nano4m
Nano4m - Nanotechnology for Market is going to end in December 2011: the transnational project involving four regions (Asturias in Spain, Tuscany in Italy, Lorraine in France, North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany) and twelve partners from local governments, research centers and centers of businesses' services is going to accomplish its goals.
The project, funded by INTERREG IVC, began in October 2008 and lasts three years. Its total budget is € 1,845,892.00 with an ERDF contribution of € 1,384,419.00.
Partners are working to draw recommendations to regional authorities to improve technology transfer policies and initiatives. These recommendations will contain conclusions based on the technology transfer strategies implemented in the research and technology centres. Opportunities for future cooperation among regional governments in the domain of technology transfer will also be explored.
National conferences in partner countries, as well as communication campaigns, will inform about the final results of this important European project.

Nano4m: the final conference in Asturias
The final conference will take place in Avilés, Asturias (Spain) on the 29th September, at the ITMA Foundation facilities. Important characters will be present, as well as local speakers. After the introduction by Mr. José Manuel Rivero Iglesias (Regional Minister of Economy and Employment, Government of Principality of Asturias), Mr. Santiago García Granda (Vice-Chancellor for Research, Oviedo University) and Mr. Nicolas de Abajo (ArcelorMittal; Director of Global R&D Asturias Centre and Global R&D Spain; President Fundación ITMA) will speak; other important personalities will be present at the conference, such as Mr. Christophe Choserot, regional councillor of Lorraine Region. Moreover, Ms. Marie Lebre (Interreg IVC Joint Technical Secretariat Lille) will attend the event. Important issues of the conference will be the project results and the recommendations for regional and local authorities.
In the afternoon of the same day, the final Steering Committee meeting will take place.
On Friday 30th, there will be two interesting study visits: one to Asturfeito and another one to Arcelor-Mittal, both companies based in Avilés.

Nanoprojects of the Nano4m partners
The partners of the project are developing important projects dealing with micro/nanotechnology (besides Nano4m).

Spanish partners
Asturias is the region of the famous Prince of Asturias Awards, in recognition of the scientific, technical, cultural, social and human achievements at international level of individuals, joint teams and institutions. In 2008 the winners in the category “Technical & Scientific Research” were Sumio Iijima, Shuji Nakamura, George M. Whitesides, Tobin Marks: these scientists created new, revolutionary materials and transcendental techniques for fighting diseases, and for producing artificial tissues and organs. Their work also stands out for its contribution to the protection of the environment and energy saving.
Through IDEPA (lead partner of Nano4m project), the Principality of Asturias led among 2005-2008 an Interreg III C initiative titled ESTIIC “Encouraging the use of technology, innovation and the information society for competitiveness” in which another three European regions were taking part: Cantabria, Nordrhein-Westfalen and Southern & Eastern Region of Ireland. As a framework project, ESTIIC created a general area for sub-projects of cross-border cooperation. In one of these subprojects, “Dissemination and awareness-raising in industrial apply of nanotechnologies in R+D+I of products and processes in SME (NANO-SME)”, Itma Foundation, University of Oviedo and the Spanish Council for Scientific Research from Asturias, and University of Applied Sciences-Fachhochschule Gelsenkirchen from NRW were closely networked with one another.
In 2007, the government of the Principality of Asturias, the Spanish Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) and the University of Oviedo established by a joint institutional initiative the Nanomaterial and Nanotechnology Research Centre.

The Centro de Investigacion en Nanomateriales y Nanotecnología CINN-CSIC is developing two projects on nanomaterials, using ultrafunctional electromagnetic materials. These projects are in collaboration with the CINN-CSIC of Oviedo, the ICMM-CSIC (Institute of Material Science of Madrid) and the University of Alcala. They are co-founded by the Spanish National Research Plan 2008-2011.
CINN also coordinated the Scientific Marathon “Materials: a sight from the nano and bio perspective”, which took place in Gijón in May 2010; it participated in the 11th Spanish National Congress of Materials held in Zaragoza in June 2010 and organized the 5th International Workshop on Mullite & Mullite-type Materials in Avilés in May 2011.
CINN-ITMA also participated in the “8th International Workshop on Interfaces at the boundary between natural and synthetic materials” in June 2011 at the University of Santiago, Santiago de Compostela, Spain.
Moreover, the Spanish newspaper “El País” published (April, 12th 2011) 20 special central pages dedicated to Nanotechnologies and Nanomaterials: Dr. José María Alameda and Dr. Jaime Ferrer, both Professors at the Oviedo University and coordinators of 2 of the main sectors of investigation at CINN, have answered questions concerning the development of Nanotechnologies in Asturias.

Fundación PRODINTEC is working with several companies in the development of products by micromilling for applications in health (clinical diagnosis, surgery, implants), precision tools (laser heads, electrodes, micromoulds), and automotive (micromilling of pieces in complex systems, tools for high precision operations).
PRODINTEC is also involved in 2 projects based on micromilling and microinjection technologies. These projects, MICROMEC2 and PROCUSENS, are funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation.
Additionally, from 9th to 12th October, José Antonio Rodríguez Cortés as PRODINTEC personnel, will attend Euro PM 2011 Congress in Barcelona, Spain (http://www.epma.com/pm_2011/home_2011.htm). This congress is focused on international powder metallurgy community, and provides the annual focal point for industry personnel, researchers, and suppliers to meet, network and develop their business.
An abstract of José Antonio Rodríguez Cortés from PRODINTEC has been accepted and he will present this technical paper about micro-technologies during the conference.

