Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Emergence of Topological Phases from Electronic Interactions (TOPOLECTRICS)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Condensed matter physics
Countries involved: Germany
Call:  (ERC-2013-StG, 2013)
Start date: 2013-11-01
End date: 2018-10-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1307503.2
EU funding (EUR): 1307503.2
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Topological properties of a quantum state of matter describe global signatures which are invariant under weak local perturbations of the system. Such scenarios constitute a major branch of contemporary condensed matter physics and exhibit remarkable phenomena such as quantized edge channels of a bulk-incompressible phase as well as fractionalized quantum numbers and statistics of quasiparticles. In the TOPOLECTRICS ERC starting grant research plan, we investigate topological quantum phases which result from electronic interactions. The key objective is to provide a rigorous link between bare electronic models and low energy effective models hosting emergent topological quantum phases. This task is approached from two perspectives. First, in a top-down approach, renormalization group schemes are developed and employed for weakly and strongly interacting electrons to derive effective models from realistic bare electronic scenarios. We investigate how Fermi liquids can host topological phases such as Chern insulators, topological insulators, and topological superconductors as well as how Mott phases of frustrated magnets can drive the system into a spin liquid regime. The central goal is to identify the crucial parameters which control the stabilization of such phases and to provide a direct feedback for experimental setups. Second, in a bottom-up approach, entanglement spectrum analysis along with reverse Hamiltonian model building is applied to topologically ordered quantum states such as fractional quantum Hall states, spin liquids, spin chain states, as well as fractional Chern and fractional topological insulators. The aim is to develop effective models hosting such topological quantum states and to reconnect them with bare electronic models as well as to investigate key experimental signatures. Ultimately, the goal is to fuse both approaches to develop a microscopically substantiated procedure to identify electronic topological quantum phases in nature.
Developing Multispecific Biological Agents that Target Tumor Neovasculature for Cancer Imaging and Therapy (BISPROT)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Diagnostic tools, therapies and public health
Countries involved: Israel
Call:  (ERC-2013-StG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-01-01
End date: 2018-12-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1625000.0
EU funding (EUR): 1625000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The dysregulation of signaling pathways that mediate cell proliferation, survival and migration is an underlying cause of many cancers. In particular, dysregulation and over-expression of avb3 integrin, membrane-type-1 matrix metalloproteinase (MT1-MMP; also known as matrix metalloproteinase-14, MMP14) and vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-2 (VEGFR2) correlate with poor prognosis in many human tumors, making these proteins attractive targets for therapeutic intervention. Numerous papers have demonstrated the cross-talk between biological processes mediated by αvβ3 integrins, MT1-MMP, VEGFR2, and their ligands, particularly pathways responsible for angiogenesis. Dual-specific proteins that can target and inhibit the activity of the above multiple receptors therefore have superior potential to single-targeted agents due to differential expression of these disease markers in different patients and the ability of this expression to change over time. Most currently available bispecific protein therapeutics comprise antibodies (Abs) or antibody fragments. The new approach proposed here entails rational and combinatorial methods for engineering multispecificity into small peptides and natural protein ligands to function as non-immunoglobulin alternatives to antibodies. In this innovative approach to creating dual-specific proteins, an additional functionality is introduced into a small peptide or into a natural protein ligand to complement its existing biological properties. We predict that this approach will form a major part of a highly effective strategy for creating ligand-based multispecific receptor inhibitors and molecular tools for protein recognition. We envision that protein variants generated from these efforts will promote the next generation of therapeutics including, but not limited to, molecular imaging agents, targeted drug delivery agents, and selective tissue targeting probes.

