10 January 2022

Incorporating electronic and responsive materials in plant cells in order to produce composites that maintain the living properties of cells and, in the long term, create sustainable systems using nature’s own methods is the focus of her project.

Eleni Stavrinidou
Eleni Stavrinidou Photographer: Thor Balkhed
Eleni Stavrinidou, senior lecturer and principal investigator at Electronic Plants at Linköping University’s Laboratory of Organic Electronics is awarded approximately EUR 1.5 million (approx. SEK 15 million) from the European Research Council, ERC, as an ERC Starting Grant.

“What a fantastic way to round off 2021”, she said just before Christmas, on receiving the news about the prestigious ERC Starting Grant

One of the aims of Eleni Stavrinidous’ project, called 4D-PhytoHybrid – plant-based 4D biohybrid systems, is to use photosynthesis and the plant cells’ own processes, along with organic electronics, to create completely new biohybrid systems with living properties such as growth, responsiveness, and adaptability.
Another aim is to create a European hub for research based on plants’ natural processes, or as the application reads, to develop the next-generation technology based on photosynthetic biohybrid systems.

First in the world

Eleni Stavrinidous’ research at Linköping University has resulted in a number of high-profile breakthroughs and publications. In 2015 she showed that electronic circuits can be produced inside the vascular system of a rose, which made the news worldwide. To summarise, the conducting polymer PEDOT is absorbed into the rose’s vascular system, forming electronic conductors which can, among other things, be used to build transistors.

In work published in 2017, she showed that an oligomer, ETE-S, is polymerised inside the plant, forming electric conductors that can store energy. In the experiments at the time, the plants did not survive long after the treatment, but in an article published in the autumn of 2021, she and her research team got living, productive bean plants to store energy.

Stiff competition

This year’s ERC Starting Grant is the first round of funding from the new programme Horizon Europe. As in previous years the competition was stiff; of 4000 applicants, 397 were successful, being awarded a total of EUR 619 million.

The aim of the ERC Starting Grant is to enable talented young researchers to continue to develop their work at European research institutions, and to encourage promising young researchers from outside the EU to work inside Europe. Of this year’s grants, 13 went to researchers who have previously worked in the United States.

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Research for a sustainable future in ten new projects

Photosynthetic materials, two-dimensional noble metals and sustainable semiconductors are some of the projects at LiU that have been granted funding from the research programme Wallenberg initiative materials science for sustainability – WISE.

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Electronic “soil” enhances crop growth

Barley seedlings grow on average 50% more when their root system is stimulated electrically through a new cultivation substrate.  LiU-researchers have developed an electrically conductive “soil” for hydroponics.

Abdul Manan Dar and Eleni Stavrinidou.

Fast electrical signals mapped in plants with new technology

What happens inside the carnivorous plant Venus Flytrap when it catches an insect? New technology has led to discoveries about the electrical signalling that causes the trap to snap shut.

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