This Summer, we hosted the first ever UK-China Workshop on Organic and Perovskites Solar cells at Swansea University Bay Campus. The main objective of the 3-day event was to bring together Early Career Researchers with expertise in organic and perovskite photovoltaic cells; to present their work and to encourage and strengthen the research capacity through the UK-China collaboration by networking opportunities.
We were delighted that the workshop was very well attended. We had over 60 attendees including about 20 people who flew over from China and about 25 people from across UK. It was organised by Dr. Chung Tsoi and Professor Trystan Watson and supported by British Council and Newton Fund.
Professor Trystan Watson, leader of the PV cluster at Swansea University gave the welcome to all the participants to the Workshop. Shortly after he started the first session discussing the challenges of pilot scale manufacturing for perovskite solar cell modules. It was a jam-packed agenda with many talks from ECRs from both China and UK throughout the 3 days, as well as outstanding keynote talks from fellow event organiser, Professor Hin-Lap Yip, Professor James Durrant, Professor Paul Meredith, Professor Jenny Nelson, Professor Hongwei Han and Dr. Wing C. Tsoi.
On the social side of things, a drinks reception / poster session was held in the evening where student had the opportunity to show their results and talk to other researchers – it was great to see lots of connections being made! We also had an interesting ‘speed-dating’ lunch, where Early Career Researchers had the opportunity to dart around the tables to ask the Professors’ advice…from the hubbub in the room, that format seemed to work well!
It was a great event for networking and to encourage collaborations between China and UK. We hope that this workshop will help us to create strong links and partnership in the near future…
“Thank you for the chance to participate in the wonderful event you organised. It really was a pleasure and a great workshop. ”
[By Thomas Derrien]
