DYCOTEC MATERIALS LTD

Their core work

Dycotec Materials is a UK-based specialty materials SME that develops and supplies functional inks, coatings, and substrates for printed and flexible electronics manufacturing. Their work spans both energy conversion materials — contributing to perovskite solar cell modules — and advanced electronics manufacturing, where they provide materials enabling electrostatic printing, imprint lithography, and organic thin-film transistor (TFT) production. In manufacturing consortia, they act as the materials specialist bridging chemistry and production-ready printing processes, supplying nano-silver inks, p-type organic semiconductors, and electroluminescent quantum dot formulations. Their value lies in translating laboratory-grade functional materials into formats compatible with scalable, large-area printing processes.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

Dycotec entered H2020 in 2018 through ESPResSo, a project squarely in the energy and environment space focused on perovskite solar modules — suggesting their initial EU research positioning was as a materials supplier to the photovoltaics sector. By 2020, HI-ACCURACY marked a clear pivot toward printed electronics manufacturing, with a dense keyword profile covering electrostatic printing, organic semiconductors, quantum dots, and TFT arrays. The shift from solar energy materials to display and electronics manufacturing materials suggests Dycotec is actively diversifying its application domains while keeping its core competency — specialty functional materials — constant.

Dycotec is moving toward high-precision printed electronics — organic TFTs, quantum dot LEDs, and µm-scale deposition — which positions them as a future partner for flexible display, IoT sensor, and wearable electronics consortia.

How they like to work

Dycotec has participated in both projects as a consortium partner, never as coordinator, which is consistent with an SME that brings deep specialist materials expertise rather than project management capacity. Despite only two projects, they have connected with 21 distinct partners across 12 countries — indicating they join large, multinational consortia where their niche materials knowledge fills a specific gap. This pattern suggests they are most effective when approached as a targeted ingredient supplier or process materials expert within a well-structured research consortium.

Dycotec has built a network of 21 consortium partners across 12 countries through just two projects, reflecting the scale of the consortia they join rather than a long track record. Their geographic spread is genuinely pan-European, with no evident concentration in any single country cluster.

What sets them apart

Dycotec occupies an uncommon niche as a small UK company with proven access to EU research consortia in both photovoltaics and printed electronics — two sectors with different industrial buyers but overlapping materials chemistry. Their combination of nano-silver, organic semiconductor, and quantum dot expertise in a single SME makes them a compact, versatile materials partner for consortia that need real supply-chain-ready materials input, not just academic formulations. Post-Brexit UK participation in H2020 also signals they have the administrative capability to navigate complex EU funding arrangements.

Highlights from their portfolio

• HI-ACCURACY
  The largest-funded project (EUR 583,404) and the richest in technical scope, targeting sub-micron printed electronics across organic TFTs, quantum dot LEDs, and electrostatic deposition — a broad printed electronics platform with direct manufacturing relevance.
• ESPResSo
  Dycotec's entry into EU research, demonstrating their materials capability in an entirely different application domain (perovskite photovoltaics), which confirms cross-sector materials versatility.