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2025 INL Events Wrap-Up: The Moments That Mattered

2025 INL Events Wrap-Up: The Moments That Mattered

As we turn the page on 2025, INL reflects on the moments that made this year worth remembering! Driven by a commitment to scientific progress, world-class innovation, and a strong sense of community, INL welcomed over 5,000 event visitors and nearly 3,000 conference participants throughout the year. Winter: Qualifying the next-generation of scientists The year set off strong for early-stage researchers. The INL Postgraduate School held its grand opening, following an immersive 30 hour communication course, designed to equip PhD students with essential skills beyond the lab. Soon after, the 3 MT Competition returned to INL. In a race against the clock, PhD students were challenged to pitch their theses in under a three minute mark. Spring: Expanding the frontiers of science Spring 2025 was the perfect season to celebrate and advance scientific knowledge. In March, INL hosted the 2nd annual meeting of the IDEAL Cluster for Indoor Air Quality and Health, amplifying the impact of Horizon Europe projects. April brought the high-level workshop on advanced materials for medical devices, gathering leading experts, policymakers, and innovators across Europe to discuss pathways to successful health-tech adoption. In May, INL celebrated the International Day of Light 2025. Through a series of engaging presentations, […]

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Celebrating FORGING Project Conclusion: From Major Outcomes to JRC Collaboration

Celebrating FORGING Project Conclusion: From Major Outcomes to JRC Collaboration

The International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory (INL) is proud to announce the successful completion of the FORGING Project— Forum for Emerging Enabling Technologies in Support to the Digital and Green Transitions through Value Sensitive Innovations. Project Overview and Milestones Supported by Horizon Europe and led by INL, the initiative was launched in 2022 with the ambition to accelerate the responsible adoption of emerging enabling technologies across Europe. To achieve this, FORGING introduced a new methodology based on a value-sensitive innovation journey— one fully aligned with the Industry 5.0 paradigm, ensuring that technological development respects societal values, environmental sustainability, and human-centric design. Over its three-year duration, the project achieved several milestones:  :: Established a sustainable multi-stakeholder FORGING Forum with 600 active members representing the quadruple helix: academia, industry, civil society, and public sector institutions.  :: Engaged the Forum in 6 foresight and scenario planning exercises, 12 co-creation workshops, and a series of podcasts and webinars to explore future societal and environmental challenges of emerging technologies, and design responsible adoption pathways. :: Developed a suite of tools, including the FORGING Toolbox, Playbook, Key Value Indicators (KVIs), Actor Cards, and the Theseus Foresight Simulator.  :: Facilitated the creation of 22 use cases across six strategic technology frameworks, including AI, […]

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INL Propels Europe’s Agenda on Advanced Materials and Emerging Technologies at the IAM-I Symposium

INL Propels Europe’s Agenda on Advanced Materials and Emerging Technologies at the IAM-I Symposium

The International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory is honoured to spotlight the participation of INLer Andrea Capasso at the inaugural IAM-I Symposium, held in Brussels on 11 December. This landmark brokerage event falls under the Innovative Advanced Materials Initiative (IAM-I), a major European effort driving the IAM-I4U partnership and supporting Europe’s industrial leadership and sustainability goals. With over 300 participants, the full-day symposium served as a dynamic platform for dialogue among policymakers, industry leaders, and researchers within Europe’s advanced materials ecosystem. The programme featured Working Group and Task Force breakout sessions, fostering high-level discussions on the future of advanced materials in Europe. Key topics included the forthcoming Advanced Materials Act, the EU Advanced Materials Strategy, and the most pressing challenges faced by industry and research communities. Beyond his role as Research Scientist and Principal Investigator, and as coordinator of the transversal line on advanced materials at INL, Andrea Capasso is co-leader of Working Group 4 – Electronics within the IAM-I. At the symposium, he presented the status of WG4 activities and the first consolidated results of the community survey. WG4 focuses on advancing materials for next-generation electronic technologies, including semiconductors, flexible devices, and quantum components. At a broader level, Dr Capasso’s contribution underscores […]

