Project Website [1]
NFFA-EUROPE sets out a platform to carry out comprehensive projects for multidisciplinary research at the nanoscale extending from synthesis to nanocharacterization to theory and numerical simulation.
Advanced infrastructures specialized on growth, nano-lithography, nano-characterization, theory and simulation and fine-analysis with Synchrotron, FEL and Neutron radiation sources are integrated in a multi-site combination to develop frontier research on methods for reproducible nanoscience research and to enable European and international researchers from diverse disciplines to carry out advanced proposals impacting science and innovation.
NFFA-EUROPE enables coordinated access to infrastructures on different aspects of nanoscience research that is not currently available at single specialized ones and without duplicating their specific scopes.
Approved user projects have access to the best suited instruments and support competences for performing the research, including access to analytical large scale facilities, theory and simulation and high-performance computing facilities.
The users access includes several “installations” and is coordinated through a single entry point portal that activates an advanced user-infrastructure dialogue to build up a personalized access programme with an increasing return on science and innovation production.
The own research activity of NFFA-EUROPE addresses key bottlenecks of nanoscience research: nanostructure traceability, protocol reproducibility, in-operando nano-manipulation and analysis, open data.
NFFA-EUROPE integrates 19 Partners, half of which are nano-foundries that are co-located with Analytical Large Scale facilities.
Joint Research Activities overcoming bottlenecks of nanoscience research.The Joint Research Activities of NFFA-Europe, by addressing bottlenecks of nanoscience research, aim to overcome them and to develop new enabling methods and tools at the frontier in nanoscience and novel services to the TA users program to carry out academic as well as industrial projects.
The Networking and Innovation activities address the construction and awareness of a comprehensive shared technical platform aiming to identify and enable the best solution to a user request, among possible access alternatives at the wide range of NFFA-Europe sites. The backbone of the platform is the Technical Liaison Network (TLNet), a team operating across the NFFA-Europe nodes, devoted to user support, to exchange technical information. Around this backbone operate the complementary networking activities of dissemination, training and mobility, industrial innovation, knowledge transfer and data management.
Training and mobility opportunities, open to young and senior scientists and technology developers from across Europe in both academia and industry are in the form of schools, specialised training materials and the opening of short term visits to NFFA-Europe facilities to gain hands-on experience.
Data management is contributing to creating a platform-wide data model to allow efficient recording and sharing of results as well as a strong contribution to building a successful open data policy for European technological platforms.