On November 27, the Minister for Science, Universities and Innovation of the Basque Government, Juan Ignacio Pérez Iglesias, visited the facilities of BCMaterials in Leioa. The goal of the visit was to show the Minister the important evolution of the centre in the research of new materials since its creation in 2012 until today, when it has more than one hundred people in its own staff, plus another 26 associated researchers freom UPV/EHU.

We want to congratulate Natalia Río López, pre-doctoral researcher of BCMaterials, for becoming new doctor on 17th December. Natalia made a brilliant defense of her thesis entitled "Relation between microstructure and properties in magnetic shape memory alloys studied by neutron diffraction".

It is our pleasure to see Natalia grating this great achievement and we want to underline the hard work she has been doing through these PhD years. Congratulations, Natalia!!

We are happy to welcome Ricardo Brito Pereira as a new Juan de la Cierva post-doctoral fellow researcher at our center. Ricardo joins the Micro and Nano-devices research line, where he will contribute to the design and fabrication of printed smart sensors for environmental and biomedical applications.

BCMaterials welcomes Nerea Lopategui, who joined us as a new Technical Research Assistant intern. She will work providing support to a growing laboratory activity in our facilities. Nerea's academic and professional training is related to clinical and biomedical laboratories. Welcome to the team, Nerea!

We are happy to receive Clara Rojas García as a new post-doctoral researcher at our center. Dr. Rojas joined BCMaterials to work in the Advanced Functional Materials and Surfaces research line. She will contribute to the design and fabrication of transient and biodegradable batteries that accomplish the principles of ecodesign and circular economy.

The kick-off meeting of the Revalorization of forest waste for agriculture 4.0 (Reforest 4.0) project took place in November. This project is funded by the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training. BCMaterials is part of the consortium together with Labpaper Tolosa, CIFP Don Bosco, Malerreka Common Zerbitzuak and Salesianos Pamplona.

Sepsis or septicemia is a serious and potentially fatal response to an infection that can worsen very quickly. A 2020 WHO report estimates that sepsis causes 30 million deaths a year worldwide. It is estimated that the risk of dying from complications of infections increases by 7.6% for every hour of delay in treatment. It is estimated that early diagnosis of sepsis could save the lives of 200,000 people annually.

The kick-off meeting of the BIOntier project (BreakIng FrOntiers in sustainable and circular biocomposites with high performance for multi-sector applications) was held in mid-October in Heraklion (Crete, Greece). The project, funded by the European Union's Horizon Europe programme, is made up of a consortium of 25 entities from 12 countries. BCMaterials is one of several Basque partners in the project, along with Tecnalia and Graphenea.

We would like to welcome Stephania Rodríguez Muiña as a new predoctoral researcher at BCMaterials. This young scientist joins our center to work on the Micro and Nanodevices research line, within the framework of the Marie Curie Doctoral Network ECLectic. This European project aims at the early diagnosis of sepsis using electrochemolinoscence.

Here at BCMaterials we would like to give our warmest welcome to Son Singh and Shehla Gul, post-doctoral and pre-doctoral researchers who joined our center recently.