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INL Delegation Visits Fiocruz to Strengthen Cooperation

INL Delegation Visits Fiocruz to Strengthen Cooperation

Between the 1st and the 5th of December 2025, a delegation from the International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory carried out an institutional visit to the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Fiocruz is Brazil’s leading public health institution and has expanded its activities in nanotechnology, namely through the Translational Research Network in Nanotechnology – Fio-Nano. The mission was part of the ongoing collaboration established through the Memorandum of Understanding signed in April 2025, between Professor Ado Jório de Vasconcelos, Deputy Director-General of INL, and Dr Mário Santos Moreira, President of the Fiocruz Foundation. The INL delegation included Dr Begoña Espiña, Dr Ernesto Alfaro-Moreno, Dr Rui Domingues, Dr Manuel Bañobre and Dr Lorena Diéguez, research group leaders in the Life Sciences Grand Thematic Area, and accompanied by Dr Carolina Baptista, International Relations and Internal Affairs Communication Officer of the DG Office. Part of the programme, visits to several units were held, including Biomanguinhos, Farmanguinhos, the National Institute for Quality Control in Health and the clinical and research facilities at the Instituto Fernandes Figueira. Aside from the technical and scientific interest, these highlighted the integrated ecosystem of Fiocruz, which spans from basic research to full production capabilities. A central element […]

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When less is more: a minimal approach to low-noise circuits

When less is more: a minimal approach to low-noise circuits

Electronic systems, from brain-monitoring implants to precision sensing devices, rely on an unseen but fundamental element: a stable voltage reference. If this reference drifts with changes in the chip’s process, supply voltage, or temperature, even the most advanced circuit can struggle to detect subtle signals or correctly interpret biological activity. Engineers have spent years refining these reference circuits, making them less sensitive to process, voltage, and temperature variations, while also reducing noise and shrinking their footprint. Yet the challenge remains – how do you design something stable enough to deliver clear signals, but small and energy-efficient enough for sensitive applications like neural implants? Researchers from Piteira’s Engineering Group at INL have shown that a simple idea can deliver meaningful results. Instead of adding complexity for noise reduction, i.e. adding more circuitry which implies more area and more power, they asked a different question: could noise be controlled with just a single, simple element? Piteira’s group proposes a bandgap reference design where noise performance can be tuned using just one resistor placed between two points in the circuit’s core. That single element reshapes how different sources of noise behave, shifting low-frequency flicker noise into a range where it does less harm. […]

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INL and BME announce the launch of a Joint Research Programme

INL and BME announce the launch of a Joint Research Programme

INL is pleased to announce the launch of a joint programme with the Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME). Scheduled to begin on 1 January 2026, the BME-INL collaboration initiative will support 5 research projects to be carried out over a period of 12 to 18 months. Last May, INL welcomed a prestigious Hungarian delegation, including representatives of the Embassy of Hungary in Lisbon and the BME. The meeting resulted in the signature of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), a significant landmark in the partnership of the two institutions. Following this commitment, INL and BME opened a call for proposals, inviting submissions for targeted, small-scale R&D activities, researcher exchanges (including competence transfer and PhD training), the creation of consortia, and support for joint research projects. After due assessment, by a bilateral evaluation committee, 5 scientific projects were approved to receive a €6,000 grant each. Covering themes such as plasmonic sensing, graphene surface functionalization, detection of microplastics in water, supramolecular assembly of graphene materials, and hybrid 2D catalytic heterostructures, the awarded projects are: :: Investigation of Novel Nanomaterial Systems for Plasmonics SensingLeaders: Attila Bonyár (BME VIK) and Sara Abalde (INL- Diéguez Research Group) :: Fluorescence detection of microplastics in aqueous mediaLeaders: […]

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INLer Sara Abalde-Cela wins ERC Consolidator Grant

