Entrepreneurship

TU Dresden: ERC funding for two technologies on the way to market maturity – new sensors for measurements in organic semiconductors and more sustainable manufacturing methods for photovoltaics

January 27, 2026. The European Research Council (ERC) is funding the feasibility studies of two researchers at Technische Universität Dresden (TUD). Prof. Sebastian Reineke, Professor of Organic Semiconductors, and Prof. Yana Vaynzof, Professor of Novel Electronics Technologies and spokesperson of the Cluster of Excellence Responsible Electronics in the Climate Change Era (REC²), are two of 136 scientists in Europe who have been selected to receive funding for a proof of concept. This involves 150,000 euros, which can be used to explore the commercial or social potential of research results.

The European Research Council is funding feasibility studies by TUD researchers Prof. Sebastian Reineke and Prof. Yana Vaynzof. Photo: Tobias Ritz and Fabian Paulus

ERC Proof of Concept E-RADOS: “Digital luminescence for thin-film electron radiation dosimetry” by Prof. Sebastian Reineke

Electron beams are used in many industrial and scientific applications, e.g. in cancer therapy, vaccine development, sterilization, but also for energy-saving ink curing and the reprocessing of recycled plastic. Until now, however, it has been almost impossible to determine how many electrons are actually introduced into a material. This is where the ERC Proof of Concept project “Digital luminescence for thin-film electron radiation dosimetry (E-RADOS)” by Sebastian Reineke, Professor of Organic Semiconductors at TUD, comes in. With his LEXOS working group, he wants to further develop the principle of digital luminescence in order to demonstrate electron interaction with organic semiconductors as a new sensor principle and transfer this to commercial use.

“With our technology, we have already successfully commercialized a sensor technology for UV radiation through the start-up PRUUVE GmbH. With E-RADOS, we want to validate whether this technology can also be used reliably for electron beam measurement,” says Reineke.

ERC Proof of Concept SpeedUp: “High-Speed Vapor Deposition of Metal Halide Perovskites for Scalable Applications” by Prof. Yana Vaynzof

In view of the increasing global demand for energy, the development of sustainable technologies for renewable energies is of crucial importance. Yana Vaynzof, Professor of Novel Electronics Technologies at TU Dresden, Director at the Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research Dresden (IFW) and spokesperson for the new REC² Cluster of Excellence, is researching new photovoltaic technologies based on so-called metal halide perovskites. She and her team are focusing in particular on overcoming the existing hurdles to the use of these promising crystalline semiconductor materials in industry. The European Research Council (ERC) Proof-of-Concept Grant for the project “High-Speed Vapor Deposition of Metal Halide Perovskites for Scalable Applications (SpeedUp)” will enable her to develop new methods for the rapid deposition of metal halide perovskites to accelerate their industrial use in optoelectronic applications, such as photovoltaics.

“Our initial, fundamental investigations have shown that high-quality perovskite films can, in principle, be deposited by electron beam evaporation at impressive speeds of around 100 nm/min. This preliminary work suggests that with further research, this process for metal halide perovskites has great potential to achieve the deposition rates required for industrial applications. This method could significantly accelerate the production of perovskite solar cells, make them more cost-effective and thus drive their large-scale industrialization,” explains Vaynzof.

ERC Proof of Concept Grants (PoC)

The Proof of Concept (PoC) Grant is a funding line of the European Research Council (ERC) that can be awarded in addition to the main Starting, Consolidator, Advanced and Synergy Grant funding lines. It is aimed exclusively at researchers who already hold an ERC grant and now wish to explore the commercial or societal potential of their pioneering research projects. PoC grants are endowed with 150,000 euros for a maximum of 18 months.