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Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - PlaMatSu (Plant-inspired materials and surfaces)

Teaser

Summary

Modern polymeric materials and surfaces are a corner-stone of Europeâ€™s economy and research activities. Materials with novel properties are therefore of great interest. Nature provides us with a rich pool of multifunctional materials that can act as concept generators for synthetic materials. The uppermost layer of plant leaves and flower petals, the cuticle, is a smart polymer composite with a variety of functions, ranging from controlled regulation of water permeability, to the formation of structural color and sticky or non-friction surfaces.

The overall aims of PlaMatSu are (1) to address the challenge of creating new functional polymeric materials and surfaces by studying structure formation and function-property relationships in plant cuticles and (2) to educate the next generation of scientists who have the necessary interdisciplinary knowledge for turning bio-inspired scientific results into innovation. PlaMatSu therefore trains nine Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) at PhD student level in a network of multi-disciplinary labs composed of biologists, physicists, and chemists. The expertise of the supervisors includes evolution and plant biology, responsive polymeric materials, polymer chemistry, surface sciences, optical properties of materials and polymer physics. PlaMatSu provides the ESRs with training in technology transfer, innovation, management, writing, interactions with the public, and intellectual property rights via a set of dedicated workshops. Moreover, PlaMatSu offers to each ESR secondments in academia and in private companies. Through the latter, ESRs will be exposed to the research and development environments of top companies in the chemical, cosmetics, polymer processing and scientific services industry. New bio-inspired materials offer great potential for knowledge creation and innovation. After having completed the research and doctoral program of PlaMatSu, the ESRs will graduate with a PhD degree from leading research Universities in Europe, and be ready to embark on a career in academia or industry.

Work performed

To achieve these aims, PlaMatSu is structured into five work packages (WP), whose progress is summarized here.

WP Project management: PlaMatSu initially established a Coordination Office at the Adolphe Merkle Institute of the University of Fribourg. This Coordination Office has moved on 1.10.2018 to the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow. The Coordination Office consists of one project manager and the coordinator Bruns. It administrates the project, runs the website and social media sites of PlaMatSu, and organizes the network-wide activities like the annual meetings, the winter school and network-wide training events.

WP Recruitment: 9 ESRs were hired and started between month 6 and 12. All ESR positions were filled with outstanding young scientists from a diverse group of countries that include Germany, France, Greece, The Netherlands, South Korea, and India. Two ESRs are female, seven ESRs male, resulting in a gender balance of 75% male vs. 25% female researchers.

WP Research: Research within PlaMatSu covers diverse topics, from the genetic and developmental foundation of structure formation in plant cuticles, to the synthesis of novel bio-inspired polymeric materials and surface features, to the physical characterization of wrinkled colloids and polymer crystallization in thin films. All research tasks are well on their way.

WP Training: Apart from the training-by-research that the ESR experience by working under the supervision of distinguished scientists in the field of bio-inspired materials, PlaMatSu has already offered a workshop on technology transfer and innovation, a workshop on ethics for young scientists, a workshop on writing skills and public outreach via Wikipedia, and a week-long winter school on bio-inspired materials (see figure 1). Secondments between the research group happen regularly and the first secondments in industry are organized for the upcoming months.

WP Communication, dissemination, and exploitations: A variety of measures were undertaken to communicate and disseminate the topics of PlaMatSu. Apart from the usual measures such as a webpage, social media presence, press releases, and participation at conferences, PlaMatSu published a special issue on bio-inspired materials in Advanced Materials, one of the leading scientific journals for materials research (see figure 2). Moreover, original research papers and reviews with PlaMatSu participations were published in Nature, Advanced Materials and other journals. The ESRs and PIs have reached out to the general public, e.g. by supervising childrenÂ´s experiments during open-door-days, or by publishing video interviews (see figure 3) on social media and the projectÂ´s web page. A logo was commissioned for PlaMatSu to be used in all communication and outreach activities (figure 4).

Final results

\"The aim of PlaMatSu is to train the next generation of interdisciplinary, bio-inspired researchers that have a unique profile with skills and expertise well beyond of their peers. Thus, PlaMatSu aims to create a significant positive impact on the future careers and employability of the ESRs. To this end, the ESRs are engaged in ambitious research projects, supervised by internationally renowned experts on bio-inspired materials, and work in a multi-disciplinary setting spanning from plant biology to materials chemistry and soft matter physics. The training-by-research is complemented by a rich variety of joint training activities, e.g. on soft-skills, and by the active involvement of the partners from the private sector.

PlaMatSuÂ´s research projects are well on their way and key scientific publciations are outlined below:

Moyroud, E. et al. \'Disorder in convergent floral nanostructures enhances signalling to bees.\"\" Nature 2017; DOI: 10.1038/nature24285:
A collaboration between the three PlaMatSu research groups of Beverley Glover, Silvia Vignolini, and Ullrich Steiner demonstrated that many types of flowers produce a so-called â€˜blue haloâ€™ that allows bees to identify them more easily. For more information, please see http://ami.swiss/en/seminars-news-events/news/18017/blue-halo-helps-bees-find-flowers

Advanced Materials, Volume 30, Issue 19, 2018:
Bio-inspiration is a powerful concept to develop novel functional materials. A special edition of leading journal Advanced Materials, edited by Adolphe Merkle Institute Prof. Nico Bruns and his University of Cambridge colleague Silvia Vignolini, presents bio-inspired materials across all length scales.
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