Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Magnetic fields and the outflows during the formation and evolution of stars (OUTFLOWMAGN)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Consolidator grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Universe Sciences
Countries involved: Sweden
Call:  (ERC-2013-CoG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-05-01
End date: 2019-04-30
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2000000.0
EU funding (EUR): 2000000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The outflows of young and old stars play a crucial role in the cycle of matter in galaxies. Stars and planetary systems are formed through complex physical processes during the collapse of gas clouds with outflows a required ingredient. At the end of a stars life, stellar outflows are the main source of heavy elements that are essential for the formation of stars, planets and life. Magnetic fields are one of the key factors governing the in particular the often observed collimated outflow. They might also be a key ingredient in driving stellar mass loss and are potentially essential for stabilizing accretion disks of, in particular, massive proto-stars. Only polarization observations at different spatial scales are able to measure the strength and structure of magnetic fields during the launching of outflows from young and old stars. Because stars in these evolutionary phases are highly obscured by dusty envelopes, their magnetic fields are best probed through observations of molecules and dust at submillimeter and radio wavelengths. In addition to its role, the origin of the magnetic field in these stellar phases is also still unknown and to determine it multi-wavelength observations are essential. The proposed research group will use state of the art submillimeter and radio instruments, integrated with self-consistent radiative transfer and magneto-hydrodynamic models, to examine the role and origin of magnetic fields during star formation and in the outflows from evolved stars. The group will search for planets around evolved stars to answer the elusive question on the origin of their magnetic field and determine the connection between the galactic magnetic field and that responsible for the formation of jets and potentially disks around young proto-stars. This fundamental new work, for which a dedicated research group is essential, will reveal the importance of magnetism during star formation as well as in driving and shaping the mass loss of evolved stars.

Keywords: magnetic fields,radiative transfer,interferometry
Causes and Consequences of Mediterranean Fish Invasions (MEDFISH)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Life-long training and career development
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Israel
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-CIG, 2013)
Start date: 2013-09-01
End date: 2017-08-31
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Species invasion is one of the prime threats to biodiversity, driving major changes in ecosystem structure and function. Identifying the traits associated with invasion has been largely restricted to comparing indigenous and invasive species or comparing invasive species that differ in abundance or impact. However, a more complete understanding may emerge when the entire pool of potentially invasive species is used as a control, information that is rarely available. Fish populations in the Mediterranean are faced with multiple stressors including overfishing, pollution, habitat loss and displacement by invasive species. The latter is of particular concern in the eastern Mediterranean where a large influx of Red Sea species has followed the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. These invasive species make up a large percentage of total fish biomass in this region. However, it is generally unknown how these species impact the ecology of indigenous species. In addition, it has proven challenging to identify the traits that enhance invasion success. The proposed research will focus on this unique 'natural experiment', in which almost the entire pool of potentially alien species is known, to understanding the causes of fish invasion and its consequences for indigenous species. This work will combine two complementary approaches to study species invasion, focusing both on the impact of invasive species in the Mediterranean and on the traits that lead to a successful invasion. This combination provides a powerful strategy for evaluating the underlying ecological mechanisms. This study links local experimental manipulations, coarse-grained data compilation and detailed state-of-the-art approaches for estimating life-history traits under a single conceptual framework. Results will provide critical information for the appreciation of the risks facing indigenous fish, information which is necessary for mitigation efforts.

