Partners
Bringing together specialists from seven countries
The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft (FhG) is a non-profit and the leading organization for applied research in Europe. Founded in 1949, the FhG currently comprises 75 Fraunhofer-Institutes with nearly 29.000 employees at 40 different locations in Germany as well as research centers and representative offices in Europe, USA and Asia. The FhG undertakes applied research in future-oriented projects with the aim of finding innovative solutions to issues concerning the industrial economy and society in general.
The Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Advanced Materials IFAM, located in Bremen, is the largest independent research facility in Europe in industrial adhesive bonding technology. IFAM possesses facilities for computational materials modelling and has access to several High‐Performance computing resources for ab‐initio quantum mechanical (QM) as well as molecular dynamics (MD) tools which are used to model molecular interactions at surfaces, the dynamics of polymer matrices, and polymerization processes. The modelling activities at IFAM have contributed to the development of innovative resin materials and multifunctional nanoparticles for smart composites.
Almost 1000 years old, the University of Bologna (UNIBO) is known as the oldest University of the western world. Nowadays, UNIBO still remains one of the most important institutions of higher education across Europe and the second largest university in Italy. With 11 Schools, 32 Departments and about 87.000 students; UNIBO is organized in a multi-campus structure with 5 operating sites (Bologna, Cesena, Forlì, Ravenna and Rimini), and, since 1998, also a permanent headquarters in Buenos Aires.
Applied Materials is a global company with a broad set of capabilities in materials engineering that provides manufacturing equipment, services and software to the global semiconductor, display, solar photovoltaic (PV) and related industries. With over 21.000 employees and more than 12,500 patents issued, applied delivers products and services to manufacturers of semiconductor chips, liquid crystal and other displays, solar PV cells, and electronic devices, among others. Our materials engineering solutions are used to produce virtually every new advanced display and chip in the world.
Computational Modelling Cambridge Ltd. (CMCL) is an award-winning, R&D-driven company with over a decade of experience in offering practical digital engineering solutions in areas spanning decarbonisation, energy conversion, emissions reduction, air quality, materials and process design, urbanisation and mobility. Aligned with CDES (CMCL’s Digital Engineering Strategy) 2020, the company leverages its software products, namely kinetics™, SRM Engine Suite™ and Model Development Suite (MoDS™), to combine physico-chemical simulations with advanced statistical and data-driven algorithms.
CMCL embraces new technologies in the areas of Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Deep Learning, to realise semantic interoperability with data and other software platforms for effective problem-solving and decision support. CMCL’s software has been globally applied by some of the leading manufacturers of chemicals/materials (GSK, Huntsman, Kronos, HeiQ, Birla Carbon, etc.) and vehicles/machines manufacturers (Caterpillar, Toyota, GE, Hyundai, Jaguar Land Rover, etc.), as well as energy system developers (Shell, Chevron, EDF, Doosan, Alstom, etc.) to design and optimise their physico-chemical systems.
CNR (National Research Council) is the main public research institution in Italy, gathering 110 institutes distributed along the entire country. The team that participates in INTERSEC belongs to the Nanoscience Institute (CNR- NA), based in Modena and, counts with about 190 researchers devoted to frontier research in nanoscience and nanotechnology. It comprises two Centres (Pisa and Modena), strongly intertwined with the local universities, and can rely on effective support facilities including offices for Project management and for Communication and outreach.
The research activity at CNR-NANO ranges from the investigation of electronic, transport and spectroscopic properties of materials and hybrid systems at surfaces/interfaces to plasmonics and nanotribology, mostly in collaboration with leading national and international experimental groups and industrial partners.
DCS is a leading company in providing simulation software, products and services in the field of Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) software, specifically DEM and CFD-DEM simulations for a variety of industries but also overall 1D process models. Main areas: software development, software distribution, research and consultancy activities in the field of fluid dynamics, particulate flow and related areas. DCS also has experience with Machine Learning and data analytics.
The Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) is one of two federal technical universities in Switzerland. It has three missions: education, research and technology transfer at the highest international level. EPFL, in its location on the shores of Lake Geneva, brings together a campus of more than 10,000 people with more than 250 laboratories and research groups. With 120 nationalities represented on campus and more than 50% of the professors coming from abroad, the School is one of the world’s most cosmopolitan universities. The EPFL School of Engineering (STI) consists of more than 50 laboratories organised within 5 institutes at the intersection of mechanics, electrical engineering, micro-technology, and materials science. The MARVEL National Centre on Computational Design and Discovery of Novel Materials, directed by Prof. Marzari, is a 12-year effort involving approximately 30 groups, started in 2014, and funded by the Swiss National Science
Goldbeck Consulting Limited (GCL) is an SME based in Cambridge, United Kingdom, providing business and technical consulting services in the field of materials modelling, informatics and digitalisation to universities, science and engineering software companies, manufacturing industry and public bodies. Services include strategies for integration and increased impact of materials modelling and informatics in industry, materials modelling translation as well as coaching for industrial staff and commercialisation and business development for science and engineering software.
The Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon GmbH (Hereon) is one of 18 members of the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres, Germany’s largest science organisation. Hereon is located in Geesthacht near Hamburg with branches in Teltow near Berlin and in Hamburg, with a total staff of approximately 950 employees.
Embedded in the Helmholtz Research Fields „Key Technologies“ and „Structure of Matter“ the scientists at the Institute of Surface Science develop ultra-light-weight materials and innovative process technologies for the application areas air and ground transportation, regenerative medicine, as well as energy storage and functional materials. Hereon participation in the project will be through the department of “Interface Modelling” (MOM). The main focus of the MOM department is on development of new surface technologies for structural and biomaterials, and the development of “predictive” modelling and simulation of service-life aspects. The department has strong expertise on corrosion protection of Mg-based alloys using polymeric, metallic and oxide-based coatings. Currently, seven EU projects are in progress in frame of MOM activities. Four include strong modelling and simulation activities.
