NWO grant for improvement solar energy materials

The Dutch Research Council (Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek, NWO) has awarded an Open Competition Science-M grant to Dr Remco Havenith of the Faculty of Science and Engineering (University of Groningen) and Prof. Claudia Filippi of the MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology (University of Twente). They will receive an M2 grant of EUR 745,000 for research that contributes to improving solar-powered materials.

M grants are for innovative, high-quality research with scientific urgency. An M-2 grant is awarded to projects led by two researchers. Havenith is at the University of Groningen connected to the Stratingh Institute for Chemistry and the Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials.

Accurate wave functions that tell a chemical story

In today's society, more and more processes are driven by light. Developing new, photoactive, materials requires detailed knowledge about their operation. With computer simulations, this information can be obtained, but translating the results into design principles is very difficult. This project will develop a method for describing excited states that is accurate and can be easily interpreted chemically. This method will be used to study molecules that can improve solar cells.

NWO Open Competition Domain Science-M

M-grants are intended for realizing curiosity-driven, fundamental research of high quality and / or scientific urgency. The grant offers researchers the possibility to elaborate creative and risky ideas and to realise scientific innovations that can form the basis for the research themes of the future.