Key Enabling Technologies Initiative - Photonics Open Day, 10 November 2010 In the frame of the Key Enabling Technologies (KET) Initiative, the European Commission will conduct a Photonics Open Day where first recommendations of the High Level Group will be discussed. The event will take place on the 10 November 2010 in Brussels. Photonics21 Vice President Giorgio Anania represents Photonics21 in the High Level Group. Andy Carter is Deputy Chair of the KET working group on photonics. 

You can find more information on the KET initiative on the following website.

We invite you to mark this date in your diary.

Photonics contribution for a sustainable economy in focus Photonics21 to run a booth at the ICT Expo, 27 September – 29 September 2010 / Speech on the ICT Conference on “Green-Photonics”

Photonics21, the European Technology Platform for photonics, will run a booth at the ICT 2010 Expo in Brussels to inform about its research and innovation activities in the field of ICT and Europe’s Digital Agenda. We invite you to join us at the Photonics21 stand.

Photonics21 Board of Stakeholders Member, Dr. Berit Wessler, is involved in the ICT 2010 Conference Section ”Components and systems for energy efficiency”, which takes place on Tuesday, September 28, 2.00 pm – 3.30 pm in the Auditorium 500.

The presentation will highlight the potential of photonics technologies as key elements of a European green photonics strategy towards energy efficient lighting, solar power generation, and sustainable information and communication infrastructures.

Photonics21 at the eMobility General Assembly in Venice/Future Cooperation for a Digital Village Executive Board member Alfredo Viglienzoni underlined the “Relevance of optical communications” and the role of photonics for the next generation network

“Make it faster, more transparent, more dynamic and more “green” thanks to the use of optical technology in future networks. This was the basic message Dr. Alfredo Viglienzoni, Member of the Executive Board of Photonics 21, gave at the Annual General Meeting of the European Technology Platform eMobility in Venice in September 2010.

After lining out the changing shape in networks as well as the evolution of customer needs, Viglienzoni pointed to the value of optical communications for the next generation networks:  traffic will grow in capacity, number of connections, with an increased expected Quality of Services (QoS) and Quality of Experience (QoE). It should meet the challenge of "Convergence”: a single network to deliver all services; “Flexibility”: a network optimized for every situation and “Cost”: a network with low cost of ownership. Transmitted bit rates in all part of the network need to increase in order to cope with traffic growth. Keeping information flow in the optical domain as long as possible (from the home to the backbone) and removing unnecessary optical-electronical-optical conversions will enable to reduce power consumption of active network elements. Another element future network will have to improve is the capability of quickly reconfiguring itself.  Energy efficiency will also be achieved by increased photonic integration, design and implementing of sleep modes and performing energy aware routing and resource assignment.

In his concluding remarks, Viglienzoni voted for a common large scale project “The Digital Village” as a test bed for both services and physical network solutions. This real test environment, worked out closely with the eMobility and Future Internet Platform and Initiative, will be essential for future product and solutions proving, collaboration between the various stakeholders and service development in an ever more virtualized network scenario. 

To see the full presentation, please click here.

European Cluster Conference 2010 World-Class Clusters Renewing European Industry, 29 September –
1 October 2010

 » The high-level “European Cluster Conference 2010” will address the role of world-class clusters in renewing European industry in light of the Europe 2020 strategy. It will gather key policy-makers from the European Commission, European Parliament, Member States, regional authorities and high-level speakers from academia and industry to discuss how better policies can be formulated to make full use of the economic potential of excellent clusters. The event is organised under the chairmanship of the Belgian EU Presidency by the European Commission DG Enterprise and Industry.

The future competitiveness of the European Union depends on its ability to renew its industry base and build-up new competitive strengths. To achieve this, Europe needs more world-class clusters, which are hotbeds for turning innovative ideas into new products and services by providing a particular fertile environment for new business formation that creates innovation, growth and jobs. A more strategic approach is needed that applies the concept of world-class clusters also to emerging industries, thus aiming at creating more innovation champions in Europe in promising areas of new technologies and services. 

