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Mechanobiology explores how physical forces affect cellular processes, providing insights into areas like embryogenesis and tumor growth. Cells exert forces onto their environment; the tissue in which they live.

Accretion disks are found throughout the Universe and power a large fraction of high-energy astrophysical sources, from neutron stars in our Galaxy to supermassive black holes at the centres of galaxies. These disks not only generate intens…

Sunlight is abundant, but figuring out how to efficiently grab that energy and convert it into something useful, like electricity for our homes, is a big puzzle. This research project dives into the world of a special type of molecules call…

The soaring demand for energy and use of fossil fuels has resulted in the release of vast amount of greenhouse gases and climate change. Developing photoelectrochemical devices for solar fuel production is one of the strategies to address t…

We are studying how tiny molecules join together directly on a surface to form sheets just a single layer thick, called two-dimensional polymers (2DPs) or 2D covalent organic frameworks (2D-COFs). Instead of making these materials separatel…

The simulation of quantum systems is one of the most promising near-term applications of quantum technologies. In particular, lattice gauge theories (LGTs), which underpin the Standard Model of particle physics, describe a vast range of str…

Quantum technologies promise faster computing, ultra-precise sensing and secure communications. Their real-world value, however, also depends on how efficiently they use and manage energy at small scales.

Phonons, the quantum excitations of atomic vibrations, are central to heat transport, superconductivity, and many quantum technologies [Phys. Rev.

Collective cell motility states, such as multicellular flocking and jamming, play important roles in development and disease. However, much of the physical force dynamics of these collective states remains to be discovered.

Conjugated organic polymers can be made conductive through charge introduction (doping), enabling flexible organic electronics. A special class of conducting polymers is organic mixed ion–electron conductors (OMIECs), which combine electron…

Sensory cells in marine invertebrates play a fundamental role in detecting environmental cues and translating them into biological responses that enable survival, feeding, reproduction, and interaction with the environment. These cells dete…

ENRICH is a Horizon Europe – MSCA Staff Exchanges project built around a practical need in protein analysis: post-translational modifications (PTMs) on histone proteins are biologically important, but they are often difficult to detect and…

Recent breakthroughs in the field of quantum technologies combining academic and R&D efforts have demonstrated the potential of quantum networks for major applications such as long-distance secure communication or quantum cloud computing. O…

The formation and evolution of massive galaxies is reasonably well understood in the context of the successful standard ΛCDM formalism. Such simulations of cosmic evolution, however, lead to serious challenges in the regime of very faint ga…

SEASOUNDS aims to better characterize and predict marine soundscapes in various European eco-regions (e.g., parts of the Mediterranean and the Baltic Seas, the Venice Lagoon, the Norwegian fjords) where the scarcity of scientific data, upon…

TIMES (Time-resolved sImulations of ultrafast phenoMena in quantum matErialS) addresses a key challenge in modern materials science: understanding, predicting, and controlling quantum materials under nonequilibrium conditions. Many emerging…

The Born-Oppenheimer Approximation (BOA) has determined how chemists describe molecules since 1927. BOA separates electronic and nuclear degrees of freedom, considering that the electron timescale is much shorter than the nuclear one.

Soft biological tissues—such as skin, vessels, and tumors—exhibit highly complex mechanical behavior driven by nonlinear, time-dependent, and multiphysical interactions. Traditional models often treat these effects in isolation, failing to…

Historically, major storms, the associated storm surges and rainfall have posed the biggest threat to life and property around coastlines and along rivers. However, in the age of global warming and accompanying sea level rise the confluence…

Acoustic and elastic wave manipulation plays a central role in a wide range of scientific and engineering applications, including underwater sensing, noise mitigation, and vibration control. However, effective control of low-frequency waves…

CHEERS (Chirality controlled spin to charge interconversion in Tellurium) investigated how low-symmetry van der Waals and telluride materials can generate and convert spin information for future low-power spintronic devices. The project foc…

Black holes are, in many ways, the simplest objects in the Universe. According to general relativity, black holes are described by only two parameters: their mass and their spin.

The PRISM project vision encompasses the Global warming and energy crisis from fossil fuels demand sustainable solar-to-fuel conversion via photocatalysis for H2 production and CO2 reduction. PRISM addresses limitations of conventional UV-a…

MetacMed addresses a major gap in Europe’s innovation ecosystem: the translation of advanced acoustic and mechanical metamaterials (MMs) from laboratory research into practical solutions for healthcare, energy harvesting and noise reduction…

Near-infrared light (NIR, roughly 800–1000 nm) is widely used in everyday technologies, from secure sensing and night-vision style detection to biomedical imaging and optical communications. Today’s mainstream NIR emitters often rely on hig…

A sustainable climate and an ecosystem-friendly economy demands novel "cell factories", in which organisms convert renewable biomass into various biomaterials that would otherwise be derived from fossil fuels or (harsh) chemistry. Especiall…