Keywords: invasive species,traits,specialization,fish,functional diversity,colonization,coral reefs,hierarchical bayes,non-indigenous species,mediterranean,red-sea,models,ichthyofauna,assemblages
Inorganic surfactants with multifunctional heads (I-SURF)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Consolidator grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Synthetic Chemistry and Materials
Countries involved: Germany
Call:  (ERC-2013-CoG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-03-01
End date: 2020-02-29
Duration (months): 72.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1863546.0
EU funding (EUR): 1863546.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Surfactants are molecules of enormous scientific and technological importance, which are widely used as detergents, emulsifiers or for the preparation of diverse nanostructures. Fascinating abilities regarding the formation of self-organized structures, like micelles or liquid crystals, originate from their amphiphilic architecture, which comprises a polar head group linked to a hydrophobic chain. While almost all known surfactants are organic, a new family of surfactants is now emerging, which combine amphiphilic properties with the advanced functionality of transition metal building blocks. The current project aims at the synthesis of unique inorganic surfactants (I-SURFs), which contain multinuclear, charged metal-oxo entities as heads, and their exploration with regard to additional redox, catalytic or magnetic functionalities. A particular challenge is the creation of smart surfactant systems that can be controlled via external stimuli. While thermotropic liquid crystals and their adjustment in electric fields (enabling LCDs) have been studied in depth, very limited research concerns the control of self-assembled amphiphilic structures by use of magnetic fields. It is obvious that exposure to a magnetic field has inherent advantages over electric fields for controlling structures in water. I-SURFs with single-molecule magnets as heads will be thus prepared and studied. Another groundbreaking task is the creation of I-SURFs with additional catalytic activities. Since catalytic heads can be positioned via self-organization, for instance on the surface of micellar aggregates, catalytic relay systems can be assembled with a second catalytic species in proximity to the first. Thus, cooperative effects in catalytic tandem reactions will ultimately be observed. These examples show that frontier research on I-SURFs is of outstanding relevance for supramolecular science and will certainly pave the way toward new technological applications with great benefits to society.

Keywords: polyoxometalates
The 15th-century Book Trade: An Evidence-based Assessment and Visualization of the Distribution, Sale, and Reception of Books in the Renaissance (15CBOOKTRADE)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Consolidator grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: The Study of the Human Past
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call:  (ERC-2013-CoG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-04-01
End date: 2019-03-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1999172.0
EU funding (EUR): 1999172.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The idea that underpins this project is to use the material evidence from thousands of surviving 15th-c. books, as well as unique documentary evidence — the unpublished ledger of a Venetian bookseller in the 1480s which records the sale of 25,000 printed books with their prices — to address four fundamental questions relating to the introduction of printing in the West which have so far eluded scholarship, partly because of lack of evidence, partly because of the lack of effective tools to deal with existing evidence. The book trade differs from other trades operating in the medieval and early modern periods in that the goods traded survive in considerable numbers. Not only do they survive, but many of them bear stratified evidence of their history in the form of marks of ownership, prices, manuscript annotations, binding and decoration styles. A British Academy pilot project conceived by the PI produced a now internationally-used database which gathers together this kind of evidence for thousands of surviving 15th-c. printed books. For the first time, this makes it possible to track the circulation of books, their trade routes and later collecting, across Europe and the USA, and throughout the centuries. The objectives of this project are to examine (1) the distribution and trade-routes, national and international, of 15th-c. printed books, along with the identity of the buyers and users (private, institutional, religious, lay, female, male, and by profession) and their reading practices; (2) the books' contemporary market value; (3) the transmission and dissemination of the texts they contain, their survival and their loss (rebalancing potentially skewed scholarship); and (4) the circulation and re-use of the illustrations they contain. Finally, the project will experiment with the application of scientific visualization techniques to represent, geographically and chronologically, the movement of 15th-c. printed books and of the texts they contain.

Keywords: history of the book,transmission and reception of texts
The LHC Battle for Naturalness on the Top Charm Front (TOPCHARM)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Consolidator grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Fundamental Constituents of Matter
Countries involved: Israel
Call:  (ERC-2013-CoG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-07-01
End date: 2020-04-30
Duration (months): 70.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1434154.0
EU funding (EUR): 1434154.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Now that a Higgs-like particle has been discovered naturalness becomes the most pressing and fundamental question within the reach of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The main contribution that destabilises the electroweak scale comes from a top-quark loop. The key for addressing the naturalness problem is thus identifying the top partners that are stabilizing the weak scale. We consider the following two general possibilities in which the partners have escaped detection: (I) the top partners are light but elusive, this calls for a theoretical explanation as well as for new innovative experimental techniques for signal exhumation; (II) the partners are relatively heavy and the signal would consist of energetic (boosted) top from the decay of its partner. I plan to carry out a comprehensive research program designed to attack these challenges, and I believe that I am uniquely prepared to do this. Regarding (I), as proven below, current searches have not considered the impact of non-trivial flavor physics, e.g. splitting between the first two generation partner masses, as well as the mixing between the top-partners and other flavors. The consequences are: (i) significantly weaker mass bounds on some of the partners (e.g. the scharm, charm-supersymmetric-partner); (ii) improved naturalness as even the stops (or fermion partners) can be lighter; and (iii) modified Higgs rates in composite models. Regarding (II), with collaborators I have been the first one to understand the difficulties of dealing with highly boosted top jets, and since then I was intensively involved in developing theoretical as well as novel techniques to study them, including coauthoring two important papers with the CDF and ATLAS collaborations. To uncover these new possibilities, expertise in collider phenomenology and flavor physics is required. I have a proven record in these frontiers and thus, given the required support, am well positioned to pursue this quest to save naturalness.

