LUSA 01/17/2025

Lusa - Business News - Portugal: Lisbon university heads EU-China lab to develop flexible electronics

Macau, China, Jan. 16, 2025 (Lusa) - Lisbon's Universidade Nova is leading a Sino-European laboratory in China dedicated to flexible electronics, from biomedical applications to solar cells that can go into space, scientist Elvira Fortunato told Lusa.

On the European side, the Universidade Nova de Lisboa is leading the China-European Union Joint Electronic Materials Laboratory, which will be set up in Hefei, the capital of Anhui province in eastern China.

The consortium was recently strengthened by the entry of the University of Valencia, in eastern Spain, and also has the support of the European Academy of Sciences, said the former Portuguese minister for science, technology and higher education (2022-2024).

Fortunato indicated that the laboratory will work "a lot in the area of flexible electronics and sustainable electronics" and gave as an example biomedical applications, including "membranes with electronics that can conform, for example, to the skin".

Another area of research should be the development of flexible photovoltaic cells, which can even "go into space, with low weight and conformable to other areas", she explained.

The agreement to create the joint laboratory was signed in June, but the building that will house the institution is still being built ‘from scratch’ in Hefei, said Fortunato.

"They are also applying for funds here in China to set up the laboratory," she said in Macau.

Fortunato and her husband, Rodrigo Martins, known for having invented the so-called ‘electronic paper’ with colleagues, the first transistor made of paper, are in the Chinese semi-autonomous region, where they gave a conference on advanced sustainable materials on Wednesday.

"Part of the installation of the laboratory has already been approved, it already has funding" and should begin operating “no later than 2026”, Martins, who has been president of the European Academy of Sciences since 2018, told Lusa.

Fortunato noted that once the laboratory is set up, the programme includes the exchange of staff and Chinese and Portuguese PhD students and the joint organisation of seminars and other academic events.

Fortunato and Martins will then travel to Hefei for a meeting with the governor of Anhui province, Wang Qingxian, to see how the laboratory is progressing.

On the Chinese side, the consortium is made up of the Institutes of Physical Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Hefei, the University of Fuzhou (southeast), the China-Europe International Centre for Innovation in Electronic Materials, and the private company Visionox.

Fortunato emphasised that Universidade Nova de Lisboa already had a scientific collaboration with Qingdao University, in eastern China, but that this will be the first joint laboratory to link the two countries.

 

 

VQ/AYLS // AYLS

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