A multi-disciplinary team of young research experts in the field of micro- and nanofabrication, advanced nanomaterials, electrochemistry, system integration and hardware design work together on the development of novel applied electrochemistry approaches and translate them into a new commercial application. The Polish competence includes:
- redoxme AB, a Krakow-based branch of the company specialized in assembly of multipurpose electrochemical setups,
- GUT, an academic group focusing on the development of advanced functional materials,
- IPC PAS, an academic group with expertise in electrochemistry, materials testing and microfluidics.
The Norwegian part of the consortium is represented by SINTEF MiNaLab providing a solid foundation in micro- and nanotechnologies, and advanced material sciences.
The consortium is built on the principles of complementarity of competences. redoxme AB has an outstanding track record in the development of universal, multipurpose electrochemical setups, currently designed for larger working volumes than typical microfluidic systems. Its expertise is complementary to that of SINTEF MiNalab, which is responsible for the manufacturing of miniaturized microfluidic cells. Two academic groups, IPC PAS and GUT, have complementary expertise in materials sciences and will contribute with the development and testing of functional electrode materials.
Together partners will fulfill the project aim of extending the panel of redoxme AB systems with a novel, miniaturized, multiparametric setup, and educate the next generation of professionals (young researchers involved in the project). National and international collaborations are key features of the project. The consortium provides a multi-disciplinary environment with all necessary expertise, competence and infrastructures required for the success of the project. The educative environment at Polish academic institutions together with the industrial partner redoxme AB and the Norwegian partner SINTEF with extensive expertise in R&D in the area of micro and nanofabrication, provides an excellent, multidisciplinary learning environment for the Ph.D. students and Post-docs.
redoxme AB is a company arising from an academic/R&D environment at Linkoping University and Research Institutes of Sweden. The company was founded in 2015 in Sweden, while 3 years later an assembly line, a distribution unit and part of the R&D activities were moved to a foreign branch in Cracow, Poland. The company provides unique laboratory instrumentation that enables simultaneous in situ measurements of multiple signals (electrochemical, optical, thermal and other) on thin and thick film and membrane materials. The company’s product is an extension to the existing laboratory infrastructure that combines multiple measurement techniques such as electrochemical methods (voltammetry, potentiometry, and coulometry) spectroscopy (UV-vis, NIR/IR, Raman, NMR, ESR, XRD), electrical measurements, optical microscopy, and others in single setup.
SINTEF is the largest independent R&D organization in the Nordic countries based in Trondheim and Oslo, Norway, and employing around 2000 people. SINTEF has participated in numerous research projects within the EU’s Framework Programs. The Microsystems and Nanotechnology Department (40 people), part of the SINTEF Digital institute, specialized in the design and fabrication of advanced sensors and actuators such as pressure sensors, accelerometers, gas sensors, flow sensors, biosensors, micro optical sensors, implantable medical sensors, etc. Microsystems are realized in a state-of-the-art automated 150 mm silicon clean room MEMS fabrication facility. The manufacturing laboratory produces microsystems for integration in customers’ commercial instruments, as well as prototypes for R&D projects. The laboratory is ISO 9001:2008 and ISO 14001:2004 certified. In microfabrication, the department’s strong points lie in bulk micromachining technology (specifically, DRIE based), thin film deposition (including piezoelectric films), bonding based packaging of sensor structures and design for manufacturing. The BioMEMS and Medical Sensors Group specializes in design and manufacturing of microfluidic systems for various (bio)analytical and environmental applications. SINTEF is an active participant of European Research Programs (Horizon 2020, ERA-NET, Euronanomed, etc.). Currently, SINTEF Digital is involved in 18 Horizon 2020 projects in both partner and coordinator roles.
Gdańsk University of Technology (GUT) has broad experience in EU funded research and development projects’ realization. It takes part i.a. in 7th Framework Programme (FP7), Programme Cost, ERA-NET MATERA, EUREKA, European Territorial Co-operation, Norwegian Financial Mechanism, OFFSET, Polish-Swiss Research Programme. GUT ranks 3th among a total of 23 technical universities in Poland in 2018 („Perspektywy” ranking), and is undoubtedly one of the most important research centres in the country. It is the second most popular choice among students (MNiSW, 2018). It also ranked 2nd among the most innovative and creative universities in Poland according to the IDUB MNiSZW programme. The Nanodiamond Team led by prof. Bogdanowicz has extensive experience in the synthesis of micro-and nanocrystalline diamond and deposition of conductive metal oxides. Bogdanowicz’s research team has a great experience with both: synthesis and functionalization of BDD, as well as a description of its surface heterogeneity. The tasks of research projects of this laboratory are the synthesis of layers by CVD and PVD as well as electrochemical studies and physicochemical analyses of electrodes.
The Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IPC) is a leading research entity localized in Warsaw, Poland. IPC has the highest research excellence category among research units in Poland (A+), which places it in the top 5% of the best research units. IPC got the “HR Excellence in Research” award for striving for improvement of working conditions for researchers, strengthening recruitment procedure (based on open, merit and transparent principles) and development of professional educational offer for researchers. At IPC there are 29 research teams dealing with broadly understood chemistry, that carry out interdisciplinary research in chemistry inspired by biology/ medicine, pharmacy & physics.
The leaders of research groups are very independent and act as managers of their own units. IPC has modern equipment, and extensive experimental & application experience. Beside excellent research performance, IPC is also dedicated to commercialization. A few spin-off and spin-out companies originated from IPC research and act in the sectors of medical diagnostics (Curiosity Diagnostics, Scope Fluidics), and equipment for industry (Fluence). IPC has also found a way to support very niche commercial initiatives of its researchers co-financing the first stages of development of their inventions (SERSitive, Siliquan). IPC received ERC grants and has a chair funded by the European Commission under the prestigious programme “ERA Chairs” (H2020) (CREATE project). Apart from that IPC also implements two projects acknowledged by the European Commission under Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions – NaMeS project dedicated to doctoral programme and PD2PI designed for postdoctoral fellows. The Charge Transfer in Hydrodynamic Systems group does research in electrochemistry towards both fundamental studies of EC in hydrodynamically driven systems and towards (bio)analytics.