OSRAM CEO Martin Goetzeler elected as new President

A successful event with interesting and promising discussions ended at the evening of December 6th at the Radisson SAS Royal Hotel in Brussels, Belgium. The Board of Stakeholders elected Martin Goetzeler, CEO of OSRAM GmbH, as the new President of the European Platform.

Former Photonics21 President Alexander von Witzleben, Rudolf Strohmeier - Head of Cabinet Viviane Reding - and the new Photonics21 President Martin Goetzeler met in Brussels

At the evening reception 250 members - many of them in high positions of photonics companies and institutes - met in a convenient atmosphere. Day two started with the opening by former president Alexander von Witzleben who passed the ceptre to Martin Goetzeler.

During the opening speech, Rudolf Strohmeier underligned the importance of the photonics sector and consequently announced a significant increase of budget in FP7.

After splitting up work groups, the Photonics21 members met in the afternoon to discuss the strategy for 2008. For the first time, Photonics21 has invited representatives of the European Technology Platforms MANUFUTURE, SusChem, NanoMedicine and EUROP to coordinate future activitities.

Presentations held at the Annual Meeting are available http://www.photonics21.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=153&Itemid=9

Press informations:

Press release_'The photon century'  http://www.photonics21.org/images/stories/uploaded/pdfs/press_release_Photonics21_StudyN.pdf

Growth in European Photonics

http://www.photonics21.org/images/stories/uploaded/pdfs/Diagramm_growthN.pdf

European Photonics Production by sector

http://www.photonics21.org/images/stories/uploaded/pdfs/Diagramm_production_sectorN.pdf

European Photonics Production by country

http://www.photonics21.org/images/stories/uploaded/pdfs/Diagramm_production_countryN.pdf

Photonics International Market Forecast

http://www.photonics21.org/images/stories/uploaded/pdfs/Diagramm_forecastN.pdf

Factsheet Photonics21

http://www.photonics21.org/images/stories/uploaded/pdfs/Factsheet_Photonics21N.pdf

ERA-SPOT (Strengthening Photonics and Optical Technologies for Europe) Consortium has opened a call for proposals named "ERA-SPOT call 2007". Consortia wishing to apply under this call must first go through a pre-proposal stage. The pre-proposal submission procedure is open from September 17, 2007 until November 26, 2007 at 12:00 noon local time.

The present call is informed by the Strategic Research Agenda developed by “Photonics21” and by a number of expressions of interest elicited in some member states. This call will not have an exclusive thematic focus but will invite projects dealing with photonics and optical technologies. Due to national funding rules some thematic and commercialisation potential restrictions may apply. It is important that these national priorities are understood by applicants.

Details can be found by referring to section 1.4 (Rules for national submission) of the Call Announcement 2007 (download here). The added value of the ERA-SPOT procedure will be to fund projects that could not be performed at a national scale; therefore the genuine complementarily of the partners will be an important criterion. Projects of up to three years duration will be considered. As a minimum requirement, the ERA-SPOT procedure will require partners from at least two of the eligible countries (see section 1.4 of the Call announcement). Proposals with partners from more than two countries are strongly encouraged. All the relevant documents for this call are provided in ERA-SPOT website.

EU-Russian conference held on 25th and 26th September in Moscow showed huge potential for collaboration

The European Commission DG IST is looking for innovative partners to make Europe the most powerful and dynamic economical region in the world. This was one of the purposes at the Moscow Stakeholders Meeting on 25th and 26th September.

Photonics is one of the very strong technologies in Russia - Three Nobel Prize Winners in this field are a good entrance card.

The Photonics21 secretariat took part in this event and showed several possibilities of collaboration in this field to the Russian colleagues. After lively discussions with Russian partners it has been agreed to organize a Photonics specific partnering event in the course of the  PHOTONICS–2008: WORLD OF LASERS AND OPTICS exhibition, Moscow on 11th to 13th March 2008.

