Periodic Reporting for period 2 - PANACEA (A Pan-European Solid-State NMR Infrastructure for Chemistry-Enabling Access)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2023-03-01 do 2024-08-31
Chemistry is central to the European economy, with the chemical industry being one of the largest manufacturing sectors. Modern chemistry research increasingly focuses on complex non-crystalline solids, such as advanced pharmaceuticals, polymer composites, battery materials, and catalytic systems. Understanding the atomic structure of these materials is key to developing new compounds with specific, enhanced properties.
Solid-state NMR has made significant strides in the last 25 years, thanks to breakthroughs in instrumentation, including high magnetic fields, ultra-fast magic angle spinning, and hyperpolarization techniques. However, the most advanced systems, costing over 10 million Euros, are limited to a few specialized facilities in Western Europe.
The PANACEA project aims to address this gap by developing an integrated infrastructure to provide wider access to cutting-edge solid-state NMR technologies. The project has three key objectives:
Objective 1 (O1). Provide the European academic, SME and industrial chemistry researchers with an effective and convenient access to the best solid-state NMR infrastructures.
Objective 2 (O2). Structure a new scientific community of chemistry users in need of cutting-edge instrumentation and experiments in solid-state NMR and foster innovation.
Objective 3 (O3). Strengthen and enlarge the solid-state NMR application fields by promoting innovative and cooperative research between the academic scientists and private companies (instrumentation, methodology and software).
Solid-state NMR has made significant strides in the last 25 years, thanks to breakthroughs in instrumentation, including high magnetic fields, ultra-fast magic angle spinning, and hyperpolarization techniques. However, the most advanced systems, costing over 10 million Euros, are limited to a few specialized facilities in Western Europe.
The PANACEA project aims to address this gap by developing an integrated infrastructure to provide wider access to cutting-edge solid-state NMR technologies. The project has three key objectives:
Objective 1 (O1). Provide the European academic, SME and industrial chemistry researchers with an effective and convenient access to the best solid-state NMR infrastructures.
Objective 2 (O2). Structure a new scientific community of chemistry users in need of cutting-edge instrumentation and experiments in solid-state NMR and foster innovation.
Objective 3 (O3). Strengthen and enlarge the solid-state NMR application fields by promoting innovative and cooperative research between the academic scientists and private companies (instrumentation, methodology and software).
Work carried out during RP1 and RP2 towards the achievement of O1:
During the first 36 months of PANACEA, from September 1, 2021 until August 31, 2024, we designed the website of the project (www.panacea-nmr.eu) and established a common access procedure for external users through a single-entry point. Importantly, the procedure for the submission of a research project and the allocation of measurement time has been built to be as simple as possible for the users. Assistance is provided at each step of the submission process when needed, and a dedicated submission interface has been built for non-NMR experts users. During RP1 and RP2, 98 projects were received from external users and accepted for access upon an independent peer-reviewing. Of these projects, 91 gave rise to measurement time with days provided on 23 NMR spectrometers. These concerned applications fields as diverse as polymer science, catalysis, photo-luminescent materials, biomaterials, pharmaceuticals or glasses.
Work carried out during RP1 towards the achievement of O2:
Advertisement for PANACEA access took place in different ways in order to expand the user base of solid-state NMR within the Chemistry community, from the participation to European NMR conferences to the careful design of a visual identity that allows the infrastructure to be already seen as a “brand”. Two applied (hands-on) workshops entitled “Solid-state NMR methods for pharmaceutical formulations” and "Solid-state NMR of quadrupolar nuclei" were successfully organized, along with a summer school "Fundamentals of solid-state NMR for chemists », attracting together 95 participants. Five newsletters of PANACEA have been broadly distributed. Several local operator meetings were organized so as to exchange and share experience on access practices and in turn, harmonize, optimize and improve trans-national access protocols.
Besides creating a specific section for industrials on the web page of the infrastructure, the strengths of solid-state NMR techniques and opportunities offered for industrial research were advertised during two scientific events, merging the annual users meeting and the industrial day. Following this event, a Stakeholder Assembly was established, mainly composed of industrial partners present at the meeting. An integrated and efficient management system for the NMR data acquired at the different TA sites has been developed so that they can be efficiently preserved but also made openly available to a large scientific community.
