.ICFO offers PhD-fellowship positions in Industrial Track to well-qualified graduate students who wish to obtain a doctoral degree in cutting-edge research fields of ICFO.The positions are offered in the scope of the FLIGHT Program, a MCSA-COFUND doctoral program explicitly focused on intersectoral research training in collaboration with Industrial Partners.Our PhD Fellowship Program welcomes applications from individuals with a degree in a field of mathematics, science, or engineering related to the ICFO research activities.Our PhD program brings together top-level training and teaching for young scientists, benefiting from the extensive course offerings of local universities and focused instruction by ICFO professors, in a stimulating, international, and interdisciplinary environment. PhD students have the opportunity to take advantage of our network of excellence, consisting of partners from national and international research institutes and universities, as well as industrial partners in the field.Selected PhD candidates will join the Industrial PhD Track, developing projects in close collaboration with industrial partners. Fellows will undertake secondments of 6–18 months at the partner organizations, ensuring full immersion in both academic and industrial settings throughout their fellowship.Research Projects Available The following projects are open for this call:IT008: How do crops avoid photodamage under the sun? – Supervisors: Prof. Dr. Nicoletta Liguori (ICFO) and Dr. Marta da Silva (IRTA)– Objective: The project aims to investigate how crop species and varieties balance the use of sunlight for growth while minimizing the risk of photodamage. The research will involve applying state-of-the-art biochemical and spectroscopic techniques to study photoprotection mechanisms across diverse crop species and varieties. The objective is to gain molecular-level insights into the strategies employed by crops to ensure efficient photoprotection and maintain biodiversity.Candidate Requirements: Essential:Recent graduate with a degree in Biology, Biotechnology, or Chemistry with experience in protein purification or protein biochemistry.Experience with research on plants or photosynthetic organisms considered a plus.Experience in spectroscopic characterization is desirable.Familiarity with ultrafast spectroscopy will be considered an advantage.Strong motivation and interest in the research area.IT009: FPGA-Based Hardware Acceleration for Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) and Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) Emulation – Supervisors: Prof. Dr. Valerio Pruneri (ICFO) and Dr. Pau Gomez Kabelka (LuxQuanta)– Objective: Develop FPGA-based PQC codes to strengthen the classical communication channels of LuxQuanta's QKD transceivers portfolio. This includes also developing an FPGA-based emulation of the optical transmission layers used for QKD, a versatile toolchain for optical simulation and verification