Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Heisenberg's uncertainty principle and the Foundations of Quantum Theory in the light of Quantum Information (QIQFOUND)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: International Incoming Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: France
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-IIF, 2013)
Start date: 2014-09-01
End date: 2016-08-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 202405.8
EU funding (EUR): 202405.8
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Despite the great success of quantum theory, a clear understanding of its foundations is missing; the question of why the world follows such puzzling rules is still begging for an answer. By revolutionizing the way we perceive and manipulate information, the emergence of quantum information science has allowed recent progress in quantum foundations, and led to the development of innovative applications and technological advances, with a great impact on society. This promises even more discoveries. In this context, my project will revisit the celebrated Heisenberg uncertainty principle with an innovative approach and new quantum information techniques. This fundamental principle implies that some properties of a quantum system--like the location and speed of a particle--are incompatible and cannot be measured at the same time. Joint measurements can still be approximated, giving partial information only. I will precisely quantify the trade-off between the information one can obtain on two incompatible properties. I will then question how much of the theory can be reconstructed from this aspect of the uncertainty principle, taken as a fundamental axiom, and which other axioms are necessary to fully reconstruct it. This will give clues on why Nature “chose” to abide by the laws of quantum theory among other possible theories, and offer an original perspective to some of the deepest questions in quantum foundations. With this project I will bring my expertise in quantum information and foundations to Europe and contribute to an exciting new research activity at the Institut Néel. I will initiate fruitful collaborations between the Institute and world-class experts in Australia, a leading country in the area of this proposal, and participate in the promotion of research to the general public. This Fellowship will be a crucial step in my academic career by allowing me to integrate a top-level institution in Europe and to develop my managerial and communication skills.

Keywords: quantum foundations,quantum information,uncertainty principle,generalized probabilistic theories,quantum nonlocality
Textile Studies: questions and issues between knowledge and knowhow (TEXTILESTUDIES)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Intra-European Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Denmark
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-IEF, 2013)
Start date: 2014-08-01
End date: 2016-07-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 308587.8
EU funding (EUR): 308587.8
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

This research project explores the modern reconstruction processes of archaeological textiles and focuses on the intersection between Natural Sciences, Humanities, experimental methods and technical skilled practices. Taking an anthropological and an ethnographic approach, the project aims to highlight the topical concepts of “knowledge” and “know-how” as specific as well as complementary knowing processes and contributes to define the interdisciplinarity at work in the field of Textile Studies. The mobilization of several disciplines and methods leads to the establishment of a hybrid field of study that can be understood by taking into consideration the practices of knowledge, more than knowledge itself. How do the different methods at work, the specific research reference systems in the disciplines involved, and the knowing practices generated in the study of ancient archaeological textiles contribute to defining their objects and to creating a research field that is both unified and composite? How are the theoretical tools and technical skills available to the “experts” in all areas of Textile Studies coordinated and interconnected? Where and how is it possible to grasp their interaction, and ultimately to question it, first in its specificity and then within its broader epistemological implications? The ethnographic inquiry with the textile experts of the Danish National Research Foundation’s Center for Textile Research CTR (University of Copenhagen and National Museum of Denmark) and on their research programs will provide a description of Textile Studies "in the making". The objectives of this project are on four main axes: 1) Textile Studies, 2) Science and Technology Studies, 3) History and Anthropology of Knowledge, 4) Theoretical and Experimental Archaeology.

