Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Towards a fables company for the design of hybrid CMOS/magnetic digital circuits (DESHYMAG)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Proof of concept grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Countries involved: France
Call:  (ERC-2012-PoC, 2012)
Start date: 2013-03-01
End date: 2014-02-28
Duration (months): 12.0
Total project cost (EUR): 147400.0
EU funding (EUR): 147400.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

This PoC project is closely coupled to the ERC Advanced Grant HYMAGINE. The purpose of this ERC is twofold : i) Develop a hybrid technology combining CMOS logic together with magnetic materials, in particular magnetic tunnel junctions non volatile cells, and conceive a few innovative architectures illustrating the outstanding potential of this approach; ii) Promote this hybrid technology in collaboration with ITRS and reduce the worldwide cultural gap between microelectronics (in particular designers) and magnetism communities. The benefits expected from this hybrid technology are: a higher processing power, a much reduced power consumption, high speed and on-the-fly reconfigurability, radiation hardness and tolerance to harsh environment, simpler design cycles, reduced footprint on the Si wafer and correlatively lower cost. In 2006, SPINTEC (the PI’s lab) launched a start-up company, Crocus Technology, aiming at developing and bringing the magnetic memory (MRAM) technology to production. Crocus Technology is a growing company now employing 65 people. It raised 75M$ in equity and 300M$ in 2011 to build a production line joint venture for MRAM. . Having already successfully spun-off a start-up in the past (Crocus Technology), our objective through this ERC “Proof Of Concept” project, is to launch a new fables company aiming at conceiving and designing IPs (innovative designs) and products based on this hybrid CMOS/magnetic technology. This fables company will work in partnership with foundries (potentially Crocus Technology) to produce the chips. This start-up will be run and managed by a team of experienced researchers/engineers with experience and industrial background in magnetic and CMOS technologies.

Keywords: 246942
SPRITES Optimisation of Bio-inspired Gel Scaffolds for Hydrogen Production (SPRITES-H2)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Proof of concept grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Countries involved: United Kingdom,United Kingdom
Call:  (ERC-2012-PoC, 2012)
Start date: 2013-05-01
End date: 2014-04-30
Duration (months): 12.0
Total project cost (EUR): 162670.22
EU funding (EUR): 149279.0
Participants: 2
Project status: CLOSED

Results arising from the ERC Starting Investigator Grant, Introducing SPRITES (202706, Aug’08-Jul‘12) reveal that encapsulating synthetic molecules based upon the hydrogenase enzyme in a bio-gel material cause dramatic changes in chemical behaviour as well as significant improvements in their stability when exposed to air. These systems therefore offer exciting prospects for use as a scaffold material for hydrogen production catalysts in fuel cell applications, addressing an urgent need in the next-generation energy production sector. In this proof of concept study we will perform technical testing and validation of a library of material formulations using SPRITES spectroscopy to determine the most technologically-promising material. The output will be threefold i) a gel material capable of hydrogen production ii) a library of bio-gel formulations for use as catalyst scaffolds iii) a SPRITES screening procedure for advanced materials.

Keywords: 202706
PEL-SKIN: A novel kind of surface coatings in aeronautics (PEL-SKIN)

Framework: FP7 — Cooperation
Programme: Transport (including Aeronautics)
Destination: Aeronautics and air transport
Action type: Collaborative project
Countries involved: France,United Kingdom,Germany,Spain,Italy
Call:  (FP7-AAT-2012-RTD-L0, 2012)
Start date: 2013-06-01
End date: 2015-11-30
Duration (months): 30.0
Total project cost (EUR): 792520.0
EU funding (EUR): 599990.0
Participants: 6
Project status: CLOSED

The PEL-SKIN project aims to deliver a novel airfoil coating to improve the global aerodynamic performance and manoeuvrability of future air transport. We propose to investigate drag reduction from a prefabricated coating composed of a densely packed arrangement of flexible fibres that can be attached directly onto a wing or aerodynamic surface, in the region of separated flow. Inspired by the ‘pop up’ of birds feathers in certain flight modes, the amelioration of aerodynamic performance via a Porous and ELastic (PEL) is based on the concept of reconfiguring/adapting to the separated flow, thereby directly changing the near-wall flow and the subsequent vortex shedding; which can lead to reduced form drag by decreasing the intensity and the size of the recirculation region. This concept of flow control is novel, more efficient than classical actuators, and can lead to significant increase in the aerodynamic performances. The objective of the project is to investigate the performance benefit this technology can deliver for flow at high Reynolds number, relevant for the next generation of aircrafts. The research will endeavour to deliver a clear physical understanding of the principle flow control mechanism and an accompanying numerical model of the phenomena, which shall be implemented and tested into industrial aerodynamics software tools; ready for more detailed downstream design work. Although this research is motivated from low to moderate Reynolds number flows, it is expected that the understanding of the physical mechanisms will pave the way to the development of breakthrough control strategies for separated flows at higher Reynolds-numbers for larger aircraft. The success of this project can thus be expected to deliver direct impact on the environment in long-term; where in the EU, it is currently estimated that 25% of CO2 emissions come from the aeronautical sector.

