Final Report Summary - ENHANCE (European Research Training Network of “New Materials: Innovative Concepts for their Fabrication, Integration and Characterization”) ENHANCE-238409; “New Materials: Innovative Concepts for their Fabrication, Integration and Characterization” was an EU (FP-7-PEOPLE-ITN-2008) funded Marie Curie Initial Training Network (MC-ITN) coordinated at the Chair of Inorganic Chemistry II, Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany (Oct 2009 to Sept. 2013). ENHANCE was an interdisciplinary initial training network consisting of 8 partners and 6 associated partners and involves chemists, physicists, material scientists, and engineers from 6 participating countries of the EU. The main objectives of the ENHANCE network as a whole was to train 13 ESRs and 8 ERs (a total of 564 months) in the multidisciplinary field of thin film processing of new functional materials for microelectronics, nano-electronics, data storage, photovoltaics and their integration in emerging nanotechnologies. At the end of the project (30.09.2013) ENHANCE network recruited 17 ESRs, 7 ERs and implemented the 554.75 fellow months and offered the visiting scientist stipend fellowship (one month) to 4 well know scientists.ENHANCE offered systematic interdisciplinary and inter-sectorial training for all the recruited young researchers giving them necessary in-depth knowledge in materials synthesis and thin film processing as well as experimental skills in operating the instruments and analytical skills in different materials characterization techniques by organizing 8 training workshops at the partner institutes within the ENHANCE consortium. The training concept was also based on a structured academic curriculum, including, generic skills workshops and on-site research training at the state of the art laboratories, facilities under clean room conditions and training at the industrial laboratories. The ENHANCE consortium successfully implemented all the proposed objectives and work programs related to the scientific and technological aspect of the project and the scientific achievements and results are disseminated by all the partners. The collaborative research activities between different partners and the associated partners of the network had lead to many joint publications. Many new extensive collaborations and joint research ventures between members of the network has been initiated and established during the funding period of ENHANCE project.The scientific research program of ENHANCE MC-ITN had seven work packages and at the end of the project the scientific research training activities carried out by the young ENHANCE fellows resulted into more than 45 publications in peer reviewed journals and all the fellows presented their research results as oral presentations or as posters during the international conferences such as EUROCVD-18, Spring E-MRS-2012, & 2013 meetings, ECS meetings, and ALD-2011, ALD-2012 and ALD-2013 meetings.ENAHNCE consortium offered a high international quality multi-disciplinary training program to all the recruited fellows and the network has organized 3 yearly winter schools at Bochum Germany (2011), Helsinki, Finland (2012) and Eindhoven, Netherlands (2013) involving the participation of external researchers and scientists, strongly devoted to the exchange of scientific information and interaction of young scientists with expert researchers. A final concluding conference as a satellite symposium during the Spring E-MRS-2013, Strasbourg, France (Symposium N: Atomic-scale engineering of multifunctional nano-sized materials and films) was organized by the ENHANCE network to promote the research activities of the ENHANCE consortium and aimed to foster the creation of new scientific networks in the field of molecular assembly and materials science among European researchers. The contributions of the conference will be published in a special issue of a journal physica status solidi (pss a) – applications and materials science. (http://www.pss-a.com). Approximately 22-25 contributions (21 manuscripts have already been accepted and the remaining ones are undergoing review) to the symposium will be published in a special issue of (pss a) and the submitted papers were reviewed as regular manuscript submissions and handled with the usual editorial criteria regarding quality, novelty, significance and the amount of originality on scientific information and this special issue of PSS (a) is expected to be published in beginning of next year, January/February 2014. In addition, the coordinators of ENHANCE are planning for a special issue (spring 2014) in “Chemical Vapor Deposition “(CVD) journal as a concluding contributions of the ENHANCE projects.ENHANCE-238409 project logo was designed and was used on the web site, promotional materials (leaflets, brochures) posters and presentations during the international conferences and in all formal correspondence and dissemination activities of the network by all the members. A public internet web site was designed which includes information on the project objectives, dissemination activities, training programs, events, meeting details and the partners involved. Electronic media, emails, internal web pages (with password protected) were effectively used to disseminate the results of the projects. The web page was updated regularly and hosted and operated by the coordinating institute at RUB (B1) and can be found at: http://www.enhance-itn.eu.
