Research And Development In Science

Turning Europe into a quantum industrial powerhouse Europe has been the cradle of quantum mechanics, the revolutionary science born from the genius of Max Planck, Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, Erwin Schrödinger, and other visionaries who rewrote the rules of physical reality. On 2 July 2025, in the year marking a centenary since the initial development of quantum mechanics, the Commission has adopted an ambitious European Quantum Strategy, integrating Europe's unique scientific heritage with its vibrant quantum ecosystem of startups, SMEs, large industries, research and technology organisations, academia and research institutes. The mission is clear: turn Europe into a quantum industrial powerhouse that transforms breakthrough science into market-ready applications, while maintaining its scientific leadership. We are imagining a Union where medical scans can detect illnesses at the earliest stages, accelerating from weeks of uncertainty to mere seconds of precise diagnosis; where sensors are able to warn about volcanic activity or water shortages before they happen; and where unprecedented computational power will be available to solve complex problems in logistics, finance and climate modelling. A safer Europe, where our personal data, critical infrastructure, and businesses will always remain private and well-protected; where transport systems are optimised to reduce congestion and prevent accidents; and air travel is guided by quantum-enhanced precision navigation, pinpointing objects' locations down to the centimetre. A greener Europe, where sustainable energy grids can flawlessly manage millions of electric vehicles charging simultaneously overnight. These tangible, transformative technologies are within reach through support from the EU Quantum Strategy. The quantum community has clearly outlined what's needed to achieve this future: · Combine Europe's scientific excellence to bring quantum breakthroughs rapidly to market · Develop advanced quantum supercomputers like the ones we are supporting under the Quantum Flagship and are acquiring under the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking to operate as accelerators next to our leading network of supercomputers · Deploy secure communication networks such as those under EuroQCI, our secure quantum communication infrastructure that will be spanning the whole EU, composed of a terrestrial segment relying on fibre communications networks linking strategic sites at national and cross-border level, and a space segment based on satellites · Support quantum startups and SMEs, enhancing supply chain resilience, and foster supranational innovation clusters · Integrate quantum advancements into strategic capabilities for security and defence, protecting citizens and infrastructure · Educate Europe's workforce through specialised initiatives like the European Quantum Skills Academy Quantum is not one more technology to add to the list; is a high tide that will deeply transform our society and economy.

𝟳𝟱% 𝗼𝗳 𝗔𝗳𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗮’𝘀 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝗶𝘀 𝗹𝗲𝗱 𝗯𝘆 𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗲𝗿𝘀. 𝗟𝗲𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝗶𝗻. In Kenya, 76% of scientific publications are co-authored by foreigners. Most of our research is funded externally, driven by donor priorities, not local needs. We're the data points. But rarely the authors. Rarely the funders. Rarely the owners. This isn't just a knowledge gap; it's a power gap. Yes, Kenya spends 0.8% of its GDP on R&D , second in Africa. But over 80% of that is donor-funded. Even institutions like KEMRI depend on billions from abroad. This is parachute science. It’s neo-colonial. And it’s unsustainable. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗪𝗮𝘆 𝗙𝗼𝗿𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱? ✅ Fund local research from national budgets. ✅ Shift from token collaboration to true co-creation. ✅ Commercialize African knowledge. ✅ Make universities the engines of innovation, not donor-dependent projects. Africa must move from being studied… to being the scholar. We don’t lack genius. We lack ownership. Let’s fix that. Let’s take this conversation further, let me know your ideas on local research funding models. Let’s build a pan-African brain trust. Wavinya Makai is a historian, development scholar, Pan-Africanist, and international relations expert. She reads the world not just to understand it, but to change it. Founder of unchained conversations. #ResearchOwnership #AfricaRising #KenyaScience #DecolonizeData #FundingOurMinds

