Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
What is controlling plate motions over the minutes to decades timescale? (TectoVision)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Earth System Science
Panel description: Physical geography, geo logy, geophysics, atmospheric sciences, oceanography, climatology, cryology, ecology, global environmental change, biogeochemical cycles, natural resources management
Countries involved: Germany
Call: ERC STARTING GRANTS (ERC-2021-STG, 2021)
Start date: 2022-06-01
End date: 2027-05-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1851160.0
EU funding (EUR): 1851160.0
Participants: 2
Project status: SIGNED

Tectonic ground observations from Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) increasingly show that plate motions are non-steady. In some instances, these non-steady motions have been suspected as precursory motions to large earthquakes. However, the full spectral behaviour of transient plate motions, across minutes to decades, and kilometres to continental distances, is not well understood. Here, I propose a multi-pronged approach to study how faults and plates worldwide are moving in response to the geodynamical (interior) and geophysical fluid loading/tidal (exterior) boundary conditions. The major questions to address are: How transient is tectonic deformation over the minutes to decades timescale? What are the physical processes controlling the transient plate motions? To what extent are transient plate motions indicative of earthquake imminence? We will reveal the extent of non-linear tectonic motions by developing GNSS processing algorithms and applying these to data from the thousands of tectonic GNSS stations worldwide. With machine learning, numerical modelling, and laboratory experimentation, we will determine to what extent faults are modulated by variable regional tectonics and loading. We will develop kinematic and laboratory modelling strategies to better understand transient tectonic boundary conditions such as transient slab-pull at subduction zones. While analysis will span continental and global scales, we will also investigate the kinematics of faults and fault networks with dense GNSS observations at a higher resolution, using GNSS and seismic data from north-central Chile as well as from laboratory-scale analog modelling to track fault failure in unprecedented detail. In Greece, a world-class example of a seismically hazardous zone of fault-network complexity, we will set up a world’s first low-cost tectonic GNSS network to understand how microplate motions interact with the larger wavelength tectonic boundary conditions of the region.

Keywords: tectonic transients,gnss transients,plate boundary processes
Singularities and symplectic mapping class groups (SingSymp)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Mathematics
Panel description: All areas of mathematics, pure and applied, plus mathematical foundations of computer science, mathematical physics and statistics
Countries involved: Austria
Call: ERC STARTING GRANTS (ERC-2021-STG, 2021)
Start date: 2023-07-01
End date: 2028-06-30
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1474995.0
EU funding (EUR): 1474995.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Symplectic topology is a central part of modern geometry, with historical roots in classical mechanics. Symplectic structures also arise naturally in low-dimensional topology, in representation theory, in the study of moduli spaces of algebraic varieties, and in quantum mechanics. A fundamental question is to understand the automorphisms of a symplectic manifold. The most natural ones are symplectomorphisms, i.e., diffeomorphisms preserving the symplectic structure. I propose to study structural properties of their group of isotopy classes, called the symplectic mapping class group (SMCG). In dimension two, the SMCG agrees with the classical mapping class group; in higher dimensions, our understanding is very sparce. I propose to systematically study SMCGs for the family that I believe to be the key `building blocks? for developing a general theory: smoothings (i.e., Milnor fibres) of isolated singularities. I first propose to give complete descriptions of categorical analogues of SMCGs for two major, complementary families: - Milnor fibres of simple elliptic and cusp singularities (Project 1); - Stein varieties associated to two-variable singularities and quivers (Project 2). These capture two different generation paradigms: one where the classical story generalises, and one for which it systematically breaks. This will inform Project 3, in which I propose to describe the categorical SMCGs of `universal Milnor fibres', introduced here. Progress on these projects will also bring questions about the dynamics of SMCGs within reach for the first time; Project 4 will study these applications. The proposed constructions combine insights from different viewpoints on mirror symmetry with ideas from representation theory and singularity theory, and I also plan to apply symplectic ideas to answer classical questions in singularity theory. Beyond this, the proposal borrows ideas from, inter alia, geometric group theory, algebraic geometry, and homological stability.

