Research Resources – List

The apparatus allows to carry out resonant column and torsional shear tests on the same saturated soil specimen, applying effective isotropic confining stress ranging between 20 kPa and 800 kPa. The torque actuator allows to investigate the non linear mechanical behaviour of both soft and hard soils up to a maximum shear strain of about 0.5%. Shear modulus and damping ratio of soil can be measured at increasing shear strain. strain rate behaviour of soil can also be investigated.
Tests can be performed in undrained and drained conditions measuring pore pressure build-up and volume change respectively.

The large triaxial cell apparatus allows to perform tests on gravelly soils. The specimens with two dimensions (diameter=100 mm, height=200mm and diameter=200 mm, height=400mm) can be tested. Cyclic and monotonic tests can be performed.

The cyclic simple shear cell is a sophisticated apparatus, which can work with a double configuration: with rigid and flexible boundaries. In the latter, specimen is enclosed with an unreinforced latex membrane confined by pressurized water. A sophisticated control system allows to guarantee the K0-condition. This apparatus can perform cyclic and monotonic tests. It is particularly suited to evaluate the liquefaction resistance of soils.

The Center for Nanointegration Duisburg-Essen (CENIDE) coordinates and promotes the advancement of science in chemistry, physics, engineering, biology, and medicine with focus on:
• Catalysis
• Dynamic processes in solids
• Gas-phase synthesis of nanomaterials
• Magnetic materials
• Nanomaterials for health
• Functional materials for energy applications
CENIDE provides access to state-of-the-art infrastructure such as the unique research building NanoEnergieTechnikZentrum (NETZ) and the Interdisciplinary Center for Analytics on the Nanoscale (ICAN).

The Essen College of Gender Research (EKfG) at the University of Duisburg-Essen studies gender relations and analyses differences and similarities from an intersectional perspective. It considers biological features and their medical consequences, everyday reality, opportunities for social participation, and access to material and immaterial resources. Norms, values and rights are likewise included in the analysis in order to arrive at concrete findings for social practice.

The Core Facility Interdisciplinary Center for Analytics on the Nanoscale (ICAN) at the University of Duisburg-Essen combines machines, methods and scientific expertise for analysis on the nanometer scale. The core of ICAN is the microscopy center in the NanoEnergieTechnikZentrum (NETZ) in Duisburg. With brand new laboratories, specially designed for the newest machines, the microsopy center is perfectly equipped for the most sensitive measurements down the atomic length scale.

At NETZ, we seek to develop sustainable methods for each step in the process chain: from synthesizing and refining functional materials to integrating these materials into finished components and devices. In each step, we strive to analyze and understand the mechanisms that operate on every relevant scale. This expertise enables us to formulate rules that are as generally applicable as possible – and to tailor the outcome of an individual process to reach the desired goal.

The Center for Molecular Biosciences (CMBI) at the University of Innsbruck (Forschungsschwerpunkt für Molekulare Biowissenschaften) is an integrative and multidisciplinary research and graduate teaching institution, whose mission it is, to advance knowledge on the structure, function, and interaction of biological macromolecules, and of simple compounds, relevant for cellular growth, metabolism, and development.

The Network of Excellence (NoE) SoftComp has lined up to proactively work towards a change with the goal of strengthening the scientific and technological excellence in this important area of science and industry. In other words — SoftComp brings together a critical mass of resources and expertise to provide leadership and elevates strategic integration of soft matter research in Europe to a new level.

ECLT is an international and interdisciplinary research centre to promote, carry out and coordinate research activities and the diffusion of scientific results in the field of living technology. The scientific areas for living technology are the nano-bio-technologies, self-organizing and evolving information and production technologies, and adaptive complex systems.

The Association aims to work with the European Commission on topics such as the Europe fit for a Digital Age agenda, the Green Deal and of course the Data Strategy.

The Bio-based Industries Consortium (BIC) is a non-profit organisation set up in Brussels in 2013 to represent the private sector in a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) with the European Commission, focused on strengthening the bio-based industries sector in Europe. BIC’s industry members cover the whole value chain, from primary production to market.

Triaxial test, direct shear test (100×100 mm and 300×300 mm) and simple shear test; compression tests, Special laboratory tests; e.g.

Another important area of the group’s activity is the synthesis of selected biologically active candidates in a larger scale and the solution of the subsequent transfer of technology from laboratory to semi-pilot and pilot scale. Cooperation with the commercial sphere is also very important, especially in the development of new technologies. The great result of the group’s work is, among other things, a number of granted international patents.

