Research

A new European Commission-funded Pathfinder project HYBRAIN (Hybrid electronic-photonic architectures for brain-inspired computing) aims to deliver a new computing system that is inspired by the human brain.
Coordinated by Professor Wilfred van der Wiel, University of Twente, the project gathers key partners from Oxford, Münster, Pisa and Zürich. The project will develop a “HYBRAIN system” that is both super-fast, consumes very little energy and can make a real impact on ‘ultra-fast response’ technologies. Although cloud computing has been considered the best solution to keep the data and computer processing at a distance, it is now increasingly important to move it close to the actual ‘operation’ and start working locally again; this is also called ‘edge computing’. By doing so, you avoid a delay, ‘latency’, that is too long: despite the upcoming and fast mobile standards like 5G and 6G, the delay can still be too long.
There is a dilemma, though: moving heavy computing power to the local application is undesirable as well. The classic computer approach involves a lot of data traffic between the processor and memory. This is, in fact, not how our brain works, where memory and processing are part of the same process. Within the new HYBRAIN project, the researchers will combine a number of highly innovative solutions, based on how our brain works. These solutions include ‘in memory computing’ and an evolutionary system that is disordered by itself but can nevertheless detect complex patterns.

The Horizon Europe project ONCHIPS aims to provide a unique silicon-based integrated architecture by developing key building blocks for quantum technologies.
Such a technology combines the best of two worlds: it would interface individual spin qubits and photons, and drastically enhance the scalability of quantum systems. The ONCHIPS’ novel silicon platform integrating quantum electronics and photonics will make a high impact in the quantum community and semiconductor industry positioning Europe at the forefront of these domains.
By using a new CMOS compatible and optically active material system - direct bandgap GeSi which won the Physics World 2020Breakthrough - the ONCHIPS partners will realize for the first-time quantum heterostructures, spin qubits, electronic and photonic quantum devices and spin-photon interfaces with the ultimate goal to integrate the electronics and photonics in a single silicon-based system.
ONChips partners
Coordinated by Prof. Floris Zwanenburg, the ONCHIPS project brings together world leading experts from Twente, Eindhoven, Münich, Paris, Delft, Konstanz and Budapest:
The ONCHIPS project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 101080022.

NEQIOS introduces a radically new approach to solving complex computational problems that resist efficient solution on existing digital or quantum systems. We propose a compact neuromorphic platform that physically emulates key quantum properties, such as annealing, tunnelling, and superposition, without relying on fragile quantum states. Instead, NEQIOS integrates analogue in-memory computing (AIMC), integrated photonics (IPC), and reconfigurable nonlinear computing (RNC) in a high-performance system-on-package design. This innovation is urgently needed. From materials discovery to logistics and drug design, society faces NP-hard problems that scale exponentially. Quantum computers offer promise, but current systems – operating at cryogenic temperatures and requiring large infrastructure – remain costly, slow, difficult to scale and prohibitive for use on edge devices. NEQIOS offers a robust, room-temperature alternative that drastically reduces energy use (below 1 mW) and solution time (microseconds), while achieving solution quality on par with quantum annealers. NEQIOS’s key breakthrough lies in decomposing energy-based models into fine-grained computational primitives, each mapped to a dedicated physical substrate. AIMC performs high-throughput vector-matrix operations, IPC ensures precision and low-latency signal flow, and RNC handles nonlinear, adaptive function approximation. Together, these components form a physical solver capable of mimicking quantum behaviour with unmatched efficiency and scalability. NEQIOS is driven by a world-class European consortium with deep expertise in neuromorphic computing, photonic hardware, and analogue systems. With IBM Research Europe, Radboud University, University of Heidelberg, Enlightra, University of Oxford, and University of Twente, we unite technical excellence and a bold vision to deliver a transformative computing paradigm, aligned with Europe's semiconductor strategy and future demands in AI, science and industry.
 The project is coordinated by the BRAINS Center for Brain-Inspired Computing, and is led by Prof. Wilfred van der Wiel. 

The TOPSQUAD project aims to bring a crucial contribution towards realizing the building blocks for the future quantum computer, the so-called quantum bits or qubits. Such a quantum computer is exponentially stronger and faster than a classical computer and can solve global challenges of our time related to health, energy, and the climate.
TOPSQUAD addresses the two major obstacles in realizing a quantum computer: qubit fragility and qubit scalability. The qubit fragility translates to the fact that any small perturbance of the environment destroys the quantum information. Secondly, the number of qubits in the existing quantum systems is very limited and need to scale up to reach tens of thousands of qubits required for a universal quantum computer. In TOSPQUAD, we try to solve the fragility by realizing so-called topological states - stable states of matter with properties that are not destroyed by local perturbances. The scalability is tackled by using the standard CMOS technology used for the everyday chips. 
"If we indeed manage to combine scalability with topological states, then we can make a tremendous step towards the realization of a quantum computer." Prof. Floris Zwanenburg, coordinator TOPSQUAD.
Leading scientists join forces in this project to address these challenging tasks for the first time in the world by using germanium nanowires synthetized in networks on silicon wafers.