At the Photonics21 Board of Stakeholders meeting held during the Photonics21 Annual Meeting in Brussels, Jean-Claude Sirieys, chairman of CNOP (Comité national d’Optique et de Photonique), presented the activities of the national optics and photonics committee in France. CNOP serves as a contact point for national and European authorities and aims to promote optics and photonics in France and to coordinate national activities. The association is also a contact point for lobbying actions and the diffusion of calls for projects.

Sirieys pointed out that CNOP has just launched an initiative with the support of the French government to involve French optics and photonics at the European level, e.g. the publication of newsletters and the diffusion to all CNOP members.  CNOP has the task of  coordinating and promoting all events and activities in France to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the laser and has created the website www.50ansdulaser.fr.

This development clearly shows that there is an ongoing dynamic to bring the French photonics community together. CNOP also supports the willingness of the French authorities to recognise optics and photonics as key technologies. France is now on a clear path towards the creation of a French photonics technology platform in the near future.

During the Photonics21 Annual Meeting in Brussels, Giorgio Anania presented an initiative in response to the EC communication of September 2009 in which photonics is identified as one of five ‘key enabling technologies’ (KETs) for Europe along with biotechnology, nanotechnology, advanced materials and micro- and nanoelectronics.

Key enabling technologies support the development of new goods and services and the restructuring of industrial processes which are essential to modernise EU industry and to secure Europe’s research and development base. These technologies are needed in medical treatments, for converting sunlight into energy or for the development of low- or zero-emission cars.

The Photonics21 Board of Stakeholders decided to set up a task force which will provide input to the high-level industry advisory group on KETs. This advisory group should provide policy recommendations on:
•    innovation for KETs;
•    technology transfer and EU-wide supply chains;
•    joint strategic programming and demonstration projects;
•    state aid policies;
•    deployment of KETs and climate change policy;
•    lead markets and public procurement;
•    international comparison of high-tech policies and enhanced international cooperation;
•    trade policy;
•    EIB financing instruments and venture capital financing.

The advisory group is asked to assess the competitive position of the relevant technologies in the EU with a particular focus on industrial deployment and their contribution to addressing major challenges to society. They will also analyse in depth the available public and private R&D capacities for KETs in the EU and propose specific policy recommendations for a more effective industrial deployment.

Photonics21 will delegate a representative to the expert group and provide input to the policy papers in coordination with the Board of Stakeholders. The final report will be delivered to the European Council at the end of 2010.

The European Commission DG INFSO announced in November that the mandate of the Photonics Unit has been enlarged to include organic and large-area electronics (OLAE). The two communities that the unit will be serving, namely photonics and OLAE, have already been sharing common topics and had a lot of synergies. Photonics21 work group 4, on lighting and displays, was significantly involved in the preparation of the OLAE strategic research agenda (SRA).

Photonics21 advisory board and the representatives of OLAE had some preparatory discussions on where and how to include OLAE. The Photonics21 Board of Stakeholders decided at the Photonics21 Annual Meeting to subsume OLAE into work group 4 of the Photonics21 platform.

As a result, six former members of the OLAE community became members of the Photonics21 Board of Stakeholders with the objective to further strengthen the position of Europe as the leading force in OLAE in the world.

OLAE members who joined the Photonics21 Board of Stakeholders are: Jaap Lombaers (TNO Holst Centre), Andreas Rückemann (Heliatek), Karl Leo (Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems), Wolfgang Mildner (PolyIC), Pierre P. Barthélemy (Solvay), Thomas Geelhaar (Merck) and Harri Kopola (VTT, Technical Research Centre of Finland).

New Photonics21 and OLAE Strategic Research Agendas handed over to the European Commission

A successful event with interesting and promising discussions ended at the evening of the 15 January 2010 at the Radisson Blu Royal Hotel in Brussels, Belgium.

The Annual Meeting was opened by Rudolf Strohmeier, Head of Cabinet of the European Commission Directorate General for Information Society and Media. He emphasised that photonics is regarded as one of the principal motors for growth and one of the means for raising the quality of life of European citizens. Being recognised as a Key Enabling Technology in Europe by the European Commission is a remarkable success of the Photonics21 platform.

Subsequent to Mr Strohmeier’s speech, Martin Goetzeler presented the new Strategic Research Agenda (SRA) of Photonics21 “Lighting the way ahead” and announced seven main recommendations of Photonics21 for the next five years. The Strategic Research Agenda (SRA) of the OLAE “Towards green Electronics in Europe” was presented by Thomas Geelhaar (CTO Merck). Both SRA’s were handed over to Rudolf Strohmeier as representative of the European Commission. It was appreciated by the European Commission that Photonics21 decided to host the OLAE community and jointly tap the full potential of this exciting field.

Detlef Eckert, Director, European Commission, provided information on the European strategy on innovation and the role of photonics: "The European Digital Agenda and Photonics."

