute-based representations
Precision tests of the inflationary scenario (PRECISION INFLATION)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Universe sciences
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call:  (ERC-2012-StG_20111012, 2012)
Start date: 2012-10-01
End date: 2017-09-30
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1247591.2
EU funding (EUR): 1247591.2
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The Planck survey satellite will constrain the statistics of the primordial density perturbation more stringently than ever before. Present observations require these statistics to be accurately Gaussian to one part in 10^3, but hint at a departure from Gaussianity slightly below this level. Analysis of Planck data will certainly dominate cosmology in the forthcoming decade, but at present we lack the technology to fully exploit information encoded in the nongaussian fraction. Moreover, if Planck confirms the presence of a microwave background bispectrum with amplitude at the level suggested by both WMAP data and probes of the three-dimensional density field, this will be sufficient to rule out the simplest and theoretically-favoured model of inflation. But there is no consensus concerning what should take its place. Instead, we should seek guidance from experiment. In this proposal I outline a tightly focused, coherent and ambitious five-year programme of research aimed at maximizing our understanding of experimental data. In partnership with two ERC-funded postdoctoral researchers, the programme outlined in this proposal will yield four key science outcomes: first, a robust method, based on partial-wave expansions, with which to rule out microphysical models which are incompatible with observational data. Second, delivery of a precision numerical toolkit enabling the space of inflationary models and their initial conditions to be constrained by observation at an accuracy commensurate with the high-precision Planck data. Third, the ability to extract accurate predictions for observables in the case of multiple-field, non-canonical models. These are of great interest because of their status as effective field theories of ultraviolet-complete unifications of gravity with the Standard Model. Fourth, an understanding of the process by which inflationary nongaussianities can be generated, and a clear analysis of the conclusions which can be drawn from experiment.

Keywords: the very early universe,inflation,the primordial density perturbation,applications of quantum field theory in cosmology
Parallelism and Beyond: Dynamic Parallel Computation for Efficiency and High Performance (DEEPSEA)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Computer science and informatics
Countries involved: France
Call:  (ERC-2012-StG_20111012, 2012)
Start date: 2013-06-01
End date: 2018-05-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1076570.4
EU funding (EUR): 1076570.4
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

We propose to radically extend the frontiers of two major themes in computing, parallelism and dynamism, and develop a novel paradigm of computing: dynamic-parallelism. To this end, we will follow two lines of research. First, we will develop techniques for extracting efficiency and high performance from parallel programs written in high-level programming languages. Second, we will develop the dynamic-parallelism model, where computations can respond to a wide variety of dynamic changes to their data automatically and efficiently, by developing novel abstractions (calculi), high-level programming-language constructs, and compilation techniques. The research will culminate in a language that extends the C programming language with support for parallel and dynamic-parallel programming. The proposal is motivated by urgent needs driven by the advent of multicore chips, which is making parallelism mainstream, and the increasing ubiquity of software, which requires applications to operate on highly dynamic data. These advances demand parallel and highly dynamic software, which remains too difficult and labor intensive to develop. The urgency is further underlined by the increasing data and problem sizes---online data grows exponentially, doubling every few years---that require similarly powerful advances in performance. The proposal will achieve profound impact by dramatically simplifying the development of high-performing dynamic and dynamic-parallel software. As a result, programmer productivity and software quality including correctness, reliability, performance, and resource (e.g., time and energy) consumption will improve significantly. The proposal will not only open new research opportunities in parallel computing, programming languages, and compilers, but also in other fields where parallel and dynamic problems abound, e.g., algorithms, computational biology, geometry, graphics, machine learning, and software systems.

Keywords: parallel computation,dynamic computation,calculi,programming languages,compilers,algorithms,parallel scheduling,data locality,hierarchical memory,multicore computers
EUropean Provision Of Regional Impact Assessment on a Seasonal-to-decadal timescale (EUPORIAS)

Framework: FP7 — Cooperation
Programme: Environment (including Climate Change)
Destination: Coping with climate change
Action type: Collaborative project
Countries involved: United Kingdom,France,Italy,Switzerland,Spain,Spain,Denmark,Netherlands,Germany,Spain,Netherlands,Portugal,United Kingdom,Sweden,Sweden,France,Italy,Switzerland,United Kingdom,France,Romania
Call:  (FP7-ENV-2012-two-stage, 2012)
Start date: 2012-11-01
End date: 2017-01-31
Duration (months): 51.0
Total project cost (EUR): 13245139.13
EU funding (EUR): 8976723.45
Participants: 27
Project status: CLOSED

