Commission announces huge new influx of partners to the Graphene Flagship project
24 Jun 2014 01:30 PM
To coincide
with Graphene Week 2014, the European Commission is proud to announce that
yesterday the Graphene
Flagship, one of
the largest-ever European research initiatives, is doubling in size. 66 new
partners are being invited to join the consortium following the results of a
€9 million competitive call. While most partners are universities and
research institutes, the share of companies, mainly SMEs, involved is
increasing. This shows the growing interest of economic actors in graphene. The
partnership now includes more than 140 organisations from 23 countries. It is
fully set to take ‘wonder material’ graphene and related layered
materials from academic laboratories to everyday use.
Vice-President
of the European Commission @NeelieKroesEU, responsible for the Digital
Agenda, welcomed
the extended partnership: "Europe is leading the graphene
revolution. This ‘wonder material has the potential dramatically to
improve our lives: it stimulates new medical technologies, such as artificial
retinas, and more sustainable transport with light and ultra-efficient
batteries. The more we can unlock the potential of graphene, the
better!”
SMEs and Italian partners on the rise
The 66 new
partners come from 19 countries, six of which are new to the consortium:
Belarus, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary and Israel.
With its 16 new
partners, Italy now has the highest number of partners in the Graphene Flagship
alongside Germany (with 23 each), followed by Spain (18), UK (17) and France
(13).
The incoming 66
partners will add new capabilities to the scientific and technological scope of
the flagship. Over one third of new partners are companies, mainly SMEs,
showing the growing interest of economic actors in graphene. In the initial
consortium this ratio was 20%.
Big interest in joining the initiative
The €9
million competitive call of the €54 million ramp-up phase
(2014-2015) attracted a total of 218 proposals, representing
738 organisations from 37 countries. The proposals received were evaluated on
the basis of their scientific and technological expertise, implementation and
impact (further information on the
call) and ranked by an international panel of
leading experts, mostly eminent professors from all over the world. 21
proposals were selected for funding.
Prof. Jari
Kinaret, Professor of Physics at the Chalmers University of
Technology, Sweden, and Director of the Graphene
Flagship, said: “The response was overwhelming, which is
an indicator of the recognition for and trust in the flagship effort throughout
Europe. Competition has been extremely tough. I am grateful for the engagement
by the applicants and our nearly 60 independent expert reviewers who helped us
through this process. I am impressed by the high quality of the proposals we
received and looking forward to working with all the new partners to realise
the goals of the Graphene Flagship.”
Europe in the driving seat
Graphene was made and tested in Europe, leading
to the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics for Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov from
the University of Manchester.
With the
€1 billion Graphene Flagship, Europe will be able to turn cutting-edge
scientific research into marketable products. This major initiative places
Europe in the driving seat for the global race to develop graphene
technologies.
Prof. Andrea
Ferrari, Director of the Cambridge
Graphene Centre and Chair of the Executive Board of the
Graphene Flagship commented yesterday's announcement on new partners:
"This adds strength to our unprecedented effort to take
graphene and related materials from the lab to the factory floor, so that the
world-leading position of Europe in graphene science can be translated into
technology, creating a new graphene-based industry, with benefits for Europe in
terms of job creation and competitiveness".
Background
The Graphene
Flagship @GrapheneCA represents a European investment
of €1 billion over the next
10 years. It is part of
the Future and Emerging Technologies (FET)
Flagships @FETFlagships announced by the European Commission in
January 2013 (press release). The goal of the FET Flagships programme is to
encourage visionary research with the potential to deliver breakthroughs and
major benefits for European society and industry. FET Flagships are highly
ambitious initiatives involving close collaboration with national and regional
funding agencies, industry and partners from outside the European
Union.
Research in the
next generation of technologies is key for Europe’s competitiveness. This
is why €2.7 billion will be invested in Future and Emerging Technologies
(FET) under
the new research programme Horizon 2020#H2020 (2014-2020). This represents a nearly
threefold increase in budget compared to the previous research programme, FP7.
FET actions are part of the Excellent science pillar of Horizon 2020.
Infographic: making the most of
‘wonder material’ graphene
The press package, including
communication contacts of new partners, full lists and background documents
with additional quotes can be found here.
Annex: New partners invited to join the
Graphene Flagship are listed below
Austria: Guger Technologies OG
Belarus: Institute for Nuclear Problems
Belgium: Université de Namur, Université
libre de Bruxelles, Interuniversitair Micro-Electronica Centrum
Bulgaria: Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Nano Tech Lab
Ltd
Czech Republic: J. Heyrovsky Institute of Physical
Chemistry
Estonia: Tartu Ülikool
Finland: University of Eastern Finland
France: Université Montpellier 2 Sciences et
techniques, Laboratoire national de métrologie et d'essais, Horiba
scientific, Pixium Vision, University Pierre and Marie Curie, Polymem S.A,
Atherm
Germany: Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Technische
Universität München, Bielefeld University, Ulm University, BASF, CNM
Technologies GmbH, Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der angewandten
Forschung e.V., Epcos AG, TU Dortmund, University of Augsburg
Greece: University of Crete
Hungary: Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Hungarian
Academy of Sciences
Israel: Technion Israel Institute of Technology
Italy: University of Padova, Breton S.p.A.,
Università degli Studi di Roma Tor Vergata, Italcementi S.p.A., Alma
Mater Studiorum-Università di Bologna, Selex ES, University of Pisa,
Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, University of Salerno, Consorzio
Nazionale Interuniversitario per le Telecomunicazioni, Libre S.r.l., Grinp
S.r.l., Dyesol Italia S.r.l., Centre Ricerche Fiat S.C.p.A, Nanesa S.r.l,
Delta-Tech S.p.A
Poland: University of Warsaw
Spain: Universidad de Zaragoza, Biomedical Research
Networking Center in Bioengineering, Biomaterials and Nanomedicine, Consorci
Institut d'Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer, Tecnalia
Research and Innovation, nVision Systems & Technologies S.L., Instituto de
Tecnologias Quimicas Emergentes de la Rioja
Sweden: Ericsson AB
Switzerland: Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de
Lausanne
The Netherlands: Eindhoven University of Technology, DSM Ahead
BV
UK: University College London, Imperial College
London, Amalyst Ltd, G24 Power Ltd, The University of Nottingham, University of
Sheffield, Queen Mary University of London, BAE Systems (Operations) Limited,
University of Sunderland