Strategic Managing Unit
The Strategic Managing Unit, responsible for the implementation of the funding obtained by the Institute, was created in 2016 to reinforce the strategic projects, support all the initiatives related to the Severo Ochoa FUNMAT governance and initiatives, coordinate with the Managing Director the expenditures control and justification, promote the achievement of strategic projects complementing the FUNMAT actions and provide support to researchers in preparing, submitting and reporting new projects and grants. In close collaboration with ICMAB’s governing bodies and the other available Units, it promotes a continuous development strategy to position ICMAB as one of the leading European Research Centers in Materials Science.
Among its main objectives, the Unit is responsible for the constant search for new funding opportunities focusing on the strategic and innovation objectives of our Severo Ochoa FUNMAT project with the aim of enhancing ICMAB's scientific excellence, with an open-minded approach to detect new opportunities for our researchers. In 2017 the Unit was formed by Jorge Pérez and Montse Salas.
Among its main objectives, the Unit is responsible for the constant search for new funding opportunities focusing on the strategic and innovation objectives of our Severo Ochoa FUNMAT project with the aim of enhancing ICMAB's scientific excellence, with an open-minded approach to detect new opportunities for our researchers. In 2017 the Unit was formed by Jorge Pérez and Montse Salas.
Research Projects
The ICMAB is leading several collaborative research projects funded by the European Commission under its Framework Programmes and several national (RETOS and I+D Excelencia) and regional projects. This continued leadership results in high visibility, a strong reputation as well as relevant scientific and innovation output. In 2017 there was an extraordinary increase in the success of international grant attraction, mainly coming from EU projects from H2020. At the end of 2017, we had 34 EU ongoing projects: 15 of them started in 2017, among them 4 new ERC Grants, 1 COFUND MSCA coordinated by ICMAB (DOC-FAM) and 1 FET-OPEN (CARBAT). The total number of ERC grants increased to 8 in 2017.
COFUND MSCA DOC-FAM
The Institute of Materials Science of Barcelona (ICMAB-CSIC) coordinates the first MSCA-COFUND programme awarded to CSIC. The doctoral fellowship programme DOC-FAM (DOCtoral training programme in Functional Advanced Materials) will allow the mobility of 22 Early Stage Researchers in the field of functional advanced materials, 9 of them will be recruited by the ICMAB. The first call of the project was on October 2017, and the first fellows will be incorporated during the second semester of 2018.
The other participants in DOC-FAM programme are the Institute of Microelectronics of Barcelona (IMB-CNM-CSIC), the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2), the Catalonia Institute for Energy Research (IREC) and the ALBA Synchrotron. The duration of the programme is 5 years and involves a budget of 3,453,120 €. Half of this budget will be supported by the 1,726,560€ EC grant, while the other half will be cofunded by the project participants.
The other participants in DOC-FAM programme are the Institute of Microelectronics of Barcelona (IMB-CNM-CSIC), the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2), the Catalonia Institute for Energy Research (IREC) and the ALBA Synchrotron. The duration of the programme is 5 years and involves a budget of 3,453,120 €. Half of this budget will be supported by the 1,726,560€ EC grant, while the other half will be cofunded by the project participants.
NFFA Europe
ICMAB is one of the host institutions of the NFFA-Europe (Nanofoundries for fine analysis) project for the synthesis and characterization at the nanoscale across Europe, which started in 2015 and will last until the end of 2018. During 2017, ICMAB has participated in the following way: we have received 14 users to our facilities, from France, Italy, Greece, India, Switzerland and Russia. The installations used until now have been: scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR), atomic laser deposition (ALD), magnetometry by Superconducting Quantum Interference Devices (SQUID) and ellipsometry.
A Summer School devoted to "NFFA available instruments and techniques" took place at the Engineering School of the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) between July 18-22, 2017. As part of the school, visits to all the relevant infrastructures at the UAB Campus involved in the NFFA-Europe-transnational access were programmed. ICMAB-CSIC received 30 students from all over Europe, which were given a brief introduction of the Institute activities and then had the opportunity to visit some of the laboratories participating in the project, including the Cleanroom facility and the Raman, AFM and Low Temperature and Magnetometry laboratories.
A Summer School devoted to "NFFA available instruments and techniques" took place at the Engineering School of the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) between July 18-22, 2017. As part of the school, visits to all the relevant infrastructures at the UAB Campus involved in the NFFA-Europe-transnational access were programmed. ICMAB-CSIC received 30 students from all over Europe, which were given a brief introduction of the Institute activities and then had the opportunity to visit some of the laboratories participating in the project, including the Cleanroom facility and the Raman, AFM and Low Temperature and Magnetometry laboratories.