Keywords: symplectic manifolds homological mirror symmetry symplectic automorphisms mapping class groups stability conditions fukaya categories isolated singularities discriminant complements
How mechanical and electrical stimuli affect bacteria filamentation, a major cell stress response (Filcellstress)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Postdoctoral Fellowships
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Life Sciences
Countries involved: Spain
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2022 (HORIZON-MSCA-2022-PF-01, 2022)
Start date: 2024-09-01
End date: 2026-08-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 165312.96
EU funding (EUR): 165312.96
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Antimicrobial resistance is on the rise and it is predicted to become the first cause of death by 2050. One of the characteristic bacteria phenotypes of antibiotic resistance (and more generally of a stress response) is filamentation, which has been linked to survival strategies and virulence and is present in the most common form of bacteria in nature: biofilms. Thus, characterizing the filamentation phenotype opens the door to understanding the physiology and adaptation of bacterial cells under stress and during colonization processes. Filamentation results from a coordination of growth and division which are driven by the assembly machinery of the Fts system, the Min oscillatory system, and the nuclear occlusion system. In particular, Fts participates in the septum assembly, a ring-forming cell wall that will separate the daughter cells, whereas the Min oscillatory system restricts the assembly of the division machinery at specific locations to avoid nucleoid cleavage. When bacteria grow regularly, a single septum forms by the middle (symmetric division) to separate the nucleoids of daughter cells. However, when bacteria grow anomalously longer (filamentation), multiple nucleoids continue to segregate along the cell at regular intervals and several putative septa are created. Yet, filamentous bacteria do not grow indefinitely, and division events occur “randomly” (in terms of their timing and the selected septum). This raises the unexplored question of how size is regulated during filamentation processes. In this context, we hypothesize that the interplay between mechanical cues (e.g., filament bending) and changes in the bacteria membrane potential play a key role to regulate bacterial filamentation. Thus, the main objective of this project is determining how mechanosensitive and electrical properties of the division/growth machinery in E. coli regulate its filamentation.

Keywords: biological physics,mechanobiology,bioelectricity,filamentation,size regulation,bacteria fision
Machine Learning for Autonomic System Operation in the Heterogeneous Edge-Cloud Continuum (MLSysOps)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness
Programme: Digital, Industry and Space
Theme: Digital
Destination: World-leading Data and Computing Technologies
Action type: Research and Innovation actions
Countries involved: Greece,Italy,Netherlands,Ireland,France,Portugal,Israel,Denmark
Call: Cognitive Cloud: AI-enabled computing continuum from Cloud to Edge (RIA) (HORIZON-CL4-2022-DATA-01, 2022)
Start date: 2023-01-01
End date: 2026-01-31
Duration (months): 37.0
Total project cost (EUR): 5711250.01
EU funding (EUR): 5711250.0
Participants: 12
Project status: SIGNED

MLSysOps will achieve substantial research contributions in the realm of AI-based system adaptation across the cloud-edge continuum by introducing advanced methods and tools to enable optimal system management and application deployment. MLSysOps will design, implement and evaluate a complete framework for autonomic end-to-end system management across the full cloud-edge continuum. MLSysOps will employ a hierarchical agent-based AI architecture to interface with the underlying resource management and application deployment/orchestration mechanisms of the continuum. Adaptivity will be achieved through continual ML model learning in conjunction with intelligent retraining concurrently to application execution, while openness and extensibility will be supported through explainable ML methods and an API for pluggable ML models. Flexible/efficient application execution on heterogeneous infrastructures and nodes will be enabled through innovative portable container-based technology. Energy efficiency, performance, low latency, efficient, resilient and trusted tier-less storage, cross-layer orchestration including resource-constrained devices, resilience to imperfections of physical networks, trust and security, are key elements of MLSysOps addressed using ML models. The framework architecture disassociates management from control and seamlessly interfaces with popular control frameworks for different layers of the continuum. The framework will be evaluated using research testbeds as well as two real-world application-specific testbeds in the domain of smart cities and smart agriculture, which will also be used to collect the system-level data necessary to train and validate the ML models, while realistic system simulators will be used to conduct scale-out experiments. The MLSysOps consortium is a balanced blend of academic/research and industry/SME partners, bringing together the necessary scientific and technological skills to ensure successful implementation and impact.

