Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Structured nonlinear Metamaterials for efficient generation and Active functional control of Radiation of THz light (SMART)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Systems and communication engineering
Panel description: Electrical, electronic, communication, optical and systems engineering
Countries involved: Israel
Call: ERC Starting Grant (ERC-2016-STG, 2016)
Start date: 2017-01-01
End date: 2022-12-31
Duration (months): 72.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1937500.0
EU funding (EUR): 1937500.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The terahertz optical regime, covering the long wavelength end of the optical spectrum, has been for many years the least explored spectral regime. Recent interest in this regime has led to important emerging applications spanning many disciplines including medical, biological, materials sciences, communications, security, and basic sciences. However, advances in these emerging applications are held back by the lack of good and controllable terahertz light sources. I propose to lead a potential breakthrough in this field by developing a new family of THz sources with unmatched functionality. The developed sources will be based on nano-engineered nonlinear heterostructured metamaterials, man-made materials with artificial optical properties. The proposal is based on very recent studies that show that metamaterials can be used to emit THz light with excellent efficiency, comparable to the best available nonlinear materials in nature. In addition it relies on our recent experimental demonstrations of functional nonlinear metamaterials that allow unprecedented control of nonlinear optical interactions. We will apply this recent knowledge to design novel active metamaterials that efficiently emit THz light at any desired frequency, shape and polarization, focus it directly from the emitter to a desired sample location and even actively steer and modify its radiation properties all-optically. In addition, we will enhance the THz generation efficiency from metamaterials by more than three orders of magnitude compared to the state of the art. We will also use our expertise to fabricate large scale and multi-layered THz light emitting metamaterials by leveraging novel nanolithography methods. Overall I expect that the outcome of this research will be in development of one of a kind family of THz light emitters that will lead to the, long sought for, leap in THz technology and will open the door to new applications and to new tools for advancing fundamental science.

Keywords: nonlinear optics,metamaterials,plasmonics,beam shaping
A precise irrigation sensor system to provide an accurate indication of water status in crops and deliver increased yields to farmers (StemSense)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Societal Challenges
Programme: Food security, sustainable agriculture and forestry, marine and maritime and inland water research and the bioeconomy
Action type: SME instrument
Countries involved: Israel
Call: Resource-efficient eco-innovative food production and processing (H2020-SMEINST-1-2015, 2015)
Start date: 2016-02-01
End date: 2016-05-31
Duration (months): 4.0
Total project cost (EUR): 71429.0
EU funding (EUR): 50000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Saturas is an SME from Israel that has developed a sensor system to accurately deliver an indication of water status and determine precise irrigation levels. 95% of farmers irrigate land without any scientifically based information leading to significant overwatering and lowering potential yields. Overwatering drowns crops reducing the quantity and quality of yields. Water is becoming scarcer and more expensive as pressure on supplies continue to increase. The StemSense sensor is the world's first to deliver accurate measurements of stem water potential and relay to farmers exact quantities of water required and when. The sensor is embedded in the trunk of the plant and information sent via a communication box to the farmers. Farmers using the StemSense sensor experience up to 20% higher income, significant water savings and reduced costs. The patented technology has been engineered for use in fruit trees and successfully tested on citrus and peach trees. Within the overall project, Saturas intends to optimise the communication and control interface to reflect real-time stem water potential levels; manufacture 300 sensors for test sites; undertake full scale tests of the StemSense sensor systems in Israel, Italy and Spain; and engineer a miniaturized version of the StemSense sensor to fit grapevines.

