HydronVision (FFG F&E 2024)
With a total project volume of €3 million — of which €2.5 million is funded by the FFG — the project aims to build a globally unique infrastructure for analysing hydrogen–material interactions with atomically-resolved in situ Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy.
At its core is a specially modified modern aberration-corrected electron microscope equipped with a novel low-energy proton source — the HydroGun — enabling hydrogen to be implanted directly into samples for in situ observation. HydronVision will position Austria as a world-leading centre for fundamental hydrogen research, supporting world's green transition and strengthening the fields of metallurgy, materials science, and fracture mechanics.
International project partners & collaborators
Prof. Milos B. Djukic — University of Belgrade, Serbia.
Prof. Richard A. Wilhelm — IAP, TU Wien, Austria.
Prof. C. Barry Carter — University of Connecticut , USA.
Prof. Ehsan Ghassemali — Jönköping University, Sweden.
Prof. Randi Holmestad — NTNU, Norway.
Dr. Jonathan A. Hinks — UKAEA, United Kingdom.
National Industrial supporters
voestalpine Stahl GmbH
Plansee AG
RAG Austria AG
WIVA P&G
AMAG Austria Metall AG
We would like to thank the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) for funding provided to the project HydronVision (FFG No. 928330). HydronVision is funded by both the Fonds Zukunft Österreich and the FFG (www.ffg.at). The FFG is the central national funding organisation and strengthens Austria’s innovative power.
Project publications (2026 - present)
Most-recent projects completed at the Los Alamos (2021-2023)
Previous granted funding
Previous funding provided by the Laboratory Directed Research and Development program established at theLos Alamos National Laboratory through the Director's Fellowship grant agreement number 20200689PRD2 ("Highly Ordered Refractory Intermetallics: The ZIA Phases Project") and also the project numbers 20220597ECR (PI Dr. Caitlin Kohnert) and 20210626ECR (PI Dr. Osman El-Atwani).
Previous funding provided through ASTRO fellowship, a U.S. Department of Energy workforce development program implemented at Oak Ridge National Laboratory through the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education under contract DE-AC05-06OR23100 ("Investigating the radiation response of MAX phases as fusion materials").
Previous funding provided by the São Paulo Research Foundation for the scholarship "Development of a methodology for remote caracterisation of nuclear fission products by LIDAR and LIBS techiques" under contract 09/15249-9.
Previous funding provided by the Technological Center of the Navy in São Paulo for the postgraduate fellowship "Modelling a Compact Nuclear Reactor for Materials Optimization Studies in Biological Shielding in Nuclear Submarines".
Previous funding provided by the Santander Universities for a short-term international fellowship at the University of New Mexico (USA) in the Department of Nuclear Engineering.
Previous funding for post-doctoral position at Montanuniversität Leoben provided by the European Research Council Starting Grant project TRANSDESIGN (PI Stefan Pogastcher) through the Horizon 2020 program under contract 757961.
Previous user proposals
Previous funding (user proposals) provided by the Nuclear Science User Facilities for 2-week irradiation campaigns in the IVEM facility in the Argonne National Laboratory.
Previous funding (user proposals) provided by the United Kingdom's National Ion Beam Centre for 2-weeks irradiation campaigns in the MIAMI-2 facility at the United Kingdom Energy Authority.
Previous infrastructure funding
Construction of the MIAMI-2 system was previously funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, United Kingdom under grant number EP/M028283/1.
PIs Stephen Donnelly/Jonathan Hinks/Andrew Ball
Our role: Users/Researchers.
Previous funding provided by the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) in the project 3DnanoAnalytics (FFG-No 858040) for a ThermoFisher ScientificTM Talos F200X G2 within the project "3DnanoAnalytics".
PI Stefan Pogastcher
Our role: Users/Researchers.
Previous funding provided by the Laboratory Directed Research & Development (LDRD) program at LANL for the acquisition of both (i) a thermal drift control system for the FEI Titan 80/300 TEM for the Electron Microscopy Laboratory and (ii) a hydrogen delivery system FLEXI HYCO for the HydrideLab.
Our role: PI Matheus A. Tunes.