NMPTeam News

€7 billion under the Seventh Framework Programme for Research (FP7)

Mon, 25 Jul 2011 11:31:17 GMT

The EU's latest call for research proposals focuses on innovation and getting good ideas to market.

About €7bn is available for this round of grants, part of the €53bn available through the current research funding programme for 2007 to 2013.

Research teams from the EU and beyond can apply for the funds, which are helping Europe to develop world-class research and close the innovation gap between the EU and its main competitors, the US and Japan.

To build up science and innovation, the EU wants to increase spending on research to 3% of gross domestic product by 2020 (from 2% in 2009). Achieving that target could create 3.7 million jobs and boost annual growth by about €800bn.

Research grants will target such areas as:

active and healthy ageing - helping older people lead active and independent lives is the first European innovation partnership, combining public and private research

information and communication technologies - network and service infrastructures, nano- and micro-systems, photonics, robotics, digital content, language, health and energy-efficiency

collaborative projects among European researchers and helping them commercialise discoveries

supporting researchers - about 10 000 will receive funding through the Marie Curie programme, under which a pilot project is being launched to encourage entrepreneurship and cooperationamong universities, research bodies and private companies

environmental challenges - climate change, biodiversity loss, achieving resource efficiency

safer and healthier food - investments in a strong bio-economy, improving production methods

nanotechnologies - research into behaviour of particles at atomic and molecular levels could lead to new types of factories, greener cars and energy efficient buildings

cleaner, safer and more efficient transport and mobility

NMP TeAm EuroNanoForum 2011 award

Mon, 11 Apr 2011 11:53:28 GMT

NMP TeAm awarded "most inspiring exhibitor" at EuroNanoForum 2011 Budapest, Hungary - 01/06/2011.

The evening of the 31st of May 2011 was a very special one for
the NMP (Nano Sciences and Nano Technologies, Materials and New Forms of Production) FP7 National Contact Point (NCP) Network. In a nice ceremony at the gala dinner of the EuroNanoForum 2011 European Nanotechnology conference, the NMP TeAm stand received the "most inspiring exhibit" award in the category "European Projects" in a secret voting by the conference participants. "Don't expect anything exciting when you visit our stand -- the strength of the stand is the people, the NMP NCPs of Europe and the world"! , said Anastasia Constantinou, National Contact Point for Greece and NMP TeAm project coordinator when receiving the award on behalf of the Network. The NMP NCP Network consists of experts in the 27 EU Member States, the candidate and associated states and many third countries with more than 80 individuals around the world. NMP TeAm is the EU funded project of the NMP National Contact Points which aims at improving the services provided by the NCPs and hence the quality of the proposals and the consortia, through e.g. an NMP theme specific partner search tool. The NMP TeAm stand was staffed by NMP NCPs from 16 countries who provided information and assistance on EU funding in the NMP theme to the conference participants. On the third day of the EuroNanoForum 2011 conference, NMP TeAm and the coordinator of the Enterprise Europe Network of Hungary HITA co-organised a brokerage event with approximately 120 research and technology profiles which led to more than 360 pre-arranged meetings.

NMPTeam members at ENF2011

Online Conferencing Facility for NMPTeAm.

Wed, 23 Mar 2011 15:17:30 GMT

Athens, Greece – 23/03/2011. NMP TeAm paves the way for successful “virtual” project meetings using an online conferencing tool. In 2010, when the volcano Eyjafjallajökul caused obstacles in air traffic in the most European regions, the NMP TeAm consortium started thinking about technical solutions in order to meet this challenge. One solution NMP TeAm identified was an online conferencing tool that makes them mostly independent from traffic and at the same time it reduces both travel costs and time. With such a tool, virtual team meetings, info days for clients to promote current calls and virtual brokerage events can be organized and managed.

Since then, NMP TeAm partners have tested the tool successfully several times, during trainings organised by the consortium and internal project coordination meetings. The first real extended use of it was during the NMP NCP meeting in Brussels which took place on the 17^th of February. Nine NCP colleagues from eight countries, in Europe (from Malta to Iceland) and around the world (Uganda, Taiwan), were able to join in and listen to the entire NMP NCP meeting from their office or home-office premises, simply by using their computer, their headset or speakers and internet connection! Attendants could listen to the speeches and presentations (thereby receiving a more extended view compared to the summary that is given in the minutes) and could comment with the chat function. Carey Su attended the meeting virtually on behalf of the Taiwan National Coordinator NCP and noted: “Congratulations on the success of NMP TeAm meeting. Thanks to the online conferencing tool, we can share the latest information in the online meeting. We really appreciate everything NMP TeAm has done to facilitate transnational cooperation”.

