Advanced Research Training for Additive Manufacturing of the Biomaterials and Tissues of the Future

General Information

Print4Life will deliver early-stage researchers with the necessary innovative technical and entrepreneurial training to provide advances in the understanding of the possibilities and limitations of additively manufacturing advanced biomaterials as well as 3-dimensional cell-containing models for advanced biological studies. These researchers will gain the necessary subject-specific, intersectoral knowledge and the wider innovation skills demanded by industry with which to deliver timely and cost-effective solutions to some of Europe’s most imminent healthcare problems. The career options for these researchers are wide-ranging, including academia as well as regulatory affairs, commercial R&D, management and policy, all of which comprise a significant leadership and innovation component. This aim will be achieved by a unique combination of hands-on research in leading research centers, industry secondments and wide-ranging workshops covering technical and transferable skills. Additive manufacturing, including bioprinting, and its possibilities for providing patient-specific solutions to tissue defects as well as new material performances and enhanced models for biological testing has received global attention due to its disruptiveness. This means that we are still learning, and it is important to educate for this. It provides immense possibilities for the global economy, and for a sustainable world, allowing for less material use as well as sustainable solutions to healthcare issues and increased resilience at the European level. In this program we will focus on degradable, antibacterial materials and tissues in light of the alarmingly increasing antimicrobial resistance worldwide. Here new materials as well as new test methodologies will be researched, while ensuring that we educate for the future in the disruptive technology that is additive manufacturing.

Print4Life is a European Doctoral Training Network in the frame of the Horizon Europe Marie Skłodowska-Curie Program and will fund 15 PhD positions (ESR), each for a 3 years duration, in total amounting to 540 ESR months. Hereon leads the work package ‘Additively manufactured degradable materials’ and employs three ESR working with corrosion characterization of Mg and Zn alloys manufactured with Powder Bed Fusion using Laser Beam (PBF-LB) technology. The three phd studies are entitled i) Mechano-corrosive properties of PBF-LB manufactured biodegradable Mg and Zn alloys; ii) Unravelling the high reactivity of PBF-LB manufactured Mg and Zn alloys; and iii) In silico optimization of PBF-LB manufactured Mg alloys.

EU-Programme Acronym and Subprogramme Area	HORIZON-MSCA-2024-DN-01-01
Project Type	Marie Skłodowska-Curie Doctoral Training Network
Contract Number	Grant Agreement 101226431
Co-ordinator	Uppsala Universitet (SE)

Funding for the Project (€)	Funding for Hereon (€)
4,630,389	870,816

Contact Person at Hereon

Dr. Sviatlana Lamaka, Institute of Surface Science, Department of Electrochemistry and Big Data (MOD), Phone +49 4152 87 2190 E-mail contact

Participants

BRINTER AM Technologies OY (FI), Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel (DE), Dublin City University (IE), Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich (CH), Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz FHNW (CH), Hydrumedical SA (PT), Pharmaceutical Business Consultants Ltd (IE), Quintus Technologies AB (SE), Region Uppsala (SE), Universidade Do Minho (PT), Universitat Politecnica De Catalunya (ES), Uppsala Universitet (SE), XapHe LTD (UK)

Last Update: 07. October 2025