The end of September 2024 marked the achievement of the first year of GRAPHERGIA. To reflect on the first accomplishments and to plan the next crucial steps for implementing the project research and innovation activities, the GRAPHERGIA team gathered for two days in Prato (Italy) on the 23rd and 24th of October 2024, in a meeting hosted by our partner Next Technology Tecnotessile.
The central objective of our project is to empower the future of energy harvesting and storage by applying graphene in two areas of usage: smart textiles and Li-ion batteries. Our work is organized around five technical work packages led by the dedicated partners of the GRAPHERGIA consortium.
This meeting was a significant opportunity for partners to present their strategies among the technical work packages (WPs), including:
- WP2 – Design, development and optimization of textile-based TENGs and micro-flexible SCs.
- WP3 – LIB cells design and assembly using laser-scribed graphene-based anodes.
- WP4 – Advanced electrical modelling and efficient power management of TENGs for energy harvesting and self-powered sensing IoT applications.
- WP5 – Design, manufacturing and testing of representative technology demonstrators.
- WP6 – Life cycle assessment, sustainability and eco-design approach.
They also focused on planning how they will collaborate on the different technical and research tasks, and on the importance of regular working meetings. Besides, the coordination of responsibilities was considered a significant factor for the success of the second year of GRAPHERGIA, when even more research activities started taking place across the 11 involved partners.
From Prato to Paris
The partnership has been very active in disseminating the early project results; in fact, GRAPHERGIA has been presented across nine international scientific events, it has organized three collaborative workshops with sister research projects (two with ARMS, and one with INERRANT and EMPHASIS), and it was actively involved in Graphene Week 2024 just last week in October 2024. The idea is to continue using the same proactive approach, and foster it with scientific publications in open access to share even more of the forthcoming research with the stakeholders and the international graphene community we reach, especially through the Graphene Flagship Initiative.
After intense discussions and working sessions, our partner Next Technology Tecnotessile, hosted us at their premises in Prato, which is known historically as the heart of the European textile industry. The partners were invited to discover the city’s vivid history and delicious local treats. Thank you for the great hospitality -and next time, we will meet in Paris!