Two days of talks on quantum sensors for space, biomedicine, geophysics and metrology, within the Horizon Europe project ACDC_Q

Matera, Italy, 8 October 2026. The National Conference ACDC_Q 2026, “Magnetometers for Space and Emerging Applications”, opens today at the “Giuseppe Colombo” Space Centre of the Italian Space Agency (ASI) in Matera. It runs until Friday 9 October. Researchers from universities, research institutions, infrastructures and companies across Italy are taking stock of quantum technologies for measuring magnetic fields: NV centres in diamond, SQUIDs, optically pumped magnetometers, spintronic and MEMS devices, hybrid superconducting circuits and ultracold atoms. They will also discuss the applications these technologies open up, from space exploration to medicine, geophysics and metrology.

The conference is held as part of the activities of ACDC_Q (Advanced Circuits for Detection and Control of Diamond Quantum Sensors). The project is funded by the European Union under Horizon Europe, call HORIZON-CL4-2024-DIGITAL-EMERGING-01 (Grant Agreement No. 101189875). It is an Innovation Action that started on 1 January 2025 and runs for 48 months, until 31 December 2028. Eight partners from five countries (Belgium, Austria, France, Germany and Italy) take part, coordinated by IMEC, with an EU contribution of around €5 million on total costs of about €5.94 million. The conference falls roughly halfway through the project, at month 22 of 48, which makes it a good moment to review progress and plan the next phase.

“The presence of so many researchers from universities, research bodies, infrastructures and companies from all over Italy is the best sign of the vitality of a scientific community that is today among the European leaders in quantum technologies applied to magnetic-field measurement.”
— Dr Monia Vadrucci, Italian Space Agency (ASI)

From the optical bench to the chip

NV centres in diamond have moved from a scientific curiosity to the first products on the market. What is missing for wider adoption is hardware that is compact, integrated and economically sustainable. ACDC_Q develops advanced circuits and architectures to control and read out solid-state quantum sensors based on NV centres, making them more sensitive, compact, robust and easy to integrate. The project starts from the electrical readout of NV centres developed by IMEC and a first integration demonstrated by OEAW and Infineon. The aim is to bring sensors with optical-bench performance to prototypes ready for commercialisation.

The consortium covers the whole value chain:

• IMEC (Belgium), the coordinator, contributes microelectronics and the electrical readout of NV centres.
• Infineon Technologies Austria contributes industrial semiconductor processes.
• OEAW, the Austrian Academy of Sciences, contributes the physics of diamond sensors.
• Kwan-Tek (France), a small company, develops diamond magnetometers.
• Thales (France), through its DMS and TRT units, contributes large systems and remote monitoring.
• PTB, Germany’s national metrology institute, calibrates and certifies performance.
• ASI (Italy) contributes the requirements and scenarios of space magnetometry.

Three scenarios, one strategic goal

The project addresses three application scenarios: non-destructive evaluation, with Kwan-Tek; remote monitoring, with Thales; and space magnetometry, with IMEC and ASI. In space, measuring magnetic fields has long been central to exploration, from planetary missions to space weather, the Earth’s magnetosphere and navigation. Miniaturised, non-cryogenic, low-power quantum sensors can now fly on CubeSats, constellations, landers and rovers, in ways that classical instrumentation could not.

ASI’s role is to develop advanced circuits and diamond-based quantum sensors for magnetometry, with mission requirements built into the design from the start. This includes the design, experimental validation and qualification of the devices. A key step is optimising the density and defect quality of NV centres through irradiation with pulsed electron beams. ASI does this through its ASIF network (ASI Supported Irradiation Facilities), which provides qualified facilities for radiation testing and space qualification. The expected benefits go beyond space and aerospace to advanced monitoring in the energy and nuclear sectors. The longer-term vision is a sovereign European supply chain for quantum magnetometry from space, with performance certified in PTB’s metrology facilities.

Why this conference

The conference has four purposes:

• ACDC_Q is its technological core, and the event opens the project’s topic to the wider national ecosystem, bringing together the Italian community in advanced magnetometry. Participants will compare the state of the art, the needs of tomorrow’s space missions and the emerging applications these technologies enable.
• It brings together space applications with emerging ones: biomedicine, geophysics, metrology, resilient navigation and non-invasive diagnostics. The same technology that measures interplanetary magnetic fields can also measure the field of the human heart or brain, which is about a million times weaker.
• It sets NV centres alongside SQUIDs, optically pumped magnetometers, molecular spins, magnetoresistive sensors and MEMS, technologies that complement one another.
• It looks to Europe. Italy has a complete magnetometry chain, from fundamental physics and quantum platforms to materials, microelectronics, certified metrology, and clinical, geophysical and space applications. Universities, CNR (the National Research Council of Italy), INRIM (the Italian National Institute of Metrological Research), IIT (the Italian Institute of Technology), research infrastructures and companies work together as a network. A cohesive national community is well placed to be a partner for tomorrow’s European consortia.

The programme: sixteen talks, six thematic areas

The programme features sixteen talks from fourteen institutions (universities, research centres and companies), grouped into the following areas.

