An example of such a smart nanostructured system is a “green” energy storage system that is inspired from biology. In this example, the smart nanostructured system stores energy that is converted to steady-state electrical current, but without needing to be electrically recharged. The first laboratory measurements show the system provides an energy density of more than 7 kiloJoules/litre, which is already equivalent to the energy of an alkaline AAA battery but with the advantages of being smaller, lighter in weight, and not constructed from rare earth metals. The Energion research program will have major impacts on the fields of technologies for health and medicine, and for medical devices.

ERC Advanced Grant

On 11 April 2024, the European Research Council (ERC) published the list of the 256 winners of the ERC-2023-AdG call for proposals, which will benefit from an overall budget of €652 million. This funding is part of the EU's Horizon Europe research and innovation programme. 
The ERC-2023-AdG call is aimed at established researchers who are recognised as leaders in their scientific field (Advanced Grants). With an average of €2.5 million over 5 years, each winner will be able to develop an exploratory research project around a breakthrough issue at the frontiers of knowledge.

Pr. Donald Martin

Donald Martin is a Professor, classe exceptionnelle, in the Faculty of Pharmacy at the University Grenoble Alpes (UGA). His career started in Australia, after he received his B.Optometry degree, a Masters degree in biomedical engineering and a PhD in biophysics of the eye and contact lenses, all from the University of New South Wales. In Australia, he was awarded the inaugural postdoctoral fellowship from the Medical Foundation at the University of Sydney for research in electrophysiology of secretory epithelia, then moved to St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney to work on electrophysiology of cardiac tissue. He moved to Grenoble in 2009 when he was awarded a Chaire d’Excellence in nanobiotechnologies by the RTRA Fondation Nanosciences. He is the head of the research team SyNaBi that he founded in the Laboratory TIMC (UMR 5525) at UGA. He has authored more than 130 publications, 17 patents, and is a co-founder in several startup companies in Australia and France, including 2 French startups that are commercialising medical diagnostic and therapeutic devices.