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“Meat” me at the Lab

In the last 50 years, meat consumption increased by 330%. In 2016, there were 28 billion live animals mostly used for food production for 7.4 billion of humans, worldwide. This demand is causing huge health and environment problems such as soil contamination, antibiotic resistance, green-gas emission, deforestation and tons of animal suffering. You might have never thought about this, but meat is a high-protein food composed of highly organized muscle and fat cells. And, today, we can grow those cells in culture flasks instead of in the animals. This is what the new-born industry of cell-based meats does. They might mitigate many of those impacts by dropping land use by 99%, reducing agricultural gas emissions by 78%-96%, and not using antibiotics. Sara M. Oliveira, Postdoctoral Fellow at Food Processing Group, contributed in the report “You are What you Meat”, recently published by Massive Science and available here. This is a science guide to equip you with everything you need to stay informed as a scientist, consumer or a science-curious reader.

INL integrates Program IACOBUS to foster scientific cooperation

The INL – International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory is one of the 26 Scientific and Higher Education organisations located in “Galicia – North of Portugal” that signed an agreement for the development of Cultural, Scientific and Teaching cooperation in this Euroregion. IACOBUS Program will promote the cooperation and exchange of human resources between the member institutions, to facilitate the flow of innovation. The protocol was signed on October 14th by the Director-General Lars Montelius on behalf of INL during a ceremony presided by the Portuguese Secretary of State for Science, Technology and Higher Education, Maria Fernanda Rollo, in the presence of the President of CCDR-N (Regional Coordination Agency for the North of Portugal), Fernando de Sousa, and the Vice-President of Xunta de Galicia (Galicia Regional Government), Alfonso Rueda Valenzuela.

INL Researcher awarded with IAAM Scientist Medal

Oleksandr Bondarchuk, INL Facility Manager (PhD) at the Department of Advanced Electron Microscopy, Imaging and Spectroscopy (AEMIS), received the International Association of Advanced Materials (IAAM) Scientist Medal, at its 20th Award Ceremony of the European Advanced Materials Congress, recently held in Stockholm, Sweden. The distinction was given to Oleksandr Bondarchuk for his research on “Materials for Electrical Energy Storage: ionic liquid thin films on HOPG and VN surfaces”. The jury considered this work relevant due to the increasing global demand for better alternatives to fossil fuels, leading to research on more effective, affordable and environmentally friendly energy storage technologies, which are one of the main lines of research at INL, proving that nanotechnology plays a relevant role in offering better and more efficient solutions for today’s energy needs while preserving the planet for future generations.

Mission 10.000 Call for abstracts

INL Summit 2018 third day will be dedicated to Mission 10.000 – a nanoGateway International Conference. This main conference topic will be Nanotechnology: an enabler for bioeconomy and subjects as agriculture (including forestry sector), water resources and food industry will be discussed thro papers, oral presentations and many other sessions. This Mission is a collaborative multi-actor sector initiative to increase the impact of research on issues of social relevance, involving all the relevant actors to solve complex challenges. Submit your abstract on this Mission until September 15th and get involved in a unique conference. See you on October 17th, at Forum Braga! For more information, please visit the official website.

Call for projects Enhance Microalgae

The EnhanceMicroAlgae is a Project funded by Interreg Atlantic Area Programme. It aims to contribute to the competitiveness of the microalgae-based industry in the Atlantic Area through the transfer of technological and economic expertise to the commercial sector. This project will facilitate information transfer between a panel of experts and companies specialising in different areas like; nutritional, cosmetic, pharmaceutical, thus, encouraging business cooperation among the different countries. This consortium offers a wide range of skills and interests, with strong track records for science, production and exploitation of microalgae throughout the Atlantic Area. We will: – Undertake a comprehensive analysis of skills, skill gaps and opportunities in the microalgae sector – Develop case studies, supported by Decision Support Tools, to increase economic performance and competitiveness with the transfer of know-how from academic and technological centres to SMEs – Analyze critical factors of operation from an environmental point of view – Incorporate nanotechnology/new technologies (emerging and/or transferred from other sectors) to microalgae sector – Encourage the creation of spin-offs and self-employment. Looking for a partner to help you kick your project in the microalgae industry? EnhanceMicroAlgae is the project you’ve been waiting for. Chosen projects will be supported at three different levels: […]

INL DG pays tribute to a forgotten enabler: vacuum

Lars Montelius, Director-General (DG) of INL was interviewed by Physics World as President of IUVSTA – International Union for Vacuum Science, Technique and Applications and took the opportunity to underline the irreplaceable relevance of vacuum to modern science. By the occasion of IUVSTA 60th Anniversary, INL DG was happy to acknowledge that vacuum is now a technique so common which unfortunately leads to people to forget about how important it is. “Simply speaking, without vacuum many industries would not exist”, giving the semiconductor industry as an example. Nanotechnology is also a major beneficiary from the vacuum since it “is important if you want to understand materials at a very small scale”. And all this starts from a paradox: most of the things you now take for granted and so significantly changed your life for the better came from the void enabled by vacuum. And speaking about paradoxes, in this interview, Lars Montelius also notes “there is a gap emerging between being a heavy user of technology and being interested in contributing to developing that technology further”, adding that we need to “get more people into the field”. You can read the full interview here.

INL takes the discussion on Nanotechnology to Australia

Lars Montelius, INL Director General, will take part as a speaker on a series of scientific events in Australia, highlighting the role of Nanotechnology as a key enabler for a better future. The first one, about Connected Science for the Society, will take place next August 12th, at the Sidney Science Festival, for the general public. During this major event celebrating STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics), within the session “Invisible Forces: Changing the World”, Lars Montelius will focus on advances in Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials that are playing a profound role for the last few decades in the development of modern society paving the way for the present Digitalization agec and leading to major societal developments that challenge society. All these changes foster disruptive innovations, which will be subject to reflection and discussion during this initiative where INL is proud to be present. On the August 13th, INL Director, who is also President of IUVSTA – International Union for Vacuum Science, Technique and Applications, will deliver a talk on the same topic for a scientific audience, at the 9th Vacuum and Surface Science Conference of Asia and Australia, where on the afternoon of the same day, Lars Montelius […]

INL research on quantum materials in the cover of top Physics journal

INL researchers from the group of Theory of Quantum Nanostructures have proposed a new type of spintronic device concept, based on ferromagnetic proximity effect in two-dimensional crystals. The INL researchers have modelled how the electronic properties of graphene bilayer change from conducting to insulating depending on the relative orientation of the magnetisation of two adjacent magnetic layers. The results have been published in Physical Review Letters (PRL) and have been selected as Editors’ suggestion, making the cover for August 2018 edition. PRL is one of the worldwide most regarded journals on Physics by the scientific community, where only a minor fraction of the suggested papers are selected for publication by the Editors.

Join INL as MSCA Fellow!

INL is looking for talented researchers eager to work in our cutting-edge, multicultural organisation. Individual Fellowships (IF) provide funding to researchers of any nationality to acquire and transfer new knowledge and to work on research and innovation in Europe. Applicable MSCA IF types: Standard European Fellowships, Career Restart Panel, Reintegration Panel and Widening Fellowships. For further information please click here.