Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
How citizens try to influence politics and why. International comparisons of movement and party politics (POLPART)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Advanced grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Institutions, values, beliefs and behaviour
Countries involved: Netherlands,Hungary,Argentina,Brazil,United Kingdom
Call:  (ERC-2013-ADG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-01-01
End date: 2019-06-30
Duration (months): 66.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2230799.98
EU funding (EUR): 2230799.98
Participants: 5
Project status: CLOSED

Protests in ‘new’ democracies about ‘stolen elections’, demonstrations in ‘old’ democracies against austerity measures, occupied squares all over the world against inequality and for better governance. Some argue that contentious politics gains importance and party politics declines. Is that so and why would that be? Why is it that some individuals engage in politics while others remain apathetic? Why is it that some citizens take the electoral route, while others engage in contentious politics? The truth is that we do not really know. Should we bother? I think we should. Citizens who are actively involved in politics are an asset to democracy. Understanding how and why people take part in politics would help to build more democratic societies. The proposed project compares participation in contentious and non-contentious politics in various countries within a single theoretical and methodological framework. A central tenet of this research proposal is that sooner or later every citizen might get involved in politics. I seek the reason why in the interplay of dynamics at the individual, the organizational, and the societal level. What are the motives people have? What are the appeals parties and movement organizations disseminate; and what are the opportunities and constraints regimes impose? Comparison is the core of the project. It encompasses four subproject: (1) a meta-analysis of publications on movement and party politics; (2) comparisons of political participation over time and countries in global survey data; (3) focus group discussions to understand the formation of political engagement and disengagement in four ‘old’ democracies (the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, U.S.A.), two post-communist ‘new’ democracies (Hungary, Romania) and two post-authoritarian ‘new’ democracies (Brazil, Argentina) and Greece as a country that was hit harder than any country by the financial crisis; (4) experimental focused surveys among 1000 respondents to quantify patterns of political participation in the same nine countries.

Keywords: contentious/non-contentious politics,demand and supply of (movement/party) politics,social cleavages,grievances,social embeddedness,mobilization,trust in institutions,identification
Quantum-Dot Plasmonics and Spasers (QUADOPS)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Advanced grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Products and process engineering
Countries involved: Switzerland
Call:  (ERC-2013-ADG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-02-01
End date: 2019-07-31
Duration (months): 66.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2500000.0
EU funding (EUR): 2500000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

This project will fabricate and study devices known as spasers, which are the plasmonic analog of conventional lasers. In general, plasmonic devices exploit electromagnetic waves known as surface plasmon polaritons (herein shortened to surface plasmons) that propagate at the surface of a metal. Because these waves allow light to be concentrated in nanometer-scale volumes (hot spots), they can lead to enhanced light-matter interactions. Consequently, plasmonic structures have been studied for various photonic applications. However, because surface plasmons dissipate energy in the metal, intrinsic losses can severely limit light-matter interactions and the performance of plasmonic devices. Therefore, simple routes to counteract losses by adding a gain material to rejuvenate the surface plasmons have been sought. Moreover, by adding sufficient optical gain to a plasmonic resonator, a spaser can be created. This can lead to an extremely versatile nanoscale source of surface plasmons, photons, and/or intense electromagnetic fields. Therefore, spasers can enable fundamental studies on the limits of nanoscale optics as well as various applications. Recently, the very first spasers have appeared, leading to many open questions. To help address these, the PI will perform fundamental studies on a broad class of plasmonic devices that incorporate gain. The proposed research will take advantage of his expertise in two areas: (a) highly fluorescent semiconductor nanocrystals (colloidal quantum dots) for the gain material and (b) the fabrication of high-quality low-loss patterned metallic films. By combining these, an ideal route to spasers will be pursued. The project will develop designs and fabrication processes to create quantum-dot-decorated plasmonic resonators, and then investigate their gain, amplification, and spasing behavior. Another objective is to develop new approaches to place individual quantum dots at plasmonic hot spots and study their properties.
Complex Patterns for Strongly Interacting Dynamical Systems (COMPAT)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Advanced grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Mathematical foundations
Countries involved: Italy
Call:  (ERC-2013-ADG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-02-01
End date: 2019-01-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1346145.0
EU funding (EUR): 1346145.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

