ICMAB participates in several of the EU's most prestigious funding programs, each designed to address critical scientific challenges. These include the EIC Pathfinder, EIC Transition, ERC Grants, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA), and more. Below is an overview of the types of projects and their respective leaders.
EIC Projects: Pioneering innovation in materials The EIC (European Innovation Council) funds pioneering projects that push the boundaries of innovation in various fields. ICMAB leads several EIC Pathfinder and EIC Transition projects in the areas of materials for health, energy, and electronics
The European Research Council (ERC) funds high-risk, high-reward research projects. ICMAB researchers are leading a diverse set of ERC-funded projects, including ERC Consolidator, Starting, Proof of Concept, and Synergy grants.
Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) support early-career researchers through various fellowships and doctoral programs. ICMAB is involved in multiple MSCA projects aimed at training the next generation of scientists: COFUND, Doctoral Networks, Staff Exchange and Postdoctoral Fellowships.
Research and Innovation Actions (RIA) support collaborative research to generate new knowledge or explore breakthrough technologies. ICMAB’s RIA projects target critical challenges in energy, health, and electronics.
Through its active participation in these projects, ICMAB underscores its commitment to fostering scientific collaboration, technological innovation, and the training of future researchers across Europe. These projects are central to advancing the European Union's priorities, particularly in the fields of sustainable energy, healthcare, and cutting-edge electronics.
Active projects
EIC Pathfinder projects: early-stage, high-risk research for breakthrough technologies
- SynEry (Arántzazu González): Focuses on artifical blood for health applications (2022-2026)
- DYNAMO (Agustín Mihi): Focuses on creating new spatial light modulators using opto-acoustic coupling (2022-2026)
- ICONIC (Agustín Mihi): Aims at converting seawater bicarbonates and nitrates into widely used chemicals for agriculture, such as urea, and other carbon and nitrogen valuable feedstocks (2023-2026)
- RADIANT (Agustín Mihi): Aims to produce high-performing, cost-efficient and environmentally friendly chiral LEDs with a broad spectral range, from the visible to the near-infrared (2024-2027)
- ESIM (Kasper Moth Poulsen, also at UPC): Develops smart molecular, inorganic, and hybrid materials for energy applications (2022-2026)
EIC Transition project: maturation and validation of early-stage innovations—plus business preparation—to get technologies investment-ready
- NANO4RARE (Nora Ventosa): Works on a new therapy based on nanomedicine for Fabry disease (2023-2025)
ERC Projects: Groundbreaking research with long-term impact
Starting Grants
- MAGNEPIC – Led by Can Onur Avci, this project focuses on magnetic insulators as a novel platform for next-generation spintronics and electronic devices (2021-2026)
Consolidator Grants
- FeMiT – Martí Gich investigates high-performance ferrite materials for next-generation mm-wave and THz electronics in wireless communication systems (2019-2024)
- MULTIMETALBAT – Alexandre Ponrouch is developing multi-cation battery anodes to improve safety and energy density beyond current lithium-ion technologies (2023-2028)
- PHOTHERM – Kasper Moth-Poulsen (UPC/ICMAB) leads this project to create photo-thermal materials for clean, efficient heating and cooling solutions (2022-2027)
Proof of Concept Grants
- SMS-INKS – Teresa Puig advances colloidal inks for the scalable manufacturing of superconducting materials, facilitating energy-efficient technologies (2022-2024)
- TARLIT – Gerard Tobias explores the use of lithium-loaded nanostructures in neutron capture therapy for targeted cancer treatment (2023-2024)
- VERITASCAN – Mariano Campoy-Quiles is developing organic semiconductors for smart temperature indicators in cold-chain logistics (2023-2024)
- PI4NoRM – Martí Gich focuses on piezomagnetic ferrites to design compact mm-wave circulators for 5G/6G communication (2023-2025)
