CNR - official website www.cnr.it - is the largest public research organization in Italy. Its mission is to carry out, promote, spread, transfer and improve research activities in the main sectors of knowledge growth and of its applications for the scientific, technological, economic and social development of the Country.

Within CNR, the Istituto Officina dei Materiali (IOM) -  official website www.iom.cnr.it  - carries out interdisciplinary research on the atomic scale physical properties of materials and systems of nanometric size. The main activities include design, numerical simulation (with Democritos center of excellence), synthesis and analysis of nanostructured materials, biomaterials, materials for storage and energy and the development of prototypical analytical devices.

Within CNR, the Institute of Structure of Matter (ISM)  -  official website www.ism.cnr.it -  covers the field of synthesis and characterization of materials with innovative technological applications, which are produced and studied in the ISM laboratories. The main focus is to investigate materials with potential application and use in the field of advanced opto-devices. ISM is involved in advanced theoretical and numerical developments in material science.  

CNR role in NFFA-Europe:

CNR provides access to Lithography and Patterning, Growth and Synthesis;Theory and Simulation; Characterization

CNR contributes to Joint Research on In-Operando and high throughput methods; e-infrastructure for data and information management; Time-resolved ultrafast probes on nanosystems; it contributes also to Innovation and networking activities

CNR coordinates the NFFA-Europe project (see Governance structure)

CNR leads access to Theory and Simulation; it leads Joint Research on e-infrastructure for data and information management

CEA – official website www.cea.fr - is a French government -funded research organization involved in setting up collaborative projects with many partners around the world.

CEA will participate to NFFA-Europe project with the Laboratoire d'Électronique de Technologie de l'Information (CEA-LETI) – official website www-leti.cea.fr - and the Laboratoire Léon Brillouin (LLB) official website www-llb.cea.fr.

CEA-LETI is located in Grenoble in the vicinity of ESRF and ILL. It is one of the major European research centers for applied electronics and nanoelectronics and part of MINATEC® (European center of excellence in micro and nanotechnologies). It is also active member of the "National Network of Large Technological Facilities for Basic Technological Research" and benefits from different platforms within MINATEC® as the Nanocharacterisation platform.

LLB is the French Neutron Scattering Research Infrastructure jointly supported by the CNRS and the CEA; it is devoted to the study of condensed matter by thermal neutron scattering. Twenty one neutron scattering and imaging instruments, running simultaneously are offered to the academic and industrial users. The LLB comprises about 110 people (+ 60 on the reactor) ensuring training and education, instruments and methodology development, access to users and research activities.

CEA role in NFFA-Europe:

CEA provides access to Characterisation

CEA contributes to Joint Research on Advanced Nano-object Transfer and Positioning

CNRS – official website www.cnrs.fr - is a public organization under the responsibility of the French Ministry of Education and Research.

In this project, CNRS will participate with the Laboratoire de Photonique et Nanostructures (LPN) – official website www.lpn.cnr.fr - a french national facility for nanofabrication. The main research fields of the labs are nanophotonics, spintronics, quantum nanoelectronics, optoelectronic devices, microfluidics and microsystems. The staff comprises 350 persons, including about 100 PhD students and 30 post-doc fellows. LPN is situated in Marcoussis, ie at less than 10 km from the SOLEIL large facility and at short distance from the Laboratoire Léon Brillouin (LLB) the French Neutron Scattering Infrastructure jointly supported by the CNRS and the CEA (for research and staff see also CEA profile).

SOLEIL (Societe Civile) - Linked Third Party to CNRS - is the French national synchrotron facility created by CNRS and CEA. SOLEIL is a 3rd generation source of synchrotron radiation, operating at an energy of 2.75 GeV and a nominal stored beam currents (top-up injection) of 430 mA, rising to 500 mA by the end of 2014. It offers a unique panorama of experiments with 26 operational beamlines (29 foreseen in 2016), covering the Far IR to the Hard X-ray range, and open to a large scientific and industrial users community in a very broad range of fields from life-sciences to material science including surface, solid states and gas phase physics and chemistry.

