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Materials Blog
How to send your input? Just email us at RTD-NMP-MATERIALS@ec.europa.eu. |
NanoFormulation 2012
Barcelona, 28th May -1st June 2012
NanoFormulation2012 is the 3rd and final international event organized through the FP7 Project INFORM (Integrating Nanomaterials in Formulations).
NanoFormulation2012 will highlight the scientific and technical challenges in formulating materials at the nanoscale and will show that nanoparticles, novel in size, shape or surface chemistry, offer very attractive functional properties to a range of formulated products, from drug delivery systems to coatings.
NanoFormulation2012 will showcase that nanotechnologies are likely to offer a wide range of economic benefits as nanoformulation scientists unlock the potential of formulated products.
Alongside a traditional conference programme, NanoFormulation2012 offers delegates the opportunity to participate in 1-2-1 meetings and a Trade Day focussed on food nano-technology at Alícia Foundation
Call for abstract is open until 31/03/2012.
Further information
Project website
Biomaterials for Health workshop
DG Research and Innovation, March 16, 2012 Brussels
This one-day workshop will provide an overview and perspective of research and development involving Biomaterials for Health.
It will also explore the various technical and economic scenarios linked to the potential development of such materials.
The workshop will take place on March 16, 2012 in Brussels and will bring together experts in the field both from the commercial and private sectors as well as research policy makers.
Registration will be free of charge. However, in view of the limited number of available places, we ask for expressions of interest to participate in the workshop to be sent to:
RTD-NMP-MATERIALS@ec.europa.eu.
Participants will receive confirmation by March 9, 2012 at the latest.
More information on the workshop is available here (PDF version).
Workshop announcement: "Technology and market perspective for future Value Added Materials"
Join the workshop organised by DG Research and Innovation on March 14, 2012 in Brussels
This one-day workshop will provide an overview and perspective of the commercial possibilities for value-added and value-adding materials. It will also explore the various technical and economic scenarios linked to the potential development of such materials. The workshop will take place on March 14, 2012 in Brussels and will bring together venture capital and private equity investment specialists and research policy makers.
Would you like to participate?
There is no registration fee. However, in view of the limited number of available places, we ask for expressions of interest to participate in the workshop to be sent to RTD-NMP-MATERIALS@ec.europa.eu.
Participants will receive confirmation by March 7 at the latest.
More information on the workshop is available here (PDF version, 224KB).
Imec Announce Organic Solar Cell Efficiency Record
Belgium based research center IMEC reported to have achieved 8.3% efficiency with a polymer-based inverted solar cell. This is the highest value obtained so far for inverted polymer cell architectures. Organic solar cells are an emerging field of renewable photovoltaics, which has the potential to substantially increase the commercial viability and potential uses of solar energy in our society.
This success is a result of the cross-fertilization of know-how on cell processing, molecular design, and chemical synthesis in the FP7 project ONE-P (2009-2011). The European FP7 framework plays an important role to increase this type of collaboration between academia, research centers and industry, in particular for multi-disciplinary research and development
Press release
FP7 project ONE-P
Picture: Organic solar cell with inverted device architecture and 8.3% efficiency developed by imec, Polyera and Solvay.(With the courtesy of Imec.)
Technology and Market Perspective for Future Value Added Materials
New study available online (added February 2012)
Available in English. (PDF version, 4.08MB)
European Metrology Research Programme (EMRP) 2012 Call
Stage 1 of the EMRP call 2012 will be launched soon
The European Metrology Research Programme (EMRP) is an initiative for high quality joint R&D amongst the metrology community in Europe, with partial funding from FP7. At stage 1 of the EMRP call all stakeholders have the chance to influence future R&D projects of the EMRP community by identifying potential research topics. Suggestions for potential research topics will soon be invited in the following areas:
- Metrology for Industry
- SI Broader Scope
- Open Excellence
The research topics that receive the highest priority at stage 1 will provide the basis for stage 2, when EMRP will invite proposals for joint research projects.
