Collaboration with India to provide nanotechnology with new tools

A research team at the Ångström Laboratory at Uppsala University will be leading a collaborative project between the EU and India in theoretical materials science. The objective is to find new materials for applications in nanotechnology.

The project is a collaborative effort between the EU and India to jointly finance an investment in research in theoretical materials science. This collaboration involves, besides the research team at the Ångström Laboratory, researchers from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, the universities of Vienna and Stuttgart as well as Twente and Nijmigen in the Netherlands. From India, research teams will participate from universities in Calcutta, Bangalore, and Mumbai.

The project aims to develop methods to theoretically describe material properties in a highly detailed way, with the help of so-called first-principle calculations. The researchers are to develop new theoretical work tools for nanotechnological applications.

"Starting with meticulous theoretical calculations and then testing in practice has proven to be highly successful. Theory has been shown to come very close to practice and can sometimes predict the properties of materials before they even exist," says Olle Eriksson, professor of theoretical magnetism at the Section for Materials Theory at the Ångström Laboratory.

The research team at the Ångström Laboratory, which is a world leader in theoretical materials science, has previously collaborated with India, and the team includes Indian researchers. Now cooperation with India will be both broader and stronger.

"We're delighted to have this collaboration with India. They are highly advanced in this field. They overlap and complement our expertise very well."

The project comprises €1 million over three years.

For more information, please contact Professor Olle Eriksson (Note: is presently in the U.S.), cell phone: +46 (0)70-425 07 77, or Olle.Eriksson@angstrom.uu.se