Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Exploring the Terauniverse with the LHC, Astrophysics and Cosmology (TERAUNIVERSE)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Advanced grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Fundamental constituents of matter
Countries involved: Switzerland,United Kingdom
Call:  (ERC-2010-AdG_20100224, 2010)
Start date: 2011-04-01
End date: 2016-03-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1928700.0
EU funding (EUR): 1928700.0
Participants: 4
Project status: CLOSED

The visible matter in the Universe is well described by the Standard Model, but this leaves open major questions in both particle physics and cosmology that may be answered by new physics at the Tera-electron-Volt range: the Terascale. The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will soon open a new stage in humanity’s direct exploration of the fundamental physical laws at Terascale energies, which governed the evolution of the Universe a fraction of a second after the Big Bang, and are essential for understanding high-energy astrophysics. In addition to unraveling the intimate structure of matter at the Terascale, e.g., by discovering the source of particle masses and exploring matter-antimatter asymmetry, the LHC will address key cosmological issues such as how dark and conventional matter originated, which may well have been at the Terascale, and the nature of the primordial plasma that filled the Universe. This proposal will lead the understanding whatever new physics the LHC may reveal, incorporating insights from cosmology, high-energy astrophysics and speculative ideas such as string theory. This interdisciplinary approach will also facilitate the application of knowledge acquired from the LHC to fundamental cosmological and astrophysical problems, as well as illuminate future collider priorities, e.g., for LHC upgrades and/or a linear collider. This proposal will bring together particle theorists, experimentalists, astroparticle physicists and experts on field and string theory in the framework of a new ‘London Centre for Terauniverse Studies’. This will provide new opportunities for students and other young researchers to get directly involved in making LHC discoveries and exploring their implications for the Universe, and provide a mechanism for transferring to them interdisciplinary skills.

Keywords: beyond the standard model,tev,high-energy astrophysics,supersymmetry,extra dimensions,phenomenology,string theory
Variational Approach to Random Interacting Systems (VARIS)

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: Netherlands
Call:  (ERC-2010-AdG_20100224, 2010)
Start date: 2011-05-01
End date: 2016-04-30
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1930000.0
EU funding (EUR): 1930000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The goal of my mathematical research is to force a breakthrough in solving and understanding a number of long-standing open problems that are rooted in physics and chemistry. My objects of study are systems consisting of a large number of random components that interact locally but exhibit a global dependence. Typically, the components of these systems are subject to a simple microscopic dynamics. The challenge lies in understanding the complex macroscopic phenomena that may arise from this dynamics. Core to my proposal are macroscopic phenomena that are very hard to grasp with heuristic or numerical methods: pinning, localisation, collapse, porosity, nature vs. nurture, metastability, condensation, ageing, catalysis, intermittency and trapping. My main line of attack is to combine large deviation theory, which is a well-established technically demanding yet flexible instrument, with a number of new variational techniques that I have recently developed with my international collaborators, which are based on space-time coarse-graining. My goal is to apply this powerful combination to a number of complex systems that are at the very heart of the research area, in order to arrive at a complete mathematical description. The idea is to use the coarse-graining techniques to compute the probability of the possible trajectories of the microscopic dynamics, and to identify the most likely trajectory by maximising this probability in terms of a variational formula. The solution of this variational formual is what describes the macroscopic behaviour of the system, including the emergence of phase transitions. My proposal focuses on five highly intriguing classes of random interacting systems that are among the most challenging to date: (1) polymer chains; (2) porous domains; (3) flipping magnetic spins; (4) lattice gases; (5) evolving random media. The unique reward of the variational approach is that it leads to a full insight into why these systems behave the way they do.

Keywords: complex systems,large deviations,space-time coarse graining,variational formulas,phase transitions
CONFORMATIONAL COMMUNICATION AND CONTROL (ROCOCO)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Advanced grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Materials and Synthesis
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call:  (ERC-2010-AdG_20100224, 2010)
Start date: 2011-04-01
End date: 2016-03-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2426106.0
EU funding (EUR): 2426106.0
Participants: 2
Project status: CLOSED

