• 2018-2022close
• 2018 close
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1+3 Student

CORNET is an ambitious project that develop a unique EU Open Innovation Environment (OIE), that cover the triangle of manufacturing, modelling and experimentation for the optimization the Organic/Large Area Electronic (OE) nanomaterials, materials behavior and nano-devices (OPVs, PPVs, OLEDs) manufacturing of R2R printing & gas transport (OVPD) processes, to validate materials models based on experimentation and fabricate tailored OE devices and systems for demonstration to industrial applications (e.g. automotive, greenhouses). CORNET will develop a sustainable OIE Platform and OIE Database for documentation of citable & industrially accepted protocols for OE material and device characterization, modelling and manufacturing. CORNET strategy will establish strong links and clustering with existing EU clusters (as EMMC, EMCC, EPPN), end-user & industrial associations, and EU networks to increase the speed of OE materials/device development and industry uptake, maximize the acceptance of the OIE and push-through standards for adoption by industry worldwide. The CORNET main objectives are to: 1. Develop an effective OIE with world-class experts in Manufacturing, Multiscale Characterization & Modelling, connected to EU clusters, and create a reliable database with citable protocols with contribution to Standards 2. Multiscale Characterization & Modelling to Optimize OE nanomaterials and devices fabrication and Models Validation 3. Optimize the nano-device Manufacturing of OPVs, PPVs, OLEDs by Printing (R2R, S2S) and OVPD Processes 4. Fabricate Tailored Devices, Systems and Demonstrate to industrial applications (e.g. automotive, greenhouses) CORNET has developed a strategic plan for the clustering activities with more than 800 existing related bodies, a Business Plan for the continuation of the OIE beyond the project and the Innovation Management, IPR and legal support services to protect generated foreground and to enable its adoption by the EU research & industrial communities.

The aim of this PhD project is to develop a new biological sensing platform that will combine optical and electrical detection of a wide range of potential diseases, pathogens and toxins into a compact real time device capable of carrying out point of care diagnosis. A micro ring resonator (MRR) is a refractive index-based sensor. In a ring resonator light propagates in the form of circulating waveguide modes, which are a result of the total internal reflection of the light along the curved boundary of the ring between high and low refractive index materials. The light is coupled into the ring via an adjacent linear waveguide located within a few hundred nanometers. The circulating waves form a constructive interference pattern when the wavelength are divisors of the ring circumference. These are the so-called resonance frequencies of the ring resonator. These optical modes are sensitive to the evanescent field surrounding the waveguide, hence a bio-molecular binding event will cause a change in the resonance frequency. The change in the field is larger the closer the target protein is to the actual resonator. Recently short single stranded DNA strands, so called aptamers, have been drawing attention as the potential replacement of antibodies in sensor devices. The advantage of aptamers is that they are smaller than antibodies and hence bring the target proteins much closer to the sensing components, which results in a potential increase in the response. The potential for these systems is in the detection of proteins, both for infectious diseases and food toxins, with the possibility to achieve multi-channel sensors by utilizing arrays of MRRs. The project will also look to utilize aptamer functionalized ZnO to realize Field Effect Transistors (FETs) that can operate as electrical based bio sensor. The aptamer-FET based detector has a high sensitivity; a small perturbation in charge distribution near the channel will result in a marked change in the current, an order of magnitude difference is expected when directly comparing an aptamer FET with an antibody FET. In addition, the device can have high selectivity, enhanced by the use of multiple aptamer-FETs in an array, each probing for a different protein. As a result it will be possible to determine the protein fingerprint in any liquid sample. The detector can be operated at a low supply voltage of typically 3 V. This means that the translational potential of this work is most relevant to regions where laboratory infrastructure is scarce, technical ability is limited and time is short. This could mean UK primary care, where there is huge pressure for a quick diagnosis, improved accuracy of infection diagnosis and improved antibiotic stewardship, but also in a developing world setting. The final stage of the project will seek to combine these 2 sensors into one where ZnO is used as both the channel material in the aptamer-FET and the waveguide in the aptamer-MRR, allowing the combination of both the optical and electrical sensing device in a single sensor occupying the same space. The advantage of this is that the two techniques will provide a control of each other without the need of additional experiments or multiple sensors on one device. Although this approach will be applicable for a wide variety of proteins, the initial work will focus on one important example: aflatoxin B1. Aflatoxins are one of the most dangerous of the mycotoxins and they are the secondary metabolic products of the fungal genus Aspergillus. The most toxic compound is aflatoxin B1, which affects not only human, but also other primates, mammals, fish, birds and rodents. It mainly affects the liver function. In addition aflatoxin B1 is considered to be the most toxic natural hepatocarcinogen. As a result many countries have limits to the amount of aflatoxin that can be present in foodstuff, for example the European Union has set the limit at 2 ug kg-1 for aflatoxin B1.

Over the last decade citizens of the Western Balkans region, an area interested by the enlargement of the European Union (EU), have increasingly been advocating for inclusion in decision-making affecting the restructuring of their urban habitat. This emerging activism addresses the so-called “Right to the City” (RTC), defined as the collective right to intervene to reshape the urbanisation process. A variety of citizen initiatives emerged, brought about by grassroots groups reclaiming, through different tactics, the citizens’ right to participate in decisions related to urban planning and the use of public space. These bottom-up demands have been echoed by both the United Nations’ New Urban Agenda (2016) and the European Union’s Pact of Amsterdam (2016), which called for a global commitment to sustainable urban development to be accomplished in cooperation with local communities and civil society actors. By bridging Critical Citizenship Studies with Social Movement Studies and Europeanization theories, this comparative research explores the dynamics of urban activism in the post-Yugoslav space. It examines the diverse ways in which RTC groups have responded to projects of urban restructuring of their cities and to the on-going privatisation of the public space resulting from the transition of former Yugoslav republics from socialist to market economies. By employing qualitative methods for collecting and analysing empirical data, specifically in-depth semi-structured interviews, focus groups, and participant observation as well as analysis of primary and secondary sources, this project aims at providing new theoretical insights useful in understanding how citizens in post-socialist countries enact their citizenship today. Moreover, the research illuminates the extent to which urban grassroots initiatives are shaped both by their embeddedness in European social movement networks and by the opportunities and constraints offered by the EU enlargement process.