India's Critical Mineral Paradox: Sitting on a Goldmine While Importing at Premium Prices I’ve spent time building businesses across consumer tech, telecom, and industrial sectors. Reading Alkesh Kumar Sharma’s strategic analysis on critical minerals was a wake-up call: India is racing toward clean energy leadership while dangerously dependent on imports for the very minerals that make it possible. Here’s the link: https://lnkd.in/dpjKHMsb This isn't just policy. It's national security and controlling our destiny in the 21st century economy. The vulnerability: India is 100% dependent on imports for lithium, cobalt, and nickel, over 90% for Rare Earth Elements. China controls 60% of global REE production and 85% of processing. We're targeting 500 GW renewable energy and net zero by 2070, while handing veto power over our clean energy future to geopolitical competitors. Having run P&Ls across markets, I know 100% import dependence isn't a supply chain. It's a strategic chokepoint. But India is sitting on untapped wealth. Geological Survey identified 5.9 million tonnes of lithium in J&K, significant REE deposits in Odisha and Andhra Pradesh. Yet mining contributes just 2.5% to GDP versus 13.6% in Australia. We have only 1% of global REE processing capacity. The government launched the National Critical Minerals Mission with ₹34,300 crore and auctioned 20 mineral blocks. The 2023 Mines Act opened private exploration. But execution determines everything. The urban goldmine: India generates 4 million tonnes of e-waste annually, only 10% formally recycled. Inside? The same minerals we're importing at massive cost. Attero proves what's possible. This Noida-based deeptech company achieves over 98% extraction efficiency in recovering rare earths like neodymium, praseodymium, and dysprosium, the exact elements we currently import. With over 200 patents filed and strong profitability, Attero’s revenue crossed approximately ₹1,000 crore in FY25, growing more than 50% year-on-year. The company works with all leading auto and battery manufacturers and is now expanding capacity sixfold to process 3 lakh tonnes annually, backed by significant capital infusion across India, Poland, and the US. India banned black mass exports, powder from shredded batteries we exported as cheap scrap to China, Korea, Japan who sold it back at 15-20x the price. This ban forces domestic refining. Attero proves we have the technology. The window is closing. If we don't build resilient supply chains through domestic mining, processing, and recycling, we're building our clean energy future on someone else's foundation. We have deposits, waste streams, and companies like Attero proving Indian technology competes globally. What we need is execution speed. #CriticalMinerals #CleanEnergy #AtmanirbharBharat #Sustainability #India

The Union Budget’s announcement to develop dedicated rare earth and #criticalmineral corridors across #TamilNadu, #Kerala, #Odisha, and #AndhraPradesh comes at a decisive moment for India and the global economy. This initiative is not merely about mining - it is about strategic autonomy, clean industrial growth, and long-term economic resilience. Today, China controls over 60% of global rare earth mining and nearly 85% of processing capacity, creating significant supply-chain vulnerabilities for clean energy, electric mobility, electronics, defence systems, and advanced manufacturing. In contrast, countries such as the United States, Australia, and the European Union are aggressively building domestic capabilities, strategic reserves, and recycling ecosystems to reduce dependence on concentrated supply sources. Rare earth elements are essential inputs for EV motors, wind turbines, solar technologies, semiconductors, batteries, defence electronics, and medical equipment. As India targets large-scale EV adoption, renewable energy expansion, and domestic semiconductor manufacturing, secure access to critical minerals becomes non-negotiable. The proposed corridors—spanning mining, processing, R&D, and manufacturing create an integrated ecosystem rather than fragmented interventions. Equally important is the opportunity to supplement primary mining with secondary sources. Estimates indicate that India’s e-waste alone could yield nearly 1,300 tonnes of rare earth elements, while mine tailings and industrial waste offer additional recovery potential. Last year’s ₹1,500 crore allocation for extracting critical minerals from waste streams was an important start, but scale, coordination, and regulatory clarity are now essential to unlock meaningful impact. The regulatory framework must evolve accordingly. E-waste Management Rules should clearly classify critical minerals as high-value strategic resources, not residual waste. Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) frameworks must go beyond compliance and actively incentivise recovery, recycling, and reuse. At the same time, India’s large informal recycling sector—currently operating without safety nets must be formalised through technology transfer, skilling, access to finance, and transition incentives, ensuring both environmental protection and dignified livelihoods. From an economic and urban governance perspective, the implications are significant. Rare earth corridors can catalyse clean manufacturing clusters, generate high-skill employment, and reduce import dependence. Cities and industrial regions will benefit from value-added manufacturing, innovation ecosystems, and circular-economy models that align growth. If executed with coordination and clarity, this initiative can deliver multiple dividends: lower emissions, reduced waste, enhanced competitiveness, skilled job creation, and greater self-reliance.