“Facilities available:
– Sharebot Q 3D polymer printer
– Sharebot 42 3D polymer printer
– Markforged X7 3D polymer and composite printer
– Full equipment to produce polymer wires for 3D printing starting from both new and recycled materials
– Power quality analizer – Chauvin Arnoux 8331
– Gabi software for professional LCA analysis
– Hitachi TM 3000 SEM equipped with National Instruments EDX microprobe and Deben minitensile stage
– Leica DCM 3D Confocal Microscope
– Universal testing Machine 50 kN Galdabini Quasar
– Biologic SP 150 Potentiostat and Galvanostat with low impedance modulus for electrochemical analysis
– Rotating beam fatigue machine
– A series of light microscopes for various analysis
– A fully equipped metallographic preparation lab.”

Laboratory of Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) at DiSTAR is equipped with a SEM Jeol JSM5310 and a FESEM ZEISS Merlin VP. They both allow the investigation of the microstructure and morphology of raw inorganic and suitably prepared organic materials, through the acquisition of high resolution magnified digital images.
SEM Jeol JSM5310, in the lab since 1998, provides both 3D images through a secondary electron detector (SE) and topographic and compositional images through a backscattered electron detector (BSE). It is also equipped with an EDS X-Stream Inca Oxford detector that supplies qualitative evaluation of chemical elements starting from fluorine. A well performing reference standardization allows single point analyses of polished samples (resin embedded or thin sections).
The FESEM ZEISS Merlin VP SEM, available in the lab since 2017, works both in high vacuum and in variable pressure and reaches 1 million magnification. The very large vacuum chamber of Gemini 2 apparatus hosts samples up to 15 cm diameter. This SEM is equipped with an “”inlens”” detector of both secondary and backscattered electrons, a normal secondary electron detector and a variable pressure secondary electron detector. It is linked to an EDS Oxford X-Max detector and to a WDS Wave Oxford spectrometer equipped with 4 analytical crystals. The combined use of EDS and WDS analytical facilities allows the quantitative analysis of chemical elements starting from Boron. A dedicated software provides us with compositional maps for the automated evaluation of the mineralogical composition in an unknown sample. The FESEM facility allows non-destructive and non-invasive analyses of large samples, which makes this apparatus the most powerful tool for SEM investigation in cultural heritage and forensic geology fields. The laboratory is officially accredited for SEM analysis of asbestos, on both massive samples and airborne fibers.

Research groups from four faculties (Pharmacy and Chemistry; Mathematics, Informatics and Physics; Geo- and Atmospheric Sciences; Technical Sciences) cooperate within this research focus in order to fully exploit the synergies between physics, chemistry, earth sciences, pharmaceutical technology, and civil engineering. Synergies and strength areas are found in the fields of clusters, polymorphism/phase transitions, catalysis-reactivity, high-pressure research and materials engineering. A particular strength of the research focus lies in high-pressure, high-temperature synthesis and characterization of materials, which results e.g. in hitherto inaccessible coordination geometries in solid state compounds. Thereby, fabrication of novel materials with tailored optical, electronic and mechanical properties becomes possible. Furthermore, elaborate technologies allow us to mimic conditions which are found deep in the earth mantle, thus permitting unprecedented insights into geomechanical and geochemical processes. Strong activities are focused on clusters in the gas phase and on surfaces. Basic questions ranging from the “magic” stability of clusters to the electronic structure and the possibility of tailor-making catalyst for chemical reactions are explored. Another important focus of the platform is the study of phase diagrams, phase transitions and of metastable materials, both in the bulk and in low-dimensional materials are investigated, including ferrolectric or superconductive materials. New concepts of phase transitions in amorphous systems, particularly water and ice, have resulted in the discovery of new phases and in new concepts such as cryocatalysis. The expertise in phase transitions, polymorphism and watersolid interactions is finally being exploited to obtain better control of drug formulation and performance.

“The Research Area Scientific Computing integrates all scientific activity at the University of Innsbruck in information technology (IT) and computer-aided research. High-end computing facilities allow the simulation and optimization of complex processes, as well as the organization, analysis and presentation of big data to solve increasingly complex compute- and data-intensive problems in many different fields such as science, engineering and life-science.

Aims of the Research Area SC are to use the inherent synergies between various research areas and different fields by cooperating within the university, as well as between different universities and other institutions in Austria and all over the world. Thus fruitful interdisciplinary research is fostered by exchanging knowledge and information, by sharing resources, by coordinating funding for keeping and developing the necessary infrastructure, as well as by enhancing science oriented teaching.”