The first stage opened on 02/02/2012. Deadline: Sunday 18th March 2012 23:59 CET. Details are already available on the EMRP website.
Materials Roadmap Enabling Low Carbon Energy Technologies
New roadmap adopted by the European Commission
The Materials Roadmap has been elaborated by nearly hundred leading European scientists and industrial researchers.
It is designed to support coherent and strategic decisions on materials research in industry and academia, both at European level and in EU member states.
It is in line with FP7 and Horizon 2020 and with the priorities of the Strategic Energy Technology Plan (SET-Plan).
The new Materials Roadmap can be downloaded here
Link for SET-Plan
Running out of critical materials?
The Institute for Energy and Transport of the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission has conducted a study to assess whether there could be any potential bottlenecks in the supply chain of low-carbon energy technologies due to the shortage of certain so-called high-tech metals.
The study examined the use of metals in the six strategic energy technologies in the EU, namely: nuclear, solar, wind, bioenergy, carbon capture and storage and the electricity grid. The study concluded that 5 metals, namely tellurium, indium, gallium, neodymium and dysprosium, are at a particularly high risk, with special relevance to the wind and photovoltaic energy generation technologies. Potential mitigation strategies and alternatives to the use of these metals have also been explored.
Read the report here.
Plastic Electronics at the European Parliament
The final meeting of FP7 project ONE-P will be held publicly on December 16th 2011 at the European Parliament, under the patronage of Green MEP Philippe Lamberts.
During its 3 year life span, the ONE-P project developed electronic and photonic devices using organic materials. This will enable the production of novel, low cost and sustainable applications, such as (1) efficient light emitting diodes and memory devices, (2) cheaper solar cells, (3) energy efficient e-printing, (4) sensitive sensors for medical applications and effective environmental monitoring.
The project benefited from a EUR 18 million EU contribution and involved 28 partners from 11 European countries, including some of the major industrial and academic players in the field.
Registration
Agenda
ONE-P the movie
Producing Clean Water from Smoke
FP7 project CapWa (Capture of evaporated Water with novel membranes)
CapWa applies membrane technology to produce clean water from the water vapour present in the air or in the smoke emitted by various industries.
The project aims for a commercially available system in 2 to 3 years time. Recent press releases in English and Chinese sparked considerable interest in CapWa technology, both from the media and from potential end users.
For more details please read the coordinator's update on CapWa.
CapWa invites end users to complete a questionnaire to help them understand industrial needs. If you are a potential end user or an organisation interested in water capture technology please fill in the online questionnaire, using the link below. CapWa will inform participants about the outcome of the questionnaire, if desired.
Project website
End-user questionnaire
Coordinator's update (PDF 78KB)
EU-Japan Research Projects Launched
Three coordinated projects on superconductivity materials started on 1st October 2011
The projects focus on studying the fundamental properties of novel superconducting materials. Such materials might be used in cables to transmit electrical power with reduced losses, to improve the resolution of medical imaging devices, in advanced sensors or even in space applications. Three EU research consortia and their twinned Japanese teams will carry out coordinated research on superconductivity during the next three to four years. The total EU budget for the three projects is 5 million EUR, and an equivalent budget is made available by the Japanese authorities.
Following engaged and constructive negotiations, the European Commission and the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) have been able to create this new funding possibility that enables European and Japanese researchers to work together in coordinated projects. The concrete hope is to realise substantial synergy with a view to achieve acceleration in the generation of new applicable knowledge in the promising field of superconductivity.
More information on the funded projects and on the background of this EU-Japan cooperation is available here (PDF version)
Conference on Critical Materials for a Clean Energy Future
Trilateral EU-Japan-U.S. Meeting in Washington on October 4-5, 2011
The European Union, Japan and the United States are engaged in delivering clean energy technologies to the marketplace. The aim is to reduce the carbon fingerprint of our industrial economies and fight against climate change. Wind turbines, electric vehicles, and other emerging clean energy technologies depend on materials with unique properties, such as rare earth elements.
