FLAG-ERA Funds 10 New Projects on Graphene Research and Applications

FLAG-ERA has announced the funding of 10 new projects on graphene and related materials, which will become partnering projects of the Graphene Flagship and bring 16 new associate mem-bers to its partnering division. The projects split between basic and applied research and innova-tion, covering areas from magnetic memories and photodetectors to novel batteries and neural inter-faces.

The FLAG-ERA initiative establishes links between the EU-funded FET Flagship projects and na-tional and regional funding agencies in Member States. Through different strategies, FLAG-ERA fosters multi-disciplinary collaborations to expand the scope of the Graphene Flagship and the Human Brain Project. Among these was their latest Joint Transnational Call (JTC) 2021, an-nounced earlier this year. JTC 2021 has resolved funding for the following 10 projects, seven of which involve partners from widening countries like Bulgaria, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia and Turkey:

• 2DSOTECH. Led by Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden, this project will engineer new heterostructures, “sandwiches” of different layered materials glued together by van der Waals interactions. These hybrid systems could offer new possibilities in spintronics, and eventually find uses in devices such as non-volatile memories and other electronic components.
• DeGraph. Led by the Chemistry Institute in Strasbourg, France, this project will study the poten-tial adverse effects of graphene and other layered materials to living organisms and the environ-ment.
• MINERVA. Led by the University of Lyon, France, this project will focus on amorphous layered materials like boron nitride. These structures have unique electric properties, and have already shown great promise in high-performance devices, including RAM memories and flexible electron-ics.
• MNEMOSYN. Led by CEA, France, this project will optimize technologies to grow magnetic layered materials at large scale. Through academic-industrial collaborations, the team will access state-of-the-art equipment to manufacture new combinations of materials, analyze the best condi-tions for high-efficiency processes and improve the TRL of these technologies.
• MULTISPIN. Led by CIC nanoGUNE in San Sebastián, Spain, this project will also study the possibilities of layered magnetic materials.
• PhotoTBG. Led by ICFO in Barcelona, Spain, this project will study the interactions between light and layered materials, especially twisted bilayer graphene and other structures with extraordi-nary properties.
• VEGA. Led by the Jozef Stefan Institute in Ljubljana, Slovenia, this project will use gr-phene to enhance the properties of aluminum-ion batteries, a safer, greener, more reliable alternative to lithi-um. Researchers will investigate the possibilities of graphene in cathode materials and develop new technologies for graphene production based on plasma technologies.

The projects above will carry out basic research, they have all been selected based on the excellence of the proposal and potential for implementation. The following projects, on applied research, will receive funding for focusing on impact and implementation:
• COGRAPH. Led by I2CT-CNRS in Strasbourg, France, this project will study the application of graphene in coatings with antiviral properties.
• ENPHOCAL. Led by ICN2 in Barcelona, Spain, this project will focus on enhancing the perfor-mance of graphene-enabled photonics.
• RESCUGRAPH. Led by the Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain, this project will de-velop graphene-based neural interfaces. These devices will play a key role in rehabilitation thera-pies, offering new opportunities to restore lost sensory and motor functions caused by spinal cord injuries.

“It’s exciting to see these ten innovative projects receiving funding through FLAG-ERA and the EU Member States,” Yuri Svirko, leader of the Graphene Flagship Partnering Division, said. “We will certainly soon see exciting results coming from these partnerships, which tackle important re-search topics within the world of layered materials including photonics, optoelectronics, spintronics and health.”