This project focuses on nontrivial solutions of systems of differential equations characterized by strongly nonlinear interactions. We are interested in the effect of the nonlinearities on the emergence of non trivial self-organized structures. Such patterns correspond to selected solutions of the differential system possessing special symmetries or shadowing particular shapes. We want to understand, from the mathematical point of view, what are the main mechanisms involved in the aggregation process in terms of the global variational structure of the problem. Following this common thread, we deal with both with the classical N-body problem of Celestial Mechanics, where interactions feature attractive singularities, and competition-diffusion systems, where pattern formation is driven by strongly repulsive forces. More precisely, we are interested in periodic and bounded solutions, parabolic trajectories with the final intent to build complex motions and possibly obtain the symbolic dynamics for the general N–body problem. On the other hand, we deal with elliptic, parabolic and hyperbolic systems of differential equations with strongly competing interaction terms, modeling both the dynamics of competing populations (Lotka- Volterra systems) and other interesting physical phenomena, among which the phase segregation of solitary waves of Gross-Pitaevskii systems arising in the study of multicomponent Bose-Einstein condensates. In particular, we will study existence, multiplicity and asymptotic expansions of solutions when the competition parameter tends to infinity. We shall be concerned with optimal partition problems related to linear and nonlinear eigenvalues

Keywords: elliptic equations and systems,pattern formation,nonlinear schrodinger equations,hamiltonian systems,n-body problem,nonlinear analysis,variational methods,free boundaries
Tool Use As A Tool For Understanding Causal Cognition In Humans And Corvids (CAUSCOG)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Advanced grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: The Human Mind and its complexity
Countries involved: United Kingdom,New Zealand
Call:  (ERC-2013-ADG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-02-01
End date: 2020-01-31
Duration (months): 72.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2164833.0
EU funding (EUR): 2164833.0
Participants: 2
Project status: CLOSED

Our ability to understand causality is at the very core of modern civilization. We see potential antecedents of this understanding in some non-human animals, notably apes and corvids. To date, behaviour thought to be indicative of causal understanding, particularly tool-use, has been mainly described as a phenomenon rather than studied as a mechanism and thus suffers from the lack of an experimentally-tested theoretical framework and deconstructive analysis. This significantly constrains our progress in answering key questions such as: (1) how do humans understand the physical world and solve problems? (2) what other ways of understanding causality and problem solving has evolution produced? (3) what selective pressures lead to the evolution of causal cognition? Each of these questions constitutes an area where there exists enormous potential to advance cognitive science. The overarching aim is to create a coherent, experimentally-tested, theoretical framework of the cognitive mechanisms underlying causal knowledge in corvids and humans, both young and adult. The advantage of our approach is that we will study two types of mind that have very different neural machineries and investigate the similarities and differences in their cognitive processes. We will create a sufficient level of abstraction to develop a deep theory of cognition, something that would not be possible by studying only a single species and its close evolutionary relatives. One of the most exciting aspects is that we will begin to map the ‘universal mind’ (i.e. the cognitive mechanisms that are repeatedly created by convergent evolution) to provide a quantum leap in our understanding of cognition. Finally, by discovering evolved biases in children’s learning and reasoning mechanisms we will pave the way for new teaching methods that boost learning in the classroom by appealing to the way children naturally understand the world.