We aim to offer to science a molecular scale mechanism for communication and control. Using stereochemical information and conformational control as the mechanism by which that information is transmitted and processed, we take inspiration from the phenomenon of allostery in biology, and will put to dynamic use a set of conformationally controlled foldamer structures. We will use these structures to convey information over multi-nanometre distances, allowing control of chemical function from a remote site. By embedding the foldamers into membranes, we will control chemistry (eg catalytic activity) within an artificial vesicle by communicating information through the chemically impermeable phospholipid bilayer. To achieve our aim we will synthesise oligomeric and polymeric compounds with well-defined helical conformations, and use a stereochemical influence located at one terminus to induce a conformational preference (for the left or the right handed form of the helix) which is relayed to a site many nanometres distant. Precedent suggests that by employing polymeric structures we will achieve control even over micrometre scales. Simple but powerful new techniques will quantify the remote (on a molecular scale) transmission of information by NMR, circular dichroism spectrophotometry and/or fluorescence. The result of the information relay will be a detectable change in chemical reactivity or binding properties and one aim will be to vastly increase, by orders of magnitude, the distance over which remote stereochemical control is possible (from the current 2.5 nm to the order of >100 nm). The feature which distinguishes biology from chemistry is information, and in particular the ability to encode and process information using molecular interactions. Our project will take a step towards the development of designed chemical structures which can mimic, using far simpler molecules, the function of biological communication systems.

Keywords: synthesis,conformation,spectroscopy,nmr,vesicles,catalysis,nanotechnology,membranes
3D Design of Flap Side Edge Flow Control (3DFSE)

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: United Kingdom
Call:  (SP1-JTI-CS-2009-02, 2009)
Start date: 2010-09-01
End date: 2011-10-31
Duration (months): 14.0
Total project cost (EUR): 79943.0
EU funding (EUR): 59957.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Flaps are part of the high lift system deployed during take-off and landing phases of aircraft operation. Previous work has identified a flap side-edge as an important source of airframe noise. The objective of this work is to perform a numerical study aimed at the design and optimization of a suitable flow control technique to reduce the flap side-edge noise. The flow control method can be either passive or active. The chosen flow control technique will be investigated computationally using a high performance cluster. A hybrid method involving computational fluid dynamics to obtain the flowfield and solving the Ffwocs-Williams Hawkings equation to obtain the farfield acoustics will be employed to determine the noise generated by the flap side-edge vortex. An optimization will be performed on the chosen flow control technique to maximize its aeroacoustic performance. Details of a wind tunnel test campaign will also be given. The work will be conducted at the University of Southampton, which has extensive experience in both computational and experimental aeroacoustic studies. The university also has access to several high performance computing clusters, which are necessary for the current work. At the end of this work, a flow control strategy will be determined and an optimization performed.

Keywords: flow control,active flow control,passive flow control,aerodynamics,computational fluid dynamics,high lift devices noise.
New Computational Methods for Predicting the Safety of Constructions to Water Hazards accounting for Fluid-Soil-Structure Interactions (SAFECON)

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: Spain
Call:  (ERC-2010-AdG_20100224, 2010)
Start date: 2011-01-01
End date: 2015-12-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2487734.0
EU funding (EUR): 2487734.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The objective of this research project is the development and experimental validation of a new generation of mathematical and computational methods allowing the solution of practical fluid-solid structure interaction (FSSI) problems of interest for predictive safety of civil constructions to water-induced hazards. These constructions include: buildings, bridges, harbours, dams, dykes, breakwaters, and similar infrastructures in water hazard scenarios such as flooding, large sea waves, tsunamis and water spills due to the collapse of dams, dykes and reservoirs, among others. The specific research aims of the SAFECON project are: a) development, integration and validation of a next generation of predictive methods based on new mathematical models and efficient computational procedures integrating a new particle-based method, the discrete element method and the finite element method for estimating accurately the dynamics of three dimensional (3D) free surface multiscale heterogeneous flows and their interaction with constructions accounting for FSSI effects. b) Extension and validation of the new particle-discrete-finite element method (PDFEM) for solving 3D FSSI problems allowing for failure mechanisms in the structure and the soil, and c) application of the new computational method (the PDFEM) for predicting the risk of failure in selected civil constructions under the effect of water forces. The ultimate outputs of SAFECON will be: a) new mathematical models and numerical techniques for analysis of multiscale free surface heterogeneous flows and their interaction with soils and structures and b) new validated computational methods and software for enhanced design and risk assessment of engineering constructions to protect human populations and civil infrastructure in presence of water-induced hazards.

