Huge New Influx of Graphene Flagship Partners

To coincide with Graphene Week 2014, the Graphene Flagship announced that one of the largest-ever European research initiatives is doubling in size, with 66 new partners 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 organizations from 23 countries. It is fully set to take “wonder material” graphene and related layered materials from academic laboratories to everyday use.

EU Commissioner Neelie Kroes, vice president of the European Commission, responsible for the Digital Agenda, welcomed the extended partnership.

“Europe is leading the graphene revolution,” Kroes said. “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.”

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%.

The €9 million competitive call of the €54 million ramp-up phase (2014-2015) attracted a total of 218 proposals, representing 738 organizations 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.

“The response was overwhelming, which is an indicator of the recognition for and trust in the flagship effort throughout Europe,” Prof. Jari Kinaret, professor of physics at the Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, and director of the Graphene Flagship, said. “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 realize the goals of the Graphene Flagship.”

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.

“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,” said Prof. Andrea Ferrari, director of the Cambridge Graphene Centre and chair of the Executive Board of the Graphene .

The Graphene Flagship represents a European investment of €1 billion over the next 10 years. It is part of the Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) Flagships announced by the European Commission in January 2013. The goal of the FET Flagships program is to encourage visionary research with the potential to deliver breakthroughs and major benefits for European society and industry.

New partners invited to join the Graphene Flagship include:
• Austria: Guger Technologies OG
• Belarus: Institute for Nuclear Problems
• Belgium: Université de Namur, Université libre de Bruxelles, Interuniversitair Micro-Electronica Centrum (imec)
• 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, University of London, BAE Systems (Operations) Limited, University of Sunderland.