"Matheroes: The Box" is aimed to disseminate the results of our research in advanced functional materials and to promote scientific vocations among secondary school students. It is the continuation of the successful exhibition project "Matheroes: Supermaterials, the heroes of the future", in which more than 18,000 people have already participated, including more than 10,000 students throughout Spain.

The objective of the project is therefore to continue promoting science among students and young people and their interest in scientific-technical careers through a novel and non-formal format that allows us to introduce the scientific method and our research in advanced functional materials for energy, electronics and health. 

The project will generate material for secondary school students, who will participate in a scientific "Escape Room" related with our 5 superheroes: Fotoenergy, Superconductor, Magnon, Electrowoman and Bionanocapsule. The project will also count with infographics and material for school teachers. The idea is also to prepare a "graphic novel" in which the supermaterials are the main characters of the story. 

The project starts now in July 2020 with the planification and design, and will take place during the academic course 2020-2021, ending in June 2021. The project will count with an online format to make sure that it will arrive to the schools, even if there is another lockdown or we cannot approach the school classes. 

We are very happy for this project, and for being one of the 27 projects that have been granted by the FECYT within the CSIC, out of the 76 that were presented (35 % success). In total, 727 projects were presented in this FECYT call, and 187 received funding, from more than 100 organizations including universities, research centers, and companies. Between 2012 and 2019, the CSIC has received funding for a total of 206 projects in the FECYT calls. 

More information:

• Visit the Matheroes: Supermaterials, the heroes of the future website (in Catalan and Spanish)
• Matheroes blog, with all the news about the project (Matheroes website)
• MATHEROES: Supermateriales, los héroes del futuro (Divulgateca, FECYT website)
• MATHEROES, or how to make materials science appealing, in Material-ES (27 May 2020, ICMAB website)
• The #Matheroes exhibition at the Biblioteca Vapor Badia (Sabadell) (16 Oct 2019, ICMAB website)
• Students from Lleida visit the ICMAB and the Matheroes! (5 Des 2018, ICMAB website)
• The project MATHEROES will be presented at the ICMAB (17 Oct 2018, ICMAB website)
• The project "Matheroes: Supermaterials, the heroes of the future" will be presented at the European Researchers Night in Zaragoza (27 Sept 2018, ICMAB website)
• Nanotecnología en el Universo Marvel (SizeMatters YouTube)

Cover Image: The Matheroes at the Vapor Badia Library in Sabadell in 2019.