PHINDER: New consortium for developing ultrafast photonic sensors with neuromorphic computing

PHINDER Consortium, with Spanish participation, awarded €3.2 Million EU Grant to Advance Ultra-Fast Photonic Sensing with Neuromorphic Computing

29th January 2026 | by P. Vischia

The European Union has awarded €3.2 million in funding to the PHINDER project, an EIC Pathfinder Open initiative aimed at revolutionizing high-resolution optical sensing. PHINDER is a consortium formed by the Luleä Technical University (Sweden), University of Lund (Sweden), Eindhoven Technical University (Netherlands), University of Oviedo (ICTEA, Spain), University of Cantabria (IFCA, Spain), the National Institute for Nuclear Research (Italy), and the company Hewlett Packard Belgium. was ranked among the top 2% of the proposals submitted this year and will combine photonic sensors with spiking neural networks to achieve picosecond-scale, high-throughput event detection and analysis, delivering a 100-fold improvement in energy efficiency over the state of the art, sub-nanosecond latency, and unprecedented spatiotemporal resolution. This represents an important innovation that exploits the emerging technique of neuromorphic computing and brings it significantly forward. By integrating advances in artificial intelligence, information processing, and photonics, PHINDER aims to unlock transformative capabilities in imaging, sensing, particle detection, and advanced data processing, consolidating Europe as a global leader in next-generation experimental science.