The Beta Technology Centre obtains three new TECNIOspring+ ACCIÓ grants

The Beta Technology Centre has obtained three new TECNIOspring grants in the latest ACCIÓ call. These grants provide financial support to the centres in the TECNIO network for the recruitment of doctoral research personnel, to carry out applied research projects for periods of two years. The call is part of the Marie Curie Actions (COFUND) of the European Commission's H2020 programme, and on this occasion, it will enable three researchers to be recruited and three projects to be carried out. One of these is linked to the MECAMAT  research group.

This is the BioACHs project, which will be led by Mainardo Gaudenzi, who is currently a member of these two groups at the UVic-UCC. Its objective is to design and develop a low-cost device based on free hardware, for the non-invasive analysis and monitoring of the growth of biofilms on the surface of artistic and cultural heritage items. This device, which is expected to involve a reduction in costs of at least 50% compared to existing solutions, will be used by scientists and curators at museums, archaeological sites and monumental areas.

This TECNIOspring+ grant will "enhance the relationship between the MECAMAT research group and the BETA, which have already established common ground in the past, and will open up new opportunities for collaboration," according to the director of the centre, Sergio Ponsá. In addition, as part of the project, Gaudenzi will undertake a stay at the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR) in Italy.

Another of the TECNIOspring+ grants received will enable Arezoo Dadrasnia, an Iranian researcher specialising in bioremediation, to join the BETA from the University of Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia). Dadrasnia will be working on the ADFREE project, within which she will be developing an innovative combination of technologies to recover energy, water and nutrients from livestock manure. To do this, she will combine various processes such as anaerobic digestion to recover energy in the form of biogas, and concentration by freezing to recover nutrients on the one hand, and to produce clean water on the other. This project will be carried out in collaboration with the University of Swansea in Wales (United Kingdom), where Dadrasnia will undertake a research stay during the first year.

Finally, the Chinese researcher Ming Xiao, a specialist in modelling the evolution of water masses from Ningbo University (China), who will be leading SMART Rivers, will also be joining the BETA. In this project, he will develop and optimise a platform that will include comprehensive monitoring of water resources, in order to be able to provide a new tool to assist decision-making by government bodies and businesses involved in the management of the water cycle. As part of the project, Xiao will spend the first year of the grant at Statistica, a company in London that is an international leader in the modelling field.