Keywords: archaeology,cultural technology,epystemology,ethnography,interdisciplinarity,knowledge,material culture studies,technical skilled practices,textile studies
Advanced plasmonic-on-fibre devices for optical communication and sensing applications (PLASM-ON-FIBRE)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: International Incoming Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-IIF, 2013)
Start date: 2014-11-15
End date: 2016-11-14
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 231283.2
EU funding (EUR): 231283.2
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The proposed knowledge transfer project on Advanced plasmonic-on-fibre devices for optical communication and sensing applications (Plasm-on-fibre) via this International Incoming Fellowship (IIF) programme will transfer the knowledge and expertise of the Marie Curie IIF Fellow Dr J Zhang from the Institute of Solid State Physics (ISSP) of Chinese Academy of Sciences, who is specialised in plasmonics and nanophotonics, to the EU host – Aston Institute of Photonic Technologies (AIPT) at Aston University in the UK to carry out the world-class research in the new emerging science area – Plasmonics. Working in the defined four key research objective areas: R1: In-depth theoretical study and advanced fabrication of novel fibre gratings for efficient excitation of surface plasmon polaritons; R2: Exploring nanomaterials and nanostructures for novel plasmonic functions; R3: Developing ultrafast magneto-plasmonic modulation function and devices based on novel hybrid multi-layer excitation of surface plasmon polaritons; R4: Developing next generation plasmonic-on-fibre biosensors based on hybrid fibre gratings and plasmonic nanostructures, we anticipate this project will generate new knowledge, explore potential functions and develop novel plasmonic-on-fibre devices for optical communication and sensing applications and lead to long term collaboration between AIPT and ISSP. In parallel, this IIF project will also aim to train Post-docs and Ph.D and Master students at AIPT and form a network with 4 academic and 3 industrial partners in Europe. The outcome of this project will enhance the EU leading position in fundamental knowledge, new ideas and novel devices and technologies in modern plasmonics.

Keywords: plasmonic-on-fibre,optical fibre,fibre grating,noble metal nanorod (or nanowire) array,surface plasmons (sps),surface plasmon polaritons (spps),plasmonics,magneto-plasmonics,biosensor
Order/Chaos: Genealogy of Two Concepts in the Culture of European Mathematical Physics (ORCHA)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: International Outgoing Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Spain
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-IOF, 2013)
Start date: 2014-11-01
End date: 2017-10-31
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 352176.3
EU funding (EUR): 352176.3
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

This project aims at understanding the generation of abstract concepts and theories in mathematical physics and their relation with theoretical practices. To achieve this, it focuses upon the emergence of the modern concepts of order and chaos in celestial and statistical mechanics. The research is articulated into three phases. The first phase discusses the problem of stability in a three-body system from the origin of celestial mechanics to Henri Poincaré’s discovery of homoclinic trajectories. Initially, the problem of stability was attacked by using analytical and algebraic techniques whose main goal was to show that approximate solutions of the equations of motion do not contain secular terms. Drawing on this vast culture of mathematical techniques and generalizing them further, Poincaré introduced a new qualitative approach, which led him to extend periodicity from periodic motion to complicate recurrence up to chaotic trajectories. The second phase focuses upon the intersections between mechanical and statistical arguments in the work of Ludwig Boltzmann. Facing the problem of dealing with mechanical systems with many degrees of freedom, Boltzmann combined the analysis of the equations of motion with statistical techniques which allowed him to describe the macroscopic behavior of the system. Thus, macroscopic order was understood as a probabilistic, long-term phenomenon deriving from a complex, microscopic disorder. Notions such as the ergodic hypothesis and molecular chaos were introduced by Boltzmann to conceptualize this disorder. The third phase concerns George D. Birkhoff’s path from the theory of dynamical systems to the ergodic theorem. Taking up Poincaré’s legacy in celestial mechanics in 1912, Birkhoff honed the analytical and topological techniques of the European mathematical culture and, in 1931, he rigorously formulated the conditions for a mechanical systems to be ergodic so unifying the two previous lines of investigation on order/chaos.

