ERC FUNDED PROJECTS

In the bioSPINspired project, I propose to use my experience and skills in spintronics, non-linear dynamics and neuromorphic nanodevices to realize bio-inspired spin torque computing architectures. I will develop a bottom-up approach to build spintronic data processing systems that perform low power ‘cognitive’ tasks on-chip and could ultimately complement our traditional microprocessors. I will start by showing that spin torque nanodevices, which are multi-functional and tunable nonlinear dynamical nano-components, are capable of emulating both neurons and synapses. Then I will assemble these spin-torque nano-synapses and nano-neurons into modules that implement brain-inspired algorithms in hardware. The brain displays many features typical of non-linear dynamical networks, such as synchronization or chaotic behaviour. These observations have inspired a whole class of models that harness the power of complex non-linear dynamical networks for computing. Following such schemes, I will interconnect the spin torque nanodevices by electrical and magnetic interactions so that they can couple to each other, synchronize and display complex dynamics. Then I will demonstrate that when perturbed by external inputs, these spin torque networks can perform recognition tasks by converging to an attractor state, or use the separation properties at the edge of chaos to classify data. In the process, I will revisit these brain-inspired abstract models to adapt them to the constraints of hardware implementations. Finally I will investigate how the spin torque modules can be efficiently connected together with CMOS buffers to perform higher level computing tasks. The table-top prototypes, hardware-adapted computing models and large-scale simulations developed in bioSPINspired will lay the foundations of spin torque bio-inspired computing and open the path to the fabrication of fully integrated, ultra-dense and efficient CMOS/spin-torque nanodevice chips.

1 907 767 €

Start date: 2016-09-01, End date: 2021-08-31

The purpose of this project is to develop new methods for solving boundary value problems (BVPs) for nonlinear integrable partial differential equations (PDEs). Integrable PDEs can be analyzed by means of the Inverse Scattering Transform, whose introduction was one of the most important developments in the theory of nonlinear PDEs in the 20th century. Until the 1990s the inverse scattering methodology was pursued almost entirely for pure initial-value problems. However, in many laboratory and field situations, the solution is generated by what corresponds to the imposition of boundary conditions rather than initial conditions. Thus, an understanding of BVPs is crucial. In an exciting sequence of events taking place in the last two decades, new tools have become available to deal with BVPs for integrable PDEs. Although some important issues have already been resolved, several major problems remain open. The aim of this project is to solve a number of these open problems and to find solutions of BVPs which were heretofore not solvable. More precisely, the proposal has eight objectives: 1. Develop methods for solving problems with time-periodic boundary conditions. 2. Answer some long-standing open questions raised by series of wave-tank experiments 35 years ago. 3. Develop a new approach for the study of space-periodic solutions. 4. Develop new approaches for the analysis of BVPs for equations with 3 x 3-matrix Lax pairs. 5. Derive new asymptotic formulas by using a nonlinear version of the steepest descent method. 6. Construct disk and disk/black-hole solutions of the stationary axisymmetric Einstein equations. 7. Solve a BVP in Einstein's theory of relativity describing two colliding gravitational waves. 8. Extend the above methods to BVPs in higher dimensions.

2 000 000 €

Start date: 2016-05-01, End date: 2021-04-30

The enormous quantities of frozen carbon in the Arctic, held in shallow soils and sediments, act as “capacitors” of the global carbon system. Thawing permafrost (PF) and collapsing methane hydrates are top candidates to cause a net transfer of carbon from land/ocean to the atmosphere this century, yet uncertainties abound. Our program targets the East Siberian Arctic Ocean (ESAO), the World’s largest shelf sea, as it holds 80% of coastal PF, 80% of subsea PF and 75% of shallow hydrates. Our initial findings (e.g., Science, 2010; Nature, 2012; PNAS; 2013; Nature Geoscience, 2013, 2014) are challenging earlier notions by showing complexities in terrestrial PF-Carbon remobilization and extensive venting of methane from subsea PF/hydrates. The objective of the CC-Top Program is to transform descriptive and data-lean pictures into quantitative understanding of the CC system, to pin down the present and predict future releases from these “Sleeping Giants” of the global carbon system. The CC-Top program combines unique Arctic field capacities with powerful molecular-isotopic characterization of PF-carbon/methane to break through on: The “awakening” of terrestrial PF-C pools: CC-Top will employ great pan-arctic rivers as natural integrators and by probing the δ13C/Δ14C and molecular fingerprints, apportion release fluxes of different PF-C pools. The ESAO subsea cryosphere/methane: CC-Top will use recent spatially-extensive observations, deep sediment cores and gap-filling expeditions to (i) estimate distribution of subsea PF and hydrates; (ii) establish thermal state (thawing rate) of subsea PF-C; (iii) apportion sources of releasing methane btw subsea-PF, shallow hydrates vs seepage from the deep petroleum megapool using source-diagnostic triple-isotope fingerprinting. Arctic Ocean slope hydrates: CC-Top will investigate sites (discovered by us 2008-2014) of collapsed hydrates venting methane, to characterize geospatial distribution and causes of destabilization.

2 499 756 €

Start date: 2016-11-01, End date: 2021-10-31

Soft materials are irreplaceable in engineering applications where large reversible deformations are needed, and in life sciences to mimic ever more closely or replace a variety of living tissues. While mechanical strength may not be essential for all applications, excessive brittleness is a strong limitation. Yet predicting if a soft material will be tough or brittle from its molecular composition or structure relies on empirical concepts due to the lack of proper tools to detect the damage occurring to the material before it breaks. Taking advantage of the recent advances in materials science and mechanochemistry, we propose a ground-breaking method to investigate the mechanisms of fracture of tough soft materials. To achieve this objective we will use a series of model materials containing a variable population of internal sacrificial bonds that break before the material fails macroscopically, and use a combination of advanced characterization techniques and molecular probes to map stress, strain, bond breakage and structure in a region ~100 µm in size ahead of the propagating crack. By using mechanoluminescent and mechanophore molecules incorporated in the model material in selected positions, confocal laser microscopy, digital image correlation and small-angle X-ray scattering we will gain an unprecedented molecular understanding of where and when bonds break as the material fails and the crack propagates, and will then be able to establish a direct relation between the architecture of soft polymer networks and their fracture energy, leading to a new molecular and multi-scale vision of macroscopic fracture of soft materials. Such advances will be invaluable to guide materials chemists to design and develop better and more finely tuned soft but tough and sometimes self-healing materials to replace living tissues (in bio engineering) and make lightweight tough and flexible parts for energy efficient transport.

