Thin films of hybrid materials engineered at the molecular scale can enable breakthroughs in several economically and socially relevant technological application areas including packaging & encapsulation, electronics, batteries and biomedical applications. With self-limiting binary reactions, Molecular Layer Deposition (MLD) is the ideal deposition technique for growing ultra-thin, uniform, conformal hybrid films with precise and flexible control over the film thickness and molecular-scale chemical composition. The key objective of HYCOAT is to create a group of exceptionally well-trained young researchers who have a deep understanding of all aspects of MLD technology, as well as broad vision on the application potential of hybrid coatings.

QuESTech (Project ID: 766025) is a consortium of 7 leading European research laboratories and 2 high-tech companies. Supported by the European Community, QuESTech will provide a challenging, state-of-the-art training for young researchers in the general field of experimental, applied, and theoretical quantum electronics. The main scientific topics include spintronics, molecular electronics, single electronics, transport in low-dimensional structures, and quantum thermodynamics.

Advanced Microscopy are widely recognized as one of the pillars onto which the research and manufacture of Nanotechnology based products is sustained. At present, the greatest challenge faced by these techniques is the realization of fast and non-destructive tomographic images with chemical composition sensitivity and with sub-10 nm spatial resolution, in both organic and inorganic materials, and in all environmental conditions.