As an example, António Costa pointed to an amount of one billion euros for the mobilizing agendas included in the Recovery and Resilience Plan, “with the potential to grow another 12 billion euros if there is capacity and effective demand for its use”.

In addition to natural resources, such as lithium, and funding, the Prime Minister highlighted another advantage that he considers Portugal to have in this energy transition process, which is “knowledge”.

TrustEat Summer School 2021 is coming your way!

Join us for the upcoming 2021 online edition of the TrustEat Summer School that will happen between August 30 to September 3. This is an initiative inside the TrustEat project that will gather Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) with state-of-the-art, first-hand knowledge from renowned experts of IBM and WUR in the fields of blockchain and agrifood.

During the TrustEat Summer School you will have the opportunity to learn about the theoretical and practical basics of Blockchain and how it can be applied to the agri-food sector, as well tutoring, career advice and networking activities.

The 5 day Summer School will start with an introductory day, 3 days devoted to the 3 layers of the blockchain (Application, Physical and Digital Layer), and a final networking day and if you want to be among the 24 selected students, apply by the 8th of July and save your place! 

INL hosts the new event on EIT Strategy to power Europe’s largest innovation network

INL – International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory is hosting an event on 14 June 2021 to mark the launch of the EIT’s new strategy as part of Horizon Europe together with the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), in collaboration with the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the European Union.

This event will have a hybrid format and can be attended either online or in person at the International Iberian Institute of Nanotechnology (INL), in Braga, Portugal. 

With an enhanced mandate and a budget of EUR 2.9 billion for 2021 to 2027, the EIT will help drive the recovery of the economy as well as Europe’s green and digital transition for a more sustainable and resilient society.  

The new EIT strategy has four main priorities and many new features. It will enable the EIT Community to strengthen its impact, boost its support to higher education and increase its regional development efforts. The EIT will also set up two new EIT Knowledge and Innovation Communities: the first in 2022 in the field of the Cultural and Creative Sectors and Industries and the second in the field of water, marine and maritime sectors and ecosystems in 2026.

The event is open to innovators, entrepreneurs and organisations from business, education and research who want to learn more about the EIT and the different opportunities to innovate with the EIT Community. It will be interactive, and participants will be able to join discussions through Q&As, polls and social media. 

Among the prominent speakers, you will hear from Mariya Gabriel, European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth; Manuel Heitor, Portuguese Minister of Science, Technology and Higher Education and Gioia Ghezzi, Chair of the EIT Governing Board.

You can check the full programme by clicking here. 

Webinar on “Creating ‘win-win-wins’ in an open innovation ecosystem: Lessons from TekDelta”

While PITCCH is the first European-scale open innovation platform, it is not the first of its kind. Founded in 2016, TekDelta is a similar joint initiative for open innovation, aimed at increasing the amount of Dutch high-tech startups and scaleups, striving to create win-win-wins.

TekDelta does this by offering startups access to potential business partners and by managing a startup hub network focusing on markets like industry 4.0, smart mobility and smart living. To that end, TekDelta regularly organizes webinars, knowledge sessions and, most of all, intensive curated matchmaking.

In this webinar, speakers Anita Lieverdink and Jacco Saaman will explain to us how they created a successful open innovation ecosystem, followed by a Q&A. What lessons can PITCCH and You learn from their journey?

New online workshop, next week, from the lab to the market

Join us for the upcoming free online workshop “Nanotechnology from the lab to the market: applications and funding opportunities” that will take place next week, May 26th, powered by NANOeaters.

This workshop will cover topics such as nanotechnology in your daily life, funding opportunities – public funding (HEU & cascade funding) to support and encourage researchers as well as future entrepreneurs to take their ideas out of the lab.

NANOEATERS is a network of Research Centers created with the objective of supporting Euro Regional “early adopters” companies in the application of new nanotechnology-based solutions.

INL has been promoting the growth of an entrepreneurial drive among its researchers, and the effort has already been translated into the creation of several spin-out startups, offering innovative products and solutions.

Here’s the final agenda:

INL Researchers take the world of Nano to “Pint of Science 2021”

Researchers from INL – International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory will be appearing at the world’s largest festival of public science that each year brings researchers to local pubs to share their discoveries with you. This years’ edition will be back next week, 17th-19th May 2021.

