The world is now facing challenges affecting our daily-life that include, among the most acute, health care, energy, telecommunications, sustainable industry, smart cities and climate action. The successful response to these challenges lies on our ability to solve technological roadblocks… Read more related to the development of advanced devices. Material science is at the heart of technological developments. Especially, epitaxy has always been the most powerful technique to fabricate/manufacture materials while controlling their properties at nanoscale, enabling the development of advanced devices. Today, material development becomes more vital than ever. To break down the barriers limiting the development of more efficient devices, continuous innovation is essential. To build the foundation of new epitaxial and material science solutions, a European-level structure in epitaxy is today crucial to enhance knowledge sharing at wide scale thanks to cross-community discussions and exchanges. The COST Action “European Network for Innovative and Advanced Epitaxy”, named OPERA, will build a new and innovative European Network composed of expert communities in epitaxial growth focusing on different materials classes: conventional semiconductors, oxides and 2D materials. It aims to bridge the gap between traditionally separated scientific communities, both academic and industrial, having the common goal to combine complementary knowledge, push further the material maturation, and exploit epitaxial combinations of the different material classes in order to unveil new properties and produce new functionalities. Based on this organization, the OPERA COST Action will foster interdisciplinary collaborative research activities allowing maintaining European epitaxy at the topmost worldwide level of research and innovation.

IMAGINE-IV offers the EIT-Labelled Master’s in Sustainable Materials (SUMA), which trains excellent engineers who can pioneer materials solutions for more sustainable industries and societies. Building on the success of IMAGINE-III, the project further enhances the partnership among six renowned universities… Read more and two industrial partners. IMAGINE-IV strengthens collaboration with RIS countries, delivers a specialization-oriented curriculum, and reinforces its entrepreneurial dimension.

PRIME LEAP tackles the grand challenge of advancing sustainable, efficient, and electrified chemical processes by focusing on the conversion of methane, a primary component of natural gas and a by-product of steam cracking, into a diverse portfolio of value- added chemicals through… Read more synergic plasma and catalysis technologies. Current progress in this sector is hindered by a shortage of trained engineers and scientists capable of designing intensified chemical processes that integrate innovative approaches such as plasma chemistry and advanced catalysis. PRIME LEAP seeks to bridge this gap by fostering a new generation of experts equipped to drive these transformative advancements and address the critical needs of the chemical sector. The project integrates cutting-edge plasma technologies, single-atom catalysts, data-driven intelligent process control, and life cycle assessment to equip doctoral candidates (DCs) with deep technical knowledge and cross-disciplinary expertise in plasma physics, chemical catalysis, methane activation, and process integration and optimization, enabling them to develop and implement next-generation methane-to-chemicals technologies. Through this multidisciplinary approach, that brings together leading academic institutions, research centers, and industrial partners, PRIME LEAP aims to cultivate a cohort of skilled professionals who can develop next-generation process intensification solutions and address the challenges of resource efficiency and carbon neutrality in the chemical industry. Overall, PRIME LEAP supports the transition toward greener, more efficient chemical methods and the project aligns with the EU’s climate goals to enhance resilience and innovation in the process industry.

Electrochemical energy storage (EES) is crucial in the carbon-neutral future. Nevertheless, the current battery value chain has significant risks, especially concerning the supply of critical raw materials. eNargiZinc aims at developing new knowledge, technology and commercially exploitable products related to innovative and… Read more affordable next-generation EES devices, targeting long-term sustainability through the use of abundant and renewable materials and low environmental-impact production processes. A rigorous training-throughresearch programme for eleven Doctoral Candidates (DCs)—eight DCs funded by the EU and three DCs funded by the UK national funding agency (UKRI)—has been designed through an interdisciplinary and intersectoral approach, involving studies on all the essential parts needed to develop sodium-ion batteries, zinc-air batteries, and zinc-ion batteries/supercapacitors. The research within eNargiZinc will focus on developing sustainable electrode materials (biomass-derived carbons and their composites, redox-active polymers, hybrid transition metal oxides, and interphases for anode-less concepts), electrolytes (solid-state and gel-polymer types), and, especially, on integrating all the developed components into full cells at an industrially-relevant scale. A Personalised Training Package for each DC will be tailored to allow them to acquire the required skills over the three years of employment within the network. To this aim, secondments to other partners (especially in the non-academic sector), training in complementary skills, and network-wide training events will be implemented. The consortium, which is composed of six beneficiaries and twelve associated partners, is addressed to achieve the objectives of eNargiZinc and is based on excellence, synergy and complementarity. Industrial partners will play a key role in the network, by providing the DCs with exposure to the private sector and access to industrially-relevant facilities, which are essential to validate the findings obtained at lab-scale.

