OPERA · Organic/Plastic Electronics Research Alliance

We propose to coordinate the work of academia and industry active in plastic electronics. The overall objective is to strengthen the position of Europe as the leading force in PE in the world.<br/>Our specific objective in Opera is to create the conditions for the establishment of a number of competitiveness clusters in the EU, because competitiveness clusters have shown to provide a fertile substrate for the development of such leadership. There are a few areas that meet most requirements for a cluster:<br/>* The Aachen - Louvain - Eindhoven triangle<br/>* UK, Cambridge area<br/>* Germany, Dresden area<br/>* Finland, Oulu area<br/>* Switzerland, Basel area<br/>However, a number of key elements are missing from these embryonic clusters:<br/>PE has grown organically without a coherent overall strategy. This leads to duplication of efforts, inefficiency and poor synergy. These are major obstacles to the development of truly global force<br/>PE is still at too early a stage of development to justify massive investment from the end-user industry. This would allow the sector to grow beyond critical mass<br/>To address these issues, Opera has the following components:<br/>* The development of an overall pan-European strategic framework maximising synergy and cooperation within the sector, accelerating technological progress and the development of commercial PE applications<br/>* The creation of channels of exchange of ideas and people<br/>* The development of tools for stimulating entrepreneurship by the private sector and public administration<br/>* The acceleration of the development of industry standards for PE<br/>* Enhancing the visibility of the field to the 'outside world', stimulating the formation of 'crosslinks' with related fields<br/>The consortium consists of Europe's leading authorities in PE and receives broad support from the entire field. Opera will last two years, but we expect many of the processes we shall initiate to extend beyond the duration of the project itself.