Institute for Nonequilibrium Phenomena: INeP

The Institute for Nonequilibrium Phenomena — INeP is dedicated to the study of systems that evolve, adapt, compute, organize, and transform far from equilibrium. Its central scientific premise is that many of the most important phenomena in nature, technology, and society cannot be understood through static equilibrium descriptions alone. Living systems, climate dynamics, financial markets, neural circuits, adaptive materials, artificial intelligence, and energy infrastructures are all driven, dissipative, fluctuating, and interconnected systems. They persist not because they are at rest, but because they continuously exchange energy, matter, and information with their environments.

INeP aims to develop a unified scientific language for such systems. It brings together nonequilibrium thermodynamics, statistical physics, complex systems, network science, information theory, computation, climate science, biology, economics, and engineering. Its goal is not simply to study complexity in general, but to understand the specific principles by which nonequilibrium systems generate order, structure, adaptation, resilience, and failure.

The timing for such an institute is particularly strong. Recent progress in nonequilibrium physics, stochastic thermodynamics, fluctuation theorems, thermodynamics of computation, active matter, complex networks, and data-driven modeling has created a new opportunity to build a coherent research program around nonequilibrium phenomena. Despite the existence of leading centers devoted to complexity, theoretical physics, or interdisciplinary science, very few institutions focus explicitly and systematically on nonequilibrium phenomena as their central organizing theme. INeP is designed to fill this gap.

Located in Lucca, INeP benefits from a distinctive institutional and geographic setting with strong ties with the IMT university. IMT offers an intellectually strong, interdisciplinary environment, with existing expertise in network science, complex systems, statistical physics, data science, economics, and institutional analysis. The support and space provided by IMT would allow INeP to establish a physical laboratory and intellectual hub capable of hosting researchers, seminars, workshops, equipment, and international collaborations.

Lucca is also a uniquely attractive location. It sits at the heart of Tuscany, close to major cultural and scientific centers such as Pisa and Florence, and is well connected by train and by nearby airports in Pisa, Florence, and Rome. Its position makes it easily accessible from across Europe and well placed as a meeting point between Europe, Asia, and Africa. This combination of scientific infrastructure, cultural attractiveness, accessibility, and quality of life makes Lucca an ideal site for an international institute designed to attract visitors, organize workshops, and build long-term collaborations.

INeP’s proposed leadership, core members, and advisory network bring together substantial scientific authority, administrative and organizational experience, and strong international visibility. The team has experience interacting with major international institutes and research environments, including centers such as the Perimeter Institute, ICTP, Les Houches, LANL, SFI, and other leading institutions. Its scientific network is broad, global, and interdisciplinary, and the advisory committee is both eclectic and highly prominent, spanning nonequilibrium physics, complex systems, computation, economics, biology, and applied science.

Driven Systems, Thermodynamics, and Complex Dynamics

Research on Driven Systems, Thermodynamics, and Complex Dynamics at INeP seeks to understand how order, structure, and information emerge and persist in systems that are constantly out of balance. From the energy flows that sustain living and climatic systems to the feedback loops that shape financial, biological, and computational networks, INeP studies the physics of persistence under drive: the principles that allow systems to maintain coherence, process information, and adapt while dissipating energy.

The Institute focuses on novel approaches to nonequilibrium thermodynamics, including:

information thermodynamics and entropy production in adaptive, biological, and learning systems;
fluctuation theorems and stochastic energetics applied to physical, biological, socio-economic, and computational dynamics;
thermodynamic geometry and path-dependent processes linking microscopic irreversibility to macroscopic behavior;
emergent conservation laws, effective symmetries, and constraints in systems driven by external fields, internal feedback, or adaptive control;
thermodynamics of computation, learning, inference, and decision-making;
multiscale modeling of systems in which local interactions generate collective order.

By linking energy, information, and structure, INeP aims to help construct a modern thermodynamic framework for complex systems. Such a framework must describe not only equilibrium states, but also the dynamic trajectories through which systems evolve, learn, adapt, and sometimes fail.

This research has implications far beyond foundational physics. It provides tools for understanding biological organization, energy-efficient computation, climate transitions, financial instability, medical resilience, and the design of adaptive technologies.

Climate, Energy, and Environmental Transitions

Research in Climate, Energy, and Environmental Transitions at INeP seeks to uncover the principles governing the Earth as a complex driven system: a coupled interplay of atmosphere, oceans, biosphere, energy flows, infrastructure, and human activity. The Institute studies how nonlinear responses, feedbacks, thresholds, and cascading effects emerge from the coupling of physical, biological, technological, and socio-economic processes.

