Lionel Clermont and Christophe Collette have each been awarded a Proof of Concept grant from the European Research Council (ERC). This funding of 150,000 euros is intended to bring two innovations stemming from their fundamental research closer to the market: a new optical diagnostic tool for space telescopes and an optical gyroscope designed to isolate precision instruments from vibrations.
A Research Professor at the STAR Institute (Faculty of Sciences), Lionel Clermont has been awarded Proof of Concept funding for his nGHOST2Market project, which aims to turn an innovative method for characterising stray light into a concrete solution for the space optical instruments industry.
Stray light is unwanted light that reaches the detector through unintended optical paths and degrades image quality — a major challenge for the instruments carried aboard satellites. Current tests return a pass or fail result without revealing which component is responsible, making corrections lengthy and costly. To overcome this hurdle, the researcher has developed a Time-of-Flight method that combines ultrafast laser illumination with picosecond time-resolved detection: each stray-light contribution, following a different path, reaches the detector at a distinct moment, making it possible to isolate each contribution and trace it back to its physical origin.
Stemming from the ERC nGHOST project, nGHOST2Market is not about fundamental research but about supporting the transition to industry — where the technology is already drawing interest from several major missions: market analysis and validation of the "product-market fit," followed by a demonstration in an environment representative of industrial use. Running over eighteen months, the valorisation component will be carried out with the RISE service (Research, Innovation, Support and Enterprises) at ULiège.
Professor Christophe Collette, Director of the Precision Mechatronics Laboratory (School of Engineering), has secured Proof of Concept funding for GrAVITe (Gyroscope for Active Vibration Isolation of Telescopes). Directly linked to the future Einstein Telescope, the project aims to develop and validate a large-scale optical gyroscope capable of improving the vibration isolation of instruments at the lowest frequencies.
The most sensitive instruments, such as gravitational wave detectors, must be isolated from constant ground vibrations. However, current sensors confuse actual displacement with simple tilting. GrAVITe proposes to replace them with an optical gyroscope based on the Sagnac effect. The larger such a gyroscope is, the more accurate it is. It will be installed on the SILENT platform, developed thanks to an ERC Consolidator grant.
Validation will take place in two stages: first on a vacuum prototype, then on a full-scale model, in partnership with the French company MAÅGM and the RISE department at ULiège. Beyond gravitational waves, potential applications include seismology, astronomy and quantum computing.
Reserved for ERC grant holders, Proof of Concept funding (€150,000, for up to 18 months) helps researchers explore the innovative, commercial or societal potential of an idea arising from their fundamental research funded by the European Research Council.
L'édition 2026 de la Nuit des Chercheur·es se tiendra le vendredi 25 septembre 2026. Impliquée dans la Nuit des Chercheur·es depuis sa création, l'ULiège vous invite à participer à cette manifestation de culture scientifique.
Five years on from the July 2021 floods, four studies carried out by engineers at the Hydraulics in Environmental and Civil Engineering (HECE) laboratory at the University of Liège shed new light on these extreme floods.
Among the grants awarded by the FRS-FNRS this year, 119 will finance research carried out by scientists at the University of Liège.