French partners
The Regional Council of Lorraine is a public authority. It is not directly involved in projects of nanotechnologies as partner but as funds provider. In this context, projects are mainly supported by the Regional Council, but managed by its scientific partners such as GTL and IJL. The GTL project “Complex materials for optics and electronics: Preparation, structure and characterization” aims at developing new technological basis of production and structuring of optical and electronic materials. The IJL project is called “Scientific equipment related to nanotechnologies”. Also ARCUS Lorraine-Russie (Actions en Région de Coopération Universitaire et Scientifique / regional actions of academic and scientific cooperation) contains components about Nanomaterials and nanotechnologies.
Recently, a new department specifically dedicated to research on nanotechnology and biomaterials was created at IJL. This new innovative topic gives to IJL the possibility to cooperate with regional structures as hospitals or many other health structures to enhance and develop new products and materials for bio medical activities.

Institut Jean Lamour, a new generation of magnetic sensors for Active Sensor Bearing Technology of SNR (http://www.ntn-snr.com): the French Physical Society took the decision to award the price Yves Rocard 2010 to the team Patrick Alnot (IJL), Christophe Duret (SNR), Michel Hehn (IJL), Christophe Nicot (SNR) and Alain Schuhl (formerly IJL, actual director of Institut Néel) for the invention and the technological transfer of a new generation of magnetic sensors.
In 2000, Patrick Alnot, professor at University Henri Poincare of Nancy, created a Technological Research Team (TRT) dedicated to the study of metallic nanostructures.
A first sensor prototype was made in 2008 and it showed a power consumption 1000 times less than the sensor used actually with a working distance three times larger allowing new applications.
           
UMI GeorgiaTech-CNRS is involved in several projects involving micro- and nano-technologies. In the area of mechanics of materials, Prof. Mohamed Cherkaoui and Prof. Laurent Capolungo use multi-scale modeling and experimental verification to take advantage of micro- and nano-structuring in order to improve material properties. In the area of wide-bandgap semiconductors, Prof. Abdallah Ougazzaden conducts EU, French, and US funded research programs that take advantage of wide-bangap nanostructures to provide more engineerable materials for solar cells, UV photonics, betavoltaics, etc.  Professor Paul Voss is actively investigating the nonlinear optical and electronic properties of graphene, a single-atomic layer of carbon atoms that are further nano-structured to create nano-wires. These initiatives are to be commercialized in the Lafayette Institute, a tech transfer center that will permit the commercialization of these and other nano- and micro-technologies.

German partners
To overcome the structural crisis in the past, in 2000, the City of Dortmund launched a special task force, the dortmund-project, to conceptualise and implement strategies suited to back and consolidate the development of new emerging industrial sectors. As one of new sectors micro and nanotechnologies (MNT) were identified as outstanding local competence and technology fields. Since 2001 the city offers micro- and nanotechnology companies and users a first-class environment which is also characterized by its emphasis on technological diversity.The local cluster links companies, universities, research institutes, training networks and investors to form an effective network. Young start-up companies and established companies benefit from the presence of several centers of excellence specializing in microtechnology. The centers facilitate the rapid development of new products from the original idea through to market launch – with low investment costs for the companies. At present, the local MNT cluster is the strongest German microsystems technology network and belongs to the leading MNT clusters throughout Europe. Dortmund is predestined to drive the innovation process ahead strongly, so it was no coincidence that the state of North Rhine-Westphalia chose Dortmund as the location for the NRW Nano-Conference (this year it will take place on 17th and 18th October).

The Technologieförderung Münster GmbH in its function as a unit of the city of Münster develops five competence fields. One of them is the cluster Nanobioanalytics, which is organized by Bioanalytik-Münster, a regional network of universities, research centres, enterprises, transfer institutions and investors. The aim of the organization is to develop the Münster region into a leading bioanalytics location with the emphasis on nanobioanalytics. The managing director Dr. Klaus-Michael Weltring is also involved in the project “ETP Nanomedicine”, addressing the application of nanotechnology to achieve breakthroughs in healthcare. Together with Mike Eaton, he has written an opinion paper about the impact of Open Innovation on (Nano-) Healthcare R&D in Europe.

TechnologieZentrumDortmund Management GmbH (TZM) presently manages five Dortmund-based high-tech incubators,each of them having a different technological focus. Within TZM, MST.factory dortmund is the competence centre dealing with microsystems and nanotechnology (MNT) projects. It is the first business incubator in Europe with a restrictive focus on MNT, providing an MNT-specific infrastructure, facilities and business support according to the particular needs of MNT start-ups. The centre presently houses more than a dozen start-up projects, half of them engaged in developing new nanotech-based prototypes, mainly in the fields of nanophotonics, micro/nano optics, and micro/nano structures.
As an example, Innolume GmbH is a world leading supplier of Quantum Dot-based semiconductor lasers in the wavelength range from 1064 to 1320 nm, providing products to communications, medical and industrial firms. The main strategic product of Innolume is a COMB-Laser, a diode laser that emits in parallel many laser modes in a stable manner.

