Frontier Interdisciplinary Projects (FIPs)

Continuing the Strategic Vision for the Severo Ochoa programme FUNMAT ("Smart FUNctional MATerials for social grand challenges"), the ICMAB opened in 2018 the call for the third edition of the Frontier Interdisciplinary Projects (FIP). Out of all the proposals submitted, 9 projects in different fields were granted.

The FIP are an internal call of proposals for researchers of the Institute aimed for the development of high-risk exploratory projects of interdisciplinary character to generate cutting-edge research in the application areas of clean & secure energy, smart & sustainable electronics or smart nanomedicine. FIP projects aim to reinforce the internal links and scientific critical mass of ICMAB's researchers, and to contribute to strengthen the international leadership of the Institute in the area of functional materials.

The researchers of the Institute are able to propose innovative and risky ideas with potential to end up in the market, "proof-of-concept" trials based on previously obtained results or novel ideas for radically new technologies. The projects run for 1 or 2 years, and can be individual or collaborative (between researchers of different research groups).

In 2016 we granted 6 projects with a total of 400,000 € for the Institute researchers, allowing the contracts of 3 PhD fellows and 3 postdoctoral fellows within these projects. In 2017 we financed 9 projects with a total of 550,000 €, 1 of which was in the new-created category “proof of concept”, allowing the contracts of 1 PhD fellow and 7 postdoctoral fellows.

In 2018 we financed 9 projects with a total of 540,000 €, allowing to recruit 2 Master students, 5 PhD researchers and 3 postdoctoral fellows. From these 9 projects, 2 of them were individual, 6 collaborative and 1 proof-of-concept. In total, during the Severo Ochoa period, we financed 24 FIP projects: 6 for RL1, 2 for RL2, 7 for RL3, 2 for RL4 and 7 for RL5.

The granted FIP projects of this call 2018 are the following:


Individual FIP

  • José Vidal: Developing New Contrast Agents for Magnetic Resonance Imaging
  • Xavier Torrelles: Oxide Surfaces with catalytic activity in switchable films by reversal ferroelectric polarization of the substrate

Collaborative FIP

  • José Giner and Concepción Domingo: Exploring the limits of the uniqueness of hierarchical hybrid adsorbents for energy applications
  • Arántzazu González and Ana M. López-Periago: Preparation of bifunctional nanodevices for photodynamic therapy obtained from surface anchored Metal Organic Frameworks using sustainable CO2 technology
  • Anna Palau and Narcís Mestres: Reversible switching of superconductor-insulator transition for green electronic devices
  • Florencio Sánchez and Ignasi Fina: HfO2-based EPItaxial ferroelectric tunnel junction MEMories integrated with Si(001)
  • Alberto Pomar and Benjamín Martínez: All-oxide heterostructures for pure spin currents generation and detection
  • Jaume Veciana and Paula Mayorga: Higher efficient charge-transport induced by chiral perchlorotriphenylmethyl radical based

Proof-of-concept

  • Joffre Gutiérrez: High field superconductors’ technology for particle accelerators

Important outputs of the FIPs are already detected, including strong generation of internal synergy, high risk of ideas incentivized and enhanced competitiveness. Some of the outputs include 27 publications, 56 presentations in conferences, 15 training contracts, 12 new projects, 5 dissemination activities, 2 patents, 4 contracts with the industry and 6 new established collaborations.

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