Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) is a government-funded research organisation under the responsibility of the French Ministry of research. It is the largest French research organization and European in terms of publications.

Hundreds of patents and projects are supported by the organisation every year. In SITA 3 different research units are involved:

1) The CNRS-IPVF (UMR 9006) is part of the Institut Photovoltaique d’Ile de France, one of the Institutes of Energy Transition (ITE) established by the French government through the Investment Plan for the Future. CNRS-IPVF is an object-oriented research organization for photovoltaic (PV) applications. Its role in the ITE is to provide core competencies in fundamental research on solar energy conversion and to be at the origin of innovation for analytical techniques, fabrication processes and photovoltaic devices. IPVF’s research activities are organized in the following technological programs: tandem solar cells, silicon based technologies, perovskite based technologies, ultrathin and high efficiency chalcogenide thin-film based technologies, high yield and breakthrough approaches, including substantial work on photonics and optoelectronics, as well as the development of new methods for studying electrical, optical and physical-chemical properties using luminescence, microscopy and spectroscopy and modelling.

2) The CNRS-C2N (Centre for Nanosciences and Nanotechnology) is a joint research unit between the CNRS and Université Paris-Saclay, with more than 400 people and one of the five largest clean-room facilities in France (2800 m²) and world-class characterization tools. Its research activities cover material science, nanophotonics, nanoelectronics, and nanotechnologies. The SUNLIT team (https://sunlit-team.eu/) involved in the SITA project has been working in photovoltaics for more than ten years, bringing novel nanophotonics and nanotechnology concepts into the photovoltaics community. Its work on light management has enabled the demonstration of record ultrathin solar cells made of GaAs and CIGS. It has been strongly involved in several European (ARCIGS-M) and French (ULTRACIS-M, PASTEL) projects on CIGS photovoltaics. It has also developed new nanoimprint and conductive and transparent bonding technologies dedicated to tandem solar cells (patents 2019 & 2020). C2N has a wide range of simulation and technological tools that will be available for the SITA project.

3) The CNRS-IMN (CNRS – Institut des Matériaux de Nantes Jean Rouxel) is a joint research unit between the CNRS and Nantes University. Created in 1988, the institute gathers chemists, physicists and materials engineers from the CNRS and Nantes University. With over 150 researchers and support staff, it now represents one of the largest materials research centres in France. Research projects are diverse, including collaborations with industry and other national and international research organizations. 

At the IMN, we develop a fundamental understanding of the science of materials and their properties from the atomic scale upwards. This allows the design, characterization and optimization of new materials for a diverse range of high-technology applications, including next-generation solar cells, fuel cells, electric car batteries, nanotechnology, smart materials, and materials for microelectronics, photonic and optical materials. These research activities are structured as five teams (www.cnrs-imn.fr). 

The team MIOPS (innovative materials for optics, photovoltaic and storage) of the IMN is involved within the project SITA through contributions to WPs dedicated to the development (i) of novel high bandgap top modules and (ii) tandem architecture and scaling to prototype tandem modules.