ICN2 has been accredited as a Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence, a program promoted by the Secretary of State for Research, Development, and Innovation in the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness. This award recognises the excellence of the scientific contributions of the selected centres, their potential industrial and social impact and their potential for talent attraction.

The funding provided by the Severo Ochoa Program on “Nanodevices for Social Challenhes” is largely devoted to the recruitment of staff and the procurement of equipment to support the development of research projects. The Program is based on four transversal methodological approaches:

• Growth and synthesis of nanomaterials
• Nanofabrication
• Characterisation and metrology
• Theory and simulation

The research will produce specific applications and devices which are able to reach the market, providing new solutions to major social challenges in the following areas:

• Biosystems (e.g. sensors, devices for selective drug delivery, nanomedicine, environmental applications)
• Energy (e.g. solar cells, batteries and supercapacitors, thermoelectric devices)
• Information technology and telecommunications (e.g. miniaturisation, applications of physical phenomena that are unique to nanoscale materials)

The following PhD-fellow positions are now open to reinforce the transversal collaboration between ICN2’s Research Groups and achieve the ambitious research objectives established by the Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence award: