EWING, N.J., Dec. 1 -- Global Photonic Energy Corp. (GPEC), a renewable energy technology development company that is working to harness sunlight using small-molecule organic materials to produce electricity and hydrogen, announced it has extended its collaborative research agreement with Princeton University and the University of Southern California (USC) to develop organic photonic energy conversion technologies, including organic photovoltaic cells for direct production of electricity or for use in producing its Photo Fuel (hydrogen) technology. GPEC has been working with Princeton and USC since 1994. The initial three-year agreement was extended and then renewed in 1998, when the universities became equity participants in the company. Since 1994, the partnership has yielded 37 patents in the US and overseas and numerous applications are in progress. GPEC said that second phase of the collaboration will focus on extending research efforts and organic device performance. GPEC works with researchers at the Princeton Research Institute for the Science and Technology of Materials (PRISM), formed in 2002 by a merger of the Princeton Center for Photonic and Optoelectronic Materials and the Princeton Materials Institute. The collaboration was initiated by the discovery of a reaction in which sunlight was stored as chemical energy by then-doctoral student Lori A. Vermeulen and Associate Professor Mark E. Thompson. Organic materials can be applied to virtually any surface using a method akin to spray painting. Production methods of this sort are easily adaptable to continuous and so called "roll-to-roll" manufacturing processes and have the potential to dramatically reduced production costs, GPEC said. The company said its organic photovoltaic cells can be used to create photovoltaic cells of different colors or cells that act as window tinting in building-integrated applications. GPEC was founded in 1994 by entrepreneur Sherwin I. Seligsohn, who is also the founder, chairman and CEO of Universal Display Corp. and American Biomimetics Corp., a new materials sciences and technology venture group. For more information, visit: www.globalphotonics.com