2 251 026 €

Start date: 2016-09-01, End date: 2021-08-31

The security of modern web applications depends on a variety of critical components including cryptographic libraries, Transport Layer Security (TLS), browser security mechanisms, and single sign-on protocols. Although these components are widely used, their security guarantees remain poorly understood, leading to subtle bugs and frequent attacks. Rather than fixing one attack at a time, we advocate the use of formal security verification to identify and eliminate entire classes of vulnerabilities in one go. With the aid of my ERC starting grant, I have built a team that has already achieved landmark results in this direction. We built the first TLS implementation with a cryptographic proof of security. We discovered high-profile vulnerabilities such as the recent Triple Handshake and FREAK attacks, both of which triggered critical security updates to all major web browsers and TLS libraries. So far, our security theorems only apply to carefully-written standalone reference implementations. CIRCUS proposes to take on the next great challenge: verifying the end-to-end security of web applications running in mainstream software. The key idea is to identify the core security components of web browsers and servers and replace them by rigorously verified components that offer the same functionality but with robust security guarantees. Our goal is ambitious and there are many challenges to overcome, but we believe this is an opportune time for this proposal. In response to the Snowden reports, many cryptographic libraries and protocols are currently being audited and redesigned. Standards bodies and software developers are inviting researchers to help analyse their designs and code. Responding to their call requires a team of researchers who are willing to deal with the messy details of nascent standards and legacy code, and at the same time prove strong security theorems based on precise cryptographic assumptions. We are able, we are willing, and the time is now.

1 885 248 €

Start date: 2016-04-01, End date: 2021-03-31

Quantum computing is based on the manipulation of quantum bits (qubits) to enhance the efficiency of information processing. In solid-state systems, two approaches have been explored: • static qubits, coupled to quantum buses used for manipulation and information transmission, • flying qubits which are mobile qubits propagating in quantum circuits for further manipulation. Flying qubits research led to the recent emergence of the field of electron quantum optics, where electrons play the role of photons in quantum optic like experiments. This has recently led to the development of electronic quantum interferometry as well as single electron sources. As of yet, such experiments have only been successfully implemented in semi-conductor heterostructures cooled at extremely low temperatures. Realizing electron quantum optics experiments in graphene, an inexpensive material showing a high degree of quantum coherence even at moderately low temperatures, would be a strong evidence that quantum computing in graphene is within reach. One of the most elementary building blocks necessary to perform electron quantum optics experiments is the electron beam splitter, which is the electronic analog of a beam splitter for light. However, the usual scheme for electron beam splitters in semi-conductor heterostructures is not available in graphene because of its gapless band structure. I propose a breakthrough in this direction where pn junction plays the role of electron beam splitter. This will lead to the following achievements considered as important steps towards quantum computing: • electronic Mach Zehnder interferometry used to study the quantum coherence properties of graphene, • two electrons Aharonov Bohm interferometry used to generate entangled states as an elementary quantum gate, • the implementation of on-demand electronic sources in the GHz range for graphene flying qubits.

1 500 000 €

Start date: 2016-05-01, End date: 2021-04-30

Microswimmers, i.e., biological and artificial microscopic objects capable of self-propulsion, have been attracting a growing interest from the biological and physical communities. From the fundamental side, their study can shed light on the far-from-equilibrium physics underlying the adaptive and collective behavior of biological entities such as chemotactic bacteria and eukaryotic cells. From the more applied side, they provide tantalizing options to perform tasks not easily achievable with other available techniques, such as the targeted localization, pick-up and delivery of microscopic and nanoscopic cargoes, e.g., in drug delivery, bioremediation and chemical sensing. However, there are still several open challenges that need to be tackled in order to achieve the full scientific and technological potential of microswimmers in real-life settings. The main challenges are: (1) to identify a biocompatible propulstion mechanism and energy supply capable of lasting for the whole particle life-cycle; (2) to understand their behavior in complex and crowded environments; (3) to learn how to engineer emergent behaviors; and (4) to scale down their dimensions towards the nanoscale. This project aims at tackling these challenges by developing biocompatible microswimmers capable of elaborate behaviors, by engineering their performance when interacting with other particles and with a complex environment, and by developing working nanoswimmers. To achieve these goals, we have laid out a roadmap that will lead us to push the frontiers of the current understanding of active matter both at the mesoscopic and at the nanoscopic scale, and will permit us to develop some technologically disruptive techniques, namely, targeted delivery of cargoes within complex environments, which is of interest for drug delivery and bioremediation, and efficient sorting of chiral nanoparticles, which is of interest for biomedical and pharmaceutical applications.

1 497 500 €

Start date: 2016-09-01, End date: 2021-08-31

The objective of this ambitious research proposal is to push forward the frontier of computational cosmology by significantly improving the precision of numerical models on par with the increasing richness and depth of surveys that aim to shed light on the nature of dark matter and dark energy. Using new phase-space techniques for the simulation and analysis of dark matter, completely new insights into its dynamics are possible. They allow, for the first time, the accurate simulation of dark matter cosmologies with suppressed small-scale power without artificial fragmentation. Using such techniques, I will establish highly accurate predictions for the properties of dark matter and baryons on small scales and investigate the formation of the first galaxies in non-CDM cosmologies. Baryonic effects on cosmological observables are a severe limiting factor in interpreting cosmological measurements. I will investigate their impact by identifying the relevant astrophysical processes in relation to the multi-wavelength properties of galaxy clusters and the galaxies they host. This will be enabled by a statistical set of zoom simulations where it is possible to study how these properties correlate with one another, with the assembly history, and how we can derive better models for unresolved baryonic processes in cosmological simulations and thus, ultimately, how we can improve the power of cosmological surveys. Finally, I will develop a completely unified framework for precision cosmological initial conditions (ICs) that is scalable to both the largest simulations and the highest resolution zoom simulations. Bringing ICs into the ‘cloud’ will enable new statistical studies using zoom simulations and increase the reproducibility of simulations within the community. My previous work in developing most of the underlying techniques puts me in an excellent position to lead a research group that is able to successfully approach such a wide-ranging and ambitious project.

1 471 382 €

Start date: 2016-09-01, End date: 2021-08-31

In survival analysis investigators are interested in modeling and analysing the time until an event happens. It often happens that the available data are right censored, which means that only a lower bound of the time of interest is observed. This feature complicates substantially the statistical analysis of this kind of data. The aim of this project is to solve a number of open problems related to time-to-event data, that would represent a major step forward in the area of survival analysis. The project has three objectives: [1] Cure models take into account that a certain fraction of the subjects under study will never experience the event of interest. Because of the complex nature of these models, many problems are still open and rigorous theory is rather scarce in this area. Our goal is to fill this gap, which will be a challenging but important task. [2] Copulas are nowadays widespread in many areas in statistics. However, they can contribute more substantially to resolving a number of the outstanding issues in survival analysis, such as in quantile regression and dependent censoring. Finding answers to these open questions, would open up new horizons for a wide variety of problems. [3] We wish to develop new methods for doing correct inference in some of the common models in survival analysis in the presence of endogeneity or measurement errors. The present methodology has serious shortcomings, and we would like to propose, develop and validate new methods, that would be a major breakthrough if successful. The above objectives will be achieved by using mostly semiparametric models. The development of mathematical properties under these models is often a challenging task, as complex tools from the theory on empirical processes and semiparametric efficiency are required. The project will therefore require an innovative combination of highly complex mathematical skills and cutting edge results from modern theory for semiparametric models.