Work carried out during RP1 towards the achievement of O3:
Tools to design a single web-based interface for NMR data analysis as an alternative to the wide pallet of software used today by the community, integrating information from other analytical techniques, have been developed. Our efforts focused on the implementation of a web-based platform for integrated data analysis, progressively enriched and accessible to the PANACEA users, ensuring an effective and easy handling of the user data, making them self-contained for a versatile usage.
In parallel, progress has been made to expand the application fields of modern solid-state NMR, exploiting and developing emerging methodologies and instrumentation. Among the key achievements we note the prototyping of Magic Angle Spinning (MAS) Dynamic Nuclear Polarization (DNP) probe operative in narrow-bore magnet, the introduction of new generations of polarizing agents for DNP, the first NMR spectra recorded with a 0.4 mm MAS prototype probe, or the first ultra-high sensitivity 19F spectra recorded with a 1H/19F/X DNP probe. In order to ensure that the user community is aware of the research opportunities available within PANACEA, the new methodologies developed and implemented by the consortium partners are advertised and regularly updated on the webpage of the project.
During the first 36 months of PANACEA, from September 1, 2021 until August 31, 2024, we designed the website of the project (www.panacea-nmr.eu) and established a common access procedure for external users through a single-entry point. Importantly, the procedure for the submission of a research project and the allocation of measurement time has been built to be as simple as possible for the users. Assistance is provided at each step of the submission process when needed, and a dedicated submission interface has been built for non-NMR experts users. During RP1 and RP2, 98 projects were received from external users and accepted for access upon an independent peer-reviewing. Of these projects, 91 gave rise to measurement time with days provided on 23 NMR spectrometers. These concerned applications fields as diverse as polymer science, catalysis, photo-luminescent materials, biomaterials, pharmaceuticals or glasses.
Work carried out during RP1 towards the achievement of O2:
Advertisement for PANACEA access took place in different ways in order to expand the user base of solid-state NMR within the Chemistry community, from the participation to European NMR conferences to the careful design of a visual identity that allows the infrastructure to be already seen as a “brand”. Two applied (hands-on) workshops entitled “Solid-state NMR methods for pharmaceutical formulations” and "Solid-state NMR of quadrupolar nuclei" were successfully organized, along with a summer school "Fundamentals of solid-state NMR for chemists », attracting together 95 participants. Five newsletters of PANACEA have been broadly distributed. Several local operator meetings were organized so as to exchange and share experience on access practices and in turn, harmonize, optimize and improve trans-national access protocols.
Besides creating a specific section for industrials on the web page of the infrastructure, the strengths of solid-state NMR techniques and opportunities offered for industrial research were advertised during two scientific events, merging the annual users meeting and the industrial day. Following this event, a Stakeholder Assembly was established, mainly composed of industrial partners present at the meeting. An integrated and efficient management system for the NMR data acquired at the different TA sites has been developed so that they can be efficiently preserved but also made openly available to a large scientific community.
Work carried out during RP1 towards the achievement of O3:
Tools to design a single web-based interface for NMR data analysis as an alternative to the wide pallet of software used today by the community, integrating information from other analytical techniques, have been developed. Our efforts focused on the implementation of a web-based platform for integrated data analysis, progressively enriched and accessible to the PANACEA users, ensuring an effective and easy handling of the user data, making them self-contained for a versatile usage.
In parallel, progress has been made to expand the application fields of modern solid-state NMR, exploiting and developing emerging methodologies and instrumentation. Among the key achievements we note the prototyping of Magic Angle Spinning (MAS) Dynamic Nuclear Polarization (DNP) probe operative in narrow-bore magnet, the introduction of new generations of polarizing agents for DNP, the first NMR spectra recorded with a 0.4 mm MAS prototype probe, or the first ultra-high sensitivity 19F spectra recorded with a 1H/19F/X DNP probe. In order to ensure that the user community is aware of the research opportunities available within PANACEA, the new methodologies developed and implemented by the consortium partners are advertised and regularly updated on the webpage of the project.
The eight RIs within PANACEA serve a new community of multi-disciplinary chemistry users, currently not served by any NMR infrastructure. Accessing an Infrastructure of this caliber will also be crucial for European industries. A specific task of the project concerns the simplification of solid-state NMR data analysis via the development of unified software and tools, which will remove bottlenecks currently preventing the broad exploitation of modern solid-state NMR by the chemistry community at large. Joint research activities will increase the capacity and capability of solid-state NMR beyond current state-of-the-art. The project will finally contribute to the development of a new generation of researchers that will be aware of the potential of contemporary solid-state NMR, at a global level, in the broad user community across chemistry