SaferNanoDesign
13 -18 June 2016, Archamps, France
Organisation and co-funding of the “SaferNanoDesign» summer school as part of the BioHealth computing ERASMUS MUNDUS program (University Grenoble Alpes) and the European Scientific Institute.
The main goal of SaferNanoDesign was to provide solutions and answers to the following question “How can industrial innovation in nanotechnologies take into account the legitimate concerns of citizens?».
SaferNanoDesign was an intensive one-week specialist school for Master and PhD students, and young professionals that learned the analytical tools and methodologies to rise to the challenge of the ecodesign of nanomaterial enabled technology. Courses were given by international experts from France, Scotland, the US, the Netherlands and Switzerland as well as representatives from industry and regulatory bodies. SaferNanoDesign will use a dynamic approach based on complex problem solving.
14 participants have followed an intensive programme of lectures with practical sessions (experiments, computer simulation and modelling) and interdisciplinary group work. From the positive post-school survey results, we can consider that the inaugural session was a success.
Participants came from 9 European universities and included post-doctoral scientists, PhD candidates and 3 Grenoble-based students from the Erasmus Mundus BioHealth Computing Master degree.
The school faculty was comprised of 25 specialists in their field from the universities of Aix-Marseille, Grenoble- Alpes, Maastricht and Strasbourg as well as Novancia Business school, EAWAG Switzerland, IOM Edinburgh, OECD Paris and CapEval Pharma. Many of the specialists stayed for the entire school, facilitating exchanges between senior and junior scientists and creating networking opportunities.
The students’ innovation projects, presented as pitches at the end of the school, were certainly one of the highlights of the week, which also included hands-on sessions, computer modelling and more traditional presentations.
Please find here the report of the first edition