The potential of deliberately created engineered surfaces has not been explored to any notable extent, yet there is strong evidence suggesting that significant gains can be achieved in terms of anti-bacteria, low adhesion and friction, de-icing, and self-cleaning. The project “Design and Fabrication of Functional Surfaces with Controllable Wettability, Adhesion and Reflectivity (FabSurfWAR)” facilitates the staff exchange between the partners of EU and Asia, and the development of key enabling techniques of designing and generating micro/nano-surface topology with better control of bacterial growth, adhesion, friction and other tribological properties for potential applications from surgical tools, biomedical devices, to turbine blades and agricultural machines. It meets the objectives and requirements of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions: Research and Innovation Staff Exchange (RISE), by establishing multiple bridges between European and Asian institutions. It will develop fabrication techniques for functional surfaces and use biomimicry (represented by the Pangolin below) to develop surfaces with controllable wettability, adhesion and reflectivity.

The ultimate goal of FabSurfWAR is to set up a long-term international and inter-sector collaboration consortium through research and innovation staff exchanges between ten world-recognised institutions in the cutting-edge research area of micro/nano-surface engineering with promising applications in scientific and engineering sectors. The synergistic methodologies achieved by FabSurfWAR will serve as the building blocks of the micro/nano-functional surface design, fabrication, measurement, characterisation and scale up application, and thus enhance the leading position of the consortium for the scientific and technological progresses in functional surfaces and potential applications.

This project is divided into six inter-related work packages and through their integration it will lead to the accomplishment of all the project objectives within the 48 month project duration.

Project Objectives

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement no. 644971.

Coordinator Dr. Xianping Liu

University of Warwick