2 318 750 €

Start date: 2016-09-01, End date: 2021-08-31

This proposal aims to develop a combination of a chirped-pulse (sub)mm-wave rotational spectrometer with uniform supersonic flows generated by expansion of gases through Laval nozzles and apply it to problems at the frontiers of reaction kinetics. The CRESU (Reaction Kinetics in Uniform Supersonic Flow) technique, combined with laser photochemical methods, has been applied with great success to perform research in gas-phase chemical kinetics at low temperatures, of particular interest for astrochemistry and cold planetary atmospheres. Recently, the PI has been involved in the development of a new combination of the revolutionary chirped pulse broadband rotational spectroscopy technique invented by B. Pate and co-workers with a novel pulsed CRESU, which we have called Chirped Pulse in Uniform Flow (CPUF). Rotational cooling by frequent collisions with cold buffer gas in the CRESU flow at ca. 20 K drastically increases the sensitivity of the technique, making broadband rotational spectroscopy suitable for detecting a wide range of transient species, such as photodissociation or reaction products. We propose to exploit the exceptional quality of the Rennes CRESU flows to build an improved CPUF instrument (only the second worldwide), and use it for the quantitative determination of product branching ratios in elementary chemical reactions over a wide temperature range (data which are sorely lacking as input to models of gas-phase chemical environments), as well as the detection of reactive intermediates and the testing of modern reaction kinetics theory. Low temperature reactions will be initially targeted; as it is here that there is the greatest need for data. A challenging development of the technique towards the study of high temperature reactions is also proposed, exploiting existing expertise in high enthalpy sources.

2 100 230 €

Start date: 2016-09-01, End date: 2021-08-31

The scope of this project is the automatic design of robot swarms. Swarm robotics is an appealing approach to the coordination of large groups of robots. Up to now, robot swarms have been designed via some labor-intensive process. My goal is to advance the state of the art in swarm robotics by developing the DEMIURGE: an intelligent system that is able to design and realize robot swarms in a totally integrated and automatic way The DEMIURGE is a novel concept. Starting from requirements expressed in a specification language that I will define, the DEMIURGE will design all aspects of a robot swarm - hardware and control software. The DEMIURGE will cast a design problem into an optimization problem and will tackle it in a computation-intensive way. In this project, I will study different control software structures, optimization algorithms, ways to specify requirements, validation protocols, on-line adaptation mechanisms and techniques for re-design at run time.

2 000 000 €

Start date: 2016-10-01, End date: 2021-09-30

Forests slow global climate change by absorbing atmospheric carbon dioxide but this ecosystem service is limited by soil nutrients. Herbivores potentially alter soil nutrients in a range of ways, but these have mostly only been recorded for large mammals. By comparison, the impacts of the abundant invertebrates in forests have largely been ignored and are not included in current models used to generate the climate predictions so vital for designing governmental policies The proposed project will use a pioneering new interdisciplinary approach to provide the most complete picture yet available of the rates, underlying drivers and ultimate impacts of key nutrient inputs from invertebrate herbivores across forest ecosystems worldwide. Specifically, we will: (1) Establish a network of herbivory monitoring stations across all major forest types, and across key environmental gradients (temperature, rainfall, ecosystem development). (2) Perform laboratory experiments to examine the effects of herbivore excreta on soil processes under different temperature and moisture conditions. (3) Integrate this information into a cutting-edge ecosystem model, to generate more accurate predictions of forest carbon sequestration under future climate change. The network established will form the foundation for a unique long-term global monitoring effort which we intend to continue long after the current funding time scale. This work represents a powerful blend of several disciplines harnessing an array of cutting edge tools to provide fundamentally novel insights into an area of direct and urgent importance for the society.

1 750 000 €

Start date: 2016-03-01, End date: 2021-02-28

This proposal focuses on two of climate science’s most fundamental questions: How sensitive is Earth's surface temperature to radiative forcing? and What governs the organization of the atmosphere into rain bands, cloud clusters and storms? These seemingly different questions are central to an ability to assess climate change on regional and global scales, and are in large part tied to a single and critical gap in our knowledge: A poor understanding of how clouds and atmospheric circulations interact. To fill this gap, my goal is to answer three questions, which are critical to an understanding of cloud-circulation coupling and its role in climate: (i) How strongly is the low-clouds response to global warming controlled by atmospheric circulations within the first few kilometres of the atmosphere? (ii) What controls the propensity of the atmosphere to aggregate into clusters or rain bands, and what role does it play in the large-scale atmospheric circulation and in climate sensitivity? (iii) How much do cloud-radiative effects influence the frequency and strength of extreme events? I will address these questions by organising the first airborne field campaign focused on elucidating the interplay between low-level clouds and the small-scale and large-scale circulations in which they are embedded, as this is key for questions (i) and (ii), by analysing data from other field campaigns and satellite observations, and by conducting targeted numerical experiments with a hierarchy of models and configurations. This research stands a very good chance to reduce the primary source of the forty-year uncertainty in climate sensitivity, to demystify long-standing questions of tropical meteorology, and to advance the physical understanding and prediction of extreme events. EUREC4A will also support, motivate and train a team of young scientists to exploit the synergy between observational and modelling approaches to answer pressing questions of atmospheric and climate science.

3 013 334 €

Start date: 2016-08-01, End date: 2021-07-31

Chiral molecules exist as two forms, so-called enantiomers, which have essentially the same physical and chemical properties and can only be distinguished via their interaction with a chiral system, such as circularly polarized light. Many biological processes are chiral-sensitive and unraveling the dynamical aspects of chirality is of prime importance for chemistry, biology and pharmacology. Studying the ultrafast electron dynamics of chiral processes requires characterization techniques at the attosecond (10−18 s) time-scale. Molecular attosecond spectroscopy has the potential to resolve the couplings between electronic and nuclear degrees of freedom in such chiral chemical processes. There are, however, two major challenges: the generation of chiral attosecond light pulse, and the development of highly sensitive chiral discrimination techniques for time-resolved spectroscopy in the gas phase. This ERC research project aims at developing vectorial attosecond spectroscopy using elliptical strong fields and circular attosecond pulses, and to apply it for the investigation of chiral molecules. To achieve this, I will (1) establish a new type of highly sensitive chiroptical spectroscopy using high-order harmonic generation by elliptical laser fields; (2) create and characterize sources of circular attosecond pulses; (3) use trains of circularly polarized attosecond pulses to probe the dynamics of photoionization of chiral molecules and (4) deploy ultrafast dynamical measurements to address the link between nuclear geometry and electronic chirality. The developments from this project will set a landmark in the field of chiral recognition. They will also completely change the way ellipticity is considered in attosecond science and have an impact far beyond the study of chiral compounds, opening new perspectives for the resolution of the fastest dynamics occurring in polyatomic molecules and solid state physics.

