Education and training is the main i3N pillars to promote knowledge, innovation and entrepreneurs in leading edge fields of advanced functional materials, nanotechnologies and nanosciences, from which the entire country and Europe will benefit. The students educated in i3N will have a solid formation in cross-cutting multidisciplinary fields, including a wide range of resources and experimental methods, as demanded by industry and SME to boost economic growth and the creation of jobs in Europe. The three Academic Institutions and their teams have vast National and International experience with master, doctoral and pos-doctoral training. At a master and doctoral levels, UMinho, UAveiro and FCTUNL have well-established programs in the area of Materials Science and Technology. At the level of Micro and Nanotechnology, FCTUNL offers the unique running integrated master course at a National level and UMinho offers a 2nd cycle course, while in the field of Nanosciences and Nanotechnology, FCTUNL and U.Aveiro offer PhD program courses.

FCT approved the PhD program in Advanced Materials and Processing (AdvaMTech, 2014-2017), involving all i3N and 7 Portuguese public Universities and 12 Research Centers, coordinated by FCTUNL (R. Martins). i3N and UA are also participating institutions in two PhD programs, one in Physics (MAP-Fis) the other in Physics Engineering, both funded by FCT.

At a national level, i3N will establish a global National program in the area of Nanosciences and Nanotechnologies, together with the Institute of Chemical and Biological Technology (www.itqb.unl.pt), the Institute of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (www.ihmt.unl.pt) in collaboration with the Champalimaud Foundation (http://www.fchampalimaud.org/), with a common goal to provide the students with a stimulating educational environment that spans from basic research through applied research leading to industrial applications. The goal of the collaborative program is to allow students to acquire knowledge on nanotechnology from a wide community of scholars within and outside their disciplines in both course and thesis.

Concerning international cooperation, we highlight the Erasmus Mundus Master course FAME and the IDS-FunMat doctoral program where U.Aveiro is involved and R. Martins belongs to Quality Assurance International Advisory Board. UMinho coordinates a European Erasmus Mundus Master in Engineering Rheology involving six leading European Universities in the field. and participates in Marie Curie ITN Action CONTACT for the tailored supply-chain development of the mechanical and electrical properties of CNT-filled composites. FCTUNL-CENIMAT/i3N participates in bilateral PhD programs with University of Darmstadt (D), University of Galati and Bucharest (R), University of S. Paulo (Brazil) and in the Erasmus summer courses held in Crete in “Transparent Electronics: From Materials & Devices to Devices & Systems”. All these action will be further extended to all i3N.