Graphene Flagship welcomes new projects
Over ten new projects will work with the Graphene project after the outcomes of the first Joint Transnational Call (JTC) of the Flagship ERA-NET (FLAG-ERA) were announced.
Among the 13 projects, four are in the scientific area of advanced nanofabrication and spintronics, three are in the area of new layered materials and heterostructures, while the others cover various areas: immunogenomics and proteomics; biological and chemical sensors; functional coatings; nanofluidic applications; computational modelling of devices and systems and prototypes. The ventures have a budget of €9.9m and will be the first partner projects of the flagship.
Welcoming the development Jari Kinaret, director of the Graphene Flagship, said: “The Joint Transnational Call strengthens the Graphene Flagship greatly on the lower technology readiness levels, and demonstrates a good alignment between the European Commission-funded part of the flagship and the investments by the member states. We are looking forward to working with these projects and the organisations participating in them.”
A total of 78 project proposals were submitted, from which the final 13 were selected; organisations from 14 European countries have committed funding to the projects. The FLAG-ERA JTC 2015 is designed to expand the current flagships to new researchers while also supporting researchers already in the flagships. The partners of successful projects that are not already flagship members will be invited to become associate members and, according to FLAG-ERA, the inclusion of associate members into the flagships allows for a larger geographical coverage, opens access to additional expertise and can lead to the discovery of new research areas.
FLAG-ERA gathers together 38 research and innovation funding agencies, research councils and ministries from 26 countries within the EU and beyond, collaborating to create an environment which enables the co-ordination of national and regional funding to support the flagships. Consequently, FLAG-ERA organises the national investments in the flagships and encourages the realisation of results, whilst widening their impact.
The FLAG-ERA co-ordination activities are backed by the European Commission under the Seventh Framework Programme for an initial three-year period.
