The goal of DISCRYS is to use controlled chemical disorder in crystals to suppress decoherence, i.e. processes that corrupt quantum states. This approach will be developed with high quality rare earth doped crystals where disorder will be induced by co-doping with specific impurities. Our main challenges are growing crystals with very low level of optical decoherence; quantitatively understanding the relation between material composition, disorder and decoherence; and ultimately demonstrating high performance storage of telecom wavelength photons in optimized samples. Quantum information science (QIS) uses specific properties of quantum systems to process, store and transmit data in ways that are impossible to achieve with classical systems. As it fundamentally requires superposition states that remain uncorrupted during the storage and processing of information, only systems with low decoherence are useful in QIS. In this field, quantum light-matter interfaces, called quantum memories are urgently needed for applications in quantum computing, metrology and single photon sources. In addition, quantum memories are essential to extend quantum cryptography, an already commercial technology for extremely secure communications, over long distances. Rare earth doped crystals have been recently identified as very promising systems in QIS but their performance is still limited by decoherence that affects their optical transitions. At low temperature, this decoherence is due to fluctuating nuclear and electronic spins in the rare earth environment. To address this issue, complex experimental setups and protocols have been put forward. In contrast, DISCRYS proposes to suppress decoherence by a solid-state chemistry approach. By inducing controlled disorder in high quality crystals, resonance between neighboring spin transition can be disrupted, which inhibits relaxation by simultaneous spin flips and finally eliminates decoherence. DISCRYS will combine single crystal growth, advanced optical spectroscopy and electron paramagnetic resonance, as well as modeling to reach a quantitative understanding of the relations between disorder and decoherence. We will further demonstrate the effectiveness of our material chemistry approach by building a quantum memory operating at the 1.5 µm telecom wavelength, ideally suited for fiber based long distance quantum cryptography. We expect optimized crystals to allow an improvement of three orders of magnitude in memory performance over existing systems. The results of DISCRYS will be directly useful to groups working on rare earth doped materials for applications in QIS, and more generally to the broad scientific community dealing with quantum coherence in semi-conductors, other impurities in solids or molecules for applications in QIS, sensing, biology etc.. DISCRYS also addresses a key material issue in the development of quantum memories for long-range quantum cryptography. Our project will enable quantum memories compatible with existing fiber telecom networks and therefore has a large potential impact on quantum cryptography technology. DISCRYS gathers world-leading teams in optical material growth and design, spectroscopy, modeling, and optical quantum information processing. Our international collaboration will combine expertise from solid-state chemistry to quantum physics, and will be essential to achieve major advances in materials for quantum information science.

Biofilms are complex and dynamic structures of interface-associated microbial cells, enclosed in a matrix of extracellular polymeric substances. They are ubiquitous both in nature and human-built environments, greatly affecting the progression of clinical infections, environmental sustainability, and industrial processes. The complexity of these structures renders the apparently simple goal of engineering and growing reproducible biofilms as an elusive task. The main objective of this proposal is to set-up a Group of Excellence on engineered Biofilms (e.BIOFILM) at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (UPorto). e.BIOFILM will build upon the expertise and network of experts from the prospective ERA Chair holder Darla Goeres and her current employee, the Center for Biofilm Engineering of Montana State University (MSU), the most well-established centre in biofilm research in the world. In addition to research excellence in engineered biofilms, e.BIOFILM will include a thriving educational and training program, a technology transfer program that promotes innovation, and adequate communication and dissemination strategies that establishes links with the scientific community, industry, regulatory entities and the public in general in the European Research Area.

The overall goal of MULTISOURCE is to, together with local, national, and international stakeholders, demonstrate a variety of about Enhanced Natural Treatment Solutions (ENTS) treating a wide range of urban waters and to develop innovative tools, methods, and business models that support citywide planning and long-term operations and maintenance of nature-based solutions for water treatment, storage, and reuse in urban areas worldwide. MULTISOURCE will allow users to identify multiple sources for local water reuse, promote increased uptake of nature-based solutions, and minimize discharge of water that has not received adequate treatment. MULTISOURCE will deliver new knowledge about ENTS and their ability to remove waterborne contaminants and provide effective risk reduction for chemical and biological hazards, as well as their capacity to be integrated into the landscape and contribute to the improvement of urban habitats. The project includes seven pilots treating a wide range of urban waters. Two individual municipalities (Girona, Spain; Oslo, Norway), two metropolitan municipalities (Lyon, France; Milan, Italy), and international partners in Brazil, Vietnam, and the USA will contribute to each of the main project activities: ENTS pilots, risk assessment, business models, technology selection, and the MULTISOURCE Planning Platform. The use of urban archetypes in the Planning Platform will enable users to quickly classify regions (in both developed or developing countries) suitable for the application of nature-based solutions for water treatment (NBSWT) and compare scenarios both with and without NBSWT. This unique approach provides the knowledge, business models, and modular tools that will enable stakeholders to conduct fit-to-purpose, large-scale planning in their local region and, in doing so, promote circularity and sustainable development in the urban water sector and overcome barriers to widespread uptake of nature based solutions for water treatment.