Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Predicting the arsenic content in groundwater of the floodplains in SE Asia (PREAS)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Advanced grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Earth system science
Countries involved: Denmark,Viet Nam
Call:  (ERC-2013-ADG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-01-01
End date: 2018-03-31
Duration (months): 51.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1619932.18
EU funding (EUR): 1619932.18
Participants: 2
Project status: CLOSED

More than 100 million people living on the floodplains of the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna, Mekong and Red River, all draining the Himalayas, are consuming arsenic contaminated water. Providing safe drinking water for these people requires a quantitative understanding of the processes regulating the groundwater arsenic content and this knowledge is presently not available. In PREDIAS we propose a revolutionary new approach to study these arsenic contaminated aquifers where sediments and groundwaters are considered as one reacting unit that is changing over time. The key hypothesis is that it is the aquifer sediment burial age that is the overall controlling parameter for the arsenic content. This new approach is explored by studying the groundwater chemistry as a function of sediment burial age, which is equivalent to the geological evolution over time, in part of the Red River floodplain in Vietnam. The investigations comprise delineating the sedimentological development over the last 9000 yrs as well as reconstructing hydrogeological conditions over that period. Process studies will reveal the effect of burial age on the chemical properties of the sediments and the arsenic release mechanisms. They comprise the binding and release mechanisms of arsenic to the aquifer sediment, and the reactivity of sedimentary organic carbon and iron oxides which drive the redox reactions controlling the water chemistry and arsenic mobilization. Information on the sedimentological and hydrogeological development over time as well as a quantification of the geochemical processes will be incorporated in a 3-D reactive transport model which over the last 9000 years, in steps of about 1000 years, can predict the evolution of the arsenic content over space and time in the groundwater of the studied area. The model can be extended in a more conceptual form to larger parts of the Red River delta and Bangladesh using satellite imaging to reveal the geological development in those areas.
Morphogenetic growth control by time derivatives of signaling (MORPHOGEN)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Advanced grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Cellular and Developmental Biology
Countries involved: Switzerland
Call:  (ERC-2013-ADG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-05-01
End date: 2020-04-30
Duration (months): 72.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2499509.0
EU funding (EUR): 2499509.0
Participants: 2
Project status: CLOSED

How do naïve cells in a developing tissue know when to divide and when to stop dividing when the tissue reaches its final size? How do they acquire information about their position to generate morphological patterns? Morphogen gradients have been shown to control pattern formation and growth. While the mechanisms of patterning are starting to be understood, the mechanism of growth by morphogens is not yet deciphered. In a few recent reports, we studied the biophysics and cell biology of the Dpp morphogen gradient during growth of Drosophila imaginal discs. We showed that the Dpp gradient expands and scales with the size of the growing tissue. Scaling occurs by the regulation of Dpp lysosomal degradation as a function of tissue size. We also showed that any cell in the developing tissue (no matter the developmental stage, the position of the cell in the gradient or the imaginal disc considered) divides when it sees an increase of Dpp signaling by α=50% from the beginning of the cell cycle. The proliferation rate g of cells is proportional to the relative time derivative of signaling (i.e. C ̇/C, the time derivative of Dpp signaling level C ̇ (Cdot) normalized to the actual signaling level C): g=(ln2/α)*(Cdot/C). We will study the molecular cell-biology of growth control by morphogens in an interdisciplinary combination of physical theory, biophysics and biochemistry in the context of development.

