The Earth receives the energy in 1 hour required for all human needs in a year. Harvesting solar energy will reduce harmful CO2 emissions and resolve the forthcoming energy deficit that other sources alone cannot make up. The market for stable, cheap, roll-to-roll mass-produced organic solar cells (OSCs) is estimated at 1 billion Euros by 2016. The ITN ESTABLIS will produce a team of 11 ESRs and 4 ERs to harness this pivotal point in Europe’s development based on a reliable, economically powerful and clean resource.ESTABLIS will be an interdisciplinary and inter-sectorial research and training network. ESRs and ERs that result from ESTABLIS will excel. They will possess a broad skill-set across a range of disciplines that are of absolute necessity to develop the industrial and academic infra-structure in OSCs. Researchers will receive training in the primary areas of synthetic organic chemistry through complementary aspects of polymer science to complete industrial scale photovoltaic device manufacture. To improve the roll-to-roll engineering and stability of opto-electronically active thin-films will require new polymers, surface treatments, rheological appraisals of polymer processing, and ageing studies. A parallel approach will develop the necessary improvements in electronic and opto-electronic properties by clarifying correlations between charge transfer, photochemistry and stability. This project will be run by meticulously interacting groups to increase the stability of strong, flexible, low-cost OSCs to 10 years so that they can be sold on a mass-market basis.ESTABLIS is an exceptionally complementary consortium of field-leading University groups and the world’s chief Industrial companies, namely, the world’s foremost producers of OSCs, Konarka, of conducting polymers, Heraeus, and of semiconducting polymers, Merck. These key European companies are at the heart to ensure that training and technological developments will be industrially operable.