CA15216 - European Network of Bioadhesion Expertise: Fundamental Knowledge to Inspire Advanced Bonding Technologies (ENBA)

Many organisms, ranging from bacteria and fungi to those much larger animals and plants use chemical and mechanical means to attach permanently or temporarily to surfaces. Some bioadhesives have advantages over synthetic counterparts in terms of their ability to function over a wide temperature range, in wet or dry environments, and to form stable bonds within seconds to all manner of substrata, even those with challenging surface coatings.

Knowledge about these materials, in terms of composition, structural design and interactions with surfaces, is necessary to reveal the basic biochemical and mechanical principles involved in biological adhesion.

This COST Action European Network of Bioadhesion Expertise (ENBA) will unite the widespread European expertise in the field of biological adhesives (spanning biology, physics, chemistry, and engineering) by streamlining and pooling knowledge, methods and techniques, and will focus activities by avoiding duplication of efforts, decreasing research costs, and accelerating scientific and technological progress in Europe.

The bottom-up approach of this COST Action, integrating universities, applied research organisations and industry into an holistic program providing technical and scientific progress in understanding the fundamentals of natural bonding principles and test these natural systems in vitro. Knowledge achieved in this COST Action would certainly have a major impact on European academia and industrial competitiveness in the field of adhesion, nanotechnology, biomaterial and biotechnology and raise public awareness of the diversity of bioadhesives and their impact for technical applications in the future.