The availability of a number of these materials is at risk due to the possibility of supply disruptions and lack of suitable substitutes. Therefore, strategies to meet a possible shortage of rare earth materials were discussed at a recent trilateral the EU-Japan-US conference in Washington DC, hosted by the European Institute on October 4 and the U.S. Department of Energy on October 5, 2011.
The conference was jointly organized by European Commission’s Directorate General for Research and Innovation, the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Two main strategies have been addressed to cope with diminished supply of rare earth materials. One strategy to meet this problem is to expand available supplies through sustainable and cost-effective technologies for separation, extraction, processing and recycling of rare earths. Another is to temper raw material demand by designing wind turbines and motors that require less critical raw material. The challenge of realising knowledge-based materials by design has also been discussed.
Background information and the report of the previous EU-U.S. workshop on rare earth elements are available here.
More information on the European Commission's raw materials initiative can be found here.
The FuMat 2011 Conference on Future Materials
Warsaw, 22-23 September 2011
FUMAT addressed the role of advanced materials in tackling the grand societal challenges in Europe. The key objective was to suggest strategies and research directions that will help to meet these challenges and lead to a sustainable industrial economy, new jobs, and a wealthy Europe. Perspectives and needs in materials research and innovation were analysed by 400 participants, including academic and industrial researchers, politicians and administrators, financial actors and societal scientists.
Mr Paul Rübig, member of the European Parliament and Chair of the Science and Technology Options Assessment Panel for the European Parliament addressed FuMat participants.
A highlight of the conference was the announcement by the Polish Presidency of the establishment of the Alliance for Materials (A4M) and the decision of European Materials Research Society (E-MRS) and the Federation of European Materials Societies (FEMS) to explore the possibilities of joint or coordinated activities, with a dynamic participation of the European Technology Platform on Materials (EuMat).
- Further information: www.fumat2011.eu
Workshop "MOFs for industrial application"
23 November 2011, Bergamo, Italy
Metal Organic Frameworks (MOFs) emerge as a new high potential material class. High specific surface areas, catalytic activities for selective conversion and scalable synthesis routes promise a huge variety of potential applications in gas storage, air and hydrogen purification, CO2 reduction, and various chemical processes.
The workshop brings together experts from academia and industry with a focus on application and formulation in gas purification, separation and toxic gas treatment of MOFs. Beside a survey of the state of the art the workshop focuses the attention on new innovative processes.
- Registration
- Program (PDF version 181KB)
- Project website
Info session on how to include standardization in your future project proposals
Some calls of the EU FP7 (Seventh Framework Programme) mention standards and standardization as activities or target outputs for these projects.
The European Committee on Standardization (CEN) is organising an info session with the aim to support and inform the research community in understanding and integrating standardization in their future research and innovation projects.
Participation is free of charge and open to all interested parties. The number of places is limited.
Registrations are accepted on a first come, first served basis. For more information on the agenda and on how to register visit the CEN web site.
When: Friday 9 September 2011, 10:00 – 12:00
Where: CEN-CENELEC Management Centre, 17 Avenue Marnix, 1000 Brussels, Belgium
Anybody interested in this subject but unable to attend the info session may obtain the presentations by sending a request to media@cencenelec.eu.
The negotiation of the coordinated EU-Japan research projects is completed!
The projects focus on the fundamental properties of novel superconducting materials. Such materials might be used in cables to transmit electrical power with reduced losses, to improve the resolution of medical imaging devices, in advanced sensors or even in space applications.
Three EU research consortia and their twinned Japanese teams are currently concluding the grant agreement procedures.
Read more (PDF version, 135KB)
Enhancing the marketing of Materials research – announcement of a tender
The European Commission has decided to produce some promotional material to enhance the marketing of Materials Research.
Interested parties will soon be invited to submit an offer for the production of boxes/containers containing a few objects showing materials research progress over the last few years and their potential (together with a succinct explanation of why the materials behave like they do).