Keywords: morphogen,gradient,endocytosis,endosomes,geec,clathrin,imaging,dlsm,fluorescent timers,physics of biology
Elucidating the Causes and Effects of Atlantic Circulation Changes through Model-Data Integration (ACCLIMATE)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Advanced grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Earth system science
Countries involved: France
Call:  (ERC-2013-ADG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-02-01
End date: 2019-10-31
Duration (months): 69.0
Total project cost (EUR): 3000000.0
EU funding (EUR): 3000000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Rapid changes in ocean circulation and climate have been observed in marine sediment and ice cores, notably over the last 60 thousand years (ky), highlighting the non-linear character of the climate system and underlining the possibility of rapid climate shifts in response to anthropogenic greenhouse gas forcing. To date, these rapid changes in climate and ocean circulation are still not fully explained. Two main obstacles prevent going beyond the current state of knowledge: - Paleoclimatic proxy data are by essence only indirect indicators of the climatic variables, and thus can not be directly compared with model outputs; - A 4-D (latitude, longitude, water depth, time) reconstruction of Atlantic water masses over the past 40 ky is lacking: previous studies have generated isolated records with disparate timescales which do not allow the causes of circulation changes to be identified. Overcoming these two major limitations will lead to major breakthroughs in climate research. Concretely, I will create the first database of Atlantic deep-sea records over the last 40 ky, and extract full climatic information from these records through an innovative model-data integration scheme using an isotopic proxy forward modeling approach. The novelty and exceptional potential of this scheme is twofold: (i) it avoids hypotheses on proxy interpretation and hence suppresses or strongly reduces the errors of interpretation of paleoclimatic records; (ii) it produces states of the climate system that best explain the observations over the last 40 ky, while being consistent with the model physics. Expected results include: • The elucidation of the mechanisms explaining rapid changes in ocean circulation and climate over the last 40 ky, • Improved climate model physics and parameterizations, • The first projections of future climate changes obtained with a model able to reproduce the highly non linear behavior of the climate system observed over the last 40 ky.

Keywords: rapid climate change,atlantic ocean circulation changes,non linear climatic response,proxy forward modeling,model-data integration,inversion of paleoclimatic records
Fifth Generation of Ultra Bright X Ray Beam (X-FIVE)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Advanced grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Fundamental constituents of matter
Countries involved: France
Call:  (ERC-2013-ADG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-04-01
End date: 2019-03-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1703136.0
EU funding (EUR): 1703136.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The recently built X-ray Free Electron Lasers (FEL), the so-called fourth generation light sources, provide extremely intense coherent femtosecond pulses of energetic radiation. These FELs based on Linear Accelerator (Linac) technology require radio-protected facilities which are several kilometres in length and also require significant investment (more than a hundred million euros). They have already produced an impressive list of outstanding results in many scientific fields. As a consequence of these successes they are already significantly over-subscribed by the scientific community. The recent progress realized by laser plasma accelerators that can nowadays deliver high quality energetic particle beams in ultra short bunches (of a few femtoseconds) with very high peak currents (of a few kA) are very encouraging for the future. Thanks to the huge longitudinal electric fields they can produce, laser plasma accelerators appear to be a natural candidate to reduce the size and cost of future FELs. Among the many applications laser plasma accelerators sustain, the hope to build a compact Free Electron Laser, has been clearly identified by the scientific community as the near future grand challenge. The goal of the X-five project is then to demonstrate the feasibility of such fifth generation light sources - compact and low cost - that will satisfy the increasing demand of the scientific community. This next generation of FELs will deliver bright X ray beams at a repetition rate of 10 Hz, of interest for the many applications that do not require very high average brightness such as available from the fourth light sources generation. The laser plasma accelerator research activities of the X-five project will also be of benefit to other fields, including medicine, radiation biology, chemistry, physics and material science, security, and of course accelerator science.

Keywords: laser plasma interaction,free electron laser
Classical and Atomic Quantum Simulation of Gauge Theories in Particle and Condensed Matter Physics (ATOMICGAUGESIMULATOR)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Advanced grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Fundamental constituents of matter
Countries involved: Switzerland
Call:  (ERC-2013-ADG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-02-01
End date: 2019-01-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1975242.0
EU funding (EUR): 1975242.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Gauge theories play a central role in particle and condensed matter physics. Heavy-ion collisions explore the strong dynamics of quarks and gluons, which also governs the deep interior of neutron stars, while strongly correlated electrons determine the physics of high-temperature superconductors and spin liquids. Numerical simulations of such systems are often hindered by sign problems. In quantum link models - an alternative formulation of gauge theories developed by the applicant - gauge fields emerge from discrete quantum variables. In the past year, in close collaboration with atomic physicists, we have established quantum link models as a framework for the atomic quantum simulation of dynamical gauge fields. Abelian gauge theories can be realized with Bose-Fermi mixtures of ultracold atoms in an optical lattice, while non-Abelian gauge fields arise from fermionic constituents embodied by alkaline-earth atoms. Quantum simulators, which do not suffer from the sign problem, shall be constructed to address non-trivial dynamics, including quantum phase transitions in spin liquids, the real-time dynamics of confining strings as well as of chiral symmetry restoration at finite temperature and baryon density, baryon superfluidity, or color-flavor locking. New classical simulation algorithms shall be developed in order to solve severe sign problems, to investigate confining gauge theories, and to validate the proposed quantum simulators. Starting from U(1) and SU(2) gauge theories, an atomic physics tool box shall be developed for quantum simulation of gauge theories of increasing complexity, ultimately aiming at 4-d Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD). This project is based on innovative ideas from particle, condensed matter, and computational physics, and requires an interdisciplinary team of researchers. It has the potential to drastically increase the power of simulations and to address very challenging problems that cannot be solved with classical simulation methods.

