Highly sought-after EU funding for three Aalto University researchers
The European Research Council (ERC) has awarded five-year ERC Advanced Grants to three Aalto University researchers. Each grant is worth approximately €2.5 million.
New materials, atom by atom
Department of Applied Physics Professor Adam Foster studies nanoscale surface and interface physics. With the help of the Advanced Grant, Foster and his team will develop an AI-infrastructure linked to a scanning probe microscope. It allows researchers to automate the imaging, identification and manipulation of individual molecules on surfaces.
‘Effectively we can deposit simple, readily available molecules onto a surface and then “edit” them atom-by-atom and bond-by-bond to make designer materials. The AI should allow us to do this at scales impossible for human operators. The approach is general, but in this project, we target the fabrication of designer spin materials that have possible applications in quantum computing and sensing,’ Foster says.
Project name: Atomically precise materials engineering through deep learning (ARCADE)
Designing LEDs as efficient thermophotonic machines
Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are best known as high-efficiency light sources, but fundamental thermodynamics show that they can also operate as heat pumps: Under the right conditions they can absorb thermal energy from their surroundings and emit it as optical energy. The Volumetric thermophotonics project led by Jani Oksanen investigates how powerful this effect can become in real devices and how to design optically optimal LED architectures enabling efficient thermophotonic machines.
By controlling light emission, transport and recycling inside high-performance semiconductor structures, the project aims to open a path toward LEDs that can refrigerate, pump heat and harvest waste heat with capabilities unavailable with today’s technologies.
‘If successful, the work could change how we think about thermal management in electronics and create new routes for solid-state refrigeration. In that case, light itself serves as the refrigerant rather than, for example, hydrofluorocarbons, which are typically strong greenhouse gases or highly flammable,’ Oksanen says.
The five-year project is expected to start at the beginning of 2027, and it forms part of a broader research agenda with collaborators including VTT (Finland), Deep Tech Foundry (Malta), CNRS (France) and Radboud University (Netherlands).
Project name: Volumetric thermophotonics (v-TPX)
Quantum methods to boost computer networks
Professor Jukka Suomela’s ERC-funded project investigates which tasks in computer networks could be accelerated using quantum computation and quantum communication.
In large networks such as the Internet, multiple computers work together and coordinate by exchanging messages with one another. The fewer messages are required, the faster and more usable the network becomes.
‘We are interested in how much quantum technology could help. Could the number of messages required for coordination be reduced if ordinary computers were replaced with quantum computers and the ordinary Internet with a quantum Internet?’ says Suomela.
In theory, some tasks could be solved faster in computer networks with quantum methods, but, according to Suomela, these theoretical examples are still far removed from the real problems faced by networks, such as resource management.
‘It is still unknown which tasks quantum methods would genuinely speed up in distributed networks. We aim to prove mathematically what quantum methods can and cannot do.’
The ERC project focuses on fundamental research while practical applications of quantum methods will be explored in an international QuantERA collaboration, due to start soon.
Project name: Distributed Quantum Advantage (DistQuant)
The European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grant supports leading researchers in pursuing ambitious, pioneering projects at the frontiers of science.
It is awarded to established scientists with a strong track record of significant achievements over the past ten years. The funding enables innovative, high-risk research with substantial potential impact.
European Research Council (ERC) press release on the results of the advanced grant call
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ERC Advanced Grant funding
The European Research Council (ERC) funding is awarded to leading researchers for pioneering work at the frontiers of science. ERC Advanced grants provide an opportunity to well-established and...
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