Centre postdoctoral researcher Dr Fei Li receiving a 2026 UNSW Horizon Europe GRIP Initiator Grant

The ARC Centre of Excellence for Carbon Science and Innovation congratulates Centre postdoctoral researcher Dr Fei Li on receiving a 2026 UNSW Horizon Europe GRIP Initiator Grant.

The project builds on the Centre’s expertise in gold recovery, graphene oxide and carbon-based materials. It will investigate innovative approaches to converting waste plastics into porous carbon materials, including graphene oxide-based materials, for the selective recovery of gold from electronic waste.

As Lead Investigator, Dr Fei Li will work with his UNSW supervisors, Associate Professor Rakesh Joshi and Professor Rose Amal, as well as Centre former Postdoc Dr Jiaxin Li, Professor Alexander Forse and centre Partner Investigator and Board members including Professor Markus Antonietti, Professor Daria Andreeva and Professor Sir Konstantin Novoselov. Dr Li will also work with PhD student Zhijian Cao, providing an opportunity to support and mentor the next generation of researchers.

Dr Fei Li said:

“This is a great opportunity to strengthen our collaboration with our European partners. I look forward to continuing our collaboration and exchanges with Dr Jiaxin Li, Professor Forse and Professor Antonietti. Hopefully, we can build on this project and achieve more exciting outcomes together by applying porous carbon materials to precious metal recovery.”

Congratulations to Dr Fei Li and all project partners. We look forward to seeing this exciting collaboration deliver new outcomes in sustainable resource recovery and carbon materials research.