European Innovators Launch GRAPHERGIA Project

A consortium of 11 partners from six European nations has officially launched the GRAPHERGIA project, an ambitious 3.5-year Research and Innovation endeavor, funded by €4.5 million under the banner of Horizon Europe’s Graphene Flagship initiative.

Aimed at redefining the integration of energy solutions into everyday life, GRAPHERGIA is set to transform how we use and store energy, marking a significant milestone in the journey towards a climate-neutral future.

At the heart of GRAPHERGIA lies the goal to develop and deploy cutting-edge graphene-based materials into energy harvesting and storage devices. These advances will enable scalable and cost-efficient production of two-dimensional (2D) material technologies for a wide array of applications.

The project kicked off on Nov. 2-3, 2023 with a commitment to pioneering the domain of smart textiles.

“We envision a world where your clothing does more than just look good—it powers your devices, acts as a sensor and connects you seamlessly to the Internet of Things (IoT),” said Prof. Spyros Yannopoulos, the project coordinator for GRAPHERGIA. “Imagine e-textiles that not only adapt to your body but also charge themselves. This is the future we are creating.”

The second key area of exploration for the GRAPHERGIA project is the development of next-generation electrodes for Li-ion batteries. By leveraging the consortium partners’ proprietary technologies, GRAPHERGIA aims to capitalise on the unique properties of 2D materials to enhance battery life and performance, all while maintaining an environmentally friendly footprint.

“As we move from current technology readiness levels to higher grounds, GRAPHERGIA stands at the forefront of materials engineering. Our collaborative effort aims to bring pilot-scale innovations to the marketplace, setting new benchmarks for the energy sector,” added Prof. Yannopoulos.

Under the leadership of the Foundation for Research and Technology – Hellas, GRAPHERGIA brings together an alliance of ten additional European entities from both research and industrial sectors.

The consortium includes Pleione Energy GmbH (Germany); Adamant Composites Ltd. (Greece); Université Gustave Eiffel (France); Born GmbH Knitwear for Fashion and Engineering (Germany); Università degli Studi de Roma La Sapienza (Italy); Comsensus, DOO (Slovenia); Deutsches Zentrum für Luft – Und Raumfahrt EV (Germany); Next Technology Tecnotessile (Itay); AUSTRALO Interinnov Marketing Lab SL (Spain); and Euglottia I.K.E. (Greece).

The GRAPHERGIA initiative, part of the Graphene Flagship, aims to lead the transformation of Europe’s energy future by pioneering graphene applications in next-generation technologies for energy harvesting, conversion and storage.