Competition will support commercialisation of graphene

The funding is being made available by the EPSRC and the Technology Strategy Board. It will support the development of graphene in commercial products such as flexible printed electronics, batteries that charge in minutes, ultra strong composite materials, novel coatings and next generation photovoltaic cells. Ivan Buckley, project manager of the National Graphene Institute in Manchester, said: "We've heard a lot about the properties of graphene and it's found in a handful of commercial products, but it's not yet been fully exploited. "We've got the scientific lead, we've got state of the art facilities and now we've got the funding. The missing piece of the puzzle is for industry to work with our universities to turn top science into innovative products and processes." The call opens on 7 April. The deadline for receipt of applications is noon on 4 June 2014. For more information, click here.