Projects News

The project to improve the rechargeability of zinc-air batteries, led by ICMAB researchers from the Solid State Chemistry group, has been featured this week in R+D CSIC news. These batteries have more capacity than the lithium-ion ones, and are made of cheap materials, which are widely available in nature as well as safe.

Researchers from the Superconducting Materials and Large Scale Nanostructures (SUMAN) group will be joining researchers from 13 other countries in the development of a network with the intention to push for the implementation of Hight Temperature Superconductors (HST) to all the different parts of the electrical energy chain, in the framewor of a European COST Action.

Giulia Fabriani, a science communication student in La Sapienza University, Rome, participated in the FETFX programme "Journalist-in-the-lab" and interviewed researcher M. Rosa Palacín about the CARBAT project. The result: a nice pice of news entitled "If batteris are the question, Calcium could be the answer" published at the FETFX website. 

Arianna Ricchiuti, one of the science communication students involved in the FETFX initiative Journalist-in-the-lab, has made the fantastic infographic "The future of batteris is (E)MAGIC" to explain the European Magnesium Interactive Battery Community (E-MAGIC)  international project, which is developing new technologies based on magnesium for energy storage. 

The MSCA IF Project entitled Tuning COPs (Conducting Organic Polymers) with IP Clara Viñas, was selected for publication in the ‘Results in Brief’ section of the European Commission’s CORDIS website, in six languages. The article features the main results of the project. "Tuning COPs" started in October 2017 and finished in October 2019.

The researchers from four ICMAB Research Groups will be joining another 35 groups from 14 different universities, as well as research and technology centers, with the objective of boosting the energy sector in Catalunya and turning it into a strong international referent for innovation, at the R+D+I Energy for Society Network (XRE4S). 

Nora Ventosa and Nathaly Segovia, from the NANOMOL Group at the ICMAB, have been selected as part of the NARTIC Project team for an incubation program by Barcelona Activa. NARTIC is a biotech project for the development of molecular therapy based on Quatsomes for diseases such as cancer.

Since the coronavirus outbreak in Spain, in February-March 2020, many of the research funding agencies, the European Commission, and private institutions have opened research project calls to face the COVID-19. Here we have collected some of this calls. Feel free to contact us if you think some of the important calls are missing.

The “Idees Innovadores Isabel P. Trabal” award is organised by the Caixa d’Enginyers and is looking for scientific enterprises to boost the development of technological and innovative projects with a focus on engineering and sustainability. The SENSORAÏM project, born at ICMAB, is now eligible for a 10.000 € grant.

A project to improve the security of the identification systems using magnetic memories, a project to enhance the duration of Zn-air batteries, and a project to treat corneal wounds with nanocellulose patches.

The FASTGRID project, in which the SUMAN group at ICMAB participates, has released a new video, shot in the premises of one of the partners (SuperGrid Institute, France) to explain in simple terms and with animations the objectives of the project. The video includes footage from the production line of the German industrial partner THEVA and from the winding process made by the French company Sigmaphi in collaboration with the SuperGrid Institute.

The SusPlast platform was officially launched on March 2019. The "Interdisciplinary Platform for Sustainable Plastics towards a Circular Economy" platform counts with the participation of 15 research groups from CSIC centers. From the ICMAB, from the Supercritical Fluids and Functional Materials group (SFFM) participates in the platform.

On the occasion of the "Marató de TV3: Minories que fan una Majoria", which is this year devoted to rare diseases, we would like to show you a project in which we participate and which tackles a rare disease: the SMART-4-FABRY project. One of the main objectives of the project is to use nanotechnology to increase the efficiency of the current treatment for the Fabry disease, based on the GLA enzyme. Nora Ventosa and her team, from CIBER-BBN and NANOMOL group at ICMAB-CSIC, coordinate the project, in which fourteen partners from different countries participate.

Elies Molins has given lectures at the International Conference on Materials Science (ICMS), at the Center for Applied Nanotechnology (CNAP) and at the Universidad Autonoma de Chile. His conferences have been about porous materials and their applications in catalysis and medicine. 

• The second call of this program will allow 12 predoctoral researchers to start their PhD at the ICMAB-CSIC, the ICN2, the IMB-CNM-CSIC, the IREC and the ALBA Synchrotron
• In total the DOC-FAM program will enable 22 early stage researchers to conduct their PhD in the field of "Advanced Functional Materials" in these outstanding research institutions
• The DOC-FAM program, coordinated by the ICMAB, is the first MSCA COFUND coordinated by a CSIC center

The Plant Nanohealing Technology, jointly developed by CRAG and ICMAB-CSIC researchers, is currently being tested by the company Forestal Catalana.

• Teresa Puig, group leader of the Superconducting Materials and Large Scale Nanostructures (SUMAN) group, is among the awardees for a project to scale-up a new manufacturing process of high-temperature superconductors.
• The European Research Council (ERC) has awarded top-funding totalling 9.3 M€ to 62 ERC grant holders via its Proof of Concept Grants. They are meant to explore the commercial or societal potential of their research. 

"SENSORAÏM: Autonomous Distributed Sensor Networks for a Smart Viticulture" is the new project led by Mariano Campoy-Quiles from the NANOPTO group at the ICMAB funded by FEDER (Fons Europeu de Desenvolupament Regional), Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca (AGAUR) and Secretaria d’Universitats i Recerca del Departament d'Empresa i Coneixement de la Generalitat de Catalunya, within the modality "PRODUCTE" grants (2018 PROD 00191), aimed at obtaining prototypes of the research results generated by research groups in Catalunya. These projects are excellent to reinforce the technology transfer of the Catalan research centers. 

The project "Synthetic nanoparticles as an innovative treatment in sepsis (SPRINT-4-SEPSIS)" will be funded by the Ramón Areces Foundation within the framework of the XIX National Contest of Life and Material Sciences Research Grants. Anna Roig will be part of the project. 

CARBAT, the FET-Open European project on Calcium Rechargeable Battery Technology, coordinated by M. Rosa Palacín at ICMAB, has a new video that explains their project! If you want to know more, check it out here!

Within the MOTHER project (Molecule-based materials and supramolecular organizations for therapy, diagnosis and tissue engineering), the NANOMOL group from ICMAB collaborates with the Vall d'Hebron Institute of Research (VHIR), on the developement of a new nanomedicine for the treatment of high risk neuroblastoma, one of the most typical childhood cancers. Now, researchers from VHIR have identified new microRNAs that reduce the progression of this type of cancer.

A technology developed by a team led by Dr. Núria Crivillers, researcher at the Nanomol Group at ICMAB, has been selected as a high potential innovation by the European Union (EU).

Each year on 4 February, World Cancer Day empowers all the world to show support, raise their voices, take personal action and press the governments to do more. We would like to show you our projects on cancer research. Take a look at our projects!

The E-MAGIC (European Magnesium Interactive Battery Community) research project is a European H2020 FET-PROACTIVE recently funded with 6.5 million euros. Its aim is to develop new magnesium-based batteries, more powerful, cheaper and safer than lithium-ion ones. The project could pave the way for the establishment of a competitive battery cell production landscape in Europe.

• The device is composed of cellulose produced in the laboratory by bacteria, with small amounts of carbon nanotubes, resulting very sustainable
• The device could be used to generate electricity in wearables, in medical and sports applications, and as intelligent thermal insulator

With the participation of 9 academic institutions and 2 industrial organisations in 6 countries, the SEPOMO European H2020 MSCA-ITN network is training 15 early-stage researchers during a 3-year period in the fields of Chemistry, Physics, Materials Science and Engineering for efficient photovoltaic devices based on organic molecules. Two of these fellows are supervised by ICMAB researchers: Francesco Silvestri, supervised by Esther Barrena, and Rana Adel Abdelaleim Mohammed, who is doing her research at Eurecat, co-supervised by Mariano Campoy-Quiles. 

Resarchers from the NANOMOL group at the ICMAB-CSIC and from CIBER-BBN, led by Dr. Imma Ratera, have been awarded with a project from Fundació La Marató de TV3 for the coordinated-project about prevention of infections related with vascular catheters: "Prevenció d’infeccions relacionades amb els CATèters vasculars mitjançant la FUNcionalització de catèters impregnats d'hidrogels activables tèrmicament amb  antimicrobians d’ampli espectre (FUNCATH)".

The paper Direct and converse piezoelectric responses at the nanoscale from epitaxial BiFeO₃ thin films grown by polymer assisted deposition published this October in the Nanoscale journal, has received funding from the EU-H2020 research and innovation programme, having benefitted from the access provided by the ICMAB-CSIC in Barcelona, within the framework of the NFFA-Europe Transnational Access Activity. 

Watch here the video of the ULTRASUPERTAPE project, the ERC Advanced Grant project awarded to Teresa Puig, explained here in plain words for everyone to understand! 

Dr. Lourdes Fàbrega, from the Institute of Materials Science of Barcelona (ICMAB-CSIC), leads the development in Spain of a special type of sensors that can detect very small changes in temperature and that will be used in the forthcoming European space missions.

These sensors are extremely sensitive and miniaturized microcalorimeters, like small thermometers, that can detect even the energy of one single photon.

This year the ICMAB counted with 7 out of the 34 fellowships for Master students that the CSIC distributed among the five Severo Ochoa Centres of Excellence of the CSIC (Instituto de Ciencias Matemáticas (ICMAT), Centro Nacional de Biotecnología (CNB), Instituto de Física Corpuscular (IFIC), Instituto de Neurociencias (IN) and Institut de Ciència de Materials de Barcelona (ICMAB); and the Structural Biology Unit of Excellence María de Maeztu. The 7 granted students will do their Master Thesis Project with one of our researchers during 5 months, and will receive 5,000 €. 

Continuing the Strategic Vision for the Severo Ochoa programme FUNMAT ("Smart FUNctional MATerials for social grand challenges"), the ICMAB opened the call for the third edition of the Frontier Interdisciplinary Projects (FIP) earlier this year 2018. Out of all the proposals submitted, 9 projects in different fields have been granted. 

• The first call for this program has been closed offering 10 predoctoral grants: 5 of them at the ICMAB-CSIC, 2 at the IREC and 3 at the ALBA Synchrotron
• The DOC-FAM program is the first MSCA COFUND coordinated by a center of the CSIC, the ICMAB
• The next call for the program will offer 12 fellowships to do the PhD in these centers and also at ICN2 and IMB-CNM-CSIC

The Comfuturo program (“Un Compromiso público privado con la ciencia y el Futuro”) has granted the research project "NANOingeniería de ÓXIdos para el mayor aprovechamiento de la energía SOLar usando rutas no convencionales (NANOXISOL)" (Oxides nanoengineering for improvement of photovoltaic efficiency using non-conventional routes) presented by Ignasi Fina in this second edition.