University of Zaragoza

The University of Zaragoza (UZ) was founded in 1542. It is the major research and higher education institution in Aragón (Top 10 universities in Spain – QS World University Rankings). As of 2020, the academic and research staff numbers around 4300. The 2020 enrolment (graduate and postgraduate studies) of UZ stood at ca. 34000, including about 2200 PhD students. Research activities within UZ research centres and UZ-CSIC joint research units include both discovery-oriented research, and beyond the proof-of-concept phase projects in a wide range of areas including chemistry, physics, materials technology and social sciences.

www.unizar.es

The Instituto de Nanociencia y Materiales de Aragón, INMA, is a joint research unit of UZ and CSIC, and a world-leading research centre in Materials Science and Nanoscience. Research within the Liquid Crystals and Polymers group at INMA exploits liquid crystals (LCs) and stimuli-responsive compounds to bring improved functionality to polymer materials, whether the functionality is structural, mechanical or dynamic. Our expertise spans from organic and polymer synthesis to materials design and characterization. The group has extensive experience in hosting international research fellows and has led one large Innovative Training Network (Dendreamers) and contributed to another one (Sassypol).