1 691 865 €

Start date: 2016-09-01, End date: 2021-08-31

Data is often available in matrix form, in which columns are samples, and processing of such data often entails finding an approximate factorisation of the matrix in two factors. The first factor yields recurring patterns characteristic of the data. The second factor describes in which proportions each data sample is made of these patterns. Latent factor estimation (LFE) is the problem of finding such a factorisation, usually under given constraints. LFE appears under other domain-specific names such as dictionary learning, low-rank approximation, factor analysis or latent semantic analysis. It is used for tasks such as dimensionality reduction, unmixing, soft clustering, coding or matrix completion in very diverse fields. In this project, I propose to explore three new paradigms that push the frontiers of traditional LFE. First, I want to break beyond the ubiquitous Gaussian assumption, a practical choice that too rarely complies with the nature and geometry of the data. Estimation in non-Gaussian models is more difficult, but recent work in audio and text processing has shown that it pays off in practice. Second, in traditional settings the data matrix is often a collection of features computed from raw data. These features are computed with generic off-the-shelf transforms that loosely preprocess the data, setting a limit to performance. I propose a new paradigm in which an optimal low-rank inducing transform is learnt together with the factors in a single step. Thirdly, I show that the dominant deterministic approach to LFE should be reconsidered and I propose a novel statistical estimation paradigm, based on the marginal likelihood, with enhanced capabilities. The new methodology is applied to real-world problems with societal impact in audio signal processing (speech enhancement, music remastering), remote sensing (Earth observation, cosmic object discovery) and data mining (multimodal information retrieval, user recommendation).

1 931 776 €

Start date: 2016-09-01, End date: 2021-08-31

The future of the computing technology relies on fast access, transformation, and exchange of data across large-scale networks such as the Internet. The design of software systems that support high-frequency parallel accesses to high-quantity data is a fundamental challenge. As more scalable alternatives to traditional relational databases, distributed data structures (DDSs) are at the basis of a wide range of automated services, for now, and for the foreseeable future. This proposal aims to improve our understanding of the theoretical foundations of DDSs. The design and the usage of DDSs are based on new principles, for which we currently lack rigorous engineering methodologies. Specifically, we lack design procedures based on precise specifications, and automated reasoning techniques for enhancing the reliability of the engineering process. The targeted breakthrough of this proposal is developing automated formal methods for rigorous engineering of DDSs. A first objective is to define coherent formal specifications that provide precise requirements at design time and explicit guarantees during their usage. Then, we will investigate practical programming principles, compatible with these specifications, for building applications that use DDSs. Finally, we will develop efficient automated reasoning techniques for debugging or validating DDS implementations against their specifications. The principles underlying automated reasoning are also important for identifying best practices in the design of these complex systems to increase confidence in their correctness. The developed methodologies based on formal specifications will thus benefit both the conception and automated validation of DDS implementations and the applications that use them.

1 300 000 €

Start date: 2016-05-01, End date: 2021-04-30

Extensions of Einstein’s gravity containing higher spin gauge fields (massless fields with spin greater than two) constitute a very active and challenging field of research, raising many fascinating issues and questions in different areas of physics. However, in spite of the impressive achievements already in store, it is fair to say that higher spin gravity has not delivered its full potential yet and still faces a rich number of challenges, both conceptual and technical. The objective of this proposal is to deepen our understanding of higher spin gravity, following five interconnected central themes that will constitute the backbone of the project: (i) how to construct an action principle; (ii) how to understand the generalized space-time geometry invariant under the higher-spin gauge symmetry – a key fundamental issue in the project; (iii) what is the precise asymptotic structure of the theory at infinity; (iv) what is the connection of the higher spin algebras with the hidden symmetries of gravitational theories; (v) what are the implications of hypersymmetry, which is the higher-spin version of supersymmetry. Holography in three and higher dimensions will constitute an essential tool. One of the motivations of the project is the connection of higher spin gravity with tensionless string theory and consistent theories of quantum gravity.

1 841 868 €

Start date: 2016-10-01, End date: 2021-09-30

The goal of IMPaCT is to turn Multi-Party Computation (MPC) from a stage in which we are beginning to obtain practical feasibility results, to a stage in which we have fully practical systems. It has long been acknowledged that MPC has the potential to provide a transformative change in the way security solutions are enabled. As it presently stands this is currently only possible in limited applications; deployments in restricted scenarios are beginning to emerge. However, in turning MPC into a fully practical technology a number of key scientific challenges need to be solved; many of which have not yet even been considered in the theoretical literature. The IMPaCT project aims to address this scientific gap, bridge it, and so provide the tools for a future road-map in which MPC can be deployed as a widespread tool, as ubiquitous as encryption and digital signatures are today. Our scientific approach will be to investigate new MPC protocols and techniques which take into account practical constraints and issues which would arise in future application scenarios. Our work, despite being scientifically rigorous and driven from deep theoretical insight, will be grounded in practical considerations. All systems and protocols proposed will be prototyped so as to ensure that practical real world issues are taken into account. In addition we will use our extensive industrial linkages to ensure a two way dialogue between potential users and the developers of MPC technology; thus helping to embed future impact of the work in IMPaCT. Our workplan is focused around key scientific challenges which we have identified on the road to fully practical MPC applications. These include the design of methodologies to cope with the asynchronicity of networks, how to realistically measure and model MPC protocols performance, how to utilize low round complexity protocols in practice, how to deal with problems with large input sizes (e.g. streaming data), and many more.

2 499 938 €

Start date: 2016-10-01, End date: 2021-09-30

The main geochemical features of the mantles of terrestrial planets and asteroids can be attributed to differentiation events that occurred during or shortly after the formation of the Solar System. Numerous questions remain regarding the Earth’s bulk composition and the most likely scenario for its evolution prior to the last major differentiation event caused by a giant impact leading to the formation of the Moon. The aim of this five-year project is to evaluate the state-of-the-art models of the Earth’s early evolution with the following main objectives: (i) Defining precisely the age of the Moon’s formation, (ii) Refining the giant impact model and the Earth-Moon relationship, (iii) Dating the successive magmatic ocean stages on Earth, and (iv) Constraining the Earth mantle’s composition in terms of rare earth element concentrations. These different questions will be addressed using trace elements, radiogenic isotopic systematics (146Sm-142Nd, 147Sm-143Nd, 138La-138Ce) and stable isotopes. ISOREE is a multi-disciplinary project that combines isotope and trace element geochemistry, experimental geochemistry and spectroscopy. A large number of samples will be analysed, including terrestrial rocks with ages up to 3.8 Ga, chondrites, achondrites and lunar samples. This proposal will provide the tools to tackle a vast topic from various angles, using new methodologies and instrumentation and promoting innovation and creativity in European research. This research program is essential to further constrain the major events that occurred very early on in the Earth’s history, such as the Earth’s cooling, its crustal growth, the surface conditions and development of potential habitats for life.

