Twinning for excellence in TEsting new generation PV: Long-term STAbility and field REliability

TESTARE aims to stimulate excellence and innovation capacity at the DegradationLab of University of Cyprus (UCY) in the topic of new generation PV technologies from the perspective of long-term stability and field reliability testing. To this end, UCY will link effectively with internationally-leading research institutions, namely Interuniversity Microelectronics Centre (IMEC), Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (Fraunhofer), and Ben-Gurion University (BGU). The project is put in place in order to bring UCY up to par with such excellence-intensive institutions by overcoming its weak points (lack of critical mass of scientists, networking, advanced metrology technical skills) to take its work on emerging PV testing to the next level. Activities will include knowledge transfer, exchange of best practices between UCY and leading partners, industrial networking, infrastructure sharing. The knowledge transfer will be achieved through in person training, staff/student exchanges, webinars, thematic workshops, and PhD scientific schools. To demonstrate the value of the twinning exercise and at strengthen the engagement of the partners, an exploratory research project will also take place to assess the performance and lifetime of perovskite on silicon tandem modules. This will entail close interactions between the partners including round-robin test campaigns and inter-comparison measurements towards developing new test and aging protocols for this technology. TESTARE will also focus on enhancing research management and administration capabilities at UCY in order to improve and make more sustainable its research ecosystem. This project will entail benefits for all institutions involved including the leading partners who will also gain access to new markets in MENA region. TESTARE is expected to lead to long-term ties between partners on joint proposals and projects, joint PhDs, infrastructure sharing, innovation, all of which will enhance the R&I system of Cyprus.