The 21st century has been dominated by an ambient digitalization, a trend that is mirrored by the use of catchwords such as Smart Energy, Smart Homes & Smart Cities and the increasing use of electronics in everyday objects. Current IoT scenarios expect a number of around 75 billion connected devices by 2025, and the powering of these devices by batteries will result in a considerable amount of potentially hazardous waste. The spread of electronic systems in remote locations should thus be accompanied by a change in power generation, making use of dislocated and disordered energy sources. A cost-efficient and environmentally friendly realization of energy harvesting (EH), however, is still a challenge, as the required input of functional material and electronic components in comparison to the energy output is high and often involves lead-based materials, manufacturing methods that consume high amounts of energy and costly assembly steps. SYMPHONY aims for the development of new materials for low-cost and scalable printing and structuring processes to fabricate multimodal EH solutions based on the ferroelectric polymer P(VDF-TrFE) as well as printed energy storage devices and rectifiers not using rare elements and heavy metals. The hybrid integration of these devices on flexible films with low power harvesting ICs will result in a specific cost below 1€/mW (well below the value for piezoceramic and electrodynamic EH). The reduction of hazardous waste and energy consumption in SYMPHONY starts with material selection and manufacturing, but ultimately unfolds its full potential in the most CO2-relevant application areas: renewable energy generation, room heating/cooling and mobility. The innovative EH concept of SYMPHONY used to power distributed sensor nodes will reduce emissions by 50% increasing the efficiency of wind turbines (Smart Energy), making room heating/cooling 20% more efficient (Smart Home) and supporting the transformation of urban mobility (Smart City).

Development of new materials over the past decade paved the way for organic/hybrid electronics into commercial applications. Now, perfection of material interfaces in organic/hybrid thin-film devices is key to drive the technology further and enable new, more advanced applications. INFORM offers a paradigm shift from focusing on materials to focusing on devices by probing, modelling and controlling relevant processes that take place at interfaces, e.g. charge transfer, injection and collection. By training researchers in this exciting, highly multidisciplinary area, INFORM contributes to the need for skilled, knowledgeable researchers in the field of multilayer thin-film devices in Europe. INFORM will generate fundamental insights and apply them to improve the performance and reliability of relevant devices that will allow INFORM’s industrial partners to grow their markets and take full advantage of the low-temperature, low-cost and large-area processing potential of new generation semiconductors. The challenges are wide-ranging and thus require a cross-European, multidisciplinary, intersectorial and multifaceted approach. The INFORM network consists of partners with complementary skills and toolboxes, including 9 academic groups fully equipped, experienced and knowledgeable in multilayer device research and supervision. The involvement of 4 non-academic partners at the highest level, through supervision of 2 ESRs and secondments, ensures ESR exposure to the industrial workplace and simultaneously provides benefits to the non-academic partners. Complementary training activities in personal skills (e.g writing and communicating), is given by a specialist partner. The combination of high level research and intense training endows the ESRs with multidisciplinary know-how and hands-on skills for careers that impact not only the field of multilayer devices, but also the broader quests for renewable energy resources and development of nanotechnology.

Waste heat is a ubiquitous source of low-quality energy that is yet to be harvested and transformed into high-quality energy in the form of electricity. Low-cost and highly scalable thermoelectric generators (TEG) based on organic materials and hybrid composites have the huge potential to achieve this. The actual market volume for ultra-low power TEG will soon pass 100M USD, and a small improvement in TEG performance or cost may open a billion-dollar market, especially in view of the booming number of autonomous, self-powered devices related to the Internet of Things. Triggered by actual market demand for printable TEG, HORATES aims to train 15 promising early stage researchers (ESRs) in the emerging interdisciplinary field of organic thermoelectrics. ESRs will be trained within a focused consortium including universities, research centers and companies that jointly cover the full chain from molecular design and synthesis via in-depth characterization and predictive multiscale modeling to large-area printed devices. From previous and preliminary results by the consortium members, the most promising concepts have been selected for further development. These include, but are not limited to, processing-induced anisotropy and (stable) dopant-free conductors by ground-state charge transfer, and are complemented by a range of new ideas to reach application-relevant power-densities. HORATES integrates these scientific and technological aspects in a complete training package with complementary, transferable skills in order to equip young researchers with a unique toolset that is of relevance in both academia and industry, far beyond the specific topic of this project.