The aim of the catalog is to enourage those who participate in the FECYT call for Scientific Culture and Innovation program, to undertake innovative and high quality activities, and to guide these agents on the parameters that define these actions as unique and excellent. They can also be used as inspiration for future projects and science outreach ideas. 

In the FECYT 2017 call, 205 projects were selected by the Evaluation Committee, according to the criteria established, among the 645 applications received. The Matheroes project is one of the 15 actions among the 205 projects that is now selected to appear in this catalog. 

In the catalog, each project has the following sections: Description, Innovation and Excellence Factors, and Advices to others. The "Description" summarizes the main characteristics, as well as the team that has participated in the project and the resources and tasks that have been necessary to implement the project. The "Innovation and Excellence Factors" section highlights the factors related to the format, the objectives or the audience for which the project has stood out and for which it has been selected to be part of this catalog.

The "Advices" section includes some recommendations some of the materials that can be reusable in case you would like to carry out the the activity or make a similar one. In addition, each roject includes a Practical Information chart that indicates the minimum time needed to prepare the activity, the approximate budget and the website where you can find more information about the project along with the main highlights of the project as an innovative practice.

For more information about the rest of the projects funded, the Divulgateca website compiles the most relevant information about the activities carried out within the framework of the FECYT call, grouped into three main categories: Projects, Resources and Studies. The portal is accessible to the general public with the aim of promoting open access and the use of resources, making available the information about the funded projects to the R&D&I System agents and to the general public. 

About Matheroes

The Matheroes project started in 2017-2018 as an interactive exhibition with 5 superheroes representing the 5 research lines at ICMAB: Photoenergy (RL1), Superconductor (RL2), Magnon (RL3), Electrowoman (RL4) and Bionanocapsule (RL5). The exhibition was installed in many different places, including the European Researchers' Night in Caixaforum Zaragoza, many libraries in Barcelona and Sabadell, the minerals fair "Expominer" in Fira Barcelona, and at the same ICMAB, where it was visited by many UAB master and bachelor students. 

The exhibition was always presented together with some talks by our researchers' and some demos of different experiments related to the different materials' properties. It also had a Youtube appearance thanks to SizeMatters and was in TV in the programme "Qué animal". 

The project continued in the 2018-2020 call with a Virtual Escape, which was launched on 2020 for the Science Week and reached more than 50 schools and is still open to everyone who wants to play. 

Special thanks to all the researchers involved in the project for their time and committment, to the rest of the ICMAB staff for the coordination and management of the project, and to Esciencia, for being the perfect partners. 

More information:

• Visit the Matheroes project in the Divulgateca portal. 
• Take a look at the Matheroes website to learn more about these 5 superheroes that represent our research!
• "Innovative practices in scientific culture" catalog 2020
• Download here the "Matheroes" part of the catalog 2020
• MATHEROES, or how to make materials science appealing, in Material-ES