ACTIMAT consortium for researching intelligent materials

ACTIMAT is a recently created consortium for the investigation of intelligent materials, considered by the European Union to be a strategic sector in the field of new technologies.

The budget is 5 million euros of which 1.5 million are financed by the ETORTEK programme of the Basque Government Department of Industry, Commerce and Tourism.
These materials are called so because they can perceive and/or react to stimuli from their surrounding environment. Studying them requires a command of various fields of science and technology. It involves research into new materials and their chemical and physical properties, and of both control and electronic systems.
The project arose from the proposal of Gaiker Technology Centre, which is specialising in plastic materials (processes of transformation, properties and recycling) and decided to take on the study of intelligent materials. To constitute ACTIMAT it brought experts from each necessary specialist area into the research groups.
The ACTIMAT Consortium is formed by the following departments of the University of the Basque Country: Macromolecular Chemistry Laboratory, Physical Chemistry Dept., the Magnetism and Magnetic Materials Group of the Dept. of Electricity and Electronics, and the Metallurgy Research Group of the Dept. of Condensed Materials Physics, together with Cidetec, Ikerlan and Maier technological research centres.
Also, Technology Centre Co-operative Society and Gaiker are looking into creating a Basque Council for knowledge and development that would distribute information and applications on intelligent materials. It would be a body, which can act as an international meeting point with other groups involved in these materials and with other consortiums specialised in nanotechnology, biomaterials, microtechnologies, etc.
Apart from setting up an open and permanent research consortium, which will facilitate its role, through the development of its own technologies, as a driving force for innovative technologies in Europe, the extent of new applications and business initiatives suitable for development and use in the Basque Autonomous Community will also be assessed.

Countries

Spain