International projects
International cooperation is one of the key segments of the work of the Institute of Physics, Belgrade. Since its foundation, the Institute has fostered various forms of this kind of cooperation, and for many years, it has been one of the most active and successful scientific and research institutions in Serbia, in terms of the number of international projects. In the period since 2011, the Institute of Physics, Belgrade has participated in more than 130 international scientific projects and collaborations. In this period the following projects were completed: 56 bilateral projects, 19 FP6/FP7/X2020 projects, three projects of the Swiss National Science Foundation (SCOPES), eight projects with academies of science, two projects of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, one project of NATO – Partnership for Peace (PfP), one project in cooperation with the Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF), three commercial projects and 44 COST actions. With a considerable experience in international cooperation and having ties with numerous scientific research and educational institutions, the Institute of Physics, Belgrade has constantly fostered this type of cooperation through international projects.
Selected projects
Gamma Radiation from the Atmosphere for Investigation and Learning
The Gamma Radiation from the Atmosphere for Investigation and Learning (GRAIL) project is part of the Horizon Europe program and the prestigious Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions for establishing international doctoral networks. The project is led by Dr Saša Dujko from the Non-equilibrium Processes Center at the Institute of Physics Belgrade.
The project brings together 15 research institutions from across Europe and one institution from the United States. It is coordinated by the Atmospheric Electricity and Discharges Group at the Technical University of Dortmund in Germany, while the Institute of Physics Belgrade participates as an associated member.
The GRAIL project aims to advance the understanding of a new class of high‑energy phenomena in thunderclouds. In addition to the well‑known Terrestrial Gamma‑ray Flashes (TGFs), the most energetic natural phenomenon on Earth, the project will, for the first time, systematically investigate the mechanisms responsible for Flickering Gamma‑ray Flashes (FGFs), a newly discovered form of high‑energy radiation associated with thunderclouds. FGFs are extremely rapid, repetitive bursts of gamma radiation that originate within storm clouds, most often immediately before a TGF and the sudden collapse of the electric field inside the cloud.
In addition to FGFs, the project also encompasses the study of Thunderstorm Ground Enhancements (TGEs) — temporary increases in ionising radiation detected at ground level during thunderstorms, manifested as sudden rises in the flux of gamma rays, electrons, and muons. TGEs represent an enhancement of ionising radiation at the surface caused by strong electric fields in thunderclouds. The project will also include the research of Gamma‑ray Glows (GRGs), the long‑lasting emissions of gamma radiation within storm clouds, lasting from several tens of seconds to several minutes. GRGs are the most persistent high‑energy phenomenon associated with electrical activity in thunderclouds.
In terms of direct scientific work, the Centre for Nonequilibrium Processes at the Institute of Physics will contribute to modelling transient plasmas and high‑energy phenomena in planetary atmospheres, with a focus on understanding the mechanisms underlying runaway electrons, electron and positron beams, and gamma‑ray emission. These processes occur in thunderclouds in Earth’s atmosphere, as well as in analogous charged cloud systems on other planets, including exoplanets.
The Centre will be actively involved in training doctoral candidates, preparing scientific publications, organising summer and winter schools, and all other activities typical of European projects of this kind.
The GRAIL project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska‑Curie grant agreement No. 101227208.
More information is available at: https://grail.physik.tu-dortmund.de/
Hidden Phases in 2D Quantum Materials
The ERA Chair project Hidden Phases in 2D Quantum Materials (HIP-2D-QM) is being implemented by a research team from the Institute’s Center for Solid State Physics, led by Dr. Nenad Lazarević. ERA Chairs is an instrument within the Horizon Europe framework program designed to strengthen the research capacities of universities and research institutes.
The project aims to establish a new research unit integrated into the Institute’s existing Center of Excellence – the Center for Solid State Physics and New Materials. This new research entity will be closely connected with the existing laboratories for solid-state physics, nanostructures, 2D materials, and electronic materials.
In addition to the materials characterization techniques already employed at the Center—including Raman, infrared and Brillouin spectroscopy, spectroscopic ellipsometry, AFM/STM, and magnetotransport measurements—the project will introduce a new Fourier-based method founded on total scattering analysis.
The project is motivated by the challenge of characterizing hidden phases in kagome crystals, a class of materials that is currently at the forefront of global condensed matter research. Through the ERA Chair initiative, the Institute’s existing research group, which is already internationally recognized, will address these cutting-edge scientific challenges.
As part of the project, the Institute will expand its use of measurements at large-scale research facilities in studies of condensed matter and novel materials. It will also establish a training center for advanced experimental methods, open to researchers from Serbia, the Western Balkans region, and Southeast Europe.
The project will further strengthen the Institute’s position as a center of excellence within the European Research Area and enhance collaboration with industrial partners. At the same time, it will promote knowledge transfer, researcher mobility, and networking among scientists and young talents, thereby contributing significantly to the development of Serbia’s science and innovation ecosystem.
The project will also enable the return of Dr. Emil Božin, a distinguished expert in the field, and support the establishment of a leading regional center for experimental solid-state physics.
The total project budget amounts to €2.5 million.
