NorFab provides access to state-of-the-art laboratories for Norwegian researchers, independent of their academic, institute or company affiliation. The laboratories include the three academic nodes NTNU NanoLab in Trondheim, SINTEF MiNaLab and UiO MiNaLab in Oslo, and the University of South-Eastern Norway MST-Lab located between Tønsberg and Horten. NorFab provides national access to an infrastructure that contains generic and state-of-the-art equipment applicable for micro- and nanotechnology. All partners have a complementary profile and are committed to a national coordination on investments and further development of the infrastructure. Since inception in 2010 NorFab has already addressed a broad spectrum of users ranging from academic groups focusing on fundamental research and education, to innovative companies with the need for a small scale production facility. NorFab covers all thematic areas described in the National Strategy for Nanotechnology, and the aim of the current project is to continue expanding the
user community and to further enhance micro- and nanofabrication competence through process documentation and sharing. The vision of NorFab is to be a robust and competent consortium, supporting and enabling research and innovation for the emerging micro- and nanosystems industry in Norway. The NorFab project therefore aims to maintain a competitive infrastructure for development and pilot fabrication. In order to fulfill this vision, the infrastructure must be maintained at top international level, also in the coming years. This requires continuous upgrades of the equipment and the associated competence. This project applies for a continuation of the funding for a new 4 year period (2020-23) including two years of investments. In 2022 two additional years of investment funding were awarded under the NorFab IIIB proposal, bringing the total project volume to 495 MNOK whereof 130 MNOK are funded by the Research Council of Norway.
The Norwegian Infrastructure for Micro- and Nanofabrication (NorFab) was established in 2010 as a partnership between NTNU, University of Oslo, University of South-Eastern Norway and the research institute SINTEF. NorFab ´s vision is to be a robust and competent backbone for research and innovation based on Micro- and Nanotechnology(MNT) in Norway. As one of the first national research infrastructures (RI) in Norway, NorFab has been a pioneer for development of the national infrastructure concept in Norway. Over the last 10 years NorFab has established a successful management model to run the distributed national infrastructure, implemented the RI resource model, implemented a common Laboratory Management System at the university labs, developed training courses and a price policy, established the Nordic Nanotechnology Network with associated expert groups and actively promoted MNT research in Norway and Europe. All partners have a complementary profile and are committed to national coordination on investments and further development of the infrastructure. NorFab has already invested or committed to invest more than 840 MNOK in equipment, people and competence from 2010 to 2023, of which 311MNOK was funded by the research council (37%) and 535 MNOK through own contributions (63%) in the infrastructure. NorFab promotes high quality research and innovation facilities for start-ups and established industry. This shows the strategic importance of the infrastructure for all the involved partners. NorFab ´s strategy has proven to be successful as the number of users and user hours have doubled since 2010. NorFab IIIb is an application to allow investments in the final two years (2022-2023) of the already approved NorFab III project. NorFab is requesting funding for strategically needed state of the art investments (with significant contribution from host institutions) to sustain and develop the activity for the final two years of the NorFab III project period.