2 200 000 €

Start date: 2016-09-01, End date: 2021-08-31

Time-series of multimodal medical images offer a unique opportunity to track anatomical and functional alterations of the brain in aging individuals. A collection of such time series for several individuals forms a longitudinal data set, each data being a rich iconic-geometric representation of the brain anatomy and function. These data are already extraordinary complex and variable across individuals. Taking the temporal component into account further adds difficulty, in that each individual follows a different trajectory of changes, and at a different pace. Furthermore, a disease is here a progressive departure from an otherwise normal scenario of aging, so that one could not think of normal and pathologic brain aging as distinct categories, as in the standard case-control paradigm. Bio-statisticians lack a suitable methodological framework to exhibit from these data the typical trajectories and dynamics of brain alterations, and the effects of a disease on these trajectories, thus limiting the investigation of essential clinical questions. To change this situation, we propose to construct virtual dynamical models of brain aging by learning typical spatiotemporal patterns of alterations propagation from longitudinal iconic-geometric data sets. By including concepts of the Riemannian geometry into Bayesian mixed effect models, the project will introduce general principles to average complex individual trajectories of iconic-geometric changes and align the pace at which these trajectories are followed. It will estimate a set of elementary spatiotemporal patterns, which combine to yield a personal aging scenario for each individual. Disease-specific patterns will be detected with an increasing likelihood. This new generation of statistical and computational tools will unveil clusters of patients sharing similar lesion propagation profiles, paving the way to design more specific treatments, and care patients when treatments have the highest chance of success.

1 499 894 €

Start date: 2016-09-01, End date: 2021-08-31

Astrophysics has arrived to a turning point where the scientific exploitation of data requires overcoming challenging analysis issues, which mandates the development of advanced signal processing methods. In this context, sparsity and sparse signal representations have played a prominent role in astrophysics. Indeed, thanks to sparsity, an extremely clean full-sky map of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) has been derived from the Planck data [Bobin14], a European space mission that observes the sky in the microwave wavelengths. This led to a noticeable breakthrough: we showed that the large-scale statistical studies of the CMB can be performed without having to mask the galactic centre anymore thanks to the achieved high quality component separation [Rassat14]. Despite the undeniable success of sparsity, standard linear signal processing approaches are too simplistic to capture the intrinsically non-linear properties of physical data. For instance, the analysis of the Planck data in polarization requires new sparse representations to finely capture the properties of polarization vector fields (e.g. rotation invariance), which cannot be tackled by linear approaches. Shifting from the linear to the non-linear signal representation paradigm is an emerging area in signal processing, which builds upon new connections with fields such as deep learning [Mallat13]. Inspired by these active and fertile connections, the LENA project will: i) study a new non-linear signal representation framework to design non-linear models that can account for the underlying physics, and ii) develop new numerical methods that can exploit these models. We will further demonstrate the impact of the developed models and algorithms to tackle data analysis challenges in the scope of the Planck mission and the European radio-interferometer LOFAR. We expect the results of the LENA project to impact astrophysical data analysis as significantly as deploying sparsity to the field has achieved.

1 497 411 €

Start date: 2016-09-01, End date: 2021-08-31

"Rotation and angular momentum transport play a critical role in the formation and evolution of astrophysical objects, including the fundamental bricks of astrophysical structures: stars. Stars like our Sun form when rotating dense cores, in the interstellar medium, collapse until they eventually reach temperatures at which nuclear fusion begins; while planets, including the Earth, form in the rotationally supported disks around these same young stars. One of the major challenges of modern astrophysics is the “angular momentum problem"": observations show that a typical star-forming cloud needs to reduce its specific angular momentum by 5 to 10 orders of magnitude to form a typical star such as our Sun. It is also crucial to solve the angular momentum problem to understand the formation of protoplanetary disks, stellar binaries and the initial mass function of newly formed stars. Magnetic fields are one of the key ways of transporting angular momentum in astrophysical structures: understanding how angular momentum is transported to allow star formation requires characterizing the role of magnetic fields in shaping the dynamics of star-forming structures. The MagneticYSOs project aims at characterizing the role of magnetic field in the earliest stage of star formation, during the main accretion phase. The simultaneous major improvements of instrumental and computational facilities provide us, for the first time, with the opportunity to confront observational information to magnetized models predictions. Polarization capabilities on the last generation of instrument in large facilities are producing sensitive observations of magnetic fields with a great level of detail, while numerical simulations of star formation are now including most of the physical ingredients for a detailed description of protostellar collapse at all the relevant scales, such as resistive MHD, radiative transfer and chemical networks. These new tools will undoubtedly lead to major discovery in the fields of planets and star formation in the coming years. It is necessary to conduct comprehensive projects able to combine theory and observations in a detailed fashion, which in turn require a collaboration with access to cutting edge observational datasets and numerical models. Through an ambitious multi-faceted program of dedicated observations probing magnetic fields (polarized dust emission and Zeeman effect maps), gas kinematics (molecular lines emission maps), ionization rates and dust properties in Class 0 protostars, and their comparison to synthetic observations of MHD simulations of protostellar collapse, we aim to transform our understanding of: 1) The long-standing problem of angular momentum in star formation 2) The origin of the stellar initial mass function 3) The formation of multiple stellar systems and circumstellar disks around young stellar objects (YSOs) Not only this project will enable a major leap forward in our understanding of low-mass star formation, answering yet unexplored questions with innovative methods, but it will also allow to spread the expertise in interpreting high-angular resolution (sub-)mm polarization data. Although characterizing magnetic fields in astrophysical structures represents the next frontier in many fields (solar physics, evolved stars, compact objects, galactic nuclei are a few examples), only a handful of astronomers in the EU community are familiar with interferometric polarization data, mostly because of the absence of large european facilities providing such capabilities until the recent advent of ALMA. It is now crucial to strengthen the European position in this research field by training a new generation of physicists with a strong expertise on tailoring, analyzing and interpreting high angular resolution polarization data."

1 500 000 €

Start date: 2016-07-01, End date: 2021-06-30

"Biological motion and forces originate from mechanically active proteins operating at the nanometer scale. These individual active elements interact through the surrounding cellular medium, collectively generating structures spanning tens of micrometers whose mechanical properties are perfectly tuned to their fundamentally out-of-equilibrium biological function. While both individual proteins and the resulting cellular behaviors are well characterized, understanding the relationship between these two scales remains a major challenge in both physics and cell biology. We will bridge this gap through multiscale models of the emergence of active material properties in the experimentally well-characterized actin cytoskeleton. We will thus investigate unexplored, strongly interacting nonequilibrium regimes. We will develop a complete framework for cytoskeletal activity by separately studying all three fundamental processes driving it out of equilibrium: actin filament assembly and disassembly, force exertion by branched actin networks, and the action of molecular motors. We will then recombine these approaches into a unified understanding of complex cell motility processes. To tackle the cytoskeleton's disordered geometry and many-body interactions, we will design new nonequilibrium self consistent methods in statistical mechanics and elasticity theory. Our findings will be validated through simulations and close experimental collaborations. Our work will break new ground in both biology and physics. In the context of biology, it will establish a new framework to understand how the cell controls its achitecture and mechanics through biochemical regulation. On the physics side, it will set up new paradigms for the emergence of original out-of-equilibrium collective behaviors in an experimentally well-characterized system, addressing the foundations of existing macroscopic "active matter" approaches."