Keywords: quantum simulator,topological quantum computation,quantum monte carlo,sign problem,quantum spin systems,quantum phase transition,cluster algorithms,lattice gauge theory,improved lattice action
Characterisation and Manipulation of Primate Lentiviral Interactions with Innate Immunity (HIVINNATE)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Advanced grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Immunity and infection
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call:  (ERC-2013-ADG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-02-01
End date: 2019-01-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2499643.0
EU funding (EUR): 2499643.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Our aim is to seek detailed molecular level understanding of the interactions between HIV-1 and innate immune sensors expressed in myeloid cells. We have demonstrated that HIV-1 replicates in primary human macrophages without triggering interferon production. However, by specific mutation of HIV-1 proteins or by manipulating interaction with host cofactors we can reveal the virus to innate immune receptors and activate an antiviral response leading to secretion of soluble type 1 interferon and cessation of replication. We propose to define the sensors and the details of the antiviral pathways that are activated in macrophages using proven RNA interference techniques reading out activation of innate immune responses by measurement of secreted interferon and induction of gene expression. We have also characterised small molecules that potently inhibit HIV-1 by revealing HIV-1 to innate immune sensors. In collaboration with crystallographers and medicinal chemists we aim to improve the potency and specificity of these drugs and to use them to study the anti-HIV-1 innate immune response. DC are sentinels of innate immunity and their infection induced maturation leads to interferon production and DC dependent T cell maturation that defines the nature and potency of the immune response. We will examine the effect of triggering innate responses in DC using HIV-1 mutants/drug treated wild type virus on allogeneic responses, by measurement of T cell proliferation and function and in an ex vivo CD8 T cell killing assays using peripheral blood CD8 cells from HIV‑1 infected patients. In this way we will uncover the molecular details of HIV-1’s interaction with innate immunity and discover how the virus replicates in primary immune cells without detection. This work will make a significant technical and intellectual contribution to an important emerging scientific field focusing on understanding and manipulating the complex relationship between HIV-1 and innate immunity.

Keywords: hiv innate immunity,pattern recognition receptors,medicinal chemistry,innate immune evasion,primate lentiviruses,rnainterference,interferon,macrophages,dendritic cells
Bridging the Evolution and Epidemiology of HIV in Europe (BEEHIVE)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Advanced grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Genetics, Genomics, Bioinformatics and Systems Biology
Countries involved: United Kingdom,Netherlands
Call:  (ERC-2013-ADG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-04-01
End date: 2019-03-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2499739.35
EU funding (EUR): 2499739.35
Participants: 4
Project status: CLOSED

The aim of the BEEHIVE project is to generate novel insight into HIV biology, evolution and epidemiology, leveraging next-generation high-throughput sequencing and bioinformatics to produce and analyse whole-genomes of viruses from approximately 3,000 European HIV-1 infected patients. These patients have known dates of infection spread over the last 25 years, good clinical follow up, and a wide range of clinical prognostic indicators and outcomes. The primary objective is to discover the viral genetic determinants of severity of infection and set-point viral load. This primary objective is high-risk & blue-skies: there is ample indirect evidence of polymorphisms that alter virulence, but they have never been identified, and it is not known how easy they are to discover. However, the project is also high-reward: it could lead to a substantial shift in the understanding of HIV disease. Technologically, the BEEHIVE project will deliver new approaches for undertaking whole genome association studies on RNA viruses, including delivering an innovative high-throughput bioinformatics pipeline for handling genetically diverse viral quasi-species data (with viral diversity both within and between infected patients). The project also includes secondary and tertiary objectives that address critical open questions in HIV epidemiology and evolution. The secondary objective is to use viral genetic sequences allied to mathematical epidemic models to better understand the resurgent European epidemic amongst high-risk groups, especially men who have sex with men. The aim will not just be to establish who is at risk of infection, which is known from conventional epidemiological approaches, but also to characterise the risk factors for onwards transmission of the virus. Tertiary objectives involve understanding the relationship between the genetic diversity within viral samples, indicative of on-going evolution or dual infections, to clinical outcomes.

