The PIONEAR consortium met on 16 and 17 June 2026 in Uppsala, Sweden, for the project’s 7th General Assembly. Held at Hotel Villa Anna, the two-day in-person meeting brought together partners from across the consortium to review progress, discuss upcoming activities and coordinate the next steps towards PIONEAR’s ambition to develop a novel miniature photonic microphone with better-than-human-ear sound quality.
The General Assembly opened with a welcome by the Coordinator, Per Grön, from Lumiary, followed by a session led by accelopment on dissemination and exploitation, including communication. The first day continued with technical updates on the design and fabrication of the membrane and acoustic chamber, VCSEL design, fabrication and processing, and device design, digital signal processing and acoustic performance testing.
A key highlight of the first day was the consortium’s visit to the Myfab Cleanroom at Ångström Laboratory. The programme included a presentation on Myfab by Stefan Nygren, a scientific presentation by Vassilios Kapaklis from the Department of Physics and Astronomy on the characterisation of epitaxial thin-film heterostructures using X-ray scattering techniques, and a guided visit to the cleanroom facilities. The day concluded with a consortium dinner at Restaurant Granhof in Uppsala.
On the second day, partners focused on the progress of the microphone assembly and packaging using microtransfer printing, followed by the project management and coordination, including updates from the Executive Board, progress across deliverables and milestones, and a review of project risks. The meeting concluded with a Scientific and Technical Group discussion, providing space for partners to align on technical priorities and future work.
The 7th General Assembly marked an important opportunity for the PIONEAR partners to consolidate recent progress, exchange technical expertise and maintain a shared roadmap for the next project phase. By combining expertise in photonics, micro-mechanics, VCSEL technology, device integration, packaging, project management and exploitation, the consortium continues to advance the foundations of a new generation of high-performance acoustic sensing technologies.
