The INMA receives Severo Ochoa accreditation for Scientific Excellence
- The Aragon Nanoscience and Materials Institute (INMA), is one of the ten centres of excellence Severo Ochoa listed in the list of proposed applications for funding and accreditation.
- Obtaining this accreditation means funding of 4.5 million euros and the allocation of 5 pre-doctoral contracts for the period 2024-2028.
- The INMA is the first centre in Aragon to receive this accreditation.
(Zaragoza, Monday, 25th March 2024). The Institute of Nanoscience and Materials of Aragon, INMA, a joint University Institute of the Spanish National Research Council, CSIC and the University of Zaragoza, UNIZAR, has just been proposed for accreditation as a Severo Ochoa centre of excellence in the provisional resolution of 21 March of the State Research Agency. With this accreditation, the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities seeks to promote scientific and technical research and its transfer to society, recognising those research centres in Spain that stand out as benchmarks in their field of specialisation.
The scientific director of the proposal, Luis Martín Moreno, Research Professor at the CSIC, has expressed his satisfaction with this accreditation, which reflects the excellence of INMA, both in research and management. The project presented offers an integrative approach that moves nanomaterials research to the challenges of today’s society. Building on INMA’s strengths in nanofabrication, advanced characterisation, and the study of new phenomena at the nanoscale, the scientific project addresses research excellence in: i) CO2 capture technologies and their revalorisation, ii) the use of nanomaterials for the treatment of pancreatic cancer and the prevention of multi-resistant infectious diseases, and iii) the use of quantum effects in materials and devices for the development of sensors and for information processing.
The INMA is the first institute in Aragon to receive this accreditation. This recognition involves funding of 4,500,000 euros and the allocation of 15 pre-doctoral contracts, ten of which were obtained in the previous call. As the director of INMA, Conrado Rillo, says, this recognition allows to attract talent and strengthen the results and impact of the research carried out at INMA, to be more visible internationally and to project Aragon abroad.
The Aragon Nanoscience and Materials Institute (INMA) is a mixed University Research Institute created in 2020 by an agreement between the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and the University of Zaragoza (UNIZAR). INMA’s mission is to contribute to the advancement of scientific and technical knowledge in the area of “Nanoscience and Materials Technology” through scientific excellence and the transfer of our knowledge to society. INMA was created with the aim of obtaining the mention of excellence and has received support from the CSIC and the University of Zaragoza in recent years through the programme for strengthening research institutes that opt to become Severos Ochoa Centres of Excellence and its own grants.
With around 300 members, the research carried out at INMA is organised into six research areas: two transversal and four applied. The two transversal research areas have been defined by focusing on tools for the design, synthesis, manufacture and characterisation of materials. These areas are: “Synthesis, Processing and Scaling of Advanced Functional Materials” and “Singular Experimental Technologies”.
INMA’s areas of applied research have been established on the basis of the functionality of the materials and the resulting nanoscale phenomena. These areas are: Materials for Energy and the Environment, Materials for Biomedicine, Materials for Information Technologies and New Phenomena at the Nanoscale.
INMA has extensive experience in the participation and management of national and international research projects, with more than 40 ongoing European projects and an annual average of 300 publications and 7 million euros obtained in competitive public programmes. No less important is INMA’s transfer component. In addition to having created numerous technology-based companies, 4 of which are active, it has 15 patents in force, 5 of which have been licensed. INMA works in close collaboration with industry. All this provides around 1 million euros of annual income between contracts and royalties.
The INMA has received nearly five million euros through the Next Generation Funds of the European Union of the Plan for Recovery, Transformation and Resilience of the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities to carry out unique actions in the field of Energy transition, Quantum Technologies, Archaeology and Health and strategic projects of the CSIC. It also has funding through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Digital Transformation, through the Quantum Spain initiative (€95,000).
Regarding regional funding, as a leading centre, the Government of Aragon financially supports the INMA, from different programmes to consolidate the R+D+i activity carried out in it and improve its scientific results. In this sense, as a University Research Institute received in 2023 within the contract programme of research institutes 253,000 €; as aid to the recognised research groups of the GA 540,000 € corresponding to the call 2023-2025, in addition to funding with 728,000 € several research projects in strategic lines of the call 2021-2023.
In addition, the INMA participates with an endowment of 1.6 M€ of the so-called Complementary Plan for Advanced Materials and currently has 6 ARAID researchers and 23 pre-doctoral researchers under contract thanks to funding from the Department of Education, Science and Universities.
In its commitment to research excellence, which is included in the 3rd Regional R&D&I Plan (2021-2027), the Government of Aragon granted the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas a grant of 150,000 euros in 2023 to support it on the road to achieving accreditation, as in the previous call for proposals, that of 2022, the centre had fallen just short of achieving it. For 2024, the regional government has increased the amount of this new programme by 25% to encourage more Aragonese centres -whose scientific leadership is internationally recognised and which generate high-impact results- to also opt to join the elite of excellence.
It should also be remembered that, within the framework of the Government of Aragon’s major works and infrastructure programme contract with the University of Zaragoza, an investment of 8.5 million euros is planned until 2026 to build a new three-storey building next to CEMINEM, on the Rio Ebro Campus, which will be used for research laboratories for the University Research Institutes.
25-03-2024