Keywords: flow control,form drag reduction,boundary layer separation control,fsi,biomimetics,poroelastic layer,birds feathers,turbulence,cfd,ibm,parallel computing,micro-piv,3d-piv,cilia
Novel diagnostic Tools for Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases (NOVELTAP)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Proof of concept grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Countries involved: Switzerland
Call:  (ERC-2012-PoC, 2012)
Start date: 2013-07-01
End date: 2014-06-30
Duration (months): 12.0
Total project cost (EUR): 159592.0
EU funding (EUR): 147936.2
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Neurodegeneration associated with Parkinson’s (PD) and Alzheimer’s (AD) diseases begins several years prior to the appearance of clinical symptoms and in total, over eight million people in Europe were living with PD or AD in year 2010. Currently, there are no diagnostic tools which allow for early diagnose and/or monitoring the progression these diseases in living patients and the available therapeutic methods only offer transient symptomatic relief. Increasing evidence suggest that early diagnosis and intervention are crucial for any future therapeutic strategies to treat and/or slow the progression of these devastating diseases. The target of the PoC project is to establish the innovation potential of using the antibodies developed by the PI as diagnostic tools in PD and AD. To fulfill this target, testing and commercialization activities will take place. Specifically, the PoC project will focus on the in-vitro and in-vivo testing of the antibodies using the blood and the cerebrospinal fluid obtained post-mortem from PD and AD patients as well as from animal transgenic models. If successful, these novel antibodies would enable the development of preclinical diagnostic tools for detecting and measuring protein aggregation and other biomarkers, which could ultimately lead to the development of novel and desperately needed pre-diagnostic and therapeutic strategies for treating and/or preventing neurodegeneration in PD and AD. With the help of the PI’s research team, the Technology Transfer Office of EPFL and subcontractors, the PI will develop a commercialization roadmap required to establish proof of concept.

Keywords: 243182
Circuit-level Photonic design (CUP)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Proof of concept grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Countries involved: Belgium
Call:  (ERC-2012-PoC, 2012)
Start date: 2013-02-01
End date: 2014-01-31
Duration (months): 12.0
Total project cost (EUR): 168120.0
EU funding (EUR): 149907.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

In the ERC-project NaResCo, we have developed a tool Caphe to model and simulate complex photonic integrated circuits (PICs). Caphe is aimed at narrowing the "design gap" experienced by photonic IC designers today. The ever increasing complexity of photonic ICs is making their design much harder, while existing tools for photonic IC design are lagging. The result is a gap between what is needed and what is available to do the job. In the course of NaResCo, we have developed Caphe to the point where we have demonstrated its capabilities, and have applied it to the simulation of photonic reservoirs, which pose a considerable design challenge. The results encouraged us to look into the commercial potential of this tool. In CuP, we will push Caphe to a pre-commercial level. The main activities will focus on the development of a roadmap, technical improvements to make the tool commercially viable, elaboration of a licensing scheme (pre-commercial and commercial), demonstrate and document user cases (alpha-customers).The final exploitation strategy can be either through a new university spin-off company or licensing to an existing software vendor.

Keywords: 239599
Wings of the future (FUTUREWINGS)

Framework: FP7 — Cooperation
Programme: Transport (including Aeronautics)
Destination: Aeronautics and air transport
Action type: Collaborative project
Countries involved: Italy,Germany,United Kingdom
Call:  (FP7-AAT-2012-RTD-L0, 2012)
Start date: 2013-06-01
End date: 2015-07-31
Duration (months): 26.0
Total project cost (EUR): 816800.0
EU funding (EUR): 599150.0
Participants: 4
Project status: CLOSED

