H2020 European Research Council

European Research Council 

Starting Grants

Axscale 

Axions and relatives across different mass scales

AxScale revolves around the search for QCD axions and Axion-Like-Particles. Two instruments are used for this purpose: The NA62 experiment can be sensitive to a vast mass range of axions and ALPs produced in decays. The RADES project at CAST searches directly for QCD axions as a Dark Matter particle.

Coordinator: CERN, Switzerland

Scientist in Charge from CERN: Dr Babette Döbrich

Full costs of the project: 1.1 M€ 

EU funding: 1.1 M€

EU funding for CERN: N.A.

1 November 2018 - 30 October 2023

BetaDropNMR

Ultra-sensitive NMR in liquids

The nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR) is a versatile and powerful tool, especially in chemistry and in biology. However, its limited sensitivity and small amount of suitable probe nuclei pose severe constraints on the systems that may be explored. This project aims at overcoming the above limitations by giving NMR an ultra-high sensitivity and by enlarging the NMR "toolbox" to dozens of nuclei across the periodic table. This will be achieved by applying the β-NMR method to the soft matter samples. The long-term aim is to establish a firm basis for β-NMR in soft matter studies in biology, chemistry and physics.The research will take place at the ISOLDE facility

Coordinator: CERN, Switzerland

Scientist in Charge from CERN: Magdalena Kowalska

Full costs of the project: 1.7 M€ 

EU funding: 1.5 M€

EU funding for CERN: 1.5 M€

1 October 2015 - 30 September 2020

MathAm

Mathematical Structures in Scattering Amplitudes

The goal of MathAm is to investigate in detail the relationship between scattering amplitudes, number theory and algebraic geometry, with the final aim of developing novel computational techniques for scattering amplitudes that are beyond reach of conventional state-of-the-art technology.

Coordinator: CERN, Switzerland

Scientist in Charge from CERN: 
Claude Duhr

Full costs of the project: 1.3 M€ 

EU funding: 1.3 M€

EU funding for CERN: 946 k€

1 September 2015 - 31 August 2020

MIRACLS

An Electrostatic Ion Beam Trap for Ultra-Sensitive Col- linear Laser Spectroscopy of Radionuclides

EIBT-LS aims at producing a novel type of ion trap, an Electrostatic Ion Beam Trap in order to benchmark modern theoretical models utilizing 3-body forces in a quest to understand the evolution of nuclear shells.

Coordinator: CERN, Switzerland
Scientist in Charge from CERN: 
Stephan Malbrunot
Full costs of the project: 1.4 M€ 
EU funding: 1.4 M€
EU funding for CERN: 1.4 M€
1 January 2017 - 31 December 2021
nuDirections

New Directions in Theoretical Neutrino Physics

Thanks to tremendous advances in terrestrial, astrophysical and cosmological experiments, neutrino physics has again become one of the driving forces of progress in astroparticle physics. nuDirections aims to investigate from a theoretical point of view a multitude of unexplored phenomena within and beyond the Standard Model of particle physics that are now becoming experimentally accessible in new neutrino experiments. The three main pillars of the project are: (1) Light sterile neutrinos; (2) Decoherence effects in dense neutrino gases; (3) Neutrinos and dark matter. The final goal is to develop a new mechanism for the production of sterile neutrino dark matter in the early Universe and to play a leading role in the theory and phenomenology of neutrino signals from dark matter annihilation or decay.

Coordinator: CERN, Switzerland

Scientist in Charge from CERN: 
Joachim Kopp

Full costs of the project: 800 k€ 

EU funding: 800 k€

EU funding for CERN: 264 k€

1 September 2015 - 31 August 2020

Consolidator Grants

mPP

mPP: machine learning for Particle Physics

This project proposes to use modern Machine Learning (ML),  particularly Deep Learning (DL), as a breakthrough solution to address the scientific, technological, and financial challenges that High Energy Physics will face in the decade ahead.

The project aims to apply cutting-edge ML technologies to HEP problems, paving the way to self-operating detectors, capable of visually inspecting events and identifying the physics process generating them, while monitoring the data, the correct functioning of the detector components and, if any, the occurrence of anomalous events caused by unspecified new physics processes.

