During this conference Beatriz De La Fuente (SURF, VUB) talked about the combination of ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy (UPS) with optical absorption studies to investigate Cu₂O||TiO₂ direct Z-scheme junctions with different Cu₂O loading. This work is part of a recently accepted publication by the Applied Surface Science Journal and demonstrates the complementarity of surface sensitive techniques with optical absorption studies to design efficient Z-schemes photocatalysts for CO₂ reduction reactions via solar energy.