A quantum simulator and artificial vision, among the projects selected by the BBVA Foundation's Fundamentals Program

The BBVA Foundation has announced the selection of five projects under the Fundamentals Program, which highlight the importance of basic science in solving contemporary challenges. Endowed with three million euros (600,000 per project), over a three-year execution period, those selected will address fundamental questions in diverse fields such as physics and chemistry; mathematics, statistics, computer science and artificial intelligence; biology and biomedicine; environmental sciences and social sciences.

The objectives that the selected projects seek to achieve are varied. They cover critical areas of research ranging from unraveling cell division to designing much more sophisticated artificial vision and robotic perception systems to analyzing the extent to which cultural factors shape the way personal relationships are structured and condition issues such as integration of the migrant population. Additionally, understanding of superconductivity and evolutionary interactions between plants and soil microorganisms will be discussed.

They are led by three main researchers from Spanish centers with offices in Madrid, Catalonia, Valencia and Andalusia. They will also have international collaboration in Germany (University of Tübingen) and the USA (J. Craig Venter Institute in California and the University of Florida).

The project An electronic quantum simulator (EQS), led by Adrian Bachtold, Carmen Rubio and Frank Henricus Louis Koppens of the Institute of Photonic Sciences in Barcelona, focuses on using graphene to unravel the mysteries of high-temperature superconductivity, opening the door to an ultra-efficient electric transmission.

On the other hand, the project Leveraging vision science to overcome critical limitations of artificial neural networks (VIS4NN for its acronym in English), directed by Marcelo Bertalmío, Jesús Malo López and Felix Wichmann, aims to overcome the limitations of current artificial vision systems, transforming their operation so that it more closely resembles that of the human brain.

In the field of biology and biomedicine, the project The physical basis of cell division in minimal and synthetic cells (MINCELL), led by Saúl Ares García, Germán Rivas Caballero and John Glass, seeks to understand cell division in minimal synthetic cells, shedding light on the foundations of life itself.

The project Unrevealing coevolutionary patterns in plants and microbes under environmental stress from local to global scales (EVOLBIOME), headed by Manuel Delgado Baquerizo, Francisco Ignacio Pugnaire de Iraola and Rubén Torices Blanco, aims to understand the evolutionary interactions between plants and soil microbes to improve the conservation of ecosystems.

Finally, the project Mapping cultural diversity through personal networks (MapCDPerNets for its acronym in English), led by Anxo Sánchez Sánchez, José Luis Molina González and Christopher McCarty, aims to understand how culture influences the structure of personal social networks, with important implications for the integration of the migrant population and other social aspects.

Selected from 305 applications, they represent a significant investment in basic research, highlighting the need for the advancement of scientific knowledge and its application in solving global problems. With a total endowment of three million euros, the Fundamentals Program demonstrates the crucial value of basic science in building a sustainable and prosperous future.

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