You either stay and climb the tenure ladder, or you leave for industry and abandon your research identity. That’s often the narrative within academia. I’ve watched that narrative push talented scientists into corners they didn’t need to be in. Because there’s a third path that nobody talks about enough. → Build a university research program designed to solve real industry problems.  → Attract companies as partners.  → Train students who are ready for industry from day one.  → Do meaningful science AND see it applied. One professor I work with described it like this: “𝘐 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘵 𝘢 𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘺. 𝘐 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘤𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘐 𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵, 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘹𝘵 𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘢𝘵𝘤𝘩 𝘮𝘺 𝘴𝘵𝘶𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘸𝘢𝘭𝘬 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘺 𝘫𝘰𝘣𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘮𝘺 𝘭𝘢𝘣.” He’s not chasing tenure in the traditional sense. He’s built something more valuable: a research group that companies actively want to fund because it consistently delivers results they can use. If you’re an academic researcher feeling stuck between the tenure track and an industry exit, there’s a version of your career that includes both. This week’s newsletter explores what that looks like. Link in comments.

Don't go it alone - collaborate to deliver global impact with your research! Delighted to share findings from our newly published pilot-scale study on CO₂ capture heat integration. It's exciting not only because of new approach to reducing the reboiler duty by 6% and cooling duty by 24%, resulting in operating cost savings of CO2 capture. It's exciting because it proves that collaboration is essential for credible, impactful research. Our team brought together multi-institutional expertise, industrial partners, and real-world site access on a coal-fired power plant. This work was possible because this collaboration enabled: - Access to infrastructure - Operating a mobile pilot on a live power plant requires partnerships beyond any single lab. - Data rigour - Validating marginal energy gains demanded cross-disciplinary expertise, including thermodynamics, advanced data reconciliation, and process engineering. - Industrial validation - Co-developing with site operators built credibility and practical insight from day one. - Diverse expertise - Chemistry + engineering + simulation + field operations. Individual researchers miss insights that teams can easily identify. The lesson: Impact = great ideas + rigorous execution + real-world validation. Collaboration is how you deliver all three. If you're pursuing energy research with genuine traction, treat collaboration as a core strategy, not optional. Build networks early. Your best work will come from teams you haven't yet assembled. #science #research #scientist #researcher #professor #phd #CCUS #engineering

A nice review article "Transforming Science with Large Language Models: A Survey on AI-assisted Scientific Discovery, Experimentation, Content Generation, and Evaluation" covers the scope of tools and approaches for how AI can support science. Some of areas the paper covers: (link in comments) 🔎 Literature search and summarization. Traditional academic search engines rely on keyword-based retrieval, but AI-powered tools such as Elicit and SciSpace enhance search efficiency with semantic analysis, summarization, and citation graph-based recommendations. These tools help researchers sift through vast scientific literature quickly and extract key insights, reducing the time required to identify relevant studies. 💡 Hypothesis generation and idea formation. AI models are being used to analyze scientific literature, extract key themes, and generate novel research hypotheses. Some approaches integrate structured knowledge graphs to ground hypotheses in existing scientific knowledge, reducing the risk of hallucinations. AI-generated hypotheses are evaluated for novelty, relevance, significance, and verifiability, with mixed results depending on domain expertise. 🧪 Scientific experimentation. AI systems are increasingly used to design experiments, execute simulations, and analyze results. Multi-agent frameworks, tree search algorithms, and iterative refinement methods help automate complex workflows. Some AI tools assist in hyperparameter tuning, experiment planning, and even code execution, accelerating the research process. 📊 Data analysis and hypothesis validation. AI-driven tools process vast datasets, identify patterns, and validate hypotheses across disciplines. Benchmarks like SciMON (NLP), TOMATO-Chem (chemistry), and LLM4BioHypoGen (medicine) provide structured datasets for AI-assisted discovery. However, issues like data biases, incomplete records, and privacy concerns remain key challenges. ✍️ Scientific content generation. LLMs help draft papers, generate abstracts, suggest citations, and create scientific figures. Tools like AutomaTikZ convert equations into LaTeX, while AI writing assistants improve clarity. Despite these benefits, risks of AI-generated misinformation, plagiarism, and loss of human creativity raise ethical concerns. 📝 Peer review process. Automated review tools analyze papers, flag inconsistencies, and verify claims. AI-based meta-review generators assist in assessing manuscript quality, potentially reducing bias and improving efficiency. However, AI struggles with nuanced judgment and may reinforce biases in training data. ⚖️ Ethical concerns. AI-assisted scientific workflows pose risks, such as bias in hypothesis generation, lack of transparency in automated experiments, and potential reinforcement of dominant research paradigms while neglecting novel ideas. There are also concerns about the overreliance on AI for critical scientific tasks, potentially compromising research integrity and human oversight.

