The development and application of multistimuli responsive materials is a burgeoning field of study in leading research groups in the USA, Asia and mainland Europe (at present this field is underrepresented in France).Such soft advanced materials are expected to revolutionize nano-science, engineering and technology and, therefore, they are key to many countries future technological competitiveness. However, there is no doubt that the creation of such high performance materials relies directly on our ability to manipulate these “smart” materials in a controllable, predictable and orchestrated fashion at the molecular and also at supramolecular level. In this context, we propose to engineer and study a new class of supramolecular polymer materials including block copolymers, branched polymers, star (co)polymers, networks and biohybrid structures capable of responding to multiple external stimuli in a controllable and predictable fashion in aqueous environments. The architectures of these materials will be constructed by specifically bringing together complementary well-defined polymer building blocks (prepared by CRP) with specially designed host/guest motifs attached in specific locations on polymer backbones. Polymeric building blocks will be orthogonally held together through pseudorotaxane linkages, thereby offering materials with reversible and switchable properties. More importantly, in this proposal, we will exploit well-defined polymer building blocks whereby the “periphery” can be reversibly modified, via the formation/disruption of non-covalent host-guest complexes both under electrochemical (oxidation and/or reduction) and phase transition control or upon the addition of a competitive guest molecule. This lock and key approach will offer the unique opportunity to control polymer structure (e.g topology and morphology) and properties. Furthermore, the inherent reversibility of supramolecular architectures will allow “on demand” modular and tunable modification of structure and properties of appropriately functionalised macromolecules, and thus will afford novel systems with applications in materials science and nanotechnology. Such smart supramolecular polymer materials, with tunable structures and properties are expected to find novel advanced technology applications in: i) new generation of tunable nanosized self-assembled structures such as micelles, nanotubes and polymersomes, ii) new class of multiresponsive rheological fluids, self-healing and self-repairing materials, iii) new family of smart bioconjugates. Another objective of this research program is to gain a better understanding of the basic concepts of self-assembly in water that should, therefore, help to bridge the gap between synthetic polymer and material chemists, and biochemical researchers. To accomplish this challenging research program, a consortium combining skills and expertise on organic chemistry, controlled radical polymerisation, supramolecular chemistry and physical-chemistry will be assembled.

The modalities of nanoscale and macroscale energy transfer differ because of the increased role of interfaces and ballistic phonon transport in the former case, whose fundamental description is required in fields such as electronics, thermoelectricity, biological imaging or sensing. The proposed project aims at both optimizing the vibrational quality factors of metal nanoparticle-based nanoresonators (by determining and minimizing their intrinsic damping sources) and characterizing phonon transport in thin layers separating two distinct metallic components used as heater and thermometer, respectively. The consortium formed to reach these goals brings together three partners with complementary expertise: the synthesis of single-crystal gold nanoparticles and of metal-dielectric nano-hybrids, and their time-resolved optical spectroscopy at the single-particle level.

The establishment and maintenance of cell polarity requires the coordination of diverse processes including signaling cascades, membrane trafficking and cytoskeletal dynamics. The formation of a stable polarity axis involves the establishment of a non-uniform distribution of polarity factors in time and space. Once localized, these factors must be continuously maintained at a discrete site on the plasma membrane, the pole, in spite of ongoing endocytosis, exocytosis and lateral diffusion in the plane of the plasma membrane. This milieu of membrane trafficking, protein sorting and diffusion would dilute polarity factors were it not for mechanisms that maintain polarity. Mechanisms of polarity maintenance are thought to include the transport of polarity factors to the pole via exocytic vesicles; the limited diffusion of polarity factors within the pole and the endocytosis and recycling of polarity factors that diffuse outside the pole. Thus, polarity proteins that are required to organize the endocytic and exocytic pathways may also utilize these pathways for their own polarized localization. Despite the potential significance of such self-organizational principles in cell biology, our understanding of these mechanisms is rudimentary.

