Project data
Funding Entity: European Commission
Call: HORIZON-MSCA-2023-DN-01
Coordinator: Tampereen Korkeakolusaation SR (Finland)
UNISI Principal Investigator: Prof. Adalgisa Sinicropi
Department: Department of Biotechnology, Chemistry and Pharmacy (DBCF)
Start date: 1 October 2024
End date: 30 September 2028
Description
Developing next generation’s indoor photovoltaics
Photovoltaic technology plays a crucial role in transitioning to green energy and fostering more sustainable practices. Indoor photovoltaics (IPVs) hold significant potential to advance these objectives, yet their research is still in its early infancy. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the MENTOR project aims to bring together an international network of 8 universities, 7 industrial partners, and 5 research centres to develop and establish a comprehensive platform for next-generation IPVs. This consortium will address all aspects, from design and manufacturing to theoretical and sustainability goals. Additionally, the project will create a doctoral training and research programme to develop novel experts in renewable energy, sustainability, and electronics.
Objective
The MENTOR research initiative will provide a comprehensive and versatile technical platform for the development of next-generation indoor photovoltaics (IPVs) that efficiently re-use energy from artificial illumination to power electronics, eventually contributing to an energy- and climate-neutral future. MENTOR aims to unlock the full potential of IPVs taking into consideration growing concerns about sustainability, through the establishment of the first international network of 8 universities, 7 industrial partners, and 5 research centers. The consortium will cover all the key aspects and technologies related to IPVs, including sustainable design, organic and inorganic materials synthesis, photovoltaics manufacturing and characterization, device physics and modelling, theoretical and machine learning-driven approaches, photovoltaics recycling, and industrial processing.
MENTOR will establish an interdisciplinary, intersectoral, and global program of doctoral training and research that propels the development of new leaders capable of directing academic and industrial R&D on renewable energy, electronics, and sustainability through the successful implementation of 16 doctoral candidate (DC) individual projects.
This research initiative will amplify the recently recognized importance of IPVs for the sustainable powering of the IoT by advancing novel material designs, processing methods, device architectures, theoretical models, and characterization standards across disciplines and sectors.
Source: CORDIS
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe programme under GA No: SEP-211001818