Recent advances in our understanding and forecasting of climate and climate change have brought us to the point where skilful and useful predictions are being made. These forecasts hold the potential for being of great value for a wide range of decision-makers who are affected by the vagaries of the climate and who would benefit from understanding and better managing climate-related risks. However, such climate information is currently under-used, mis-used, or not used at all. Therefore there exists the opportunity to develop new technologies to properly exploit emerging capability from the climate community, and more importantly, to engage with the users of such technologies to develop useful and useable tools. The EUPORIAS project will develop and deliver reliable predictions of the impacts of future climatic conditions on a number of key sectors (to include water, energy, health, transport, agriculture and tourism), on timescales from seasons to years ahead. The project will do this through a strong engagement with the forecast providers and the users/decision-makers, who are both represented within the project. EUPORIAS will develop climate services and tools targeted to the needs of the users, and will share knowledge to promote the technologies created within the project. EUPORIAS will also improve the users’ understanding of their vulnerability to varying climatic conditions as well as better prepare them to utilise climate forecasts, thereby reducing risks and costs associated with responding to varying climatic conditions. As a result businesses, governments, NGOs, and society in general will be able to better manage risks and opportunities associated with varying climatic conditions, thus becoming more resilient to the variability of the climate. The project will provide the basis for developing a strong climate service market within Europe, offering the opportunity for businesses to capitalise on improved management of weather and climate risks.

Keywords: climate,services,risk management,variability change,tools. seasonal to decadal,user-focussed
North Atlantic Climate: Predictability of the climate in the North Atlantic/European sector related to North Atlantic/Arctic sea surface temperature and sea ice variability and change (NACLIM)

Framework: FP7 — Cooperation
Programme: Environment (including Climate Change)
Destination: Coping with climate change
Action type: Collaborative project
Countries involved: Germany,Germany,France,Norway,Germany,Denmark,Faroe Islands,Finland,Netherlands,United Kingdom,United Kingdom,Belgium,Belgium,Denmark,United Kingdom,Iceland
Call:  (FP7-ENV-2012-two-stage, 2012)
Start date: 2012-11-01
End date: 2017-01-31
Duration (months): 51.0
Total project cost (EUR): 11046614.27
EU funding (EUR): 8598407.0
Participants: 18
Project status: CLOSED

NACLIM aims at investigating and quantifying the predictability of the climate in the North Atlantic/European sector related to North Atlantic/Arctic sea surface temperature (SST) and sea ice variability and change on seasonal to decadal time scales. SST and sea-ice forcing have a crucial impact on weather and climate in Europe. Rather than running climate forecasts ourselves, we will analyze the multi-model decadal prediction experiments currently performed as part of the fifth Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5) and critically assess the quality of predictions of the near-future state of key oceanic and atmospheric quantities relevant to the SST and sea-ice distribution and the related climate. Long-term observations of relevant ocean parameters will be carried out, necessary to assess the forecast skill of the model-based prediction results. We will identify those observations that are key to the quality of the prediction and in turn optimize the present observing system. We will quantify the impact of North Atlantic/European climate change on high trophic levels of the oceanic ecosystem as well as on urban societies.

Keywords: cmip5 prediction uncertainty,ocean monitoring,prediction initialization,fish+ urban society impact
The Human Early-Life Exposome – novel tools for integrating early-life environmental exposures and child health across Europe (HELIX)

Framework: FP7 — Cooperation
Programme: Environment (including Climate Change)
Destination: Protecting citizens from environmental hazards
Action type: Collaborative project
Countries involved: Norway,Greece,France,United Kingdom,Lithuania,United Kingdom,Spain,Netherlands,France,Spain,Italy
Call:  (FP7-ENV-2012-two-stage, 2012)
Start date: 2013-01-01
End date: 2017-12-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 11292724.89
EU funding (EUR): 8623939.0
Participants: 14
Project status: CLOSED

The aim of HELIX is to exploit novel tools and methods (remote sensing/GIS-based spatial methods, omics-based approaches, biomarkers of exposure, exposure devices and models, statistical tools for combined exposures, novel study designs, and burden of disease methodologies), to characterise early-life exposure to a wide range of environmental hazards, and integrate and link these with data on major child health outcomes (growth and obesity, neurodevelopment, immune system), thus developing an “Early-Life Exposome” approach. HELIX uses six existing, prospective birth cohort studies as the only realistic and feasible way to obtain the comprehensive, longitudinal, human data needed to build this early-life exposome. These cohorts have already collected large amounts of data as part of national and EU-funded projects. Results will be integrated with data from European cohorts (>300,000 subjects) and registers, to estimate health impacts at the large European scale. HELIX will make a major contribution to the integrated exposure concept by developing an exposome toolkit and database that will: 1) measure a wide range of major chemical and physical environmental hazards in food, consumer products, water, air, noise, and the built environment, in pre and postnatal periods; 2) integrate data on individual, temporal, and toxicokinetic variability, and on multiple exposures, which will greatly reduce uncertainty in exposure estimates; 3) determine molecular profiles and biological pathways associated with multiple exposures using omics tools; 4) provide exposure-response estimates and thresholds for multiple exposures and child health; and 5) estimate the burden of childhood disease in Europe due to multiple environmental exposures. This integration of the chemical, physical and molecular environment during critical early-life periods will lead to major improvements in health risk and impact assessments and thus to improved prevention strategies for vulnerable populations.