INeP focuses on modeling nonlinear climate responses and environmental tipping points arising from anthropogenic and natural forcing. A central goal is to identify early-warning indicators of critical transitions and to understand how fluctuations, irreversibility, and feedback shape the trajectory of the Earth system under stress.

The Institute combines physics-based models, network theory, statistical physics, data assimilation, and machine learning to study:

climate tipping points and critical transitions;
cascading risks across environmental, economic, and infrastructural networks;
energy security and the stability of energy systems under technological and geopolitical stress;
resilience of coupled climate–energy–economy systems;
uncertainty quantification and risk assessment for adaptation and mitigation;
biosphere–climate feedbacks and long-term planetary stability.

At the planetary scale, many climate and environmental processes are inherently nonequilibrium phenomena. Ocean circulation, atmospheric convection, carbon cycling, biosphere feedbacks, extreme events, and human-induced transitions are driven by flows of energy, matter, and information. INeP’s approach connects fundamental nonequilibrium physics to urgent environmental challenges, aiming to improve our ability to anticipate, interpret, and respond to systemic change.

This area is also strategically connected to energy security. As societies transition toward renewable energy, electrified infrastructure, distributed grids, and data-intensive systems, new forms of instability and interdependence emerge. INeP will study these transformations as nonequilibrium processes, where resilience depends on understanding feedback, adaptation, network structure, and cascading failure.

Artificial Intelligence, Adaptive Systems, and Unconventional Computing

Research in Artificial Intelligence, Adaptive Systems, and Unconventional Computing at INeP explores the physical and conceptual foundations of computation as a nonequilibrium process. Computation is not only an abstract algorithmic procedure: it is also a physical activity that consumes energy, transforms information, and occurs in systems subject to noise, dissipation, constraints, and feedback.

INeP investigates how learning, adaptation, inference, and control emerge in systems poised far from equilibrium. This includes both theoretical work on the thermodynamic cost of computation and experimental work on new hardware platforms where computation arises from physical dynamics rather than rigid digital architectures.

A particular focus will be placed on self-organizing memristive networks, low-power AI-on-chip, neuromorphic architectures, and in-materia computing. These systems offer a promising bridge between nonequilibrium physics, adaptive networks, and future computing technologies. In such systems, computation can emerge from the collective behavior of nonlinear, history-dependent, dissipative components.

The INeP Laboratory at IMT will provide space for measurement equipment, prototyping, device characterization, and experimental work on these platforms. This laboratory component is essential: it allows INeP to move beyond theory and simulation toward physical implementations of nonequilibrium computation.

This area has direct relevance for energy-efficient AI, neuromorphic computing, adaptive materials, robotics, biological computation, and the future of low-power intelligent devices.

Biology, Medicine, and Living Systems

Living systems are among the most important examples of nonequilibrium organization. Cells, tissues, brains, immune systems, and organisms persist by continuously consuming energy, processing information, repairing damage, and adapting to changing environments. INeP will study biological and medical systems through the lens of nonequilibrium dynamics, with particular attention to resilience, regulation, adaptation, and failure.

The Institute will investigate how biological systems maintain stability while remaining flexible, how information flows through molecular and neural networks, and how disease can emerge from disruptions in dynamical organization. This includes work on neuronal dynamics, biological computation, active matter, adaptive networks, cellular decision-making, and the thermodynamics of living systems.

In medicine, a nonequilibrium perspective can help characterize transitions between healthy and pathological states. Many diseases may be understood not only as static defects, but as dynamical failures of regulation, adaptation, and resilience. INeP’s methods could contribute to new approaches in systems medicine, cancer dynamics, neurobiological disorders, aging, immune response, and personalized treatment strategies.

The Institute’s interest in neuronal cultures, synthetic biological systems, and bio-inspired computation also creates a bridge between biology and artificial intelligence. By studying how living systems compute and adapt under energetic and physical constraints, INeP aims to contribute both to fundamental biology and to the design of more efficient artificial systems.

Economics and Finance

Research in Economics and Finance at INeP explores markets and economies as complex adaptive systems. Rather than treating economies as systems that naturally settle into static equilibria, INeP studies them as evolving networks shaped by feedback, adaptation, institutional structure, technological change, and collective decision-making under uncertainty.

Economic and financial systems are deeply nonequilibrium. They are driven by flows of capital, information, expectations, energy, labor, policy, and innovation. They generate cycles, crises, bubbles, contagion, growth phases, and transitions. INeP aims to develop a nonequilibrium perspective on economic and financial dynamics that better reflects the instability and complexity of real-world systems.