INLer Sara Abalde-Cela wins ERC Consolidator Grant

INL is honoured to announce that one of its researchers, Dr. Sara Abalde-Cela has been awarded with the prestigious ERC Consolidator Grant. On November 9th, the European Research Council revealed the 349 mid-career researchers selected to receive a total of €728 million in Consolidator Grants. This year’s recipients, including Dr. Abalde-Cela, represent universities and research centres across 25 EU Member States and associated countries. The ERC grant, first established by the European Union in 2007, is Europe’s leading funding organisation for frontier research. Supported by the EU’s Horizon Europe programme, the grants follow a bottom-up approach, enabling mid-career researchers in any field to pursue groundbreaking ideas. Consolidator Grants provide up to €2 million over five years. This year’s call attracted more than 3,000 applications, a 35% increase compared to last year. Dr. Sara Abalde-Cela, Research Scientist PI in the Diéguez group, earned the grant with her proposal titled “Deciphering multilevel cell-to-cell communication through microfluidic and plasmonic decoders” , marking the first ERC grant awarded to a researcher at INL. Academically, Dr. Abalde-Cela holds a PhD in Nanotechnology from University of Vigo and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Cambridge. She joined INL in 2017, as an Marie Skłodowska-Curie […]

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INL Director-General Receives Prestigious Klemens Lifetime Achievement Award

INL Director-General Receives Prestigious Klemens Lifetime Achievement Award

The International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory is proud to announce that the International Condensed Matter Physics Community has bestowed one of its highest honours upon Professor Clivia Sotomayor, the Director-General of INL. Presented during the Phonons 2025 conference in Buenos Aires by Professor Andrea Bragas of the University of Buenos Aires, Professor Clivia was named the recipient of the 2025 Klemens Lifetime Achievement Award. A Distinguished Legacy Established in 1986, the Klemens Lifetime Achievement Award recognises scientists whose work has profoundly shaped the field of phonon physics. Each edition of the Phonons 2025 conference presents this recognition, celebrating exceptional lifetime contributions that advance both fundamental understanding and the cohesion of the global phonon research community. Previous recipients represent the field’s most influential figures, including Paul G. Klemens (1986), A. C. Anderson (1989), R. Berman (1992), Lawrence J. Challis and Wolfgang Eisenmenger (1998), Humphrey Maris (2007), Manuel Cardona (2012), Tsuneyoshi Nakayama (2015), Bernard Perrin (2018), and David Cahill (2023). Therefore, this distinguished lineage underscores the exceptional significance of the honour. The 2025 award citation acknowledges Professor Sotomayor’s remarkable contributions to the field: “We are delighted to share that the recipient of the 2025 Klemens Lifetime Achievement Award is Clivia Sotomayor, for her […]

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Celebrating “20 Years of INL: The beginning of a vision”

Celebrating “20 Years of INL: The beginning of a vision”

On 28 November, INL proudly celebrated the 20th anniversary of the decision that gave rise to its campus. This event posed as a heartfelt tribute to a legacy of scientific excellence and the everlasting Iberian collaboration that defines INL’s mission. Adding to the prestige of the occasion, INL welcomed partner institutions, the Municipality of Braga, and distinguished governmental figures, including: :: Fernando Alexandre, Portugal’s Minister of Education, Science and Innovation :: Eva Ortega, Secretary General of Research of Spain :: João Rui Ferreira, Portugal’s Secretary of State for the Economy :: Helena Canhão, Portugal’s Secretary of State for Science and Innovation The ceremony began with an address by INL’s Director General, Clivia Sotomayor, who eloquently recalled the institution’s origins as a diplomatic vision, created to unite Portugal and Spain in the noble pursuit of scientific progress. Her words set the tone for a day dedicated to honouring the past while embracing the future. Following her remarks, the afternoon went on to feature inspiring speeches from INL leaders, a captivating theatrical performance, and presentations from the Postgraduate School, the Early-Stage Researchers Association, and the Research Board, underscoring two decades of innovation and global impact. As the event drew to a close, […]

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