The International Consortium for Nanotechnology (ICoN) has announced the award of its first studentships. ICoN, based at the University of Southampton and supported by the Foundation, opened its first call for proposals for PhDs in December 2015. Following detailed deliberations the ICoN programme management board have selected 10 PhD topics for funding from eight international universities, as listed below. The next research call will open in June 2016.
The ICoN programme supported by the Foundation will provide part funding for 50 PhDs in safety aspects of nanotechnology, addressing the issues outlined in the Foundation’s Foresight review of nanotechnology . The PhDs supported by our grant to ICoN can be hosted at any degree awarding university around the world and will form an international cohort of students who will also benefit from annual workshops and meetings. For more details see the ICoN website www.lrf-icon.com
The Foundation's funding of the ICoN programme was one of three grants made in nanotechnology in 2015, totalling £9 million. These grants fund research and doctoral training that will support the Foundation’s aims to advance engineering-related education and support excellence scientific research that enhances safety of life.
The first ICoN 10 projects in alphabetical order:
| PROJECT TITLE | LEAD RESEARCHER | INSTITUTION |
| Reconfigurable nanowires phononics for temperature sensing | Kristel Fobelets | Imperial College London, UK |
| Perovskite structure nanocrystals for light harvesting and light emission | Richard Friend | University of Cambridge, UK |
| Fast night vision imaging – enhancing road safety for drivers and pedestrians | Adrian Keating | The University of Western Australia |
| Continuous knowledge acquisition embedded devices based on novel nanotechnology synaptic emulators for enabling enhanced security in everyday life situations | Bernabé Linares Barranco | University of Sevilla, Spain |
| Detection of low concentration hydrogen gas using highly sensitive three-dimensional palladium decorated graphene encapsulated in poly (methyl methacrylate) | Norani Muti Mohamed | Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Malaysia |
| Ultrafast nanostructuring of wide bandgap SiC for electronics in harsh environments | Jamie Phillips | University of Michigan, USA |
| Single electron manipulation in silicon nano-wire for quantum technologies | Shinichi Saito | University of Southampton, UK |
| Hierarchical fibre reinforced nanocomposites for multifunctional improvements in safety | Milo Shaffer | Imperial College London, UK |
| Nanoparticle sensor arrays on flexible substrates | Dimitris Tsoukalas | National Technical University of Athens, Greece |
| Nano/micro- electro-mechanical-system self-powered sensors for infrastructure safety monitoring | Jize Yan | University of Southampton, UK |