TECHSCALE ISAB elects Paolo Fornasiero as its chairman

The first meeting of the International Scientific Advisory Board (ISAB) of the TECHSCALE project—Technology Beyond the Nanoscale, which took place on 21 February, introduced the key figures and provided recommendations for its successful implementation. ISAB was seeking the best candidate for the chairman position among its own members, and elected Paolo Fornasiero from the University of Trieste, who is a renowned expert in the field of electrocatalysis and author of several groundbreaking papers in Science.

ISAB is an independent advisory body of the project’s expert team helping with the strategy and evaluation. In addition to Paolo Fornasiero, its members include Srinivasan Madhavi, the Executive Director at the Energy Research Institute of Nanyang Technology University in Singapore; Svetlana Mintova, the Research Director of the CLEAN Centre at Normandy University in France; Subodh Mhaisalkar, the Executive Director of the National Research Foundation in Singapore; Mathias Beller, professor at the Leibniz Institute for Catalysis; and Roberto Millini from the Italian company Eni S.p.A., who represents the industry.

“I am glad that our first meeting brought some very inspiring ideas. The international experts highlighted the importance and urgency of atomic engineering and the complexity with which we are handling the topic. We talked with the members of ISAB not only about the need for proper project management, but also about the attention being shifted to high publication standards and data management. I was pleased with the pro-active approach of the ISAB members and that they are looking forward to the cooperation and will also appreciate an in-person meeting with the project team in the future,” said Michal Otyepka from CATRIN, the TECHSCALE Principal Investigator.

ISAB will provide expert advice to the project team on scientific methodology, strategic research direction and partnership, quality assurance and compliance with ethical principles of research and development, as well as on the valorisation of the project outputs and cooperation with commercial partners. ISAB will also make recommendations for further progress in issues regarding international collaborative networks in the field of basic and applied research, dissemination of project outputs, open science policy and gender balance.