• Molecular Spintronics
    is a new field of research that combines the ideas and concepts developed in spintronics with the possibilities offered by molecules to perform
    electronic functions, to form self-organized nanostructures and to exhibit quantum effects.

    It ultimate goal is the creation of new spintronic devices using molecular materials, or in the longer term one or a few molecules in the race
    toward miniaturization.
  • To reach this goal a coordinated effort of the communities of Spintronics, Molecular Electronics and Molecular Magnetism is needed.

    These communities are developing a very competitive and high-quality work in Europe in their respective fields. Still, Molecular Spintronics is so
    new that an initiative to encourage networking of researchers in this field is of paramount importance.

    The present COST ACTION intends to fill this gap integrating these communities around a common Action that should serve to consolidate the
    world-leadership of Europe in this field.
EXISTING EFFORTS AT EUROPEAN AND/OR INTERNATIONAL LEVEL
Europe is currently leading the sub-area related with the organic spintronics, and is very competitive in those related with single-molecule spintronics and quantum computing. Still, these sub-areas are progressing in a parallel way, being largely disconnected. As pointed above, the present Action intends to fill this gap by putting in close contact the spintronic community with the molecular communities, key to approach with success this new trend in spintronics.

To date there has been no coordinated effort to integrate the European communities interested in Molecular Spintronics. Still, the molecular scientific communities that are indispensable for the further growth and evolvement of Molecular Spintronics are well integrated either at the national or/and the European level around big consortia. Thus, the most important European groups working in Molecular Magnetism were integrated around the European Network of Excellence MAGMANet ("Molecular approaches to multifunctional materials and nanomagnets"). This Network of Excellence was financed by the EU in the period April 2005-November 2009 and gave rise to the creation in 2008 of the European Institute in Molecular Magnetism (EIMM, http://www.eimm.eu). This institute aims to become a centre of excellence in Europe for research and training, as well as a world leading reference in the area of Molecular Magnetism. Thanks to this initiative Europe is now at the forefront of this area, well ahead of the USA and Japan.

In Molecular electronics there have been several initiatives to promote the leadership of this area in Europe. One can mention for example the 7th FP Large-scale integrating project on "Organic Nanomaterials for Electronics and Photonics: Design, Synthesis, Characterization, Processing, Fabrication and Applications" (ONE-P, http://www.one-p.eu/public/), which integrates 20 research nodes from 10 countries with world-wide recognition on Molecular Electronics. The specific objective of this network was the development of novel multifunctional organic materials for electronics and photonics.

These collaborative actions have contributed significantly to situate the European groups at the forefront of these "molecular" areas and, hence, strong links of these actions with the MOLSPIN COST Action, may be envisaged. In addition, the integration in the MOLSPIN COST Action of the spintronics community will be essential to facilitate the creation of a multidisciplinary European community working in a synergistic way in Molecular Spintronics.