CNRS role in NFFA Europe:

CNRS provides access to Lithography and Patterning, Growth and Synthesis, Characterisation

CNRS contributes to Joint Research on High Precision Manufacturing

CNRS leads access to Characterisation

SOLEIL role in NFFA Europe:

SOLEIL provides access to Characterisation

SOLEIL contributes to Joint Research on In-Operando and high throughput methods; Time-resolved ultrafast probes on nanosystems; Advanced Nano-object Transfer and Positioning

The “École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne” (EPFL) – official website www.epfl.ch - is one of two federal technical universities in Switzerland. It has three missions: education, research and technology transfer at the highest international level.

EPFL, in its location on the shores of Lake Geneva, brings together a campus of more than 10,000 people with more than 250 laboratories and research groups. The EPFL School of Engineering (STI) consists of more than 50 laboratories organized within 5 institutes at the intersection of mechanics, electrical engineering, micro-technology, and materials science.

In this project, EPFL will participate with the Theory and Simulation of Materials (THEOS) – official website http://theossry1.epfl.ch/ - which is part of the Institute of Materials (School of Engineering). It consists of one professor, 15 postdocs and 6 PhD students.

Its research activity focuses on the computational modeling of the physical properties of materials from first-principles, i.e., from the description of their most elementary constituents (atoms and electrons) and their interactions. It has access to both in-house, national and international computational facilities. 

EPFL role in NFFA Europe:

EPFL provides access to Theory and Simulation of nanostructures

EPFL contributes to Joint Research on e-infrastructure for data and information management; it contributes also to Innovation and networking activities

DESY – official website www.desy.de - is one of the world leading accelerator centres for the investigation of the structure of matter. It furthermore offers ideal prerequisites to be a nucleation centre for developing new emerging ideas on nanoscience - all this in one single multidisciplinary environment.

The DESY campus does in fact host the Center for Free-Electron Laser Science (CFEL), while the Centre for Structural Systems Biology (CSSB), currently under construction, shall unite a great number of activities in the field of life sciences, ranging from protein crystallography to infection research.

Moreover, the construction of the Centre for Hybrid Nanostructures (CHYN), recently started at the DESY campus, shall in the near future house several research groups from the Department of Physics of the University of Hamburg.

In this project, DESY will participate with its NanoLab Institute as a facility for users and for in-house research. It is being developed and operated by the DESY Research Group X-ray Physics and Nanoscience.

One of DESY’s principal areas of activities is the development and operation of accelerators for synchrotron radiation sources and free-electron lasers, in order to observe structures and processes on extremely small space and time scales.

DESY role in NFFA Europe:

DESY provides access to Characterisation

DESY contributes to Joint Research on High Precision Manufacturing

DESY leads Joint Research on Advanced Nano-object Transfer and Positioning

The ESRF - official website www.ersf.eu - is a large-scale research infrastructure providing synchrotron X-ray light for cutting edge science for both academic and industrial user communities.

It is located in Grenoble, France, with an intergovernmental agreement at its basis. It is supported and shared by 20 countries, with the accession of the 21st country, Russia, underway currently.The ESRF is one of the world's largest synchrotron science centres. Every year, more than 6,000 scientists from the partner countries and around the world travel to Grenoble to use its extremely brilliant X-rays for leading-edge research and industrial R&D.The staff of the ESRF represents more than 40 nationalities from which the 600-strong staff contingent of highly qualified people mutually benefit from the rich and diverse backgrounds, cultures and languages.

