NON-TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION: Materials that can undergo large changes in shape when an electric field is applied are very important for many essential technologies—from everyday items like cellphones and washing machines to advanced automotive systems. Among these materials, electrostrictors have attracted growing interest in recent years. These materials are unique because they convert electrical energy into mechanical movement, but not the other way around. The project aims to understand the origin of the electrostriction effect in specific ceramic materials, where a few percent of foreign atoms with the same valency replacing the host atoms may be solely responsible for the field-induced volume change—and the resulting large strain. This insight opens a pathway to the rational design of lead-free alternatives to the dominant commercial electrostrictive ceramics. One of the main difficulties is the lack of methods for identifying the key features—called descriptors—of this effect and help predict which ceramic materials will exhibit this behavior. The project aims at developing a new idea for electrostrictive materials, using zirconium-doped cerium oxide. To explore how it works, X-ray absorption spectroscopy is used, a technique that uses very bright X-rays to track changes in the atomic environment around metal ions when conditions such as temperature, pressure, or electric field change. This work contributes to the field by improving understanding of this class of material