Pan-European Research Network Launches and Announces €150m Funding Programme

Materials science has become one of the most dynamic engineering disciplines, impacting modern society with uses ranging from domestic appliances to electronics and energy production. In recent years significant efforts have been made to ensure industry can meet the challenges it currently faces, in terms of the new materials being introduced and the stronger integration of products and processes that is required. To ensure Europe stays at the forefront of developments, a strategic programme of joint activities that addresses societal and technological requirements needs to be established.



Between 2012 and 2016, M-era.Net will provide the European RTD community with access to world leading knowledge through an innovative and flexible ERA-NET across 25 European countries.



“By creating one central forum where knowledge can be exploited and international programme strategies can be aligned, we aim to eliminate the overlap of activities and duplication of efforts that we have seen in the past. The M-era.Net consortium will create a stronger innovation chain across Europe and enable researchers and industry to benefit from increased interdisciplinary cooperation and a critical mass of pan-European funding,” explains Project Co-ordinator, Dr Roland Brandenburg.



A series of joint calls and other joint activities will support transnational RTD cooperation and enable EU researchers and industry to access previously inaccessible new markets, creating a new innovation oriented economy with long lasting impact and breakthroughs.



Brandenburg concludes, “Europe has a wealth of academic and industrial expertise and we are confident that the joint calls for transnational RTD proposals, which will be announced over the next four years, will bring together leading professionals and help develop European projects with impact on a global scale.”