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Tuesday, 25 October 2022

New DOCFAM+ doctoral programme launched to train 26 young researchers

by Virginia Greco

The DOCFAM+ doctoral programme is led by ICMAB-CSIC and includes 6 partner organizations of the Barcelona area, among which is the ICN2. Building on the success of the previous DOCFAM, through this programme 26 outstanding doctoral students will be recruited and trained.

DOCFAM+, which stands for DOCtoral training programme in Functional Advanced Materials: Towards a Better Future, is the new doctoral programme recently awarded to the Institute of Materials Science of Barcelona (ICMAB-CSIC) by the European Commission (EC) through the Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions (MSCA), MSCA-COFUND. With a budget of more than 5 M€ (half of it co-funded by the EC), DOCFAM+ will recruit and train a total of 26 researchers of any nationality in the Barcelona area. It is the second MSCA-COFUND obtained by the ICMAB and the CSIC, after the DOCFAM programme, awarded in 2017.

The new programme, led by ICMAB, includes the participation of six other partner organisations: ALBA Synchrotron, the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience & Nanotechnology (ICN2), the Catalonia Energy Research Institute (IREC), the Institute for High Energy Physics (IFAE), the Institute of Microelectronics of Barcelona (IMB-CNM-CSIC) and the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB). Therefore, the 26 talented doctoral researchers recruited will be able to carry out their research in one of these research institutions. The first recruitment campaign for doctoral candidates will start in mid-2023.

DOCFAM+ involves a wide variety of research projects and hosting supervisors within the functional advanced materials sector, targeting three main applications in alignment with major European societal challenges: clean and secure energy, smart nanomedicine, and sustainable and low cost electronics. Fellows will also have the opportunity to conduct secondments in international research institutions or companies.

This programme builds on the success and remarkable outcomes of the previous DOCFAM programme, and takes a step further, enhancing the potential and future career perspectives of recruited fellows. It also consolidates the excellence and outstanding track record of the participating entities, while fulfilling the principles of Open Science and maintaining the highest research quality standards. The frontier research programme will be complemented with advanced training aspects in an integrating holistic approach through a combination of research-oriented and soft skills.

Fore more information: DOCFAM+ project website

News from ICMAB.