Quantum foundations

• Saverio Pascazio (University of Bari Aldo Moro, UNIBA) opens the scientific programme with an overview of quantum technologies.
• Alberto Ghirri (CNR-NANO, Institute of Nanoscience) presents work by his group in Modena on spin centres in solids and molecular spins integrated in superconducting circuits. These reach sensitivities comparable to NV ensembles without optical excitation, with promising prospects for biomedical diagnostics.
• Francesco Minardi (University of Bologna, UNIBO) discusses ultracold atoms in hollow-core optical fibres, a radical route to miniaturising atomic sensors.
• Andrea Candini (CNR-ISOF, Institute for Organic Synthesis and Photoreactivity) addresses NV centres in diamond, the reference technology of ACDC_Q. They are capable of three-dimensional vector magnetometry with sensitivity approaching the picotesla, over a temperature range and with a robustness suited to space missions.

Space and platforms

• Vito Giovanni Lucivero (UNIBA) shows how optically pumped magnetometers are moving from biomagnetism to space platforms. This is made possible by laser-written vapour cells with sensitivity close to the quantum noise limit.
• Alberto Riminucci (CNR-NANO) presents all-electrical molecular spintronics. It aims to make quantum sensing as widespread as magnetoresistive sensors are today, with direct implications for CubeSat constellations for space weather, GNSS-independent navigation, and lunar and planetary exploration.
• Giuseppe Maruccio (University of Salento, UNISALENTO) presents the joint EMFL-IRIS infrastructure in Lecce. It offers cryogenic, high-field and microwave characterisation, a strategic tool for validating devices destined for extreme operating environments.

Metrology and industry

• Marco Coïsson (INRIM) presents a traceable system for calibrating next-generation magnetometers in the low-field range. Without traceability to fundamental constants, no sensor, however sensitive, can become a reliable measuring instrument for space, clinical practice or industry.
• Francesco Ferraiuolo (CODEVINTEC) takes the audience to sea with self-compensating vector magnetometry for autonomous geophysical surveys on uncrewed marine platforms. It is an example of how compensating platform interference, a problem shared with space magnetometry, makes new kinds of missions possible.
• Riccardo Bertacco (Politecnico di Milano, POLIMI) traces a twenty-year path of hybrid MEMS-magnetoresistive sensors, from biomolecular recognition to monitoring neuronal activity. The path ends in 8-inch wafer-scale, CMOS-compatible processes, showing that Italian research can work closely with industrial manufacturing.

Biomagnetism

• Stefania Della Penna (University of Chieti-Pescara, UNICH) reviews innovative sensors for biomagnetism, from SQUIDs to optically pumped magnetometers, and from magnetoresistive devices to MEMS.
• Carmine Granata (CNR-ISASI) explains why SQUIDs remain the absolute reference for sensitivity, down to a few femtotesla, with applications from magnetoencephalography to geophysics.
• Luca Pellegrino (CNR-SPIN) presents a hybrid superconductor/nanomechanical detector designed for on-scalp magnetoencephalography that can be integrated with MRI and transcranial magnetic stimulation.

Health and human missions

• Riccardo Fenici (BACPIC, Biomagnetism and Clinical Physiology International Center) discusses magnetocardiography as a non-invasive way to monitor arrhythmic risk during space missions. He also asks whether NV-diamond magnetocardiography could be the “third milestone” after SQUIDs and optically pumped magnetometers.
• Teresa Pellegrino (IIT) presents magnetic nanoparticles and magnetic induction heating, where the magnetic field becomes both a therapeutic and a diagnostic tool, from hyperthermia to nanomedicine.
• Francesca Cosmi (University of Trieste, UNITS) discusses monitoring the elastic properties of bone under adaptive neuromuscular electrical stimulation. The work is crucial for countering the effects of microgravity on astronauts’ musculoskeletal system, with direct benefits for treating osteoporosis on Earth.

Programme at a glance

Thursday 8 October

• 10:30 – Opening of the conference
• 10:55–13:00 – Session I (4 talks)
• 14:00–16:00 – Session II (4 talks)
• 16:30–18:00 – Session III (3 talks)

Friday 9 October

• 09:10–10:40 – Session I (3 talks)
• 11:00–12:00 – Session II (2 talks)
• 18:00 – Closing remarks by Dr Monia Vadrucci (ASI)

A discreet messenger

The magnetic field is the most discreet messenger in the Universe. It tells us about the heart of a planet as readily as that of a patient, and about an astronaut’s brain as readily as a mineral on the sea floor. Listening to it takes ever finer ears, built into a chip. That is the challenge the ACDC_Q community has taken on.

Conference at a glance

• When: Thursday 8 and Friday 9 October 2026
• Where: “Giuseppe Colombo” Space Centre, Italian Space Agency (ASI), Matera, Italy
• Project: ACDC_Q, Horizon Europe, Grant Agreement No. 101189875

Contacts
Monia Vadrucci, Italian Space Agency (ASI), Science and Innovation Directorate – Research, Development and Advanced Training: monia.vadrucci@asi.it, +39 06 8567 479
Andrea Andrisani, Italian Space Agency (ASI), Matera Space Centre: andrea.andrisani@asi.it, +39 0835 377 559