This will be the subject of a contract of 6 months for a total maximum cost of EUR 60 000.
This is a follow-up to a similar tender launched at the end of 2010, the results of which can be seen here.
Any potential tenderer does not necessarily have to follow the previous format.
If it is the case, please express your interest by 15 September via email to
RTD-NMP-MATERIALS@ec.europa.eu
Specific information will be sent in reply.
Succinct preliminary information can already be found here (page 104 of the Work Programme)
Press release on FP7 project NANOTOUGH
An interesting article was published in “Estrategia Empresarial” (a business magazine at Basque country level) regarding the last consortium meeting of NANOTOUGH project.
Nanotough is a European framework project that focuses on developing polymer nanocomposite materials with superior properties, particularly impact strength. A total of 11 partners from Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Romania and Denmark are participating in the project.
The objective of Nanotough is to optimise, and through novel interface design, to develop new cost efficient hybrid (nanofiller-fiber) nanocomposites as an alterntive to heavily filled polymers. These new materials should fulfil industry requirements for high performance materials in high tech applications where today metals or plastics are used in for example cars or aircraft. The research will look at how the products can be made both lighter and stronger using nano-particles.
Read more (PDF version, 156KB)
US-EU Workshop on Rare Earth Elements: the Report is now online!
The European Commission, Directorate for Industrial Technologies – Materials Unit, cooperated in the organisation of the Trans-Atlantic Workshop on Rare Earth Elements and Other Critical Materials for a Clean Energy Future.
Read more
Call for proposals for Joint Research Projects and associated Researcher Excellence Grants (EMRP 2011)
The European Metrology Research Programme has just opened the call for proposals for Joint Research Projects (JRP) and associated Researcher Excellence Grants (REG) with call topics in the following fields: Health, New technologies and SI Broader scope.
You can now register on the EMRP site to show interest to participate in specific topics, including advertising the skills and or equipment you can offer. This year some of the call topics (Selected Research Topics, SRTs) will arrange partnering meetings. Note that the rules for participation and financing are different from FP7 and that this call is not managed by the Commission Services.
Closing date: 03 October 2011
Read more
Assessing the 2008 Coordinated Call with India on "Computational Material Science": the Workshop Report is now online!
The European Commission, Directorate Industrial Technologies - Materials Unit, organised the workshop Assessing the Coordinated Call with India "Computational Material Science" in Brussels on March 30th-31st.
Computational Material Science is a growing field that aims to model, simulate and/or predict properties of materials and structures. These computer simulations can be used to accelerate understanding and discovery in materials science, with the potential to speed up the development of innovations based on material science.
The workshop aimed at assessing the results achieved so far by the six projects funded under the call NMP-2008-2.6-2. The assessment by the EU and Indian coordinators was done in two steps: a questionnaire was followed-up by a workshop with representatives for each consortium. The feedback from the project coordinators has been collated in the attached report.
Read the report (PDF Version, 1.63MB)
News from the European Multifunctional Materials Institute (EMMI)
The European Multifunctional Materials Institute EMMI was founded in 2008 by 14 partners of the FP6 Network of Excellence FAME
It is an international non-profit organisation with 11 academic Full Members, 3 Academic Partners, and 5 Adherent Members from industry.
Read more
A successful Network of Excellence: SOFTCOMP
Softcomp was born in 2004 as a FP6 Network of Excellence (NoE) aiming to establish a knowledge base for an intelligent design of functional and nanoscale soft matter composites.
From December 2009 it has a durable structure organized as a Consortium, which is now self-financed by the partners.
Read more
GRAPHENE 2020 – Opportunities for Europe
The Workshop on the future of graphene took place in Brussels on 21st- 22nd March 2011. 123 high-level experts participated, including 3 Nobel prize laureates: professors A. Fert, A. Geim and K. von Klitzing.
Opening speeches were given by the European Commissioner for Research and Innovation, Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, and the 2010 Nobel prize laureate in physics, professor Andre Geim from the University of Manchester.
