The new Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Doctoral Network will train 15 doctoral candidates in next-generation photonic technologies by combining metamaterials, structured light, ultrafast optics, and nanophotonics. Prof. Marco Piccardo will lead the INESC MN contribution—€0.6 million to develop spatiotemporal meta-optics.
Light is at the heart of modern life. It carries data through the internet, enables high-speed communication, powers advanced sensors, and plays a growing role in computing and artificial intelligence. Yet today’s photonic technologies are reaching their limits: they are often static, slow to adapt, and increasingly energy-hungry.
To overcome these barriers, a new European doctoral network in photonics, SPARK — Spatiotemporal photonic technologies — has been awarded €4.5 million under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Doctoral Networks program to transform how light is generated, shaped, and manipulated. Prof. Marco Piccardo, head of the Multimode Photonics Group, will lead the INESC MN contribution with €0.6 million dedicated to vectorial and inverse-designed metasurfaces, ultrathin nanophotonic materials with unique control of polarization for ultrashort pulses. Running for 48 months, the project will train 15 doctoral candidates through a coordinated research and doctoral education program focused on controlling light in both space and time.
SPARK addresses a central challenge in photonics: how to move beyond static or slowly tunable optical components toward systems that can manipulate light with far greater speed, flexibility, and efficiency. The network will combine spatiotemporal metamaterials with spatiotemporally structured light to create programmable optical responses with control over frequency, phase, momentum, polarization, and angular momentum. Its research and training activities are organized around three connected areas: developing spatiotemporal metamaterials and their theoretical foundations; generating and controlling spatiotemporal light fields with metasurfaces and photonic crystals; and demonstrating early technologies for ultrafast computing, imaging, and communication.
The network is coordinated by Humeyra Caglayan (TU/e EE) and brings together with Marco Piccardo additional 6 principal investigators: Nicolò Maccaferri (UMU), Iñigo Liberal (UPNA), Paloma Arroyo Huidobro (UAM), Michaël Lobet (UNamur), Riccardo Sapienza (Imperial), and Ahmed H. Dorrah (TU/e AP). Together, the consortium spans complementary expertise in metamaterials, structured light, ultrafast optics, theory, nanofabrication, and photonic engineering.
“SPARK is an opportunity to build a truly European effort at the frontier of photonics,” said Marco Piccardo. “By working together with leaders across the field, we aim to advance a new science of spatiotemporal light while training the next generation of researchers and innovators who will carry these ideas into future technologies.” SPARK brings together beneficiary institutions in the Netherlands, Sweden, Portugal, Belgium, Spain, and the United Kingdom, and is designed to give doctoral candidates strong exposure to both academic and application-driven research. In addition to the academic beneficiaries, the project includes 10 non-academic partners in photonics.
According to the European Commission, the 2025 MSCA Doctoral Networks call will support 141 doctoral programmes with €617.18 million, training and developing the skills of around 2,115 doctoral candidates.
