Graphene Week is a Europe-wide conference that thematically focuses on graphene and 2D materials. It is sponsored by Graphene Flagship and connects more than 500 experts. Representatives from 46 countries came and 280 contributions were presented. This year, the 19th conference was held in Prague in October, and it was organized by UCT Prague Professor Zdeněk Sofer. How did everything go and what work goes on behind the scenes when organizing such an event? You will learn that and more in this interview.
How did you get involved in organizing this year’s event?
I am one of the researchers taking part in the 2D-PRINTABLE project, which was awarded as a new Graphene Flagship program for the first time. After ten years, the types of grants and methods of financing by Graphene Flagship are changing. Research activities will be transferred to the Advanced Materials Initiative program, which was presented at the conference by representatives of the European Commission. The decision to organize this year’s event in Prague was made by the main organizer, Chalmers University of Technology, last year. When I read the first news about Graphene Week in Prague during the Flatlands 2024 conference (the latter of which I organized in Prague last year), I asked many colleagues participating in previous Graphene Flagship program projects who would organize the Prague event. And everyone told me that it would probably be me, which surprised me quite a bit, since no one had officially contacted me. For the past ten years of the Graphene Flagship program, an organizer had to apply as an institutional host and then be financially responsible for the event.
And how was it this time around?
Chalmers University of Technology is now responsible for the finances with co-financing from the European Commission, which is an advantage. Chalmers University of Technology also decides about where the conference will be held. The conference chairs are now grant-funded researchers from the countries where the conference will take place. Next year, they will be colleagues from Italy. This year, it was me for 2D-PRINTABLE, Dr. Aristides Bakandritsos from Palacký University in Olomouc for the 2D-BioPAD project, and Prof. Ionna Zergioti for the NEXT2DIGITS project, where there is one commercial project partner, Amires, also from the Czech Republic.
So, the three of you organized the conference?
A large part of the routine organizational matters was handled by the organizational team at Chalmers University of Technology and the Swedish company MKON. During the conference, I also had a team of 12 UCT Prague volunteers to help me as well as other volunteers involved in the 2D-BioPAD and NEXT2DIGITS projects. The conference lasted 5 days, from Monday to Friday, but it also included many workshops under the auspices of individual Graphene Flagship projects plus various European Commission events in which funding for the upcoming programming period in the AMI initiative and other programs was discussed.
What did organizing the event involve?
Beginning in fall of last year, we met with the co-organizers several times a month and gradually preparing the conference. The main focus of this work was selecting papers and presentations, but also solving local administrative issues regarding conference spaces and many other related things.
How do you look back on the whole experience and what are the greatest highlights of the event for you?
This is a major European Commission event and at this conference future funding programs focused on Europe’s competitiveness in the coming decades were officially presented, notably the AIM program, which should bring together individually focused programs, such as the Graphene Flagship and many others, next year. Unfortunately, compared to previous years, the official representation of the Czech Republic was very modest and for the first time, no representative of the host city government participated.
Can you summarise the directions presented?
Funding is shifting significantly towards applied research and development, with participation of large commercial companies (such as Aixtron and Oxford Instruments) and strongly application-oriented institutions such as VTT in Finland, AMO in Germany, and IMEC in Belgium, together with technology universities such as Chalmers University of Technology. Many such partners have joined forces, for example, in the new PilotLine project, which operations under the Graphene Flagship with a strong focus on the transfer of research to commercial application. Next year, these research endeavours will start taking place as part of the AIM programme, which will also focus on other advanced materials and technologies such as quantum technologies and energy storage materials.
What was the biggest challenge?
Probably the interaction with the City of Prague, because we were unable to get any support from the city and, for the first time, no city representative attended the event. Also, the organizing agency was based in Sweden and organizing local things remotely was sometimes problematic. Minor organizational difficulties also occasionally occurred during the conference, such as a two-day delay in the delivery of conference materials from Sweden. Many minor organizational difficulties were resolved very effectively thanks to the team of volunteers from my research group, who already have a lot of experience from organizing the Flatlands 2023 conference last year. It had one of the largest attendance rates in the last 10 years and the team that helped me with it was almost identical to this year’s team. I would like to thank them very much for the amazing organization work, also on behalf of the organizers from Chalmers University of Technology, who also confirmed that it was the best organized team of volunteers in the last decade :-).
Do you have any funny stories from the event?
One of my students who helped in organizing the conference won a competition organized by the 2DSPIN-TECH project in spinning a hula-hoop around one’s waist. (laughs)
What do you and your research group do?
Our group consists of over 40 researchers and students focused on the preparation of 2D materials in the form of bulk single crystals and nanostructures, their exfoliation to the atomic limit using physical and chemical techniques, and their subsequent functionalization. We use the materials prepared in this way for a wide range of applications. Many of the materials we prepare are unique in the world and are currently used by more than 200 research groups around the world, including many research groups operating at top 25 universities.
For example, what applications?
Energy storage applications (lithium, sodium, zinc, and other batteries), supercapacitors, electrochemical and photo-electrochemical water splitting, sensors, detectors, environmental applications, and nowadays especially electronic applications (photodetectors, transistors and sensors). We work on many projects with international colleagues in the US, Europe, and Asia.
What are your future plans?
In addition to research focused on finding new unique materials for applications in electronics, catalysis, and energy storage, we are starting to launch commercial collaborations with international companies. However, we cannot reveal more information yet. The goal is to bring our new materials and technologies to the real world and use them for many new applications.