QUANTopia 2025
Noon on Thursday, May 15th 2025 to noon on Saturday, May 17th, 2025
Department of Physics, University of Warwick
Organisers: B. Sharmila and R.A. Römer (Physics, Warwick)
Background and Purpose
This workshop aims to develop a proposal for a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Doctoral Networks – Joint Doctorates (DN-JD) scheme. Building on the established EUTOPIA connections and the “connected community in quantum technologies” (CCQT), the initiative will develop a robust network of partner institutions, including CYU Cergy Paris, Dresden, Gothenburg, Ljubljana, and Warwick, to establish a joint doctoral program in quantum technologies and machine learning.
The joint doctoral program will support 11–15 early-career researchers (ECRs), distributed across the five participating institutions. With a total of 45 ECR-years to allocate, we aim to balance the distribution of researchers across institutions based on PhD durations (3–4 years). Our co-tutelle agreements are already recognized within the EUTOPIA network, simplifying the formal requirements of the MSCA call.
This in-person meeting will serve as a critical step to:
- Define research streams, themes, and topics for the joint doctoral program, with a focus on quantum technologies and machine learning as the unifying research themes.
- Outline the structure of the doctoral network, including the integration of joint/double degree frameworks.
- Discuss, identify and agree on industrial partnerships.
- Finalize key elements of the application, including recruitment strategies, supervisory structures, and collaboration mechanisms.
By fostering collaboration among lead academics with prior experience in co-tutelles and joint PhD programs, we aim to develop a near-complete draft of the MSCA DN-JD proposal by July/August 2025. This timeline should allow sufficient lead time for administrative refinements and submission by the overall EU MSCA November 2025 deadline.
Programme
| Time | Activity/Title | Speaker/Room |
|---|---|---|
Thursday 15th May 2025 |
||
| 12:00-13:00 | registration and self-pay lunch | MAS 2.05/06 |
| 13:00-13:10 | welcome | MAS 2.05/06 |
| 13:10-13:30 | MSCA-DN-JD: call outline and experiences | Juliane Sauer |
| 13:30-13:50 | CYU Cergy Paris: expertise and experiences | Andreas Honecker, Irina Andriyanova |
| 13:50-14:10 | TU Dresden: expertise and experiences | Matthias Vojta, Jan Budich |
| 14:10-14:30 | U Goteborg: expertise and experiences | Mats Granath, Johannes Hofmann |
| 14:30-15:00 | tea, coffee and biscuits | just outside MAS 2.05/06 |
| 15:00-15:20 | U Ljubljana: expertise and experiences | Marko Toros, Jaka Vodeb, Zala Lenarcic, Rok Zitko |
| 15:20-15:40 | U Warwick: expertise and experiences | B Sharmila, Rudo Römer |
| 15:40-16:00 | teaching and research "expertise and experiences", a summary | Juliane Sauer |
| 16:00-18:00 | structure of a JD application: WPs and more | all |
Friday 16th May 2025 |
||
| 09:00-09:30 | tea, coffee and biscuits | (Physics concourse, 3rd floor) |
| Training package development | ||
| 09:30-10:00 | WP training | A Honecker |
| 10:00-10:30 | WP industry | Mats Granath |
| 10:30-11:00 | WP impact | Matthias Vojta |
| 11:00-11:30 | WP implementation | R Römer |
| 11:30-13:00 | Lunch | (self-pay, on campus) |
| Breakout sessions | ||
| 14:00-15:00 | session 1 (training): what training ideas can we develop and who will deliver them in what team? | all participants, in small groups |
| 15:00-16:00 | session 2 (research) what research co-tutelle projects can we develop and who will deliver them in what home/host combination? | all participants, in small groups |
| 16:00-16:30 | tea, coffee and biscuits | |
| 16:30-18:00 | consolidation session | all participants |
| 18:00 | good-bye to Juliane! | |
| 19:00- | Dinner | (self-pay, but we'll organize a (pizza?) venue) |
Saturday 17th May 2025 |
||
| 09:00-09:30 | tea, coffee and biscuits (outside of room MAS2.05) | MAS 2nd floor |
| 09:30-11:00 | training/industry/impact writing session | all participants |
| 11:00-11:30 | tea, coffee and biscuits | |
| 11:30-13:00 | research writing session | all participants |
| 13:00-15:00 | lunch and farewell | |
| 15:00-18:00 | overall writing session | Granath, Honecker, Römer, Vojta and/or anyone else if still around |
| 19:00- | Dinner (off-campus, "Varsity" or Kenilworth's "Virgins and Castle") | |
Participants
Participation is by invitation only. Please contact R.Roemer@warwick.ac.uk if you think this activity looks as if it would be of interest to you. Normally, we would be happy to accept self-invitations, but will not be able to pay for any expenses in this case.
Registration will start at 12:00 on 15th May 2025, at the University of Warwick, with the first talk at 13:00 (see above schedule). Note that the university is located on the outskirts of Coventry and not in Warwick. See http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/about/visiting/ for travel details and http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/about/visiting/maps/ for maps of the central campus. In case you come by car, parking is available for delegates at car park 15.
| Name | Affiliation | Status | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rudolf A. Römer | Warwick | on-site | |
| B Sharmila | Warwick | on-site | |
| Irina Andriyanova | Cergy | online | |
| Andreas Honecker | Cergy | on-site | |
| Dima Kovrhizin | Cergy | ||
| Mats Granath | Goteborg | on-site | |
| Johannes Hofmann | Goteborg | online | |
| Jan Budich | Dresden | online | |
| Matthias Vojta | Dresden | on-site | |
| Zala Lenarcic | Ljubljana/JSI | online | |
| Marko Toros | Ljubljana | on-site | |
| Jaka Vodeb | Ljubljana/JSI | on-site | |
| Rok Zitko | Ljubljana/JSI | online | |
| Juliane Sauer | Oxygeneum | on-site |
Venue and Accommodation
All talks will be held in the Materials and Analytical Sciences building. See here for a map of Warwick's central campus.
For invited delegates from Cergy, Dresden, Goteborg and Ljubljana, we will book on-campus accommodation. We will be able to pay for 2 nights from Warwick funds. If you will fly from overseas, please buy flight tickets yourself and we will reimburse the cost. (Please keep your itinerary, boarding cards and tickets and show them to us during the meeting.)
The workshop will start with the registration at the University of Warwick. Note that the university is located on the outskirts of Coventry and not in Warwick. See http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/about/visiting/ for travel details and http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/about/visiting/maps/ for maps on the central campus. In case you come by car, parking is available for delegates at car park 15.
In case you are self-invited, please call a hotel directly and arrange your stay.
Contact
Prof. Rudolf A Römer
Physics Department
University of Warwick
Coventry CV4 7AL
United Kingdom
e-mail: physicsadmin@warwick.ac.uk
Phone: +44 (0)24 76574328
Fax: +44 (0)24 76150897