Keywords: computational mechanics,safety of constructions,water hazards,fluid-soil-structure interactions
Modeling, Simulation and Control of Multi-Physics Systems (MODSIMCONMP)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Advanced grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: ERC Advanced Grant Interdisciplinary Panel
Countries involved: Germany
Call:  (ERC-2010-AdG_20100224, 2010)
Start date: 2011-04-01
End date: 2016-03-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1899923.6
EU funding (EUR): 1899923.6
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

This proposal is aimed at developing and analyzing a fundamentally new interdisciplinary approach for the modeling, simulation, control and optimization of multi-physics, multi-scale dynamical systems. The new innovative feature is to generate models via a network of modularized uni-physics components, where each component incorporates a mathematical model for the dynamical behavior as well as a model for the uncertainties, e.g. due to modeling, discretization or finite precision computation errors. Based on this new modeling concept also new numerical simulation, control, and optimization techniques will be developed and incorporated, that allow a systematic adaptive error control (including the appropriate treatment of different scales,and the uncertainties) for the components as well as for the whole multi-physics model. In order to cope with the differential-algebraic and multi-scale character of the systems we will develop and analyze remodeling techniques for the components as well as for the whole network including the uncertainties and special structures. The new remodeled systems will be designed such that they allow an efficient and accurate dynamical simulation with high order numerical integration techniques as well as efficient methods for model reduction and open and closed loop control. In an interdisciplinary corporation with colleagues from computer science and engineering we will extend the modeling language MODELICA to be able to incorporate the new features (in particular the uncertainties and modeling errors) and we also plan to implement the complete approach as a new software platform.

Keywords: modeling,simulation,control,optimization,uncertainty,remodeling,perturbation analysis,error control,adaptivity,reduced order modeling,modeling language
FerroElectric Multifunctional tunnel junctions for MEmristors and Spintronics (FEMMES)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Advanced grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Condensed matter physics
Countries involved: France
Call:  (ERC-2010-AdG_20100224, 2010)
Start date: 2011-04-01
End date: 2016-03-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2148796.0
EU funding (EUR): 2148796.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The aim of the project FEMMES is to study the interplay between charge/spin tunneling and ferroelectricity in Ferroelectric Tunnel Junctions (FTJs) composed of two electrodes separated by a ferroelectric tunnel barrier. It will address fundamental issues such as the influence of interfaces and small thicknesses on the ferroelectricity, the dependence of the charge and spin tunneling on the ferroelectric orientation (electroresistance), the impact of the ferroelectricity of the barrier on the magnetism and spin polarisation of the electrodes. I propose to exploit FTJs and the intrinsic low-power of “ferroelectric writing”, to obtain: 1) a low-power electrical control of spin polarized electron sources for spintronics in FTJs with magnetic electrodes. 2) memristive FTJs mimicking the plasticity of synapses for an exploitation in neuromorphic analog circuits. This will be achieved by a synergetic approach combining: - ab initio calculations to determine the most appropriate combination of ferroelectric materials and electrodes and to obtain a complete description of the impact of the ferroelectric character on the transport properties. - the growth of selected heterostructures and extensive characterization of their structural, ferroelectric and magnetic properties. - the patterning of junctions (at the µm and nm scale) and the investigation of their transport and magnetotransport properties. - the evaluation and optimization of the potential of FTJs as electrically tunable spin sources for spintronics and memristors for neuromorphic circuits.

Keywords: ferroelectric tunnel junctions. electric field control of the spin polarisation. memristor
BEYOND PLATE TECTONICS (BPT)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Advanced grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Earth system science
Countries involved: Norway
Call:  (ERC-2010-AdG_20100224, 2010)
Start date: 2011-05-01
End date: 2016-04-30
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2499010.0
EU funding (EUR): 2499010.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Plate tectonics characterises the complex and dynamic evolution of the outer shell of the Earth in terms of rigid plates. These tectonic plates overlie and interact with the Earth's mantle, which is slowly convecting owing to energy released by the decay of radioactive nuclides in the Earth's interior. Even though links between mantle convection and plate tectonics are becoming more evident, notably through subsurface tomographic images, advances in mineral physics and improved absolute plate motion reference frames, there is still no generally accepted mechanism that consistently explains plate tectonics and mantle convection in one framework. We will integrate plate tectonics into mantle dynamics and develop a theory that explains plate motions quantitatively and dynamically. This requires consistent and detailed reconstructions of plate motions through time (Objective 1). A new model of plate kinematics will be linked to the mantle with the aid of a new global reference frame based on moving hotspots and on palaeomagnetic data. The global reference frame will be corrected for true polar wander in order to develop a global plate motion reference frame with respect to the mantle back to Pangea (ca. 320 million years) and possibly Gondwana assembly (ca. 550 million years). The resulting plate reconstructions will constitute the input to subduction models that are meant to test the consistency between the reference frame and subduction histories. The final outcome will be a novel global subduction reference frame, to be used to unravel links between the surface and deep Earth (Objective 2).

