Periodic Reporting for period 1 - FeLow-D (LOW-DIMENSIONAL FERROELECTRICS FOR ADVANCED ELECTRONIC AND BIOMEDICAL DEVICES)
Reporting period: 2024-11-01 to 2026-01-31
FeLow-D is an ERA Chair project that strengthens research and innovation capacity at the Institute of Solid State Physics, University of Latvia, in the field of ferroelectric and related functional materials. Europe needs stronger excellence and competitiveness in advanced materials that enable energy efficient, reliable and sustainable electronic components for sensing, actuation, data storage and energy harvesting. The project addresses this need by building a critical mass of expertise and infrastructure in a Widening country and by embedding long term structural change at the host institution. The overall objectives are to integrate the ERA Chair and establish an excellent team, implement structural changes and modern governance, upgrade key research infrastructure, and prepare the Ferroelectrics Research Open Co creation Centre as a platform for collaboration and uptake. The expected impact is a sustainable increase in scientific excellence, international cooperation and competitive funding success, with results supporting the green and digital transitions.
During the first year, the project established its governance and compliance framework, including the Advisory Board oversight, ethics review, and continuous risk management. The ERA Chair holder Dr.Andrei Kholkin was recruited at project start and relocated (from UAvR, PT) to Riga, enabling leadership of the scientific and institutional change programme. Recruitment specifications and a recruitment jury were defined to support open and merit based recruitment of senior researchers and support staff for the next implementation phase. Structural change was initiated in the Optical Materials Laboratory by establishing three research directions covering microscopy and nanocharacterisation, two dimensional material design and synthesis, and functional devices and applications. Infrastructure consolidation was prepared, including technical planning for advanced atomic force microscopy upgrades funded through the institute infrastructure programme. Scientific progress and visibility were demonstrated through three peer reviewed journal publications in 2025 and a sustained programme of scientific seminars and workshops that supported networking and proposal preparation.
FeLow-D delivered early scientific and capacity building results that go beyond the current baseline at the host organisation and strengthen Europe’s advanced materials ecosystem. The published research advanced knowledge on polarization stability in lead free ferroelectric ceramics, design concepts for organic inorganic hybrid ferroelastics with reversible photoresponse, and tunable piezoelectric enhancement in biodegradable polymer films through thermal strain engineering. These results support future development of more sustainable functional materials and device concepts for electronics and sensors. Beyond scientific outputs, the project established a new internal research structure and prepared major equipment upgrades, which together enable higher level research performance and more competitive participation in European collaborations. Key needs for further uptake include completing team recruitment, commissioning the upgraded instrumentation, consolidating joint research with international partners, and advancing selected results towards demonstrators through structured collaboration and appropriate intellectual property and innovation support.