Climate change attributed to the emission of carbon dioxide from burning coal, oil and gas has stimulated policies which encourage the use of renewable energy via tax concessions or feed-in tariffs. These are necessary because the cost of renewable energy is more than that of energy derived from fossil fuels. The potential of photovoltaics (PV) is enormous, with sunlight delivering the world's annual energy needs every 15 minutes. Unfortunately, in most circumstances, no PV technology yet delivers adequately low cost electricity. Silicon photovoltaics (PV) are a major renewable technology, accounting for ~90% of the PV market. The present industry view is that silicon will continue to dominate the market for the foreseeable future. Apart from the capital cost, the key parameters affecting cost per kWh are efficiency and working life. The efficiency of a cell is limited by the portion of the spectrum it can use. For a simple (single-junction) cell this fundamental limit is ~30%. Many ideas which aim to go beyond this have been researched but the essential combination of low cost, long life and efficiency have proved very elusive. Commercial modules made from low cost multi-crystalline silicon generally have efficiencies in the range 13 to 16%. Commercial production using high quality (more expensive) silicon reaches 20%, where the world record efficiency for a cell is 25.8%. From our experience of silicon materials research projects over the past five or so years, we believe it will be possible to enhance the carrier lifetime of cheaper forms of silicon to provide substantially higher production conversion efficiencies of ~22%. For domestic installation - where grid parity is regarded as matching the utility supplier's price - latest figures suggest this efficiency is sufficient for parity at latitudes of up to 60 degrees from the equator. This project unites three UK silicon PV groups with four materials manufacturers, a major cell manufacturer, two materials characterisation companies, and three leading international university groups to work on some of the most pertinent issues in silicon PV materials. We aim to provide underlying science which will enable silicon PV to produce electricity at lower prices than traditional generating plants. The quality of silicon, as characterised by the minority carrier lifetime, places the upper limit on the efficiency that can be achieved. Cell processing is sufficiently mature to be able to make high efficiency cells provided the starting material is of high quality. Simplistically, the aim of this project is to remove defects which act as recombination centres and limit the efficiency of silicon PV cells. We are developing novel new methods of impurity gettering and defect passivation which have the potential to remove recombination centres which remain after existing processes. The project will also further understanding of the fundamental properties of defects in silicon, including the role of nano-precipitates in recombination, factors which prevent the fundamental carrier lifetime of silicon being reached, and the thermodynamics of impurity-dislocation interactions.

This project analyses the economic impact and technological aspect related to the agri-food sector of the utilization of biodegradable active packaging in the commercialization of Mediterranean fresh products. When the objective is to reach a more extensive market with a fair price, one of the critical points in the process production is the selection of the most appropriated packaging method. In these cases, the profitability of the process is clearly affected by the shelf-life of the product. In this sense, there is a trend in the search of the named active packaging in order to increase the shelf-life of fresh products. There are different kinds of active packaging. One of the most promising alternatives is the packaging produced adding an active substance. These compounds could have different functional properties including the capacity to minimize the oxidation and microbiological degradation of fresh food during storage. The result is a significant increase in the shelf-life of the packaged food. In this project, the addition of natural extracts obtained from agricultural by-products as active substances is proposed. The result will be an increase in the added value of these wastes, thus promoting a circle economy, which increases the profitability of the overall process. By other side, the directives of EU indicate that it is necessary to replace plastic packaging with biodegradable substitutes. In this sense, this project proposes the use of these biodegradable plastics in order to increase the quality of the package elaborated and to decrease the environmental impact of the use of conventional plastics. In the Im-Pack project, the application of a new technology using supercritical fluids to generate the active packaging is proposed. This technology has been proved in conventional plastics with excellent results, increasing the self-life of the fresh food in several days, and then, the capacity of exportation of agri-food companies. The project is focused on the development of innovative solutions that increase the competitiveness of the small and medium farmers by implementing new biodegradable active packaging suitable for the commercialization of their Mediterranean fresh food. These packaged, are adapted to the new European regulations regarding the use of biodegradable packaging, and intended to increase the shelf-life of fresh food products. With the proposed packaging, the agro-food companies can reach new markets and decrease food losses due to product expiration. The main expected result is an increase in the profit of all the stakeholders, including farmers, small-scale food manufacturers and local distributors. The introduction of this packaging in the agro-food supply chain provides a local and distinguished benefit, economically, environmentally and socially to smallholders. Finally, this benefit will result in a fair price for consumers. So, the Im-Pack project is integrated into the concept of circular economy in order to apply the profitability of active packaging produced from agricultural by-products, obtained and impregnated by a sustainable technique. The utilization of biodegradable plastics and the valorisation of agricultural by-products as source of interesting bioactive compounds minimize waste generation. In addition, the production of active packaging that increases the shelf-life of fresh food products reduces organic waste from expired food. In the Im-Pack project participates research groups from Algeria, France, Italy, Morocco, Portugal, Spain and Tunisia. These countries have an important role in the agro-food sector of the European Union and north of Africa. This project has been presented in a previous PRIMA call and was successful in the first stage. In this proposal, the considerations made by the evaluation committee have been considered and 3 new research groups and 2 companies have been incorporated in order to increase the impact of the proposal.

