Elvira Fortunato, Professor at the Faculty of Science and Technology (NOVA), Vice-Rector of NOVA and Director of the Materials Research Center at the i3N Associated Laboratory has just obtained the second Advanced Grant of the ERC (European Research Council ), worth € 3.5 M, the largest grant ever awarded to a Portuguese researcher and the highest awarded by the ERC in this Call to which more than 2160 researchers participated worldwide.

Since 2008, of the 13 Advanced Grants awarded to Portugal, this is the second one won by Professor Elvira Fortunato (FCT NOVA), with the largest ERC funding attributed over the last ten years to our country..

The project is entitled “Multifunctional Digital Materials Platform for Smart Integrated Applications | DIGISMART” 

and aims to revolutionize the way integrated circuits and electronics components are made, without resorting to silicon, while simultaneously exploring eco-friendly materials with exceptional properties at the nanoscale. At the same time, it is intended that the same device will perform more than one function. The integrated vs integrated circuit function does not intend to integrate several components for a given function, but rather to have a single device capable of performing several functions. One of the main characteristics inherent to this project, in all its aspects, is the use of sustainable materials and technologies friendly to the environment.

In 2008, it won the first prize in the ERC Engineering area, with the project Advanced Amorphous Multicomponent Oxides for Transparent Electronics | INVISIBLE in the amount of 2.25 M €. This project was also selected by ERC in 2011 as one of the most successful projects, and it has been possible to install a Nanofabrication laboratory which is an international reference. It is hoped that this second bag, destined to the installation of the Advanced Nanocaracterization laboratory, will also be an international reference, as has been accustomed to us by the CENIMAT team, led by the Researcher of FCT NOVA.