The Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities has awarded Xavier Roca-Maza, researcher at the Institute of Cosmos Sciences of the University of Barcelona (ICCUB), a Consolidación Investigadora 2026 grant for the project NGEDF (Next-Generation Energy Density Functionals).
The Consolidación Investigadora programme aims to strengthen and consolidate the scientific careers of established researchers by supporting ambitious, high-impact research projects. In the 2025 call, the NGEDF project has been selected for its innovative approach to one of the central challenges in nuclear theory: the development of accurate and predictive nuclear energy density functionals.
Towards next-generation nuclear models
The NGEDF project aims to improve how scientists model and understand the atomic nucleus. These models are essential for explaining why nuclei have certain sizes, masses and properties, but current approaches rely on mathematical formulas that were largely designed by hand and can be too rigid to fully capture the complexity of nuclear matter.
Instead of fine-tuning existing formulas, NGEDF takes a different approach. The project will use advanced computer algorithms, including machine learning, to automatically explore and build new mathematical descriptions of nuclei. By combining large sets of nuclear data with physical principles, this method will identify the simplest and most accurate models that can reliably predict nuclear properties, while also indicating how uncertain those predictions are.
This new strategy is expected to lead to more reliable and transparent nuclear models, opening the door to a deeper understanding of atomic nuclei and improving predictions in areas where experimental data are scarce or difficult to obtain.
Impact on nuclear physics and beyond
By advancing the foundations of nuclear density functional theory, the NGEDF project is expected to have a significant impact on multiple areas of nuclear physics, from the structure of exotic nuclei to applications in nuclear astrophysics, including the physics of neutron stars. More broadly, the project exemplifies how modern data science techniques can be integrated into fundamental theoretical physics while preserving physical insight and interpretability.
This grant further reinforces ICCUB’s role as a leading center in theoretical nuclear physics and strengthens its contribution to frontier research at the intersection of physics, mathematics and artificial intelligence.