A comprehensive overview was given and debated, both on the current state-of-the-art in graphene research and the potential applications. We also heard talks on graphene activities in the US and Korea, as well as presentations on financing knowledge transfer, patenting and creating novel industrial spin-outs.
Professors Fert, Geim and von Klitzing also met Robert-Jan Smits and Herbert von Bose, respectively Director-general for "Research and Innovation" and Director for "Industrial Technologies".
Read more
Life Cycle Assessment and Risk Analysis for Nanostructured Materials
What is the environmental impact of nano-structured materials?
Are there possible risks along their "life", their manufacturing into products, their use, repair or recycling?
These questions were debated by 60 experts during a successful workshop held last March 2011 in Brussels, as a part of a joint dissemination and exploitation action of the EC research project MUST
Read more (PDF version, 2.76MB)
project MUST
Polymer films are essential to keeping food safe and in edible condition
After three years of activity, the European project Napolynet has successfully set up research intensive clusters across the EU on characterization of polymer nanostructures in the field of packaging, textiles and membranes.
Read more
EuroScience Open Forum, 11-15 July 2012 (ESOF 2012):
Submission of Proposals Now Open!
Next year Dublin, City of Science 2012, will host the Euroscience Open Forum (ESOF), an inter-disciplinary, pan-European meeting. The event will bring together over 5,000 scientists, business leaders, government officials, policy-makers and international scientific media representatives to discuss the best of European science and to address all of the current major global scientific challenges, including Energy, Climate Change, Food and Health.
A call for proposals for both the scientific programme in July and the year-round public engagement programme is now open!
Read more
CO2: FROM WASTE TO VALUE - the Workshop Report is now online!
The European Commission, Directorate for Industrial Technologies – Materials Unit, organised a workshop on CO2 and algae utilisation as future raw materials for chemicals in Brussels on March 30th 2011.
Approximately 50 experts on catalysis, biology, chemical and CO2 technologies and algae utilisation gathered and identified challenges and opportunities for potential future research activities.
Read more
FUMAT 2011 – Warsaw, Poland, 22-23 September 2011: BOOK THE DATE!
How can materials of the future contribute to the strategies and solutions for the grand societal challenges of our time?
Are you interested in discussing the roadmaps for development of materials determined not only by the technological progress, but also by the societal and political needs?
If so, book the date and come to Warsaw on September 22nd – 23rd!
FUMAT 2011, the European Industrial Technologies Conference on Materials, will be a major event on materials in the frame of the Polish Presidency of the Council of the EU which will be organised in cooperation with the European Commission.
Read more
Workshop Announcement: EU-South East Asia Symposium on Photocatalysis for Depollution Technologies
Brokerage event to help setting up FP7 consortia.
13-14 July 2011 in Tam Dao, Vietnam
Following the successful EU-South East Asia Workshop on Materials Research for Environmental and Health Applications in November 2010 in Hanoi/Vietnam., SEA-EU-NET is arranging a brokerage event aiming at scientific matchmaking related to upcoming EU Seventh Framework Programme for Research (FP7) funding calls. The symposium will bring together EU and SEA experts from industry and academia on depollution technologies with a particular focus on photocatalysis, to identify opportunities for future EU-SEA collaboration under upcoming EU FP7 funding calls.
Read more
A successful communication in Science and Research?
Do you communicate well enough with non-scientist?
Can you explain your research to a politician or a journalist?
Do you want to improve your communication skills and practice?
The following web site includes resources to help prepare and deliver a communication strategy, website, publication and presentation, and generate positive media coverage
Download the brochure "A scientist's survival kit" (PDF version, 1.98MB)
The newest technologies in industrial processes for customised implants
After four years of research, the European project CustomIMD has developed a breakthrough concept for fully customised medical devices.
Read more
Marie Curie Actions "Chemical Party"
Embarking on a research career is not always easy. Young researchers will soon discover that chemical elements have different personalities….
