Nanocar Race II / Franco-Japanese Team

The 2nd International Nanocar Race

- March 24-25th 2022 in Toulouse, France -

Franco-Japanese Team

Latest News

Mar 26, 2022: The race is over. The Franco-Japanese Team finished in 6th place.  →Photo

Nov 10, 2021: Prof. Gwénaël Rapenne visited the NIMS-Mana Nanocar team in Tsukuba.
- Meeting of two teams qualified for the second Nanocar Race: the MANA-NIMS Japanese team and the Toulouse-Nara Franco-Japanese team. →Photo

Oct 14, 2021: Prof. Gwénaël Rapenne (with Dr. Toshio Nishino and Dr. Colin Martin) presented the team at the Franco-Japanese team at the French International School in Kyoto.

Oct 1, 2021: Eight teams have been qualified for the race.
- At the announcement of the competition, 53 potential teams contacted the organizers. 13 teams sent their applications and 8 teams have been qualified:
San Sebastian (Spain), NIMS-MANA (Japan), Strasbourg (France), Dresden (Germany), Rice-Graz (Austria-USA), Madrid (Spain), Ohio (USA) and Toulouse-Nara (France-Japan) (source: Organizers)

Mar 1, 2021: The Blue Buggy is on the cover page of NAIST Research Highlights.
- The Blue Buggy is selected for the cover page of NAIST Research Highlights 2021.
NAIST Research Highlight

Jan 6, 2021: The race will be held in 2022.
- The race will be postponed to 2022 due to the Covid-19 crisis

Sep 23, 2020: The paper presented by the Franco-Japanese Team was featured on a journal cover.
- The paper was featured on a front cover of Chemistry – A European Journal with an artwork illustrating the Nanocar Race. →Journal

Jun 16, 2020: The Franco-Japanese Team unveiled their nanocars for the race.
- A paper describing the nanocars was published in Chemistry – A European Journal. →Journal
- News about the nanocars was released. →EurekAlert

Feb 28, 2020: The Franco-Japanese Team has been officially authorized to participate in the race.
- In Toulouse, Prof. Rapenne received an authorization certificate from the organization committee. →Photo

The 2nd International Nanocar Race (Nanocar Race II) will take place in Toulouse, France on the 24-25th of March 2022, in which ultimately small molecular machines will run for 24 hours in a competition for distance. Ten teams from around the world will be participating in the scientific competition.

Prof. Gwénaël Rapenne (Division of Materials Science, NAIST) leads the Franco-Japanese Team, made up of researchers from Nara Institute of Science and Technology (NAIST) and Paul Sabatier University (UPS), France, under the framework of the international collaborative laboratory established between NAIST and CEMES-CNRS (UPS). The team participates in the race with a newly designed and synthesized dipolar nanocar, called the “Blue Buggy” due to its color.

the blue buggy

The Blue Buggy (image)