Bucharest, February 15th, 2023
The National Institute for Research and Development in Microtechnologies (IMT) Bucharest has obtained European Commission funding to improve its research capacity in the field of air quality monitoring, through a project within which the Romanian institution will benefit from the expertise of research institutions from Ireland and Italy.
Net4Air project, coordinated by IMT Bucharest is a Coordination and Support Action funded by the European Commission under the Twinning framework. Twinning aims to enhance networking activities between the research institutions of the Widening countries and top-class leading counterparts at EU level, in order to raise the research profile of the institution from the Widening country as well as the research profile of its staff.
The goals of the Net4Air project are to significantly advance excellence capacity and resources in IMT with a view of addressing the research and innovation gap and imbalance within Europe by broadly increasing IMT expertise, know-how and attractiveness in innovative nanotechnologies, materials, devices, smart systems, data analytics and best-practices for environment monitoring. Project’s goals are in line with the European Green Deal principles for protecting the environment and contributing to citizens health and wellbeing.
Within Net4Air, an exploratory research project will be carried out, aiming to develop a low-cost wearable/portable nanoelectonic based platform for air monitoring. Low-cost air quality monitors allow individuals and organizations to contribute to hyper-local pollution data that empowers communities to take proactive steps to breathe cleaner air, while also providing researchers and policy advocates with the information they need to make healthy changes for a cleaner planet. The scientific project “Wearable and /or portable platform for air monitoring”, that include sensors, electronics, energy management, data acquisition, processing and communication, wearable and/or portable devices, will demonstrating the capability of IMT and its partnersto answer European grand challenges such as Climate change while also aiding Romania in understanding and reducing air pollution.
In order to reach this, specific Twinning Coordination & Support activities will be implemented, such as training, staff exchanges or setting up a Networking Centre for Excellence in environmental monitoring and remediation. A new department for research management and administration at IMT will enhance its capacity to initiate and join EU project and initiatives and will also create job
opportunities for new hires in the project and beyond.
At the end of the project, Romania will benefit from the existence of a Networking Centre for excellence in Nanoelectronics formed within the project by joining together around the Consortium partners and the R&D actors (from research institutes, universities departments, environmental NGOs, national accredited labs, SMEs, and big industrial players) in Sensing Technologies and Data management for Environmental monitoring applications, to bridge the gap between Western Europe organizations and lower-performing institutions in Romania and therefore making a contribution towards facilitating Romania’s better integration into the European Research Area.
The project, coordinated by the National Institute for R&D in Microtechnologies (Romania), has as partners the University College Cork-Tyndall National Institute (Ireland) and Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche-Institute of Chemistry of Condensed Matter and of Technologies for Energy (Italy).
Contact details:
For IMT Romania:
Carmen Moldovan (Coordinator): carmen.moldovan[@]imt.ro
For University College Cork – Tyndall National Institute:
Mircea Modreanu: mircea.modreanu[@]tyndall.ie
Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche-Institute of Chemistry of Condensed Matter and of Technologies for Energy:
Maria Losurdo: maria.losurdo[@]cnr.it