Keywords: heterogeneity resource management deployment orchestration agent based ai architecture continual ml explainable ml security acceleration photonic networks energy efficiency green operation
Harmonising Observations and Underlying Principles for Visual Data Association (Harmony)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Computer Science and Informatics
Panel description: Informatics and information systems, computer science, scientific computing, intelligent systems
Countries involved: Germany
Call: ERC STARTING GRANTS (ERC-2024-STG, 2024)
Start date: 2025-01-01
End date: 2029-12-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1624911.0
EU funding (EUR): 1624911.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Visual data association aims to find task-specific mappings involving visual data. Two significant examples are the mapping of physics models to complex scenes for planning overtaking manoeuvrers in autonomous driving, or matching collections of 3D shapes for medical analysis. Despite the high relevance of visual data association, its progress has not kept pace with the revolutionary developments fuelled by recent deep learning advances: existing data association machinery lacks theoretical guarantees (e.g. global optimality, or structure such as geometric consistency in 3D shape matching) that are critical for high-stakes settings, or suffers from poor scalability. Moreover, current procedures fall short of understanding complex interconnections across different observable entities (collections of e.g. objects or scenes). The vision of Harmony is to tackle these shortcomings by harmonising the complex interconnections between observable entities and underlying fundamental principles (e.g. geometry, or physics). This research direction is challenging, largely unexplored and will require to break substantially new ground at conceptual, algorithmic and practical levels simultaneously. Harmony is organised into four complementary challenges: Challenge A addresses global optimality and scalability for 3D shape matching; Challenge B addresses structure and dynamics inference from static images; Challenge C addresses non-linear synchronisation in data collections defined over graphs; Challenge D will exploit synergies and cross-fertilise insights across Harmony. Overall, Harmony will benefit both researchers and practitioners by providing solutions to more complex tasks in practically relevant settings (e.g. geometrically consistent medical shape analysis, or physics-based scene understanding).

Keywords: shape matching shape analysis correspondence problems matrix synchronization geometry processing
Microbial soil colonization and structure formation by fungal hyphae mediated transport (MICOL-FUNTRANS)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Postdoctoral Fellowships
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Environment and Geosciences
Countries involved: Germany,Denmark
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2022 (HORIZON-MSCA-2022-PF-01, 2022)
Start date: 2024-06-15
End date: 2026-06-14
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 189687.36
EU funding (EUR): 189687.36
Participants: 3
Project status: SIGNED

Microbes in soil drive ecosystem services defining life on the Earth. Translocation of these microbes is key features in the spatial exploration of soil. This directly impacts major ecological processes such as niche colonization and the development of soil structure, but knowledge of how microbes migrate in soil is scarce. A potential universal mechanism is fungal hyphae mediated transport (FHMT) where bacteria use hyphae of fungi as a route to translocate in a directed manner. However, this has been solely observed in the laboratory, but not in soil where single-cell level studies are restricted by technical limits. MICOL-FUNTRANS overcomes these limitations by developing and exploiting a novel system combining microfluidics, microbiological and microscopical methods to i) observe microbial movement in soil-like systems and ii) identify single involved organisms. Micro-channels will provide treatments to compare soil colonization and structure formation with and without FHMT. Ultimately, findings will be upscaled to an ecological level in a dedicated field study using a glacier forefield in the Arctic, which constitutes a unique natural laboratory to study initial soil development as ongoing climate change melts glaciers and frees vast areas of barren soil at present. The results of this project will foster an integrated view on the soil biome and push research on bacterial-fungal interactions to the centre of attention in soil microbiology and related industries. Specifically, knowledge of migration rates of microbes in soil will impact models on nutrient distribution and efforts in bioremediation of contaminated soil. A better understanding of the initial stages of soil structure formation at the micro-scale will impact efforts in soil quality and health preservation related actions, a topic of highest societal and economic interest as the degradation of soil is one of the most pressing environmental threads we are currently facing.

