Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Near-infrared fluorescent probes based on bacterial phytochromes for in vivo imaging (NEAR-INFRARED PROBES)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Advanced grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Applied life sciences and biotechnology
Countries involved: Finland
Call:  (ERC-2013-ADG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-05-01
End date: 2019-04-30
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2496946.0
EU funding (EUR): 2496946.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Non-invasive monitoring of deep-tissue developmental, metabolic and pathogenic processes will advance modern biology. Imaging of live mammals using fluorescent probes is more feasible within the near-infrared (NIR) transparency window (NIRW: 650-900 nm) where hemoglobin and melanin absorbance significantly decreases, and water absorbance is still low. The most red-shifted fluorescent proteins (FPs) of the GFP-like family exhibit fluorescence outside of the NIRW and suffer from low brightness and modest photostability. Natural bacterial phytochrome photoreceptors (BphPs) utilize low molecular weight biliverdin as a chromophore and provide many advantages over other chromophore binding proteins. First, unlike the chromophores of non-bacterial phytochromes, biliverdin is ubiquitous in mammals. This makes BphP applications in mammalian cells, tissues and mammals as easy as conventional GFP-like FPs, without supplying chromophore through an external solution. Second, BphPs exhibit NIR absorbance and fluorescence, which are red-shifted relative to that of any other phytochromes, and lie within the NIRW. This makes BphPs spectrally complementary to GFP-like FPs and available optogenetic tools. Third, independent domain architecture and conformational changes upon biliverdin photoisomerization make BphPs attractive templates to design various photoactivatable probes. Based on the analysis of the photochemistry and structural changes of BphPs we plan to develop three new types of the BphP-based probes. These include bright and spectrally resolvable permanently fluorescent NIRFPs, NIRFPs photoswitchable either irreversibly or repeatedly with non-phototoxic NIR light, and NIR reporters and biosensors. The resulting NIR probes will extend fluorescence imaging methods to deep-tissue in vivo macroscopy including multicolor cell and tissue labeling, cell photoactivation and tracking, detection of enzymatic activities and protein interactions in mammalian tissues and whole animals.

Keywords: fluorescent proteins,fret,flim,fluorescent biosensors,in vivo imaging,near-infrared probes,high-throughput screening,directed molecular evolution,protein engineering
Moduli of flat connections, planar networks and associators (MODFLAT)

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: Switzerland
Call:  (ERC-2013-ADG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-02-01
End date: 2019-01-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2148211.0
EU funding (EUR): 2148211.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The project lies at the crossroads between three different topics in Mathematics: moduli spaces of flat connections on surfaces in Differential Geometry and Topology, the Kashiwara-Vergne problem and Drinfeld associators in Lie theory, and combinatorics of planar networks in the theory of Total Positivity. The time is ripe to establish deep connections between these three theories. The main factors are the recent progress in the Kashiwara-Vergne theory (including the proof of the Kashiwara-Vergne conjecture by Alekseev-Meinrenken), the discovery of a link between the Horn problem on eigenvalues of sums of Hermitian matrices and planar network combinatorics, and intimate links with the Topological Quantum Field Theory shared by the three topics. The scientific objectives of the project include answering the following questions: 1) To find a universal non-commutative volume formula for moduli of flat connections which would contain the Witten’s volume formula, the Verlinde formula, and the Moore-Nekrasov-Shatashvili formula as particular cases. 2) To show that all solutions of the Kashiwara-Vergne problem come from Drinfeld associators. If the answer is indeed positive, it will have applications to the study of the Gothendieck-Teichmüller Lie algebra grt. 3) To find a Gelfand-Zeiltin type integrable system for the symplectic group Sp(2n). This question is open since 1983. To achieve these goals, one needs to use a multitude of techniques. Here we single out the ones developed by the author: - Quasi-symplectic and quasi-Poisson Geometry and the theory of group valued moment maps. - The linearization method for Poisson-Lie groups relating the additive problem z=x+y and the multiplicative problem Z=XY. - Free Lie algebra approach to the Kashiwara-Vergne theory, including the non-commutative divergence and Jacobian cocylces. - Non-abelian topical calculus which establishes a link between the multiplicative problem and combinatorics of planar networks.

