Activity Report 2010 - CNRS

Q-NET: a new European
Initial Training Network
Fig. 4: Group picture taken at the Graphene
International School. Konstantin NOVOSELOV,
invited lecturer, had just received his Nobel
Prize in Physics (jointly with Andre GEIM).
Three workshops of one to two days,
dealing with specific topics, have been
supported. Even if the contribution of the
Foundation is most often low compared
to the total budget of the events, this
commitment contributes to improve the
awareness of the Foundation and of its
role in the scientific community: in most
cases, the opportunity is given to the
Foundation Director to make a short
presentation of the scope of Foundation
actions.
PhD students & research
training
The other major action of the Foundation
in terms of education is research training.
By providing the financial support to
enrol top-level students for the
preparation of a thesis, the Foundation
contributes to the education of the new
scientists that our society will need. It is
crucial to prepare future generations to
develop and adopt new technologies
beyond nanotechnology. The Foundation
is also closely linked to the Doctoral
Schools of Grenoble. According to their
topic, the Foundation’s PhD students are
registered to different schools, but most
of them belong either to the Doctoral
School of Physics, or to the Doctoral
School of Chemistry and Life Sciences.
Since 2009, the relationships with the
different doctoral schools have been
particularly enhanced. The Director of the
Foundation is now an invited member of
the Council of the Doctoral School of
Physics. He also acts to facilitate the
involvement of the Chairs of Excellence in
the lessons program of all Doctoral
Schools.
Focused on Quantum Nano-Electronics,
Q-NET has been initiated within the
Nanosciences Foundation and is to be
launched in April 2011. It will provide
doctoral training in the general field of
Quantum Nano-Electronics, in particular
spintronics, molecular electronics, singleelectronics,
quantum dots and nanowires,
nano-cooling.
The recruited PhD students will be trained
to state-of-the-art technologies of
nanofabrication, near-field microscopies,
transport measurement under extreme
conditions (low temperatures, magnetic
field, radio-frequency irradiation) and
theoretical calculations. Ultimate
detectors, innovative local probes, new
metrological standards, on chip microcoolers
will be developed. The training
will be implemented through systematic
secondments of young researchers from
one partner to several academic and
private partners.
Q-NET will contribute to organize
sessions of the European School On
Nanosciences and Nanotechnologies
(ESONN) devoted to Quantum Nano-
Electronics, combining both theoretical
and practical training. Annual special
training sessions will be organized,
covering seven complementary domains
such as ethics, project management,
‘IPR’ (Intellectual Property Rights),
communication skills...
The consortium involves most of the
leading groups in the domain which
contributed to the European leadership in
Quantum Nanoelectronics these last ten
years. Q-NET will therefore significantly
contribute to meet the needs of the
industry in terms of highly-skilled and
open-minded scientists for leading the
competition in “Beyond C-MOS” Nano-
Electronics.
Q-NET involves 9 partners:
1. Institut Néel & LPMMC, U. Joseph
Fourier and CNRS, Grenoble (H. Courtois,
coordinator),
2. Low Temperature Laboratory, Aalto
University, Helsinki (J. P. Pekola),
3. NEST CNR-INFM, Pisa (F. Giazotto),
4. Attocube systems, München (K.
Karrai),
5. School of Physics &
Astronomy,University of Leeds (C. H.
Marrows),
6. Laboratory for Solid State Physics,
ETH Zürich (K. Ensslin),
7. Microtechnology and Nanoscience,
Chalmers University, Göteborg (T. Bauch),
8. NanoGUNE, San Sebastian (L. E.
Hueso),
9. AIVON, Helsinki (J. Penttilä).
FURTHER READING
www.quantum-net.org
SCIENTIFIC REPORT
45