The NanoRAM kick-off meeting took place on 25th March in Durham, UK. The kick-off meeting is an official meeting between the project partners and the funding agency.

NanoRAM is a Doctoral Network funded under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) in the Horizon Europe programme of the European Union. The project is coordinated by Professor Mingdong Dong, Aarhus University, and consist of 19 organisations across 12 countries.

NanoRAM will train a new generation of scientists specialised in the development and application of nanotools

Advanced nanotools including atomic force microscopy, optical microscopy and correlative microscopy are enabling techniques for discoveries and knowledge generation in nanoscale science and technology. Many R&D efforts have been directed towards the performance improvement of such kinds of techniques for soft matter. However, the greatest challenge faced by these leading edge techniques is the realization of high spatiotemporal resolution, non-invasive, multi-scale and multi-dimensional imaging and manipulation. NanoRAM is a 14 DC Marie Skłodowska Curie Action Doctoral Network based on close collaboration between academic and industrial partners around the theme of innovative nanotools and their industrial applications. NanoRAM will train a new generation of DCs in the development and application of newly developed manipulation and characterisation nanotools in soft matter research. DCs will be cross-pollinated with concepts and skills in instrumentation and soft matter characterisation, in particular in fast nanomechanical spectroscopy, nano-robotics, correlative super-resolution nanoscopy, nano biomechanics and mechanotransduction. These skills are applied to reveal for the first time the fast, high resolution, multi-level and 3D information for single cell biomechanics and nanomedicine. Excellent training in new scientific and complementary skills, combined with international and intersectoral work experience, will instil an innovative, creative and entrepreneurial mind-set in DCs, maximising economic benefits based on scientific discoveries. These specialised, highly trained DCs will have greatly enhanced career prospects and qualifications for access to responsibility job positions in the private and public sectors. The ultimate goal of NanoRAM is to consolidate Europe as the world leader in innovative nanotool techniques and their emerging applications in soft matter fields such as biomechanics, mechanobiology, and nanomedicines.

A kick-off meeting with science in focus

The kick-off meeting took place in beautiful Durham in conjunction with the RMS AFM & SPM 2024 conference. NanoRAM coordinator Mingdong Dong was scientific organiser for the conference, and the NanoRAM partners Patrick Unwin, Tomaso Zambelli and Ricardo Garcia presented at the graduate school Basics of scanning probe microscopy in liquid: principles and applications to biological and electrochemical measurements Graduate School. The RMS conference also saw presentations from NanoRAM partners Georg Gramse, Takayuki Uchihashi and Lasse Hyldgaard Klausen.

The kick-off meeting started with a welcome and general introduction by Mingdong Dong and the project manager, Lasse Hyldgaard Klausen. Afterwards, the project officer from the European Commission’s Research Executive Agency, Sarah-Amalia Aronzohn, presented an interesting talk, in which she gave an overview of the MSCA-DC rules and procedures.

The PIs and future supervisors of the 14 DCs then presented their lines of research and explained the individual projects that the DCs recruited will be working on. Other discussion points then followed, including the recruitment and planning of network meetings, training events and secondments.

The meeting was an opportunity for all consortium members to present their ideas and their vision of the project and set the basis for a fruitful collaboration in the coming 4 years.