The Graphene Flagship is the European Union’s biggest scientific research initiative. With a budget of €1 billion, it represents a new form of joint, coordinated research initiative on an unprecedented scale. Through a combined academic-industrial consortium, the research effort covers the entire value chain, from materials production to components and system integration, and targets a number of specific goals that exploit the unique properties of graphene. There are some critics of this and similar initiatives, arguing that excessive funding of graphene-related research and innovation is disproportional to estimates of industrial potential.
Goal
The Graphene Flagship is tasked with bringing together academic and industrial researchers to take graphene from the realm of academic laboratories into European society in the space of ten years, thus generating economic growth, new jobs and new opportunities for Europeans as both investors and employees.
History
In 2009, the European Commission identified the need for Europe to address the big scientific and technological challenges of the age through long-term, multidisciplinary R&D efforts. One of the first European Future and Emerging Technologies Flagships, the Graphene Flagship was founded in October 2013. The Graphene Flagship was initially implemented as a Seventh Framework Programme under the auspices of the European Commission's Directorate General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology. Now the consortium will fall under FP7’s successor research and innovation framework, Horizon 2020. The second FET Flagship, The Human Brain Project, is charged with revolutionizing the future of neuroscience. In May 2016 the EC has announced the third FET Flagship, Quantum Technologies Flagship, which will become a key part of the data and computing Infrastructure which underpins the European Cloud Initiative, as part of the Commission's strategy to digitize European industry.
Organisation
The Graphene Flagship is coordinated by Chalmers University of Technology based in Gothenburg, Sweden. Director of the Graphene Flagship is Professor Jari Kinaret, leader of the Condensed Matter Theory group at Chalmers’ Department of Applied Physics. Vice-Director of the Graphene Flagship is Professor Vincenzo Palermo, who holds a joint position as research director of the National Reseach Council of Italy, and research professor at Chalmers University of Technology. The operative management is handled by the Director and a Management Panel which is chaired by the Science and Technology Officer, Prof. Andrea C. Ferrari from the University of Cambridge, and includes the Flagship Director, the Head of Innovation and the five Division Heads. Strategic decisions are taken by the Executive Board which includes the members of the management panel and ten members elected by the General Assembly of all 150 partners. The Strategic Advisory Council consists of world-renowned scientific and industrial experts, including four Nobel laureates. Its key tasks are to advise on strategic research decisions and issues pertaining to handling and protection of intellectual property whilst also facilitating contacts to related national and international research programs and acting as ambassadors for the Graphene Flagship. The Chairman of the Strategic Advisory Council is Professor Sir Andre Geim, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK. The Graphene Flagship is divided into 20 work packages, 15 focusing on specific science and technology topics, and five dedicated to innovation and operational/management functions. The work packages are grouped into six divisions to enhance collaboration and communication. One of the Divisions is housing the partnering projects.
Funding
The Graphene Flagship is divided into two separate phases: a 30-month ramp-up phase under the 7th Framework Program with a total European Commission funding of €54 million, and a steady state phase under the Horizon 2020 Program with expected European Commission funding of €50 million per year. During the FP7 phase the flagship was implemented as a combination of two instruments, a Collaborative Project, Coordination and Support Action, and a European Research AreaNetwork Plus, while in H2020 the flagship is being implemented as a single instrument. In FP7, the CP-CSA was funded by the EC according to standard FP7 financing schemes, and the ERANET+ was funded jointly by the EC and the member state funding organisations. In H2020, the single instrument is being funded jointly by the EC and the member states.