During the conference, the high-level European Cluster Policy Group will present its final policy recommendations of how this can be achieved. Roundtables will give national and regional authorities the opportunity to discuss specific actions of cluster policies and cases of specific sectors. A special event will bring together cluster managers interested in the further professionalization of their cluster support activities and finding international partners during the first open meeting of the European Club of Cluster Managers. Moreover, participants will have the opportunity to test among the first the new Cluster Collaboration Platform and the new Knowledge Platform of the European Cluster Observatory.

For more information please visit this website.

Join us - Photonics21 conducts the FP7 Proposers Event on flexible, organic and large area electronics and photonics, 20 October 2010

In the frame of the Plastic Electronics Conference, Photonics21 will conduct an FP7 ICT proposers event on organic, flexible and large area electronics and photonics. The event will be held on the 20 October from 18.00 - 21:00.

The European Commission highlights the value of OLAE and seeks to encourage and to support further engineering innovation. The FP7 proposers event will review the research position and expose the current research issues such as: reliability, stability, device performance and architecture as well as heterogeneous integration.

The upcoming ICT Call will seek proposals for research and innovation which aim at the full technology chain for OLAE and Smart Textiles, an increased European competitiveness and the accelerated emergence of new devices, and products in key applications and the creation of new markets.

Attendees will be encouraged to study the new ICT 2011-2013 Work Programme, particularly Objective ICT-2011.3.6 on Flexible, Organic and Large Area Electronics and Photonics with the purpose to participate in research projects which will result from the upcoming proposals round. Potential coordinators, project proposers or even small consortia seeking to complete the setting are invited to present their pre-proposals in poster format at the meeting.

During the proposers event there will be ample opportunity for representatives of companies, research institutes and academia to present an outline of their proposals to stimulate further discussions and consortium formation.

Dr. John Magan, Deputy Head of the Photonics Unit from the EC Directorate General for Information Society and Media, will open the event and introduce the ICT Work Programme 2011-2013 as well as the expected type and content of proposals. There will be ample opportunity for networking and sharing of ideas in public or in private.

Attending the Proposers Event is free of charge and is only possible in combination of attending the Plastic Electronics 2010 Conference & Exhibition.

Proposers are kindly invited to develop a poster [preferably DIN A0 format] of the project pre-proposal, presenting the main topic area and objectives of the project proposal in bullets.

You will find any further information on the Plastic Electronics Conference website.

Photonics21 presentation at Industrial Technologies 2010 Conference The conference in the area of Industrial Technologies was organised in Brussels by the European Commission in cooperation with the Belgian EU Presidency. The focus was on nanotechnologies and nanosciences, materials and manufacturing technologies, which are the key areas of the FP7 NMP Theme. Photonics21 work group 2 representative Dr Thomas Rettich, Head of Research Coordination, Trumpf, gave a presentation on "Illuminating the Path to Growth: The European Research Strategy in Photonics"   in the session G.1 Technology Roadmap presentations”.

You can find the full presentation here.

Photonics Cluster Meeting On the 15 September 2010 the Photonics Unit of the European Commission DG Information Society and Media hosted the Photonics Cluster Meeting. More information will be provided to you within the next Photonics21 newsletter.

Join us - Training and education activities in the focus, 28 October 2010

The next Photonics21 work group 7 workshop will take place on the 28 October 2010 from 13:00 – 17:00 in the frame of the EOS Annual Meeting in Paris. The workshop will concentrate on photonics training and education activities and therefore might be also of interest for representatives of the application-oriented Photonics21 work groups and experts of the photonics industry. The workshop will cover – amongst other - the following topics:

·Report on the results of the survey on student internships in the photonics industry

·Future actions and recommendations for internships for photonics students

·Report on the contacts with large infrastructures like LaserLab Europe, ELI and HiPER

·Photonics21 Student Award 2011

If you would like to attend the workshop we kindly ask you to send an e-mail to secretariat@photonics21.org until the 29 September 2010.

