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The Graphene Flagship’s general assembly has revealed how it will move forward as it reaches the mid term of its ten-year project.

At its meeting in Bologna, Italy, in early April, Jari Kinaret, director of the Graphene Flagship, based at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden, said: “We are happy to conclude that we have reached the goals we put up when the project started in 2013 and that the research we have produced so far is now ready to lay the ground for actual commercial applications within the coming years.

“Our mission is to take graphene and related 2D materials from the academic laboratories to the factory floor and we are now taking yet another important step towards industrialisation of the technologies that we have been creating.”

After identifying market motivated and narrowly defined areas where graphene could make a difference, six spearhead projects were selected for funding. They focus on a wide range of application areas, from solutions for 5G data transmission to solar energy and wearable technology, but all have the common goal to develop new or improved products with integrated graphene or related materials (GRM).

Kinaret added: “All of the spearhead projects have strong company involvement and are committed to produce industrial prototypes within two years, in order to spur interest also among companies that are currently not involved with the Graphene Flagship.”

The increased focus on innovation and commercialisation also means that the consortium of over 150 partners from 23 European countries will be adjusted to make sure that each partner has a well-defined role.

The Graphene Flagship’s second core project under the Horizon 2020 programme starts 1 April 2018 and will run for two years.