Keywords: corvid,child development,causal reasoning,tool-use
Computational Foundations of Anthropomorphic Action (ACTANTHROPE)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Advanced grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Systems and communication engineering
Countries involved: France
Call:  (ERC-2013-ADG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-01-01
End date: 2018-12-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2500000.0
EU funding (EUR): 2500000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Actanthrope intends to promote a neuro-robotics perspective to explore original models of anthropomorphic action. The project targets contributions to humanoid robot autonomy (for rescue and service robotics), to advanced human body simulation (for applications in ergonomics), and to a new theory of embodied intelligence (by promoting a motion-based semiotics of the human action). Actions take place in the physical space while they originate in the –robot or human– sensory-motor space. Geometry is the core abstraction that makes the link between these spaces. Considering that the structure of actions inherits from that of the body, the underlying intuition is that actions can be segmented within discrete sub-spaces lying in the entire continuous posture space. Such sub-spaces are viewed as symbols bridging deliberative reasoning and reactive control. Actanthrope argues that geometric approaches to motion segmentation and generation as promising and innovative routes to explore embodied intelligence: - Motion segmentation: what are the sub-manifolds that define the structure of a given action? - Motion generation: among all the solution paths within a given sub-manifold, what is the underlying law that makes the selection? In Robotics these questions are related to the competition between abstract symbol manipulation and physical signal processing. In Computational Neuroscience the questions refer to the quest of motion invariants. The ambition of the project is to promote a dual perspective: exploring the computational foundations of human action to make better robots, while simultaneously doing better robotics to better understand human action. A unique “Anthropomorphic Action Factory” supports the methodology. It aims at attracting to a single lab, researchers with complementary know-how and solid mathematical background. All of them will benefit from unique equipments, while being stimulated by four challenges dealing with locomotion and manipulation actions.

Keywords: neuro-robotics,humanoid robots,embodied intelligence
Cholinergic modulation of immune homeostasis: new opportunities for treatment (CHOLSTIM)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Advanced grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Diagnostic tools, therapies and public health
Countries involved: Belgium
Call:  (ERC-2013-ADG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-04-01
End date: 2019-03-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2495200.0
EU funding (EUR): 2495200.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

In the gastrointestinal tract, the balance between activation of the mucosal immune system and tolerance should be tightly regulated to maintain immune homeostasis to prevent chronic inflammation and tissue damage. Recently, the new concept was introduced that the vagus nerve plays an important role in modulating immune homeostasis as part of a so-called inflammatory reflex. We provided evidence for this concept in the gastrointestinal tract and showed that vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) reduced inflammation of the intestinal muscle layer. Moreover, we showed that this effect was mediated by activation of enteric cholinergic neurons (cholinergic tone) interacting with intestinal macrophages in the muscle layer. Of interest, we have collected exciting data that the vagus nerve (and thus the cholinergic tone) also significantly contributes to mucosal immune homeostasis. Mice that underwent vagotomy lost their ability to develop tolerance to oral feeding of an antigen, whereas VNS reduced mucosal inflammation in a model of food allergy. Based on these data, we hypothesize that the cholinergic tone is a major determinant of the tolerogenic microenvironment of the mucosal immune system, and want to further explore the immune-modulatory effect of the vagal innervation and enteric neurons on the macrophages residing in the lamina propria. In addition, we will further explore the therapeutic potential and the mechanisms involved of chronic VNS in colitis and food allergy. Finally, we will translate our preclinical findings to the human situation. The anti-inflammatory effect of VNS (applied during surgery) will be studied in human intestinal tissue whereas the therapeutic potential of chronic VNS in Crohn’s disease will be studied in a pilot trial. The outcome of this project will be ground-breaking and will have an immense impact on clinical management as it will provide new therapeutic opportunities for the treatment of immune-mediated gastrointestinal disorders.

Keywords: neuroimmune interaction,enteric neurons,vagus nerve,therapy,macrophages
Advanced Microfluidics & Diagnostics using Acoustic Holograms – Bio-Phononics (BIO-PHONONICS)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Advanced grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Diagnostic tools, therapies and public health
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call:  (ERC-2013-ADG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-04-01
End date: 2019-03-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2208594.0
EU funding (EUR): 2208594.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

