EIC Pathfinder Challenge on biohybrid devices – call closed October 16, 2024

What is the Solar-to-X call about?

Current technologies for producing synthetic fuels and chemicals from renewable sources, like Power-to-X or Carbon Capture and Utilization (CCU), face high energy losses and the challenge of scalable, affordable renewable electricity. Solar-to-X technologies offer a solution by directly converting solar energy and available molecules (e.g., water, carbon oxides) into fuels and chemicals within a single device such as biohybrid systems, simplifying the process and supporting decentralized energy systems.

This challenge seeks innovative solar-to-X solutions that address unmet societal needs, are self-sustaining, and provide mutual benefits for prosumers and the environment. It excludes conventional designs and emphasizes fully-integrated systems that bypass the need for intermediate energy conversions.

The EIC Pathfinder is a funding program within Horizon Europe designed to support research teams by financing research to establish the scientific foundations necessary for groundbreaking technologies and supporting the initial phases of scientific, technological, or deep-tech research and development. You will find more information on the current EIC Pathfinder Challenge calls here.

Learn more about our European projects related to biohybrid systems such as BioProS, DarChemDN, Phototrain and ActiveMatter.

The MIC can be your perfect SME partner for Solar-to-X

Contact our researchers

How can the MIC help with your project?

Create microfluidic systems for droplets to encapsulate photosynthetic enzymes
Develop miniaturized biohybrid devices
Develop fine-tuned flow control systems for coating techniques (e.g. spin coating)

The MIC as the perfect SME partner

The participation of SMEs is strongly encouraged in Horizon Europe projects as they are very well positioned to bring new innovations to the market. In our case, we specialize in microfluidic technologies and can develop a high-precision, automatable perfusion system to advance the state-of-the-art in solar fuels, artificial photosynthesis and biohybrid devices.

In addition, we can also develop solutions for coating processes with high-precision pressure, volume and flow control, which are important for the production of thin films, such as spin coating in solar cell production.

Objectives of the call

The challenge aims to advance solar-to-X technologies across three specific areas:

Area 1: Standalone solar-to-X device development

Develop devices that convert sunlight and simple molecules (e.g., water, carbon oxides, N₂) into fuels, chemicals, and materials, for example biohybrid systems.
Simplify production chains to produce complex products directly from simple feedstock, beyond hydrogen or carbon monoxide.
Design systems that operate independently, providing sustainable energy and local production capabilities to communities and remote areas, including biohybrid devices.

Area 2: Benchmarking and common metrics development

Create common metrics, protocols, and equipment for standardized comparison of solar-to-X technologies such as biohybrid devices and many more.
Develop a holistic framework with key performance indicators for different technology categories such as biohybrid systems.
Use devices from Area 1 to validate methodologies, protocols, and equipment.
Ensure broad stakeholder acceptance through co-creation workshops and outreach activities.

Area 3: Understanding fundamental mechanisms via computational materials science

Investigate fundamental phenomena crucial to various device architectures to enable next-generation solar-to-X devices such as biohybrid devices.
Promote accurate, resource-efficient quantum mechanical methods for theoretical-experimental comparisons.
Bridge atomic, mesoscopic, and macroscopic scales within a multiscale approach.
Use Area 1 devices to validate theoretical models, e.g. for biohybrid devices.

Each area focuses on innovative development, standardization, or fundamental research to advance solar-to-X technologies for decentralized, sustainable energy solutions such as biohybrid systems.

What are the expected outcomes and impact?

The challenge on solar-to-X focuses on the development of devices that store sunlight as fuels and chemicals to support decentralized energy, transport, and production systems, including biohybrid devices. The portfolio of selected projects is expected to:

Advance device maturity and efficiency (Area 1).
Develop common metrics and protocols for fair comparisons (Area 2).
Explore fundamental mechanisms of device architectures (Area 3).

Projects should target impactful end products for sectors like energy, transport, construction, and agriculture. Systems must be cost-efficient, use local feedstock and sustainable resources, and minimize reliance on rare materials. Proposals should address a market need, specifying their technology area (e.g., novel electrolyzers, fully-integrated PV-EC, photosynthetic devices, solar-driven biological conversion devices). An interesting area are biohybrid systems.

In Area 1, proposals are categorized into four device types: novel electrolyzer designs, fully-integrated PV-EC devices, photosynthetic devices, and solar-driven biological conversion devices. Photosynthetic devices are further divided into four sub-categories: photo(electro)chemical devices, particulate systems, biohybrid devices, and thermally-integrated devices.

The following table, published by the European Commission, summarizes the device categories.

Image source: EIC

In summary, the MIC can develop:

Innovative instruments tailored to your application
Encapsulation of biocatalytic reactions in artificial cells
Automated perfusion setups for biocatalytic reactions
Advice on the development and dissemination of proposals and support for the market launch of innovations.

We are happy to join your research consortium as an SME partner also for other topics. Calls that we are particularly interested in are: