Welcome to Warsaw and catch up on Graphene Week 2016

The eleventh edition of Graphene Week began with a warm welcome from the conference Chair, Dr Wlodek Strupinski (ITME), “I am delighted to have you here for Graphene Week 2016, I truly hope that this conference will be a scientifically rewarding experience for you all”.

Organised by the Graphene Flagship and main local organiser – ITME, the conference is h​osted in the beautiful buildings of the University of Warsaw, Graphene Week's first day in Poland’s capital city was pretty special.

The Welcome Ceremony continued with a number of high profile speakers. Jadwiga Emilewicz, Undersecretary of State in the Ministry of Economic Development (Poland), spoke about the focus of the Polish government on innovation and the need to fully understand the economic potential of graphene to support spending in R&D. Andrew Houghton, Deputy Head of Unit, DG CON​NECT Flagships, European Commission, gave details of the Commission’s The Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) Flagships initiative and the Graphene Flagship as a new funding mechanism. There was also a kind welcome from Professor Marcin Pałys, Rector of the University of Warsaw, and a short history of Graphene Week given by Jari Kinaret, Director of the Graphene Flagship. The initial results from the recent Graphene Flagship European Commission review were also announced.

“The first day of Graphene Week 2016 seems like a perfect place to announce a very quick summary from our recent European Commission review. The reviewers concluded that we have made 'excellent progress' in our mission to take graphene from the academic laboratory and into European society,” said Professor Kinaret.

YouTube interviews with Wlodek Strupinski and Jadwiga Emilewicz can be seen on YouTube:

​​Fascinating Plenary Sessions

This first morning of plenary sessions saw over 700 conference delegates (the size of the conference having grown from last year) pay close attention to a number of fascinating talks. Presentations ranged from the fundamental science of graphene in optoelectronics, through to practical graphene applications. Interesting applications of graphene that were discussed included those using integrated circuits as detailed by Herbert Zirath, Chalmers University, Sweden, and graphene pressure and humidity sensors discussed by Max Lemme, University of Siegen, Germany.

​An overview of the first two talks, given by Kurt Gaskill, Naval Research Facility, USA, and Thomas Seyller, Technical University of Chemnitz, Germany, can be seen here:​

Open Forum

During lunch, Professor Kinaret hosted an Open Forum where he gave a summary of the Graphene Flagship’s achievements to date and the path it will take as it moves forward.

The Open Forum, organised at the second time during the Graphene Week, led to a lively discussion with many questions from the room.

Graphene Innovation Forum – The Graphene Roadmap

The first parallel sessions of the conference were held in the afternoon. This year saw the addition of the Graphene Innovation Forum. Initiated by the Graphene Flagship and its Innovation Work Package, the forum has been introduced to the conference to bring specific focus on innovation aspects of graphene. Michael Meister, Fraunhofer ISI, introduced today’s opening session by outlining the importance of Roadmapping. He was followed by experts from across the graphene ecosystem, from industry giant BOSCH's Robert Rölver to Claus Marcquordt from RD Support Limited, who gave the small business (SME) perspective.

“To define the graphene roadmap we first must define not only our starting point (where graphene is now) but also the destination at which we want to arrive (the potential graphene applications) – the roadmap is essentially the route in between,” said Meister.

The session Roadmap: Industry needs and perspective towards electronics applications was sponsored by AIXTRON.

Graphene Week has its roots firmly in scientific excellence. This shone out from both the parallel sessions and poster presentations, with many useful new results presented and discussed.

Welcome reception at the Warsaw Grand Theatre

Finishing the day with the welcome reception gave participants the chance to meet colleagues, seek out potential collaborators and chat about the exciting new graphene developments discovered that day. The stunning surroundings of Warsaw Grand Theatre are truly magnificent and offered a dramatic backdrop to the end of what was a great first day.

Additional YouTube links - Graphene Week 2016

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