Eugene Arthurs, CEO SPIE, USA, pointed out current activities in photonics in the US and the impact of the industry for future wealth. He showed different projects that have been initiated by the US Department for Energy which are supposed to lead to a green digital economy.

Robert Corriveau, President & CEO of the Canadian Institute of Photonic Innovations, gave an overview of the photonics industry in Canada and explained the national innovation strategy of Canada in the field of photonics.

Peter Batchelor, Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) UK and vice chair of the Photonics21 Mirror Group informed the attendees about national funding in Europe and the coordination of funding instruments on a European level.

After splitting up into work groups, the Photonics21 members met in the afternoon to discuss the respective strategy for 2010.

In the run-up to the Annual Meeting the decision making body of the platform elected / re-elected the Photonics21 Executive Board and Board of Stakeholders (BoS) members:

The Board of Stakeholders (BoS) re-elected Martin Goetzeler (CEO OSRAM) as president of the platform, Bernd Schulte (COO AIXTRON) and Malgorzata Kujawinska (Prof. University of Warsaw) as vice-presidents. Alfredo Viglienzoni (Head Optical Products Ericsson, WG1) and Jean-Francois Coutris (Vice President SAGEM DS, WG5), were re-elected as work group chairs. Ulrich Simon (CEO & President Carl Zeiss MicroImaging) was elected as new work group chair for work group 3 following Michael Kaschke who stepped down as work group chair. Mike Wale (Director Active Products Research, Oclaro) was elected as work group chair for work group 6 following Angela Piegari who resigned and finally Roberta Ramponi (Politecnico di Milano) was elected as new work group 7 chair, replacing Chris Dainty. The Photonics21 secretariat will be located at the VDI Technologiezentrum for another two years.

The Photonics21 BoS was enlarged by 19 new members, including also representatives of the Organic Large Area Electronics (OLAE) community.

The new members are: Jim Everett (Ericsson), Laurent Fulbert (CEA-LETI), Jean-Thierry Audren (Sagem DS), Lluis Torner (ICFO-Institute of Photonic Sciences) , Jose R. Salcedo (Multiwave Photonics), Laurent Sarger (University Bordeaux), Alastair Wilson (UK Photonics Knowledge Transfer Network) , Ulrich Simon (Carl Zeiss Microimaging) , Bimal Nayar (Ericsson), Peter Van Daele (IMEC), Augustin Grillet (Barco), Jean-Claude Sirieys (Optics Valley/Comité National d'Optique et de Photonique), Jaap Lombaers (TNO Holst Centre), Andreas Rückemann (Heliatek), Karl Leo (Fraunhofer-Institute for Photonic Microsystems), Wolfgang Mildner (PolyIC), Pierre P. Barthélemy (Solvay), Thomas Geelhaar (Merck) and Harri Kopola (VTT, Technical Research Center of Finland).

Please find here the presentations of the General Assembly:

Martin Goetzeler - Photonics21 Strategic Research Agenda

Thomas Geelhaar - Towards a European strategy for Organic and Large Area Electronics

Detlef Eckert - The European Digital Agenda and Photonics

Eugene Arthurs - Presentation not publicly available

Robert Corriveau - Photonics in Canada - national innovation strategy

Martin Goetzeler - Photonics21 Annual Report 2009 & Strategic Planning 2010

Peter Batchelor - Photonics21 Mirror Group - Coordinating national funding at European scale

Please find here the presentations of the work group sessions:

Work Group 1

Alfredo Viglienzoni - WG1 review 2009, WG1 activities

Mike Biddle / Sebastian Krug - Piano+ Call for Proposals

Michael Robertson, Mike Wale - UK feasibility studies on PIANO+

Hamed Al-Raweshidy - RoF Strategic Research for Future Networks

Work Group 2

Eckhard Meiners - WG2 proposal - Photonic tools for solar excellence

Jef Poortmans - Presentation not publicly available

Thomas Fehn - Lasers in photovoltaics - Presentation not publicly available

Ingo Schwirtlich - Presentation not publicly available

Work Group 3

Jürgen Popp - Introduction and Large Scale Action

Gert von Bally - Connection to ETP Nanomedicine

Alastair Watson - Medical Diagnostics Photonics Living: Patients for the 21st century

Andreas Stallmach - Cancer diagnostics for the 21st century

Work Group 4

Bruno Smets - Introduction

Thomas Geelhaar - Introduction to Organic Large Area Electronics

Berit Wessler/Bruno Smets - European Large Scale Action

Work Group 5

Jean-Francois Coutris / Jean-Thierry Audren - Review of the new SRA streamlines, project ideas and building a detailed roadmap

Work Group 6

Angela Piegari / Mike Wale - WG6 review, refocussing WG6 activities

Work Group 7

Chris Dainty / Roberta Ramponi - Tackling the photonics industry skills shortage problem in Europe

Chris Dainty - First Results: Internship Survey