Keywords: naturalness,lhc,top partners,supersymmetry,composite higgs,flavor physics.
Palaeolithic Plant Use in the Western Mediterranean (PALEOPLANT)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Consolidator grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: The Study of the Human Past
Countries involved: Spain
Call:  (ERC-2013-CoG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-07-01
End date: 2015-12-31
Duration (months): 18.0
Total project cost (EUR): 384345.0
EU funding (EUR): 384345.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

This project deals with one of the big gaps of knowledge in prehistory, how plant foods and resources were used by preagrarian societies. Plants have been fundamental for human societies across the planet. However, it is a blank when it comes to archaeological evidence of humans eating and exploiting them during most part of Prehistory. This work aims at changing the meat/hunting centred paradigm of Palaeolithic subsistence by readdressing human plant exploitation through a novel interdisciplinary approach. The main objectives are: 1) To assess wild plant exploitation among Palaeolithic-Epipalaeolithic societies, 2) To appraise resilience and change in Palaeolithic-Epipalaeolithic plant use, and 3) To improve archaeological methodology and fieldwork. The chronology of analysis –from the Late Middle Palaeolithic to the Epipalaeolithic- includes two extremely interesting periods: a) the transition from the middle to the upper Palaeolithic with neanderthal extinction and early presence of modern humans which gives us the opportunity to explore and compare whether these groups exploit plant resources in a different way, and b) the climatic change from the Late Pleistocene to the early Holocene which allows to evaluate how last hunter-gatherers from the region adapt to climatic change and new ecological conditions. The challenge of the work is to obtain archaeological visibility of plant use through and interdisciplinary approach that combines: pollen analysis, the study of plant macroremains including underground storage organs (USOs), micromorphology, analysis of microremains such as phytoliths and starch, ethnobotany and use-wear analyses on tools. The different types of evidence to be analysed come from relevant archaeological sites from Spain, Portugal and Morocco. Because a project at this scale has not been developed before, major scientific developments and impact in archaeological science can be safely expected.

Keywords: palaeolithic,archaeobotany,palaeoethnobotany,ethnobotany,mediterranean,hunter-gatherer,subsistence
MICROMACHINED OPTOMECHANICAL DEVICES: looking at cells, tissues, and organs ... with a gentle touch. (DIDYMUS)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Consolidator grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Systems and Communication Engineering
Countries involved: Netherlands
Call:  (ERC-2013-CoG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-06-01
End date: 2019-12-31
Duration (months): 67.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1999221.0
EU funding (EUR): 1999221.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Every time we grab an object to look at its geometrical details or to feel if it is hard or soft, we are ineluctably confronted with the limits of our senses. Behind its appearances, the object may still hide information that, encrypted in its microscopic features, remains undetected to our macroscopic assessment. In life sciences, those limits are more than just frustrating: they are an obstacle to study and detect life threatening conditions. Many different instruments may overcome those limits, but the vast majority of them rely either on “sight” (optics) or “touch” (mechanics) separately. On the contrary, I believe that it is from the combination of those two “senses” that we have more chances to tackle the future challenges of cell biology, tissue engineering, and medical diagnosis. Inspired by this tantalizing perspective, and supported by a technology that I have brought from blackboard to market, I have now designed a scientific program to breach into the microscopic scale via an unbeaten path. The program develops along three projects addressing the three most relevant scales in life sciences: cells, tissues, and organs. In the first project, I will design and test a new optomechanical probe to investigate how a prolonged mechanical load on a brain cell of a living animal may trigger alterations in its Central Nervous System. With the second project, I will develop an optomechanical tactile instrument that can assess how subsurface tissues deform in response to a mechanical stroke – a study that may change the way physicians look at tissue classification. For the third project, I will deliver an acousto-optical gas trace sensors so compact that can penetrate inside the lungs of an adult patient, where it could be used for early detection of pulmonary life threatening diseases. Each project represents an opportunity to open an entire new field, where optics and micromechanics are combined to extend our senses well beyond their natural limits.

