ELECMI

Excellence Networks in Spain 2015

ELECMI is a National Facility that appeared in the Spain’s scientific panorama as a consequence of the fruitful activity in the field of new and advanced materials together with the need to respond to the demand of techniques to characterize matter. The aim of ELECMI 2015 network project was to establish and implement a roadmap leading to provide competitive access to ELECMI (unique, simple and open both to public and private research centers, and to industry). Beneficiaries had the opportunity to perform experiments with last-generation equipment, triggering I+D+i in our country and gave rise to transnational cooperation which did place our country’s electron microscopy in the World’s map. The actions carried out in ELECMI 2015 network project were also oriented to achieving the objectives established in ELECMI’s strategic plan, including training of new microscopists, knowledge transfer to industry and acquisition of new infrastructure.

In that sense, a series of actions were organized including coordination meetings between nodes, creation of a web site and a database to register the infrastructure’s usage, organization of scientific events, courses, summer schools, workshops, webinars, searching for new alliances and consolidating the existing ones, international leadership in transnational consortia, acting as a catalyzing cluster of new microscopy initiatives (nodes), etc. Finally, the dissemination of ELECMI activities and results were vital to communicate the relevance of this National Facility and its scientific and technological potential to scientists, industry and society in general.