Towards harmonised characterisation protocols in NMBP (RIA)

The proposals should develop EU-wide harmonised characterisation protocols and data exchange procedures that reduce measurement discrepancies and increase interoperability, feed into work done under Industry Commons and facilitate services within technology infrastructures. To maximise impact and synergies, projects should contribute to the objectives of the European Materials Characterisation Council (EMCC) and foresee the necessary resources to this effect. They should also collaborate with existing NMBP characterisation projects including the open innovation test beds for characterisation. Therefore, proposals should foresee a dedicated work package for this cooperation. In particular, the projects should:

• Identify characterisation techniques and tools with wide applicability across NMBP domains;
• Seek the involvement of standardisation bodies such as CEN-CENELEC and ISO;
• Create operation protocols including sample preparation and harmonisation procedures;
• Validate new methodologies and reference materials in different projects and/or testbeds across several domains;
• Contribute to ontologies, standardised documentation and develop tools that can aid the traceability, integrity and interoperability of data for Industry Commons;
• Develop working groups engaging stakeholders to accelerate the integration of materials characterisation and modelling from materials development to processing and manufacturing of products.

Proposals submitted under this topic should include a business case and exploitation strategy, as outlined in the Introduction to the LEIT part of this Work Programme.

Activities should start at TRL 4 and achieve TRL 6 at the end of the project.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU between EUR 4 and 6 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

The increasing interest in comparing and linking experimental data to achieve reliable end-user products necessitates the development of widely accepted standardised measurement methods as characterisation protocols for materials, processes and final product performance. To improve experimental data quality, reproducibility and traceability there is a need to develop, test, validate and agree on methodologies for measurement and characterisation techniques – such as microscopy, spectroscopy and diffraction techniques, as well as micro- and nano-mechanical tests – that are used in a wide variety of industries and settings through interoperable data exchange mechanisms. It is therefore critical that developers and users of current measurement and characterisation protocols reach a broad-ranging agreement on their standardisation, paving the way for new technologies in response to the emergent needs of Industry Commons.

• Validated and trusted characterisation protocols supporting modelling, lifecycle analysis and market harmonisation within the EU;
• Facilitated comparability and traceability of characterisation data leading to increased trust in product quality and performance assessments;
• Increased uptake of emerging characterisation innovations leading to developments of new standards and data exchange mechanisms and supporting the future needs of Industry Commons;
• Accelerated characterisation of materials, and facilitation of simulation leading to a measurable reduction of costs for product design, time-to-market and regulatory compliance.