The online conferencing facility was acquired within the framework of project NMP TeAm and will be used by the whole NMP NCP Network and their clients. With this tool, the consortium has the opportunity to organize virtual team meetings, virtual information days to promote NMP calls as well as virtual brokerage events and webinars to support the clients on proposal writing or to guide them where to get information about FP7 related activities. The facility allows every participant to present files, documents or presentations directly from his local hard drive.

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About NMP TeAm:

The NMP TeAm project aims to improve NMP NCP services across Europe for the benefit of its clients. This will be achieved through closer collaboration between the NMP NCPs in Europe and beyond and normalisation of the differences in knowledge as well as improvement in the quality of provided services across the NCP Network. Ultimate beneficiaries of the actions of NMP TeAm are small businesses and research institutions across Europe who wish to form consortia and submit proposals in NMP calls. NMP TeAm receives funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme FP7 (2007-2013), Theme 4: Nanosciences, nanotechnologies, Materials & new Production technologies (NMP), under grant agreement n° NMP1-CA-2009-233160.

Contacts:

Anastasia Constantinou, NMP NCP for Greece, NMP TeAm project coordinator.

Ingo Rey, Materials NCP for Germany, NMP TeAm member responsible for the administration of the Online Conferencing Tool & development and administration of the Partner Search System Tool.

Solar Facilities for the European Research Area project (SFERA)

Mon, 07 Feb 2011 11:37:12 GMT

SFERA Access second campaign for projects proposals has been launched with the following timetable:

January 2011 to March 2011 : Call for proposals.

March and April 2011 : Selection of the projects to be hosted.

May to October 2011 : Hosting of the projects in the different facilities

The 'SFERA' Partners: CIEMAT, CNRS, PSI, WEIZMANN and ENEA will provide free access to their state-of-the-art high-flux solar research facilities, unique in Europe and in the world. This opportunity is offered for high-quality research in, for example, the following areas:

Solar thermal electricity generation: thermodynamic cycles, receivers, thermal storage, concentrating optics, control algorithms, etc.
Solar production of benign chemical energy carriers: H2, Syngas, etc
Cycles for chemical storage of solar energy: ZnO, etc.
Solar water treatment: desalination, disinfection, detoxification
Research in basic phenomena and nano-material production processes: fullerenes, C-nanotubes, ceramics, etc.
Knowledge-based high-added-value material synthesis: ceramics, glass, etc.
High-flux photochemistry and photo-physics
Basic knowledge of materials behaviour and aging under extreme conditions

Access to these facilities will contribute to the creation of the European Research Area by:

Opening installations to European and ICPC scientists, improving co operation.

Improving scientific critical mass in domains where knowledge is now widely dispersed.

Generating strong Europe-wide R&D project consortia, increasing the competitiveness of each member alone.

For full details please visit the SFERA website.

PPP 2010 First Call Overview

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 14:29:01 GMT

The second PPP call opened in July 2010. For an indication on what competition to expect the following presents some information on the first PPP call.

The first PPP call in the Factories of the Future FoF and the Energy Efficient Buildings EeB Initiatives was published on 30^th July 2009. The deadline for submission of proposals was set for 3^rd November 2009 with the evaluations carried out in December 2009 / January 2010.

Factories of the Future:

For the FoF call The total indicative budget was € 95 million from 2010 budget of which:

€ 60 million came from Theme 4 - NMP

€ 35 million came from Theme 3 - Information and Communication Technologies

Topics:

FoF.NMP.2010-1: Plug and Produce components for adaptive control

FoF.NMP.2010-2: Supply chain approaches for small series industrial production

FoF.NMP.2010-3: Intelligent, scalable, manufacturing platforms and equipment for components with micro- and nano-scale functional features.

FoF.ICT.2010.10-1: Smart Factories: ICT for agile and environmentally friendly manufacturing. (IP, STREP and CSA)

The following table shows the numbers for the proposals under FoF Call1.

	Submitted	Below the Threshold	Above the Threshold	Ranked*
FoF.NMP.2010-1	21	13	8	6
FoF.NMP.2010-2	25	19	6	6
FoF.NMP.2010-3	16	7	9	5
FoF.ICT.2010.10-1	34	20	14	7**
TOTAL	96	59	37	25

*provisional list considered for funding.

** 1 CSA

Overall a total of 96 eligible proposals evaluated by 102 independent experts.

