Strong-field QED predicts spectacular effects, such as the decay of the vacuum into particle–antiparticle pairs (the Schwinger effect), but testing them requires fields of ~10¹⁸ V/m, far beyond petawatt lasers, and is not expected before the 2060s. Graphene offers a way around: its electrons behave as massless Dirac fermions moving at vF = c/300, so the Schwinger field drops from ~10¹⁸ V/m in vacuum to ~10⁶ V/m in a table-top transistor. In 2023 we achieved the first quantitative observation of the Schwinger effect in a graphene transistor at room temperature [Nature Physics 19, 830 (2023)]. This experimental internship opens QEDene, a 4-year ANR project with the objectives to (i) locate where and how the Schwinger effect nucleates inside the graphene channel transistor using scanning probes, optoelectronics and advanced device designs; (ii) test new strong-field QED predictions: photo-assisted Schwinger effect, Schwinger luminescence, and "vacuum boiling" regime where the dielectric permittivity itself is modified by the presence of a strong field.