WIN–ICN2 Joint Seed Funding Supports Three International Research Projects

by Arlet Lozano Arenas

Three collaborative projects will benefit from this new funding opportunity between the Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology (WIN) and ICN2, co-funded by ICN2’s Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence accreditation.

As a result of a bilateral collaboration agreement between the Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology (WIN) and ICN2, both institutions opened in autumn 2024 the first call for a Seed funding programme to develop bottom-up research projects aligned with Horizon Europe Funding opportunities. The winners have now been announced.

The priority areas identified are:

Health
Digital, Industry & Space
Climate, Energy and Mobility
Food, Bioeconomy, Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment

Selected projects are expected to contribute to the institutional values and strategic goals of the ICN2 Severo Ochoa Programme (2023-2026), including fostering scientific excellence, leading cutting-edge international research, promoting the impact of nanotechnologies and nanomaterials, and facilitating their translation into real-life applications.

As a testament to the outstanding quality of all presented projects, most reviewers noted the difficulty in selecting the winning proposals.

We extend our warmest congratulations to the ICN2 and WIN researchers who have been awarded this grant. Below is the list of the three selected projects and the 11 recipients of this financial support:

AHEADBAT(Achieving Rechargeable High Energy Density Zn-Cu Batteries via Stable Two-Electron Transfer): Dr Rosa M. González (ICN2), Prof. Aiping Yu (WIN) and Pedro Gómez (ICN2).

MELANOMA-TRACKER (A wearable microneedle patch for continuous, non-invasive melanoma screening): Dr Marianna Rossetti (ICN2), Prof. Mahla Poudineh (WIN), Dr Ruslan Álvarez (ICN2), Prof. Hamed Shahsavan (WIN) and ICREA Prof. Arben Merkoçi (ICN2)
SHYPIM (Advancing Green Hydrogen Generation via Lead-Free Perovskite Solar Cells and Integrated Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting): Dr Sonia Ruiz (ICN2), Prof. Vivek Maheshwari (WIN) and CSIC Prof. Mónica Lira-Cantú (ICN2)

From ICN2, we truly hope this marks the beginning of many fruitful collaborations and paves the way to secure even more competitive EU funding in the future!