The project moves starting from a very simple concept: let us think of an airplane as a great body with its end structures that could have the possibility to change their shape as they had internal nerve endings and muscles. The aerodynamic shape of aircraft lifting surfaces must change during the flight, owing to the aerodynamic requirements of the different maneuvers (ascent and descent operations, yaw). Mobile surfaces are introduced in conventional wings to this purpose (ailerons, flaps, slats etc.), introducing at the same time inevitably additional weight, mechanisms, sources of vibrations and other well known limits. An interesting alternative to mobile surfaces could be represented by “self shaping wings”, i.e. wings the surface of which can be elastically deformed through its entire length, and managed in order to obtain the required lifting profile. Such wing performances could be obtained through the application of composite hybrid materials where layers of new generation of piezoelectric fibers are drowned, and trigged by relatively low voltage. Target of the research is the deep understanding of the technical feasibility and of the limits of such an application. Depending on the results, “self shaping wings” (or “Future Wings”) could be more deeply investigated and designed in order to replace ailerons, slats, tail wings, rudders and, probably, even flaps: the relevant technology could have really wide fields of applications (helicopter rotor blades, satellite panels, etc.). Project objectives will be pursued developing at first theoretical models and computational new generation algorithms aimed at designing, optimizing and afterwards manufacturing a scaled model of “Future Wing” on which experimental tests will be carried out in order to understand the viability of the original idea, which has the potential to bring a radical new approach to the design of flying vehicles lifting surfaces configuration.

Keywords: aircraft,canard,smart wing,morphing wing,composite materials,smart materials,piezo-electric materials,hybrid materials
Nodal Lines (NODAL)

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: United Kingdom
Call:  (ERC-2013-StG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-02-01
End date: 2020-01-31
Duration (months): 72.0
Total project cost (EUR): 966361.0
EU funding (EUR): 966361.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

First observed by the physicist and musician Ernst Chladni in the 18th century, the nodal lines (also referred to as the Chladni Plates or Chladni Modes) appear in many problems in engineering, physics and natural sciences. Nodal lines describe sets that remain stationary during membrane vibrations, hence their importance in such diverse areas as musical instruments industry, mechanical structures, earthquake study and other fields. My proposed research aims at the nodal patterns and question arising from them with mathematical rigour. So far, the nodal structures have been mainly addressed in the physics literature, whose statement are lacking the mathematical precision; most of their results are based on numerical experiments and heuristic computations rather than analytic methods typical for mathematics. In his seminal paper, Michael Berry (1977) suggested that the behaviour of the deterministic nodal patterns corresponding to the high frequency vibration on generic membranes is universal, and may be "miraculously" explained by a random ensemble of monochromatic waves. Extensive numerical experiments confirm Berry's predictions, however no rigorous statement is known (or even formulated) to date. In this research I propose to investigate the nodal structures in depth arising for various random ensembles. These kind of questions, very natural, especially in light of the proposed random models, were studied empirically in physics literature, and in the last few years analytically in the mathematics literature, mainly by Nazarov and Sodin, and the PI in various collaborations. The questions arising are of fundamental importance in mathematical physics, probability theory, mathematical analysis, and, as was recently discovered, number theory. The proposed research aims at rigorously answering some of the related open questions.
Holography for realistic black holes and cosmologies (HOLOBHC)

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: Belgium
Call:  (ERC-2013-StG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-02-01
End date: 2019-01-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1020084.0
EU funding (EUR): 1020084.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

String theory provides with a consistent framework which combines quantum mechanics and gravity. Two grand challenges of fundamental physics - building realistic models of black holes and cosmologies - can be addressed in this framework thanks to novel holographic methods. Recent astrophysical evidence indicates that some black holes rotate extremely fast, as close as 98% to the extremality bound. No quantum gravity model for such black holes has been formulated so far. My first objective is building the first model in string theory of an extremal black hole. Taking on this challenge is made possible thanks to recent advances in a remarkable duality known as the gauge/gravity correspondence. If successful, this program will pave the way to a description of quantum gravity effects that have been conjectured to occur close to the horizon of very fast rotating black holes. Supernovae detection has established that our universe is starting a phase of accelerated expansion. This brings a pressing need to better understand still enigmatic features of de Sitter spacetime that models our universe at late times. My second objective is to derive new universal properties of the cosmological horizon of de Sitter spacetime using tools inspired from the gauge/gravity correspondence. These results will contribute to understand its remarkable entropy, which, according to the standard model of cosmology, bounds the entropy of our observable universe.

Keywords: black holes,ads/cft correspondence,string theory,gravity,cosmology
Exact Results in Quantum Field Theory (EXQFT)

