Founded in 1895 and a University since 1966, Aston is a long established research-led University known for its world-class teaching quality and strong links to industry, government and commerce. Aston has been a leading university for graduate employment success for over 25 years. The University is currently ranked 8th overall for graduate employment putting even the likes of Oxford in the shade (2013 Sunday Times University Guide). The University is consistently ranked in the UK’s top 40 universities confirming its place amongst the elite.
The Medical Cell Technologies Research group at Aston University, which undertakes multi-disciplinary, translational research to accelerate the development of new medicines. Their focus is on the production and characterisation of human cells for medicines development. This embraces two distinct themes: the development and manufacturing of therapies directly from human cells (i.e. advanced therapy medicinal products [ATMPs], regenerative medicine, cell and gene therapies); and the use of human cells to create disease models in a dish for subsequent drug discovery.
The Nonlinearity and Complexity Research Group at Aston is internationally renowned for research work in the area of statistical and statistical-physics based inference and in the modelling and analysis of complex systems and data, which fits very well to the NeuChiP project objectives and suggested activities. The group was originally established in 1993 as the Neural Computation Research Group by Prof Chris Bishop (currently Head of Microsoft Research Cambridge) and Prof David Lowe. Various leading international figures in machine learning have contributed to the success of the group, including the Turing prize recipient Prof Geoffrey Hinton, who held a visiting Professorship in the group during the 90’s.
The University of Barcelona (UB) was founded in 1450. Today it boasts of a student body of 63,020 and a research staff of 5,312 members. Degrees are offered in 73 different areas of teaching with numerous postgraduate and doctorate programs as well as continuing education courses. The UB is the largest of the six universities of Barcelona and of the ten in Catalonia. The UB is ranked the first Spanish university, and the twenty third European institution in scientific quality and productivity. UB manages on average 150 European projects per year, for an amount of about €8,6M a year. UB develops all its activities related to the research in Europe through its European Research Projects Office, a unit in charge of the promotion of EC programmes, technical assistance to the elaboration of proposals and management of projects with participation of researchers of the UB, coordinated by the Vice-rector for Innovation and Transfer of Knowledge. Since January 2010, UB is part of the prestigious League of European Universities Research (LERU). Fundació Bosch i Gimpera (FBG) is a third party of UB in charge of the administrative and financial management of European projects in which the UB beneficiary.
3Brain AG (www.3brain.com) is the first company producing and commercializing worldwide high-resolution CMOS multi-electrode array (CMOS-MEA) platforms for in vitro electrophysiology. Since its foundation in 2011, 3Brain provides to customers a complete solution composed by consumable microelectronic chips, an FPGA-based hardware and a software application for acquiring, managing and analysing high-resolution electrophysiological signals recorded from 4096 electrodes simultaneously.
3Brain is continuously improving its products line by integrating technologies derived from micro-nanofabrication, CMOS design and microfluidics. In particular 3Brain is currently introducing into the market a new 3D CMOS-MEA, a state-of-the-art sensor where each electrode is complemented with a micro-pillar able to penetrate a brain tissue and get signal from within the bulk.
3Brain’ team has a long-lasting experience in CMOS-MEA platform development (>10 years), and a hardcore of competences in bioelectronics, in-vitro electrophysiology, hardware design and real time FPGA-based processing. 3Brain has also internalized chip production so it has extensive experience in electronic chip packaging for biological applications.
Loughborough University was founded in 1966 following the development of the Loughborough Technical Institute which dates back to 1909. Specialism of Loughborough has always been from the traditional engineering background, with Sports and Exercise now playing a key role in research, and driving capability within the tissue engineering and regenerative medicine arenas. Loughborough has hosted UK Centre for Doctoral Training in Regenerative Medicine for the past 12 years, has played host to UK Society of Biomaterials annual conference in 2017 and continues to develop within materials and nano-fabrication areas. The University has nearly 18,000 students, held within the largest single-site campus in the UK. Receiving numerous awards for teaching and research excellence, Loughborough has been voted as University of the Year (The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2019, WhatUniStudent Choice Awards 2018), is 5th in the ‘Table of Tables’ 2019 University rankings and is holder of no less than 7 Queen’s Anniversary Prizes, being only second in number to Oxford University.