The Festival will take place online, and INL researchers will be delivering fun and engaging talks full of scientific discovery and you can enjoy it all from the safety of your sofa, for free. INL will be represented by Catarina Moura, Ernesto Galvão, Sara Abalde-Cela as speakers, and Miguel Xavier as part of the organization.

Catarina Moura will guide us through “a fascinating world beyond what we can see”, adding that “microscopes allow us to travel to new dimensions and discover the wonders of microorganisms, cells, and many others. In this session, I will talk about microscopy and imaging, and their importance for our understanding of nature and human health and well-being. See you at the Pint of Science!”

As for Ernesto Galvão, he considers that “in the past two decades we have been learning how to use quantum effects like superposition and entanglement to build a new type of computer: quantum computers. These new machines are capable of taking computational shortcuts to solve problems that are intractable for ordinary computers. I will describe how they work, and give an overview of the exciting developments in this field.”

Sara-Abalde-Cela will show us that “just as siblings born from the same parents are different, so are the cells of a tumour, constantly changing over time. These cells are responsible for cancer being a fatal disease. How does cancer spread through the human body? What tools do we have to understand and stop colonization in different organs by these cells?”

Miguel Xavier reminds us that “as first said by Sir Mark Walport in 2013: “Science is not finished until it’s communicated” underlining that “Pint of Science is the perfect example of a science communication event that brings the latest science breakthroughs closer to the masses! Perhaps all I have to say is that I attended my first Pint of Science event in 2015 and haven’t stopped being involved ever since! See you at the Pub!”

All events are free, in Portuguese, and will be streamed through the official Pint of Science – Braga Facebook page. You can find more information by clicking here.

The International Pint of Science festival will see thousands of scientists simultaneously bringing their research out of the lab to share with the public in 30 different countries. Founded in 2013 by two UK researchers, the festival features a unique line-up of talks, demonstrations and live experiments.

Celebrating the International Day of Light 2021 at INL

INL invites you to join a free online event in celebration of the International Day of Light (#IDL2021) on May 20 at 17h00-18h30 with the following topics and speakers:

• Technologies for Light Harvesting (Dr Alessandro Cavalli, MSCA Postdoctoral Fellow)

• Modelling Light, and Engineering Light-Based Information Communication Technologies and Neuromorphic Computation (MSc Ricardo Adão, PhD candidate/Junior Research Fellow)

• Photonic Integrated Chips (PICs) for Biosensing (Joana Tatá, Master Candidate)

• Live Experiments on Tracking Nanoparticles Effects in Live Cells Using Laser-based 3D Phase Holotomographic Imaging (Dr Mariana Carvalho, Facility Manager of the Nanophotonics and Bioimaging (NBI) Open-access Facility of INL).

The inspirational talks will be complemented with a quiz and the event will contain a mini-tutorial on light modelling and real-time live experiments at the INL NBI Facility using the new 3D Cell Explorer from NanoLive.

The event is organised and will be chaired by Dr Jana Nieder ( Research Group Leader and Head of the NBI facility at INL), who will present:

• INL at a glance

• How to join INL as an employee, (student) associate or trainee

• How to access our open-access facilities

The event will include a round table discussion that involves all speakers and we invite especially students interested in internships at INL, externals interested to use our open access facilities to participate, as well as INLers interested in learning about our new photonics methods in the Q&A session to ask for feedback and opportunities to our diverse panel.

Last but not least we will have the pleasure to announce the winner of the quiz.

EURONANOFORUM: Using Nanotechnologies and Advanced Materials to create a future together

The Day 1 of the EuroNanoForum brought the commitment of the European Commission towards a strong investment and support to Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials, as crucial elements of Europe’s recovery and resilience.

EU Commissioner Mariya Gabriel and Director of Prosperity Peter Dröll were unequivocal in assuring all the conference participants that the challenge is accepted.

The first-day sessions also brought key insights to the table regarding what needs to be done to place Europe in a relevant position in the global scene again.

The interaction between academia and industry was identified as the decisive link to make innovation happen and scale up the research results from the labs to the market.

The 2021 edition of the EuroNanoForum ended with a second day full of new insights about what Europe needs to recover, thrive, and become more resilient, with the support of Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials.

The effects of the pandemic were discussed in almost every session, not only because of its devastating effects but also for the revealing effect it had in the way we must do everything from now on.

It became clear that the transition to a green and sustainable economy cannot be done without Nanotechnology, and also that Europe needs Advanced Materials to drive innovation while creating opportunities to develop its markets, products, and services if it wants to become competitive.

