EU consortium aims to assist photonics companies

Photonics research requires significant levels of financial investment. So in order to sustain Europe’s Industrial competitiveness and leadership in these photonic market sectors, Europe needs to better exploit the innovation leverage potential of regional innovation clusters and national platforms. EPRISE will target the regional and national authorities in order to better explain to them about the economic benefits and high societal impact of Photonics as a key emerging technology in their region and to promote cooperation on funding between regions.

Europe’s photonics industry is facing global market competition and has to cope with a very high speed of technological developments in the field. While scientists and researchers have made great strides in advancing the application of photonics in these market sectors, there is still plenty of work to be done. Companies developing photonics-based products for these markets face highly specific Go2Market challenges such as long time to market adoption, complex regulatory frameworks and high barriers to market entry. The EPRISE consortium will organise a series of European photonics workshops over the next 2 ½ years, with the aim of providing SMEs with solutions on how to overcome the market entry barriers. Utilising advice from a panel of experts, the project consortium will gather together information about available public funding to aid SMEs in the process. Pre-arranged business to business meetings at these events will also boost collaboration between companies at both regional and national European levels.

The EPRISE project is a coordination and support action funded by the European Commission through the ICT part of the Horizon 2020 Programme in collaboration with Photonics21, the European Technology Platform (ETP) representing the European Photonics Community.

The project partners include;  POLE OPTITEC (France)

OPTITEC is a leading French photonics cluster, located in the south of France (Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur and Occitanie regions) specialized in complex optics and imaging systems dedicated to space, aeronautics, defense, medical, food industry and green photonics applications. With more than 220 highly committed members, among them 130 companies, it represents more than 25% of French R&D in optics and an annual turnover of 1.3 billion euros and 10 000 employees. The cluster has labelled more than 290 national R&D projects worth a total of 550 million euros and 120 million euros of subsidies.

SecPho (Spain)

SECPhO – Southern European Cluster in Photonics and Optics Association cluster was founded in 2009 in Terrassa (Barcelona), Spain. The cluster brings together companies, innovation centers and research groups in the photonics and optics sector in Spain. Currently it is comprised by more than 60 members. The mission of the cluster is to facilitate and improve the competitiveness of the Spanish Optics and Photonics sector by reaching major growth and profitability. SECPhO’s main objectives are: • To foster innovation in the field of photonic and optic technologies; • To generate business opportunities for companies; • To provide technology centres and research groups with access to projects. 

OpTecBB (Germany)

Optec-Berlin-Brandenburg e.V. (OpTecBB) was founded 15 years ago. It is as an initiative of companies and scientific institutions in Berlin Brandenburg to support and explore optical and micro systems technology together. The professional network of companies, research institutes, universities and federations is supported by relevant ministries in Brandenburg and the Berlin Senate. Today, the association has more than 100 institutional members (some 70+ companies and about 30 research organizations). OpTecBB offers its members six focus groups: (1) Lighting Technologies, (2) Laser Technologies, (3) Optics for Communication and Sensor applications, (4) Optical and X‑ray Analytics, (5) Biomedical Applications and Ophthalmology and (6) Micro Systems Technologies. 

OPTOSCANA (Italy)

The Institute of Applied Physics ​“Nello Carrara” (IFAC) is part of the Italian National Research Council (CNR), which is the main public organisation pursuing research and innovation in Italy. IFAC is also the legal entity which acts as the coordinator of the Regional Photonics Cluster of Tuscany ​“OPTOSCANA”, which includes about 120 enterprises, research centres and other organisations, many of them active in the Photonics field. 

PhotonicsNL (Netherlands)

The Association PhotonicsNL was founded in September 2013 and is the National Technology Platform (NTP) for Photonics in the Netherlands. The main objective is to support Dutch stakeholders in the field of photonics by actively stimulating cooperation and cross-fertilization between industry, universities and R&D institutes aiming for fundamental and applied research, technology development and education in photonics. Other objectives are to stimulate photonics innovation and to increase the level of awareness of the importance of photonics for our economy. The forerunner institution Foundation Photonics Cluster Netherlands (PCN), founded in 2006, has merged into the new association in order to boost the participation of all stakeholders and connect to the national and regional governments. 

CPI (UK)

The Centre for Process Innovation (CPI) is a UK based technology innovation centre and the process arm of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult. Established to support the UK process manufacturing industry, CPI collaborates with universities, SMEs and large corporates to help overcome innovation challenges and develop next generation products and processes. Operating across a broad range of technologies, including photonics, we support our partners at every step of the way; from concept to market; business support to technology development; from scale up to supply chain intervention.

Photonics Bretagne (France)
Photonics Bretagne is a booming cluster of SMEs, research centers and schools, promoting the development of photonics in Brittany (France). Our mission is to support industrial and technological development of our members to generate economic growth and direct/​indirect employment opportunities in Brittany, a region with a unique concentration of SMEs, research centers and Schools in the field of Photonics. The action plan of the organization is to: ‑Assist SMEs in their business development ‑Accelerate Transfer technology ‑Develop competitive intelligence in SMEs ‑Provide project engineering assistance ‑Boost SME’s visibility at tradeshows ‑Promote leverage effect of photonics technologies