On 20 March 2024, the European Commission (EC) adopted the second strategic plan for Horizon Europe, confirming the acceptance of the Graphene Flagship and Advanced Materials 2030 Initiative’s proposed Innovative Materials for EU partnership.
The EC’s second strategic plan sets out three key orientations for the EU’s research and innovation funding for the last three years of the programme (2025-2027):
- Green transition
- Digital transition
- A more resilient, competitive, inclusive and democratic Europe.
These orientations aim to address key global challenges such as climate change, loss of biodiversity, the digital transition and an ageing population. To address these challenges, nine strategic European co-funded and co-programmed partnerships have been identified: Brain health, Forests and Forestry for a Sustainable Future, Innovative Materials for EU, Raw Materials for the Green and Digital Transition, Resilient Cultural Heritage, Social Transformations and Resilience, Solar Photovoltaics, Textiles for the Future, and Virtual Worlds.
Graphene Flagship Director, Patrik Johansson, gives some insight into what this partnership will mean for the Graphene Flagship consortium and how it will affect the next three years, and beyond.
How will the Graphene Flagship be part of the EU Innovative Advanced Materials Partnership?
The Graphene Flagship and the Advanced Materials 2030 Initiative (AMI2030) have joined forces with the EC to create a common ground for the IAM4EU partnership for multiple public and private stakeholders. The partnership will cover critical challenges of innovative advanced materials, from the very early stages of design to a true circular based economy and the full materials innovation cycle. For the Graphene Flagship it is clear that in many cases graphene and 2D-materials have unique properties to offer to fulfil the functionalities needed to efficiently tackle the large challenges Europe is facing and to reach the objectives set on EU sovereignty and autonomy, innovation leadership and industrial competitiveness. Together we will make the dual green and digital transitions a reality.
How does the Graphene Flagship envision the programme?
The Graphene Flagship sees the partnership as an immense opportunity for the European materials community at large, and for the graphene and 2D materials community in particular to further build on the past decade of highly successful research and innovation work. The Graphene Flagship has always worked towards raising the technology readiness level to enable concrete product market commercialisation to in the end benefit the European citizen. This vision aligns very well with both the intentions of our colleagues in AMI2030 and how the partnership will support market uptake of innovations, supported by the EC and led by European industry.
Patrik Johansson, Graphene Flagship Director
Author bio
Graphene Flagship
Bringing together 118 academic and industrial partners in 12 research and innovation projects and 1 coordination and support project, the Graphene Flagship initiative will continue to advance Europe’s strategic autonomy in technologies that rely on graphene and other 2D materials. The initiative, which builds on the previous 10-years of the Graphene Flagship, is funded by the European Commission’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme. The 2D-Experimental Pilot Line, addressing the challenges of upscaling 2D material production processes for the semiconductor industry, is another key component of the Graphene Flagship eco-system.