Project Summary- IP NANOKER:
www.nanoker-society.org
Training Programme
Today, most industrialised European countries have Government supported major
nanotechnology research and development initiatives. The most active EU country in
nanotechnology is Germany at the moment, where the federal government has fostered a
number of competence centres and provided over 110 million Euros funding in 2003. The French
government has also set up a similar structure where they attempt to centralise funding for micro
and nanotechnology research. Of course, the initiatives are different due to differing national
funding policies. Smaller dedicated programmes also exist in Austria, Finland and Sweden.
Germany is at the forefront with the Nanonet competence networks in which public research
institutes, industries and SMEs collaborate on relatively application oriented research topics. The
Swiss national programme TOPNano21 is similar. In the UK, the Netherlands and Flanders,
governments have been ramping up their support for nanotechnology research.
External oriented training packages are designed to open the societal mind for special
nanotechnological application results, in case of IP NANOKER for biomaterials, optics and
extreme conditions and mircrodevices. Actual relevant training actions on research and non-
research level in the Europe will be studied including all major actors, programmes, networks and
companies.
The IP NANOKER High Education partners will cover training analysis especially in Belgium,
Finland, France, German, Italy, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom and the
candidate countries.
These partners with the support of the governmental agencies and industries involved in the
project will collaborate in the development of joint, co-validated training units. The Academic
partners together with the other partners will develop and organise short courses, inviting also
relevant industries and academies from outside the consortium, in areas of technology underlying
the project to inform and educate project associated staff. To start with such courses will be
based wherever possible on existing modules and units from the academic host organisation's
existing diet of courses. It is envisaged that at least one course will be held each year at each
Academic Institution during the life of the project. These courses will be accredited for CAT
purposes by the academic partners.
