CIC nanoGUNE organizes the launch of the SPRING (SPin Research IN Graphene) research project funded by the European Union. The meeting was held in San Sebastian on November 7 and 8. The research project will run for four years and will include IBM Research, Donostia International Physics Center, Santiago de Compostela University, Delft Technical University and Oxford University. At the meeting, the starting point of the project was set.

The consortium of these six leading European research institutions has received € 3.5 million in funding from the European Commission. Selected in the fully competitive Horizon 2020 FET-Open call; in fact, they fund several high-risk, high-impact, interdisciplinary research projects that need to lay the foundations for completely new technologies for the future.

The SPRING project combines the latest scientific breakthroughs with consortium members to manufacture tailor-made graphene magnetic nanostructures and their capabilities as essential elements of spintronic quantum devices. They have set a long-term goal of developing an environmentally friendly, graphene-free platform in which spines can be used to transport, store and process information.

The community of scientists agrees that spin is the ideal property of matter to move beyond current-based nanoelectronics and achieve other, faster and more energy-efficient components; this is precisely the basis of the new technology known as quantum spintronics. The SPRING project will investigate the basic laws of spine generation and detection on graphene, how to read and write spines, and how to use them to transmit information.
 
Jose Ignacio Pascual is an Ikerbasque Researcher at CIC nanoGUNE, and is also the scientific coordinator of the project; As Pascual explained, "Graphene is suitable for future information technologies, because we can produce well-formed positions with atomic precision. In this project, we will explore its magnetic properties and see the possibilities for its insertion into quantum devices. ”

SPRING consortium

1. CIC nanoGUNE. The CIC nanoGUNE Nanoscience Cooperative Research Center in San Sebastian was created with the aim of pursuing excellence in nanoscience and nanotechnology in order to increase the economic development and competitiveness of the Basque Country. www.nanogune.eu
2. Delft Technical University (TUDelft). TUDelft is the largest and most diverse engineering university in the Netherlands. Cross-disciplinary rigorous research is being conducted in the Department of Quantum Nanoscience, focused on the study of physical processes at the nanoscale. www.tudelft.nl
3. The University of Santiago de Compostela (USC) was founded in 1495 and is a public university. It has about 28,000 students and about 3,000 PhD students. USC is designated as an International Campus of Excellence, a strategic Spanish program specializing in life sciences and technologies. www.usc.es/ciqus/es
4. IBM Research GMBH (IBM). IBM is a globally integrated technology and consulting firm headquartered in Armonk, New York. It operates in more than 170 countries, attracting and retaining IBM's most talented people to help solve problems for businesses, governments and nonprofits. www.zurich.ibm.com
5. Rector of Oxford University (UOXF), faculty and academics. UOXF is a leading university in education and research; is the UK's leading research university. The European Commission was awarded Human Resources Excellence in Research for its system and best practice. www.ox.ac.uk
6. Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC). The DIPC research center is located in Donostia-San Sebastián, which aims to catalyze and catalyze cutting-edge research in physics and related disciplines as well as transferring scientific culture to society. DIPC was created through a strategic alliance of public organizations and private companies. www.dipc.ehu.eus

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