Trans-national access for industrials
While high quality analysis is a key element for economic competitiveness, only a few industries have in-house solid-state NMR instrumentation, and the cost of high-field magnets and/or of accessories such as fast MAS probes or DNP equipment is often beyond their investment capacities.
Industrial users have the opportunity to carry out experiments on the outstanding instrumentation available at each access provider site either via the standard access portal or via research contracts with specific project partners.
Standard Access: like any academic user, industrial users can benefit from a free access (i.e., at no cost) to the eight research infrastructures when their research projects are not confidential (the measurements time will be allocated after an external and independent peer-review process) and can lead to publication. Access includes the logistical, technological and scientific support as well as the specific training usually provided to external visitors using the facilities. Guidelines on how to apply for free access can be found in the subsection of the PANACEA web portal dedicated to the access activities. Access to non-expert industrial users is particularly encouraged.
Paid for access: for IPR-sensitive projects, contract fees will be established in accordance with fully-justifiable full costs, that will be calculated according to harmonized and established guidelines. Given the multi-technique character of the PANACEA network, companies have the possibility to establish a single integrated contract with several access providers so as to have a simplified access to the outstanding palette of NMR instruments across the different sites, or with a single facility.
An exception is made for SMEs that will have access to the PANACEA network at no cost, independently on the nature of the confidentiality nature of the project. If you're interested, please contact us directly. A confidential agreement could be established prior to any discussion. While the content of the project will be confidential, the access data (number of days, facility used, research area, etc.) will be used for statistics.
Networking activities for industrials
Engaging and networking with industrials is a key objective of PANACEA. This will showcase modern solid-state NMR as a powerful characterization tool in industrially critical problems and symmetrically advocate current challenges in industry (energy storage, catalysis, pharmaceuticals, nuclear engineering, polymers, bio-medicine, …) within academic research.
To achieve this double goal, an extensive series of industry-related networking activities will be organized.
Industry-dedicated workshops: three industry-specific workshops will be held annually back-to-back to the user meetings. These workshops will advertise the capabilities of the access sites, positioning solid-state NMR alongside more familiar characterization methodologies, and outlining what expectations can be realized for the many different forms of solid-state chemistry that underpins many industrial activities. If you are interested, please visit the subsection EVENTS of the web portal to get more information on the next workshops, or contact us directly.
Taster days: scientists working in industry are encouraged to contact the local operator at any access site to organize taster days where the researchers on site will demonstrate how experimental solid-state NMR can provide insight into their characterization challenges and questions. Each of the 8 access sites will organize one taster day per year. If you are interested, please contact contact us directly at .
Other activities: In parallel, industrial users are encouraged to participate to all training activities that will be organized within PANACEA (from “hands-on” workshops to advanced NMR schools). If you are interested, please visit the subsection EVENTS.
Promoting innovation within industry
Industries will have a major role in the project steering through a direct strong presence in the External Advisory Board (EAB, four members of which out of seven are industrials) and in the definition of the exploitation policy (through the innovation managers of the consortium, Dr Sebastian Wegner, Bruker Biospin and Dr. Staffan Schantz, AstraZeneca).
The project additionally plans to connect to a broader range of industrials via Research and Technology Organisations (RTOs) such as the European Chemical Industry Council (Belgium), DPI, TI-COAST (The Netherlands), IFPEN (France), or via national Societies such as the Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker (GDCh), the French Chemical Society, the Società Chimica Italiana, of which the PIs at the different RIs are members.
Industries and RTOs have the opportunity to join the stakeholder assembly (SKA) to express their need and assess the project progress from an innovation perspective. This may seed the identification of new avenues for broader future programmatic research that can be initiated with explicitly identified industry partners. There will be no deadline for joining this assembly, and you will just need to contact us here if you are interested,
Both the EAB and the SKA will be invited to attend the user meetings, and be convened annually by the project executive committee to provide inputs on how to align the project results with the market, and recommendations on how to improve the match between the users’ needs and the service offered by the consortium. The advice will be implemented by the executive committee by adjusting the instrumentation and the classes of NMR experiments proposed for access in the annual work plan.