Keywords: history of physics,ergodic theory,celestial mechanics,topology,philosophy of science,mathematical physics,stability,chaos theory
Conformal Bootstrap Methods and their applications (BOOTSTRAP)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Intra-European Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Switzerland
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-IEF, 2013)
Start date: 2014-09-01
End date: 2016-08-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 207928.8
EU funding (EUR): 207928.8
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The conformal bootstrap methods are an exciting and fast-growing area of research, constituting a definite break-away from the more traditional (and often less rigorous) ways of studying systems at criticality. They provide us with a unique tool for exploring strongly coupled theories which are otherwise inaccessible, by using the powerful constraints of conformal symmetry. The European Union has an important opportunity in establishing itself now as a world leader in this promising, burgeoning field of research, by supporting projects such as the one we propose. We will study the O(N) vector models and their defects, examining their properties at criticality from the point of view of conformal symmetry. Our goal is to provide experimentalists and computational physicists with concrete testable predictions. We also hope to clarify any special analytic properties which may underlie these models. At the same time, we will develop the conformal bootstrap methodology, both theoretically and computationally. Finally, we will develop and publish a computer package for basic bootstrap calculations. This will allow for a greater number of researchers to use and adapt our techniques for their own purposes. The research project will take place at CERN, one of the world’s most active and perhaps largest research centers. The atmosphere is a vibrant one, with a department containing dozens of permanent researchers, fellows and a large number of temporary and long-term visitors. CERN is constituted by 20 member states, of which 18 belong to the EU, together with other four candidate or associate members. Such an international constitution guarantees a steady flow of ideas and many opportunities for cross-fertilization between fields, and international collaborations.

Keywords: conformal field theory,statistical physics
Cavitation enhanced Ablation for Focused Ultrasound Surgery (CAVABLATE)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Intra-European Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: France
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-IEF, 2013)
Start date: 2015-06-15
End date: 2017-06-14
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 202405.8
EU funding (EUR): 202405.8
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Focused Ultrasound Surgery (FUS) is an emerging, non-invasive modality, which involves the extracorporeal administration of High Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU), a non-ionising form of radiation, to ablate via frictional effects diseased tissue in a specific target area. Although clinically effective the process is inherently inefficient, which has so far limited its wide spread use in medicine. The demonstration of a clinically applicable method for increasing the rate of energy absorption at the target region would herald a breakthrough for this technology. The proposed technique is cavitation mediated enhanced heating. The rationale here is that bubble activity at the ultrasound focus can lead to substantially higher rates of tissue heating. Cavitation refers to the formation of pockets of gas in the tissue exposed to HIFU. Unfortunately with the typical frequencies and intensities used, cavitation activity is known to rapidly evolve and cause risk of serious collateral damage to the surrounding healthy tissue. However, if cavitation can be monitored and controlled efficiently, faster treatment times can be achieved without negative side effects. The objective of the CavAblate project is to integrate new cavitation characterization detection and control techniques, with sono-elastographic capabilities for the next generation of cavitation mediated enhanced FUS ablation.

Keywords: cavitation,ablation,enhanced,high intensity focused ultrasound,focused ultrasound surgery,control,monitoring,elastography,tumor
The cytoskeleton and Cadherin-2 are tightly linked to coordinate nucleokinesis in migrating neurons (CDH2_NEUROMIGRATION)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Intra-European Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Germany
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-IEF, 2013)
Start date: 2015-02-01
End date: 2017-01-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 161968.8
EU funding (EUR): 161968.8
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The cerebellum coordinates the body’s movements. It consists of distinct layers of neuronal populations, but during embryonic development, these neurons are generated distantly from their final locations. In zebrafish, this means that cerebellar neurons have to migrate from the upper rhombic lip to the midbrain-hindbrain boundary and further. While descriptions of the migratory pathways for the different neuronal populations have become available in recent years, fundamental questions of this process are still unanswered. Firstly, we currently do not know how guidance of these cells is achieved and translated into directional motility. Activity could be a guiding cue, as it creates intracellular Ca2+-transients which determine directionality in cerebellar neurons. Similarly, depletion of Cadherin-2, a cell-adhesion molecule and key regulator of cell migration, leads to loss of directionality. If activity works through Cadherin-2 to guide cells, it would present a novel way of transmitting information from outside to the inside of cells. We will test this notion using the latest genetic tools. Secondly, Cadherin-2 influences centrosome-positioning, yet we do not know the molecular mechanism of this. IQGAP1 could be the link between Caherin-2 and the microtubules, but this remains to be proven. Thirdly, in order to generate movement of the cells, the forces from the cytoskeleton need to be transmitted to the nucleus. Two models for such mechanisms are being debated, and we will test both in migrating cells in vivo. To address these questions, we will use an interdisciplinary approach combining techniques and knowledge from cell biology, developmental biology and genetics with advanced in vivo time-lapse imaging. Understanding how the cells’ migration is guided and regulated will improve the fundamental knowledge for the development of therapies for patients suffering from brain injuries or lissencephalies, and create a unique focus of cerebellar research in Europe.

