Deep Dive: Meet the Graphene Flagship management team

The Graphene Flagship’s Management Work Package coordinates the Graphene Flagship and makes sure that it operates in an efficient manner. They monitor the development of the project, make sure that it stays on course and keep track of its outputs. They also host meetings for the relevant governing bodies, manage connections with stakeholders and provide service functions for the Graphene Flagship consortium. In addition, they are in direct contact with the Partnering Division and in constant dialogue with the National Funding Agencies involved in FLAG-ERA.

Read on to find out about their achievements so far, and what they hope to achieve in the future.

Their work so far

They coordinated preparations for the current phase of the Graphene Flagship project, and the Experimental Pilot Line, both of which began in 2020. Jointly, these projects represent 170 million euros in funding for the Graphene Flagship consortium. They also launched seven calls for Spearhead Projects and other actions to bring new talent to the Graphene Flagship. As a result, the current phase of the Graphene Flagship has 11 new Spearhead Projects and over 30 new partners.

Furthermore, they closely followed developments related to Brexit, preparing for several possible scenarios, and began preparations for the Graphene Flagship’s inclusion in the Horizon Europe Framework Programme.

Their objectives

The Management Work Package are working hard to maintain and build upon the excellence of the project, focusing on their objectives and ensuring the efficiency of project coordination – such as the Experimental Pilot Line.

Fostering innovation in the Graphene Flagship

The Graphene Flagship offers a unique format that allows for the development of strong collaborations between academia, SMEs and large enterprises across Europe at an unpreceded scale.

The project has proven itself an ideal vessel to take ideas from fundamental research to applications in an unprecedented fashion, allowing its partners to cross the ‘valley of death’ between laboratory research and the market – in ways that many have tried but few have succeeded in.

Pushing for sustainability

In very concrete terms, the Graphene Flagship’s Management Work Package contributes to sustainability through the choices they make. For instance, most of the meetings of our governing bodies and Work Packages take place online, reducing the need for air travel.

On a more strategic level, sustainability influences the decisions we make and the actions we prioritise.

This is evident in the current phase of the Graphene Flagship project: initiatives like the analysis of environmental effects of graphene technologies, novel energy storage, renewable energy generation, and lightweight and low-energy technologies are featuring prominently.