Quantum technology researchers in Ulm and Stuttgart were able to convince in the first round of the Excellence Strategy and have submitted a full proposal for a Cluster of Excellence. The decision about this proposal will be announced at the end of September. The Carl Zeiss Foundation has gone ahead and already bestowed several millions of funding on the research project ‘TQuant’, in which findings of quantum science are being transferred to applications.
Over the next six years, the interdisciplinary research team, whose activities are bundled at the cross-campus centre IQST, will receive up to eight million euros funding.
The physicists, engineers, life scientists and mathematicians as well as experts from other disciplines want to utilise the laws of quantum mechanics for innovative biomedical applications. They are working in particular on the optimisation of imaging techniques such as magnetic resonance imaging and the development of high-performance sensors.
The three partners Ulm University, University of Stuttgart and the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research (Stuttgart) are leading in the field of quantum technology.
Minister Theresia Bauer, who is chairwoman of the Foundation, comments: ‘We aim with our funding to strengthen and sustain this development.’
Both locations have cutting-edge infrastructures that employ internationally renowned researchers. Research buildings that are specifically tailored to the quantum bioscience researchers’ requirements are either under construction or already finished in the two university cities.
‘The Foundation’s funding decision encourages us further in our research endeavours. The combination of quantum technology and biomedicine is unique and will result in innovative applications for research and diagnostics,‘ says Professor Joachim Ankerhold, Vice President for Research and Information Technology. He shares the directorship of the IQST with University of Stuttgart’s Professor Tilman Pfau. Spokesperson of the TQuant project, Professor Jörg Wrachtrup (University of Stuttgart), emphasises: ‘This generous financial support from the Carl Zeiss Foundation allows us to bring the new possibilities of quantum sensor technology into medical application and research.‘
The Carl Zeiss Foundation funds scientific projects predominantly in the areas of mathematics, computer science, natural sciences and technology. It finances its funding activities with dividend payouts from the two foundation companies Carl Zeiss AG and Schott AG. With its financial support for the ‘TQuant‘ project the Carl Zeiss Foundation wants to reinforce the excellence of the project and thus increase its chances for a successful application in the Excellence Strategy.
Text and media contact: Annika Bingmann