As part of the European Commission’s Future Emerging Technology Platform, the Graphene Flagship (GF) is progressing towards its core function: the expansion of graphene from the laboratory into society.

The GF is the primary research initiative into graphene and graphene-related products in the world. A visionary, science-driven, academic-industrial partnership, GF addresses the scientific, societal and technological challenges that the ‘wonder material’ aims to contribute to.

GF’s vision includes the collaboration of Europe-wide scientists and engineers, all of whom share the ambition of the long-term realisation of this vision. Disruptive technology underpins the GF, which is expected to revolutionise many aspects in human society.

The progress to Core 1 follows years of preparation and pilot schemes. Beginning in October 2013 with an initial ramp-up phase involving just 76 academic and industrial partners in 17 countries, the GF is ready to advance with its now 152 partners in 23 countries, one-third of which represent industrial partners.

With a €1bn+ budget for over ten years, half of which is provided by the European Commission, the end of the €54m ramp-up phase, under the Horizon 2020 programme, can commence the first core phase with funding of €45m per year.

In the Core 1 phase the number of work packages will increase, with additional work packages focusing on the generation of energy, biomedical applications and wafer scale system integration, amongst others. The work packages are grouped into four divisions to enhance collaborations between different work packages. There will also be a fifth division housing the partnering projects.

Management of the flagship will be undertaken by a panel chaired by Professor Andrea C Ferrari (pictured) from the University of Cambridge, UK.

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