On January 26, 2023 at Divani Hotel in Athens, LTFN together with OET and HOPE-A had the pleasure and honor to hold an Official Press Ceremony for the announcement of two flagship scientific and industrial Horizon Europe projects of great significance in the field of #Energy, Flexible Printed Electronics and Nanotechnologies.

Flex2Energy and COPE-Nano

• The Horizon Europe R&D Project Flex2Energy (Automated Manufacturing Production Line for Integrated Printed Organic Photovoltaics) aim to revolutionize the way we generate and utilize energy developing in Thessaloniki the 1st sustainable production line for Integrated Organic Photovoltaics – Flexible printed organic photovoltaics for integration in Buildings, Greenhouses and even in Automotive.
  The Flex2Energy project is coordinated by the Greek company #OET collaborating with 14 additional Industrial and Research European institutions of which 5 belong to Greece (AUTh-LTFN, ALUMIL, HOPE-A, DEPIA, Kyriakidis), 3 in France (Pole-Fibres, Incore, IPC), 2 in Germany (Coatema, Mondragon), Hungary (SEMILAB), Lithuania (WOP), Italy (Stellantis Fiat), and Romania (Alba Julia). The budget of 21 million Euros (EU funded action under HORIZON-CL5 2022-D3-01-03 topic) aims to Reinforce the European PV value chain towards to “positive energy buildings” in infrastructure, transport, and agriculture.

• COPE-Nano is a flagship project, which will expand the internationally recognized Nanotechnology Lab LTFN into an Autonomous and Sustainable Center of Excellence for Organic, Printed Electronics & Nano-Technologies in Thessaloniki, Greece. LTFN in partnership with the University of Bordeaux – France and the University of Cambridge – UK will establish this sustainable Center of Excellence, aiming to become the EU leader in basic, applied and industrial research in these rapidly emerging fields of Flexible Printed Organic Electronics (FPEs), Bioelectronics and Advanced Nanomaterials for applications in Green Energy, Electronics, ICT, Medicine and Agriculture.
  With a total budget of 30 million Euros, which are funded in 50% by the European Commission under the competitive Call HORIZON-WIDERA-2022-ACCESS-01 and in 50% by complementary national funding, the COPE–Nano will strongly advance the scientific and technological capacity of Greece, raising the research profile of Greek and EU scientists, researchers and entrepreneurs.

The event opened by Professor Emeritus Mr. Stergios Logothetidis, Founder and president of Organic Electronic Technologies (OET) who presented the history and achievements of the Nanotechnology Lab LTFN since 1991 and the progress in the over the years that led to these flagship projects.

Official welcome and greetings have been provided by representatives from the Greek government such as Mr. A. Kyriazis, Representative of Presidency of the Greek Government, Mr. J. Sarakiotis, Representative of President of SYRIZA Progressive Alliance, and Mr. G. Vlachos, Presidency Representative of the Association of Greek Regions. Also, the Rector of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Prof. N. Papaioannou, emphasized the importance of these two projects to promote scientific and research excellence in Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and Greece. Finally, opening welcome has been provided by the Project Officers from European Commission, Ms. M. Getsiou (Flex2Energy) and Ms. S. Impens (COPE-Nano).

The Asst. Prof. A. Laskarakis, Head of Organic Electronics Group, Nanotechnology Lab LTFN presented an overview of the COPE-Nano Project and its impact in regional, national and European levels. OET’s CEO Mr. C. Varlamis, presented in detail the Flex2Energy project and its activities which started already at 1st January 2023. Finally, distinguished partners, such as Mr. T. Kolbusch, VP Coatema Coating Machinery, Germany and Prof. G. Hadziioannou, University of Bordeaux and AFELIM, France, presented the global perspective of these innovative projects.

We are very proud and excited that this journey has just started!!