Keywords: plate tectonics,mantle dynamics
Plasmonic Metamaterials (PLASMETA)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Advanced grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Condensed matter physics
Countries involved: Netherlands
Call:  (ERC-2010-AdG_20100224, 2010)
Start date: 2011-07-01
End date: 2016-06-30
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2286000.0
EU funding (EUR): 2286000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

IIn this program I will demonstrate control of light at length scales well below the free-space wavelength, leading to entirely new fundamental phenomena and important applications. The research program is built on specially engineered metamaterials composed of metal nanostructures that support surface plasmons that are embedded in a dielectric. The program is composed of three strongly related topics: 1) I will experimentally demonstrate an entirely new class of optical metamaterials that posses a refractive index that can be tuned over a very large range: -10 < n < +10. Based on coupled plasmonic waveguides, these materials will, for the first time, show true left-handed behaviour of light (n < 0) in the UV/blue spectral range. I will demonstrate negative refraction of light and use these materials to demonstrate the “perfect lens” which enables sub-wavelength imaging of (biological) nanostructures. 2) I will use plasmonic metamaterials to engineer the flow of light in thin-film solar cells. By controlling the scattering and trapping of light using plasmonic nanostructures integrated with semiconductor waveguide slabs I will demonstrate ultra-thin solar cells with efficient collection and conversion of infrared light, aiming at beating the ergodic light trapping limit. 3) I will demonstrate strong coupling between light and mechanical motion in the smallest possible volume. Light trapped in plasmonic metamaterials exerts a force that can lead to a shift in the plasmonic resonance frequency which in turn provides feedback on the mechanical motion. We will use this nanoscale coupling mechanism to actively cool and heat mechanical motion in plasmonic nanostructures and use this phenomenon in a new type of plasmon-based quartz oscillator.

Keywords: plasmonics,metamaterials,negative index,photovoltaics,opto-mechanics
High Performance Lewis Acid Organocatalysis (HIPOCAT)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Advanced grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Materials and Synthesis
Countries involved: Germany
Call:  (ERC-2010-AdG_20100224, 2010)
Start date: 2011-02-01
End date: 2016-01-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2490000.0
EU funding (EUR): 2490000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Although the demand for chiral enantiomerically pure molecules as pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, and liquid crystals is growing strongly, the use of asymmetric catalysis for their production is rare. The most common industrial method to produce enantiopure compounds is still chiral resolution, which wastes half of the material. This surprises considering that catalytic methods are potentially cost-, energy, and resource-saving, have a lesser impact on the environment, and are in line with the general concepts of green chemistry and sustainability. Recently organocatalysis has grown into one of three fundamental classes of asymmetric catalysts complementing metal- and biocatalysis. In principle, organocatalysts have many beneficial features such as air and moisture stability, non-toxicity, and easy accessibility, making them attractive for industrial applications. However, most organocatalysts are insufficiently active and require high catalysts loadings, counterbalancing these positive features. Remarkably, of the four types of organocatalysts, Brønsted bases and acids, and Lewis bases, and acids, organic Lewis acid catalysts have been almost entirely ignored. Very recently though, within the group of the applicant, the finding was made that such catalysts can be extremely active and enantioselective, suggesting the possibility for truly high performance organocatalysis. This proposal therefore aims at the design of novel organic Lewis acid catalysts, their exploration in asymmetric catalysis, and their mechanistic understanding. The program is expected to lead the way towards the next generation organocatalysts, which will rival the efficiency of the most active metal- and biocatalysts, and have the potential to profoundly change the way chiral molecules are made.

Keywords: organocatalysis,asymmetric catalysis,lewis acid catalysis,enantioselective synthesis