Keywords: hiv-1,viral genetics,whole-genomes,cohort studies,evolution,virulence,superinfection,seroconverters,molecular epidemiology,phylodynamics.
Physics of Atoms with Attosecond Light Pulses (PALP)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Advanced grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Fundamental constituents of matter
Countries involved: Sweden
Call:  (ERC-2013-ADG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-03-01
End date: 2019-02-28
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2047000.0
EU funding (EUR): 2047000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The field of attosecond science is now entering the second decade of its existence, with good prospects for breakthroughs in a number of areas. We want to take the next step in this development: from mastering the generation and control of attosecond pulses to breaking new marks starting with the simplest systems, atoms. The aim of the present application is to advance the emerging new research field “Ultrafast Atomic Physics”, where one- or two-electron wave packets are created by absorption of attosecond pulse(s) and analyzed or controlled by another short pulse. Our project can be divided into three parts: 1. Interferometric measurements using tunable attosecond pulses How long time does it take for an electron to escape its potential? We will measure photoemission time delays for several atomic systems, using a tunable attosecond pulse source. This type of measurements will be extended to multiple ionization and excitation processes, using coincidence measurements to disentangle the different channels and infrared ionization for analysis. 2. XUV pump/XUV probe experiments using intense attosecond pulses How long does it take for an atom to become an ion once a hole has been created? Using intense attosecond pulses and the possibility to do XUV pump/ XUV probe experiments, we will study the transition between nonsequential double ionization, where the photons are absorbed simultaneously and all electrons emitted at the same time and sequential ionization where electrons are emitted one at a time. 3. "Complete" attosecond experiments using high-repetition rate attosecond pulses We foresee a paradigm shift in attosecond science with the new high repetition rate systems based on optical parametric chirped pulse amplification which are coming to age. We want to combine coincidence measurement with angular detection, allowing us to characterize (two-particle) electronic wave packets both in time and in momentum and to study their quantum-mechanical properties.

Keywords: electron dynamics,ultrafast atomic physics,attosecond light pulses,electron wave packet,correlation effect,double ionization,two-particle wave packet
Mesoscopic THz impedance microscopy for quantum materials (METIQUM)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Advanced grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Condensed matter physics
Countries involved: Netherlands
Call:  (ERC-2013-ADG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-05-01
End date: 2019-04-30
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2451266.0
EU funding (EUR): 2451266.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

An important frontier in condensed matter physics is the understanding of quantum materials in which different ground states compete, leading to electronic inhomogeneity and the concept of ‘quantum electronic liquid crystals’. The challenge for experiments is to measure the local electrodynamic properties in materials, which are electronically inhomogeneous, but atomically homogeneous. I propose a new technique to determine these local variations of the electronic properties. The central objective is to measure with nanometer-scale spatial resolution the frequency-dependent electrodynamic properties, such as complex dielectric constant and complex conductivity of quantum materials at frequencies in the several hundreds of GHz range. The method is derived from the recent progress in astronomical instruments for the submillimeter (hundreds of GHz to THz) frequency band. This progress, to which I contributed extensively, is driven by the desire to study the universe. Now, with this technology and expertise in hand, the disciplinary boundaries can be crossed once more and directed to the other challenging frontier of quantum materials. With this instrument it will become possible to determine the local (and possibly frequency-dependent) electromagnetic properties, such as the dielectric constant and conductivity, for a range of materials. Through this technique, I will make it possible to study the local properties of new materials and even to get access to the local energy-scales of their excitations. It is clear that the program is ambitious and risky, but if successful it provides a major step forward in experiments to reveal the various electronic states of quantum materials and a new scanning-probe technique operating in a new frequency range.

Keywords: scanning probe techniques,terahertz,local electrodynamics