Published: May 14, 2012

 

Marie Curie Actions implemented by the EU aim to make research careers more attractive to young people. These networks offer young researchers the opportunity to join established research teams to work on projects of scientific excellence, improve their skills and career prospects.

NewGenPak ITN provides funding for many research projects (ten PhD students and three postdocs). This research component is coordinated by the Laboratory of Pulp and Paper Science and Graphic Arts (LGP2). The objective is to advance state of the art practices of sustainable packaging made from wood cellulose and, in three specific areas:  next generation composite material packaging, cellulose fiber based active packaging and environmental, economic and societal aspects of packaging production.

For its part, the laboratory LGP2 will host a doctoral student who will work on the chemical modification of nanocelluloses in order to provide active properties (anti-microbial, anti-counterfeiting,...) packaging.

The training component of NewGenPak ITN is coordinated by the University of Bologna. The network offers a joint research training program to the ten PhD students and three postdocs. With a Marie Curie fellowship (higher than the salary of a beginning engineer), every participant will spend a period of the time at (at least) two other participants and will participate each semester in a one-week workshop bringing together all network participants.

Among the partners NewGenPak ITN:

• Sheffield Hallam University - UK
• Karlstad University - Sweden
• Technical University of Denmark - Denmark
• Università di Bologna - Italy
• Grenoble INP - France
• Innovhub - Italy
• West Pomeranian University of Technology - Szezcin - Poland
• Instituto Tecnológico del Embalaje, Transporte y Logística (ITENE) - Spain
• Papiertechnische Stiftung (PTS) - Germany
• Imerys - UK
  
• Chesapeake - UK
  
• Bumaga BV - Netherlands