Accelerate the design and Insertion of nonCRM hard Materials for Next generation EXTreme applications (AIM-NEXT)

The AIM-NEXT project arises from the common need of European academy and industry to educate and train the next generation of experts in the field of “Sustainable design of material solutions for engineering applications”.

In this regard, the need to Accelerate the design and Insertion of hard Material tools and components, manufactured using non-critical raw materials, for Next generation EXTreme applications has been identified as an area of strategic economic and environmental importance for the European Union, where accordingly the skills developed by the doctoral students are adapted to the current and future industrial needs and the ongoing transformation towards more sustainable production processes.

To address this need, a coherent international, interdisciplinary, and intersectoral training and research programme has been developed involving a selection of some of the best European Universities in the field together with worldwide leading Industrial organisations covering fundamental elements of the product value chain in key industrial sectors (i.e. mining, manufacturing and construction engineering).

By participating in the AIM-NEXT project, the 10 Doctoral Candidates will receive: (i) top level interdisciplinary training through a defined scheme where each fellow is exposed to all three technical environments; (ii) intersectorial training articulated through a wide variety of strategic research themes and the different application areas represented in the consortium; and (iii) international training through a portfolio of mandatory network-wide training events and secondments at academic and industrial partners.

Thus, the combination of technical and transferrable skills acquired by the fellows through technical training, interdisciplinary research and industrial exposure will enhance their employability and open up solid career opportunities to them, particularly within a field where skilled PhD engineers are currently an extremely scarce resource.