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: Israel
Call:  (ERC-2013-StG, 2013)
Start date: 2013-09-01
End date: 2018-08-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1158692.0
EU funding (EUR): 1158692.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Quantum field theory (QFT) is a unified conceptual and mathematical framework that encompasses a veritable cornucopia of physical phenomena, including phase transitions, condensed matter systems, elementary particle physics, and (via the holographic principle) quantum gravity. QFT has become the standard language of modern theoretical physics. Despite the fact that QFT is omnipresent in physics, we have virtually no tools to analyze from first principles many of the interesting systems that appear in nature. (For instance, Quantum Chromodynamics, non-Fermi liquids, and even boiling water.) Our main goal in this proposal is to develop new tools that would allow us to make progress on this fundamental problem. To this end, we will employ two strategies. First, we propose to study in detail systems that possess extra symmetries (and are hence simpler). For example, critical systems often admit the group of conformal transformations. Another example is given by theories with Bose-Fermi degeneracy (supersymmetric theories). We will explain how we think significant progress can be achieved in this area. Advances here will allow us to wield more analytic control over relatively simple QFTs and extract physical information from these models. Such information can be useful in many areas of physics and lead to new connections with mathematics. Second, we will study general properties of renormalization group flows. Renormalization group flows govern the dynamics of QFT and understanding their properties may lead to substantial developments. Very recent progress along these lines has already led to surprising new results about QFT and may have direct applications in several areas of physics. Much more can be achieved. These two strategies are complementary and interwoven.

Keywords: renormalization group,conformal symmetry,supersymmetric gauge theory,non-perturbative aspects of quantum field theory,duality.
Automorphic q-series and their application (AQSER)

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
Call:  (ERC-2013-StG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-01-01
End date: 2019-04-30
Duration (months): 64.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1240500.0
EU funding (EUR): 1240500.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

This proposal aims to unravel mysteries at the frontier of number theory and other areas of mathematics and physics. The main focus will be to understand and exploit “modularity” of q-hypergeometric series. “Modular forms are functions on the complex plane that are inordinately symmetric.” (Mazur) The motivation comes from the wide-reaching applications of modularity in combinatorics, percolation, Lie theory, and physics (black holes). The interplay between automorphic forms, q-series, and other areas of mathematics and physics is often two-sided. On the one hand, the other areas provide interesting examples of automorphic objects and predict their behavior. Sometimes these even motivate new classes of automorphic objects which have not been previously studied. On the other hand, knowing that certain generating functions are modular gives one access to deep theoretical tools to prove results in other areas. “Mathematics is a language, and we need that language to understand the physics of our universe.”(Ooguri) Understanding this interplay has attracted attention of researchers from a variety of areas. However, proofs of modularity of q-hypergeometric series currently fall far short of a comprehensive theory to describe the interplay between them and automorphic forms. A recent conjecture of W. Nahm relates the modularity of such series to K-theory. In this proposal I aim to fill this gap and provide a better understanding of this interplay by building a general structural framework enveloping these q-series. For this I will employ new kinds of automorphic objects and embed the functions of interest into bigger families A successful outcome of the proposed research will open further horizons and also answer open questions, even those in other areas which were not addressed in this proposal; for example the new theory could be applied to better understand Donaldson invariants.
Modulation of a novel population of immune suppressive tumoural macrophages and the therapeutic vaccination of cancer (MACTHERVAC)

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-2013-StG, 2013)
Start date: 2013-09-01
End date: 2019-08-31
Duration (months): 72.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1499994.0
EU funding (EUR): 1499994.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The therapeutic vaccination against breast cancer, and more widely all solid tumours, has largely been ineffective in clinical trials. This failure has been attributed to ‘immune editing’ of the cancerous cells, or to suppression of T cell functions within the tumour. In relation to the later, we have identified a novel population of tumoural macrophages, marked by the expression of fibroblast activation protein-alpha (FAP) which can mediate tumoural immune suppression through the enzyme heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1). Selective inhibition of HO-1 with tin mesoporphyrin (SnMP), a drug which has already been administered to infants for the treatment of neonatal jaundice, permits immunological control of tumour growth in transplantable Lewis lung carcinoma tumours. This proposal seeks to evaluate SnMP as a novel cancer immunotherapy for the treatment of breast cancer. We have demonstrated that HO-1+ cells are recruited into mammary tumours of a relevant spontaneous murine model of breast cancer. A vaccine strategy will be developed targeting telomerase, a vaccine target already in clinical trial for human breast cancer. The effect on mammary tumour growth of a vaccine induced anti-tumour immune response, alongside HO-1 inhibition to alleviate immune suppression, will be assessed. Lung metastases in these mice, and their response to treatment, will also be studied. The HO-1 expressing cells in human breast cancer will be quantitated and characterised at both the protein and transcriptome levels to validate the approach. Novel immuno-therapies directed at modulating HO-1 expression will also be investigated, facilitated by the development of a transgenic HO-1 reporter mouse which will co-express green fluorescent protein and luciferase driven by the promoter and response elements of the HO-1 gene. As cancer vaccines have already been developed, and as we have identified a drug, SnMP, which may circumvent tumoural immune suppression, this proposal is clinically relevant.

Keywords: vaccination,immune suppression,breast cancer,inflammation,mice,humans