NFFA-Europe: enhancing European competitiveness in nanoscience research and innovation.
Flavio Carsughi
Forschungszentrum Juelich, Germany
: J Nanomater Mol Nanotechnol
Abstract
NFFA-Europe is a European open-access resource for experimental & theoretical nanoscience that carries out comprehensive projects for multidisciplinary research at the nanoscale ranging 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 into a multi-site combination to develop frontier research on methods for reproducible nanoscience research thus enabling European and international researchers from diverse disciplines to carry out advanced proposals impacting on science and innovation. NFFA-Europe coordinates access to infrastructures on different aspects of nanoscience research that are not currently available at single specialized sites without duplicating specific scopes. Internationally peer-reviewed approved user projects have access to the best suited instruments, competences and technical support for performing research, including access to analytical large scale facilities, theory and simulation and high-performance computing facilities. Access is offered free of charge to European users. Two researchers per user group are entitled to receive partial financial contribution towards the travel and subsistence costs incurred. The user access scheme includes at least two “installations” and is coordinated via 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. NFFA-Europe’s own research activity addresses key bottlenecks of nanoscience research: i.e. nanostructure traceability, protocol reproducibility, in-operando nano-manipulation and analysis, open data. (www.nffa.eu)
Biography
Flavio Carsughi took his PhD in Physics at the RWTH Aachen, Germany. He is the head of the User Office at the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Zentrum, Garching, Germany, on leave from his scientist position at the Università Politecnica delle Marche, Ancona, Italy. His research activity includes materials science (radiation damage) and biophysics (characterization of protein), being neutron scattering the main technique used in his investigations. He is also active in the project management, and he participated to many EU projects. He is responsible for a networking task of the EU project Nano Foundry and Fine Analysis (NFFA), granted by the EU (01.09.2015-31.08.2020).
E-mail: f.carsughi@fz-juelich.de