The ESRF is set-up as a French Société civile and subject to French law. Its direction is the responsibility of the Director General and its Council, made up of representatives appointed by the Member Countries. The facility shares a physical site, called the European Photon and Neutron Campus, with the neutron source Institut Laue- Langevin (ILL) and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL). Internationally, as a member of EIROforum, the ESRF works with research institutions across Europe to support the development of the European Research Area and to promote science education. ESRF has a wide and long experience in a range of European funding programmes, both as coordinator and partner.

ESRF role in NFFA Europe:

ESRF contributes to Joint Research on In-Operando and high throughput methods, e-infrastructure for data and information management, Advanced Nano-object Transfer and Positioning

ESRF leads Innovation and networking activities

FORTH - official website www.forth.gr - is the largest and most successful Research Institution in Greece (1125 personnel).

In this project, FORTH will participate with the Institute of Electronic Structure and Laser (FORTH-IESL) official website www.iesl.forth.gr - , which is a multi-disciplinary scientific laboratory that focuses its research on fundamental and applied issues related to materials science and technology and laser interactions with matter. IESL-FORTH combines state-of-the-art experimental facilities with a rich spectrum of research activities and scientific expertise that provide an intellectual environment, ideal for fostering new ideas and advancing scientific research.

FORTH-IESL possesses large experience in running a research infrastructure. In particular, the Laser Group of FORTH-IESL operates as a European Laser Research Infrastructure currently in the frame of LASERLAB-Europe (www.laserlab-europe.net), and also participates in the Extreme Laser, ESFRI, Infrastructure (ELI- www.extremelightinfrastructure.eu). The Polymer group of FORTH-IESL operates as a European Soft Matter Infrastructure (ESMI, www.esmi-fp7.net), a European facility in soft nanomaterials.

FORTH role in NFFA Europe:

FORTH provides access to Growth and Synthesis, Characterisation

FORTH contributes to Joint Research on In-Operando and high throughput methods; High Precision Manufacturing; e-infrastructure for data and information management; Time-resolved ultrafast probes on nanosystems; it contributes also to Innovation and networking activities

FORTH leads Joint Research on Time-resolved ultrafast probes on nanosystems

ICN2 - official website www.icn2.cat - is an independent non-profit research organisation (with the legal status of a Private Foundation) based in Barcelona (Spain).

It is funded by the Regional government of Catalonia and the Spanish Research Council (CSIC). Its core activities are:

• Frontier Basic and Applied Research in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology
• Technology Transfer
• Public Outreach.

ICN2's main research fields include:

• Biosensing and Bioelectronics
• Chemical Synthesis of Nanostructures
• Materials at the Nanoscale, Microscopy (AFM, SEM, TEM, STM, etc.)
• Nanoelectronics
• Nanofabrication (FIB) & Nanolithography
• Nanomagnetism
• Phononics and Photonics
• Theory and Simulation
• Spectroscopy (Raman, XRD, XPS, etc.)
• Spintronics
• Surface Properties.

Our research involves a wide variety of materials:

• Biomolecules (DNA, RNA, proteins, etc.)
• arbon nanotubes
• Graphene
• Ferroics
• Inorganic nanoparticles
• Inorganic thin films
• Metal-organic frameworks
• Organic polymers and O/I hybrids
• Semiconductors
• Thermoelectric materials
• Topological insulators.

ICN2 role in NFFA Europe:

ICN2 provides access to Growth and Synthesis; Theory and Simulation; Characterisation

ICN2 contributes to Joint Research on In-Operando and high throughput methods

Forschungszentrum Jülich - Official website www.fz-juelich.de - pursues cutting-edge interdisciplinary research on pressing issues facing society today.

With its competence in materials science and simulation, and its expertise in physics, nanotechnology, and information technology, as well as in the biosciences and brain research, Jülich is developing the basis for the key technologies of tomorrow breaking new ground in the form of strategic partnerships with universities, research institutions, and industry in Germany and abroad. With more than 5,500 employees, Jülich – a member of the Helmholtz Association – is one of the largest interdisciplinary research centres in Europe.

