NCCR Bio-Inspired Materials

The National Center of Competence in Research (NCCR) Bio-Inspired Materials is a Swiss research collaboration started in 2014. Its vision is to establish a leading center for smart materials research, education, and innovation. The NCCR, through its leadership team at the Adolphe Merkle Institute in Fribourg, coordinates a team of 26 research groups at its home institution the University of Fribourg, EPFL and ETH Zurich, in physics, chemistry, materials science, biology, and medicine, along with other groups and researchers at CSEM, Empa, Cornell University, TU Darmstadt, and the University of Salzburg. The NCCR’s scientific goal is to take inspiration from natural materials for the creation of new macromolecular and nanomaterials and assemble them into stimuli-responsive materials with new properties. We envision them in innovative applications, particularly in the field of life sciences; e.g., tumor diagnostics and implants. These new interdisciplinary projects will soon begin to provide solutions to some of the major unsolved problems of our world as well as create exciting scientific advances. The National Centers of Competence in Research (NCCRs) are a research instrument of the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF).