The InCAEM project has been funded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation and the Generalitat de Catalunya through the Planes Complementarios programme, which includes NextGenerationEU funds. It is coordinated by the ALBA Synchrotron with the involvement of the following partners: the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2), the Institute for Materials Science of Barcelona (ICMAB-CSIC), the Institute for High Energy Physics (IFAE) - Scientific Information Port (PIC, UAB).

The ALBA Synchrotron hosted last Friday, 14 April 2023, the workshop “InCAEM-Planes Complementarios for the Catalan scientific community”, where several research institutions from different areas of Catalonia took part, including ICMAB. 

InCAEM is the Catalan contribution to the Advanced Materials Program of the Planes Complementarios.

After the introduction done by Eugenio Coronado (ICMoL, University of Valencia), Coordinator of the Spanish framework of this initiative, the facility, its design and construction state were described by Lucía Aballe (ALBA), Jordi Arbiol (ICN2), Aitor Mugarza (ICN2), Josep Nicolàs (ALBA) and Sergio Vicente (ALBA).

The second part of the workshop was devoted to the Catalan research groups which gathered in the workshop. Fifteen speakers showed the great breath of the field, their connection with national and international research areas, and with the industrial community. They highlighted their use of the existing analytical tools and how the future ones, like InCAEM, can contribute to further advance in their research.

From ICMAB, two researchers gave two talks: Jaume Gázquez, from the MULFOX group, and Teresa Puig, from the SUMAN group:

• Advanced characterization to underpin the mechanisms of ultrafast transient liquid assisted growth of superconducting epitaxial layers (Teresa Puig et al.)
• STEM - Monochromated EELS: the Real Swiss Army Knife of Spectroscopy (Jaume Gázquez)

The session ended with Klaus Attenkofer, scientific director of ALBA, who spoke about the scientific opportunities of ALBA and the future ALBA II in connection with InCAEM, and Caterina Biscari, ALBA director, who introduced the foreseen access modalities and the possibilities of future collaborations. A fruitful final discussion among the participants paved the way towards strengthening the existing links and develop new ones.

Teresa Puig at her talk at the InCAEM workshop at ALBA Synchrotron

A unique tool for boosting research on materials

InCAEM (In Situ Correlative Facility for Advanced Energy Materials) is a singular infrastructure open to all the scientific community for research in advanced materials, in order to address the scientific challenges of the European Green Deal, with a special focus on energy materials, with applications as batteries, solar cells or industrial catalysts.

The project has been funded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation and the Generalitat de Catalunya through the Planes Complementarios programme, which includes NextGenerationEU funds. It is coordinated by the ALBA Synchrotron with the involvement of the following partners: the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2), the Institute for Materials Science of Barcelona (ICMAB-CSIC), the Institute for High Energy Physics (IFAE) - Scientific Information Port (PIC, UAB).

InCAEM infrastructure is expected to be ready by mid 2025.

More information:

The InCAEM project is presented to the Catalan scientific community (ALBA Synchrotron)