Keywords: cerebellum development,neuronal migration,granule cells,cadherin-2,microtubule,centrosome,in vivo imaging,zebrafish,activity,iqgap1,force transmission,intracellular ca2+
Vibrational coherence as a quantum probe for ultrafast molecular dynamics (VIBCOH)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Intra-European Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-IEF, 2013)
Start date: 2014-05-01
End date: 2016-04-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 221606.4
EU funding (EUR): 221606.4
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The Born-Oppenheimer approximation is one of the corner stones of classic photochemistry and photophysics. As important as its implications are for understanding the principles of light matter interactions, as critical is its break down in rationalizing how energy absorbed in the form of light is dissipated. In fact, the most efficient electronic relaxation processes such as internal conversion and intersystem crossing, fundamentally depend on nuclear degrees of freedom directly coupling the interacting electronic states, often through conical intersections. Although such processes are well studied theoretically, they have been difficult to address experimentally. Here, I propose to use ultra high time-resolution and sensitivity transient absorption spectroscopy to directly visualize the evolution of vibrational coherence in all available nuclear degrees of freedom during ultrafast internal conversion and intersystem crossing. Based on recent experimental results, I propose to investigate, for the first time, which nuclear degrees of freedom are involved in such decay processes and which act as spectator coordinates. I will study both well-established systems, such as carotenoids, but also novel and poorly understood ones, such as next generation solar energy devices based on singlet fission in thin films. In this way, I will be able to identify the crucial structure-function relationship underlying efficient photochemistry and photophysics.

Keywords: vibrational coherence,time-domain ultrafast vibrational spectroscopy,excited electronic states,molecular dynamics,condensed phase,carotenoids,opsin proteins,pentacene
Computational Multiscale Modelling of Hydraulic Fracturing for Shale Gas Development (HYDROFRAC)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: International Incoming Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Germany
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-IIF, 2013)
Start date: 2014-07-01
End date: 2016-09-05
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 161968.8
EU funding (EUR): 161968.8
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Recent advances in hydraulic fracturing (HF) have allowed for commercially viable extraction of oil/gas from deep underground shale formations previously deemed uneconomical to exploit. Indeed, HF promises to be one of the key industries for future energy exploitation. However, the use of HF in unconventional oil/gas extraction has generated controversy, so that several countries have imposed moratorium on its use for unconventional hydrocarbon extraction. Opponents of HF claim that its use poses severe environmental risks such as contamination of groundwater resources, that it depletes freshwater supply and induces seismicity. To gain a better understanding of the HF-process, the applicant proposes to develop, implement, verify and validate a 3D stochastic computational multiscale & multiphysics framework. The measurable outcome of this research will be an open-source software package that can be used to study and better understand HF and finally to improve current-practice HF. Within the computational framework, fluid flow through the evolving 3D fracture network will be modelled on a 2-stage reservoir scale. Fine-scale simulations will be performed in order to more reliably predict macroscopic material parameters at the 2-stage reservoir scale. Moreover, based on (stochastic) uncertain input parameters, the applicant will quantify uncertainties in order to provide upper and lower bounds of her predictions. The researcher will provide a framework based on graph-theory and sensitivity analysis to choose the appropriate model and discretization. This computational framework will be verified and validated by comparison to experiment and site data, and will be used to answer some of the most pressing issues in HF, e.g. the interaction between fracture networks at different stages, the possibility of the fracture network encroaching into adjacent layers of rock or the interaction of fractures with existing natural faults that intersect the shale seam, to name a few.

Keywords: hydraulic fracturing,computational mechanics,modelling and simulation,rock mechanics,shale gas development,3d fracture modelling,multiphysics modelling,multiscale modelling