This project deals with micro-assembly in the mesoscale between micro and nanoscales, which comprises objects whose size is from 100nm to 10µm. It addresses several scientific problematics, in the domains of microfluidics, micro-nanorobotics and nanojoining. This topic presents an applicative interest for next generation of nanotechnological components. Indeed, despite a large number of proofs of concept of elementary functions (e.g. chemical, biomedical or environmental sensors) in nanotechnologies, related nano electromechanical systems (NEMS) hardly come to the market. One of the bottlenecks is the packaging of these new components whose dimensions are around the micrometer. As for micro electromechanical systems (MEMS) where packaging is based on robotic microhandling, the packaging of NEMS requires to be able to handle, position and join components together. Current industrial state of the art is limited to the assembly of hundred microns scale dies which is inappropriate for nanotechnologies which is able to provide components hundred times smaller. This project will provide innovative methods to perform assembly of components in the mesoscale between micro and nanoscales in order to open new ways in packaging for nanotechnologies. In a scientific point of view, mesoscale represents a paradigm in assembly methods : this mesoscale assembly is situated between nanoscale and microscale assembly, which are two completely different processes. On the one hand, self-assemblies (chemical reactions) have been used for decades to build assembled nanocomponents. On the other hand, microassemblies in industry are mainly based on robotic handling and positioning. Mesoscale represents a crossroad between these two approaches, where scientific studies are required to provide ad hoc solutions for this particular scale. We propose to study some hybrid approaches based on directed self-assembly, which is based on physical effects (non- contact forces) usually used in self-assembly, but also on active trajectory control inspired from robotics. As self-assembly is mostly performed in liquid, we will perform directed self-assembly in liquid channels, also used to convey components. Objects will be positioned by non contact forces, and joined with original nanojoigning methods. Consequently this project is divided in three technical workpackages respectively on (i) the study of fluidic transfer of mesoscaled objects in microchannels; (ii) the study of objects positioning based on non-contact forces and (iii) the study of ad hoc nanojoining methods. These methodologies will be implemented in a final demonstrator in the fourth workpackage. A special attention will be paid to the management of the project in a last workpackage. The methods developed in the project will enable the assembly of mesoscale objects into stacks, to get different sensing capabilities integrated into the same component. They will also provide original ways to realize wire connection at the mesoscale. This project thus directly addresses the main issues of nanopackaging. This project relies on the internationally recognized partners. FEMTO-ST in Besançon and ISIR in Paris have top level expertise in micro-assembly and non-contact micromanipulation. They have successfully collaborated in the previous years on several ANR projects (ANR PRONOMIA, ANR NANOROL, EQUIPEX ROBOTEX). This consortium also includes the LOF which has a strong knowledge and international expertise in microfluidic. This multidisciplinary consortium has been built to tackle the complex scientific challenges proposed in this project. This project will provide new assembly methodologies in mesoscale in the framework of nanotechnology packaging. It is a first crucial step in the advent of industrial assembly methods in mesoscale which could be followed by a more applicative project supported by ‘ANR Emergence framework’ in order to prepare the transfer in the two years following this project.

The ANR GILETJAUNE project is a unique collaborative research, gathering 50 people in the heart of an international research network. The scientific visibility of the project is accompanied by a remarkable dissemination work. The SAPS label application aims to institutionalize the dissemination dynamics that characterize our project. It will be supported by the Centre Emile Durkheim, based at Sciences Po Bordeaux. In line with the FAIR principles, our dissemination strategy is organized around five axes: 1. Making available to the public, via the Progedo Quetelet Diffusion portal, a) primary and secondary quantitative databases, and b) a harmonized catalog referencing (non-identifying) data and metadata. To accompany the opening, one or more data papers will be published in peer-reviewed data journals. 2. Deposit of articles in open archives (Hal-SHS) and Hypothesis notebook (https://giletsjaunes.hypotheses.org/). 3. Wide dissemination of our scientific productions to non-academic audiences through the national and local daily press. Our first results have generated a strong demand from the civil society and have received important media coverage. The invitation to the International Festival of Journalism in the summer of 2022 expanded the audience to a regional and international audience (https://festivalinternationaldejournalisme.com/). 4. Cycle of citizen and participatory research meetings (2022-2024) The first colloquium "From the waltz of the traffic circles to the Cahiers de la colère", co-organized by the ANR GILETSJAUNES with the Association PourquoiPas?, the Departmental Archives, the Musée d'Aquitaine, and three collectives of Yellow Vests was supported by the Bordeaux City Council as part of the Fortnight for Equality. The radio association la Clé des Ondes covered this event by organizing live broadcasts before and after the conference. The audience of a hundred people on the first day and seventy on the second, composed of a university and non-university public (the majority), of the civil society of the Region and beyond, showed the strong societal expectation and the interest of public decision-makers who came to engage in a collaboration with the research team. The success of this event leads us to consider 1) the renewal of the event next year for the 5 years of the Yellow Vests movement, 2) a consolidation of the partnership with the Clé des Ondes to promote the scientific results of the first 3 years of the ANR GILETSJAUNES 5. Valuing citizen participation and the appropriation of results The six vignettes produced in response to this call for proposals will participate in participatory scientific mediation: people are involved in this audio collection, which aims to constitute an accessible archive of the social movement. In the same vein, we will consider participatory restitution sessions with citizen collectives, elected officials and public decision-makers as well as a presentation of the publications through the network of libraries and bookstores that had requested us. The steering structure is composed of the WP1 of the ANR, institutional partners and the media involved in the scientific dissemination process. The Yellow Vests collectives and associations are also represented in the steering committee.