The Federal Ministry for Research will fund common projects of economy and science with 60 million euros. On top of that, the companies involved in the initiative - BASF, BOSCH, MERCK and SCHOTT - have confirmed their investment of 300 million euros in research and development. Federal Minister Dr Annette Schavan has invited especially small and medium-sized companies to participate in this initiative because: "Optical technologies are developing fast and will become the driving innovative force in Germany".

This technology initiative is aimed to develop new, decisively enhanced solar cells on the basis of organic and polymer materials ("plastics"). Unlike common solar cells, organic solar cells can be flexible, thin and transparent like a foil. They are suitable for supplying mobile phones with power, for example. Another objective is to use organic solar cells in the building industry to produce power on roofs, facades or even windows. The requirements on such applications are higher efficiencies, clearly longer component lives and lower manufacturing costs.

For further information on project proposals in the field of organic photovoltaics please refer to the "Announcement" of the German Federal Ministry for Research under http://www.bmbf.de/foerderungen/9757.php