What is NEMO?
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In its 2nd call under Framework 6, the European Commission granted the Network of Excellence on Micro-Optics "NEMO" with 6.4 Million Euro.
NEMO is running since Sept. 1st 2004 and aims at providing Europe with a complete Micro-Optics food-chain by setting up durable service and technology centres for Optical Modelling and Design; Measurement and Instrumentation, Mastering, Prototyping and Replication; Hybrid Integration and Packaging; Reliability and Standardization. NEMO will be the networking platform for 30 European partners for the next 4 years. The network is co-ordinated by Prof. Hugo Thienpont from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium, by Prof. Malgorzata Kujawinska from Warsaw University of Technology, Poland, and by Dr. Juergen Mohr from ForschungsZentrum Karlsruhe, Germany. Each of the 30 institutes involved in NEMO is a key-role player in micro-optics. |
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A first task of NEMO is to set up the 6 aforementioned service and technology centres and make them accessible to academic research institutes, SMEs and large companies. This way NEMO targets to embed a variety of novel micro-optical functionalities in a myriad of products and to enhance the competitiveness of photonic-based European companies. A second task is to use the service and technology centres to support the network's six long-term application-oriented research topics on micro-optics: Mid-Infra-Red micro-optics, Sub-wavelength structured optical surfaces, Platforms for optical MEMS, Biological & Medical applications, Micro-optical structures for sensing, and Micro-optic interconnects. These long-term research topics aim at widening the scope of present-day European research and at introducing novel concepts and components, thus creating new photonic functionalities applicable in virtually any region of the optical spectrum and beyond. With its long-term research NEMO is targeting a wealth of novel optical and photonic applications to increase the quality of daily life. Although NEMO is mainly driven by academic institutes it will have close links to industry through its industrial interface centre and its industrial user club (IUC). The industrial interface centre will be the link between NEMO and industry to exchange R&D results and to jointly start additional activities or novel projects. Companies which become a partner of NEMO’s industrial user club will get access to all the information on micro-optics and micro-optics related technologies, continuously gathered by the network and provided through its knowledge management centre , such as roadmaps on micro-optics applications, benchmarks of instrumentation and fabrication technologies, and information on standardization recommendations. NEMO's ultimate goal is to enhance the competitiveness of European micro-optics related industry and to create awareness of the added value which micro-optics has to offer in almost all areas of societal concern, including biomedical and health sciences, safety and security issues, environmental sciences, data- and telecommunication business, and industrial automation. |
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