Join us: Photonex exhibition and conference in Telford - The UK get-together for the photonics industry on the 3&4 November 2010

Photonics21 supports Photonex as a technical sponsor and will run a booth / many parallel and integrated events for the photonics community

Photonex is the UK showcase of photonics and optical technologies for applications in science and industry. This event features an exhibition, conference and workshop venues as well as an innovation forum. Photonex aim is to act as a unique UK forum for scientists and industrialists to learn about latest innovations, technologies & trends.

This year’s conferences that run alongside Photonex offer 12 subject focus strands, including the high level event 'High Power Diode Lasers & Systems' meeting on the 3 November 2010 which will highlight the latest advances in this field, covering advances in diode and diode pumped laser technology and systems applications. Furthermore, the meeting “Photovoltaics - Electricity for the Future” which will take place on the 4 November 2010 will include sessions on technologies and commercial considerations, applications and presentations from potential and start-up companies actively commercialising this technology.

The “Technology Investment Forum” is another module of Photonex 2010, addressing start-up companies, universities, investors and inventors to share their experiences, views and future opportunities.

Photonics21 Executive Board member Dr. Michael Wale, will give a Photonics21 presentation within the Innovation & Investment Business Seminar which is organized by the UK Knowledge Transfer Network Electronics, Sensors, Photonics.

“MVIS - the Machine Vision & Imaging Sciences” Showcase for imaging & vision technologies and optical & photonics enabled instrumentation in another integral event of the showcase as well as the first time hold “Vacuum Expo 2010”, which focuses on latest vacuum and related technologies and innovations for applications in science and industry.

Photonics21 will run an exhibition booth where visitors can inform about the latest activities. We invite you to join us at the Photonex event.

Entrance to the venue is free - a shuttle bus is running from Telford Railway station to the International Centre, St. Quentin Gate.

To see more details on this event and for registration and/or participation click here.

Join us - Biophotonics Cluster Meeting in Brussels, 5 November 2010 Discuss a shared vision on the way forward and learn about upcoming calls

Photonics21 work group 3 members are invited to join the Biophotonics Cluster Meeting which will be held on the 5th November 2010 in the VUB in Brussels on behalf of Photonics21, Photonics4Life and with support from OPTBIO.

The purpose of this event is to bring together on-going EU projects on biophotonics and other interested stakeholders to present their achievements, to create a shared vision concerning the needs for biophotonics in Europe and to discuss the scope of actions which might be covered by an ERA-NET Plus on biophotonics. In addition to that, there will be a presentation on the upcoming photonics calls which might be of interest to those conside-ring new biophotonics proposals.

The meeting will start at 9.00 am. You will find the agenda of the meeting here.

You will find any further information here.

ACTMOST: Acces to Micro-Optics Expertise, Services and Technologies Project Objectives

Micro-optics holds tremendous potential for SMEs and large companies to develop competitive products and to boost product innovation. Micro-optics however continuously requires advanced knowledge as well as a complex technology supply chain, which are very often not affordable.

This project targets to pro-actively provide companies with timely, cost-effective, investment-free Access to a unique one-stop-shop European Centre to Micro-Optics Expertise, Services and Technologies ACTMOST. The access of predominantly SMEs to leading edge technology and knowledge provided by the ACTMOST partners will be realized by them through focused collaborations in so called user projects and through hands-on training of industry staff in highly advanced laboratories of the ACTMOST research institutions.

ACTMOST also targets to develop a business model which would enable continuation of SME and company support without public funding. As such ACTMOST intends to be a major driving force to sustainably support European industry in keeping a leading position in micro-optic and micro-photonic enhanced products, thus strengthening the competitiveness of Europe and creating new jobs.

Contact Information
THIENPONT Hugo
VRIJE UNIVERSITEIT BRUSSEL
PLEINLAAN 2 PO Box 1050

BELGIUM
Tel: +32-27916852
Fax: +32-27916852

You will find further information here.

