European Research Council, ERC

Jean-François Raskin, inVEST, Starting Grant ERC (2011)

Jean-François Raskin, a professor in the Computing Department - Faculty of Science won an ERC Starting Grant for his inVEST project - from verification to automatic synthesis of critical programmes. Today, the majority of complex systems are computer controlled. Control software can be found in a broad range of applications, including public transport, aerospace, and the medical sectors. For these critical applications, the software must be verified. The inVEST project aims to provide the theoretical foundations to automatically develop verified control software using mathematical descriptions. Jean-François Raskin's work will use and expand upon logic theory, automation theory, and game theory.

Dirk Jacobs, Opportunities for migrant youth in educational systems..., Starting Grant ERC (2011)

Dirk Jacobs is a scientist with the Group for research on Ethnic Relations, Migration and Equality (GERME), at the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, and was awarded an ERC Starting Grant to study segregation at school. In most industrial nations, and especially in Belgium, Germany, Austria, and Holland, there is a performance gap between immigrant children and those without an immigrant background. Social and ethnic segregation seems to be one of the most significant contributing factors. In his research project, Dirk Jacobs intends to differentiate the causes behind this high level of segregation, and show how they manifest in unequal opportunities for immigrant children. The research project will also look in to the impact of school resources and different teacher profiles.

Marco Dorigo, Engineering Swarm Intelligence Systems - E-SWARM, Advanced Grant ERC (2010)

A researcher with the Institute for Interdisciplinary Research and Development in Artificial Intelligence (IRIDIA) at the Applied Science/Graduate School of Engineering, Marco Dorigo was awarded a European Research Fund Advanced Grant for his "Engineering Swarm Intelligence Systems - E-SWARM” project. The aim of the project is to develop rigorous engineering methodology for the design and implementation of “swarm intelligence” artificial intelligence systems. In the future, "swarm intelligence" could be an important tool for finding solutions to certain complex problems. To develop the foundations of this discipline as well as an appropriate methodology, the scientists of the E-SWARM project will solve various difficult problems in the fields of optimisation, robotics, networks, and data mining.

Bram De Rock, A revealed preference analysis of household consumption models - RPH, Starting Grant ERC (2010)

Bram De Rock is a researcher at the European Centre for Advanced Research in Economics and Statistics (ECARES) - Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management, and was awarded an ERC Starting Grant for his "A revealed preference analysis of household consumption models" (RPH) project. Researchers agree that a standard approach that treats the household as a single decision maker cannot be used to process the consumer habits of households with several members. In spite of this consensus, the alternative approaches vary in how they handle decision making within the household and the parameters used. The RPH research project will focus on the development of additional revealed preference (RP) methodologies.

Justine Lacroix, RESIST, Starting Grant ERC (2010)

A professor in the ULB Political Science Department and member of the Centre of Political - Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Justine Lacroix was awarded an ERC Starting Grant for her "Human Rights versus Democracy? Towards a Conceptual Genealogy of Skepticism about Human Rights in Contemporary Political Thought” project. While there is tome upon tome of literature on Human Rights, there are few critiques of Human Rights from a political thought standpoint. This is the original approach adopted by Justine Lacroix: she begins by analysing critiques of Human Rights from six thinkers in the field, including the 1789 Declaration, such as Burke, De Maistre, Bentham, Marx, Comte and Schmitt. This sample is designed to illustrate the great diversity in opinions on Human Rights, including as it does conservative, reactionary, progressive, and revolutionary authors. Then, she will compare and contrast her observations on classical authors with contemporary investigations into the dominant role played by the discourse in Human Rights within our societies.

Marc Henneaux, Advanced Grant ERC (2010)

String Theory currently offers one of the best opportunities for resolving the challenges posed by both reconciling gravity with quantum mechanics, and unification of the fundamental forces. Marc Henneaux, the head of the Mathematics and Theoretical Physics Department - Faculty of Science, is seeking the answers to these fundamental questions. He is particularly interested in the concept of symmetry. Recently, fascinating new structures have been revealed in certain fields of gravity. These structures show an infinite number of symmetries, and are described by mathematical objects that are as yet only partially understood. Supported by the European Research Council, Marc Henneaux's project will take an in-depth look at the symmetries in gravity and string theory, advancing towards a complete formula.

Frédéric Bourgeois, Legendrian contact homology and generating families, Starting Grant ERC (2009)

Frédéric Bourgeois studies symplectic geometry at the ULB Faculty of Science. He has focused on this field since completing his doctoral thesis at Stanford University (USA): a specialist discipline that is part of differential geometry, symplectic or contact geometry studies geometric spaces equipped with contact structures (rather than, for example, distances and angles like in Euclidean geometry), and includes particular focus on geometric optics. In addition to its fundamental role in mathematics, symplectic geometry is of interest to a range of doctors and engineers. The ERC funded project focuses on the unusual and significant objects found in contact geometry that correspond to wavefronts in optics: the Legendrian subvarieties. More precisely, Frédéric Bourgeois studies two sophisticated invariants for Legendrian subvarieties: Legendrian contact homology, and the homology of generating families.

Cédric Blanpain, Stem cells in epithelial cancer initiation and growth, Starting Grant ERC (2007)

Cédric Blanpain, Institute of Interdisciplinary Research in Human and Molecular Biology (IRIBHM) - Faculty of Medicine, is internationally renowned for his research into adult stem cells and their potential links to some forms of cancer. He made a particular contribution to the development of original methods to specifically mark and isolate adult skin stem cells in order to study their role in the development of cancer.

Estelle Cantillon, Market Design and the Evolution of Markets, Starting Grant ERC (2007)

Estelle Cantillon is a ULB management engineer and doctor in economics from Harvard University, as well as a professor at Harvard Business School, now back in Belgium as a research associate at the FNRS. She carries out research at the European Centre for Advanced Research in Economics and Statistics (ECARES) at the Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management. Her area of research lies between industrial economy and the design and organisation of markets. Her "Market Design and the Evolution of Markets” project, supported by the ERC, examines different markets, including financial markets and others such as the “pollution permit”.