​The "KAUST Research Conference: Synergistic Approaches in Solar Energy Conversion" is a highly interdisciplinary conference aims to reinforce synergies between the different directions in solar-energy research and will give a concise overview of the most exciting recent findings. Important emerging trends that can further accelerate advancements in solar-energy conversion come from the cross-fertilization and combination of classically different technologies. Therefore, we aim to have contributions discussing novel synergistic concepts that can inspire and trigger new research across classically-held borders. The conference will be centered around three major themes:

1. Performance-limiting factors and challenges in solar energy conversion technologies
2. Emerging synergistic approaches
3. Approaches to overcome the current performance limits

Each of these themes will ideally include photovoltaic, photochemical, and photocatalytic contributions to explicitly foster the border-crossing character of this conference.

This conference explicitly brings scientists from different disciplines together, including Chemistry, Physics, and Material Science, who are spearheading their respective research areas, to share and discuss their latest discoveries with researchers, postdocs, and students at KAUST in an open, welcoming and friendly atmosphere.

The technical program will be held on Monday, February 26^th and Tuesday, February 27^th. A focus session with short contributions from postdocs and Ph.D. students and an evening poster session will also be included. In addition to the technical program, a satellite workshop will be held on Sunday, February 25^th. This pre-conference event will include tutorials focusing on fundamentals of solar-energy conversion, and sessions addressing early-stage career planning, paper and proposal writing for young researchers.

Chair: Stefaan De Wolf, Associate Professor, KAUST Solar Center
Co-Chair: Derya Baran, Assistant Professor, KAUST Solar Center

The event is organized by KAUST Solar Center (KSC) with financial support from the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) Office of Sponsored Research (OSR).

Additional support is provided by the KAUST Industry Collaboration Program (KICP), Industry Partnerships Office.

The poster session is kindly sponsored by the Royal Society of Chemistry's Energy & Environmental Science and Sustainable Energy & Fuels

A young speaker award is kindly sponsored by Nature Energy