In March 2020, a brand new training module took place on the EPN campus (ILL–ESRF, Grenoble, France) for 25 students from the Postgraduate School of the Grenoble Alpes University. Designed by the “large-scale instrument characterization program “and the “training program” of the Institute, the module provided PhD students with an overview of different synchrotron and neutron analysis techniques applied to nanoelectronics. Four lectures of three hours each were given in English, the visit of the ILL facilities could be carried out on the last day, the one for ESRF was postponed due to COVID-19.
The notation rate by the students reached 8.6/10 of satisfaction. Six students plan to submit a proposal to ILL or ESRF in the near future to advance their thesis research. Indeed, the new knowledge acquired here has given them ideas on how to solve bottlenecks encountered in their work, using possibilities of the large-scale facilities. An optional session to try the serious game “RnDyneo”, developed in the frame of the Education & training program of IRT Nanoelec, was given during the first two afternoons allowing a first approach in a playful way to the project management in R&D. The module will probably be offered again in the coming years.