Digital procedures, methods, and media are transforming all aspects of our society including science, economy, and social relations, a process known as digitalization. Growing capacities of data processing and progress in analytical methods and artificial intelligence are motivating entire branches of science to raise new questions and to develop new approaches. This transformation requires progressive, interdisciplinary synergies between computer science and related scientific disciplines such as mathematics and statistics on the one hand, and virtually all other scientific disciplines on the other Hand. The objective of the Digital Science Center at the University of Innsbruck integrates and promotes digitalization of scientific research, spearheading new research directions and supporting high-quality science. To this end, it employs staff researchers from diverse scientific disciplines with high competence in digital science. It forges new interdisciplinary research synergies and offers courses to promote competence in digital science in all scientific disciplines.

The research area benefits from a broad field of expertise with a special focus on mountain areas. Based on the idea of a multi-faculty University, we have experts from 8 research centers working in natural and technical sciences, in social, economic as well as in cultural, sport and health sciences. Thanks to the different disciplines involved, our research focus is able to address topics relevant to mountain areas from various perspectives. This is becoming more and more important, as mountain regions are considered especially vulnerable to increasing climate change impacts and globalization. We react to these issues by merging results from all embedded disciplines and extending the output in interdisciplinary research frameworks. Beyond fundamental research, the interdisciplinary strategy should help to contribute to smart solutions for sustainable development in mountain areas, and to pursue outreach activities in mountain communities.

The Erwin L. Hahn Institute for Magnetic Resonance Imaging (ELH) is a center for research, development and application of ultra-high field magnetic resonance imaging (UHF-MRI), particularly in cognitive neurosciences and clinical diagnostic imaging. Centerpiece of the Erwin L. Hahn Institute is a whole-body ultrahigh field (UHF) MAGNETOM Terra 7-Tesla MRI System from Siemens Healthcare operating at a magnetic field strength of 7 Tesla. The ELH was founded as a central institution of the University of Duisburg-Essen and the Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen in 2005.

The Scientific and Technical Resources Service (SRCiT) provides technical support to the research, development and transfer activity that takes place at the URV and also to the companies and institutions.

This is a state-of-the-art project that makes analysis protocols available to the scientific community and professionals using the most advanced infrastructures in the field of mass spectrometry. These are three state-of-the-art high-resolution mass spectrometers, which allow the detection, confirmation of organic compounds and the analysis of unknowns in different types of samples. Fields of application range from metabolomics to the environment and industry. The three technologies that the HRMS CATSUD-URV Platform incorporates are: GC-HRMS (Exactive GC is a high-resolution system consisting of a mass spectrometer and a gas chromatograph); UHPLC-HRMS (Orbitrap ID-X Mass Spectrometer ™ Tribrid ™ is an integrated mass spectrometer consisting of the combination of three mass analyzers (quadrupole, a double cell ion trap and the Orbitrap) with dual fragmentation techniques (CID and HCD), coupled to the Vanquish high-resolution liquid chromatograph Flex UHPLC, for very sensitive and ultra-high resolution MSn analysis); MALDI-HRMS (Exploris 120 Mass Spectrometer from Thermo Scientific with a Spectroglyph MALDI source, combines a high-resolution mass analyzer for accurate mass detection, coupled to a matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization source (MALDI))

This is an innovative project that aims to provide the scientific community and professionals with advanced infrastructures for work and analysis at the nanometer or lower scale. The Platform uses two high-resolution electron microscopy equipment that are integrated into the Microscopy and Nanometric Techniques Area. The two technologies that make up the CATSUD-URV Nanotechnology Platform are: High-resolution scanning electron microscope (FESEM-FIB) and FETEM – Transmission Electron Microscope of atomic resolution.

The equipment is suitable for the transfer of technologies from laboratory scale to semi-pilot and pilot scale production, as well as for the large scale syntheses of up to 500 g of products. Equipment consists of duplicated glass reactor 10 L with accessories (anchor stirrer with speed control, thermometer (PT 100), cooler, distillation flask), extractor (liquid – liquid; glass; 20 L; propeller with speed control) and isolation filter for solid products (stainless steel with PTFE inert coating).

Prusa 3D printer to make 3D prints out of PLA, PETG and ABS plastics out of models (e.g. molecules)

Share Journals is the platform for the management and publication of open access scientific journals on behalf of the SHARE Interuniversity Consortium. Share Journals has been created by the University of Naples “Federico II “- Centre for Libraries. Since 2015 hosts the research publications of the Universities participating in the SHARE alliance, which involves the collaboration of 11 Universities of Southern Italy. Research publications are submitted to a double – blind peer – review process and are published in Italian and in English.

