We propose an enhancement of radioactive ion stopping, extraction and neutralization in gas catchers with the aim to extend nuclear-structure studies by in-gas-jet laser spectroscopy. The FRIENDS3 project aims to develop the required neutralization techniques and to design a fast gas cell for studying the short-lived nuclei produced by the Super Separator Spectrometer (S3), which is a fusion-evaporation recoil separator near commissioning at the SPIRAL2 facility of GANIL. The project is set in the context of the S3 - Low Energy Branch (LEB), an experiment which will perform laser spectroscopy, decay spectroscopy and mass spectrometry on the S3 products stopped in a gas cell, neutralized and extracted in a supersonic jet. The current version of the S3-LEB gas cell has an average extraction time around 500 ms, which hinders the study of very short-lived nuclei. In addition, the neutralization efficiency, necessary in order to interrogate the radioactive species with lasers, depends on the S3-beam intensity, which can be a limitation in the case of very rare beams. The general aim of the FRIENDS3 project is to improve the two key gas-cell parameters, fast extraction and efficient neutralization. For the extraction we aim to exploit the fast drift of the ions out of the stopping region in an electrical field, while for maintaining the ability of the gas cell to deliver neutral atoms for laser spectroscopy, we will study a series of neutralization methods to be applied right before the exit of the radioactive species from the cell. The project will undergo a two-fold approach. On the one hand, a series of in-depth simulations of the possible solutions will be performed with state-of-the-art programs. On the other hand, an off-line test bench will be built in simplified geometry, allowing to test the fast extraction and its dependence on the gas-cell operational parameters, to study and characterize the different neutralization mechanisms, as well as to prove the feasibility of the coupling between the two functional components of the gas cell. S3 is set to produce record intensities of neutron-deficient nuclei, offering new opportunities to research isotopes with extreme proton-neutron imbalance and better constrain the nuclear interaction and the evolution of nuclear-structure phenomena in proton-dripline nuclei. FRIENDS3 will significantly improve the S3-LEB setup and realize the full potential of S3 production.