Combining the strength of 28 member societies, FEMS has a significant influence on the European materials landscape. Here, President Dr-Ing Margarethe Hofmann shines a light on the ever-growing importance of materials researchers in translational science and commercialisation

Dr-Ing Margarethe Hofmann

President, Federation of European Materials Societies

Materials union

UPCOMING EVENTS

Advanced Training Course on Nanoscale Materials

Dresden, Germany 22-24 October 2014

FEMS EUROMAT 2015 Warsaw, Poland

21-24 September 2015

REWAS 2016 Nashville, Tennessee, USA

14-18 February 2016

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56 INTERNATIONAL INNOVATION

You took over as President of the Federation of European Materials Societies (FEMS) at the beginning of this year. What led to you taking up this position and what do you hope to achieve during your term?

In the late 1980s, I took over as CEO of the Swiss Association for Materials Science and Technology (SVMT) and later as President for six years. SVMT joined FEMS and was even co-organiser of FEMS’ biennial materials science congress EUROMAT in 2003 in Lausanne, Switzerland. FEMS is an important organisation in Europe to represent the many facets of materials science and engineering, and the many actors in this field.

My hope for my two-year term as President is to continue the activities that the immediate past-President Professor Dr Ehrenfried Zschech started when working together with European Technology Platforms such as the Alliance for Materials (A4M), launching the European project MatVal – in which the two important European organisations, FEMS and the European Materials Research Society (E-MRS), have become partners – and being especially active in disseminating results. The second important aim of my term is to improve services rendered to member societies and to improve individual contacts.

Could you outline the mission and origin of FEMS?

The origin of FEMS goes back to 1986, when the Institute of Metals (IOM3) in London, UK, German Society for Metals (DGM) and French Society for Metallurgy (SF2M) agreed to boost metals and materials societies in Europe by working together in a more ‘European’ manner. A memorandum of understanding to form FEMS was signed in 1987 and at the end of the same year the first FEMS General Assembly took place in Paris, France.

Membership of FEMS increased steadily over the years and today we count 28 member societies. Our aims are to promote the wide dissemination of scientific and technical materials knowledge and to facilitate communication between various countries with different languages and cultures. Thus, we aim to ensure optimum visibility of materials science and engineering, and to contribute to developing links and collaboration between research and technology organisations and industry.

In past-President Zschech’s interview with International Innovation last year, he discussed his focus on extending knowledge transfer from academia to industry. How much progress has been made in this area? Will you be continuing this work?

We are continually working on this task. After having agreed to become a member of A4M, which is

an important hub for various European Technology Platforms, FEMS was accepted to become a member of the Energy Materials Industrial Research Initiative (EMIRI), which has nearly 40 companies as members. We will continue to interact with further industrial organisations. Through this, we aim to exchange knowledge concerning industrial needs in applications (pull) and science and engineering’s solutions (push). We will also promote EUREKA events which are important for the translation of scientific results towards industrial applications. There are many ways in which our involvement will contribute to achieving a more complete picture of translational R&D approaches. MatVal is a supporting action in this sense as we interact directly with both parties – academia and industry.

We also previously discussed the intensification of the relationship between FEMS and E-MRS. Could you outline the different remits of the two organisations and how they work together?

FEMS and E-MRS closely work together. In fact, in 2014-15 both Presidents came from Switzerland. With Professor Dr Thomas Lippert – current President of E-MRS – I have a very good counterpart to discuss various issues related to both organisations. Lippert gave a very interesting presentation as invited speaker from the Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI) and E-MRS at the FEMS JUNIOR EUROMAT in Lausanne, which took place from 21-25 July 2014. E-MRS in fact co-sponsored the conference. Another strong common activity was established via MatVal in which Professor Rodrigo Martins, immediate past-President of E-MRS, and I have been working together since 2012.

Is the duplication of research efforts a significant problem in Europe? Is FEMS helping to overcome this by promoting sharing and collaborative projects at the European level?

This question is old and new at the same time. Europe has made a huge step forward in having common European Programmes which tend to bring researchers and engineers from many countries together. On the other hand, each country should have the freedom to propose and fund

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1. Austria The Austrian Society for Metallurgy and Materials (ASMET)

2. Belgium Benelux Métallurgie

3. Czech Republic Czech Society for New Materials and Technologies (CSNMT) Metal Science Society of the Czech Republic (MSS)

4. Estonia Estonian Materials Science Society (EMSS)

5. France Société Française de Métallurgie et de Matériaux (SF2M)

6. Germany Deutsche Gesellschaft für Materialkunde (DGM) Deutscher Verband für Materialforschung und -prüfung e.V. (DVM)

7. Greece Hellenic Metallurgical Society (HMS) Hellenic Society for the Science and Technology of Condensed Matter (HSSTCM)

8. Hungary Magyar Anyagtudományi Egyesület (MAE)

9. Italy Associazione Italiana Compositi & Affini (Assocompositi) Associazione Italiana d’Ingegneria dei Materiali (AIMAT) Associazione Italiana di Metallurgia (AIM)

10. Latvia Latvian Materials Research Society (LMRS)

11. Lithuania Lithuanian Materials Research Society (LtMRS)

12. The Netherlands Bond voor Materialenkennis (BvM)

13. Norway Norsk Metallurgisk Selskap (NMS)

14. Poland Polish Society for Materials (PTM)

15. Portugal Sociedade Portuguesa de Materiais (SPM)

16. Serbia Materials Research Society of Serbia (MRS Serbia)

17. Slovak Republic Society for New Materials and Technologies in Slovakia (SNMTS)

18. Slovenia Slovensko Drustvo Za Materiale (SDM)

19. Spain Sociedad Española de Materiales (SOCIEMAT)

20. Sweden Svenska Föreningen för Materialteknik (SFMT)

21. Switzerland Swiss Association for Materials Science and Technology (SVMT)

22. Ukraine Ukrainian Materials Research Society (UMRS)

23. UK Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining (IOM3)

Member societies

23

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58 INTERNATIONAL INNOVATION

their own research, and by this to create its own expertise and excellence. This is needed especially for national industries and the many SMEs which may not be capable of joining big European projects. However, duplication should be avoided in similar research activities. Various solutions for the same problem can be achieved, which may help end-users. This means that not all duplication is wrong. I am working as a scientifi c manager for many research projects and programmes, and I am therefore not in favour of harmonisation of all activities as this may implicate a reduction in standards and creativity.

