Even more functional multifunctional materials
The ‘Functionalised advanced materials engineering of hybrids and ceramics’ (FAME) project was initiated to establish a consortium of research and industry experts combining expertise in multifunctional hybrid materials with that in ceramic materials research. FAME actively supported a number of research projects, leading to 144 collaborative publications and two patent applications. The EU-funded project also created a fellowship programme as a dedicated part of the budget that supported visits of one week or more between FAME laboratories and to training schools organised by the FAME consortium on specific topics. One of its greatest successes was the creation of a full two-year Master’s course in multifunctional materials hosted by seven partner universities in four countries. FAME created the European Multifunctional Materials Institute (EMMI) with a legal organisational and financial structure. In addition to developing statutes and internal regulation documentation, the governing board created a research committee, an educational committee and an industry support group. The latter will become the core of the EMMI advisory board, assisting in formulating a research road map for future endeavours. The EMMI website (http://www.emmi-materials.eu) presents general information as well as news and events. The site maintains a number of databases to foster collaboration including 'Research equipment and tools', 'People and skills' and databases on EMMI projects and member laboratories. Thus, the FAME project successfully brought together expertise from research and industry in the fields of hybrid materials and ceramics. The researchers formed the EMMI, a legal entity with official statutes and a governing board. Finally, the FAME consortium members devoted much time, expertise and funding to training of young researchers through a variety of means. Taken together, the FAME project outcomes should have lasting impact on the future of research using ceramics in multifunctional materials and promises to bring many new technologies and applications to the medical, electronics and aerospace industries, to name just a few.