Another key take-out of this EuroNanoForum was the demonstration that Research and Industry need to be more aligned than ever to make innovation a reality, by connecting the dots and finding a common ground.

Another connection that needs to be improved is the one between the public and the private sector, and even more in a moment when Europe needs to properly channel a significant amount of financial support to the right initiatives so that the investment is made in the fields that matter and can promote a change for the better.

In the closing session, both the Director-General of INL, Lars Montelius, who hosted the EuroNanoForum 2021 and the Director of Prosperity at the European Commission, Peter Dröll, agreed that “it’s all about the people, the planet and prosperity. It is our work to make this the best place to be, using Nanotechnologies and Advanced Materials to create a future together”.

As Clare Skentlebery, one of the speakers in Plenary Session 3 (Recovery Plan for Europe) well put it, “Alone you go fast. Together you go further”. The EuroNanoForum 2021 gathered a total of 3640 participants from over 140 countries, providing thousands of opportunities for networking and collaboration through almost 200 scientific posters, 17 exhibitors, five satellite events, and several hours of sessions about topics that the European Nanotechnology community is now even more empowered to intervene upon.

How did Nanotechnology help you today?

Nanotechnology has been identified as one of the key enabling technologies (KET) of the present and the future thus underlining the significance of this field for Europe’s competitiveness and its ability to provide the innovative goods and services essential for meeting global challenges.

In particular, nanotechnology offers substantial possibilities for improving the competitive position of the EU and for responding to key societal challenges. Ensuring the safe and sustainable development and application of nanotechnologies is thus a key objective.

Several cross-cutting issues continue and need to be addressed to promote the growth of the nanotechnology industry.

These cross-cutting issues include:

• the regulatory framework for nanotechnologies, coupled to the important issue of standardization to promote good practice and to facilitate communication;

• the innovation/value chain for environmental health and safety and innovation and means to ‘unblock’ the value chain;

• the development of infrastructures for nanosafety to promote research, education, and innovation; and,

• international collaboration and global dialogue, with a view towards a global research area in nanosafety, along with,

• communication and dissemination of research to key stakeholders beyond the research community, including industry, regulatory bodies, and others.

EuroNanoForum starts tomorrow and you will be able to join the discussions, address several issues and work on closing the gap between nanotechnology research and markets, and realize the potential contribution to sustainable growth, competitiveness, environment, highly skilled jobs and increased quality of life.

We want to leverage the large-scale market introduction of innovative, safe, and sustainable nano-enabled products. There is tremendous potential for nanotechnology to provide answers to almost all societal solutions and it is therefore of critical importance to incorporate nanosafety into the development of novel nanotechnologies and products – safety before design.

Join us at the EuroNanoForum 2021. Register for FREE and take part in a high-value discussion, we are waiting for you!

Nanotechnology has been identified as one of the key enabling technologies (KET) of the present and the future thus underlining the significance of this field for Europe’s competitiveness and its ability to provide the innovative goods and services essential for meeting global challenges.

In particular, nanotechnology offers substantial possibilities for improving the competitive position of the EU and for responding to key societal challenges. Ensuring the safe and sustainable development and application of nanotechnologies is thus a key objective.

Several cross-cutting issues continue and need to be addressed to promote the growth of the nanotechnology industry.

These cross-cutting issues include:

• the regulatory framework for nanotechnologies, coupled to the important issue of standardization to promote good practice and to facilitate communication;

• the innovation/value chain for environmental health and safety and innovation and means to ‘unblock’ the value chain;

• the development of infrastructures for nanosafety to promote research, education, and innovation; and,

• international collaboration and global dialogue, with a view towards a global research area in nanosafety, along with,

• communication and dissemination of research to key stakeholders beyond the research community, including industry, regulatory bodies, and others.

EuroNanoForum starts tomorrow and you will be able to join the discussions, address several issues and work on closing the gap between nanotechnology research and markets, and realize the potential contribution to sustainable growth, competitiveness, environment, highly skilled jobs and increased quality of life.

We want to leverage the large-scale market introduction of innovative, safe, and sustainable nano-enabled products. There is tremendous potential for nanotechnology to provide answers to almost all societal solutions and it is therefore of critical importance to incorporate nanosafety into the development of novel nanotechnologies and products – safety before design.

Join us at the EuroNanoForum 2021. Register for FREE and take part in a high-value discussion, we are waiting for you!