Keywords: protein engineering,anticancer drug design
Dissecting the Molecular Mechanism of Catastrophic DNA Rearrangement in Cancer (CHROMOTHRIPSIS)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Genetics,Genomics,Bioinformatics and Systems Biology
Countries involved: Germany
Call:  (ERC-2013-StG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-04-01
End date: 2019-01-31
Duration (months): 58.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1471964.05
EU funding (EUR): 1471964.05
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Recent cancer genome analyses have led to the discovery of a process involving massive genome structural rearrangement (SR) formation in a one-step, cataclysmic event, coined chromothripsis. The term chromothripsis (chromo from chromosome; thripsis for shattering into pieces) stands for a hypothetical process in which individual chromosomes are pulverised, resulting in a multitude of fragments, some of which are lost to the cell whereas others are erroneously rejoined. Compelling evidence was presented that chromothripsis plays a crucial role in the development, or progression of a notable subset of human cancers – thus, tumorigensis models involving gradual acquisitions of alterations may need to be revised in these cancers. Presently, chromothripsis lacks a mechanistic basis. We recently showed that in childhood medulloblastoma brain tumours driven by Sonic Hedgehog (Shh) signalling, chromothripsis is linked with predisposing TP53 mutations. Thus, rather than occurring in isolation, chromothripsis appears to be prone to happen in conjunction with (or instigated by) gradually acquired alterations, or in the context of active signalling pathways, the inference of which may lead to further mechanistic insights. Using such rationale, I propose to dissect the mechanism behind chromothripsis using interdisciplinary approaches. First, we will develop a computational approach to accurately detect chromothripsis. Second, we will use this approach to link chromothripsis with novel factors and contexts. Third, we will develop highly controllable cell line-based systems to test concrete mechanistic hypotheses, thereby taking into account our data on linked factors and contexts. Fourth, we will generate transcriptome data to monitor pathways involved in inducing chromothripsis, and such involved in coping with the massive SRs occurring. We will also combine findings from all these approaches to build a comprehensive model of chromothripsis and its associated pathways.

Keywords: cancer genome analysis cancer development molecular mechanism of chromothripsis
Novel roles, components, and mechanisms of the Escherichia coli CRISPR/Cas system (ECCRISPR)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Genetics,Genomics,Bioinformatics and Systems Biology
Countries involved: Israel
Call:  (ERC-2013-StG, 2013)
Start date: 2013-12-01
End date: 2019-11-30
Duration (months): 72.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1499000.0
EU funding (EUR): 1499000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

A novel type of defense system was recently identified in bacteria: the CRISPR array and its associated gene products (Cas). The system inserts short DNA sequences, called spacers, derived from foreign nucleic acid molecules in between direct repeats, thus forming the CRISPR array. The transcribed spacers eventually serve as molecular guides for Cas proteins that monitor and destroy nucleic acids having sequences similar to those spacers. Thorough mapping of the functional components and regulators of the system in a single model organism will be extremely valuable for understanding its mechanism of action. Studying the interactions between bacteria and phages should highlight the evolutionary role of the system and its consequences for shaping ecological systems. These insights will lead to novel ways of exploiting the system to improve molecular biology tools, to protect fermenting bacteria from phage spoilage, to equip phages with anti-CRISPR warfare to fight bacteria, and to prevent horizontal gene transfer between pathogens. Here, I intend to systematically seek out new roles of the system and to identify fundamental mechanisms and components that allow the system to function efficiently. I will address fundamental questions such as how the system avoids sampling self DNA into the CRISPR array. In addition, I will pursue two revolutionary possibilities. One, that the CRISPR/Cas system is not merely an adaptive defense system against phages, but that one of its roles is to serve as molecular machinery for silencing specific harmful genes by generating small silencing RNAs without the need for Cas proteins. The other is to test the system’s ability to prevent horizontal gene transfer of antibiotic resistance genes in an effort to study the system’s ecological value, potentially for applicative uses. My proposed studies will allow deeper understanding of the system, and enable breakthroughs from both basic and applicative aspects of the CRISPR field studies.