1 491 868 €

Start date: 2016-06-01, End date: 2021-05-31

The main theme of this proposal is the Geometric Representation Theory of reductive algebraic groups over algebraically closed fields of positive characteristic. Our primary goal is to obtain character formulas for simple and for indecomposable tilting representations of such groups, by developing a geometric framework for their categories of representations. Obtaining such formulas has been one of the main problems in this area since the 1980's. A program outlined by G. Lusztig in the 1990's has lead to a formula for the characters of simple representations in the case the characteristic of the base field is bigger than an explicit but huge bound. A recent breakthrough due to G. Williamson has shown that this formula cannot hold for smaller characteristics, however. Nothing is known about characters of tilting modules in general (except for a conjectural formula for some characters, due to Andersen). Our main tools include a new perspective on Soergel bimodules offered by the study of parity sheaves (introduced by Juteau-Mautner-Williamson) and a diagrammatic presentation of their category (due to Elias-Williamson).

882 844 €

Start date: 2016-09-01, End date: 2021-08-31

MONACAT proposes a novel approach to address the challenge of intermittent energy storage. Specifically, the purpose is to conceive and synthesize novel complex nano-objects displaying both physical and chemical properties that enable catalytic transformations with a fast and optimum energy conversion. It follows over 20 years of research on “organometallic nanoparticles”, an approach of nanoparticles (NPs) synthesis where the first goal is to control the surface of the particles as in molecular organometallic species. Two families of NPs will be studied: 1) magnetic NPs that can be heated by excitation with an alternating magnetic field and 2) plasmonic NPs that absorb visible light and transform it into heat. In all cases, deposition of additional materials as islands or thin layers will improve the NPs catalytic activity. Iron carbides NPs have recently been shown to heat efficiently upon magnetic excitation and to catalyse CO hydrogenation into hydrocarbons. In order to transform this observation into a viable process, MONACAT will address the following challenges: determination and control of surface temperature using fluorophores or quantum dots, optimization of heating capacity (size, anisotropy of the material, crystallinity, phases: FeCo, FeNi, chemical order), optimization of catalytic properties (islands vs core-shell structures; Ru, Ni for methane, Cu/Zn for methanol), stability and optimization of energy efficiency. A similar approach will be used for direct light conversion using as first proofs of concept Au or Ag NPs coated with Ru. Catalytic tests will be performed on two heterogeneous reactions after deposition of the NPs onto a support: CO2 hydrogenation into methane and methanol synthesis. In addition, the potential of catalysis making use of self-heated and magnetically recoverable NPs will be studied in solution (reduction of arenes or oxygenated functions, hydrogenation and hydrogenolysis of biomass platform molecules, Fischer-Tropsch).

2 472 223 €

Start date: 2016-06-01, End date: 2021-05-31

Cancer is responsible for 20% of all deaths in Europe. Current cancer research is based on cell ensemble measurements or on snapshot studies of individual cells. However, cancer is a systemic disease, involving many cells that interact and evolve over time in a complex manner, which cell ensemble studies and snapshot studies cannot grasp. It is therefore crucial to investigate cancer at the single cell level and in longitudinal studies (over time). Despite the recent developments in micro- and nanotechnologies, combined with live cell imaging, today, there is no method available that meets the crucial need for global monitoring of individual cell responses to stimuli/perturbation in real-time. This project addresses this crucial need by combining super resolution live-cell imaging and the development of sensors, as well as injection devices based on vertical nanowire arrays. The devices will penetrate multiple single cells in a fully controlled manner, with minimal invasiveness. The objectives of the project are: 1) To develop nanowire based-tools in order to gain controlled and reliable access to the cell interior with minimal invasiveness. 2) Developing mRNA sensing and biomolecule injection capabilities based on nanowires. 3) Performing longitudinal single cell studies in tumours, including monitoring gene expression in real time, under controlled cell perturbation. By enabling global, long term monitoring of individual tumour cells submitted to controlled stimuli, the project will open up new horizons in Biology and in Medical Research. It will enable ground-breaking discoveries in understanding the complexity of molecular events underlying the disease. This cross-disciplinary project will lead to paradigm-shifting research, which will enable the development of optimal treatment strategies. This will be applicable, not only for cancer, but also for a broad range of diseases, such as diabetes and neurodegenerative diseases.

2 621 251 €

Start date: 2016-09-01, End date: 2021-08-31

An important part of differentiable dynamics has been developed from the uniformly hyperbolic systems. These systems have been introduced by Smale in the 60's in order to address chaotic behavior and are now deeply understood from the qualitative, symbolic and statistic viewpoints. They correspond to the structurally stable dynamics. It appeared that large classes of non-hyperbolic systems also exist. Since the 80's, different notions of relaxed hyperbolicity have been introduced: non-uniformly hyperbolic measures, partial hyperbolicity, ... They allowed to extend the previous approach to other families of systems and to handle new examples of dynamics: the fine description of the dynamics of Hénon maps for instance. The development of local perturbative technics have brought a rebirth for the qualitative description of generic systems. It also opened the door to describe more globally the spaces of differentiable dynamics. For instance, it allowed recent progresses towards the Palis conjecture which characterizes the absence of uniform hyperbolicity by the homoclinic bifurcations — homoclinic tangencies or heterodimensional cycles. We propose in the present project to develop technics for realizing more global perturbations, yielding a breakthrough in the subject. This would settle this conjecture for C1 diffeomorphisms and imply other classification results. These past years we have understood how qualitative dynamics of generic systems decompose into invariant pieces. We are now ready to describe more precisely the dynamics inside the pieces. We propose to combine these new geometrical ideas to the ergodic theory of non-uniformly hyperbolic systems. This will improve significantly our understanding of general smooth systems (for instance provide existence and finiteness of physical measures and measures of maximal entropy for new classes of systems beyond uniform hyperbolicity).

1 229 255 €

Start date: 2016-09-01, End date: 2021-08-31

The hollow structure of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) with a wide range of diameters forms an ideal one-dimensional host system to study restricted diameter-dependent molecular transport and to achieve unique polar molecular order. For the ORDERin1D project, I will capitalize on my recent breakthroughs in the processing, filling, chiral sorting and high-resolution spectroscopic characterization of empty and filled CNTs, aiming for a diameter-dependent characterization of the filling with various molecules, which will pave the way for the rational design of ultraselective filtermembranes, sensors, nanofluidic devices and nanohybrids with unseen control over the structural order at the molecular scale. In particular, I recently found that dipolar molecules naturally align head-to-tail into a polar array inside the CNTs, after which their molecular directional properties such as their dipole moment and second-order nonlinear optical responses add up coherently, groundbreaking for the development of nanophotonics applications.

