MATERA: in search of new materials innovations
29 Sep 2008
The European MATERA project is aimed at developing ever smarter and more innovative materials and in this way at promoting industry and job retention in Europe. MATERA is an ERA-NET project supported by national funding agencies.
Since its expansion at the beginning of 2005, the project has involved 18 partners from 16 countries. The Finnish partners are Tekes, the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation, which has overall coordination of the project, and the Academy of Finland.
“Materials create added value in most products. The difficulty is that the European research field is highly fragmented. One of MATERA’s aims is to facilitate the search of partners across national borders,” says MATERA coordinator at Tekes, Sisko Sipilä.
“The Academy of Finland is very interested indeed in the next extension stage of MATERA, MATERA+. We’ve already made a preliminary commitment. In particular, we’re interested in research surrounding functional materials,” says Programme Manager Anssi Mälkki from the Academy of Finland.
Finns have been highly active
Materials science and technology are advancing at breakneck speed. Scientists and the industry have shown a special interest in new functional materials, materials for extreme conditions and nanomaterials. “These research themes have great prominence in the 2008 call for applications,” Sipilä says.
To date, MATERA has launched eleven projects through pilot calls. Taken together, they have secured national funding worth around 8.5 million euros. Finns have been highly active in these projects, as indeed they have also in the third call for applications.
Anssi Mälkki says that the new MATERA+ programme ties in closely with three Academy research programmes, particularly the FinNano programme that has had close collaboration with Tekes FinNano technology programme.
Next year will see the launch of research programmes in the fields of photonics, modern imaging techniques and computational sciences, each of which has its own points of contact with the MATERA+ project.
Towards ERA-NET+ status
During the autumn of 2008, MATERA will be aiming to secure ERA-NET+ status for itself. “We could get up to six million euros of Commission funding for our projects, provided that national funding agencies undertake to invest twelve million euros,” Sisko Sipilä says.
One of the ideas of ERA-NET+ is to promote a pan-European programme and research funding pot in different fields whereby universities, research institutes and business companies can apply for funding for their joint projects.
“National funding agencies have still not adopted a genuinely European perspective here, but they continue to give more weight to national interests. However, a single common funding pot would be an easier way to secure funding for the best European projects.”
Mälkki says that as yet no final decisions have been made on the detailed arrangements for ERA-NET+ funding. “The Commission is clearly expecting that there will be a common pot. However, the guidelines with respect to funding models are not entirely unambiguous.”
Two different perspectives from Finland
Tekes and the Academy have enjoyed good cooperation in the MATERA project. The involvement of two Finnish partners in MATERA has meant the project has been able to benefit from two different Finnish perspectives. “We complement each other by viewing things from slightly different angles,” Mälkki explains.
In 2007, Tekes launched its own Functional Materials technology programme to run alongside the MATERA project. Total funding for the technology programme amounts to a proposed 215.1 million euros. MATERA serves as the European link for the technology programme.
“ERA-NET projects should be linked up with national programmes whenever possible. The benefits are obvious for both sides,” Sipilä points out.
Anssi Mälkki from the Academy agrees: “It’s a great bonus to have the support of domestic programmes in any ERA-NET project. It’s bound to have greater success that way.”
Text: Tiina Ruulio
More information:
ERA-NETs
www.matera.fi
Research Programme on Nanoscience FinNano (2006–2010)
Photonics and Modern Imaging Techniques
Computational Sciences
Functional Materials 2007–2013
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