- SMOLSUB – Núria Aliaga-Alcalde introduces a novel sublimation technology to transfer organic molecules onto substrates, revolutionizing the fabrication of flexible electronics (2023-2025)
- ENCANT – Gerard Tobias leads this project to increase the effectiveness of radiotherapy using nanoparticle-enhanced energy absorption (2025-2026)
Synergy Grant
- DARKQUANTUM – Teresa Puig coordinates this ambitious initiative in quantum superconducting materials, reinforcing ICMAB’s leadership in next-generation quantum energy systems (2024-2029)
MSCA Projects: Empowering Early-Career Researchers
COFUND
- DOCFAM+ (M. Rosa Palacín and Lourdes Fàbrega): Doctoral training programme in advanced materials aimed at fostering interdisciplinary research and scientific careers (2023-2028)
- DESTINY (M. Rosa Palacín): European doctoral training programme focused on advanced battery research to educate a new generation of energy storage experts (2020-2025)
Doctoral Networks
- HORATES (Mariano Campoy Quiles): Project focused on developing nanostructured materials for efficient organic photovoltaics (2021-2025)
- OPVStability (Mariano Campoy Quiles): Project focused on developing nanostructured materials for efficient and stable organic photovoltaics (2023-2027)
- GREENX3 (Imma Ratera): Molecular nanoscience project with biomedical applications, particularly in the health sector (2023-2027)
- EIFFEL (Esther Barrena): Research on functional surfaces and interfaces for advanced electronic devices (2024-2028)
- RIDERS (M. Rosa Palacín): Doctoral network dedicated to innovative research in battery technologies (2024-2028)
- MASAUTO (Florencio Sánchez): New materials for sustainable energy harvesting, storage, and low‑loss electronics—paving the way for smarter autonomous IoT sensors (2025-2029)
Staff Exchange
- MICRO4NANO (Nora Ventosa): Project on novel materials for nanomedicine, promoting international research collaboration and knowledge exchange (2021-2026)
Postdoctoral Fellowships
- ELECTRA (Nieves Casañ-Pastor) (2022-2024)
- IDEAL (Mariano Campoy Quiles) (2022-2024)
- HOPES (Mariano Campoy Quiles) (2024-2026)
- TOPHONICALS (Riccardo Rurali) (2022-2025)
- OPTOCHARGE (Marta Mas-Torrent) (2023-2025)
- SPINDY (Can Onur Avci) (2023-2025)
- JAVIEROH (Rosario Núñez) (2023-2025)
- TORNADE (Esther Barrena) (2024-2026)
- METASCALE (Agustín Mihi) (2023-2025)
RIA projects: Advancing frontier research for societal impact
- AHEAD2020 (Lourdes Fàbrega): European project enhancing access to high-energy astrophysics infrastructures and fostering collaborative research in advanced space technologies (2020-2024)
- NextGEM (Anna Laromaine): Develops technologies to assess and manage health risks from electromagnetic field exposure, especially in the context of 5G deployment (2022-2026)
- STORIES (Xavier Granados): Focuses on renewable energy storage solutions using superconductors to enable a more efficient and sustainable power grid (2021-2025)
- SUSTAIN-A-PRINT (Kasper Moth-Poulsen, UPC): Designs sustainable, printed smart devices for applications in the Internet of Things and environmental monitoring (2022-2025)
- NABIHEAL (Coord: Nora Ventosa/Judit Tomsen; PI CSIC: Imma Ratera): Develops biofunctional nanomaterials for efficient tissue regeneration in chronic wounds with advanced biomedical applications (2023-2026)
- NFFA-NEP (Xavier Obradors): Promotes a European infrastructure for nanotechnology offering integrated services from synthesis to analysis (2021-2026)
Other projects
- PHOENIX (Nora Ventosa): A LEIT (Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies)
project in molecular nanoscience for health (2021-2025) - I.FAST (Joffre Gutiérrez): A Research Infrastructures project focused on superconducting materials for energy (2021-2025)
- SCORE (Riccardo Rurali): (2022-2025)
- MAX (Alberto García): (MAterials design at the eXascale) is a European Centre of Excellence which enables materials modelling, simulations, discovery and design at the frontiers of the current and future High Performance Computing (HPC), High Throughput Computing (HTC) and data analytics technologies (2023-2026)
- TRANS-CAP (Valeria Blanco): Microsupercondensadores transfronterizos para la electrónica integrada (2026-2028)
