NANOFORUMEULA Call for Research Visit Grants text

EXCHANGE VISITS / VISITAS DE INTERCAMBIO / VISITAS DE INTERCÂMBIO

In 2007 and 2008, the European Union will foster lasting research relations between European and Latin American research organisations in nanotechnology in the framework of the “Nanoforum EU Latin America” project (NANOFORUMEULA). The project is funded under the Sixth EU Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (FP6); Nanotechnologies and Nanosciences, Knowledge Based Multifunctional Materials and New Production Processes and Devices (NMP) programme. The project partners will organise exchange visits for twenty Latin American researchers to four European research organisations specialising in nanotechnology. Five visitors will be selected for each of these four organisations. Interested researchers and research organisations in Latin American countries who can demonstrate prior experience and expertise in nanotechnology R&D are invited to submit a proposal for such a three month visit to Ineke Malsch by e-mail. Women as well as men are invited to apply. The proposal should be included in the attached application form and be in English. Incomplete or clearly irrelevant proposals will not be taken into consideration. Only researchers currently employed by an organisation located in a Latin American country, which is active in nanotechnology research, can apply. The list of countries covered by the present call is included below.

NANOFORUMEULA will fund competitive visit grants for PhD students, postdocs and senior researchers working in nanotechnology R&D organisations in Latin American countries to one of the following four European public research organisations:

The NANOFORUMEULA visit grants only cover travel, subsistence and research expenses for up to three months per person. The employer of the visitor and the host organisation in Europe will have to demonstrate their interest in strengthening good working relations. We expect the employer to cover salaries, and to use the exchange for preparing future collaborations. The visits will have to take place between 15 August 2007 and 1 May 2008. We expect the visitors to report on their visits in interviews or articles in the local or national media.

The NANOFORUMEULA budget for each visiting researcher is:

This call for visit grants is published on NANOFORUMEULA, NANOFORUM, CORDIS, MINAPIM, IPICYT, the websites of the host organisations and through other means by 1 February 2007, with deadline 1 May 2007. A scientific committee will select the successful candidates and we will notify them and publish the results by September 2007. The visits will have to take place between 15 August 2007 and 1 May 2008.

The scientific committee will apply the following selection criteria to select successful visitors:

Selected visitors will be offered assistance from Malsch TechnoValuation, their host organisation and ERACAREERS, http://europa.eu.int/eracareers/index_en.cfm or guided to the relevant government and EC organisations while on their visit in Europe.

Role of the European host organisations

The four European nanotechnology research organisations participating in NANOFORUMEULA will each host five Latin American visitors for three months per visitor. The host organisations will:

Profiles of the host organisations

University of Twente, MESA+

MESA+ is one of the largest nanotechnology research institutes in the world, delivering competitive and successful high quality research. It uses a unique structure, which unites scientific disciplines, and builds fruitful international cooperation to excel in science and education. MESA+ has created a perfect habitat for start-ups in the micro- and nano-industry to establish and to mature.

MESA+, Institute for Nanotechnology, is part of the University of Twente, having intensive cooperation with various research groups within the University. The institute employs 450 people of which 250 are PhD’s or postdocs. The institute holds 1250 m² of cleanroom space and state of the art research equipment. MESA+ has an integral turnover of 40 million euro per year of which more than 60% is acquired in competition from external sources.

The structure within MESA+ supports and facilitates the researchers and stimulates cooperation actively. MESA+ combines the disciplines of physics, electrical engineering, chemistry and mathematics. Internationally appealing research is achieved through this multidisciplinary approach. It is strengthening its international academic and industrial network by fruitful cooperation programs.

MESA+ has been the breeding place for more than 30 high-tech start-ups to date. A targeted program for cooperation with small and medium-sized enterprises is specially set up for start-ups. MESA+ offers the use of its extensive facilities and cleanroom space under friendly conditions. Start-ups and MESA+ work intensively together to promote transfer of knowledge.

Current research in nanotechnology and openings for Latin American contributors

MESA+ research can be categorised in Bionanotechnology, Mesofluidics, Nanoelectronics, Nanofabrication and materials science, and Photonics. 23 research groups participate in MESA+.

More information can be found at http://www.mesaplus.utwente.nl

Contact details

MESA+ Institute of Nanotechnology, University of Twente

Contact person: Ir. Miriam Luizink, Technical commercial director

PO Box 217

NL-7500 AE Enschede

The Netherlands

T: +31 53 489 2733

F: +31 53 489 2575

E-mail: m.luizink@utwente.nl

MINATEC®

Minatec® will act as European host for five Latin American visitors for three months. Minatec® was launched at the instigation of the CEA and the “Institut National Polytechnique de Grenoble” (INPG), bringing together 4000 people from industry, research and education institutions on the same campus. The site is already home to CEA-Leti, Europe's top centre for applied research in microelectronics and micro-nanotechnologies, and its considerable resources. Minatec® has been supported by an ambitious policy of investment, with a total of about 200 M€ invested between 2002 and 2006 to fund the new infrastructure, in addition to the 250M€ invested by CEA-Léti and INPG. Moreover, during the last 10 years, the microelectronics industry has invested 4B€ in the Grenoble-Isère area. The official opening of the new Minatec® campus, European leader in micro and nanotechnologies, has been on 2006, June 1^st, at the end of the Minatec Crossroads week of international conferences.

