Elettra Highlights 2024–2025 164 Figure 1: Logo i-CAMPUS-H2 project and FVG Region Funds Figure 2: Logo ERA_SHUTTLE project and CERIC-ERIC Facts & Figures 1 https://www.areasciencepark.it/project/i-campus-h2/ 2 https://www.areasciencepark.it/project/nahv/ 3 https://erashuttle.eu/ Projects and International Initiatives Years 2024-2025 have seen our Elettra and FERMI researchers involved in a variety of projects, from the Friuli Venezia Giulia Regional ones to the MAECI and PRIN National ones, from the Horizon Europe and COST European Calls, to the Australian funds. Elettra — together with CNR-IOM and AREA Science Park — has received the regional grant i-CAMPUS-H21, which aims to strengthen the capabilities of the Basovizza campus laboratories in the analytical characterization of materials involved in the transition to a hydrogen-based economy. The ultimate goal is to develop an integrated, openaccess research infrastructure for the production, storage, transport, and use of green hydrogen, fostering collaboration between academia and industry. As part of this project, Elettra will build a new experimental station at the SuperESCA beamline dedicated to photoemission spectroscopy (XPS). This facility will support catalysis studies under near-ambient pressure (NAP) conditions, with the aim of optimizing catalyst performance for water electrolysis and green hydrogen production, in line with the objectives of the North Adriatic Hydrogen Valley2 initiative (ref. A. Locatelli). In 2024-2025, four projects financed by CERIC-ERIC, under the “Expression of Interests” call, have started: • ESBY (Electron microscopy for Structural BiologY at CERIC-ERIC) will allow the installation of a new cryo-confocal microscope Stellaris 5 by Leica (ref. L. Vaccari); • STEAM (multiScale TErAhertz iMaging), provided a new offline instrument, now fully operational, for the TeraFERMI beamline (ref. A. Perucchi); • FAITH (Flexible Apparatus for Imaging and TomograpHy) aims to upgrade one of the microCT offline instrument in Tomolab (ref. D. Dreossi); • Bat-ERIC is dedicated to the Battery Lab and will provide users with a complete pipeline of instruments and knowhow for the study of energy materials, from sample preparation to sample measurements (ref. J. Plaisier). All these projects are allowing new instruments to be added to the Italian Partner Facility offer in CERIC-ERIC. Among the European projects, it is worth mentioning ERA_SHUTTLE (Accelerating ERA by Sharing Unique Talents for Healthy Life and Environment)3: the Horizon Europe WIDERA scheme allows researchers to learn from world-level research centers and implement the acquired knowledge at their home institutions once back. Within ERA_SHUTTLE, Elettra will work with CERIC-ERIC to host 3 experienced researchers from the Universities of Gdansk, Split and Malta in our offline laboratories TOMOLAB, SISSI-BIO-OFF and NanoInnovation (ref. C. Blasetti). Elettra’s researchers are involved in several COST Actions, fostering networking and training for your researchers. The SNOOPY project will bring together a network of experts and young innovators from diverse disciplines (chemistry, biology, biochemistry, materials science, nanotechnology, medicine, physics) to overcome existing barriers to predict and implement bioactive peptides' ability to self-assemble into functional nanostructures, including those at the interface with membranes, potentially forming pores and channels (ref. B. Rossi). The ENRICH COST Action aims to strengthen connections among different radiation detection physics sub-communities. ENRICH will be promoting collaboration among existing communities to achieve significant advancements in X-ray and gamma rays photon detections, photons sources, data analysis and data acquisition, beyond the current state of the art (ref. A. Gianoncelli). The IMPACT (Implementation of X-ray Phase-Contrast Tomography to Transform Cancer Diagnosis) project is financed by Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Synergy Grants. Coordinated by the University of Sydney, it will be implemented at the Australian Synchrotron and at Elettra 2.0. IMPACT is supporting Elettra researchers in developing new protocols for low-dose phase-contrast lung tomography to enable the early diagnosis of lung cancer and idiopathic fibrosis. The objective of the present series of experiments is to validate the feasibility studies for the forthcoming clinical trial, which will be conducted at the Elettra 2.0 beamline SYRMEP-LS (ref. G. Tromba). For more updates on our running projects, please consult the section “Meetings, Workshops and Schools”. Elettra Sincrotrone Trieste is part of Regional, National, European and Global networks. In 2024-2025 we have been involved in 30 European / International projects, 14 National ones, 2 Regional and 4 granted by CERIC-ERIC, with new funding acquired for nearly 1.4 MEuro. Figure 3: Logo COST Action
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