Wastewater treatment is essential for public health and environmental protection, yet conventional treatment technologies rely heavily on mechanical aeration, which consumes large amounts of energy and leads to substantial greenhouse gas em…

The manufacturing industry faces big challenges in rising raw material costs, depleting feed stocks, and reducing environmental impact. Europe has set the goal of doubling its resource productivity by 2030 and of becoming the first climate-…

Physical technologies are playing an increasing role in medicine; among these, cold (gas) plasma – partially ionized gas generated at near‑body temperature – shows promise, especially in dermatology. Based on positive clinical results in wo…

The aim of this action is to develop and apply novel techniques for modelling non-equilibrium dynamics in the Milky Way and Local Group. This new frontier, enabled by current and near future data sets, can shed light on one of the great mys…

Photosynthesis is a natural process that relies on harvesting solar energy and transforming it into chemical energy. In addition to its ecological importance, obtaining a better molecular-level understanding of photosynthesis, particularly…

EPISTEAM stands for Epistemology in Art, Science and Technology. The objective of the Consortium of 14 partners behind this project is to develop an intersectoral and interdisciplinary common research program for cutting-edge strategies of…

Organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) are crucial elements for the fabrication of flexible, wearable, and biocompatible electronic devices. As miniaturization is approaching its limits, bringing an end to Moore’s law, beyond−CMOS devices…

Most stars—and most planets—form in massive, crowded stellar nurseries. Although planet formation is often assumed to be an isolated process, the reality is far more complex.

Venus is the closest planet to Earth. Despite a similar size and mass, there are differences between the two planets.

The DETMED project aims to develop a novel, high-precision gamma probe for radioguided surgeries, significantly improving cancer detection and treatment. By leveraging next-generation silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) with a buried pixel str…

Mechanobiology is a dynamic and rapidly evolving interdisciplinary field focused on understanding how physical forces influence cells and tissues at multiple scales. This field holds immense potential for advancing healthcare and diagnostic…

The security of data has never been more valuable. Today, cryptography is critical to the safe operation of digital infrastructures.

Ambitious goals of total greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction and decarbonisation have been set by the recent policies European Green Deal, Energy Union (2030 energy and climate targets) and European Union’s 2050 long-term decarbonisatio…

Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers worldwide, and early detection is crucial for improving patient outcomes. However, current diagnostic approaches often rely on invasive procedures or lack sufficient sensitivity at early stage…

Climate change is the greatest existential threat to the world. To overcome this challenge, the EU has set substantial decarbonization goals through the European Green Deal.

Modern electronics increasingly relies on atomically thin “two-dimensional” (2D) materials whose properties can be tailored by stacking or joining different layers. A central challenge is to control what happens at the interfaces—where char…

This project develops physics-based control concepts for hydrogen combustion using external electric and magnetic fields and non-thermal plasma. Experiments and simulations indicate that electromagnetic actuation can promote ignition, stabi…

Viral diseases are a major and growing threat to global food security, responsible for severe crop losses and rising pesticide use. One such emerging pathogen is Plantago asiatica mosaic virus (PlAMV), a potexvirus capable of infecting a wi…

SCALE develops optimisation strategies to address real-world industrial applications aligning with the objectives of the European Green Deal and the Horizon Europe mission on Cancer. The Doctoral Candidates develop data-driven numerical CFD…

Neurons form intricate networks and communicate with each other through synaptic protein complexes. Neuronal excitability and signal propagation are governed by transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression as well…

Cancer remains one of Europe’s greatest health challenges, causing 2 million deaths annually and imposing an economic burden of €100 billion. Despite significant progress in cancer treatments over recent decades, the success rate of new ant…

Photonics is crucial for maintaining and increasing the competitiveness of EU industry, and light-based instruments are fundamental for non-invasive diagnostics and treatment of diseases, delivering huge economic benefits for national healt…

Spin-crossover complexes are transition-metal coordination compounds characterized by their ability to switch magnetic properties in response to external stimuli such as light, temperature, magnetic fields, or pressure. In Fe(II)-based spin…

Context: Homochirality is a fundamental feature of animate matter, and nearly all biological processes occurring in nature are stereospecific, i.e., responsive to only one type of handedness of the chiral molecule. Most drugs are chiral and…

Galaxy clusters are the largest gravitationally bound structures in the Universe and play a central role in modern cosmology. They are used to trace the growth of cosmic structure, to test theories of gravity, and to constrain the fundament…

The transformation of plants into foodstuffs can be regarded as a form of cultural expression, and the culinary practices that accompany this transformation have the capacity to serve as indicators of social and cultural identities within t…

ImAgE-D will train a new generation of Doctoral Candidates (DCs) in the development and application of newly developed high speed and high-resolution imaging tools in biomedical research. The 10 DCs will be cross-pollinated with concepts an…

Orthopedic implant-associated biofilm infections represent a major public health and socioeconomic burden due to the intrinsic tolerance of biofilms that behave as protective and immobile scaffolds to conventional antibiotics and immune sys…

Observational evidence suggests that massive black holes – with masses from about a hundred thousands to ten billion times the mass of the sun – inhabit the centre of many massive galaxies across the cosmic times. However, there is still po…

The project is positioned at the frontier of quantum photonics and metasurface engineering, addressing urgent global challenges in information and communication technologies. With the exponential growth of data traffic and the rise of 6G ne…

Fetal growth restriction (FGR) is a major pregnancy complication in which a baby does not reach its biological growth potential. It affects millions of families worldwide and is responsible for a significant proportion of stillbirths.

