Integration of novel nano materials into existing production lines

Specific challenge: Nanomaterials are intended to improve the performance of existing production technologies, and to give new functionalities to products, such as lightweight solutions for transportation and construction, enhanced properties for packaging materials and processes, decreased wear and friction of yarns, enhanced electrical performance and reliability and high-performance thermal insulation and UV shielding fibrous materials (e.g. hollow fibres). However, such new nanomaterials need to be introduced into production and the correct controlled conditions need to be created and maintained in industrial processes.

Scope: Development and demonstration in operational environments; the integration of technologies and processing for using novel nanomaterials in production; to improve the control and monitoring of the conditions required for the use of nanomaterials in industrial processes; to increase the level of robustness and repeatability of such industrial processes; to optimize and evaluate the increased performances of the production lines in terms of productivity and cost-effectiveness; to assess the functionality and performance of the produced component/product.

For this topic, proposals should include an outline of the initial exploitation and business plans, which will be developed further in the proposed project.

Wherever possible, proposers could actively seek synergies, including possibilities for funding, with relevant national / regional research and innovation programmes and/or cumulative funding with European Structural and Investment Funds in connection with smart specialisation strategies. For this purpose the tools provided by the Smart Specialization Platform, Eye@RIS3 may be useful[1]. The initial exploitation and business plans will address such synergies and/or additional funding. Exploitation plans, outline financial arrangements and any follow-up will be developed further during the project. The results of these activities as well as the envisaged further activities in this respect should be described in the final report of the project.

The implementation of this proposal is intended to start at TRL 5-6, target TRL 7, Implemented as cross-KET activities.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU between EUR 5 and 8 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected impact:

•                Accelerated market uptake of nanomaterials and products in one or more of the following sectors: fibre, yarn and textile; biomedical products, packaging products; energy; construction and building; and transportation. This non-exhaustive list does not preclude submission and selection of proposals addressing other sectors.

•                Improvement in existing manufacturing processes and equipment through integration of nano materials, demonstrating better resource efficiency, safety, sustainability and recyclability of a wide variety of components and final products.

•                Improvement in technical knowledge on the integrated manufacturing processes for nanomaterials in terms of productivity, environmental performance and cost-effectiveness.

•                Contribution to development of business plans that encourage private sector investment for future business growth.

•                Promoting safe-by-design approaches in collaboration with the EU nano-safety cluster and contributing towards the framework of EU nanosafety and regulatory strategies[2].

Type of action: Innovation Actions

[1] http://s3platform.jrc.ec.europa.eu; the relevant Managing Authorities can be found at http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/indexes/in_your_country_en.cfm

[2] EU Nano-safety strategy 2015-2020 and NanoReg project