Project website: https://www.hip2dqm.solidstate.ipb.ac.rs/
BioQantSense: Twinning for Excellence of the Serbian Research Center for Quantum Biophotonics
The Twinning project, coordinated by the Institute of Physics Belgrade and involving the Italian National Research Council (Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche), Friedrich Schiller University Jena (Germany), and the Faculty of Biology of the University of Belgrade, aims to enhance the excellence and international reputation of the Institute of Physics Belgrade through scientific, managerial, and administrative capacity building.
The project will establish and develop the field of quantum biophotonics at the Institute while further advancing various research aspects of biophotonics.
Quantum biophotonics is an emerging research field that enables ultra-sensitive and reliable measurements in biological environments, offering capabilities that surpass those of conventional classical metrology. This multidisciplinary scientific area has significant potential applications in medicine, pharmaceuticals, agriculture, and environmental protection.
Through the Twinning instrument, research institutions from European Union Member States—in this case Germany and Italy—share their expertise with partner institutions from candidate countries, namely the Institute of Physics Belgrade, as well as with the local partner, the Faculty of Biology of the University of Belgrade. The Faculty contributes to the selection, preparation, and cultivation of suitable biological samples required for the research activities.
By strengthening scientific cooperation, knowledge exchange, and institutional capacities, the project will contribute to the development of a leading Serbian research center in the rapidly growing field of quantum biophotonics.
More information: https://bioqsense.ipb.ac.rs/index.php
The EUROCC2 project (National Competence Centers in the framework of EuroHPC), funded by the European High-Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPCJU), provides training, interacts with industry, develops competency mapping as well as communication materials and activities and supports the adoption of high-performance computing services in other related fields, such as quantum computing, artificial intelligence, high-performance data analytics, and more. Within this project, the EUROCC2 national competence center, HPC Serbia, was established. As a center for high performance computing, HPC Serbia is building a European network of national centers of competence for high performance computing, acting as a hub for promoting and facilitating the adoption of this and related technologies in a range of industries.
The head of the Institute of Physics is Dr. Antun Balaž.
ARTEMIS
The European Council for Innovation within the call 2022 EIC Pathfinder as one of 44 projects with a great impact in key areas of technology also chose the ARTEMIS project, within which researchers from the Institute of Physics in Belgrade collaborate with colleagues from ten scientific institutions from six European countries. ARTEMIS is motivated by the urgent need for new quantum sources with unprecedented versatility, flexibility and performance. The project proposes fundamental research in the direction of the development of integrable single and interleaved photon sources based on metalorganic molecular compounds. The idea is for flexible metal-organic materials to replace traditional quantum photonic sources based on inorganic crystals. The devices and methods developed within this project are planned to lead to photonic sources with competitive performance in terms of coherence, efficiency, scalability and cost. This would lead, as the authors of the project claim, to a fundamental breakthrough in the development of quantum technology, paving the way for its exit from the laboratory to the real world.
Young planetesimal belts
Planetesimals, which can be from just a few meters to several hundred kilometers in diameter, are formed from dust, rocks and other solid materials. These materials can continue to clump together to form asteroids, comets, Kuiper belt objects, and planets. The recent discovery of many young exoplanetary systems that appear to have planetesimal belts with unexpectedly large amounts of gas suggests that new computational models of the processes that shape the dust distribution in these systems are needed. This is exactly the goal of the Young planetesimal belts project, for which Dr. Marija Janković won the prestigious Marija Sklodovska-Curie scholarship. The results of this project will help interpret future observations and illuminate the process of gas and dust accretion during planet formation.
(2021-2023)
The project leader is Dr Jelena Jovićević
The Standard Model of particle physics describes three of four fundamental interactions: strong, weak and electromagnetic. However, the model does not account for gravity at the quantum level. The effects of quantum gravity can be manifested through the Lorenz invariance violation (LIV), the basic space-time symmetry. With the support of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the project plans to identify signatures of Lorenz invariance and develop a framework for detecting them using the experiments at the existing high-energy particle colliders.
QGP tomography
(2017-2023)
The project leader is Dr Magdalena Đorđević of the Institute of Physics.
Quark-Gluon plasma is a primordial state of matter consisting of quarks and gluons interacting. In order to understand the properties of Quark-Gluon plasma, researchers on this project have been developing a new precise tomographic tool. Using this tool, they test their hypothesis on the medium (i.e. whether mass acts as an almost perfect fluid close to critical temperatures, and as a weakly-paired system at higher temperatures), map ‘soft-to-hard’ borders for Quark-Gluon Plasma and test types of system in which it forms.
NI4OS
National Initiatives for Open Science in Europe
(2019-2023)
The project leader at the Institute of Physics is Dr Antun Balaž.
National Initiatives for Open Science in Europe aims to be a key building block to the formation of the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) service portfolio. The project employs a strong human network covering a wide range of interested parties. It is committed to facilitating access to infrastructure, data, resources and services to users to exchange knowledge and providing possibilities to increase the innovative capacity of regional science.
Nowelties
(2019-2023)
The project leader at the Institute of Physics is Dr Nevena Puač.
The primary goal of the project is to set up a platform which is to provide high-tech training opportunities for the education of future experts in water treatment. The research programme consists of 14 individual projects which aim to develop innovative technologies for water treatment. These technologies should enable the control of contamination by organic micro pollutants and improve the recovery of water.