The UNAT project faced significant challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war. These crises profoundly impacted the project's implementation. Despite this, the UNAT consortium managed to effectively implement the project to some extent over the first three years.The main achievements of the UNAT project over the first 3 years included:
- The kick-off meeting was successfully held online on 22th April 2021.
- The setting-up of the management legal frame, governing bodies and operating tools and launch, preparation and distribution of the required tools to ensure a smooth project management.
- The launch of the website (
https://www.unat-project.eu(odnośnik otworzy się w nowym oknie)).
- Internal and external communication templates based on the project's graphic chart have been prepared to enhance the visibility of the UNAT project. A dedicated visual identity, including a logo, website header, fonts, and colors, was also established.
- A collaborative platform has been set up to securely centralize and share project-related documents.
- In frame of the Work Package 2 (WP2), Gd3+-free and Gd3+-doped carbon-based NHs were successfully synthesized.
- As part of the WP2, NHs were produced from food industry by-products, specifically: coffee waste, chestnut, and peanut shells.
- By adjusting synthetic conditions and dispersing mediums, photophysical properties as well as potential biomedical applications of the NHs can be adjusted.
- In frame of the WP3, in vitro cytotoxicity assays demonstrated that all the NHs exhibited good biocompatibility at concentrations as high as 1 mg/mL.
- As part of the WP3, in vitro neurotoxicity tests indicated that the incorporation of Gd into the NHs did not increase their toxicity, suggesting their strong chelating properties.
- Some NHs were found to be the most tolerated in-vivo by mice after multiple doses at concentrations adequate for bioimaging and therapeutic applications.
- A request for Amendment was initiated in January 2023 aiming at integrating a new partner, Glincs and the extension of the duration of the project.
- The organisation of the first UNAT workshop within the frame of the Nanohybrid 18 conference on 30th May - 1st June 2022 in Bastia, before the project mid-term meeting with the EC officer.
- An additional workshop was organized in the frame of the Nanohybrids XIX-2023 conference from May 29 to June 02, 2023, in Porquerolles, France.
- The mid-term meeting on May 31, 2022, in cooperation with REA, assessed project implementation, progress, and challenges.
- 4 newsletters were released every six months, covering project outcomes, events, publications, and secondments.
- 9 publications were successfully submitted and made openly available.
- V. Lysenko, UNAT Coordinator, as a Guest Editor of a Special issue "Photoacoustic and Photothermal Phenomena" in Nanomaterials.
- 41 secondments, totaling 80 months, were implemented in the first reporting period.
- A project video illustrating the secondment of two Ukranian researchers at University of Lyon was produced by Deutsche Welle and is now online here:
https://www.dw.com/en/ukrainian-scientists-find-refuge-in-france/av-61748596(odnośnik otworzy się w nowym oknie)
