Unconventional Computing Nordic Research Network (UniCoRN) is a new interdisciplinary initiative uniting early-career researchers from four Nordic countries: Sweden, Finland, Norway, and Denmark to explore radically new approaches to computing. While today’s intelligent systems have made impressive strides, their dependence on energy-intensive digital infrastructure raises critical concerns about sustainability, efficiency, and long-term scalability. Inspired by natural systems that perform complex tasks with minimal energy, the UniCoRN network focuses on unconventional computing paradigms that tightly couple algorithms with their physical realization.
By combining expertise across physics, computer science, mathematics, neuroscience, and materials science, we aim to rethink how information can be processed taking insights and inspiration from biological and physical systems. Guided by Marr’s tri-level hypothesis, the UniCoRN network will pursue computing systems that seamlessly integrate computational, algorithmic, and implementational levels; an integration common in nature but missing in traditional computing architectures.
Over its three-year duration, the UniCoRN network will facilitate collaboration between researchers in the Nordic region through annual network meetings, targeted exchange visits for young researchers, and a summer school on unconventional computing. These activities are designed to foster interdisciplinary synergies, promote academic mobility, and train the next generation of researchers. Each network meeting will also involve stakeholders to connect basic research with industry and public sector needs in the Nordic region. In parallel, we will map the existing expertise in unconventional computing across the region and lay the foundation for developing a collaborative roadmap to guide future research efforts. We are committed to promoting gender balance, open science, and research integrity throughout all network activities.
The UniCoRN network represents a strategic step toward developing sustainable, physically grounded, and efficient computing systems that could transform domains such as robotics, mobile systems, climate science, and cloud computing. In doing so, it aims to strengthen the Nordic region’s international influence and competitiveness in emerging areas of computing technology.