The IT platform is employed to publish and disseminate e-book series in Open Access. Share Books has been created by the University of Naples “Federico II “- Centre for Libraries. Since 2015 hosts the research publications of the Universities participating in the SHARE alliance, which involves the collaboration of 11 Universities of Southern Italy. Research publications are submitted to a double – blind peer – review process and are published in Italian and in English. The University of Naples Federico II owns a digital publishing brand, FedOA Press.

The ‘private cloud infrastructure was installed at the San Giovanni a Teduccio Campus and it is managed using containers and Kubernetes. The resources are divided among nodes for the collection, storage, processing and use of results using Business Intelligence techniques. In particular, the resources include two different types of machines: 1 DGX from Nvidia; 4 machines also equipped with a GPU from Nvidia. In addition, a storage system with about 750 TB of SSD storage has been deployed.

The ICT for Health project of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology (DIETI) has been selected among 180 national projects of Departments of Excellence funded by MIUR in 2017. The project has a five-year duration (2018-2022) for a funding share of €9,330,030.00 and a co-financing share of €2,506,000.00. The investment in infrastructure of the Departments of Excellence project was also used for the creation of an eHealth Big Data Analytic laboratory based on a public Cloud infrastructure and local datacenter, as well as upgrading the pre-existing infrastructure of DIETI laboratories through the acquisition of new instrumentation. The public Cloud infrastructure, based on Amazon Web Services (AWS) and managed by TIM SPA, is based on AWS Cloud resources for 3 years. The resources are divided among nodes for collecting, storing, processing data, also investigating the outcome through Business Intelligence techniques. In particular, the resources include: 4 hosts (virtual machines running Linux) configured as c5.2xlarge with 8 CPUs and 16 GB RAM; 2 instances of GPU-based virtual machines managed through Amazon SageMaker. 1 Elastic Map Reduce (EMR) cluster equipped with 2 EMR Core (r5d.2xlarge) and 3 EMR Master (r5d.2xlarge) nodes.

This infrastructure is part of the Roadmap to Icelandic infrastructure and is being set-up and therefore not available yet. The objective is to build up the necessary infrastructure to strengthen this capability and create new possibilities for research and development within materials science and materials engineering in Iceland. The infrastructure will facilitate synergy between fields, and through that new possibilities, research directions and development in numerous fields including materials science, nanotechnology, solid state physics, advanced manufacturing, large scale production and biomedical technology, and will bring research and development capabilities in Iceland up to high international standards.

Centerpiece of the Erwin L. Hahn Institute at the University of Duisburg-Essen is a whole-body ultrahigh field (UHF) MAGNETOM Terra 7-Tesla MRI System from Siemens Healthcare operating at a magnetic field strength of 7 Tesla. The 7 Tesla UHF MRI system provides a much higher sensitivity for structural and functional measurements in the human body. Thus, cross-sectional images with excellent image contrast and very high detail resolution can be produced.

Approx. 1000 m² water construction laboratory, equipped with two pumps with total capacity (Q) of 400l/s, one pump with Q=100l/s, one pump with Q=50l/s, high pressure pump Q=50l/s (head=80m), submersible pump Q=92l/s with head 11m

The NanoLab of the University of Innsbruck (NanoLab Innsbruck) was installed in 2008 and has been continuously expanded since then. It includes microscopy, analytics and mechanical materials testing as well as special areas such as thin film technology and fire protection. It is part of the research initiative “Advanced Materials” of the University of Innsbruck and is located at the “Campus Technik”, Innsbruck.

Induction Plasma System Teksphero-15: The Teksphero-15 enables spheroidizing of powder feedstock.
System features:
– Inductively coupled plasma generated by a signal generator with a power of 15 kW at a frequency range of 2 – 5 MHz.
– Spheroidizing reactor is suitable for use with reactive metals
– Vacuum powder collection system
– Vibratory powder feeding system
– Cyclone chamber for filtering fine powder Laboratory equipment for selective laser melting 400 W / 1100°C: The laboratory system enables additive (generative) manufacturing of components from materials that cannot be processed with conventional selective laser melting equipment.
Plant features: – Installation space can be heated up to 1100°C – 400 W fiber laser
– Size of build platform: dia. 170 mm
– Low O-content of 10 ppm
– Dual laser melting system AconityMidi
– Build platform heatable up to 800°C – 400 W / 1000 W fiber laser

Contract research and routine investigations in the field of electromagnetic compatibility and antenna measurement technology