Norwegian Micro- and Nano-Fabrication Facility (NORFAB)

The ambitions of the proposal are to provide national access to an infrastructure that contains generic equipment applicable for micro- and nanotechnology including complete process capabilities. It addresses a broad spectrum of users ranging from academi c groups focusing on fundamental research and education, to innovative companies with the need for a small scale production facility. It thus addresses the whole value chain from education and basic research to industry applications. In micro- and nanote chnology the main challenge is that both basic and applied research, as well as industrial production rely on fast development, expensive equipment and complex processes. In order to fulfil the vision, an infrastructure in this field must be maintained at top international level and made available to interdisciplinary research. This requires continuous upgrading of the equipment and of the associated knowledge. Another challenge is to provide for the easy use of such complex instrumentations within disci plines which can benefit from utilising them. Through operating cost-effective and knowledge sharing infrastructures in combination with appropriate support for pre-projects this issue will be addressed by the project. The application aims at supporting research important both for fundamental science in general and especially for applied technologies within the thematic areas described in the National White paper on Research; Environment, Sea, Food, Energy, Health, Biotechnology, ICT and New Materials.