Jan. 29 – The technological future of Europe lies on a sheet of carbon one atom thick. The European Community has launched in Brussels its flagship program “Graphene”, one of the two projects chosen among the initiatives for the next 10 years. With a budget of €1 billion, Graphene will shape the future of the continent in terms of technological innovation. The objective is to develop the full potential of graphene and other two-dimensional materials, producing a range of new technologies that will revolutionize many industries and generate greater economic development at the European scale. The National Research Council (CNR) is one of the main coordinators of the initiative and will head the activities of Graphene dedicated to energy and composite materials. Graphene has triggered an explosion of scientific activity since the first groundbreaking experiments less than a decade ago, which led to its discovery, and the Nobel Prize in 2010 to Andre Geim and Kostya Novoselov. Amazingly versatile, this material is considered by many as the starting platform for deep technological innovation in many areas. The CNR was the representative for Italy and one of the first proponents for the agreement with the University of Chalmers, Manchester, Lancaster and Cambridge, companies Amo GmbH and Nokia, the Catalan Institute of Nanotechnology and the European Science Foundation. The project now involves other Italian partners such as Fondazione Bruno Kessler, Italian Institute of Technology, University of Trieste, Turin Polytechnic, Milan Polytechnic and STMicroelectronics.