Keywords: crispr/cas,molecular bacteriology
Next Generation Semiconductor Nanowires (NEWIRES)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Materials and Synthesis
Countries involved: Sweden
Call:  (ERC-2013-StG, 2013)
Start date: 2013-09-01
End date: 2018-08-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1496245.8
EU funding (EUR): 1496245.8
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Semiconductor nanowires composed of III-V materials have enormous potential to add new functionality to electronics and optical applications. However, integration of these promising structures into applications is severely limited by the current near-universal reliance on gold nanoparticles as seeds for nanowire fabrication. Although highly controlled fabrication is achieved, this metal is entirely incompatible with the Si-based electronics industry. It also presents limitations for the extension of nanowire research towards novel materials not existing in bulk. To date, exploration of alternatives has been limited to selective-area and self-seeded processes, both of which have major limitations in terms of size and morphology control, potential to combine materials, and crystal structure tuning. There is also very little understanding of precisely why gold has proven so successful for nanowire growth, and which alternatives may yield comparable or better results. The aim of this project will be to explore alternative nanoparticle seed materials to go beyond the use of gold in III-V nanowire fabrication. This will be achieved using a unique and recently developed capability for aerosol-phase fabrication of highly controlled nanoparticles directly integrated with conventional nanowire fabrication equipment. The primary goal will be to deepen the understanding of the nanowire fabrication process, and the specific advantages (and limitations) of gold as a seed material, in order to develop and optimize alternatives. The use of a wide variety of seed particle materials in nanowire fabrication will greatly broaden the variety of novel structures that can be fabricated. The results will also transform the nanowire fabrication research field, in order to develop important connections between nanowire research and the semiconductor industry, and to greatly improve the viability of nanowire integration into future devices.

Keywords: nanowires,vapour phase epitaxy,transmission electron microscopy,aerosols,nanoparticles,self-assembly,iii-v semiconductors,heterostructures,crystal structure
The role of consumer behavior and heterogeneity in the integrated assessment of energy and climate policies (COBHAM)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Environment and society
Countries involved: Italy,Italy
Call:  (ERC-2013-StG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-08-01
End date: 2019-07-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1451840.0
EU funding (EUR): 1451840.0
Participants: 2
Project status: CLOSED

The objective of this project is to quantify the role of consumers’ behaviour on the design and assessment of policies aimed at enhancing energy efficiency and conservation and at promoting climate change mitigation. The project brings together different disciplines –namely energy policy, environmental and ecological economics, behavioral public finance, experimental economics, and technology policy- in an integrated fashion. COBHAM is designed to go beyond the standard analysis of energy and climate policies in the presence of environmental externalities, by accounting for the heterogeneity in consumers’ preferences, the role of social interactions, and the presence of behavioral tendencies and biases. The project seeks to: i) carry out innovative research in the theoretical understanding of the interplay between behavioral tendencies and environmental externalities; ii) generate new empirical data and research on individual preferences by means of original surveys and controlled experiments; iii) enhance integrated assessment models (IAMs) of economy, energy and climate with an advanced representation of consumers’ behavior. In doing so, the project will be able to provide a richer characterization of energy demand and of greenhouse gas emission scenarios, to better estimate consumers’ responsiveness to energy and climate policies, and to provide input to the design of new policy instruments aimed at influencing energy and environmental sustainable behavior. COBHAM is of high public policy relevance given Europe’s legislation on energy efficiency and CO2 emissions, and can provide important insights also outside the sphere of energy and climate policymaking.

Keywords: integrated assessment models,energy efficiency,energy policy,climate policy
The Maoist Legacy: Party Dictatorship, Transitional Justice, and the Politics of Truth (MAOLEGACY)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: The study of the human past
Countries involved: Germany
Call:  (ERC-2013-StG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-03-01
End date: 2019-02-28
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1443756.0
EU funding (EUR): 1443756.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The proposed research project breaks important new ground by analyzing and documenting how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) dealt with the legacy of mass atrocities committed under Maoist rule. Most accounts of the period mention the trial against the “Gang of Four” and the accompanying resolution on party history from 1981, which held former party chairman Mao Zedong accountable for grave political errors but not for criminal deeds. However, as yet there has been no in-depth analysis of the roughly five million cases and the over ten million petitions handled by courts and party committees between 1978 and 1987 in order to right previous injustices. Despite its enormous scale and relevance to societal stability, this so-called “revision of unjust, wrong, and false verdicts” has been virtually left unattended to by scholarly research. The project aims at diminishing this gap by studying the CCP’s strategies and the societal consequences of this major policy change. It proposes to analyze the partial break from the Maoist legacy as an important, yet by and large overlooked example of transitional justice, albeit confined by the party dictatorship’s overarching aim to stay in power. By way of relying on a wide array of recently available official and non-official sources, the project analyzes and documents how the CCP selectively dealt with the towering injustices of the past. The project will significantly contribute to current research on China’s transformation process and the Maoist legacy in at least four different areas: First, it will detail the CCP’s standards, institutions, and processes of administrating historical justice; second, it will show the great regional variances in implementing these policies between center and periphery; third, it will offer new explanations for the persistence of CCP rule despite the horrors of Maoism; and fourth, it will document both the revisal of verdicts and past atrocities in an electronic database to ease future research.

