The ESQ discovery grant gave me the opportunity to lead my first own research project while benefitting from the existing lab infrastructure in the quantum nanophysics group of Univ. Prof. Markus Arndt. In this way I was able to actually realise ideas which had been developed during the course of my PhD thesis and set up a novel experiment.
The ESQ provides highly flexible sources of funding in high-risk projects that would otherwise be hard to get funded. Especially for basic science and foundational projects, this creates a framework of intellectual freedom that is required for real progress.
The ESQ discovery project provided me with cutting edge equipment to tackle a high-risk problem in which I have been interested for a long time but lacked the right tools to approach. It allowed me to put my ideas to work and to aim higher for follow-up projects that will continue exploring these resources.
The ESQ Discovery project allows me exploring a radically new research idea. Our studies have the potential to open an entirely new research area, connecting solid-state quantum optics and cold atom physics. Finally, thanks to ESQ funding, I can further increase my experience on independently leading a scientific project.
Superconducting magnetic levitation in the quantum regime is a nascent research topic. The ESQ project, with its flexible funding structure, will enable us to make progress which would otherwise be impossible at such an exploratory stage, allowing us to perform research at the forefront of this highly promising field.
My ESQ Discovery Grant allows me to follow an idea about a new ion trap technology that came up during my PhD work. Thanks to the ESQ, the realization of this idea is now supported and hosted by excellent quantum research groups.
The ESQ high-risk grant perfectly matches my plans because it is a grant that one can use to approach research venues which one would not necessarily gear his whole project toward, exactly because of the high risk. But all great breakthroughs historically involved some risk therefore the platform on which the grand stands is very attractive.
Exploring new fields and leaving your comfort zone is always a high-risk in science, but without it we would be stuck in narrow topics and miss out on real progress. The flexibility and high-risk encouragement of the ESQ gives us the time and flexibility to explore unconventional ideas and directions and is thus an important part of our approach to science.
The ESQ Discovery grant allows us to explore unconventional but very promising ideas. It is well invested seed money for the fascinating quantum technology of tomorrow.
The ESQ Discovery Programme with its flexible funding scheme allows me to work in a high-risk project "Dynamical Gauge Fields in the Waveguide-Quantum-Electrodynamical Framework", with potential high gains and novel outcomes, which I have been interested in for some time. Without the ESQ Discovery Programme, it would be difficult to secure a funding for such an exploratory, challenging project through common funding programmes.
The ESQ discovery grant allows us to pursue high-risk but very promising research in a very novel field of quantum technology. At this early stage of the project, the flexible funding scheme will allow us to get first important results and it is thus an indispensable stepping stone for future work in room temperature solid-state quantum optics.
ESQ has created an excellent infrastructure for young researchers like me to continue our career on a new level. For me personally it is important to start a self-guided research, while remaining a member of an established team. The awarding of the Discovery grant and the involvement of Ben Lanyon’s group at the Innsbruck University in the ESQ program provides exactly that opportunity and I look forward to leading and performing the research proposed and achieving the project goals with this support.
The ESQ Discovery Programme provides the freedom to explore promising new avenues, outside of the corset of the usual grant structure. It performs the vital role of encouraging us to stray from well-trodden paths.
ESQ office
Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW)
Mag.ª Isabelle Walters
Boltzmanngasse 5
1090 Vienna
office(at)esq-quantum.at