--- title: "GRETA: green printed UHF RFID tags - AlmaScience" description: "AlmaScience joins GRETA, a Horizon Europe project developing green, organic and printed alternatives to conventional UHF RFID tags." url: "https://almascience.pt/news/latest/almascience-is-a-proud-member-of-greta" date: "2026-10-16T06:11:24+00:00" language: "en-GB" --- # News ![AlmaScience is a proud member of GRETA: Green Responsible Electronics Through Advanced Technologies]() ## AlmaScience is a proud member of GRETA: Green Responsible Electronics Through Advanced Technologies Claudine Boeglin [Latest](https://almascience.pt/news/latest) 27 August 2025 6 minutes read - [ ](https://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Falmascience.pt%2Fnews%2Flatest%2Falmascience-is-a-proud-member-of-greta "Facebook") - [ ](https://twitter.com/share?url=https%3A%2F%2Falmascience.pt%2Fnews%2Flatest%2Falmascience-is-a-proud-member-of-greta&text=AlmaScience+is+a+proud+member+of+GRETA%3A+Green+Responsible+Electronics+Through+Advanced+Technologies "X (formerly Twitter)") - [ ](https://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=https%3A%2F%2Falmascience.pt%2Fnews%2Flatest%2Falmascience-is-a-proud-member-of-greta&title=AlmaScience+is+a+proud+member+of+GRETA%3A+Green+Responsible+Electronics+Through+Advanced+Technologies "LinkedIn") The European Project GRETA – short for "Green, organic and printed ultra-high frequency identification tags" – launched in January 2025 to revolutionize the electronics industry by developing sustainable, eco-friendly alternatives to conventional electronic components, with a particular focus on ultra-high-frequency (UHF) RFID tags. This is a Horizon Europe project funded under the call HORIZON-EIC-2023-PATHFINDERCHALLENGES for Responsible Electronics GA: 101161032. ### GRETA: aligned with EU goals GRETA's primary objective is to design and produce **green, organic, and printed UHF RFID tags** that minimize environmental impact throughout their lifecycle. Traditional RFID tags often incorporate plastic substrates and metal antennas, contributing to electronic waste and environmental degradation. To avoid such impacts, GRETA explores the use of biodegradable materials, such as paper-based substrates and conductive inks, to create RFID tags that are both functional and environmentally responsible. UHF refers to the use of Ultra-High Frequency electromagnetic waves, typically in the range of 300 MHz to 3 GHz. In the context of GRETA and other RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technologies, UHF operation means the RFID tags and readers communicate using signals within this frequency band. An RFID tag is a data-carrying device that can be attached to or embedded in an object. It communicates with an RFID reader through radio frequency signals to transmit information such as a serial number, product ID, or status data. The GRETA project supports the European Union's **Circular Economy Action Plan** by promoting the development of electronics that are designed for longevity, reparability, and recyclability. By focusing on sustainable materials and manufacturing processes, GRETA contributes to the EU's vision of a decarbonized and digital society. GRETA is an European initiative funded under the Horizon Europe program, and specifically under the [EIC Pathfinder Challenge on Responsible Electronics](https://cordis.europa.eu/programme/id/HORIZON_HORIZON-EIC-2023-PATHFINDERCHALLENGES-01-04/en). One of the many Green European Initiatives, GRETA aims to step away from past centuries’ products and systems eroding soil, seas, and air via aggressive resource extraction, corporate careless pollution, and consumption excess. **Responsible electronics** offers a unique opportunity for the future of EU industrial autonomy in a decarbonized and digital society. It is predicted that by 2050, the production of electronic components and devices will rise exponentially, and thus the use of raw materials in the sector will increase accordingly. As a result, the amount of electronic waste is also set to rise massively. Projects like GRETA act as a countermeasure to this reality. The GRETA project officially kicked off with a meeting held on January 23–24, 2025, in Milan, Italy. Later, the project was featured in the first in-person meeting of the EIC Pathfinder Responsible Electronics Portfolio on February 18, 2025, in Eindhoven, The Netherlands. ### GRETA, a collaborative effort GRETA is a collaborative effort involving multiple European research institutions and industry partners. Luís Pereira, AlmaScience’s Chief Technical Officer, is among the leading scientists of the project. > *For AlmaScience to be one of the seven European members of this advanced-thinking consortium among just six countries places the CoLab at the forefront of a green pathfinder towards a sustainable future.