The main Spanish groups that hold the leadership in the field of microbial electrochemical technologies have created IBERIMET, the National Network of Microbial Electrochemical Technologies. The aim of IBERIMET is to set-up a work group with all the national active groups in the field. From the very beginning (2003) Spanish researchers showed interest in playing an important role in this new-born discipline. After one decade, Spain is the European country with the largest number of researchers in the field, and coordinating H2020 projects MET-based.
The nature of METs is based on three disciplines that rarely converge at high level in the same research group: microbiology, engineering and electrochemistry. The promoters believe that IBERIMET will be a key tool for facilitating the interaction among groups with two main objectives:
- Accelerate the technological development of METs through enhancing the synergism between the partners
- Achieve larger application scale (full scale) to make METs atractive technologies with interest for the industrial sector
More generally, fostering collaboration among different groups of the network will benefit the development of knowledge through:
- Better use of resources and the equipment and facilities of the various groups.
- Accelerating the implementation of these new technologies through the creation of multidisciplinary teams.
- Better training of pre-doctoral researchers in their stages.