This proposal seeks to develop a novel technique for fluid and particle manipulations, based upon exploiting the mechanical interactions between acoustic waves and phononic. The new platform involves generating surface acoustic waves (SAWs) on piezoelectric chips, but, unlike previous work, the ultrasonic waves are first coupled into a phononic lattice, which is placed in the path of the ultrasonic wave. The phononic lattice comprises a miniaturised array of mechanical elements which modulates the sound in a manner analogous to how light is “patterned” using a hologram. However, whilst in an optical hologram, the pattern is created by exploiting the differences in refractive indices of the elements of the structure, here the ultrasonic field is modulated both by the elastic contrast between the elements in the array, as well as by the dimensions of the array and its surrounding matrix (including the size and pitch of the features within the array). The result of passing the acoustic wave through a phononic crystal is the formation of new and complex ultrasonic landscapes. As part of the proposed work we aim to understand the physics of this technology and to exploit its development in a range of medical devices. We will show that by using phononic crystals it is possible to create highly controllable patterns of acoustic field intensities, which propagate into the fluid, creating pressure differences that result in unique flow patterns to enable a new platform for including biological sample processing, medical diagnostics, drug delivery and blood clotting devices – all on low cost disposable devices. Different frequencies of ultrasound will interact with different phononic structures to give different functions, providing a toolbox of different functions. Just as in electronics, where discrete components are combined to create circuits, so we propose to combine different phononic lattices to create fluidic microcircuits with important new applications.
The Diseases of Modern Life: Nineteenth-Century Perspectives (DISEASES)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Advanced grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Cultures and cultural production
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call:  (ERC-2013-ADG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-02-01
End date: 2019-07-31
Duration (months): 66.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2362659.0
EU funding (EUR): 2362659.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

In our current ‘Information Age’ we suffer as never before, it is claimed, from the stresses of an overload of information, and the speed of global networks. The Victorians diagnosed similar problems in the nineteenth century. The medic James Crichton Browne spoke in 1860 of the ‘velocity of thought and action’ now required, and of the stresses imposed on the brain forced to process in a month more information ‘than was required of our grandfathers in the course of a lifetime’. This project will explore the phenomena of stress and overload, and other disorders associated in the nineteenth century with the problems of modernity, as expressed in the literature, science and medicine of the period, tracking the circulation of ideas across these diverse areas. Taking its framework from Diseases of Modern Life (1876) by the medical reformer, Benjamin Ward Richardson, it will explore ‘diseases from worry and mental strain’, as experienced in the professions, ‘lifestyle’ diseases such as the abuse of alcohol and narcotics, and also diseases from environmental pollution. This study will return to the holistic, integrative vision of the Victorians, as expressed in the science and in the great novels of the period, exploring the connections drawn between physiological, psychological and social health, or disease. Particular areas of focus will be: diseases of finance and speculation; diseases associated with particular professions; alcohol and drug addiction amidst the middle classes; travel for health; education and over-pressure in the classroom; the development of phobias and nervous disorders; and the imaginative construction of utopias and dystopias, in relation to health and disease. In its depth and range the project will take scholarship into radically new ground, breaking through the compartmentalization of psychiatric, environmental or literary history, and offering new ways of contextualising the problems of modernity facing us in the twenty-first century.

Keywords: victorian literature,science and medicine
Ultra Strong Materials (USMS)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Advanced grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Products and process engineering
Countries involved: Austria
Call:  (ERC-2013-ADG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-03-01
End date: 2019-02-28
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2445000.0
EU funding (EUR): 2445000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The theoretical strength of metals and ceramics is about 10% of their Young’s modulus. Although whiskers reach strength values close to this limit they cannot be used in the design of load bearing structures. Currently the typical strength of the structural materials in use is only in the range of few % of this theoretical limit. Premature plastic deformation and failure due to flaws are the main reasons for this distinctive lower limit. For engineering applications, adequate fracture toughness is required which permits a ductile behaviour and certain strength even in the presence of flaws or cracks. The strength of the strongest metallic materials is only 10 % of the theoretical limit. Increasing the strength of metallic high strength materials by a few percent is usually associated with an unacceptable decrease in fracture toughness and results in a very flaw sensitive strength similar to that known for ceramics. In pearlitic steel wires it was possible to overcome this 10% limitation significantly. In the last years for the first time a strength of 6.3 GPa was obtained for this material which is about 30% of the theoretical limit or 3 times stronger than other high strength steels. The group of the PI has shown that these wires have an exceptional toughness equivalent to a high damage tolerance. The proposed ERC-grant should permit the analysis of the phenomena for this superior combination of strength and ductility. The knowledge of the essential required architectural features of this nano-composite and the necessary properties of the individual phases as well as their interfaces will be used to design nano-architectures also in other materials to obtain such exceptional properties. The developed skill in the generation of nano-composites from coarse constituents will be used for the production of similar nano-composites, the proof of developed concepts, and the generation of new ultra strong materials.

Keywords: strength,toughness,composite