At Marie Curie Actions they are well aware of that and realize this short movie.
Watch the video
A Movie on Catalysis!
Catalysis is the science at the interface between chemistry, physics, biology, engineering and material sciences that enables chemical processes to be realised in a cost-, energy and eco-efficient way. More than 80% of the processes in the chemical industry worth approximately € 1500 billion, depend on catalytic technologies.
A short movie, explaining catalysis at a basic level, was produced by the University of Southampton (Moniek Tromp, Jeroen Klijs, David Read, Gill Reid, John Evans), within the framework of the European Network of Excellence IDECAT and in cooperation with European Research Institute on Catalysis (ERIC).
Watch the video
New Call on Metrology for Industry and Environment (EMRP 2010)
EMRP will soon open a call for Researcher Excellence Grants and Researcher Mobility Grants related to the 2010 call on Metrology for Industry and Environment.
Researcher Excellence Grants (REG) aim to "enlarge the number of organisations with capacities closely relating to metrology” within the EU Member States and FP7 associated countries.
Researcher Mobility Grants (RMG) aim to “develop the capacity of individuals in Metrology”. The EMRP provides Researcher Mobility Grants (RMGs) to increase the capability of the European metrology researcher community, thereby supporting countries as they are building and furthering their capacity in Metrology.
Opening date: 31 March 2011
Closing date: 06 May 2011
Read more
GRAPHENE 2020 – opportunities for Europe - Brussels on March 21 - 22, 2011
The Directorate-General for Research and Innovation of the European Commission is organising a workshop on "Graphene 2020 – opportunities for Europe", with the expected participation of the European Commissioner for Research and Innovation, Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, and 3 Nobel Prize laureates: A. Geim (2010), A. Fert (2007) and K. von Klitzing (1985).
Read more
The European Technology Platforms wrote a letter to Commissioners Geoghegan-Quinn (DG Research and Innovation) and Tajani (DG Enterprise and Industry)
Six European Technology Platforms (EuMaT, SUSCHEM, SMR, MANUFUTURE, TEXTILE and ESTEP), with a fundamental and significant material component in their strategy, wrote a letter to Commissioners Geoghegan-Quinn and Tajani.
They announced to provide in the near future a proposal for concrete initiatives on how to align the value chain consisting of the supply of materials, their processing and the manufacturing needed to address the key societal challenges defined with the EUROPE2020 policy objectives.
These initiatives can also be applied in the ongoing work of the High Level Group of Key Enabling Technologies.
Read more (PDF version, 166KB)
The New communication on non-energy raw materials adopted by EC
Non-energy raw materials are vital inputs for the EU’s economy, and are particularly crucial for the development of modern environmentally friendly technologies such as electric cars and photovoltaic.
However, as global raw material markets are increasingly distorted by protectionist trade policies, maintaining fair and undistorted access to these materials for EU industry and citizens is increasingly difficult.
Based on the first Communication on the Raw Materials Initiative published in November 2008, a new strategy document was published on February 2nd 2011 which sets out targeted measures to secure and improve access to raw materials for the EU.
Raw materials website
The list of the critical raw materials is given at page 6 (PDF version)
Pilots in coal-fired power stations using novel nano-membranes against global warming
The FP6 European project NanoGLOWA is now ready to run industrial trials in Germany, Portugal and Israel with two new types of nano-membranes developed to sequestrate CO2 with low energy penalties and without any chemicals or regeneration steps.
Read more
EU Launches Flagship Initiative for a Resource Efficient Europe
"Continuing our current patterns of resource use is not an option" said EC President José Manuel Barroso, steering the launch of the Flagship initiative for a Resource Efficient Europe on January 26th 2011. "They put too much pressure on our planet and make our economy more dependent on external supplies. A smarter use of scarce resources is therefore a strategic necessity, but also an economic opportunity”.