1 499 425 €

Start date: 2016-05-01, End date: 2021-04-30

In this grant application, I propose to investigate in-depth the potential of novel inert Ru(II) polypyridyl complexes as novel anticancer drug candidates. Such compounds were investigated by Dwyer and Shulman in 1950s and 1960s both in vitro and in vivo with relatively promising results. This impressive seminal work was unfortunately not followed-up. This lack of additional studies was recently attributed, at least in part, to the observed neurotoxicity of the complexes. Nonetheless, over the last years, there has been a revival of important in vitro studies of such inert Ru(II) polypyridyl complexes for anticancer purposes. However, without further in vivo studies, it is reasonable to think that similar neurotoxicity to that observed by Dwyer and Shulman could be encountered. In order to tackle these (potential) drawbacks, I propose to use a prodrug approach. Furthermore, I also intend to investigate the potential of inert Ru(II) polypyridyl complexes as photosensitizers (PSs) in photodynamic therapy (PDT). In the search for an alternative approach to chemotherapy, PDT has proven to be a promising, effective and non-invasive treatment modality. Importantly, in order to increase even further the potential of the PSs presented in this project, I propose to also excite them via simultaneous two-photon absorption (TPA) in the so-called two-photon excitation PDT (2 PE-PDT). Importantly, the newly Ru(II)-based PSs will be coupled to cancer cell-specific peptides or antibodies. This double selectivity (targeting vector and photo-activation) should limit the frequently encountered side-effects of (metal-based) anticancer drugs. Another important aim of this second part of this project will be the use of the Ru(II)-based PSs to kill bacteria. Interestingly, PDT has been recently shown to be an interesting alternative to fight bacteria. I therefore intend to couple Ru(II)-based (2PE )PSs to bacteria-specific peptides to bring bacteria specificity.

662 015 €

Start date: 2016-10-01, End date: 2021-09-30

The progress in liquid chromatography (LC), basically following Moore’s law over the last decade, will soon come to a halt. LC is the current state-of-the-art chemical separation method to measure the composition of complex mixtures. Driven by the ever growing complexity of the samples in e.g., environmental and biomedical research, LC is constantly pushed to higher efficiencies. Using highly optimized and monodisperse spherical particles, randomly packed in high pressure columns, the progress in LC has up till now been realized by reducing the particle size and concomitantly increasing the pressure. With pressure already up at 1500 bar, groundbreaking progress is still badly needed, e.g., to fully unravel the complex reaction networks in human cells. For this purpose, it is proposed to leave the randomly packed bed paradigm and move to structures wherein the 1 to 5 micrometer particles currently used in LC are arranged in perfectly ordered and open-structured geometries. This is now possible, as the latest advances in nano-manufacturing and positioning allow proposing and developing an inventive high-throughput particle assembly and deposition strategy. The PI's ability to develop new parts of chromatography will be used to rationally optimize the many possible geometries accessible through this disruptive new technology, and identify those structures coping best with any remaining degree of disorder. Using the PI's experimental know-how on microfluidic chromatography systems, these structures will be used to pursue the disruptive gain margin (order of factor 100 in separation speed) that is expected based on general chromatography theory. Testing this groundbreaking new generation of LC columns together with world-leading bio-analytical scientists will illustrate their potential in making new discoveries in biology and life sciences. The new nano-assembly strategies might also be pushed to other applications, such as photonic crystals.

2 488 813 €

Start date: 2016-10-01, End date: 2021-09-30

Quantum matter is condensed matter which properties are dominated by the quantum nature of its constituents. The two most fundamental properties of quantum mechanics are interference and entanglement. How do these properties, and their derivatives, show up in an experiment? And how does one control them? These are the fundamental questions addressed in this proposal. The study is divided into three main parts: many-body localization, topological insulator nanowires, and topological semimetals. Many-body localization is concerned with the interplay of interference and entanglement and is central to questions about quantum thermalization. I aim to understand experimental signatures of many-body localization as well as devising simulation schemes that allow us to conduct numerical experiments on many-body localization for larger system sizes than has been so far possible. The interplay of interference, topology and geometry is the central theme of the topic of topological insulator nanowires. I have in the past theoretically demonstrated the signatures of fundamental quantum phenomena in these systems, including perfectly transmitted mode and Majorana fermions. The major goal of this part of the project is to collaborate closely with experimental groups seeking to verify my past theories, by providing new and more detailed predictions for these systems. This requires to further understand experimental details, develop certain theoretical devices and simulation techniques based on them. The final part on topological semimetals is particularly timely in view of recent experimental realizations of Dirac semimetals and the impending realization of Weyl semimetals, which both can be roughly thought of as 3D analogs of graphene. I seek to understand their unique transport signatures and the interplay of disorder with 3D Dirac fermions. The three parts feed into and from each other both through unified concepts and common methodology.

1 500 000 €

Start date: 2016-01-01, End date: 2020-12-31

We propose a simple idea: to reproduce earthquakes in the laboratory. Because earthquakes are spectacular examples of uncontrollable catastrophes, the opportunity to study them under controlled conditions in the laboratory is unique and is, in fact, the only way to understand the details of the earthquake source physics. The aim of the project is interdisciplinary, at the frontiers between Rock Fracture Mechanics, Seismology, and Mineralogy. Its ultimate goal is to improve, on the basis of integrated experimental data, our understanding of the earthquake source physics. We have already shown that both deep and shallow laboratory earthquakes are not mere `analogs’ of earthquakes, but are real events – though very small [Passelègue et al. 2013, Schubnel et al. 2013]. During laboratory earthquakes, by measuring all of the physical quantities related to the rupturing process, we will unravel what controls the rupture speed, rupture arrest, the earthquake rupture energy budget, as well as the common role played by mineralogy in both shallow and deep earthquakes. We will also perform some experiments on rock samples drilled from actual active fault zones. Our work will provide insights for earthquake hazard mitigation, constrain ubiquitously observed seismological statistical laws (Omori, Gutenberg-Richter) and produce unprecedented data sets on rock fracture dynamics at in-situ conditions to test seismic slip inversion and dynamic rupture modelling techniques. The new infrastructure we plan to install will reproduce the temperatures and pressures at depths where earthquakes occur in the crust as well as in the upper mantle of the Earth, with never achieved spatio-temporal imaging resolution to this day. This will be a valuable research asset for the European community, as it will eventually open the door to a better understanding of all the processes happening under stress within the first hundreds of kilometres of the Earth.

