Word hit the wire that the European Commission has chosen Graphene Flagship Consortium (GFC) as one of Europe's first ten-year, 1 billion EUR FET (future and emerging technologies) flagships. Led by phone maker Nokia, the consortium's goal is to commercialize graphene-based technology and create economic growth and new jobs in Europe. GFC currently consists of 74 partners frmo the EU, from many different sectors.
The funds will be provided over the course of ten years. Full details at X-bit Labs.
“Nokia is proud to be involved with this project, and we have deep roots in the field – we first started working with graphene already in 2006. Since then, we have come to identify multiple areas where this material can be applied in modern computing environments. We have done some very promising work so far, but I believe the greatest innovations have yet to be discovered,” said Henry Tirri, executive vice president and chief technology officer of Nokia.
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Key applications for graphene are, for instance, fast electronic and optical devices, flexible electronics, functional lightweight component and advanced batteries. Examples of new products enabled by graphene technologies include fast, flexible and strong consumer electronics such as electronic paper and bendable personal communication devices, and lighter and more energy efficient airplanes. On the longer term, graphene is expected to give rise to new computational paradigms and revolutionary medical applications such as artificial retinas.
