Friedrich Schiller University Jena, non-university research institutes and the Free State of Thuringia are joining forces to test new ways of working across institutional boundaries. The jETZT project will explore how Jena’s research and innovation ecosystem can share expertise, infrastructure and talent more effectively – helping promising ideas move faster from research into practical and commercial applications.

With support from a prestigious National Science Foundation CAREER award, West Virginia University physicist Subhasish Mandal is working to supply future quantum technologies with materials that will be required to build quantum computers and other advanced technologies.

Researchers have demonstrated a direct bridge between vortex electrons and structured electromagnetic radiation. By sending an annular electron beam through an all-metal slow-wave structure, they transferred the electron beam's helical topology into measurable orbital angular momentum and a polarization-skyrmion texture. Multiple optical diagnostics confirmed the mapping, while repeated single-shot measurements showed reproducibility. The proof-of-principle platform could support structured-radiation sources and noninvasive diagnosis of vortex-electron states across future spectral bands and frequencies.

Electric fields can reliably reverse magnetization in nanoscale structures of the multiferroic material BiFe_0.9Co_0.1O₃ (BFCO), as reported by researchers from Science Tokyo. Multiferroic materials display coupled electric and magnetic order, making them attractive for low-power memory devices. The team fabricated 190 nm BFCO nanodots and used advanced imaging techniques to directly observe the restructured electric polarization arrangement upon applying an electric field, driving a persistent reversal of magnetization.

Thorium-229, a promising basis for nuclear clocks, has a rare nuclear transition that can be excited with laser light. However, nuclei embedded in crystals are affected by their local environments. Now, researchers have used laser Mössbauer spectroscopy to identify four distinct sites occupied by thorium-229 in calcium fluoride crystals. The team characterized their electric field environments, measured site-selective properties, and identified microscopic structures for the two dominant configurations, providing information for designing solid-state nuclear clocks. 

Aqueous Zn-organic batteries are promising due to the sustainability and tunability of organic cathodes. However, the critical challenge in their practical application lies in dissolution, degradation, and sluggish kinetics, ultimately degrading the cycling stability and rate capability. Herein, we demonstrate a simple effective electrolyte engineering strategy by introducing potassium chloride (KCl) as a co-solute into the ZnCl₂ electrolyte to achieve high-performance Zn batteries utilizing 3,4,9,10-perylenetetracarboxylic dianhydride (PTCDA) as the cathode. Experimental studies and molecular dynamics simulations reveal that KCl addition not only enhances electrolyte conductivity but also modulates Zn²⁺ solvation environment to form [Zn(H₂O)₂Cl₄]²⁻, significantly improving ion diffusion kinetics. Consequently, the Zn//PTCDA in the ZnCl₂-KCl electrolyte exhibits a remarkable capacity of 124.7 mAh g⁻¹ with an average voltage of 0.65 V, exceptional rate performance (56% capacity retention at 30 A g⁻¹), and prolonged cycling performance (90.9% retention after 10,000 cycles). Experimental and density functional theory mechanistic studies unveil a new reversible Zn²⁺/K⁺ co-storage mechanism in the PTCDA cathode, where K⁺ acts as a charge shield and structural pillar, synergistically decreasing the ion migration energy barrier, enhancing reaction kinetics, and stabilizing the cathode structure. This work elucidates dual-ion storage chemistry and highlights rational electrolyte design for durable, high-power metal–organic batteries.

A research team at the University of Vienna led by physicist Jani Kotakoski demonstrates how the shape of nanopores in hexagonal boron nitride - the electrically insulating counterpart to graphene, also known as "white graphene" - can be precisely controlled at the atomic level. Electron irradiation in ultra-high vacuum creates circular pores, while adding small amounts of oxygen yields triangular pores. The nanopore engineering presented in the journal Nature Communications thus unlocks new applications in filtration, DNA sequencing, catalysis, and quantum technologies.

The FAST All Sky HI Survey (FASHI) team has released its second data set (DR2), cataloging 156,411 extragalactic neutral hydrogen (HI) sources over ~19,500 square degrees — nearly half the entire sky. The number of detected sources is nearly four times that of the first data release (DR1) and five times that of the Arecibo ALFALFA survey. With a median sensitivity of 0.57 mJy/beam, FASHI DR2 represents the largest and most sensitive blind HI survey ever conducted, providing a landmark dataset for studies of galaxy evolution, cosmology, and large scale structure in the local Universe.

Two research teams from the University Institute of Advanced Materials at Universitat Jaume I de Castelló, led by Iván Mora Seró and Beatriu Escuder, and by Vicent Moliner and Macarena Poyatos, will develop two Prometeo projects aimed at obtaining new chiral materials for energy and catalysis and a new generation of catalysts that mimic the behaviour of enzymes. The Generalitat Valenciana has awarded each team a grant of more than €500,000.

The Prometeo programme is the Generalitat Valenciana’s most scientifically demanding funding scheme. It is aimed at groups with an established research track record that are capable of conducting frontier research, attracting talent and successfully participating in major national and European competitive programmes such as Horizon Europe and the European Research Council (ERC).

The CHIRAL-Solutions project (Chiral Materials Solutions for Energy and Catalysis), led by Iván Mora Seró and Beatriu Escuder, aims to harness the chirality of materials — the geometric property whereby a structure cannot be superimposed on its mirror image, as with hands — to tune chemical reactivity and selectivity, optical activity, mechanical properties and charge dynamics. These properties could be exploited in a wide range of photoelectrochemical systems and optoelectronic devices, as well as in asymmetric catalysis.The BIOSWITCH project, meanwhile, proposes a combined theoretical and experimental approach to the rational design of multifunctional bio-inspired catalysts. Led by Vicent Moliner and Macarena Poyatos, the project aims to create a new generation of versatile and switchable bio-inspired catalysts capable of carrying out complex chemical transformations and modulating their activity and selectivity in response to external stimuli such as light, the presence of certain ions or redox changes — in other words, mimicking the behaviour of enzymes.