The French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) is a government-funded research organization under the administrative authority of French Ministry in charge of research. CNRS is the main fundamental research organization in Europe and is largely involved in national, European, and international projects covering all fields of knowledge. CNRS is organized in 1211 laboratories, either intramural or in partnership with universities, other research organizations or industry. The CNRS has a strong experience and capacity in management of EU funded projects. In case of success of the current proposal, the EU contribution will be handled by the CNRS Regional Delegation Paris-Centre.
In the NEU-ChiP project, CNRS represents the “Laboratoire de Physique de l’ENS», which is a Joint Research Unit n° 8023 between CNRS, Sorbonne Université and Université de Paris. Ecole Normale Supérieure (ENS) is a top French research and education institution, with 2400 students among the best in France and 800 researchers working in 15 departments.
The Physics Laboratory of the Ecole Normale Supérieure (LPENS), created on January 1, 2019, is a laboratory for interdisciplinary fundamental research in physics and its interfaces. The scientific activities of the laboratory cover a vast field of exploration in fundamental or applied, experimental or theoretical physics, and are organized in six axes : Asrtophysics, Biophysics, Fluids and Interfaces, Statistical Physics, Fundamental Interactions, Quantum Materials and Devices.
The laboratory has 145 staff members, among which 90 researchers (CNRS full-time researchers and university teachers), 105 PhD students and 75 post-doctorates. It is organized in 18 research teams. In particular, two teams of the laboratory work on the applications of statistical physics to biology and biophysics, on various themes ranging from genomics, development, immunology, to neuroscience. 300 scientific papers were published in peer-review journals in 2019, that is 3,3 publications per full-time researcher. The laboratory is involved in 20 European projects (10 ERC, 4 FET…), in 40 contracts from the French Research National Agency (ANR), in 10 regional research contracts. Although devoted to fundamental research, the LPENS has developed links with the industry with 10 industrial partners. Laboratory members are strongly involved in teaching, particularly at the Master level and Doctorate levels. The LPENS has hosted 50 students in Master internship in 2019.
Founded in 1912, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology is Israel’s first university and its largest center of applied research. Technion is ranked among the leading technological universities worldwide.
A major source of the innovation and brainpower that drives the Israeli economy, Technion is the engine behind Israel’s renown as the iconic “Startup Nation.” Technion people, ideas, and inventions have made, and continue to make tremendous scientific contributions in fields such as medicine, sustainable energy, computer science, water conservation, and nanotechnology. It is one of a handful of technological institutes worldwide with a medical school, facilitating the rapid development of advanced therapies and devices, from the laboratory to the patient’s bedside.
Technion’s success is attributed to its unwavering commitment to excellence in education and research. The University is proud of its four Nobel laureates – Aaron Ciechanover, Avram Hershko, Dan Shechtman, and Arieh Warshel. Technion currently ties with MIT in 8th place for the number of Nobel prizewinners this century.
Technion offers degrees in all fields of science and engineering, architecture and town planning, medicine, industrial management, education, and environmental studies. It houses 18 faculties, 60 research centers and institutes, and 10 interdisciplinary research frameworks. There are 14,500 students (10,000 undergraduate and 4,500 graduate) and 550 faculty members. Since 1929, 110,000 degrees have been conferred. Technion City’s 300-acre campus sits atop Mount Carmel and encompasses 108 main buildings, with additional campuses located in Haifa and Tel Aviv.
Since Albert Einstein founded the first Technion Society in Germany in 1923, Technion’s worldwide network of friends has expanded worldwide to encompass 21 countries.