Keywords: poisson geometry
Nanostructuring graphene and graphitic substrates for controlled and reproducible functionalization (NANOGRAPH@LSI)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Advanced grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Physical and Analytical Chemical sciences
Countries involved: Belgium
Call:  (ERC-2013-ADG, 2013)
Start date: 2013-11-01
End date: 2018-10-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2495740.0
EU funding (EUR): 2495740.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Graphene is a new class of promising material with exceptional properties and thus warrants a plethora of potential applications in various domains of science and technology. However, due to intrinsic zero bandgap and inherently low solubility, a prerequisite for the use of graphene in several applications is its controlled and reproducible functionalization in a nanostructured fashion. Being a ‘surface-only’ nanomaterial, its properties are extremely sensitive not only to chemical modification but also to noncovalent interactions with simple organic molecules. A systematic knowledge base for targeted functionalization of graphene still eludes the scientific community. The present experimental protocols suffer from important shortcomings. Firstly, graphene functionalization occurs randomly in solution based methods and there is scarcity of methods that can exert precise control over how and where the reactions/interactions occur. Secondly, due to random functionalization, producing reproducible samples of structurally uniform graphene and graphitic materials remains a major challenge. Lastly, a molecular level understanding of the functionalization process is still lacking which precludes systematic strategies for manipulation of graphene and graphitic materials. NANOGRAPH@LSI aims to develop systematic experimental protocols for controlled and reproducible (covalent, non-covalent as well as the combination of both) functionalization of graphene and graphitic materials in a nanostructured fashion at the liquid-solid interface (LSI), along with the implementation of new nanoscale characterisation tools, targeting a broad range of applications in the fields of electronics, i.e. graphene bandgap engineering, sensing, and separation. Supramolecular self-assembly of organic building blocks at the liquid-solid interface will be employed as a basic strategy. In view of the above mentioned applications, also upscaling protocols will be developed and implemented.
Ego-media: The impact of new media on forms and practices of self-presentation (EGO-MEDIA)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Advanced grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Cultures and cultural production
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call:  (ERC-2013-ADG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-05-01
End date: 2019-10-31
Duration (months): 66.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2206994.0
EU funding (EUR): 2206994.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Ego-media: The impact of new media on forms and practices of self-presentation This project aims to study the impact of new media on autobiographical narratives: an impact increasing as habits and practices of self-presentation evolve rapidly in response to constantly fast-changing technology. It will analyse the range of ways in which autobiographical forms and discursive practices are being transformed at the frontier of technological change; then consider the implications of the new forms and practices for such notions as autobiography, selfhood, subjectivity, individuality, self-intelligibility, agency, creativity, privacy, and sociability. Based in the interdisciplinary Centre for Life-Writing Research in the School of Arts and Humanities at King’s College London, it will combine a humanistic, life-writing theory approach with an interdisciplinary methodology, in collaboration with researchers from Sociolinguistics, Culture Media and Creative Industries, Digital Humanities, Medical Humanities, Psychiatry, War Studies, and Education. Keywords: Life-writing, Self-Presentation, Autobiography, Subjectivity, Agency, New Media, Social Media, Immediacy, Discourse, Digital Narratives, Internet, Web 2.0

Keywords: life-writing,self-presentation,autobiography,subjectivity,agency,new media,social media,immediacy,discourse,digital narratives,web 2.0
The Early Islamic Empire at Work The View from the Regions Toward the Centre (ISLAMIC EMPIRE)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Advanced grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: The study of the human past
Countries involved: Germany
Call:  (ERC-2013-ADG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-04-01
End date: 2019-09-30
Duration (months): 66.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2499997.0
EU funding (EUR): 2499997.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

This ambitious aim is to understand the political and economic workings of a pre-modern empire, the Islamic Empire (660 - 940 CE), which stretches over almost the entire Hellenistic-Roman world from the Atlantic to the Hindukush. In contrast to the conventional model of the empire founded on a religious revelation, the project is the first systematic attempt to explain the functioning of the empire from its regions and the brokering and management abilities of the caliphate and its various elites. While usually we have a top down approach as seen from the centre, this project takes the view from the regions, to explain the functioning of the caliphal government. The project looks at five key regions from North Africa to Central Asia, establishing their changing political and economic structures and chronologies, and identifying trans-regional political, military, judicial, and indigenous elites. The tested hypothesis expects to see the central caliphal government in a more conscious role as moderator between the regions. In order to shift our understanding of the functioning of the empire from a chronicle-driven top down view to a region-driven view, a multidisciplinary and multilayered approach seems to be appropriate: in addition to the literary sources, parallel to but independent from centre-based chronicles and biographical dictionaries, are read sequences of coins (Islamic coins have up to 150 words, of mostly administrative information), the results of archaeological excavations, and regional surveys (the PI is involved in a number of excavations from Egypt to Afghanistan), together with a data-base study of elite groups connecting the regions with the centre. Emphasizing the role of the regions in the formation of the Islamic Empire points the view in a direction different from traditional ‘Islamwissenschaft’ which since its inception by Carl Heinrich Becker in 1910 has focussed Islam and its caliphate as the major formative force of the Empire.