This is the 7th flagship initiative launched so far within the frame of Europe 2020 strategy. It provides a long-term framework for actions in many policy areas, supporting policy agendas for climate change, energy, transport, industry, raw materials, agriculture, fisheries, biodiversity and regional development.
Website
Commission communication (PDF version).
EU - South East Asia Workshop on Materials Research for Environmental and Health Applications
A successful EU - South East Asia workshop was held last November 2010 in Hanoi, Vietnam, sponsored by SEA-EU-NET and supported by the Institute of Materials Science, Hanoi, ASEAN Sub-Committee on Materials Science and Technology and the European Commission.
Read more
Call 2011 - Health, SI Broader Scope, and New Technologies
On February 4th 2011 the European Metrology Research Programme (EURAMET) will announce the launch of the 2011 call.
The aim of this call is to advance measurement science and technology in the following areas:
- Metrology for Health
- SI Broader Scope
- Metrology for New Technologies
Biopolymers and nanocomposites for household appliances and computing and telecommunications devices.
The European project BUGWORKERS aims at presenting an alternative to current petroleum based materials. The project focuses on the electronic equipment, telecommunications and household appliance sectors.
Read more
Co-operation in advanced high temperature materials for core and novel energy engineering with Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.
On November 25th and 26th 2010 a workshop was jointly organised by the European Commission, Directorate G - Industrial Technologies- Materials Unit and the State Committee of Ukraine on Science, Innovation and Informatization. The workshop involved high level experts from EU and EaP countries in order to exchange ideas and identify a common ground for future research co-operation. It was kindly hosted by the Ukraine State Committee on Science, Innovation and Informatization, Kyiv. The workshop was a success after the elaborated exchange of ideas between the experts of both sides, it was concluded that indeed there was common ground of possible co-operation research in the technological area of the present workshop. The fields to be addressed are Materials for Energy Conversion, Energy Transfer and Energy Storage.
- For more information, contact Achilleas Stalios, Dir G - Unit G3
- The report can be downloaded here (PDF version, 648KB)
Celebrate Chemistry
IYC 2011 - International Launching Ceremony
The Official International Launch Ceremony for IYC 2011 took place at UNESCO World Headquarters in Paris on 27-28 January 2011, under the aegis of the UN, UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), IUPAC (International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry) and with support from the European Commission.
The European Commission and its Directorate Industrial Technologies was represented with a stand where the movie "The Chemical Party" has been presented in continuum to a broad and enthusiastic audience.
Renzo Tomellini (Head of Unit Materials Research) moderated the final high level panel including CEOs and the president of CNRS.
Website: IYC2011 Launch Ceremony
The Secret Materials Box
Discover the world of new materials
A learning tool for aspiring European scientists
Shirts which do not wrinkle, paper from the remains of apple juice production or rear windows with programmable lights. 70% of product innovation is estimated to be based on materials with new or improved properties. Materials play a key role in the generation of growth and the creation of wealth in Europe.
This "Secret Materials" box contains a few items representative of novel materials with explanations and tasks demonstrating their properties. Enjoy discovering their secret properties!
To get your own free Secret Materials box, click here
Do we want mobile phones that are recharged once a year or less? Do we want computer, lightening and music players that are flexible, portable or wearable? Photovoltaic cells with high efficiency and affordable cost? Prostheses that do not generate adverse reactions in our body? Packaging that does not pollute?
The reply to these and many other requests and needs of our society lays in the availability of suitable materials. Materials that do not yet exist today, or at least not in the condition or at the price that we want.
In the 7th Framework Programme, the European Commission supports research and innovation to develop new materials, components and systems. Their ultimate goal is to serve us better and simply improve the way we live.
You are all invited to provide your inputs on this. Scientists, industrialists, citizens, students are invited to send us their suggestions about targets for materials research that should be addressed under the European Framework Programme for Research. Inputs can address all the factors of success of the materials research and innovation value chain, e.g. suggest new research topics that you would like to see opened for funding, technological or non technological bottlenecks that need to be solved, etc.
