25 June 2026

ERF funding: On the nature of quantum reality

Philosopher and MCQST member, Alyssa Ney has been awarded an Advanced Grant by the European Research Council (ERC). The funding of up to 2.5 million euros supports highly innovative research projects that go beyond the current state of research and forge ahead into new research territories.

Professor Alyssa Ney is Chair of Metaphysics at the Faculty of Philosophy, Philosophy of Science and Religious Studies at LMU and member of the MCQST cluster of excellence.

Quantum technologies could soon become part of our everyday lives. But even 100 years after the founding of quantum physics, there is still no consensus on what it says about reality. Quantum phenomena such as entanglement call our conception of reality into question.

The role of the observer

In her new ERC project MetaQ – The Nature of Quantum Reality, Alyssa Ney aims to combine insights from physics and philosophy to forge a deeper understanding of the quantum world and our place within it. A central premise of the project is that consensus on the broader implications of quantum physics has been thwarted by fundamental disagreements about the role of the observer in physical theories.

This has caused philosophers to hesitate before taking the most influential interpretations of quantum mechanics among physicists seriously. While a prominent tradition going back to Albert Einstein holds that observers have no place in a fundamental physical theory, many physicists today believe that the reality described by quantum physics cannot be understood without ascribing a special role to observers.

The primary task of MetaQ is to precisely articulate the prevailing conceptions of quantum reality that place special emphasis on the role of observers. These go back to an idea by physicist John Wheeler that we live in a “participatory universe,” from which the concept of “it-from-bit” later emerged. Approaches of this kind include QBism and the information theoretical frameworks of Časlav Brukner, Markus Müller, and Anton Zeilinger.

MetaQ will provide the first comprehensive interdisciplinary metaphysical analysis and evaluation of these approaches. “Building on this, we want to develop an interpretation of quantum reality that can be used in metaphysics to advance work on several fundamental philosophical questions,” says Ney. These includes questions about the nature of physical reality, its relation to ourselves and our minds, and our status as free agents.

Congratulations!

News adapted from the LMU website.