Keywords: early islamic empire,regionalisation,medieval history,economic history
Cell-Cell fusion in fertilization and developmental biology: a structural biology approach (CELCELFUS)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Advanced grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Molecular and Structural Biology and Biochemistry
Countries involved: France
Call:  (ERC-2013-ADG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-03-01
End date: 2019-12-31
Duration (months): 70.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2478800.0
EU funding (EUR): 2478800.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

My group has made seminal contributions in the past toward understanding the mechanism of membrane fusion used by enveloped viruses to infect a cell. This aim of this ERC grant proposal is to achieve similar breakthroughs in understanding fusion between cells, both during fertilization and organogenesis. This proposal is based in recent important results not yet published. We have determined the crystal structure of the C. elegans protein EFF-1, a member of the “fusion family” (FF). EFF-1 is responsible for a cell-cell fusion event during skin formation in the nematode. Strikingly, the crystal structure shows that EFF-1 is homologous to the “Class II” viral protein fusogens, thus indicating that they have diverged from a common ancestor. The observed homology could not be identified by other means because the proteins have diverged to the point where no remnants of sequence similarity are left, yet the tertiary and quaternary organization is the same. However, the homotypic fusion mechanism of EFF-1 is clearly different to that of viral fusion proteins. This proposal intends to build on the momentum generated by this exciting discovery, in an attempt to cast light into the fusion mechanism of FF proteins. We will reconstitute them in artificial liposomes and will also follow them within cells with the use of light microscopy. We will also focus in determining the crystal structure of the monomeric pre-fusion form of EFF-1,and of the intact trans-membrane post fusion trimer. In parallel, we want to make use the experience accumulated over the years in crystallizing viral glycoproteins, to apply it to the conserved family of HAP2/GSC1 proteins involved in fusion of gametes during fertilization. These proteins exhibit a similar pattern of secondary structure elements in the ectodomain as class II proteins, but only a crystallographic analysis can identify a possible structural homology and provide the basis to understand the molecular mechanisms of cell-cell fusion.

Keywords: cell-cell fusion in fertilization and developmental biology: an integrated structural and cell biology approach
From zebrafish to man Modifying amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS): translation of biology into therapy (MODIFALS)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Advanced grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Neurosciences and neural disorders
Countries involved: Belgium
Call:  (ERC-2013-ADG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-05-01
End date: 2019-04-30
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2467990.0
EU funding (EUR): 2467990.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal neurodegenerative disease of the motor neurons. As for other neurodegenerative disorders, translation of newly acquired biological insights into therapies has been difficult. In the current project we intend to contribute to the development of therapeutic approaches for ALS. We want to generate novel models, identify new therapeutic targets for intervention, and translate these into validated options for drug development in ALS. This will be done by establishing a continuous line of research from the (unbiased) screening for targets in a small animal model (zebrafish), to the exploration of their therapeutic potential, and the validation in patients. In addition, by exploring the significance of some of the findings for other neurodegenerative disorders, we hope to demonstrate this approach to be valid for the field of neurodegenerative disorders in general. This research will be performed bases on 6 work packages (WP): 1.screening of a zebrafish model for ALS to identify therapeutic targets; 2. validation of these targets in larger vertebrate ALS models; 3. investigation of the mechanism of action of these targets in order to establish approaches to interfere with them; 4. validation of these targets in human ALS; 5. generation of preclinical data on these targets; 6. exploration of the possible role of these targets in other neurodegenerative diseases. Results from WP1 will be used for further research in WP2, results from WP2 in WP3, etc. We have gathered a large set of data in preparatory work in zebrafish, enabling us to start all WPs from the beginning of the project on. This project involves collaborations with several other groups, national and international, which all have been established. Furthermore, all transgenic mice needed to initiate all these WPs have been generated and available to us.

