Competitive and Sustainable Growth

IMPORTANT LEGAL NOTICE - The information on this site is subject to a disclaimer and a copyright notice.

New Materials and Production

Improving materials and the processes that transform them into products is fundamental to both industrial competitiveness and sustainable development.

A significant improvement to a single material can have a radical effect on the quality of all the products into which it is fashioned, while new materials can lead to entirely new products. New techniques which could improve a wide number of materials are therefore of strategic importance to European industry. Moreover, medium- and long-term generic research into new and improved materials will be integrated with research into materials processing technologies, which will focus in particular on increasing quality and shortening production cycles. Finally, the need to move European industry towards a more sustainable future will be behind all research activities.

Improving existing materials and developing radically new or improved ones

nanostructured materials, supramolecular chemistry, colloidal systems and biomimetic materials
structural and light material for construction, transport and high-temperature applications
optoelectronics and sensor-related materials
new and improved bio-materials

Sustainable use of materials

extending materials' limits
life-cycle approaches
new applications for renewable raw materials such as organic chemicals

Reducing production cycles

fine chemistry, minerals, metals, polymers, composites and ceramics
micro- and nanopowder processing
surface, coating and interfacial technologies

New technologies for steel (1)

cost-effective and flexible production technologies
reduced energy consumption, lower emissions and increased recycling
improved downstream processing
improved high strength steel grades
(1) Coal and steel research will increasingly be included in FP5 as the ECSC treaty expires in 2002.


	Previous		*Next*