Education

The NCCR Bio-Inspired Materials, uniting researchers from chemistry, physics, biology, medicine, and materials science, offered interdisciplinary education and training opportunities to students of all educational levels. The goals of the Center included:

To spark the interest of elementary and high-school students in science and scientific careers and to contribute to their education;
To create research opportunities at all educational levels (high school, undergraduate, PhD, postdoctoral) and expose a large number of students to the Center’s activities;
To develop and offer new interdisciplinary education and training at the Masters, doctoral and postdoctoral levels in the domain of “soft materials”;
To support the career development of PhD students and post-docs;
To promote the careers of pre-tenured researchers.

By offering unique education and research opportunities, fostering the advancement of young scientists in natural and life sciences, and providing attractive boundary conditions, the Center became a desirable destination for young students and researchers. Key programs offered by the NCCR Bio-Inspired Materials included: Undergraduate Summer Research Internships, a new Materials Science module for Unifr's Chemistry Master Program, Graduate Student Exchanges, and an Independence Grant for young researchers.

The NCCR Bio-Inspired Materials Faculty Delegate for Education were Prof. Katharina Fromm (2014-2015), Prof. Andreas Kilbinger (2015-2022) and Prof. Guillermo Acuna (2022-2026).

**Summer Internships for Undergraduates**