Over the past four decades, glasses, glass-ceramics and composites have contributed to achieving the most advanced socio-economic breakthroughs steadily as advanced high-tech materials. To highlight the importance of glass, 2022 has been declared International Year of Glass by the United Nations. To… Read more compete with emerging economieslike China and India, the European glasssector is challenged to seek product leadership by investing more in research and innovation in order to develop new materials and to train specialists for a competitive but promising market. Contributing to this challenge is the main aim of this project “Structured functional glasses for lasing, sensing and health applications” (FunctiGlass), a unique interdisciplinary double-degree research and training program. It aims at impacting advanced high-tech materials for three sectors: Light sources, Sensors and Bio-applications. FunctiGlass program will fully train 11 Doctoral Candidates (DCs) who will participate in a joint research training program built on very strong academia/industry cooperation. It guarantees the exposure of Researchers to 11 academic (universities and research institutes) and 9 non-academic environments (industry and SMEs) representing 9 different countries. Each DC will be supervised by two academic tutors and one mentor (industrial partner) to guarantee inter-sectorial knowledge sharing and acquisition of transferable skills with emphasis on entrepreneurship and innovation. With the multi-dimensional training of FunctiGlass program, the 11 DCs will excel in the future economy by acquiring a multi-faceted perspective and a growing mindset to become the future leaders in glass science and especially in nano/micro-structured glass-based materials. With this program, the DCs will find their own future innovative path in academia or industry. This program will create the grounds for establishing long-term relations between the academic and private sectors for technology and compete.

GRETA will lay the foundation of the first green, printed and flexible organic wireless identification tag operating at Ultra-High Frequency (UHF, 300 MHz – 1 GHz). The long-term vision is to enable remote powering and readout of tags up to… Read more meters distance range, as required in logistics and security, without the need of a battery and with drastically reduced lifecycle impact and costing with respect to any available passive radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology. To achieve such overarching goal, GRETA aims at groundbreaking progress along two specific complementary actions: - Action 1: Removing present barriers preventing sustainability of printed organic electronics, by tackling the most environmental and economically impactful aspects, yet seldom addressed, of organics synthesis and processing. - Action 2: Demonstrating unprecedented UHF operation of printed organic electronics. Measurable objectives of GRETA are: Objective 1. Green synthesis and development of sustainable and biodegradable materials (Action 1); Objective 2. Sustainable inks formulations for large-area printing tools (Action 1); Objective 3. UHF electronics based on sustainable printed organic semiconductors (Action 2); Objective 4. Enable an eco-designed, printed UHF wireless tag with sustainable lifecycle. Objective 4 is dedicated to demonstrators of the entire effort: GRETA UHF tag, demonstrating rectification of a 400 MHz wave to enable a code generator, and GRETA UHF logic, demonstrating a sustainable printed integrated 4-bit shift register. GRETA perfectly matches the scope of the Call as it serves emerging digitalization needs in logistics, healthcare and security without adding e-waste, independent from the silicon industry and from any critical raw material, and delivering safe materials for the environment. GRETA will quantify its drastically reduced environmental impact with a full LCA, along a cradle-to-grave approach, anticipating end-of-life scenarios.

Today’s computation, based on parallel processing of information, is reaching its physical limitations and novel solutions are to be found in the close future to overcome such major hurdle. This project aims to achieve the first proof-of-concept of Quantum Reservoir… Read more Computing (QRC) scheme based on networks of Quantum Materials (QMs) defects which will enable the fabrication of prototypical computing devices. The engineering of defect network characteristics such as density and defect typology will allow tailoring the defects’ network physical properties, and ultimately its neuromorphic and computing complexity. The project is feasible yet groundbreaking because it capitalizes upon the very different expertises, both experimental and theoretical, comprised within the partners’ consortium, all of which are required to implement a novel QRC scheme. As such, this project will result in unprecedented characteristics that extend the conventional boundaries of ICT electronic devices and systems and pave the way for the development of novel Quantum Technologies.