Minatec® adopts an integrated approach to innovation, from the exploration of technological breakthroughs to immediate industrial applications. This is essential to successfully negotiate the transition from advanced microelectronics to nanotechnology, evolve into heterogeneous microcomponents, and design tomorrow's smart devices and mobile terminals. In order to achieve these goals, 4000 engineers, researchers and academics will be working at Minatec®, in and around cutting edge technological resources and equipment. The resulting close contacts and multicultural exchanges will stimulate and speed up the innovation process.

Grenoble has the required scientific, technological and industrial resources to give Minatec® an environment matching its ambitions:

Current research in nanotechnology and openings for Latin American contributors

The scope of research at Minatec® includes Microelectronics, Nanoscience, Biology and Nanomaterials. The present call is targeted to stimulating collaboration in Nanoscience. This includes at Minatec®:

Contact details

CEA-LETI

MINATEC research centre

Contact person: Thiery Priem

17, Rue des Martyrs

38054, Grenoble Cedex 9

France

E-mail: thierry.priem@cea.fr

http://www.minatec.com/

Fraunhofer IWS

The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft undertakes applied research of direct utility to private and public enterprise and of wide benefit to society. Its services are solicited by customers and contractual partners in industry, the service sector and public administration. The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft maintains roughly 80 research units, including 58 Fraunhofer Institutes, at over 40 different locations throughout Germany. A staff of some 12,500, predominantly qualified scientists and engineers, works with an annual research budget of over one billion euros. Of this sum, more than € 900 million is generated through contract research. Roughly two thirds of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft’s contract research revenue is derived from contracts with industry and from publicly financed research projects. The remaining one third is contributed by the German federal and Länder governments, partly as a means of enabling the institutes to pursue more fundamental research in areas that are likely to become relevant to industry and society in five or ten years’ time.

The Fraunhofer Institute for Material and Beam Technology (IWS) focuses its research activities in the areas of laser processing and surface technology as well as nanotechnology. Key points are

In addition IWS coordinates the national nanotechnology center of competence for ultrathin functional films. At present IWS has a staff of 182 people in total. During the last years IWS has created 3 spin-off companies all of them dealing to a greater or lesser extent with nanotechnology.

Current research in nanotechnology and openings for Latin American contributors

Currently among others the following topics in nanotechnology and nanoscience are in the main focus of research at IWS thus offering good possibilities for a fruitful collaboration:

IWS is pleased to cooperate also on topics not explicitly mentioned.

Contact details

Fraunhofer IWS

Institute for Materials and Beam Technology

Contact person: Andreas Leson

Winterbergstr 28

D-01277 Dresden

Germany

Phone: 0049 351 2583317

Fax: 0049 351 2583314

E-mail: andreas.leson@iws.fraunhofer.de

http://www.iws.fraunhofer.de/

UAM

The Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM), with more than 30000 students and 2000 professors, is an outstanding teaching and research centre. The Faculty of Science of the UAM is well known in the nanoscience and nanomaterials worlds. There are around 20 different groups working in nanoscience distributed among the different Departments of Physics, Chemistry and Biology. The experimental and theoretical research topics cover a wide range of fields: Nanomagnetism and Spintronics, Nanomaterials, Nano- and Molecular Electronics, Nanophotonics, Nanobiotechnology (Biosensors) and Nanochemistry. The UAM research stands out for its outstanding contributions to different experimental and theoretical aspects of scanning probe microscopy (SPM) and related techniques.

Current research in nanotechnology and openings for Latin American contributors

The current research in Nanoscience includes several strategic research orientations:

Contact details

UAM

Autonomous University of Madrid

Contact person: Juan José Saenz

Campus de Cantoblanco

E-28049 Madrid

Spain

E-mail: juanjo.saenz@uam.es

http://www.uam.es/

Application form

2.1.1. Nanotechnology working experience

The legal representative of the candidate’s employing organisation or education institution must fill in, sign and stamp the declaration below. Without this declaration, the application will not be considered for funding.

Name:

Function:

Organisation:

Address:

Post code and Town:

Country:

Telephone:

Fax:

E-mail:

Website:

Place:

Date:

To whom it may concern,

I herewith declare the willingness of my organisation……………………………………….. to pay the salary or grant of candidate ……………………………………………………………….......

who has applied for a NanoforumEULA visit grant, during his/her visit to Europe. My organisation herewith expresses interest in establishing longer term collaboration with the European host organisation……………………………………………………………………...

Signature:

Stamp or seal of organisation:

The candidate must propose a detailed plan for carrying out up to three months research of excellent scientific quality in one of the European centres in nanotechnologies which are partners in NANOFORUMEULA. The proposal must include arguments for the relevance of the proposed research to the host organisation.

The candidate must include evidence of the scientific quality of his or her proposal which is convincing to a selection committee of scientific peers.

The candidate must include arguments for the relevance of his or her research project for the socio-economic development of his country or Latin America in general.

After the visit, the candidate must not only publish results of his research in scientific media, but also communicate about it to the general public, making it clear that he or she has benefited from funding by the European Commission. This can be by giving a lecture for a lay audience, presenting results to local companies, giving interviews to national or local media or publishing an opinion article in a newspaper or public magazine. Ineke Malsch will interview all visitors and publish these interviews in English online. The visitor is required to translate the interview in his or her national language, send it as press release to local or national media in his or her home country and send the press release in his or her national language as well as evidence of other dissemination activities to Ineke Malsch.

List of eligible countries in Latin America