Project description
Safer, more efficient adhesion technologies
Modern industries rely on soft adhesive layers – flexible glue coatings that bond internal components – to hold electronic vehicle parts and microchips together. Traditional trial-and-error design leads to wasteful overdesign and sudden failures, resulting in dangerous vehicle vibrations or broken displays. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the MSM-Adhesion project aims to replace this blind testing with precise forecasting. MSM-Adhesion’s transparent forecasting framework will allow analysing exactly how mechanical fatigue, humidity, temperature and material size cause detachment. Scientists will embed colour-changing, stress-sensitive molecules called mechanophores into soft viscoelastic polymers. Combining experimental studies with theoretical work will help map out exactly how micro-scale tearing scales up to total failure. Project insights will help provide the precise tools needed to engineer safer, highly durable bonding technologies.
Objective
Soft Adhesion Systems (SASs) are integral to a wide range of applications, including IC packaging, consumer electronics, and automotive components. However, the failure or delamination of these adhesive layers can lead to severe consequences—such as diminished heat transfer, display malfunction, or uncontrolled vibrations in vehicles—resulting not only in reputational damage for manufacturers but also in critical safety concerns. Despite their importance, SASs are typically designed using trial-and-error methods followed by qualification testing, which often results in overdesign, inflated costs, and unresolved reliability issues. This black-box approach is increasingly incompatible with industry demands for sustainability, cost efficiency, and predictive reliability.
To address this gap, the proposed project aims to develop a white-box framework for predicting the strength and lifetime of SASs by tackling three key challenges: multi-scale coupling across length and time, complex interfacial interactions, and the coexistence of multiple failure mechanisms. Specifically, the project will pursue the following research objectives, which align with the “Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness” pillar of Horizon Europe: (1) Investigate size and rate effects on detachment behavior under monotonic loading. (2) Identify the key parameters such as creep and chain scission that govern fatigue under cyclic loading. (3) Elucidate influences of multi-physical fields (e.g. temperature, humidity, pH) on failure under static conditions.
To achieve these goals, the project will utilize soft viscoelastic polymers tagged with mechanophores—an advanced material system—and combine experimental studies with theoretical modeling and numerical simulations. The outcomes will lay the foundation for predictive design tools that support safer, more efficient, and sustainable adhesion technologies across Europe’s high-impact sectors.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
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CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
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Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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Call for proposal
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(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2025-PF
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OX1 2JD Oxford
United Kingdom
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