DeCEMIS will bring to full technical maturity and commercial readiness the world’s first low energy detection system optimized for Cryo Electron Microscopy (CryoEM). CryoEM is an emerging and key enabling technology for reliable and cost-effective structural molecular analysis. The DeCEMIS FTI project will give more users world-wide access to CryoEM, leading to the development of new drugs and vaccines in Life Sciences and next generation of solar cells, batteries and catalysts in Material Sciences. CryoEM is becoming the gold standard for molecular structural analysis. Compared to alternative existing structural methods (e.g. X-ray crystallography or Nuclear Magnetic Resonance), CryoEM offers higher analysis flexibility and accuracy, particularly for heterogenous and radiation sensitive samples such as proteins and polymers. Among other achievements, CryoEM recently determined the first ever molecular structure of the COVID19 spike protein, providing key information for development of vaccines. Today, high-quality CryoEM structures are most commonly obtained using high energy, 300 keV microscopes, which due to their complexity and cost are accessible to only a limited number of research laboratories worldwide. Our innovative, direct detection Swift camera, based around a high-speed, wafer-scale CMOS image sensor, will enable high-quality molecular structure determination using less expensive 100keV CryoEM microscopes at a competitive price-to-performance ratio. By maturing our prototype for commercialization, the DeCEMIS project will pave the way for a new series of more affordable 100 keV Transmission Electron Microscopes with accessible, high-quality detection, aimed at making cryoEM available to more scientists. Commercialisation of the Swift direct detection camera will accelerate democratization of CryoEM for more applications while realizing large savings potential for CryoEM users.

Electron microscopy allows scientists to measure and image material properties down to the very atomic scale, bringing to fruition Feynman’s visionary idea that saw in the electron microscope the main instrument for nanoscience. However, its development has been restricted for many years to improving spatial and energetic resolution, through the adoption of bulky sets of magnetic lenses and multipoles. This approach has begun to feel limiting - since cross-fertilisation with light optics has shown the many possibilities hidden in the newly-acquired capacity to perform electron beam shaping. In the course of the Q-SORT FET project, we devised an innovative approach to electron beam shaping based on MEMS technology and complex analogue control of the device. MINEON will further validate the design of a MEMS-based spiral phase plate, based on the above approach. Crucially, we will also conduct market surveys, cost modelling, and extensive dissemination targeted at the intended user and funder communities, with the aim of attracting and probing the interest of prospective users and investors. Compared to standard electron optics, this approach is revolutionary because the setup is significantly simpler, more compact, much more flexible, enabling moreover the achievement of very unconventional phase effects. The entailed MEMS technology is of further future commercial interest because it enables many other possible types of beam shaping devices, which could address aberration correction, better material-free Zernike phase plates, multipole analysis of fields in a sample, computational ghost imaging. At the end of this project: - a series of working prototypes of the device and a pilot application for its more effective exploitation will be available - the market potential of the device will have been assessed - its existence will have been disseminated and advertised within the target communities - the cost & revenue model for its production will have been determined.

Electron microscopy (EM) is a key technology to reveal the atomic structure and chemical composition of materials with (sub-)Ångström resolution. It is an essential technique to enable the breakthroughs that are needed to solve societal challenges in renewable energy technology, life sciences, and communication and quantum technology. To realize these breakthroughs, we require EM technology with ultrafast time scale, ultrahigh energy resolution, covering low-energy spectral ranges and several other capabilities, all of which are beyond the present state of the art. The EBEAM project brings together a proven consortium of EM experts that will integrate their complementary EM science and technology into completely new EM measurement modalities, exploiting the unique interactions between free electrons and optical light fields, and thereby combining ultrahigh spectral and temporal control with sub-Ångström spatial resolution. The project’s ambition is to demonstrate <20 fs time resolution and <1 meV energy resolution, and to open up the 4-400 neV (1-100 MHz) energy range, all inaccessible in EM so far. Using new correlation and coincidence modalities that have never been used in EM before, we will unveil new methods to probe selection rules, low-energy band structures, trace elements, and more. We will demonstrate the broad applicability of the new EBEAM techniques by carrying out selected research projects that target key questions in energy conversion materials, opto-electronic materials and quantum technology. The consortium is composed of 8 EM groups in basic research and industry that represent a unique combination of EM instruments, knowledge and ideas that are well positioned to target the ambitious goals of the EBEAM project. It includes the world-leader in EM manufacturing and a successful SME. Together, the consortium will bring the EBEAM technology to a broad user community where it is expected to have strong scientific and economic impact.

Q-SORT introduces a revolutionary concept whereby the TEM is employed as a Quantum Sorter. All TEM techniques are in fact limited to the imaging and energy spectroscopy of the electron wavefunction. Moreover, when a single sample property is sought, most of the image information is useless, a waste that cannot be afforded in dose-sensitive materials. The Quantum Sorter leverages the recently-acquired capacity to structure e-beams, which implies that if, in a quantum experiment (tunable state preparation, interaction, analysis), the analysis is performed over the ‘optimal’ basis of quantum states, very few electrons are necessary for the full characterisation of a sought property, i.e. the TEM can be tuned to answer a single question but with maximum efficiency. To this end, Q-SORT introduces a new parallel analysis strategy, based on a suitable conformal mapping of the wavefunction: the starting point is the analysis of orbital angular momentum (OAM), but building a recipe for diagonalising a wider range of observables is one of the planned Breakthroughs of Q-SORT. This will in turn allow Q-SORT to achieve three other high-risk Breakthroughs of vast applicability: assessing the OAM of plasmonic resonances in select nanoparticles, achieving atomic-resolution magnetic dichroism, identifying different proteins based on selected properties. We believe that the Quantum Sorter will become so important that it will eventually be part of every state-of-the-art TEM, since the new technology is easy to integrate with energy-loss spectrometry. The project consortium includes some of the world leaders in optical and electronic vortex beams, as well as in protein cryoTEM. A major industrial partner in TEM is included, so as to secure market penetration of technological outcomes. The project avails itself of established resource and IPR management techniques. Gender balance and equal opportunities will be ensured. A comprehensive outreach and dissemination strategy is foreseen.

STREAM is a 4-year multi-site training network that aims at career development of Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) on scientific design, construction manufacturing and of advanced radiation instrumentation. STREAM targets the development of innovative radiation-hard, smart CMOS sensor technologies for scientific and industrial applications. The platform technology developed within the project will be tested in the demanding conditions posed by the CERN LHC detectors’ environment as well as European industry leaders in field of CMOS imaging, electron microscopy and radiation sensors. This leveraging factor will allow to fine-tune the technology to meet the requirements of industrial application cases on demand such as electron microscopy and medical X-ray imaging, as well as pathway towards novel application fields such as satellite environments, industrial X-ray systems and near-infrared imaging. The project will train a new generation of creative, entrepreneurial and innovative early-stage researchers and widen their academic career and employment opportunities. The STREAM consortium is composed of 10 research organisations and 5 industrial partners; the network will provide training to 17 ESRs. STREAM structures the research and training in four scientific work-packages which span the whole value-chain from research to application: CMOS Technologies Assessment, Smart Sensor Design and Layout, Validation and Qualification, Technology Integration, and Valorization.