Keywords: soil microbiome,bacterial fungal interactions,soil colonization,soil structure,transparent soil,fungal highways,fungal hyphae mediated transport,interspecies interaction
SYNTHESIS AND PROPERTIES OF F-BLOCK ORGANOMETALLICS: EN ROUTE TO THE Φ-BOND (PhiBond)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Consolidator grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Synthetic Chemistry and Materials
Panel description: New materials and new synthetic approaches, structure -properties relations, solid state chemistry, molecular architecture, organic chemistry
Countries involved: France
Call: ERC CONSOLIDATOR GRANTS (ERC-2021-COG, 2021)
Start date: 2022-10-01
End date: 2027-09-30
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1999226.0
EU funding (EUR): 1999226.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

If the f-elements; rare earths and actinides, have many applications in various fields (catalysis, materials for optics, for magnetism, for energy and quantum technologies), major fundamental questions yet remain to be discovered. The nature of the interactions between the f orbitals, which have a low radial extension, and their surroundings is still in question. Indeed, if the buried-character of f-electrons confers their compounds with some of their properties, this particularly harms the description of covalent bonds of φ-symmetry. More specifically, the interaction of two φ-symmetry metallic orbitals, which would lead to the description of φ-bonds, is sorely lacking in the landscape of molecular chemistry. In order to exacerbate the interactions with f- orbitals, we propose to use the argument of symmetry, locking the f orbitals in an ideal configuration, which will make the description of φ-interactions easier to study. We propose to use original large aromatic ligands in order to synthesize compounds of high symmetry. This approach notably differs from the current one, which aims to sterically hinder conventional ligands with large substituents. Once the symmetry is locked, we will vary the electron count and the redox state, as well as the ligand field by modulating the 4f- or 5f-ion used, including transuranic elements. The organometallic synthesis of the these original 4f- and 5f-compounds will be followed by experimental electronic density studies as well as adapted spectroscopy, which will shed light on the interactions of φ−symmetry. Unusual radioelements, uranium and more classical rare earth metal ions will thus lead to an overall assessment of the necessary requirements to enhance the interactions and move towards molecules containing several f-metal ions and a small intermetallic distance. The redox and physical properties of the latter compounds will be engineered with the aim of forming molecules containing metal-metal interactions of φ-symmetry.

Keywords: f elements,organometallics,magnetism,spectroscopy,small molecules activation,metal metal bond
Exploring aCtive edible materials based on pHenolic-biocOnjugates from agro-industrial by-products for Sustainable and healthy future food packaging (ECHOS)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Postdoctoral Fellowships
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Chemistry
Countries involved: Sweden,France,Spain
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2022 (HORIZON-MSCA-2022-PF-01, 2022)
Start date: 2024-01-01
End date: 2025-12-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 222727.68
EU funding (EUR): 222727.68
Participants: 4
Project status: SIGNED

Active-edible materials applied in food packaging have great potential as a sustainable strategy for maintaining food quality: they act as a barrier to the outside environment and a vehicle for active compounds that can extend the shelf-life of food products. Agro-industrial byproducts represent a valuable source of active and functional compounds for packaging development, with great accessibility and low prices while decreasing reliance on fossil resources. Among the compounds present in agro-industrial byproducts, phenolic-carbohydrates bioconjugates have attracted a lot of attention in the last years due to their bioactive properties as antioxidant and prebiotic, which can promote a positive influence on human health. However, their application on the development of active edible materials for food packaging remains poorly explored. ECHOS project proposes an innovative approach using phenolic-carbohydrates bioconjugates in the design of edible packaging with improved performance combining the mentioned bioactivity with functional properties to form self-standing films and coatings. Two biorefinery approaches will be developed in the present study to add value to relevant agro-industrial biomasses; (1) the recovery of natural bioconjugates by green extraction techniques, and (2) the enzymatic cross-link of phenolic-rich fraction and exogenous carbohydrates. A comparative study will be conducted on the feasibility and sustainability of using natural and biomimetic bioconjugates as active packaging materials. The bioactivity of the materials will be continuously assessed on fresh food preservation, along with the health benefits associated with their intake e.g. prebiotic effects on gut microbiota. The ECHOS project will lead to an important advance in the use of phenolic-bioconjugates as building blocks in the future food packaging market aligned with the objectives of the European Green Deal initiative.

Keywords: circular food systems bioactive materials edible food packaging dietary fibers biocatalysis