The project started on January 1st, 2019. 15 ESRs were recruited: 6 out of the 15 ESRs (40%) are women.
With respect to network-wide training activities,6 training workshops were held, each including a blend of scientific/technological classes and courses devoted to fostering transversal competencies. Some of these training workshops were held online as virtual events, because of COVID-19 emergency. At the level of individual training, each ESR prepared her/his personal career development plan and discussed it regularly during dedicated meetings with a group of three BORGES principal investigators. Moreover, as a crucial part of the training, each ESR was seconded to at least two different nodes of the consortium, being exposed to new working contexts, in countries different from the one where they were mostly based, complementing the training at their host institution. Moreover, BORGES offered its ESRs a portfolio of five electronic lectures, given by experts and accessible at any time to the ESRs.
With respect to communication to peers and dissemination, the work carried out during the whole project duration led to more than 35 publications. Moreover, the ESRs presented their results in conferences and workshops, for a total of more than 65 contributions either as oral or poster communication, strengthening their ability to discuss the outcomes of their research with members of the scientific community. At the Final International BORGES meeting the ESRs had the opportunity to present the main goals and outcomes of their work in a dedicated pitch session, further consolidating their soft skills.
With respect to communication actions devoted to a general audience, we recorded a BORGES final video, where ESRs were interviewed to share their experience as Marie Curie Ambassadors. This video is available on the YouTube channel of the project and is part of the social media communication of BORGES. The ESRs also trained their ability to disseminate scientific content to non-scientists through creation of a blog, where their experience as fellows is described from their personal perspective, the planning and organisation of a hands-on session for high school students, the production of a tutorial video and the participation to the European Researchers Night in a dedicated BORGES event held virtually.
With respect to the scientific activity, the main results are the following:
- in WP1, novel technologies and theoretical models were set up and tested to investigate the working mechanism of (bio)electronic devices;
- in WP2, novel material strategies, functionalisation procedures and manufacturing procedures were developed, to address the needs of the biosensing community aiming at working with complex, real samples;
- in WP3, electronic biosensors towards different analytes, ranging in size from small molecules to antibodies, were developed;
- in WP4, simulations were carried out and high-throughput and addictive manufacturing approaches were explored for facilitating upscaling of the devices from the laboratory to the industrial stage;
- in WP5, computational strategies and data analysis tools were developed and applied to biosensing relevant questions, to expand the toolbox available to the device end-user.
Besides scientific publications and presentations, the the BORGES results generated 3 patents filed by beneficiaries.