A #quantum journey doesn't always begin with a quantum computer.   I recently sat down with Jonathan Reichental, PhD at Forbes together with Julian van Velzen to discuss how organizations are really approaching quantum today. What we're seeing is that they tend to start in three places.   First, enterprises typically want to know where the technology genuinely stands beyond the hype or the dismissive claims (take your pick). And quantum isn't one thing. It's a wide range of technologies maturing at very different speeds. Some are ready. Many aren't. That's a nuance that many click-bait publications often gloss over, one way or the other.    Second, Post Quantum Cryptography (PQC), or the development of new encryption algorithms specifically tailored to resist quantum-empowered cyber attacks. The irony is that PQC isn't a quantum solution at all: it's how you protect today's encryption from tomorrow's quantum machines. But it's become a real entry point into quantum for many organizations. Assessing the risk builds the knowledge and urgency a broader quantum strategy will need. Banking, insurance and the public sector are already moving, because data harvested now can be decrypted later.   Third, quantum simulation or "quantum for science" as I call it. Modeling molecules and materials that are themselves quantum by nature. Paired with #AI, this is where the tangible promise sits: new or better materials, less or no corrosion, faster drug or protein discovery, etc…   So to sum up, our core belief is that quantum isn't a single technology arriving on a single date, and waiting out the uncertainty is the real mistake. The risk isn't moving too early: it's the long, costly catch-up that hits the unprepared tech leader.    Or said in another way: The quantum winners won't be the fastest. They'll be the ones who prepared earliest.   Full interview below, worth a read 👇 https://lnkd.in/eygXSY6x

Most quantum boardroom conversations end without an agenda. They end with a posture — "we're monitoring quantum developments," "we're taking it seriously". Neither statement produces a plan. The distinction matters because quantum creates three problem classes, each with a different urgency and a different cost of inaction. A generic posture misaddresses all three at once. The right response, for most leadership teams, has three parts. The first is to defend now. Post-quantum cryptography belongs on the enterprise risk agenda as a current priority. That means building visibility into cryptographic dependencies across the enterprise, identifying migration priorities, and mapping third-party exposure. This is the part of the quantum agenda that cannot wait. The second is to explore selectively. Most leadership teams do not need a wide portfolio of quantum pilots. They need a small number of focused efforts on high-value problems where the workload aligns with quantum's actual strengths — evaluated against the strongest available classical alternative. Each effort should be a targeted test: one specific problem, one clear classical benchmark, one honest evaluation. The third is to build options. For companies in simulation-relevant sectors — pharmaceuticals, advanced materials, energy — the right posture is modest investment in partnerships and early hardware collaborations. The goal is R&D workflows that are ready to integrate quantum subroutines when the technology matures. The companies that benefit most will not necessarily be those spending the most today. They will be the ones best positioned to move when the moment arrives. The most common failure on quantum is conflating the urgency of the three classes — treating all three as equally distant or equally immediate, when each has a different clock running. The organizations that get this right understand early which problem classes matter to their business, which ones to set aside, and what the distinction demands of them starting Monday morning. https://lnkd.in/gkymW7Xm

Quantum readiness is less about sudden disruption and more about cultivating skills, forging collaborations, and aligning strategies with evolving standards, so that businesses can gradually integrate these technologies into their long-term transformation paths. We should see quantum computing as a journey that requires methodical preparation. Finance, logistics, chemistry, and cybersecurity are already experimenting with hybrid models that combine classical and quantum systems. These early steps show that the transition will not happen overnight, but through structured phases of learning and integration. The priority for leaders is to identify processes where quantum can create measurable improvements. This means feasibility studies, pilots, and a roadmap that integrates quantum into IT environments in a sustainable way. At the same time, teams need training in principles, tools, and algorithms, because without this foundation, the technology remains an abstract concept. Collaboration is another essential layer. Partnerships with research hubs, vendors, and cloud providers open access to quantum resources that would otherwise remain out of reach. Alongside this, governance and security must advance with post-quantum standards, ensuring compliance and ethics are never secondary. The real challenge is continuous adaptation. Regulations and technologies will evolve, and strategies must remain flexible. This long-term perspective will define the organizations that are prepared to grow with the next wave of innovation. #QuantumComputing #DigitalTransformation #FutureOfWork