Keywords: precise irrigation,crop water status,stem water potential,sustainable water use
Structural and mechanistic study of ion transport in Channelrhodopsin-2 (LIIT-ChR2)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie-Sklodowska-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Individual Fellowships (IF)-Standard European Fellowships
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Chemistry
Countries involved: Germany
Call: Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF-EF) (H2020-MSCA-IF-2014, 2014)
Start date: 2015-04-01
End date: 2017-03-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 159460.8
EU funding (EUR): 159460.8
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Channelrhodopsins are type-I rhodopsin proteins found in green algae that function as sensory photoreceptors and turn into ion channels under illumination. Upon light absorbance, the retinal moiety induces a conformational change on the protein that opens a channel through which ions can pass. Neurons expressing channelrhodopsin-2 (ChR2) can be depolarized rapidly and reversibly by illumination, hence allowing control of the activation/inactivation of neurons in specific locations of the brain. For this reason, ChR2 has been used widely in optogenetics to study neuronal circuits and disorders in the brain, and to restore light sensitivity and visual capabilities in damaged retinas. However, in contrast to closely related bacteriorhodopsins or halorhodopsins, very little is known about their structure, light cycle and mechanism of action. The current structural evidences of ChR2 is limited to 1) the 6 Å projection map obtained by cryo-electron microscopy that contains a mixture of light (open channel) and dark (closed channel) states; and 2) the 2.3 Å X-ray structure of the dark state of a ChR1/ChR2 chimera. In the present proposal, we aim at elucidating the structure, properties and mechanism of action of the transient species of ChR2 during its photochemical cycle by means of theoretical methods and in close collaboration with the experimental biophysics groups of the host institute. The mechanisms of ion transport and channel opening will be simulated by enhanced sampling and free energy methods. Specific quantum-mechanics/molecular-mechanics (QM/MM) force matching force field will be generated ad hoc for the retinal moiety in the ChR2 environment. The model structures generated for the closed, open, and desensitized states will be validated 1) by comparison of the QM/MM spectroscopic properties of the model with experimental observations; and 2) by comparison to electron microscopy structures using a Bayesian analysis method recently developed in the host group.

Keywords: molecular dynamics
Connecting the Extreme (ConTExt)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Consolidator grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Universe sciences
Panel description: Astro-physics/-chemistry/-biology; solar system; planetary systems; stellar, galactic and extragalactic astronomy; cosmology; space sciences; astronomical instrumentation and data
Countries involved: Denmark
Call: ERC Consolidator Grant (ERC-2014-CoG, 2014)
Start date: 2015-09-01
End date: 2021-02-28
Duration (months): 66.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1999526.0
EU funding (EUR): 1999526.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Advances in technology and methodology over the last decade, have enabled the study of galaxies to the highest redshifts. This has revolutionized our understanding of the origin and evolution of galaxies. I have played a central role in this revolution, by discovering that at z=2, when the universe was only 3 Gyr old, half of the most massive galaxies were extremely compact and had already completed their star formation. During the last five years I have led a successful group of postdocs and students dedicated to investigating the extreme properties of these galaxies and place them into cosmological context. Combining a series of high profile observational studies published by my group and others, I recently proposed an evolutionary sequence that ties together the most extreme galaxies in the universe, from the most intense dusty starburst at cosmic dawn, through quasars: the brightest sources in the universe, driven by feedback from supermassive black holes, and galaxy cores hosting the densest conglomerations of stellar mass known, to the sleeping giants of the local universe, the giant ellipticals. The proposed research program will explore if such an evolutionary sequence exists, with the ultimate goal of reaching, for the first time, a coherent physical understanding of how the most massive galaxies in the universe formed. While there is a chance the rigorous tests may ultimately reveal the proposed sequence to be too simplistic, a guarantied outcome of the program is a significantly improved understanding of the physical mechanisms that shape galaxies and drive their star formation and quenching
Circuit and cellular mechanisms for computing spatial vectors to shelter during escape (EscapeVector)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Consolidator grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System
Panel description: Nervous system development, homeostasis and ageing, nervous system function and dysfunction, systems neuroscience and modelling, biological basis of cognitive processes and of behaviour, neurological and mental disorders
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call: ERC Consolidator Grant (ERC-2019-COG, 2019)
Start date: 2020-09-01
End date: 2025-08-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1991004.0
EU funding (EUR): 1991004.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Executing actions that move the body across space to reach goals is a task that animals constantly perform. In some cases, the goal is within direct reach of sensory systems, but in others the goal location has to be retrieved from memory and requires moving towards to a memorised point in space. Previous work has identified neural circuits that represent space, and devised models for transforming object-centred spatial representations into body-centred coordinates, but we do not know the mechanisms by which actions are computed to reach memorised locations. Our goal is to uncover these mechanisms, by investigating instinctive escape to shelter in mice. Recent work has shown that escape to shelter is a goal-directed action that relies on memory of the shelter location, and which is controlled by a midbrain defensive circuit encompassing the superior colliculus and the periaqueductal gray. These circuit nodes can elicit the entire flight sequence to shelter, providing a unique entry point for investigating how spatial representations are converted into goal-directed actions. We aim to explain at the cellular and circuit level how the spatial vector to the shelter is encoded and transformed into shelter-directed flight actions. Our experimental strategy is to use loss-of-function approaches to identify circuit nodes that project to the superior colliculus and are necessary for escaping to the correct location, and perform neural activity recordings with high-density silicon probes and calcium imaging to determine how the spatial vector to the shelter is encoded and transferred to midbrain effector circuits. At the single neuron level, we will use whole-cell recordings to investigate connectivity and the biophysics of synaptic integration in circuits controlling the execution of flight. The results from this project will produce mechanistic models of how neurons encode information about a goal in space, and compute appropriate motor actions to reach the goal.

