This proposal describes the third core project of the Graphene Flagship. It forms the fourth phase of the FET flagship and is characterized by a continued transition towards higher technology readiness levels, without jeopardizing our strong commitment to fundamental research. Compared to the second core project, this phase includes a substantial increase in the market-motivated technological spearhead projects, which account for about 30% of the overall budget. The broader fundamental and applied research themes are pursued by 15 work packages and supported by four work packages on innovation, industrialization, dissemination and management. The consortium that is involved in this project includes over 150 academic and industrial partners in over 20 European countries.

This project is the second in the series of EC-financed parts of the Graphene Flagship. The Graphene Flagship is a 10 year research and innovation endeavour with a total project cost of 1,000,000,000 euros, funded jointly by the European Commission and member states and associated countries. The first part of the Flagship was a 30-month Collaborative Project, Coordination and Support Action (CP-CSA) under the 7th framework program (2013-2016), while this and the following parts are implemented as Core Projects under the Horizon 2020 framework. The mission of the Graphene Flagship is to take graphene and related layered materials from a state of raw potential to a point where they can revolutionise multiple industries. This will bring a new dimension to future technology – a faster, thinner, stronger, flexible, and broadband revolution. Our program will put Europe firmly at the heart of the process, with a manifold return on the EU investment, both in terms of technological innovation and economic growth. To realise this vision, we have brought together a larger European consortium with about 150 partners in 23 countries. The partners represent academia, research institutes and industries, which work closely together in 15 technical work packages and five supporting work packages covering the entire value chain from materials to components and systems. As time progresses, the centre of gravity of the Flagship moves towards applications, which is reflected in the increasing importance of the higher - system - levels of the value chain. In this first core project the main focus is on components and initial system level tasks. The first core project is divided into 4 divisions, which in turn comprise 3 to 5 work packages on related topics. A fifth, external division acts as a link to the parts of the Flagship that are funded by the member states and associated countries, or by other funding sources. This creates a collaborative framework for the entire Flagship.

This proposal describes the third stage of the EC-funded part of the Graphene Flagship. It builds upon the results achieved in the ramp-up phase (2013 - 2016) and the first core project (2016 - 2018), and covers the period April 2018 - March 2020. The progress of the flagship follows the general plans set out in the Framework Partnership Agreement, and the second core project represents an additional step towards higher technology and manufacturing readiness levels. The Flagship is built upon the concept of value chains, one of which is along the axis of materials-components-systems; the ramp-up phase placed substantial resources on the development of materials production technologies, the first core project moved to emphasise components, and the second core project will move further towards integrating components in larger systems. This evolution is manifested, e.g., in the introduction of six market-motivated spearhead projects during the Core 2 project.

Reactive Too: Reliable Electronics for Tomorrow’s Active Systems is a research-focused project that brings together a unique team of academic and industrial members. This team will form a tight confederation to tackle challenging aspects of reliability and future developments in electronic systems. European organisations from Finland, France, Poland and the UK are involved. Each partner country will supply both industrial and academic units. ReACTIVE Too will do research into design for reliability for electronics-based systems. This includes the introduction of an agile hardware development cycle with virtual techniques to uniquely address reliability and physical validation in active safety systems. Exemplar systems from partner companies in Automotive and Healthcare will be used to validate the ideas. Finnish partners who have a track record in wearable electronics will bring their research in smart textiles to the team. Innovation in terms of design and integration of these smart textiles into the challenging environments of automotive and care homes will enhance driver information and ambient assisted living. The project team is very privileged to have French partners doing world-leading research and production of unique devices in energy harvesting. Further innovation in ReACTIVE Too will bring novel flexible energy harvesters for integration into many sensors. Industrially leading work is planned to be led by Polish partners to investigate the possibilities of applying AI, deep learning and prognostics to future electronics systems. These innovations should allow a unique assessment of long term reliability and shorten development cycle times, saving energy and money. The team will be developed through a series of workshops and secondments. Future plans will be developed during these interactions to target new research and innovation topics and more intense interactions by making future joint funding proposals.