* > – Luís Pereira, Chief Technical Officer at AlmaScience The consortium is composed of 7 institutions from 6 countries. The members of the consortium are: - Italian Institute of Technology (IIT), Italy (Coordinator) - Eindhoven University of Technology (TUE), The Netherlands - University of Milano-Bicocca (UNIMIB), Italy - Faculty of Technical Sciences, University of Novi Sad (FTN), Serbia - University of Liege (ULIEGE), Belgium - **AlmaScience (ALMA), Portugal** - Flexenable Technology Limited (FET), United Kingdom The consortium's interdisciplinary expertise ensures a comprehensive approach to developing sustainable electronic solutions. ### Ambitions and goals: GRETA is thinking long-term The project leverages advancements in **organic electronics and printed technologies** to fabricate RFID tags. By utilizing materials like carbon-based conductive inks and biodegradable substrates, GRETA aims to produce tags that are not only sustainable but also cost-effective and scalable for mass production. These innovations align with the broader goals of the **Responsible Electronics** initiative, which seeks to reduce the ecological footprint of electronic devices. The long-term vision is to enable remote powering and readout of tags above one meter range, as required in logistics and security, without the need for a battery. It will have a drastically reduced lifecycle impact and a much lower cost when compared with any available passive radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology. AlmaScience’s role in the consortium is to provide sustainable, flexible, electronic-grade substrates and dielectrics, exploring cellulose-based materials compatible with printed organic electronics. Diana Gaspar, researcher at AlmaScience on electronics and photonics on nature-based substrates, tells us why this is a unique challenge for the CoLab: > *The GRETA project represents a unique opportunity to apply our expertise in cellulose-based materials on a truly European scale. For AlmaScience, this challenge allows us to demonstrate that Portugal can be at the forefront of sustainable electronics. Working with cellulosic substrates for organic RFID pushes the boundaries of what we know about natural materials in electronics, and doing so in collaboration with six different countries multiplies the impact of our research. It's exactly the kind of project that can position AlmaScience as a relevant player in the green future of European electronics.* > – Diana Gaspar, Researcher at AlmaScience With a Ph.D. in Advanced Materials and Processing, Diana developed cellulose-based substrates for applications in electronic devices. She is also the Principal Investigator of CELLECTIVE, a project funded by the Portuguese [Science and Technology Foundation](https://www.fct.pt/en/) that focuses on cellulose nanocrystals and their application in dynamic natural structures with fast actuation responses. ### Sustainable electronics and economic and environmental impact GRETA challenges the status quo along two specific complementary actions: - **Action 1:** Removing present barriers hampering the sustainability of printed organic electronics by tackling aspects of organic synthesis and processing with the highest environmental and economic impact. - **Action 2:** Demonstrating unprecedented UHF operation of printed organic electronics. According to [Sage Journals](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.3233/RFT-230044?utm), Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs) have demonstrated that **paper-based RFID tags** can significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions compared to their plastic counterparts. For instance, a study found that **paper tags could save up to 23% of greenhouse gas emissions**, highlighting the potential environmental benefits of GRETA's approach. The project’s applications extend beyond Europe, as its goal is to offer a scalable solution that can be applied worldwide. GRETA is not just a research project; it's a glimpse into how sustainable innovation and human ingenuity can work together to build a greener, smarter future. For Europe, this means added business opportunities in a crucial and shifting political chessboard. To learn more, visit the project’s website: [https://gretapathfinder.eu.](https://gretapathfinder.eu/) - [ Green electronics ](https://almascience.pt/component/tags/tag/green-electronics) - [ Chipless RFID ](https://almascience.pt/component/tags/tag/chipless-rfid) ### Continue reading... 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A vision of retail in 2036 ](https://almascience.pt/news/thought-piece/ai-to-logistics-human-to-humans-a-vision-of-retail-in-2036) 09 December 2025 ## Schema ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://almascience.pt" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "News", "item": "https://almascience.pt/news" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Latest", "item": "https://almascience.pt/news/latest" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "AlmaScience is a proud member of GRETA: Green Responsible Electronics Through Advanced Technologies", "item": "https://almascience.pt/news/latest/almascience-is-a-proud-member-of-greta" } ] } ``` ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "Article", "mainEntityOfPage": { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://almascience.pt/news/latest/almascience-is-a-proud-member-of-greta" }, "headline": "AlmaScience is a proud member of GRETA: Green Responsible Electronics Through Advanced Technologies", "description": "The European Project GRETA – short for \"Green, organic and printed ultra-high frequency identification tags\" – launched in January 2025 to revolutionize the electronics industry by developing sustainable, eco-friendly alternatives to conventional electronic components, with a particular focus on ultra-high-frequency (UHF) RFID tags.", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "AlmaScience", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://almascience.pt/images/nocat/alma-logo-small-format.png" } }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Claudine Boeglin", "url": "https://almascience.pt/news/latest/almascience-is-a-proud-member-of-greta" }, "datePublished": "2025-08-27T15:47:15+00:00", "dateCreated": "2025-08-27T15:35:13+00:00", "dateModified": "2026-09-24T14:28:09+00:00" } ```