News

Partnering Opportunity: the MEMS for nano-analytiX demo case published a technology offer on the EEN portal

The Bologna Unit of CNR-IMM is the leading organization of the MEMS for nano-analytiX demo case.  The research institute has the biggest publicly funded facility for silicon micro-machining in Italy, and they are working on the diffusion of MEMS technology integrated with analytical functional nanomaterials to produce innovative miniaturized sensing systems or enhance existing ones, by adding analytical functionalities of nano-enabled MEMS devices to microsensors.

In order to expand the demo-case network, the Italian institute is looking for research and industrial partners along the value chain to adopt and test the technology, or to co-develop miniaturized innovative sensing systems integrating MEMS and functional nanomaterials, to further research and develop new versions, and to discover and test new applications for different markets.

The full description of the partner search is now published on the EEN portal at this link.

VI Nano Pilot Regions are invited to collaborate in a new action to design innovative nano-based value chains

RINA Consulting SPA - a multinational company with proven experience across a wide range of industries -  will support the Nano Pilot to carry out a study aimed at establishing new cross-regional value chains based on nanotechnology applications.

The activity named “Identification of Opportunities for New Nanotech-based Value Chains in Vanguard Regions” is aiming at creating new cross-regional value chains engaging multiple stakeholders involved in research, manufacturing, and adoption of nanotechnology applications.

The study will start from the selection of industrial sectors that can give origin to the new value chains, and the subsequent identification of nanotechnology-based applications and their expected advantages. Following, a survey to collect feedback from industrial actors on the proposed applications, as well as to understand their needs, will be launched to define organizations that might potentially be interested in the technologies. This feedback will be discussed with research institutes in order to understand the feasibility of addressing the industrial needs through nanotechnology applications.

During the last Plenary Meeting that was held on 29 November, RINA presented the preliminary list of industrial sectors and invited the participants to provide their feedback. The list included: Wind Offshore, Construction Materials, Avionics/Aerospace, Packaging, Medical Devices, Design & Production of Printed Circuit Boards, Textile. Feedback from multiple Vanguard Initiative regions as for example Skåne and East Netherlands has been collected and further sectors have been suggested. RINA Consulting will further collect feedbacks with respect to industrial sectors where value chains will be created through contacting additional stakeholders.

The Annual Plenary meeting took place online on 29th November

The recent plenary meeting of the Nano Pilot (29 November) gathered over 60 participants among companies, cluster organisations, research labs, universities, and regional agencies from several European regions.

The meeting started with a welcome by representatives of the leading region, stressing the need to further explore interregional collaboration and prepare for the I3 call. Next, a presentation on upcoming funding opportunities was given, focusing on I3, relevant Horizon Europe calls and European Innovation Ecosystems calls. A document containing a selection of available calls is under development and it will be sent around to capture the interest of various actors in specific funding opportunities.

The aim of the demo-case MEMS for nano-analytiX, led by CNR-IMM, is to deploy Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) technology for the integration of analytical functional nanomaterials in miniaturized innovative sensing systems, to add analytical functionalities of nano-enabled MEMS devices to microsensors and to propose MEMS fab capabilities for analytical sensing devices and chemical-lab-on-chip systems. Concrete opportunities for collaboration were explored.

The Structural Health Monitoring demo case, led by Naitec, is developing sensors to be incorporated in composite parts for contactless structural health monitoring The technologies under study are optical periodic nanostructures) and printed electronics (using RF signals) NAITEC currently developed solutions at TRL 4 on small parts, by means of printed electronics and SMT IC technologies The demo aims to overcome the limitations of size derived from standard manufacturing technologies, by means of digital printing and nanofabrication by creating a network of manufacturers of composite materials, nanomaterials, and printed electronics companies, establishing a workflow for the fabrication of this new product.

The Nano pilot has launched a new action focused on the “Identification of Opportunities for New Nanotech-based Value Chains in VI Regions” that aims to identify new demo cases from a value chain perspective, starting from the demand side. RINA – a multinational consulting company based in Europe - will support the Nano Pilot to carry out this activity requiring the collaboration of all member regions participating in the pilot and other potential interested VI regions. The NMWP.NRW cluster presented their activities related to Nanotechnology and provided an overview of the Nanotechnology competence centres present in North Rhine-Westphalia.

Two parallel sessions were organised to allow for a detailed discussion on two demo cases: the Nanowires for ICT & Energy applications demo case, led by RISE, and the NeMs4Bio demo case, led by imec and co-led by Oost-NL.

The Nanowires for ICT & Energy applications demo case aims to bring together expertise surrounding nanowire and nanoscale structures for innovations in materials, sensors, and components in the ICT and Energy domains by creating a platform for cross-regional collaboration and implementing pilot-scale infrastructure. The discussion focused on strengthening the European semiconductor industry by creating a complementary set of pilot lines.

The objective of the NeMs4BIO demo case is to enable the quick development of complete applications for small to medium-sized volumes based on standardized solutions. It aims to design and develop a modular platform suitable for a variety of biosample analysis purposes in order to save time and cost on product development (avoiding development from scratch). The business model, value proposition, and governance model developed for this specific demo case were discussed, followed by a way forward to implementation exploiting the available European funding opportunities, such as the I3 call.

The slide presentations shared during the meeting are available here.