Agricultural soils are depleted in organic carbon (OC) and have the potential to sequester substantial amounts of C, contributing to climate change mitigation. An increase in soil organic carbon (SOC) has additional bene?ts, including improvements in soil fertility, water retention and texture, which supports crop productivity and biodiversity. Restoring and maintaining SOC can be achieved by adopting management practices which increase C sequestration and stabilize C in the soil matrix. Common management practices for increasing SOC include the use of external or internally recycled OC inputs (e.g., organic amendments/fertilizers, biochar, plant litter, residues), alternative cropping options (e.g., continuous green cover, cover crops) or measures that reduce OC losses (e.g., reduced tillage, adapted grazing). Conversely, these management practices have the potential to increase greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by stimulating decomposition of previously sequestered C and N increasing CO2 and N2O emissions. Mechanisms and drivers behind increased GHG emissions and their interactions with OC sequestration under di?erent soil and climatic conditions are not well constrained, partly because little is known about how abiotic and biotic factors control the extent to which soils can store OC. Quantifying negative side-e?ects of increased soil C sequestration on GHG emissions is necessary to develop appropriate management options that reduce GHGs while increasing soil C stocks. The main goal of TRUESOIL is to assess how GHG emissions from agricultural production systems are in?uenced by varying OC inputs for contrasting soil types and climates (i.e. boreal, temperate, Mediterranean and semi-oceanic). We will elucidate the roles of di?erent abiotic and biotic factors in OC storage and the extent to which these factors impact on GHG emissions, in particular N2O, given its high warming potential and large uncertainty in ?ux estimates. Many C-augmenting management interventions are known, or have the potential, to modify soil N cycling leading to enhanced N2O emissions. To understand potential trade-o?s between OC storage and GHG emissions, we combine intensive measurements of GHG ?uxes with carbon-nitrogen cycling studies and microbiological analyses. Comparison of soils that are SOC saturated with those that continue to accumulate SOC will aid in the identi?cation of the major drivers. Using rainfall exclusion experiments, we will also examine the future impact of reductions in precipitation on interactions between SOC accumulation and GHG emissions. TRUESOIL will establish a data repository of past and ongoing research on management-climate interrelationships between GHG emissions and soil SOC sequestration; it will also provide information on the factors likely to in?uence trade-o?s between SOC sequestration and GHG ?uxes, including pedoclimatic conditions, management interventions, soil microbial community composition and C/N budgets (WP1). The repository will serve as basis for overall project activities; examine the impacts of rainfall exclusion on SOC sequestration and GHG emissions (WP2); investigate the role of microbial communities in SOC sequestration and N2O emissions (WP3); and use modelling studies to examine C-N interactions and tradeo?s to identify management options that can maximize SOC sequestration whilst minimizing impacts on soil GHG emissions (WP4). TRUESOIL will then synthesize the scienti?c outcomes and translate them to climate-smart management practices (WP5) which will be disseminated and communicated among the scienti?c community, stakeholders and the general public (WP6). This project will lead to an increased understanding of how environmental factors and management control OC sequestration, SOC persistence and stabilization and how this is linked to GHG emissions, opening up new possibilities for soil-speci?c and climate mitigation strategies.

