Severo Ochoa Programme 2023-2026 Grant CEX2021-001214-S

Application Domains

Three Application Domains will spearhead the delivery of transformative nanoscale solutions for concrete societal needs, which are representative of ICN2’s capabilities, resources, and strategic direction:

Nanosolutions for Medicine

Nanotechnology can offer disruptive ground-breaking solutions for the XXI century medicine, which is expected to become precise, personalised, and predictive.

ICN2 aims at becoming a strategic driving force in the health ecosystem. While ICN2 research directed towards health applications is consolidated, key upcoming strategic objectives are to boost the translational academic research conducted at ICN2, to raise the awareness and understanding of nanotechnologies among clinicians and patients and, ultimately, to streamline the transfer of knowledge and results to the clinical setting and health-related industry.

Efforts will be directed towards developing innovative technologies for prevention, diagnosis and treatment, especially in Oncology, Neurology, and Infectious Diseases. In addition, ICN2 will boost translational academic research, closer collaboration with clinicians, and transfer of knowledge and results to the clinical setting and health-related industry.

Nanosolutions for Energy-Efficient Information Systems

Nanotechnologies, nanostructured systems, and new materials are expected to play a central role in the development of the next generation of technologies for communication and information processing with ultralow energy consumption.

Central to the program is tailoring artificial materials for specific applications by chemical and structural design, nano-assembling and carving, formation of hybrid covalent nanomaterials, and proximity effects in heterostructures. Topological materials and structures will be further explored for future communication technologies (beyond 5G) and for ancillary circuitry for emerging quantum technologies.

ICN2, which consistently leads international major research projects in areas such as quantum and topological matter, spintronics, photonics and phononics, will focus on the development of novel Multivariable (e.g., spin, photon, phonon, magnon) Quantum & Neuromorphic technologies. Artificial Intelligence (see new AI platform AI@ICN2) will also be used to accelerate the design nanoengineered materials for best device performance.

Nanosolutions For Sustainable Energy Technologies

Disruptive technologies in the field of sustainable energy are highly needed to meet the urgent goals of reducing pollution and greenhouse gases emission. Nanotechnologies and advanced nanomaterials will be increasingly essential to energy generation, transport, conversion and storage, being a key part of clean energy devices, such as solar cells, fuel cells, electrolysers, batteries and more.

ICN2 will put efforts in developing efficient systems and advanced technologies for Energy Harvesting, Conversion and Storage, and for Thermal Management. Our disruptive approach will use the newly offered capabilities of the AI@ICN2 combined with advanced infrastructure at the ICN2 and the ALBA synchrotron. This will allow us to access spatial, temporal and energetic regimes that were previously out of reach, providing a rich input for the discovery of new practical energy materials. To minimize the environmental footprint of our technologies, the lifecycle assessment perspective of these developments will be also considered.

Enabling Research Areas

The Application Domains are complemented by four Enabling Research Areas, which are hubs of scientific expertise and knowhow pivotal to excellent science:

Artificial Intelligence Computational Platform (AI@ICN2)

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a powerful tool that can facilitate various steps in the research process. For example, AI can accelerate the exploration of the vast dimensional space of complex nanomaterials, establishing their structure and properties ahead of experimental research, and can enable automated complex data analysis to evaluate large data sets.

AI@ICN2 will provide internal operational guidance and tools, while pushing the development of machine learning (ML) methods in existing in-house molecular dynamics and quantum transport formalisms. Emerging activities will be strengthened by strategies for materials design and data analysis, enabling international collaborations with key academic and industrial partners. Our long-term vision is that AI@ICN2 will become a central and transformative driving force for sustainability and impact.

Nanomaterials & Nanofabrication

ICN2 holds great expertise in nanomaterials and nanofabrication and can count on state-of-the-art nanofabrication tools and cleanroom facilities. The Nanomaterials & Nanofabrication Research Area serves as a hub to the ICN2 Research Groups and Research Support Units for the synthesis of novel nanostructures and nanomaterials, using bottom-up or top-down approaches, according to the needs.

New procedure to accelerate industrial and clinical translation of nanotechnologies and nanomaterials will be developed and nanofabrication protocols and processes will be adapted to green chemistry principles, in order to achieve a more sustainable use of materials and reduce waste and toxic agents. In addition, the ICN2 will collaborate with other international institutes to carry out a Nanotoxicology Initiative, aimed at studying and assessing potential risks of nanomaterials for health and environments.

Nanocharacterization

ICN2 can count on in-house advanced equipment and large-scale facilities for nanocharacterization, as well as leading scientific expertise and technical competences in imaging, spectroscopy and manipulation at the nanoscale and in high temporal resolution spectroscopies.

Our Institute has attained a leading position in this area, and recently secured substantial funding for advanced nanocharacterization infrastructure. The In-CAEM project, supported with 15M€ from the EU Next Generation Programme, will provide access to a beyond-state-of-the-art nanocharacterization platform for in-situ/in operando materials analysis, including top-end electron microscopy (EM), advanced scanning probe microscopies, adaptation of several synchrotron beam lines for correlative analyses and resources for data storage, data analysis and treatment.

Modelling and Simulation

ICN2 is an international reference in methodologies, computational tools and codes for modelling and simulation, which enable predictions of complex quantum phenomena in realistic models of materials, devices and processes (e.g., SIESTA and LSQUANT). These techniques are applied, in collaboration with the Research Groups, to the following topics, among others: neuromorphic computing, spintronics with van der Waals heterostructures, novel paradigms for quantum information transduction and processing in topological matter, electrochemical environments for energy storage/conversion and bioelectronic devices.

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning methods will be also developed and harnessed in the context of local and international high-performance computing infrastructures and the forthcoming exascale era.

Cross-cutting Initiatives:

Scientific Actions:

• Seed Funding Program: fund proposals to develop new ideas or concepts and promote collaborations
• Research Personnel: Severo Ochoa co-funded PhDs & Postdocs
• Equipment & Infrastructure: acquisition of equipment and infrastructure for new groups, AI@ICN2 and other initiatives.
• International Scientific Workshops

Institutional Actions:

• Fundraising: diversify our income sources to reduce dependence on core funding & competitive projects.
• Internationalisation actions to maximise excellence and influence.
• Talent Attraction and Retention
• Equity, Diversity and Inclusion: actions tackling structural gender imbalances and providing tools to promote integration and belonging.
• Business and Innovation: strengthening activities for ICN2 to become a self-sustained tech incubator integrated into the EU and global science and innovation systems.
• Outreach and Dissemination: activities to further engage with the community at large in a two-way dialogue on benefits/risks of nanotechnology.
• Open Science and Open Data
• Ethics and Integrity