Keywords: escape,flight,shelter,spatial vector,computation,synaptic integration,neural circuits,midbrain
On a free open source extreme scale finite element software (FEXFEM)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Proof of concept grants
Action type: ERC actions
Countries involved: Spain
Call: ERC Proof of Concept Grant (ERC-2014-PoC, 2014)
Start date: 2015-03-01
End date: 2016-08-31
Duration (months): 18.0
Total project cost (EUR): 149250.0
EU funding (EUR): 149250.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The ability of scientific computing to efficiently exploit forthcoming extreme scale machines will have a great impact in almost every field of science. The next generation of exascale computers is expected to reach billions of cores. As a result, high performance scientific software able to efficiently exploit these extreme scale super-computers is strategic in this scenario. However, this target is very challenging and requires ground-breaking advances in numerical algorithms. The free open source software paradigm is the best approach for a software project of this complexity, which will require collaborative research between researchers by top-end experts in different fields. Nowadays, there are some high-quality libraries for the numerical approximation of PDEs using grid-based methods. These libraries provide the discretization/linearization machinery, leaving the numerical linear algebra to external libraries. In the future exascale scenario, this staggered approach does not seem to be the best option. The objective of this PoC proposal is to develop a Scientific Computing Library for Frontier Simulations at Extreme Scales. Our idea is to provide a high-quality open source software that combines discretization and numerical linear algebra in a strong way. We mention some of the benefits of this innovative approach that we have already identified/exploited. Extreme scale solvers will require reducing synchronization and inter-processor communications, even at the expense of extra local flops. In order to do this, (1) nonlinear domain decomposition and (2) time-space parallelization will be favoured, since there is much more local work to be done (nonlinear/time loops). . Further, (3) solver-aware discretizations should also be considered, e.g. replacing local kernel detection in domain decomposition by (consistent) boundary terms. (4) Multiphysics problems cannot be efficiently solved via black-box solvers, requiring physics-based preconditioners.

Keywords: scientific computing,finite elements,large scale computing,scalability,free software,open source
Realizing the promise of gravitational wave astronomy (GWASTRO)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie-Sklodowska-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Individual Fellowships (IF)-Standard European Fellowships
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Physics
Countries involved: Germany
Call: Individual Fellowships (H2020-MSCA-IF-2019, 2019)
Start date: 2021-07-01
End date: 2023-06-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 162806.4
EU funding (EUR): 162806.4
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

The era of gravitational wave astronomy has begun and has the potential to redefine our knowledge of the Universe. LIGO and Virgo are the most precise instruments ever built, but this is only the beginning for this field. The detectors are becoming ever more sensitive, and the next generation of detectors are already being planned. Coupled with these trailblazing experimental efforts, the promise of gravitational wave astronomy can only be fully realized if our models can keep up with the accuracy demands of the imminent high-precision era. LIGO and Virgo hunt for gravitational waves from orbiting black holes and neutron stars; these compact objects lose energy through gravitational waves, spiral in towards each other and eventually merge. To analyze the data from the detections, it is crucial to have an accurate model of the expected gravitational waves. The merger process is highly dynamical and numerical simulations involving the Einstein equations are the only means to predict the gravitational waves from the merger. However, these simulations are too expensive for direct data analysis applications, each taking a month on a supercomputer. Therefore, fast but approximate waveform models that are calibrated against these simulations have been developed over the years, but these models do not currently capture all of the physics present in the simulations. Surrogate models take a data-driven approach to modeling, and are trained directly against numerical simulations without the need for additional assumptions. As a result, these models can even rival the simulations themselves in accuracy. In this project, I will develop novel surrogate models that capture the full physics of compact binary systems. Therefore, this project will ensure that our gravitational wave models are ready to maximize the science output of the multi-billion-Euro experimental efforts and realize the great promise of gravitational wave astronomy.

