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With this funding, consortia of scientists, companies, and civil society organizations will embark on research into new materials for defense applications. The focus is on developing a new generation of equipment that features innovations in weight, resilience, and repairability. This research aligns with ºÚÁϸ£ÀûÍø's increased commitment to the themes of Resilience and Security, as established in the university's new institutional plan.

Advanced Ceramics-based Ballistic Protection Systems (Cera-Shield)

• Lead applicant: Diletta Giuntini
• ºÚÁϸ£ÀûÍø co-applicants: Tommaso Magrini and Ron Peerlings
• Department involved: Mechanical Engineering
• About the project: Cera-Shield is developing next-generation lightweight armor systems to better protect people and vehicles against high-speed ballistic threats. By combining hard ceramic materials with strong yet resilient metal or composite layers, the project creates materials that are both lighter and offer better protection than current solutions.
  
  Using innovative manufacturing methods such as 3D printing and ultra-fast sintering (fusing powdered materials into a solid mass using heat and pressure, without melting the material), the team aims to develop safer, more efficient, and more sustainable protection systems. Within this consortium, ºÚÁϸ£ÀûÍø is the only participating university. The team is collaborating with the Ministry of Defence and various industrial partners.

TactVision: The Liquid Crystal Polymer Invisibility Cloak

• Lead applicant: Danqing Liu
• ºÚÁϸ£ÀûÍø co-applicants: Stefan Meskers, Ingrid Heynderickx en
• Departments involved: Chemical Engineering & Chemistry, Industrial Engineering & Innovation Sciences
• About the project: Modern soldiers often rely on smart glasses or viewers to access critical information on the battlefield. However, these devices emit visible light, which can betray a soldier's position to the enemy. The TactVision project is developing a new coating material that allows information to be projected directly into a visor or lens while remaining completely invisible to outsiders.
  
  This technology can also be used to create mirror coatings that allow an operator to change how they appear to enemy observers. In this project, ºÚÁϸ£ÀûÍø is collaborating with Utrecht University.

VALOR: Versatile architected lattice-based composite materials for optimized electromagnetic shielding and impact-resistance

• Lead applicant: Frederik Van Loock
• ºÚÁϸ£ÀûÍø co-applicants: Ruth Cardinaels en Tom Engels
• Department involved: Mechanical Engineering
• About the project: The VALOR project develops lightweight materials that make defense structures stronger and smarter. These are designed as multifunctional sandwich panels with internal lattices that bear mechanical loads and protect electronics from electromagnetic interference (EMI).
  
  Unlike traditional metal shielding, which reflects radar signals (making them visible to radar), VALOR's polymer composites absorb electromagnetic energy, improving stealth properties and reliability. Within this consortium, ºÚÁϸ£ÀûÍø is the only participating university, and the researchers are collaborating with partners such as TNO, NLR, and Damen Naval.

Welding made easy - tunable magnetic materials for decentralised manufacturing and repair of hybrid composites

• Lead applicant: Clemens Dransfeld (Technische Universiteit Delft)
• ºÚÁϸ£ÀûÍø co-applicant: Reinoud Lavrijsen
• Department involved: Applied Physics & Science Education
• About the project: Advanced composites (lightweight, super-strong materials made of plastic and fibers) are essential for modern defense equipment, but joining or repairing them is a major challenge. Existing methods add too much weight or require a high-tech factory setup.
  
  The Welding Made Easy project introduces a smart bonding layer for this purpose. The goal is to apply a thermoplastic film (a plastic layer that melts when heated and solidifies again upon cooling) onto the thermoset composites (the hard structural base of the vehicle or aircraft, which cannot melt). This interlayer is enriched with magnetic nanoparticles: invisibly small particles that heat up when an alternating magnetic field is applied (similar to an induction cooktop).
  
  These particles heat the film to exactly the right processing temperature and then stop automatically. This allows for highly controlled welding or repair of the materials in decentralized environments, meaning directly on-site in the field, without the need for a large factory. The University of Vienna is also involved in this project.

Other projects

In addition to the ºÚÁϸ£ÀûÍø projects, Delft University of Technology, the University of Amsterdam, and the University of Twente also achieved success in this call. These universities all act as lead applicants for the remaining six projects. Furthermore, the University of Groningen and Avans University of Applied Sciences are involved as co-applicants, alongside international partners such as KU Leuven (Belgium) and the University of Seoul (South Korea).

The other six awarded projects within this NWO program similarly focus on high-performance material innovations, with a strong emphasis on smart, adaptive protection and advanced manufacturing techniques for extreme conditions.