The construction of the facilities has a budget of 6.3 million euros, and in this new laboratory Ikerlan-IK4 will carry out advanced research projects into microtechnologies and promote the development of innovative products that incorporate value through this technology.
The building work and the research activities to be carried out have the financial support of the Ministry of Science and Innovation, the MONDRAGON Corporation, the Basque Government and the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa.
Its activity will be aimed at products in mature sectors in the Basque Country like the automotive industry, domestic appliances or machine tools, and others developed by emerging sectors such as health, food safety or the environment.
The laboratory will occupy a surface area of 2,754 m2. The heart of this infrastructure will be a 300 m2 clean room which will have state-of-the-art scientific equipment for scientific-technological research in the field of micro-nanotechnologies, in the areas of Microfluidics, Organic Polymers and Integration of Micro-nanosystems. Together with the clean room, the new laboratory will include the infrastructures necessary to design systems based on microtechnologies, as well as an area aimed at housing future spin-offs.
The plans are to increase the research team, which currently consists of 23 researchers, significantly over the period 2009-2011, until it achieves the critical mass necessary to become a point of reference in the areas of competence developed. Those in charge of the project plan to set up a powerful group of researchers specialising in micro-nanotechnologies, who will work in close collaboration with leading-edge research groups worldwide. This growth will take place in the context of the strategic influence of CIC microGUNE.
Ikerlan-IK4 will put special effort into the application of microtechnologies in the health and energy sectors, where there is an emerging movement that will be responsible for significant advances in the future, and in which the Technology Centre enjoys an advantageous position thanks to the research it has been carrying out since 1997.
Ikerlan-IK4’s activity in the field of health will focus on developing technology for low-cost disposable devices that will enable illnesses to be diagnosed quickly, as well as dosing devices for medicines and biocompatible microimplants, among other applications. These activities will be carried out in close collaboration with the other research groups in CIC microGUNE.
As far as the energy sector is concerned, the laboratory will work in different areas, like the design of new generation devices leading to cheaper and more flexible solar panels, and permit their application for the autonomous supply of devices and the generation of electricity on a small scale.
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