NanoRelief GmbH, another start-up company of MST.factory dortmund, has developed an innovative light modulator for video projection based on deforming a transparent polymer in the nanometer range. Besides Digital Light Processing, the modulator can be used in a wide range of application areas, such as tunable diffraction gratings, image correction systems, telecom attenuators, splitters, multiplexers, front and rear displays, adaptive optics, etc.

 

The R&D activities of MST.factory-based Innowledgement GmbH in the field of medical applications of micro/nano-structured shape memory alloys were discussed and analyzed in a case study of Nano4m in Expert Group 1, dealing with dental implants.

The Center for Nanotechnology (CeNTech) in Münster has been founded and structured in 2001 as innovative Science, Research and Technology, Transfer, and Incubator organization. High level university research from several different disciplines takes place in one building with business-oriented nanotech companies. The central organization CeNTech GmbH combines the interests of the different stakeholders and supports transfer activities, start-ups and also the nanotech scientists. As also business-oriented company the CeNTech GmbH supports the researchers in all questions of patenting and licensing their inventions and searches potential customers.
CeNTech is doing research about a lot of issues, such as: nanoporous materials, which can be grown on concave or convex surfaces; doping front migration, a very useful effect which occurs in structures composed of intrinsically conductive polymers; nanostructured materials, which offer particular promise for new and potentially very useful products, since they can have very different and often superior properties that crucially depend on the atomistic details of interior or exterior interfaces. Other research groups deal with special microscopes, high-resolution imaging techniques for studying cellular signaling and trafficking, with the emphasis on presynaptic mechanisms during synaptic transmission; research is done also about Organic Light Emitting Diodes technology (OLEDs).
One of the CeNTech research topics has become subject to the analyses, discussions and investigation in Expert Group 2 of the Nano4m project. Dr. C. Strassert introduced the concept of killing antibiotic-resistant bacteria simply with light, by using nanoparticles that can be physically contacted to these bacteria and that are able to kill them due to their light sensitivity.

 

Italian partners
Circondario Empolese Valdelsa & Agenzia per lo Sviluppo are developing a project to create a Tuscan center for developing new materials and innovative technologies. It combines the private component (several firms and a bank), the public component (Circondario Empolese Valdelsa, Agenzia per lo Sviluppo and other institutes), the scientific component (Universities). The center is located in Empoli, in a public building (via Paladini - old hospital). It will contain a high-technology experimental laboratory, developing new materials and doing application in molecular form. The same venue will host the local university. The total project cost is of € 3,830,850.00.
Very important for the center is the collaboration with Colorobbia Italy S.p.A. Through its research center CE.RI.COL., since 1999 it is focusing its research programs on nanotechnology and in particular on functional nanomaterials with different industrial applications and nanostructured special glasses.
The Italian partners of the project have organized a final conference in their country, whose title is “From research to market. The improvement of marked-oriented research strategies of Research and Technological Centers”: it will take place on 28th October in Florence, in the conference room of Villa Fabbricotti. It will be attended by local authorities, experts, members of the other partners. The conference will focus on the final results of the project, as well as the experiences of technological transfer, the politics of Region Tuscany in the field of technological transfer and other interesting issues relating to this theme.

 

Some interesting EU Nano-Projects funded under 7th FP (Seventh Framework Programme)*
Transnational call for collaborative proposals in basic nanoscience research (NANOSCI-EPLUS).
Organisation: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris (France).
NanoSci-E+ (start date January 2008, end date April 2012) aims at launching, managing and carrying out the follow-up of a transnational call for collaborative projects in the field of basic nanoscience research, with a thematic focus on the interfacing of functional nano-objects.

Knowledge and excellence in European nanotechnology-regions (KEEN-REGIONS) Organisation: Regione del Veneto, Venice (Italy).
If the three clusters Veneto Nanotech (Veneto), Minatec (Rhone-Alps) and Gaia (Basque Country) are to collaborate, combining and integrating their enormous wealth of resources to increase synergies and to complement one another, it will create a huge potential for research and economic development at the EU level. This is the goal of KEEN (Knowledge and Excellence in European Nanotechnology-Regions). Start date June 2009, end date May 2012.

Network in advanced materials and nanomaterials of industrial interest between Europe and Latin American Countries of MERCOSUR (Argentina-Brazil-Uruguay) (EULASUR).
Organization: Agencia Estatal Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas, Madrid (Spain).
A key thrust of FP7 is to promote international collaborative research with third countries. The EULASUR project (start date August 2009, end date July 2012) addresses the Call for Co-ordination Action in Materials by creating a cooperation platform for forming strategic research partnerships between scientists, policy makers, technology transfer and industrial experts in the EC and three Latin-American countries belonging to MERCOSUR: Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina (BRAU).

* Projects found in: http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/home_en.html