IRES has a core business and wide experience in the fields of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) & Life Cycle Costing (LCC), Exposure and Risk Assessment (hazard and exposure scenarios), Standardization, Data Management Plan (DMP), Machine learning, Quality assurance and Data analysis. We provide customised and tailored solutions on demand, often in tool form, successfully identify possible business risks and provide sustainable directions. For this, the whole lifecycle of products is considered, through a holistic evaluation of social, environmental and economic aspects based on EU standards and regulations. IRES in collaboration with external bodies and related initiatives, is part of new technological events, rising innovative technologies and strategic research trends.
Through its international network, IRES supports the development of innovative technologies and the optimization of products. Indicatively the company professionals have expertise in Project Risk, Ethics and Knowledge management, market trend analysis, feasibility studies, Impact assessment and Technology Transfer, Research in Materials Science, Development of tailored materials, Nanomaterials, Processing and Upscaling, Design and setup of prototypes, demonstrators, Ethics and integrity in research, Exploitation and Dissemination towards high technology readiness level. Finally, IRES has a direct link to EMMC, EMCC, CFPC, and relevant EU cluster initiatives.
Hydro is a fully integrated aluminium company with 35,000 employees in 40 countries on all continents, combining local expertise, worldwide reach and unmatched capabilities in R&D. In addition to production of primary aluminium, rolled and extruded products and recycling, Hydro also extracts bauxite, refines alumina and generates energy to be the only 360° company of the global aluminium industry. Hydro is present within all market segments for aluminium, with sales and trading activities throughout the value chain serving more than 30,000 customers. Based in Norway and rooted in more than a century of experience in renewable energy, technology and innovation, Hydro is committed to strengthening the viability of its customers and communities, shaping a sustainable future through innovative aluminium solutions.
Siemens Industry Software NV (SISW) in Leuven (Belgium) is the main office of the Simulation and Test Solutions (STS) business segment of Siemens Digital Industries Software. It helps manufacturers create and maintain a Digital Twin of their products. The Digital Twin mirrors the behaviour of the product in its actual state throughout the various phases of its lifecycle, from ideation to realization and utilization. By providing a holistic solution set, Siemens enables manufacturers to digitally tie all these lifecycle phases together, which presents several advantages, such as greater insight, reduced development time, improved efficiency, or increased market agility.
SISW is active in functional performance engineering of mechanical structures (vehicles, aircraft, machinery, wind turbines…) and has an extensive methodology and toolset development track record in a wide range of relevant mechanical attributes, with, amongst others, over 20 years in durability/fatigue methods development and 10 years in multi-attribute structural analysis process solutions in industry. It has also 30 years of experience in professional software development, an accredited (ISO 9000) quality assurance process and organization, usability expertise, etc. This guarantees that SISW can make the transformation of the research results into a successful commercial software product offering.
SINTEF is one of Europe’s largest independent research institutes with approximately 2000 employees and an annual revenue of about 310 M€, mainly originating from bilateral industrial research contracts and participation in publicly funded European and Norwegian research projects. SINTEF is a broad, multidisciplinary research organization with international top-level expertise in the fields of technology, the natural sciences, medicine, and the social sciences. The research delivers solutions and services that create value for customers. With cross-disciplinary knowledge and advanced laboratories and modelling frameworks as a base, SINTEF develops – in close collaboration with customers – technology and solutions within a broad range of research areas and industries. The profit of the contract research projects is invested in new research, scientific equipment and competence development.
SINTEF has been and is heavily involved in projects within the EMMC efforts, (EMMC-CSA, MarketPlace, OntoTrans, Dome4.0, VIPCOAT and OntoCommons) and is part of the core author team of EMMO. SINTEF has extensive experience on applying computational methods from electronic scale to continuum scales on chemical and physical problems as well as interoperability and software development involving both industry and academia.
Toyota Motor Europe (TME) is the regional headquarters of Toyota in Europe. Toyota operates 75 manufacturing companies across 28 countries globally, and markets vehicles in more than 170 countries, thanks to the support of a 320,000-strong workforce. Toyota began selling cars in Europe in 1963, has invested over €7 billion since 1990 and currently employs more than 80,000 people. The European operations are supported by a network of 31 National Marketing and Sales Companies in 56 countries, around 3,000 retailers, and nine manufacturing plants.
The University College London (UCL) has a global reputation for excellence in research and is committed to delivering impact and innovations that enhance the lives of people in the UK, across Europe and around the world. Known as ‚London’s Global University‘, UCL employs 4,078 academic research staff in over 50 departments and institutes. Furthermore, the UCL was identified by the UK Research Excellence Framework as the top university in the UK for research strength and is consistently placed in the global top 20 across a wide range of university rankings.
The newly established Data Driven Materials Discovery and Materials Informatics (Data-MI) Group led by Prof Adham Hashibon aims to develop innovative Data Driven Materials Informatics paradigms to accelerate the top-down design of materials addressing specific sustainability, green energy, and environmental challenges. Novel approaches combining advanced integrated computational materials modelling on all scales with data science and information technology paradigms are developed and applied to unravel knowledge and establish process-structure-property-performance (PSPP) relations to accelerate design of materials and products. It seeks to utilize and integrate Artificial Intelligence (AI), including Ontology and Machine Learning (ML) into the development process to enable discovery of “sustainable-by-design” materials and processes.
The Data-MI group is part of the UCL Institute for Materials Discovery (IMD). IMD focuses on innovative ways to develop, design, and discover novel sustainable, circular high-performance materials for the benefit of humanity. IMD aspires to be the focal point of materials science and engineering at UCL.
