Lars Montelius is the new director of INL – a “gem”

In his presentation as the new Director of the International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory (INL), Lars Montelius, a Swedish physicist with over 20 years of experience in the field of nanoscience, identified the challenge facing the center as that of "making the INL a true international beacon, clearly visible not only to Portugal and Spain, but also to Europe, the US, and Asia."

To respond to this challenge, the new director highlighted the great opportunity that INL has to start closer regional cooperation, interact with society, and make more local connections, but also from a European and international perspective. "It is a unique place for the development of nanotechnology science. It is a fantastic place to do fantastic research and, in the international context, it is like a hidden gem, very few people know of its existence, but it could become very important for research and innovation, not only for Portugal and Spain, but also from a European perspective," he said.

The INL is Europe's first international laboratory dedicated exclusively to nanoscience and nanotechnology. It was created in collaboration between the Portuguese and Spanish governments in 2005 and has been operating since 2009. It conducts research in nanotechnology with a particular focus on nanomedicine and food and environmental quality control. Over the last three years, the Portuguese government has sought to open up the INL to international cooperation, both through links to European initiatives and networks in the field of nanotechnology and by establishing bilateral scientific relations centered on the Laboratory. Agreements signed with China, Brazil, Argentina, and Algeria are examples of international collaborations that have already been established.

At the presentation of the new Director, the Secretary of State for Science, Leonor Parreira, thanked the previous management for their dedication and excellent work in creating and consolidating the Laboratory, highlighting the "new cycle that is intended to be both open to the outside world and integrated into the national and regional development policies of Portugal and Spain."

The Portuguese and Spanish governments appointed a prestigious committee made up of four members of the international science and innovation community, who were tasked with selecting, without any restrictions on nationality, the person to head the INL. Lars Montelius was selected and took up his post on September 1, 2014, for a period of five years. He is a Professor of Nanotechnology at Lund University, Sweden, with specific interests in the interaction of nanotechnology with the Life Sciences, especially in the field of neuronanoscience. He has published more than 165 scientific articles and holds 22 patents, and has also founded several technology-based companies in this field. Between 2009 and 2011, he was director of the Oresund Science Region, a cooperation initiative between Sweden and Denmark involving 12 universities, several regional entities, six science parks, 2,000 companies, and 12,000 researchers.