EU Commission Flagship Projects Gather at ICT Vienna

Representatives from the three most ambitious research projects of the European Commission – the FET Flagships Graphene Flagship, Human Brain Project and Quantum Flagship – show their latest work at the ICT 2018 Conference, Dec. 4-6, 2018 in Vienna.
 
Located in three neighboring booths in the conference exhibition, visitors will be able to experiment with quantum devices, interact with the latest atlas of the human brain and touch the first industrial prototypes of graphene-enabled flexible electronic devices.
 
With a life-span of 10 years and a budget of €1 billion each, FET Flagships are the most ambitious research projects funded by the European Commission.
 
The Graphene Flagship, launched in 2013 and just starting the second half of its life, aims to take graphene from the realm of academic laboratories to the market, enhancing products from faster and more reliable optic and electronic devices, to longer-lasting batteries for our phones and cars and even more environmentally friendly construction materials.
 
Many researchers within the Graphene Flagship project head down a path to greater sustainability – graphene solar cells will populate a new solar farm on Crete, and Graphene Flagship partners are using graphene to create lighter airplanes that will dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
 
The Human Brain Project (HBP), which also launched in 2013, strives to accelerate the quest for a greater understanding of the human brain, its diseases and brain-inspired innovations in computing. To this end, neuroscientists, medical specialists, computer and robotics experts work together in the project to build and use a unique ICT-based infrastructure for brain research.
 
The approach of integrating brain science and technology has delivered many significant advances. In medicine, HBP research contributed towards the invention of a technology that enables paralyzed patients to walk again, using a prosthetic that stimulates nerves in the spine. HBP researchers also developed a new methodology to improve the success rate of epilepsy treatment, which is about to begin a large-scale clinical trial. HBP teams also work to transfer principles of biological learning to new bio-inspired artificial intelligence.
 
The third and newest member of the Flagship Fleet, the Quantum Flagship, has just been launched in October 2018, comprising 20 projects within its ramp-up phase. It will address the core applications of quantum technologies such as communications, sensing, metrology, computing and simulation, all of them supported by basic science investigations. All these advances will help to create the next generation of disruptive technologies, searching to place Europe as a worldwide knowledge-based industrial and technological leader in this innovative field.