Please find below presentation held at the EU-Russian conference:

DAY 1

Welcome speech, S&T Counsellor at Delegation of the European Commission to Russia, Richard Burger

The FP7 ICT Theme – Components & Systems, Dr Erastos Filos, European Commission

ICT for Transport RTD and related activities in the European Commission, ICT for Transport, Andre Vits

Photonics in the 7th FP-ICT workprogramme, Christoph Helmrath

European Technology Platform Photonics21

DAY 2

Photonics Research Group, Aston University, UK

DEVELOPMENT OF SPECIALIZED OPTICAL FIBRES, Yu.Chamorovskii, IRE RAS, Moscow

Optic gyro sensors for hi-tech satellite navigation systems, P.Larionov, A. Fomichev, Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology

RUSSIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, A. M. PROKHOROV,  GENERAL PHYSICS INSTITUTE

Optoelectronics research centre, Finland

TECHNOLOGY and EQUIPMENT for GLASS STRUCTURES (TEGS), Joint Stock Company, Saratov, Russia

Photonics21 Executive Board representatives met Mr. Strohmeier, Head of Cabinet Viviane Reding, at Laser 2007 - World of Photonics

After giving the opening speech at the World of Photonics congress a lunch meeting with Mr. Strohmeier and Photonics21 Executive Board representatives took place. Mr. Strohmeier was quite enthusiastic about Photonics and stated that the budget for Photonics will further increase in FP7 within the next years. The fair also featured an information session on "Photonics calls in FP7" which was organised by Photonics21 and the European Commission. The session covered current and upcoming calls on Photonics and Photonics related topics, in both the ICT and the NMP programmes.

Thierry van der Pyl, Head of the Photonics Unit, gave the opening speech at the information session.

Photonics21 was present at the fair with a booth.

On 17th July the first Photonics21 mirror group meeting took place in Brussels. The meeting was opened by Rosalie Zobel, Director of "Components, Subsystems and Applications". Alexander v. Witzleben gave a keynote presentation on Photonics21.

Following countries have been present: France, Germany, Latvia, Austria, Israel, Italy, UK, Ireland, Hungary, Spain. The next Mirror Group meeting is scheduled on 5th Dec. in conjunction with the Photonics21 Annual Meeting.

Following additional countries will join the mirror group at the next meeting: Belgium, Czech Rep., Finland, Netherlands, Poland and Sweden.

FP7 ICT Work programme – Photonics21 research priorities will be handed over to the European Commission by beginning of November 2007

Photonics21 will hand over research priorities for the upcoming ICT Work programme 2009-2010 by beginning of November. The individual working groups (WG) will develop the research priorities at workshops which already took place resp. will be conducted within the next month. Working group members will be informed by their chairs about scheduling and agenda of the individual workshops.

State of affairs WG workshops:

WG1: to be scheduled

WG2: to be scheduled

WG3: September 6-7, ZEISS, Jena, Germany, download agenda

WG4: took place in June

WG5: October 24, SAGEM, Paris, France

WG6: to be scheduled

WG7: "expert workshop" 30th Sept-2nd Oct, Cork, Ireland

Photonics21 work group chairs have compiled benchmarks for the individual subtopics of the Call 2 ICT Programme on “Photonic components and subsystems”. The proposed 1st draft benchmarks are recommendations towards potential proposers and the European Commission. Herewith detailed information on technical specifications and application areas are provided which are considered relevant for European Photonics Research in the 7th Framework Programme. Photonics21 members are invited to give comments on the proposed benchmarks by contacting the Photonics21 secretariat.

Download: Photonics21 benchmarks for ICT Call 2 on “Photonic components and subsystems”

During the first 16 month of its existence the number of Photonics members - coming from 37 countries - significantly increased to 700. During the first 16 month of its existence the number of Photonics members - coming from 37 countries - significantly increased to 700.

The vast majority of members are located in Western and Central Europe. However, memberships from USA, South Korea, China, Canada and other countries clearly indicate that Photonics21 is well noticed beyond the boundaries of Europe.

Also remarkable is the fact that the ratio of members from industry and science is about 50%.

In 2007 Photonics21 intends to further increase the involvement of Eastern European stakeholders.

The national Technology Platform "SwissLaserNet" has been established in Switzerland. The aim of SwissLaserNet is to bundle and coordinate the existing know-how on laser material processing in Switzerland.

So far, nine research institutes are members of SwissLaserNet. Due to Gabriel Dumitru, representative of the Technology Platform, it is now intended to significantly involve Swiss photonics companies as well. SwissLaserNet seeks a close alliance with Photonics21.