Keywords: amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
Prospects for International Migration Governance (MIGPROSP)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Advanced grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Institutions, values, beliefs and behaviour
Countries involved: United Kingdom,United Kingdom
Call:  (ERC-2013-ADG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-04-01
End date: 2019-03-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2127926.0
EU funding (EUR): 2127926.0
Participants: 3
Project status: CLOSED

Risk and uncertainty are inherent in any decision-making procedure, but while a substantial body of work on the governance of international migration focuses on challenges posed to governance systems, we know remarkably little about the impact of risk and uncertainty on: (i) the cognitive biases of actors within migration governance systems; (ii) the susceptibility of these biases to change; (iii) the relationship between cognitive bias and broader questions of systemic resilience, vulnerability and adaptation and (iv) the similarities and differences in migration governance between major world regions. Each of these is a significant gap in our knowledge of international migration governance. To address this gap this project will focus on the context of decision to ask: what are the causes and consequences of the cognitive biases concerning risk and uncertainty held by actors in migration governance systems? The project will: (i) test the causes and consequences of the ‘frames’ held by actors in migration governance systems, specify the scope for these frames to change and to analyse the likely systemic effects of change on migration governance systems in four major world regions. (ii) develop a comparative regional analysis of the micro-political foundations of migration governance and their implications for system adaptation and change. (iii) significantly advance conceptual and methodological understanding of international migration governance through the use of concepts of systemic adaptation, vulnerability and resilience that bridge behavioural theories of choice with theories of institutional and organisational change. (iv) disseminate the results effectively through a range of appropriate outlets and through engagement with a range of users of the results of this work in academia, policy-making communities, NGOs and the wider public.
Twists & more: the complex shape of light (TWISTS)

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: United Kingdom
Call:  (ERC-2013-ADG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-04-01
End date: 2019-03-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1734570.0
EU funding (EUR): 1734570.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

My scientific career to date has centered around the phase and intensity shaping of light beams, specifically for the pioneering studies of Orbital angular momentum. I wish to build upon this foundation applying twisted and shaped light to sensing and imaging in both the classical and quantum domains. I will use orbital angular momentum as a new imaging modality and as the basis as a remote sensor of rotational motion. I will used randomly shaped light beam as a new approach to 3D vision. I will use the quantum correlations of orbital angular momentum and other spatial states to explore new demonstrations of quantum behaviour and deliver imaging performance beyond the classical limit. To realize this project, funding is sought for 2 FTE postdoctoral research assistants for 5 years and 3 PhD students who will work in close conjunction with myself. I will devote myself to this project, both technically in the laboratory and in promoting the results of the program to international scientific, industrial and political peers.
RECONCILING ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL EUROPE: VALUES, IDEAS AND POLITICS (RESCEU)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Advanced grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Institutions, values, beliefs and behaviour
Countries involved: Italy,Italy
Call:  (ERC-2013-ADG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-07-01
End date: 2019-06-30
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2496904.0
EU funding (EUR): 2496904.0
Participants: 2
Project status: CLOSED

The welfare state (WS) and the EU are two precious legacies of the XX century. Their mutual relationship has been however fraught by unresolved tensions (and a potential “clash”), which the recent crisis seems to have markedly exacerbated. The project purpose is to develop a new theory on the genetic roots of such tensions, their temporal swings, the possible institutional solutions and their political pre-conditions. The WS serves essential economic, social and political functions. The EU (EMU in particular) is in its turn essential for growth and jobs, but tends to undermine the WS’s very institutional foundations. When, how and why did the initial “elective affinity” between the two spheres start to weaken? Is “reconciliation” possible and how? The project will focus on the intellectual and political dynamics of both WS-building and EU-building. Drawing on Weber's method of historical analysis and Weber’s insights on the link between values, ideas, and politics, a new theoretical framework will be elaborated, aimed at reconnecting these three elements in the explanation of politico-institutional development, moving beyond contemporary neo-institutional approaches. An extensive empirical work will be carried out, based on a multidisciplinary approach (political science, political philosophy, policy analysis, law and economics). Detailed case studies will reconstruct the logic of key past junctures, such as the crisis of the 1970s, the years between the Amsterdam and the Lisbon Treaties, the post-2008 crisis. Public attitudes on the EU’s social dimensions will be tapped through a survey and a “Blog Sentiment” analysis. Academic and expert networks will be involved as well as EU policy makers, in order to discuss the scientific and policy implications of the project's findings. Policy documentation, assessment and proposals will be produced through an “observatory” (EUvisions) for systematic data collection and analysis on (Social) EU-building “in action”.

Keywords: european union,welfare state,eu institutions,eu social dimension,social consequences of emu,historical institutionalism,discursive institutionalism,weberian theory,science,ideology,politics