Over the past four decades, glasses, glass-ceramics and composites have contributed to achieving the most advanced socio-economic breakthroughs steadily as advanced high-tech materials. To highlight the importance of glass, 2022 has been declared International Year of Glass by the United Nations. To compete with emerging economies like China and India, the European glass sector is challenged to seek product leadership by investing more in research and innovation in order to develop new materials and to train specialists for a competitive but promising market. Contributing to this challenge is the main aim of this project “Structured functional glasses for lasing, sensing and health applications” (FunctiGlass), a unique interdisciplinary double-degree research and training program. It aims at impacting advanced high-tech materials for three sectors: Light sources, Sensors and Bio-applications. FunctiGlass program will fully train 11 Doctoral Candidates (DCs) who will participate in a joint research training program built on very strong academia/industry cooperation. It guarantees the exposure of Researchers to 11 academic (universities and research institutes) and 9 non-academic environments (industry and SMEs) representing 9 different countries. Each DC will be supervised by two academic tutors and one mentor (industrial partner) to guarantee inter-sectorial knowledge sharing and acquisition of transferable skills with emphasis on entrepreneurship and innovation. With the multi-dimensional training of FunctiGlass program, the 11 DCs will excel in the future economy by acquiring a multi-faceted perspective and a growing mindset to become the future leaders in glass science and especially in nano/micro-structured glass-based materials. With this program, the DCs will find their own future innovative path in academia or industry. This program will create the grounds for establishing long-term relations between the academic and private sectors for technology and compete

The main objective of the project is development of complex transition metal oxides with perovskite-like structure having improved and controllable (multi)ferroic properties. The mentioned materials are manganites and ferrites with optimal composition having distinct magnetization, polarization, (magneto)transport properties or magnetoelectric coupling. The idea of the project is to utilize reduced structural stability of these oxides which increases their sensitivity to external stimuli. Improved functional properties of these oxides can be controlled via modification of the chemical bond character, structural parameters, stoichiometry, defects etc. The reduced stability is associated with the metastable structural state formed in the vicinity of the phase boundaries, while this state presumably consists of coexistent nanoscale regions of the adjacent structural phases. There are two ideas to create metastable state: the first one – to design ceramics via chemical substitution and post-synthesis treatment by high pressure and/or thermal cycling in gases to induce nanoscale regions, the second one assumes chemical routes synthesis of films and ceramics. Besides the fundamental interest of the phase transitions and related phenomena affecting properties of the oxides the applicants consider them to be effective materials for electronic applications (as sensors, magnetic memory elements, filters etc.). Research of these oxides requires consolidative efforts of specialists in different scientific areas - Materials Science, Theoretical Physics, Solid State Physics etc. as well as an access to unique equipment and facilities. Another important objective of the project is a formation of interdisciplinary network of teams and specialists with different scientific backgrounds which will ensure effective transfer of actual knowledge and skills. Development of the transition metal oxides with controllable properties has promising commercial opportunities for the involved SME.

Temperature measurements are crucial in countless technological developments, accounting for 80% of the sensor market throughout the world. The pitfalls of temperature readouts at the biomedical battleground are mostly represented by the currently achievable spatial resolution. To address key issues, such as intracellular temperature fluctuations and in vivo thermal transients, a technique able to go clearly below 1 μm is highly and urgently needed, as the traditional contact-based sensors and near infrared thermometers are not suitable for measurements at that tight spatial range. To overcome these limitations requires a non-contact thermometry approach granted with sub-micrometer resolution, also providing real-time high relative thermal sensitivity values. The goal of NanoTBTech is to develop a 2-D thermal bioimaging technology featuring sub-microscale resolution, based on nanothermometers and heater-thermometer nanostructures. We will design, synthetize, and bio-functionalize nontoxic luminescent nanostructures, operating essentially beyond 1000 nm, for in vivo nanothermometry and nanoheating. Furthermore, to monitor the temperature-dependent nanostructures’ luminescence we will develop a novel imaging system. The effective delivery of that major advance in 2-D thermal bioimaging will be implemented through two impactful biomedical showcases: highly spatially-modulated intracellular magnetic/optical hyperthermia and in vivo detection and tracking of cancer. In the long-term, we foresee our technology having a broad impact on non-invasive clinical imaging and theranostics. For instance, the accurate measurement of temperature gradients´ sources will be an invaluable tool for real-time control of thermal therapies, thus making them harmless for the patient. Multiple conceptual breakthroughs can be further envisaged from the proposed 2D-thermal imaging system, credibly spreading its impact towards non-biomedical technological areas.