JÜLICH role in NFFA Europe:

JÜLICH provides access to Growth and Synthesis; Theory and Simulation; Characterisation

JÜLICH contributes to Joint Research on Advanced Nano-object Transfer and Positioning; it contributes also to Innovation and networking activities

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology - official website www.kit.edu - is a higher education and research organisation with about 10.000 employees, 25.000 students, and a total annual budget of about 750 million Euro.

It bundles the missions of a university of the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg and of a large-scale research institution of the Helmholtz Association. Within these missions, KIT is operating along the three strategic fields of action of research, teaching, and innovation.

It is devoted to top research and excellent academic education as well as to being a prominent location of academic life, life-long learning, comprehensive advanced training, exchange of know-how, and sustainable innovation culture. Besides, KIT installs and operates large experimental facilities and devices, in the context of this programme the Large Scale Data Facility (LSDF), the ANKA Synchrotron Facility, and theKarlsruhe Nano Micro Facility (KNMF).

In this project, KIT will participate with its Institute for Data Processing and Electronics (IPE) which is specialised in detector instrumentation and data processing at large. IPE’s competences range from the design of analog and digital electronics, packaging and interconnect technologies, development of fast data acquisition, trigger- and control systems to data management and analysis technologies.

KIT role in NFFA Europe:

KIT contributes to Joint Research on e-infrastructure for data and information management; it contributes also to Innovation and networking activities

Lund University - official website www.lunduniversity.lu.se - LU is home of the national MAXIV synchrotron facility (online June 2016) as well as its current predecessors MAXI-III.

The Nanometer Structure Consortium (nmC) at LU is today Sweden’s largest research environment for nanoscience, engaging more than 200 PhD students and scientists. The research focuses on materials science, quantum physics, nanoelectronics, nanophotonics, nanoenergy, nanobiology, nanoneuroscience and nanosafety.

LU will participate to NFFA.eu with:

• Lund Nano Lab (LNL)
• co-located National Center for High Resolution Electron Microscopy (nCHREM)

Both the Laboratories are co-located with the existing MAX laboratory and the two ALFs under construction: MAX-IV and the ESS spallation source.

LU role in NFFA Europe: 

LU provides access to Lithography and Patterning; Growth and Synthesis; Characterisation

LU contributes to Joint Research on High Precision Manufacturing and to Innovation and networking activites

Promoscience - Official website www.promoscience.com -  is a SME spin-off of SISSA – International School of Advanced Studies in Trieste - founded in May 2004 by a team of researchers specialised in exploring the requirements of the scientific community, perfecting new and effective knowledge transmission strategies and developing adapted content management systems.

The company develops innovative web based software for sharing objectives, managing projects and spreading results among the scientific communities.

Promoscience role in NFFA Europe:

Promoscience contributes to Management and to Innovation and networking activities

PRUAB, the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona Research Park, is a private not-for-profit foundation, established in 2007 as a basic tool for three leading research bodies in the UAB Campus: the UAB itself, the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and the Institute for Agricultural and Food Research &Technology (IRTA) to promote and improve the transfer of knowledge and technology between the University and business. Companies located within the area of the Park and those involved in the University research work, such as spinoff and start-up companies, can also benefit from these services. The UAB campus at Bellaterra is close to the Alba synchrotron.

In addition to the PRUAB staff itself, research groups and facilities of CSIC and UAB (linked 3rd parties of PRUAB) will be involved in NFFA. 

CSIC (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas) - official website: www.csic.es - is an autonomous multisectorial, multi-disciplinary public research body affiliated to the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology, with its own legal personality, its own assets and a presence throughout the national research ecosystems. CSIC as 3rd party of PRUAB will be represented by two institutes: CNM (National Microelectronics Center, www.cnm.es) and ICMAB (Institute of Materials, www.icmab.es), both located at the UAB campus.

