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Six research consortia comprising a total of 20 subprojects were granted EUR 4.6 million in funding from the Solar-driven Chemistry programme implemented in international cooperation in the field of solar-driven chemistry. The call for research proposals was organised by the national research funding agencies of Poland, France, Germany, Finland and Switzerland. The Research Council for Natural Sciences and Engineering at the Academy of Finland has granted EUR 864,000 in funding to three Finnish subprojects. The projects will last three years and they will be launched in April 2020

The projects focus on basic research in solar-driven chemistry. They promote sustainable development in different ways in accordance with the UN‘s action plan . The application process was organised in two stages and especially the innovativeness of the research plans was emphasised in the evaluation.

The subproject coordinated by Academy Research Fellow Pekka Peljo at Aalto University is part of the project titled Photoproduction of hydrogen in biphasic systems with electron donor recycling PHOTOH2. A sustainable future requires us to be able to transition to sustainable energy production. Hydrogen is an excellent and emission-free fuel produced mainly from fossil fuels. This project examines photoelectrochemical systems in which hydrogen is produced at the water-organic solvent interphase. Electron donors in an organic solvent produce hydrogen at the liquid-liquid interface when exposed to sunlight.