The conference, which will begin on Monday 20^th April, is hosted by Sêr Solar, in association with SPECIFIC and Swansea University.

Led by Professor James Durrant,who holds joint positions at Imperial College London and Swansea University as chair of Sêr Solar, the conference will discuss topics such asmaterials and device function, processing and stability, and scale-up towards manufacturable technologies.

‌Key amongst the speakers will be Professor Michael Grätzel, of École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne EPFL, who pioneered dye sensitised solar cells and Professor Henry Snaith from Oxford University, who led the way in the development of perovskites. Dr Trystan Watson from Swansea University will also be presenting latest research into ‘photonic sintering’ which cuts the time it takes to make a new type of solar cell from up to 90 minutes to just fractions of a second.

The conference will also feature a tour of the state-of-the-art SPECIFIC IKC facility at the Baglan Bay Innovation Centre.

Professor James Durrant, said: “We’re delighted to have attracted such world-leading speakers to our conference in Swansea. In the race to develop the next generation of solar cells, printed photovoltaics hold great promise. The consortium of academic and industrial partners at SPECIFIC shows how bringing together the world’s top researchers with key industrial players can accelerate the development of these technologies. With this meeting of minds and sharing of knowledge, we hope to inspire conversations that will help to bring them closer to commercial reality.”