UAB (Univesitat Autònoma de Barcelona) - official website: www.uab.cat - is one of the major public universities in Spain. It is located in Bellaterra, close to Barcelona. Currently, the University offers 81 undergraduate courses on a wide variety of disciplines, 84 official Master’s
degrees, 6 Erasmus Mundus Master's degrees. The University has over 41,000 students, almost 4,600 researchers and teaching staff, and it hosts more than 6,000 foreign students. The University is therefore a breeding ground for quality researchers and a center for the dissemination of knowledge and technologies, and it plays a leading role in scientific research. The UAB is the first-ranked university in Spain according to the QS World University Ranking 2013/2014.

PRUAB role in NFFA Europe:

PRUAB contributes to Innovation and networking activities

CSIC role in NFFA Europe:

CSIC provides access to Lithography and Patterning; Growth and Synthesis; Characterisation

CSIC contributes to Joint Research on In-Operando and high throughput methods; High Precision Manufacturing; it contributes also to Innovation and networking activities

UAB role in NFFA Europe:

UAB contributes to Innovation and networking activities

UAB provides access to Characterisation

UAB contributes to Joint Research on High Precision Manufacturing

PSI - offical website: www.psi.ch -  is the largest national research centre for natural and engineering sciences within Switzerland.

It performs world-class research in three main subject areas: Matter and Material, Energy and the Environment, and Human Health. Several large-scale facilities are presently operated at PSI such as the SINQ neutron spallation source, the Swiss Light Source (SLS), the SμS muon source and the hard x-ray Free Electron Laser source SwissFEL is presently under construction.

In this project, PSI will participate with the Laboratory for Micro and Nanotechnology (LMN), founded as a PSI research unit in 1993 - http://www.psi.ch/lmn

LMN operates state-ofthe-art equipment for nanolithography, thin film technology, pattern transfer and fine analysis, mainly run in about 500 m2 of clean-room environment.

PSI role in NFFA Europe:

PSI provides access to Lithography and Patterning; Growth and Synthesis; Characterisation

PSI contributes to Joint Research on In-Operando and high thoughput methods; High Precision Manufacturing; Time-resolved ultrafast probes on nanosystems; it contributes also to Innovation and networking activities

PSI leads Joint Research on Lithography and Patterning; High Precision Manufacturing

STFC - offical website: www.stfc.ac.uk - The Science and Technology Facilities Council is one of the UK’s seven publicly funded Research Councils responsible for supporting, co-ordinating and promoting research, innovation and skills development in the areas of particle physics, astronomy, and providing large scale facilities to the UK and international scientific communities, including the UK’s contribution to CERN, ILL, ESRF and ESO.

STFC operates the ISIS Pulsed Neutron Source (ISIS), situated at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL), near Oxford, UK. STFC is also the majority stakeholder in the Diamond Light Source, the UK’s national synchrotron facility, located at RAL.

In this project, STFC will participate with the Scientific Computing Department (SCD) which provides large-scale computing resources and expertise in scientific computing and information technology to the STFC science programme and its partners within UK and worldwide.

It hosts the UK Tier 1 centre as part of the CERN Large- Hadron Collider consortium, managing over 15PB of data on behalf of the Particle Physics community; runs HPC systems, including the JASMIN super-data-cluster for environmental science, and the Emerald GPU cluster.

Its Hartree Centre operates HPC resources including the IBM Blue Gene supercomputer for use with industrial partners.

STFC role in NFFA Europe:

STFC contributes to Joint Research on e-infrastructure for data and information management

The TUG - Official website: www.tugraz.at - is the 2nd largest technical university in Austria, which focuses on five specific fields of expertise: Advanced Materials Science, Human & Biotechnology, Information Communication & Computing, Mobility & Production and Sustainable Systems (bold fields are related to proposal topics).

The Institute of Inorganic Chemistry is the participating research institute, which is dedicated towards fundamental and applied aspects of organometallic chemistry.