Today, FEMS is not able to take such an important but very time-consuming part in promoting collaborative projects at the European level. We could enable experts to discuss this issue and deliver recommendations, but this should be funded by European money; for example, through a public-private partnership to fi nd synergies between the more scientifi cally driven FEMS member organisations and industrial stakeholders.

Does FEMS work with international organisations to strengthen the relationships between the European materials community and the rest of the world?

We will co-sponsor the next conference of The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society (TMS) – REWAS 2016 in Nashville, USA, an interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary platform where the materials and metallurgical professional can interact and exchange with other stakeholders from industry and society.

TMS and FEMS also established a joint Young Leader International Scholar Program to promote young member activities and strengthen collaborations between these international societies. In 2013, Dr Amy J Clarke from the Materials Science and Technology – Metallurgy Group, Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico, USA, was elected joint TMS-FEMS lecturer in 2013.

When you talk with your members, what do they identify as the major issues currently facing materials researchers?

This depends on where the member comes from, as the challenges and opportunities for materials scientists differ from country to country. At the last biannual materials conference of the Sociedad Española de Materiales (SOCIEMAT) in Barcelona, Spain, I took part in a panel discussion and it was mentioned several times that European funding has been reduced, although the number of projects in which Spain is collaborating is still the same. The effect of this is dramatic in some cases, as projects have to be reduced and people cannot be funded adequately. I heard similar problems when attending the 10th International Conference on Nanosciences & Nanotechnologies (NN13) in Thessaloniki, Greece. Other countries – such as Germany, France or the UK – still have research money that they can provide to their centres of excellence, but some of them may have to reduce activities, prioritising only research deemed of importance or crucial for the country and its industry.

What are the benefi ts of transdisciplinary research? To what extent do you partner with those outside of the materials community?

Transdisciplinary research today is a must, especially in materials science and engineering. Many innovations in physics, chemistry and biology/pharmacy are not transferrable into an application as they are often investigated at the laboratory scale. Materials science and engineering is looking for solutions to scale up such innovations, and in parallel to this is dedicated to a better understanding of physical, chemical and biological issues.

The combination of basic science with advances in engineering underpins the very special position of materials scientists and engineers, because they have to understand the needs and requirements from basic science and transfer them into industrial application. This makes this fi eld highly interesting and extremely important for both basic researchers and industry.

I have organised and been involved in various projects and programmes in Switzerland and Europe, and each time the materials scientists were

the people acting as translators. Materials are no longer only metals, ceramics or polymers, they are materials with specifi c functions. Examples are nanoparticles used for drug delivery, polymer surfaces equipped with haptic functions, ceramic fi lm systems acting in communication, or metal alloys and composites functioning in medical devices, aircraft, cars or consumables. Each time the requirements will differ, and engineers have to adapt their language to incorporate relevant terms and abbreviations in discussion with different stakeholders and markets. Materials scientists are moderators and managers, and their strong position of infl uence should become more prominent, especially concerning the management of industry.

How can you ensure Europe produces a steady stream of talented and qualifi ed materials scientists? Do you have any initiatives to support students and or encourage young people to get involved in materials science?

FEMS highlights the importance of this issue through its conferences, contact with industrial platforms and via European projects and actions. JUNIOR EUROMAT is a conference dedicated to bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral students. When organised for the fi rst time 14 years ago, industry was very interested in using it to look for new talent.

In addition, universities and societies present national brokering events in the MINT (Mathematics, Informatics, Natural and Technical Sciences) fi elds and FEMS is therefore discussing such improvements of its own activities very seriously. It is important for FEMS to further promote European materials scientists and engineers.

How are materials scientists contributing to solutions to global grand challenges? Could you provide examples of where materials research has had social or economic impact?

I would like to give an example of my own work. Over the last four years, I have scientifi cally coordinated the European project Development of Novel Nanotechnology Based Diagnostic Systems for Rheumatoid Arthritis and Osteoarthritis (NanoDiaRA) funded by the EU Seventh Framework Programme (FP7). The project had 15 partners from seven countries, a budget of about €10 million and was dedicated to early diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis using superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles. This was a clearly defi ned translational project with materials scientist, biologists, clinicians and people from pharmaceutical companies in the team. We dedicated one work package to ethical, legal and social issues (ELSI), and organised symposia, workshops and courses for lay people, legal entities like Swiss Medics and patient organisations active in balancing the hopes and fears of nanotechnology and informing all stakeholders about the potential and risks of such new technologies. Having worked for more than 10 years in various transdisciplinary advisory boards, I thoroughly recommend such approaches as they encourage researchers and scientists to address such issues head on.

To read International Innovation’s 2013 interview with FEMS past-President Ehrenfried Zschech, please visit: http://bit.ly/1ekVWCl

www.fems.org

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