Coordinator: CERN, Switzerland

Scientist in Charge from CERN: 
Maurizio Pierini

Full costs of the project: 1.7 M€ 

EU funding: 1.7 M€

EU funding for CERN: 1.7 M€

1 April 2018 - 31 March 2023

4DPHOTON

4DPHOTON: Beyond Light Imaging: High-Rate Single-Photon Detection in Four Dimensions

The 4DPHOTON project aims to develop and construct a photon imaging detector with unprecedented performance. The proposed device will be capable of detecting fluxes of single-photons up to one billion photons per second, over areas of several square centimetres, and will measure - for each photon - position and time simultaneously with resolutions better than ten microns and few tens of picoseconds, respectively. 
With its excellent granularity, timing resolution, rate capability and compactness, this detector will represent a new paradigm for the realisation of future Ring Imaging Cherenkov detectors, capable of achieving high efficiency particle identification in environments with very high particle multiplicities, exploiting time-association of the photon hits.

Coordinator: INFN, Italy

Scientist in Charge from CERN: 
Michael Campbell

Full costs of the project: 1.9 M€ 

EU funding: 1.9 M€

EU funding for CERN: 368 k€

1 June 2019 - 31 May 2024

Advanced Grants

Neo-Nat

Understanding the mass scales in nature

The experimental results of the first run of the Large Hadron Collider led to the discovery of the Higgs boson but have not confirmed the dominant theoretical paradigm about the naturalness of the electro-weak scale, according to which the Higgs boson should have been accompanied by supersymmetric particles or by some other new physics able of protecting the Higgs boson mass from quadratically divergent quantum corrections. This project aims at exploring and developing new non-conventional ideas about the origin of mass scales in nature and in particular of the electroweak scale.

Coordinator: UniPi, Italy

Scientist in Charge from CERN: 
Alessandro Strumia

Full costs of the project: 1.8 M€ 

EU funding: 1.8 M€

EU funding for CERN: 1.4 M€

1 December 2015 - 30 November 2021

Panscales

PanScales: Spanning TeV to GeV scales for collider discoveries and measurements

The PanScales project will radically transform the way in which parton showers are conceived, by introducing innovative methods that establish the relation with another field of research called resummation, to which the PI has made ground-breaking contributions.The main outcome of the project will be a novel parton shower with accuracies up to an order of magnitude higher than in current approaches. This will be essential for reliably exploiting the information that is present across the full range of energy scales at high-energy colliders.

Coordinator: UOXF, United Kingdom

Scientist in Charge from CERN: 
Gavin Salam

Full costs of the project: 2.3 M€ 

EU funding: 2.3 M€ 

EU funding for CERN: 566 k€

1 October 2018 - 30 September 2023

Proof of Concept Grants

TWIST

TWIST: TOF PET with Strip SiPMs 

Using the breakthrough of the Strip Silicon PhotoMultiplier (SSiPM) obtained during  the ERC TICAL project;  TWIST will build a new type of detector modules for PET scanners that will offer high sensitivity together with precise position and time resolution. 

The objective of TWIST is to capitalise on this novel SSiPM development to deliver higher resolution PET images with a lower background and as a consequence use a much lower dosage of the injected radio-tracer. 

Coordinator: CERN, Switzerland

Scientists in Charge from CERN: 
Paul Lecoq, Crispin Williams

Full costs of the project: 150 k€ 

EU funding: 150 k€

EU funding for CERN: 150 k€

1 January 2018 - 30 June 2019

COMPLETED

ULTIMA

ULTrafast Imaging sensor for Medical Applications

The project addresses the challenges of the Positron Emission Mammography (PEM) for functional medical imaging of specific breast cancer biomarkers and contributes to providing safe oncology screening possibilities for larger patient-base. The project will demonstrate the proof of concept of a state-of-the-art nuclear imaging innovation, based on photonic crystals and optimized electronics. It will enable the detection of energy deposition with significantly improved energy and time resolution levels for a Positron Emission Tomography (PET) application.

Coordinator: CERN, Switzerland

Scientist in Charge from CERN: Paul Lecoq

Full costs of the project: 150 k€ 

EU funding: 150 k€

EU funding for CERN: 150 k€

1 September 2015 - 28 February 2017 

COMPLETED