The European Research Council (ERC) has awarded a Synergy Grant with a total budget of 14 M€ to four scientists: Daniel Bemmerer from Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR; coordinating), Alba Formicola from Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN),
Gianluca Imbriani from Università degli studi di Napoli Federico II, both in Italy, and Aldo Serenelli from Instituto de Ciencias del Espacio (ICE-CSIC) in Spain. The ambitious aim of their project LUNANOVA is to revolutionize the model of our sun.
“We are deeply honored to have received this prestigious ERC Grant, LUNANOVA proposes a unified research approach that jointly combines experimental and theoretical expertise, where progress in one field will directly foster progress in the others”, stated Alba Formicola. “We will have the possibility to attract young researchers, promoting international collaboration and ensuring a continuous exchange of knowledge. In this way, beyond advancing fundamental science, the project will stand as a strategical investment, ensuring the European scientific community a leading position in nuclear astrophysics of global significance.” I would like to thank LUNA collaboration for its ability to generate ever more stimulating scientific ideas, open new paths of knowledge and to support its collaborators”, concluded Formicola.
INFN therefore receives a contribution of about 6.2 million euros from the European funding for the project based at Gran Sasso National Laboratory, which remains a major attraction for PhD students and young researchers providing excellence and advanced training.
Deep inside our sun, nuclear reactions burn hydrogen, the lightest chemical element, to helium, the second lightest. These fusion processes and their implications are described in the so-called standard solar model. This model is the blueprint for understanding thousands of solar-like stars. For the sun, the model can be validated by observations of solar neutrinos, of seismic waves at the solar surface, and of the elemental abundances in the solar atmosphere.
However, there is a surprising problem: The computer model of our sun is much less precise than these very difficult observations. To put it figuratively, the solar model is standing on its head (the observations), not on its feet (the input physics). A fundamental reason for this problem lies in the uncertainties of nuclear physics.
Starting in 2026, LUNANOVA aims to solve this problem. The four lead scientists and their teams will perform accelerator experiments deep underground in the Gran Sasso National Laboratory of INFN in Italy, at the Felsenkeller lab in Dresden, and at other labs in Germany and Italy. They will study the solar fusion reactions. The group will interpret their data first in the nuclear and, subsequently, in the solar and astrophysical contexts, informing a completely new solar model.
Over a time, span of six years, LUNANOVA will thus remove the now-dominant nuclear physics uncertainty from the solar model.
Alba Formicola is a researcher of the INFN Rome Division and international responsible for the scientific collaboration of the experiment LUNA (Laboratory for Underground Nuclear Astrophysics) at Gran Sasso National Laboratory of INFN, where she wa salso responsible for the Research Division. Her scientific activity, documented by about 100 publications, is focused on nuclear astrophysics. Over the years she has developed new experimental approaches and introduced innovative analysis methods to investigate nuclear processes of astrophysical interest. She is also a mentor to many young researchers and students, contributing to the training of new generations in the field of nuclear physics and astrophysics.
REIS - 06.11.2025