The scope of activities ranges from basic research of organo silicon, tin and phosphorus compounds, design of catalysts towards the applications of inorganic and organometallic oligomers, and polymers in the field of functional materials. The applications range from energy, semiconducters, optics and nanotechnology.

The participating work group has profound experience in the structural investigation of nano-biological materials (ranging from energy research till drug delivery systems) as well as on the microstructuring of materials by means of Deep X-ray lithography. Moreover, an intense activity of design and development of instrumentation and sample environment is carried out. 

Besides providing access to the laboratory SAXS equipment with all its capabilities, it operates and provide access to the permanent outstation located directly at the synchrotron radiation facility Elettra (Small angle X-ray scattering and Deep X-ray Lithography beamlines). Here the full spectrum of the available sample environments (e.g. temperature, high pressure, rapid mixing, batch reactors) can be utilized in user experiments.

TUG role in NFFA-Europe:

TUG provides access to in Growth and Synthesis; Characterisation

TUG contributes to Joint Research on In-Operando and high throughput methods; High Precision Manufacturing; Time-resolved ultrafast probes on nanosystems

TUG leads Joint Research on In-Operando and high throughput methods

The Technische Universität München - Official website: www.tum.de - is characterized by a unique profile with its core domains natural sciences, engineering, life sciences and medicine.

The institutional strategy is focused on strengthening the excellence of disciplinary core competences in research, teaching and learning, but is also targeted towards the promotion of ground-breaking, interdisciplinary research. In the seventh European Union Research Framework Program, TUM is involved in more than 200 EU research projects, coordinates approx. 30 of them and currently oversees 16 ERC Starting Grants, 2 ERC Consolidator Grants, 10 ERC Advanced Grants and 2 Proof of Concept Grants. Currently, TUM takes part in 22 DFG funded Collaborative Research Centers, of which TUM is the spokesperson in seven.

The student body of TUM is currently approx. 36.000 students and is constantly rising. TUM is member of the EuroTech Universities Alliance which was founded in 2006 and brings together four topclass universities (DTU, TU/e, EPFL, TUM).

TUM role in NFFA Europe

TUM contributes to Joint Research on In-Operando and high throughput methods

Università degli Studi di Milano (UMIL) is an Italian State-university and leading research institution active on a wide range of different disciplines from science to humanities.

Member of LERU (League of European Research Universities), it is the largest university in the region, with approximately 64,000 students and a teaching staff of 2000 professors. UMIL is strongly relevant for the socio-economic context of Lombardy region, one of the most dynamic and international regions in the European Union, a leader in the national economy that stands at the Italian forefront of research and development with strong investments and commitment to technological innovation.

UMIL has a strong commitment towards technology transfer, with a long-standing tradition and proven capacity through the activity of its dedicated group (UniMiTT), numerous spin-off companies and participation into high-tech SME incubator facility (Fondazione Filarete) that is participated by important financial partners and regional industry association.

UMIL role in NFFA Europe

UMIL provides access to Growth and Synthesis; Theory and Simulation

The University of Nova Gorica (UNG) - Official Website: http://www.ung.si - is a young (founded in 1995) and dynmical organization, which is participitating to and managing a constantly increasing number of national and international projects (more than fifty in the last five years).

UNG hosts the state-of-the-art light source CITIUS, which is based on the principle of high-order harmonics generated in gas and is operated by the team of the Laboratory of Quantum Optics. The source is part of an infrastructure.

It includes also the Laboratory for Material Research - Offical website: http://www.ung.si/en/research/materials-research-laboratory/

The Laboratory of Organic Matter Physics - Official website: http://www.ung.si/en/research/laboratory-of-organic-matter-physics/

And the Laboratory for Environmental Research - Official website: http://www.ung.si/en/research/laboratory-for-environmental-research/

UNG role in NFFA Europe:

UNG contributes to Joint Research on Time-resolved ultrafast probes on nanosystems