The average total cost of submitted proposals was € 6.38 million and the average requested EC contribution was € 4.38 million.

A total of 1039 participants were involved in the 96 proposals evaluated in this call. Following the evaluation, 255 participants (24.54%) are involved in the 25 proposals considered for funding.

Energy Efficient buildings

For EeB call 1 the indicative budget was € 65 million from 2010 budget of which:

€30 million from Theme 4 NMP

€15 million from Theme 3 ICT

€15 million from Theme 5 – Energy

€5 million from Theme 6 – Environment (including Climate Change)

Topics:

EeB.NMP.2010-1: New nanotechnology-based high performance insulation systems for energy efficiency.

EeB.NMP.2010-2: New technologies for energy efficiency at district level.

EeB.ENV.2010-.3.2.4-1: Compatible solutions for improving the energy efficiency of historic buildings in urban areas.

EeB.ENERGY.2010.8.1-2: Demonstration of Energy Efficiency through Retrofitting of Buildings.

EeB.ICT.2010.10-2: ICT for energy-efficient buildings and spaces of public use (STREP & CSA).

The following table shows the numbers for the proposals under EeB Call1.

	Submitted	Below the Threshold	Above the Threshold	Ranked*
EeB.NMP.2010-1	11	4	7	5
EeB.NMP.2010-2	8	5	3	2
EeB.ENV.2010-.3.2.4-1	5	2	3	1
EeB.ENERGY.2010.8.1-2	10	7	3	3
EeB.ICT.2010.10-2	26	13	13	6**
TOTAL	60	31	29	17

*provisional list considered for funding

** 1 CSA

A total of 60 eligible proposals evaluated by 63 independent experts.

The average total cost of submitted proposals is € 5.0 million and the average requested EC contribution is € 3.4 million.

A total of 650 participants were involved in the 60 proposals evaluated in this call. Following the evaluation, 217 participants (33.4%) are involved in the 17 proposals considered for funding.

BioNanoNet

Thu, 07 Oct 2010 14:20:59 GMT

The BioNanoNet GmbH is an Austrian Network organisation which provides convenient access via a single contact partner to a broad range of proven scientific expertise covering numerous disciplines of medical and pharmaceutical research. By connecting leading companies, universities and non-university research organizations in this way, they have created a broad technology platform with the aim of driving innovative interdisciplinary research focussed on the development of new drugs for chronic, degenerative, and infectious diseases. The BioNanoNet GmbH also develops and coordinates interdisciplinary research and contract research projects in close cooperation with its partners.

Aims

By providing a single portal enabling potential customers from the pharmaceutical industry to quickly and efficiently find reliable partners with the required expertise from amongst the network partners, BioNanoNet GmbH functions as a "One Stop Shop", greatly simplifying the process of establishing collaborations and enhancing the likelihood of a successful outcome.

BioNanoNet Partners.

The BioNanoNet Forschungsgesellschaft mbH comprises 28 partners from universities, non-university research institutions and industry (July 2010).

In order to reach its objective of stimulating and facilitating the financial support of R&D in Austria the BioNanoNet has identified and is focusing on six research areas that are generally regarded as being of key future economic importance. These "lighthouses" are ...

Molecular imaging
Drug delivery
Molecular targeting
Nanotoxicology
Biobanking / Bioinformatics
Biosensors

For further information and contact details visit BioNanoNet website.

MNT-era.net Transnational Call 2010 open

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 14:28:19 GMT

MNT-ERA.NET sets up and runs a structure to sustain and strengthen the collaboration between funding programmes and agencies for transnationally coordinated funding for Micro and Nano Technology research and development in Europe. MNT ERA-Net makes these funding programmes accessible to transnational consortia and opens calls for proposals for transnational R&D projects in the MNT area.

MNT-ERA.NET continues to encourage the submission of commercialisable R&D proposals addressing all fields of micro and nano technologies including production technologies. Project consortia consisting of at least two parties from two different participating countries/regions are invited to submit proposals.

In this Transnational Call 2010, particular emphasis is put on the following applications:

Smart sensor systems for Security, Environment and Entertainment (sensor networks, cognitive systems, spintronics, optical systems).
Medical and health devices (networked monitoring of health parameters, bio sensors and actuators, bio interfaces, lab on chip.
Functionalised interfaces and structures (micro/nano layers and surfaces, micro/nano structured materials, nano particles and powders).
Energy for a mobile life (lightweight and energy efficient components, power generation, storage of energy medium, organic photovoltaics

For further information visit the MNT eranet site.