The functional electroceramics market is multibillion pounds in value and growing year by year. Electroceramic components are vital to the operation of a wide variety of home electronics, mobile communications, computer, automotive and aerospace systems. The UK ceramics industry tends to focus on a number of specialist markets and there are new opportunities in sensors, communications, imaging and related systems as new materials are developed. To enable the UK ceramics community to benefit from the new and emerging techniques for the processing and characterisation of functional electroceramics a series of collaborative exchanges will be undertaken between the three UK universities (Manchester, Sheffield and Imperial College) and universities and industry in Europe (Austria, Germany, Russia, Czech Republic), the USA and Asia (Japan, Taiwan and Singapore). These exchanges will enable the UK researchers (particularly those at an early stage of their careers) to learn new experimental and theoretical techniques. This knowledge and expertise will be utilised in the first instance in the new bilateral collaborative projects, and transferred to the UK user communities (UK universities and UK industry). A number of seminars and a two day Workshop will be held to help the dissemination of knowledge.

The rapid development of electronic devices and advanced sensors coupled with increasing concerns on global warming are driving requirements for portable, lightweight and flexible power sources to make our buildings smart and our portable devices independent from electricity grids. To this end, it is crucial to develop low-maintenance highly efficient energy sources that can provide local power, especially in ambient conditions. Thin-film photovoltaics offers such opportunity and are adaptable to any surface or device. Various ambient light photovoltaic technologies are investigated for harvesting energy from indoor light. Solar panels are traditionally made of photovoltaic devices and mostly rigid materials such as glass are used as substrates. However, this is not ideal and practical for indoor use. Recently, solar fabrics are being pursued for building integrated and interior energy harvesting. Photovoltaic devices integrated into textiles can also be used as portable power sources when coupled with bags, cloths, etc. However, more research into material development and manufacturing is needed to bring such technology closer to applications. To endow textiles with photovoltaic capability, it is essential to integrate the electronic functionality while maintaining the soft, stretchable properties of the textile, and the look and feel the end-user expects. Integrating such sophisticated function into textiles, however, is vastly different from fabrication of photovoltaic devices on the flat surfaces of glass or even plastic flexible substrates due to the porous, 3D structure of woven fabrics. This proposal addresses the manufacturing of new and emerging products related to the use of 2D materials for solar fabrics. The class of two-dimensional (2D) materials has expanded since since the isolation of graphene and now includes a great diversity of materials with various atomic structure and physical properties. Of particular interest for solar cells are the semiconducting transition metal di-chalcogenide (TMDC), with a band-gap ranging from visible to near infrared part of the spectrum (1.1 to 2.0 eV) and a significantly higher absorption coefficient per unit thickness (greater than Si, GaAs, and perovskites). These properties makes them extremely suitable for highly absorbing ultrathin photovoltaic devices for architectural and indoor applications and applications where lightweight or portability is highly desirable. The proposed research will develop textile-compatible manufacturing of solar fabrics based on 2D materials including semiconducting TMDCs as active layers and highly conductive graphene as electrodes. One key achievement is to develop manufacturing processes that easily translate from prototyping to production to enable solar textiles to become real products rather than proofs-of-concept. To date, the use of high performance photoactive materials on textiles has provided power conversion efficiency approaching 10%. Photovoltaic devices based on 2D materials using 2D/2D heterojunctions as active layers have been demonstrated, exhibiting external quantum efficiencies exceeding 50% and absorbance exceeding 90%. Achieving such high power conversion efficiencies on textiles, above 50% is the second key achievement for the investigations pursued here. This research will have impact and make a difference in the manufacturing area but also in other sectors such as healthcare, robotics and defence. The proposed research represents a technology leap towards autonomy and reliability of e-textile, reinforcing UK's position in e-textile markets. The proposed research has the potential to contribute various EPSRC prosperity outcomes such as "P1: Introduce the next generation of innovative and disruptive technologies", "P2: Ensure affordable solutions for national needs", "C2: Achieve transformational development and use of the Internet of Things" and "R1: Achieve energy security and efficiency".