Keywords: modern chinese history,transitional justice,cultural revolution,mao zedong,human rights abuses
Assessment of tiltrotor fuselage drag reduction by wind tunnel tests and CFD (DREAM-TILT)

Framework: FP7 — Cooperation
Programme: Joint Technology Initiatives (Annex IV-SP1)
Theme: Public-private partnerships
Destination: Clean Sky
Action type: Article 171 of the Treaty
Partnership: CLEAN-SKY (Art-185)
Countries involved: Italy,Switzerland
Call:  (SP1-JTI-CS-2012-03, 2012)
Start date: 2013-06-01
End date: 2015-05-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 598999.53
EU funding (EUR): 405499.76
Participants: 3
Project status: CLOSED

The DREAm-TILT project is focused on the assessment of drag reduction achieved through the aerodynamic optimization of some critical components of the ERICA tiltrotor fuselage. This will be accomplished both from an experimental and a numerical point of view. A CFD-based optimization activity has been carried out in GRC2, and proper shapes of some fuselage components (i.e. wing/fuselage junction, wing/nacelle junction, nose, landing gear sponson and empennage) have been identified, that contribute to reduce aircraft drag and enhance aerodynamic efficiency. In DREAm-TILT, the benefits obtained from the aerodynamic optimization in terms of drag reduction will be thoroughly assessed through a dedicated wind tunnel campaign: specifically, the final optimized fuselage will be tested and the drag reduction with respect to the original configuration will be determined. All the optimized components will be tested sequentially with the aim of getting an accurate drag breakdown and identifying the contribution of each component to the overall aerodynamic performance of the fuselage. Additional classical flow visualization runs and infrared thermography will be finally carried out to enhance knowledge on the transition and separation regions for the different drag reduction configurations. Moreover, a CFD activity will be carried out on both the model scaled and the full scale aircraft in order to evaluate rotor effects and the full scale (Mach dependent) characteristics. In a first phase, a series of blind test simulations at wind tunnel conditions will be performed for both basic and optimized configurations. In a second stage, the numerical results on both the baseline and optimized ERICA geometries will be compared with the acquired wind tunnel data. Finally, the numerical models already tested and validated will be used for the assessment of the aerodynamic performance of the optimized ERICA fuselage at full scale conditions (Mach = 0.58), including the rotor effects.

Keywords: tiltrotor,drag reduction,aerodynamic optimisation,drag-accurate measurement techniques,aerodynamic efficiency
MAGNETOELECTRIC CHEMONANOROBOTICS FOR CHEMICAL AND BIOMEDICAL APPLICATIONS (ELECTROCHEMBOTS)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Products and process engineering
Countries involved: Switzerland
Call:  (ERC-2013-StG, 2013)
Start date: 2013-09-01
End date: 2018-08-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1491701.0
EU funding (EUR): 1491701.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The ability to generate electric fields at small scales is becoming increasingly important in many fields of research including plasmonics-based sensing, micro- and nanofabrication, microfluidics and spintronics. The localized generation of electrical fields at extremely small scales has the potential to revolutionize conventional methods of electrically stimulating cells. The objective of this proposal is the development of miniaturized untethered devices capable of delivering electric currents to cells for the stimulation of their vital functions. To this end, we propose the construction of micro- and nanoscale magnetoelectric structures that can be triggered using external magnetic fields. These small devices will consist of composite hybrid structures containing piezoelectric and magnetostrictive layers. By applying an oscillating magnetic field in the presence of a DC bias field, the magnetostrictive element will deform, thereby generating stress in a piezoelectric shell, which in turn will become electrically polarized. Small devices capable of wirelessly generating electric fields offer an innovative way of studying the electrical and electrochemical stimulation of cells. For example, by concentrating electric fields at specific locations in a cell, the behavior of protein membrane components such as cell adhesion molecules or transport proteins can be altered to modulate the stiction of proliferating cells or ion channel gating kinetics.

Keywords: magnetoelectricity,biomedicine,microrobotics,nanorobotics