IMDEA Nanociencia Postdoctoral Training Programme in Nanoscience

Project Information

IDEAL

Grant agreement ID: 101034431

DOI

10.3030/101034431

EC signature date 15 March 2021

Start date 1 January 2022

End date 31 December 2026

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 2 206 800,00

EU contribution

€ 1 103 400,00

Coordinated by

FUNDACION IMDEA NANOCIENCIA
Spain

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - IDEAL (IMDEA Nanociencia Postdoctoral Training Programme in Nanoscience)

Reporting period: 2022-01-01 to 2023-12-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

IDEAL is a new fellowship programme promoted by Fundación IMDEA Nanociencia that over 5 years aims to attract 12 talented postdoctoral researchers to undertake excellent research in any of the scientific areas of research at the
Institute:

(i) Organic Nanosystems for light harvesting and energy conversion
(ii) Fundamental properties of 2D materials
(iii) Nanomedicine against cancer and infection
(iv) Nanomagnetism and critical raw materials
(v) Solid state Quantum devices for information technologies
(iv) Technology Transfer Platform

The key objectives of the programme:

• Offer fellows a well-balanced research independence and mentoring from experienced researchers with access to an
excellent infrastructure of the highest level for the pursuit of projects in nanoscience and nanotechnology.

• Provide a full research training and career development programme, with a series of training and career development
activities and opportunities.

• Provide a dynamic research community and a lively international atmosphere focused on interdisciplinary research.

Fellows will carry out projects of 30 months choosing a Partner Organization (PO) to develop a secondment (between 2 and 6 months). The candidates have the freedom to choose a PO best suited to their training needs from IMDEA’s broad spectrum of collaborators.

IMDEA Nano is a non-profit Foundation created in 2006 jointly by the regional government of Madrid and the government of Spain to shorten the distance between research and society; providing new capacity for research,
technological development and innovation in the field of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology. IMDEA Nano holds the Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence Award -the highest national recognition of scientific excellence.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The fellows were recruited by two open calls (Call 1: Deadline 30th September 2021; Call 2: Deadline 5th June 2023), with over 75 proposals from 19 different countries (17 non-EU) the two-stage application process (Phase 1: Research Proposal and Phase 2: Interviews) proved to be very competitive.

The call attracted interest from around the world with nearly 1,000 unique users accessing the website from over 70 countries (covering 5 continents).

So far a total of 12 fellows have been offered fellowships and five are already carrying out their research projects at IMDEA Nanociencia, with five scientific publications produces in the first two years of the programme.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

We expect to recruit 12 fellows over the course of the programme and encourage all of the recruited researchers to take part in our “Nanociencia para Todos” outreach programme that originated in response to the interest of general public in our proposals in the Semana de la Ciencia in Madrid.

The programme is based around distinct dissemination activities open to all. Since its creation, we have received over 2,500 students, teachers and citizens.

The fellows will develop their outreach activities through events such as:

- European Researcher Night: “Meet the IDEAL Fellows” open door visit to the hosting lab where visitors can learn through a “hands-on” experiment how the EU is funding cutting-edge research on the doorstep of the citizen.

- Madrid Science Week: “Hands-on” demonstrations of how Nanoscience and Nanotechnology is all around us, a special IDEAL fellow’s afternoon at the IMDEA Nano stand.

- Nanociencia-to-go: The IDEAL fellows can submit ideas based on their research, these will be transformed with the help of the DCO into a takeaway experiment for home outreach.

IDEAL Welcome Session