2 748 188 €

Start date: 2016-10-01, End date: 2021-09-30

Imagine a sustainable society where clean energy is produced from sunlight, and water is converted into hydrogen to fuel a fuel cell, which produces electric energy to power the electric motor in a car. At the same time, CO2 emissions are captured and converted to hydrocarbons that are again used as fuel or as resource for fine chemical synthesis. At the heart of this vision is heterogeneous catalysis. Hence, for it to become reality, tailored highly efficient catalyst materials are of paramount importance. The goal of this research program is therefore to establish a new experimental paradigm, which allows the detailed scrutiny of individual catalyst nanoparticles and their reaction products under application conditions. The catalytic performance of nanoparticles is directly controlled by their size, shape and chemical composition. Current studies are, however, conducted on ensembles of nanoparticles. Therefore, such studies are plagued by averaging effects, which deny access to the key details related to how size, shape and composition control catalyst performance. To eliminate this problem, we will nanofabricate a unique nanofluidic reactor device that will enable us to scrutinize catalytic processes and products at the individual catalyst nanoparticle level. In a second step, we will integrate plasmonic optical probes with the nanoreactor to be able to simultaneously monitor the dynamics of the catalyst particle state during reaction. Finally, we will apply the nanoreactor to investigate the role of the catalyst oxidation state in Fischer-Tropsch catalysis. In parallel, we will explore novel plasmon-induced hot electron-mediated reaction pathways for catalytic CO2 reduction, as part of a carbon-neutral energy cycle. We anticipate unprecedented insight into the role of catalyst particle state, size and shape in these processes. This will facilitate the development of more efficient catalyst materials in the quest for an energy-efficient and sustainable future.

1 500 000 €

Start date: 2016-01-01, End date: 2020-12-31

Concrete production processes do not take full advantage of the rheological potential of fresh cementitious materials, and are still largely labour-driven and sensitive to the human factor. SmartCast proposes a new concrete casting concept to transform the concrete industry into a highly automated technological industry. Currently, the rheological properties of the concrete are defined by mix design and mixing procedure without any further active adjustment during casting. The goal of this proposal is the active control of concrete rheology during casting, and the active triggering of early stiffening of the concrete as soon as it is put in place. The ground-breaking idea to achieve this goal, is to develop concrete with actively controllable rheology by adding admixtures responsive to externally activated electromagnetic frequencies. Inter-disciplinary insights are important to achieve these goals, including inputs from concrete technology, polymer science, electrochemistry, rheology and computational fluid dynamics. We will develop 4 new experimental test set-ups allowing to study active rheology control during different phases of the casting process: 1)concrete pumping (control of slip layer), 2)while flowing in the formwork (bulk control of rheology), 3)while flowing through formwork joints (control of formwork tightness), and 4)once the concrete is in its final position (trigger stiffening). Well-designed polymers with the desired response to the applied activation will be added to the concrete during mixing. The experiments will be analysed by advanced computational flow modelling based on fundamental rheological laws. Special attention will be paid to the compatibility of all responsive polymers selected for the different control phases. SmartCast will mean a paradigm shift for formwork-based concrete casting. The developed active rheology control will provide a fundamental basis for the development of future-proof 3D printing techniques in concrete industry

2 498 750 €

Start date: 2016-10-01, End date: 2021-09-30

This project aims at providing a new quantitative approach to financial regulation, notably in the context of high frequency trading. The key idea of our method is to build relevant statistical models through price and time scales, connecting the microstructure of financial markets to the long term behavior of prices. Doing so, we will be able to understand and quantify the macroscopic consequences of regulatory measures modifying the microscopic design of the market. Succeeding in this modelling task will require to address several intricate statistical problems. In particular new results will be needed in the fields of limit theory for semi-martingales, multifractal processes, rough stochastic differential equations, Hawkes processes and high-dimensional statistics. Hence, through this project, we not only have the hope to provide groundbreaking tools for worldwide regulation of financial markets but, concurrently, to answer important and challenging mathematical problems. In term of analyzing concrete regulatory measures, particular attention will be devoted to the issue of the choice of a proper tick value, that is the minimal price increment allowed on a financial market. Indeed, the tick value is the tool which seems to be favored by most policy makers in order to regulate high frequency trading.

1 165 625 €

Start date: 2016-10-01, End date: 2021-09-30

Digital imaging of tissue samples and genetic analysis by next generation sequencing are two rapidly emerging fields in pathology. The exponential growth in digital imaging in pathology is catalyzed by more advanced imaging hardware, comparable to the complete shift from analog to digital images that took place in radiology a couple of decades ago: Entire glass slides can be digitized at near the optical resolution limits in only a few minutes’ time, and fluorescence as well as bright field stains can be imaged in parallel. Genetic analysis, and particularly transcriptomics, is rapidly evolving thanks to the impressive development of next generation sequencing technologies, enabling genome-wide single-cell analysis of DNA and RNA in thousands of cells at constantly decreasing costs. However, most of today’s available technologies result in a genetic analysis that is decoupled from the morphological and spatial information of the original tissue sample, while many important questions in tumor- and developmental biology require single cell spatial resolution to understand tissue heterogeneity. The goal of the proposed project is to develop computational methods that bridge these two emerging fields. We want to combine spatially resolved high-throughput genomics analysis of tissue sections with digital image analysis of tissue morphology. Together with collaborators from the biomedical field, we propose two approaches for spatially resolved genomics; one based on sequencing mRNA transcripts directly in tissue samples, and one based on spatially resolved cellular barcoding followed by single cell sequencing. Both approaches require development of advanced digital image processing methods. Thus, we will couple genetic analysis with digital pathology. Going beyond visual assessment of this rich digital data will be a fundamental component for the future development of histopathology, both as a diagnostic tool and as a research field.

1 738 690 €

Start date: 2016-04-01, End date: 2021-03-31

The goal of the project is to develop a new hyperpolarization approach called Magic Angle Spinning Dynamic Nuclear Polarization (MAS-DNP) to reach levels of sensitivity and resolution that have never been achieved, in order to tackle highly relevant chemical and biological questions that remain unanswered so far. Firstly this will provide major advances in NMR crystallography (solving 3D structures by NMR) by showing that distance measurements between nuclei (13C, 15N, etc.) as well as 17O quadrupolar parameters can be extracted from NMR measurements without requiring isotopic labeling. This will be applied to systems that cannot be easily isotopically enriched and for which X-ray analysis is often not suitable. Secondly we propose an innovative strategy to hyperpolarize nuclear spins using MAS-DNP: rather than polarizing the entire system uniformly, we will selectively “light up” regions where we wish to gather important structural information. This will be developed to study protein-ligand interactions (with unprecedented resolution) to answer specific structural questions and potentially impact the field of drug engineering. Finally we will show that the unique experimental setup developed in this project will open up NMR to the routine study of “exotic”, yet ubiquitous and highly informative, nuclei such as 43Ca and 67Zn. Specifically, we will show that MAS-DNP can become a choice technique for the study of diamagnetic metal binding sites, complementing EPR for the study of metalloproteins. These goals will be achieved thanks to the development of original methods and advanced instrumentation, allowing sustainable access to low temperatures (down to 10-20 K) and fast pneumatic sample spinning, under microwave irradiation. We expect to improve the current sensitivity to such an extent that 4 orders of magnitude of experimental timesavings are obtained, resulting in completely new research directions and regimes.

1 999 805 €

Start date: 2016-07-01, End date: 2021-06-30