Final Report Summary - ICONIC (Imaging and CONtrol In Chemistry - ICONIC)
Executive Summary:
Publishable Summary of the ICONIC network - appended as pdf
ICONIC is a highly successful Marie Curie Initial Training Network (ITN-238671) under the Seventh Framework Program of the European Union. ICONIC, an acronym for Imaging and CONtrol In Chemistry, provided scientific and career training of young researchers through collaboration and exchange between15 participating parties: 11 academic and 4 industrial partners. ICONIC was focused at the interface between physics and chemistry, aspects of the work crossed boundaries into analytical, biological and computer science and into electronic engineering. This provided a particularly rich training platform for our ERs and ESRs – offering both abstract and practical problems to develop scientific imagination and problem solving skills. Almost all of our ESR/ERs are now finishing their PhDs and continuing their career in science and industry. The network started on September 1st 2009, and ended August 31st 2013.
Training:
ICONIC provided 654 of the 654 promised training months (567 for Early Stage Researchers, ESRs and 78 for Experienced Researchers, ERs). Training was provided in the form of unique ‘hands on’ projects using state-of-the-art research instruments at different host laboratories. The first Training School and Network Meeting has been held at FREIBURG on 25-29 May 2010 The second Training School / Network Meeting was held at CRETE at 21-25 September 2010. The Midterm Review took place in parallel with the third Training School at PARIS 6-11 June 2011. At the Workshop / Network Meeting held in PRAGUE on 17-19 February 2012 the research of the ICONIC fellows was put central. ICONIC was a major participant in the international summer school TULIP 2012 took place 10-13 April 2012 in Noordwijk, The Netherlands. At the international ICONIC conference, which took take place at MILTON KEYNES 2-4 November 2012, all of the ESR/ERs were able to present their work before an international group of experts. This was also the case at the ICONIC closing event will take place at NIJMEGEN 28-31 July 2013. At each workshop attention was given to career planning. In addition to group training, each ESR in the network was able to take part in secondements.
Scientific Progress:
Scientific progress is measured in publications; the above collage with partner abbreviations and journal volume numbers illustrates the success and impact of ICONIC publications. While thus far the network has produced 110 publications, we expect even more since most of the PhD projects supported began after the starting date of ICONIC and extend up to a year beyond the closing date. Of the publication list many are joint publications involving two or more ICONIC partners, which emphasizes the synergy of ITN networks. The large majority of the ICONIC milestones and deliverables were achieved, only a few turned out to be unreachable or unprofitable. A number of practical devices were developed such a pulsed molecular beam sources and imaging detectors, these devices will be exploited in future collaborations between network academic and industrial partners. In this way ICONIC provided the synergy and forum for intensifying academic and industrial collaborations, along with its well-trained young scientists.