Keywords: exposome,environmental exposures,child health,exposure assessment,omics technologies
Development of Tools and Techniques to Survey, Assess, Stabilise, Monitor and Preserve Underwater Archaeological Sites (SASMAP)

Framework: FP7 — Cooperation
Programme: Environment (including Climate Change)
Destination: Sustainable use and management of land and seas
Action type: Collaborative project
Countries involved: Denmark,Denmark,Netherlands,Sweden,Italy,Greece,Germany,Denmark,United Kingdom,Denmark
Call:  (FP7-ENV-2012-one-stage, 2012)
Start date: 2012-09-01
End date: 2015-08-31
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2817506.6
EU funding (EUR): 2231731.6
Participants: 11
Project status: CLOSED

SASMAP’s purpose is to develop new technologies and best practices in order to locate, assess and manage Europe’s underwater cultural heritage in a more effective way than is possible today. SASMAP will take holistic- and process- based approaches to investigate underwater environments and the archaeological sites contained therein. SASMAP will benefit the management of underwater cultural heritage in Europe and in the rest of the world by providing valuable tools to plan the preservation of offshore archaeological sites and their contents in accordance with both the Treaty of Valletta (1992) and research driven investigations. The need for SASMAP is based on the results from previous and current EU initiatives, the networks resulting from these projects and on-going research at the consortium’s institutions. Within SASMAP a holistic approach will be taken to locating, assessing, monitoring and safeguarding underwater cultural heritage. This will involve developing and utilising tools and technologies to allow “down-scaling” from the large scale regional level, moving on to the local site level and finally to the individual components of a site. Results obtained from the down-scaling approach at the proposed study areas will show the effectiveness of such an approach for locating and detailed mapping of archaeological sites and their preservation potential. The end results of this approach will be used to develop a plan for assessing archaeological sites in European waters. From a management point of view this is an up-scaling approach to planning (bottom up). All information and experiences obtained during the course of the project will be utilised to enhance and develop existing legislation and best practice for mapping and preserving Europe’s underwater and coastal heritage.

Keywords: location,assessment,management,modelling,gis,new technologies,best practice guidelines,down scaling,up scaling,in situ preservation,monitoring
STrengthening And Redesigning European FLOOD risk practices Towards appropriate and resilient flood risk governance arrangements (STAR-FLOOD)

Framework: FP7 — Cooperation
Programme: Environment (including Climate Change)
Destination: Protecting citizens from environmental hazards
Action type: Collaborative project
Countries involved: Netherlands,Netherlands,United Kingdom,Belgium,Belgium,Sweden,Poland,France,France
Call:  (FP7-ENV-2012-two-stage, 2012)
Start date: 2012-10-01
End date: 2016-03-31
Duration (months): 42.0
Total project cost (EUR): 6769661.6
EU funding (EUR): 5284529.0
Participants: 10
Project status: CLOSED

Urban regions in the EU face increasing but uncertain flood risks due to urbanization and the effects of climate change. In European (a.o. the Flood Risk Directive) and in national and regional policies, attempts are made to diversify and align different Flood Risk Strategies (FRSs). In our proposal, five such strategies are distinguished: risk prevention; flood defense; mitigation; preparation; and recovery. We assume that vulnerable urban agglomerations will be more resilient if multiple FRSs are applied simultaneously, linked together and aligned. At the same time, the application of a diverse cluster of FRSs has to be appropriate, i.e. attuned to the physical and social context. The latter asks for innovative Flood Risk Governance Arrangements (FRGAs). In the proposed program, insights from governance and legal scholars will be integrated and combined, leading to policy design principles for FRGAs as well as concrete recommendations for policy and law at the level of the EU, its member states, regional authorities, and public-private partnerships. Across different EU countries and regions, we expect to identify different mixes of FRSs. We will analyze, explain and evaluate the emergence and dominance of the FRGAs through which these FRSs are institutionally embedded. For this, a comparative analysis of FRGAs in six EU member states will be carried out. This analysis will reveal good practices, provide understanding of the resilience of FRSs as well as their appropriateness in different physical, social and legal contexts. The design principles thus derived, will be brought together in a design-oriented framework for ex-ante evaluation of FRGAs. As part of the program, various target group specific knowledge dissemination activities will be carried out, aimed at regional stakeholders, high level policymakers and EU officers. To this end, Grontmij, a consultancy company, and CEPRI (The European centre for flood risk prevention) have been included in the consortium, apart from universities in the six EU member states.

Keywords: 1) flood risk strategies 2) governance arrangements 3) resilience 4) appropriateness 5) legal and policy issues 6) vulnerable urban agglomerations 7) design-oriented framework 8) practitioners guide