The Cyprus Institute’s Energy, Environment and Water Research Center (EEWRC) has been awarded a highly competitive EIC Pathfinder grant for the project “PHOTOconversion for Novel Integrated X-systems (PHOTONIX)”, marking a major milestone for Cyprus and European solar energy and photonics research.

 

Funded under the prestigious European Innovation Council (EIC) Pathfinder programme, PHOTONIX is coordinated by The Cyprus Institute (Cyprus) and brings together a multidisciplinary consortium that includes the leading Cypriot industrial partner Lumoscribe Ltd (Cyprus) which plays a central role in transforming cutting-edge research into deployable photonic solutions, along with the research partners Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (Germany) and the Institute of Photonics and Electronics of the Czech Academy of Sciences (Czech Republic).

 

PHOTONIX aims to pioneer a radically new class of solar-powered fiber lasers (SPFLs) that directly convert concentrated sunlight into coherent mid-infrared (mid-IR) laser radiation. By bypassing traditional electricity-dependent pumping, PHOTONIX introduces a new paradigm where solar energy drives photonic systems directly, a major step toward sustainable, energy-autonomous technologies for terrestrial and space applications. The project aims to address key scientific and engineering barriers that have long limited solar-pumped laser technologies, including inefficient solar coupling, suboptimal excitation dynamics, and thermal instability. Targeting quantum efficiencies exceeding 30%, PHOTONIX will strive to deliver:

• A sun-tracking, adaptive optical system optimized for coupling spatially incoherent sunlight into multi-mode fibers,
• Advanced multimode fibers engineered for solar pumping and robust thermal management,
• And the first demonstration of a continuous-wave solar-pumped fiber laser operating in the mid-IR at practical power levels.

By merging expertise in concentrated solar energy, photonics, and laser physics, the PHOTONIX consortium aims to deliver a compact solar-pumped laser prototype (TRL 4) that showcases the feasibility of high-performance, electricity-free photonic devices.

 

The project’s outcomes will open transformative possibilities in space exploration, biomedicine, advanced manufacturing, remote sensing, and next-generation telecommunications, among other fields. These applications directly align with the EIC’s vision to support bold, interdisciplinary research with transformative technological and societal impact.

 

“PHOTONIX embodies the essence of the EIC Pathfinder programme, i.e. visionary, interdisciplinary, and transformative,” said Dr. Kypros Milidonis, Assistant Professor at the Energy, Environment and Water Research Center (EEWRC) of The Cyprus Institute and Coordinator of PHOTONIX. “By harnessing concentrated solar energy as a direct power source for coherent light generation, we aim to bridge the worlds of solar energy and photonics, enabling sustainable, energy-independent technologies for the future.”

 

“We are extremely proud of this achievement,” added Prof. Theodoros Zachariadis, Acting Director of EEWRC. “Leading an EIC Pathfinder project of this caliber highlights the Institute’s and Center’s growing leadership in frontier European research and its strong commitment to advancing clean, deep-tech innovation from Cyprus. The collaboration with Lumoscribe Ltd exemplifies our effort to build meaningful partnerships between academia and local industry, strengthening Cyprus’s role in the European innovation ecosystem.”

The EIC Pathfinder programme supports visionary and high-risk research projects that have the potential to create radically new technologies and markets. The project PHOTONIX was selected through an extremely competitive process among thousands of proposals from across Europe, with a success rate below 2%, highlighting its outstanding scientific quality, disruptive innovation, and alignment with the European Union’s goals for sustainability and leadership in innovation.