Keywords: optical fiber sensors,mems,central nervous system,tissue classification,lung endoscopy
High-Performance Secure Computation with Applications to Privacy and Cloud Security (HIPS)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Consolidator grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Computer Science and Informatics
Countries involved: Israel
Call:  (ERC-2013-CoG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-10-01
End date: 2019-09-30
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1999174.8
EU funding (EUR): 1999174.8
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Secure two-party and multiparty computation has long stood at the center of the foundations of theoretical cryptography. However, in the last five years there has been blistering progress on the question of efficient secure computation. We are close to the stage that secure computation can be applied to real-world privacy and security problems. There is thus considerable interest in secure computation solutions from governments, military and security organisations, and industry. However, in order to answer the needs of secure computation in practice, there is still a need to make secure computation protocols much faster. Until now, research in efficient cryptographic protocols has typically been in two different directions. The first direction, and the major one, is to construct more efficient protocols and prove them secure, where efficiency is measured by the amount of communication sent, the number of heavy cryptographic operations carried out (e.g., exponentiations), and so on. The second direction is to take the state-of-the-art protocols and implement them while optimising the implementation based on systems concerns. This latter direction has proven to improve the efficiency of existing protocols significantly, but is limited since it remains within the constraints of existing cryptographic approaches. We propose a synergetic approach towards achieving high-performance secure computation. We will design new protocols while combining research from cryptography, algorithms and systems. In this way, issues like load balancing, memory management, cache-awareness, bandwidth bottlenecks, utilisation of parallel computing resources, and more, will be built into the cryptographic protocol and not considered merely as an afterthought. If successful, HIPS will enable the application of the beautiful theory of secure computation to the problems of privacy in the digital era, cloud security and more.

Keywords: cryptography,secure computation,high-performance computing,privacy,cloud security
Variational Methods for Dynamic Inverse Problems in the Life Sciences (LIFEINVERSE)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Consolidator grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Mathematics
Countries involved: Germany
Call:  (ERC-2013-CoG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-03-01
End date: 2019-02-28
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 966400.0
EU funding (EUR): 966400.0
Participants: 2
Project status: CLOSED

This project will develop novel techniques for solving inverse problems in life sciences, in particular related to dynamic imaging. Major challenges in this area are efficient four- dimensional image reconstruction under low SNR conditions and further the quantification of image series as obtained from molecular imaging or life microscopy techniques. We will tackle both of them in a rather unified framework as inverse problems for time-dependent (systems of) partial differential equations. In the solution of these inverse problems we will investigate novel approaches for the following aspects specific to the above-mentioned problems in the life sciences: 1. Solution of inverse problems for PDEs in complex time-varying geometries 2. Development of appropriate variational regularization models for dynamic images, including noise and motion models 3. Improved forward and inverse modelling of cellular and intracellular dynamics leading to novel inverse problems for nonlinear partial differential equations 4. Construction and implementation of efficient iterative solution methods for the arising 4D inverse problems and their variational formulation All tasks will be driven by concrete applications in biology and medicine and their success will be evaluated in applications to real problems and data. This is based on interdisciplinary work related to electrocardiology and developmental biology. The overall development of methods will however be carried out in a flexible and modular way, so that they become accessible for larger problem classes.

Keywords: inverse problems,applications of mathematics in life sciences,image and video processing,regularization theory.