Keywords: numerical relativity,gravitational waveform modeling
Time-Resolved Structural Imaging of Chemical Transition State Dynamics (c-TSD-p)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Consolidator grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Physical and analytical chemical sciences
Panel description: Analytical chemistry, chemical theory, physical chemistry/chemical physics
Countries involved: Germany,Germany
Call: ERC CONSOLIDATOR GRANTS (ERC-2020-COG, 2020)
Start date: 2021-06-01
End date: 2026-05-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2000000.0
EU funding (EUR): 1938768.12
Participants: 2
Project status: SIGNED

For bonds to be broken and new bonds to be formed, chemical reactants have to come close to each other and evolve through transient intermediate configurations known as the transition state. Transition state dynamics is closely related to reaction mechanisms and of fundamental importance in chemistry. Much work has been done to unravel these dynamics, which often involve major structural rearrangement of atoms. However, there are a lot of open questions since to date none of the applied spectroscopic techniques has directly delivered the time-dependent transition state structure. I propose to develop a novel probe that images, one molecule at a time, the full three-dimensional atomic configuration of individual transition states as they evolve: Reaction precursors are prepared using molecular ions and small (ionic) clusters with defined initial structure and tunable internal temperature. Starting from these well-defined initial configurations, chemical dynamics will be initiated by a femtosecond laser pulse. Timed Coulomb Explosion Imaging, induced by extremely short intense laser or X-ray pulses together with full coincidence momentum imaging of all fragments is then applied as a probe. The latter yields the evolving transition state structure by mapping the position of all atoms as a function of time-delay between the two pulses. I argue that the progress in laser technology in recent years was imperative to make such a scheme feasible now, since it allows measurements at high repetition rate, which is absolutely crucial. I propose work packages of increasing complexity to study ground state chemical reactions in the presence of solvent molecules and under the influence of a control pulse. The structural information obtained from Coulomb Explosion Imaging gives direct insight into how reaction mechanisms change under such conditions. I anticipate that light will be shed on some of the long-standing open questions surrounding transition state dynamics.

Keywords: chemical reaction dynamics,ultrafast chemical dynamics,molecular physics
RUN-EU ProfessionaL research programmes for bUsiness and Society (RUN-EU PLUS)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Science with and for Society
Action type: Coordination and support actions
Countries involved: Austria,Ireland,Finland,Hungary,Netherlands,Portugal,Portugal
Call: Support for the Research and Innovation Dimension of European Universities (Part II) (H2020-IBA-SwafS-Support-2-2020, 2020)
Start date: 2021-10-01
End date: 2024-09-30
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1998061.25
EU funding (EUR): 1998061.25
Participants: 9
Project status: SIGNED

RUN-EU is a new European University, made up of 8 HEIs from 6 countries and has 75.000 students and 8.000 staff. RUN-EU provides a structured framework for the enhancement of the R&I ecosystem with business and society at a regional and inter-regional level across the University alliance. The proposed RUN-EU+ CSA project primarily focuses on enhancing the development of R&I with and for Society through the development and deployment of collaborative professional practice-based research degrees across the RUN-EU alliance. The main objectives of this CSA project include the: a) Implementation of a common R&I agenda and associated collaborative action plan focused on the strengthening of regional business and society partnerships in R&I across the network which will complement the existing RUN-EU strategic vision for teaching, learning, research and engagement activities, delivering institutional and societal transformation. b) Design and delivery of joint and collaborative accredited professional practice-based research programmes at both masters and PhD level across the RUN-EU alliance in association with industry, business, and societal stakeholders. c) Development and implementation of strategies which enhance the capacity of the human capital engaged in research and innovation, through the development of a collective and collaborative cloud of knowledge portal. d) Mainstreaming of Open Science practices and skills within the RUN-EU R&I platforms, through the delivery of new and innovative programmes aimed at strengthening our commitment to open science principles. e) Contribution to the development of the recently announced ERA Hubs by supporting joint R&I activities across the alliance by supporting the development of the RUN-EU European Innovation Hubs (EIH) and the European Zone of Interregional Development (EZ-ID), with business and societal stakeholders focused on; Future Industry and Sustainable Regional Development; the Bioeconomy and Social Innovation.

Keywords: collaborative professional practice based research degrees,cooperation with business and society,common randi transformation agenda,strengthening human capital,open and citizen science