CyberEurope

FET Flagship—The Graphene Project

Future and Emerging Technology (FET) Flagships are ambitious, large-scale, science-driven research initiatives (http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/ict/programme/fet/flagship/) that aim to achieve a visionary goal. To provide lasting support at a level that allows a concerted effort toward fulfilling a grand ambition, FET Flagships are envisioned to run for at least 10 years, with a budget of up to 100 M€ per year, per initiative. The scientific advance should provide a strong and broad basis for future technological innovation and economic exploitation in a variety of areas, as well as novel benefits for society.

To prepare the launch of the FET Flagships, six Pilot Actions were funded over a period of 12 months starting in May 2011, whose contents will be discussed in this and in the next issues:

 Graphene-CA: Graphene Science and technology for ICT and beyond

Graphene is a form of pure carbon where the carbon atoms are arranged in large, flat sheets that look like atomic chicken wire. This structure gives it many properties, which could be exploited for new types of carbon-based electronics, photonics, and quantum computing. But graphene's potential is still poorly understood, and its analysis requires highly sophisticated methods. Discovering just how important this material will be for Information and Communication Technologies is the long-term focus of the Flagship Initiative, simply called GRAPHENE.

This aims to explore revolutionary potentials, in terms of both conventional as well as radically new fields of Information and Communication Technologies applications. Bringing together multiple disciplines and addressing research across a whole range of issues, from fundamental understandings of material properties to graphene production, the Flagship will provide the platform for establishing European scientific and technological leadership in the application of graphene to Information and Communication Technologies.

The proposed research includes coverage of electronics, spintronics, photonics, plasmonics, and mechanics, all based on graphene.

What can Europe expect to gain?

Carbon has been the driving force behind several technological revolutions: energy production in the 19th century and plastics in the 20th century. Now carbon promises a third technological revolution, this time in ICT. A graphene flagship would place Europe's microelectronics industry at the heart of innovation in this sector.