The development of advanced, energy-efficient, and miniaturized electronic devices is driving the need for new materials and innovative engineering solutions. Among these, two-dimensional (2D) materials, such as graphene and hexagonal boron…

Microorganisms may be too small to see, but they are everywhere around us—and inside us. In fact, the number of bacteria living in our body is roughly the same as the number of human cells we have.

Biomedical screening at single-cell and bioparticles level has the potential to transform clinical diagnostics, but the research and development in this field are scattered in different disciplines: biophotonics, micromanipulation, machine…

Global energy demand grew by 2.2% in 2024, a notably faster rate than the annual average of 1.3% seen between 2013 and 2023. Fossil fuels have 80% contribution in this production which alarmingly increases the amount of CO2 in the environme…

Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD), the second most prevalent dementia in individuals under 60, is a rare and challenging disease to diagnose. Unlike other conditions, FTD lacks a single definitive diagnostic test, often requiring a combination…

Rare earth elements (REEs) are essential to many modern technologies, from wind turbines to electric vehicles and electronics. However, most REEs are currently sourced from a handful of countries, and their extraction often comes with high…

Multiple astrophysical observations point to the existence of a gravitationally-interacting substance that makes up about 85% of all matter in the universe. Despite its abundance, a direct signature of it in our laboratories is still lackin…

Star formation begins when the densest regions in molecular clouds collapse under their own weight forming so called “young stellar objects” (YSOs), i.e. protostars surrounded by a gas and dust disc (known as “protostellar” or “protoplaneta…

The CLEXM project responds to a growing need for advanced imaging workflows that capture biological processes at multiple scales with accuracy and reproducibility. Traditional approaches such as Correlative Light and Electron Microscopy (CL…

This is a project in (pure) Mathematics, intimately tied with theoretical/mathematical Physics. The main goal is to generalize previous constructions in complex-algebraic Poisson geometry, representation theory, and low-dimensional topology…

All cells need to replicate their DNA to divide and survive, which requires an intricate cooperation between multiple proteins that dynamically read the sequence of parental DNA and synthesize new complementary DNA strands. The individual p…

Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a severe mental health condition that affects millions of people worldwide and represents a major societal and clinical challenge in Europe and beyond. A defining feature of PTSD is the persistence a…

The CASTOR project (Challenging Autonomous Spacecraft through Trajectory Optimization with Robustness) emerges in response to a booming space economy characterized by an increasing number of both commercial near‐Earth and deep-space mission…

The DefHyp project aimed to explore the deformation theory of infinite-type hyperbolic 3-manifolds, building on the researcher's pioneering work in this emerging area of geometry and topology. The main research objectives, as outlined in An…

Autoimmune diseases, particularly inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), are a growing global health challenge. These conditions involve complex immune system dysfunctions that damage healthy tissues, leading to chronic inflammation.

The dynamics of an electron in a strong external electromagnetic field is one of the most fundamental unsolved problems in classical and quantum electrodynamics (QED). In this regime, electron motion is dominated by quantum radiation reacti…

Due to the massive increase of data generation, data storage is a challenge in our society. Spintronics plays a key role in this field, targeting non volatility and low energy consumption.

The QLUSTER consortium comprises research groups from academia and industry spanning 7 countries of the EU. It is constituted as a collaborative network for promoting and advancing research in fundamentals and applications, for training you…

The GECKO project aims to bridge the gap between Computer-Aided Design (CAD) and Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE) by integrating computational models into industrial workflows. Traditional CAE modeling is slow and error-prone in its preproc…

In a world driven by technological advances, the "SPEEDY" project aims to deepen the understanding of three-dimensional nanomagnetic systems. These systems, with novel and unconventional spin textures, are an exciting platform to explore ne…

Light is one of the most powerful tools in our hands to study the world around us. Lasers have indeed revolutionized our daily life.

After the discovery of a Higgs boson by the experiments ATLAS and CMS at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN (Geneva, Switzerland) in 2012 and the ensuing Nobel prize for the “fathers” of the Higgs-Englert-Brout mechanism for mass gener…

Our bodies are formed of microscopic cells, which underpin all our bodily functions, from white blood cells which recognise and destroy pathogens, to muscle cells which enable movement and brain cells which store memories. One of the centra…