NanoPrime: Maximising Equipment and Expertise Sharing in Nanoscience

在英国和国际上，结构纳米材料和生物材料等先进材料的申请数量正在稳步增加。纳米材料被广泛应用于航空航天、建筑、电子、能源和生物医药行业等广泛领域。生物材料是针对传染病和癌症、实现再生医学和未来医疗器械潜力的重要组成部分。这些材料经过智能设计，需要作为产品开发过程的一部分进行广泛的表征。在这项建议中，我们寻求建立一个计划(NanoPrime)，为研究人员提供i)基于能力的培训机会和ii)在诺丁汉大学纳米和微型研究中心(NMRC)内使用最先进的仪器。NanoPrime的愿景是通过设备和专业知识共享来促进纳米材料研究的发展。该计划将以概念验证和泵启动项目为目标，这些项目往往会受到巨大的启动成本障碍的阻碍，但从长远来看，这些项目具有高影响和高价值的潜力。NanoPrime将在工程和物理科学领域发起30多个新的研究领域。NMRC是诺丁汉大学的一个关键设施，于2016年开放，拥有广泛的基础设施和仪器，包括电子显微镜、质谱学、电子束光刻、拉曼和X射线光电子能谱。NMRC提供的仪器与其专业的低温样品制备能力相结合，使NMRC在全球范围内独一无二，并处于促进工程和物理科学中材料表征的综合方法的理想地位。基于这些技术能力的培训活动将通过NanoPrime举办，提升英国材料科学研究基地的技能。

The number of applications for advanced materials, such as structured nanomaterials and biomaterials, is steadily increasing across the UK and internationally. Nanomaterials are used extensively across a broad range of sectors such as aerospace, construction, electronics, energy and the biomedical industry. Biomaterials are essential components in targeting infectious diseases and cancers, realising the potential of regenerative medicine and the medical devices of the future. These materials are intelligently designed and require extensive characterisation as part of the product development process. In this proposal, we seek to establish a scheme (NanoPrime) that provides researchers with i) capability based training opportunities and ii) access to state-of-the-art instrumentation within the Nanoscale and Microscale Research Centre (nmRC) at the University of Nottingham.The vision of NanoPrime is to catalyse development of nanomaterials research through equipment and expertise sharing. The scheme will target proof of concept and pump priming projects that are often inhibited by a substantial initiation cost barrier, but have the potential for high impact and high value in the longer term. NanoPrime will initiate over 30 new research areas within the Engineering and Physical Sciences.The nmRC is a key facility at the University of Nottingham, opened in 2016, with extensive infrastructure and instrumentation including electron microscopy, mass spectrometry, electron beam lithography, Raman and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy. The combination of instruments offered at the nmRC, along with its specialised cryogenic sample preparation capabilities, makes the nmRC globally unique and ideally positioned to promote an integrated approach to materials characterisation across the Engineering and Physical Sciences. Training events based on these technical capabilities will be hosted through NanoPrime, upskilling the UK materials science research base.