The Institute will study:

financial markets as evolving ecosystems in which agents adapt to one another and to changing environments;
systemic risk and contagion across networks of interdependence;
adaptive expectations, bounded rationality, and decision dynamics;
macroeconomic instability, crises, and phase transitions;
innovation, technological disruption, and industrial transformation;
sustainable economic transitions and the financial architectures needed to support long-term resilience.

Through this lens, economics and finance become fields for understanding collective adaptation, instability, and evolution. INeP’s approach can support better tools for risk assessment, policy design, financial regulation, and the management of transitions in a rapidly changing global landscape.

Why INeP Is Unique

INeP is unique because it places nonequilibrium phenomena at the center of its scientific identity. Existing international institutes such as SFI, CNLS, Cargèse-style programs, ICTP activities, or Les Houches schools have made major contributions to complexity, theoretical physics, and interdisciplinary science. However, few institutions are built explicitly around the idea that nonequilibrium processes provide a unifying framework across physics, computation, biology, climate, economics, and technology.

INeP is designed to occupy this space. Its distinctiveness comes from five elements:

A focused scientific theme: nonequilibrium phenomena as the common foundation across disciplines.
A strong theoretical base: stochastic thermodynamics, statistical physics, network science, information theory, and complex systems.
A technological direction: self-organizing memristive networks, low-power AI-on-chip, neuromorphic systems, and unconventional computing.
A laboratory component: a physical space at IMT for measurement, prototyping, seminars, visiting researchers, and collaborative work.
A global network: a core team and advisory structure connected to leading international institutes, universities, laboratories, and scientific communities.

This combination makes INeP different from a general complexity center, a conventional physics institute, or a purely theoretical research network. It is intended as a place where foundational nonequilibrium science can be connected to concrete challenges in computing, climate, energy, biology, medicine, economics, and finance.

Why Lucca and IMT

Lucca offers an ideal setting for INeP. The city is intellectually attractive, culturally rich, and strategically located. It lies close to Pisa and Florence, two major academic and cultural centers, and is well connected to Rome, Florence, and Pisa airports. It is accessible by train and positioned as a natural meeting point for researchers traveling from across Europe and from neighboring regions linking Europe, Asia, and Africa.

IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca provides the institutional environment needed for such an initiative. Its interdisciplinary structure, small scale, research intensity, and existing expertise in networks, complex systems, data science, economics, and institutional analysis make it a natural home for INeP. The support and space provided by IMT would allow the Institute to develop not only as an international scientific network, but as a concrete laboratory and research group embedded inside the School.

The INeP Laboratory would create a strong synergy with IMT’s Network Unit. In particular, the combination of INeP’s expertise in nonequilibrium systems and self-organizing memristive networks with the Network Unit’s expertise in network renormalization would create a distinctive research platform. This platform would allow the group to grow, attract visitors, hire students and researchers, and apply for competitive funding.

The space request is therefore strategic. It is not only a request for rooms or equipment, but a request to create the physical conditions for a new research pole inside IMT. The laboratory would support experimental work, workshops, seminars, doctoral training, grant writing, and international collaboration. It would make INeP more credible and competitive when applying to funding schemes such as ARIA, Unconventional AI / Unconv-AI, the Simons Foundation, the Leverhulme Trust, and other European and international programs.

People, Network, and Governance

INeP brings together researchers from physics, computer science, environmental science, engineering, economics, biology, and the social sciences. Its proposed Director, Deputy Director, core team, and advisory network bring substantial scientific gravitas, administrative experience, and international reach.

The team has experience in organizing scientific programs, managing interdisciplinary collaborations, interacting with major international institutes, and building research networks across countries and disciplines. Its members and advisors are connected to institutions such as LANL, SFI, Perimeter, ICTP, Les Houches, major European universities, US research centers, and leading laboratories in physics, AI, complexity, and applied science.

The advisory committee is intentionally eclectic. This is a strength. Nonequilibrium phenomena cut across many fields, and INeP’s scientific ambition requires perspectives from thermodynamics, computation, climate, biology, economics, and network science. The prominence and breadth of the advisory network will help INeP attract visitors, organize high-level workshops, build international credibility, and identify ambitious research directions.

Mission

INeP promotes open collaboration, dynamic thinking, and bold experimentation. It seeks to push the boundaries of what is possible when science engages with systems in motion: systems that learn, adapt, dissipate, compute, destabilize, and reorganize.

Its mission is to build a modern science of nonequilibrium phenomena and to apply it to some of the most important challenges of our time: energy-efficient computation, climate and environmental transitions, energy security, biological and medical resilience, financial instability, and the dynamics of complex societies.

By combining foundational theory, experimental infrastructure, international collaboration, and a distinctive location at IMT in Lucca, INeP aims to become a leading hub for the study of nonequilibrium systems and their role in shaping the future of science, technology, and society.