Solar photovoltaic (PV) technology is becoming a major source of renewable energy around the globe, with the International Energy Agency predicting it to be the largest contributor to renewables by 2024. This uptake is driven by the building of large PV power plants in regions of high solar resource, and also by the deployment of so-called distributed PV on the roofs of homes and industrial sites. The dominant PV technology to date has been based upon the crystalline semiconductor silicon. The production of silicon PV panels has been commoditised for large-scale manufacturing with costs reducing by a factor of ten in under a decade. Our research addresses the next generation of printed PV technologies which could deliver solar energy with far greater functional and processing flexibility than c-Si or traditional compound semiconductors, enabling tuneable design to meet the requirements of market applications inaccessible to current PV technologies. In particular, we seek to advance photovoltaics based upon organic and perovskite semiconductors - materials which can be processed from solution into the simplest possible solar cell structures, hence reducing cost and embodied energy from the manufacturing. These new technologies are still in the early stages of development with many fundamental scientific and engineering challenges still to be addressed. These challenges will be the foci of our research agenda, as will the development of solar cells for specific applications for which there is currently no optimal technological solution, but which need attributes such as light weight, flexible form factor, tuned spectral response or semi-transparency. These are unique selling points of organic and perovskite solar PV but fall outside the performance (and often cost) windows of the traditional technologies. Our specific target sectors are power for high value communications (for example battery integratable solar cells for unmanned aerial vehicles), and improved energy and resource efficiency power for the built environment (including solar windows and local for 'internet of things' devices). In essence we seek to extend the reach and application of PV beyond the provision of stationary energy. To deliver our ambitious research and technology development agenda we have assembled three world-renowned groups in next generation PV researchers at Swansea University, Imperial College London and Oxford University. All are field leaders and the assembled team spans the fundamental and applied science and engineering needed to answer both the outstanding fundamental questions and reduce the next generation PV technology to practise. Our research programme called Application Targeted Integrated Photovoltaics also involves industrial partners from across the PV supply chain - early manufacturers of the PV technology, component suppliers and large end users who understand the technical and cost requirements to deliver a viable product. The programme is primarily motivated by the clear need to reduce CO2 emissions across our economies and societies and our target sectors are of high priority and potential in this regard. It is also important for the UK to maintain an internationally competitive capability (and profile) in the area of next generation renewables. As part of our agenda we will be ensuring the training of scientists and engineers equipped with the necessary multi-disciplinary skills and closely connected to the emerging industry and its needs to ensure the UK stays pre-eminent in next generation photovoltaics.

Plastic Electronics embodies an approach to future electronics in their broadest sense (including electronic, optoelectronic and photonic structures, devices and systems) that combines the low temperature, versatile manufacturing attributes of plastics with the functional properties of semiconductors and metals. At its heart is the development, processing and application of advanced materials encompassing molecular electronic materials, low temperature processed metals, metal oxides and novel hybrids. As such it constitutes a challenging and far-ranging training ground in tune with the needs of a wide spectrum of industry and academia alike. The general area is widely recognised as a rapidly developing platform technology with the potential to impact on multiple application sectors, including displays, signage and lighting, large area electronics, energy generation and storage, logistics, advertising and brand security, distributed sensing and medical devices. The field is a growth area, nationally and globally and the booming organic (AMOLED) display and printed electronics industries have been leading the way, with the emerging opportunities in the photonics area - i.e. innovative solid-state lighting, solar (photovoltaics), energy storage and management now following. The world-leading, agenda-setting UK academic PE research, much of it sponsored by EPSRC, offers enormous potential that is critical for the development and growth of this UK technology sector. PE scientists are greatly in demand: both upstream for materials, process and equipment development; and downstream for device fabrication and wide-ranging applications innovation. Although this potential is recognised by UK government and industry, PE makes a major contribution to the Advanced Materials theme identified in Science Minister David Willet's 'eight great technologies', growth is severely limited by the shortage of trained scientists and engineers capable of carrying ideas forward to application. This is confirmed by industry experts who argue that a comprehensive training programme is essential to deliver the workforce of scientists and engineers needed to create a sustainable UK PE Industry. The aim of the PE-CDT is to provide necessary training to develop highly skilled scientists and engineers, capable both of leading development and of contributing growth in a variety of aspects; materials-focused innovation, translation and manufacturing. The CDT brings together three leading academic teams in the PE area: the Imperial groups, with expertise in the synthesis, materials processing, characterisation, photonics and device physics, the Oxford team with expertise in ultrafast spectroscopes probes, meso and nano-structured composites, vacuum processing and up scaling as well as the material scientists and polymer technologists at QMUL. This compact consortium encompasses all the disciplines relevant to PE, including materials physics, optoelectronics, physical chemistry, device engineering and modelling, design, synthesis and processing as well as relevant industrial experience. The programme captures the essentially multidisciplinary nature of PE combining the low temperature, versatile manufacturing attributes of plastics with the functional properties of semiconductors and metals. Yet, to meet the needs of the PE industry, it also puts in place a deep understanding of basic science along with a strong emphasis on professional skills and promoting interdisciplinary learning of high quality, ranging across all areas of plastic electronics.