FlexFunction2Sustain in M24: what has been done?

Two years after the start of the project, FlexFunction2Sustain published an overview highlighting the achievements of the first half of its implementation. The consortium of 19 European partners unified their competencies, practical and business development expertise and technical infrastructure to attain their ultimate goal to establish a sustainable network of excellence (Open Innovation Test Bed (OITB)) for nanotechnologies for eco-friendly plastic and paper products.

The first half of the project was dedicated to set up both business model and legal structure of the ecosystem. In parallel, the technical facilities of the consortium members have been upgraded for processing of novel bio-based, bio-degradable and/or recyclable plastic and paper based materials that shall replace the state-of-the-art mineral oil based plastic products in e.g. packaging applications. All facilities and technological solutions developed within FlexFunction2Sustain are being verified in six industrial use case scenarios that cover food and non-food packaging, biodegradable security labels, switchable water filter membranes and innovative multi-functional electronic surfaces in automotive applications. At month 24 of the project, the partners successfully demonstrated roll-to-roll processing of bio-degradable micro-structured surfaces for security labels; roll-to-roll manufacturing of conductive PET based membranes for filter applications; demonstrators of fully recyclable drink pouches and operational organic solar cells that were deposited on recycled PET films. In order to accelerate the uptake of the OITB services, FlexFunction2Sustain launched an Open Call targeted to the interested external companies. Following a competitive selection process, up to 20 pre-commercial business cases (pilot cases projects) will be selected.

Discover more about the main advancements by Month-24 by downloading the overview presentation HERE.