News from abraod - Photonics21 supports African – European cooperation in laser science and technology

In the frame of the seminar "Enhancing African - European cooperation in laser science and technology" Photonics21 member Dr. Martin Wehner will give a presentation on the activities of Photonics21 and on laser technology. The seminar is presented by the South African Department of Science and Technology as an Associated Event to the third South Africa - European Union Summit and will take place on the 27 September 2010 from 10.00 – 16.00 in Brussels. The aim of the seminar is to identify opportunities for and to propose recommenda- tions on how to promote enhanced laser S&T partnerships between Africa and Europe.

You can find any further information as well as the agenda for the workshop here.

Entrepreneurship and Business Innovation in PhD Education The European Optical Society (EOS) is organising an education workshop to be held on 29 October 2010 in Paris, France, under the umbrella of the EOS Annual Meeting 2010 (EOSAM 2010).

This second EOS education workshop will be dealing with the issues involved in integrating ideas of entrepreneurship and business innovation into PhDs in optics and photonics.

The main focus of PhD study is scholarly research. The endpoint is a thesis that describes original research, showing some degree of innovation and/or a critical analysis of a particular research topic. According to the formalities of the Bologna agreement, PhD study is a three-year activity, although throughout Europe the actual time taken to reach the required level is almost always longer (probably closer to 3.5 to 4 years).

Against this background, there are pressures on PhD course organisers and supervisors to provide additional professional education as an integrated part of the PhD. One topic that is particularly prominent at present is the desire to instil a sense of entrepreneurship and business. The EOS workshop on “Entrepreneurship and business innovation in PhD Education” serves for this development and will address among others the following topics:

·“Entrepreneurship for scientists and engineers” (talk given by Duncan T. Moore, University of Rochester, US)

·“Embedded business development in academic photonics research” (talk given by Danae Delbeke, Ghent University, BE)

·“PhD study in optical design and intellectual property” (talk given by Irina Livshits, Saint-Petersburg State University of Informational Technologies Mechanics and Optics, RU)

·“From PhD to CEO ?” (talk given by Michel Mariton, AFOP and Horiba Jobin Yvon, FR)

·“Case study: Creating and sustaining an entrepreneurial research environment at the Applied Optics Group @ NUI Galway”

·(talk given by Una Murphy, Applied Optics Group,National University of Ireland, Galway, IE)

·“Involving doctoral students in the innovation-entrepreneurship study track at Institut d’Optique” (talk given by Frédéric Capmas, Institut d’Optique – Graduate School, FR)

The workshop will be chaired by Pierre Chavel (Institut d'Optique, FR), Christopher Dainty (National University of Ireland, IE) and Hugues Giovannini (Institut Fresnel, FR). For the detailed schedule, please go to www.myeos.org/events/eosam2010-workshop.

Registration is possible until 29 October. Early-bird registration deadline is 27 September. Afterwards fees increase. www.myeos.org/events/eosam2010-workshop#Registration

The workshop is supported by Photonics21.

LED and Lighting in the focus – new conference venue in Frankfurt

Osram CEO and Photonics21 President Martin Goetzeler will be Keynote Speaker at the Strategies in Light Europe 2010

Strategies in Light Europe 2010, brings LED and Lighting technologies from all sectors and all stages of the supply chain together under one roof, providing one event for people within the industry to find the solutions they need.

Strategies in Light Europe will address current LED & Lighting industry issues and provide a forum for debate, bringing together key industry players:

• The LED manufacturing supply chain
• Members of the lighting industry
• The lighting design community
• Policy makers
• Standards organizations and other key stakeholders

Held for the first time in 2010, Strategies in Light Europe builds on the success of the flagship Strategies in Light event in California, USA, now in its 11th year, SIL USA attracts nearly

To read more: http://www.sileurope.com/index.html

EOS publishes brochure and web gallery “how optics and photonics address Europe’s challenges of the 21st century”

The European Optical Society (EOS) has recently published a brochure and web gallery titled "How optics and photonics address Europe’s challenges of the 21st century" presenting a collection of ongoing and future research projects conducted by researchers from European research institutes, companies and universities.

Both publications are not only aimed at scientists, but also at politicians and the broad public, with the overall goal to increase awareness of the solutions photonics provide for the fields of health, energy, environment, production, IT and security. Highlighting a number of selected R&D projects, funded both by national governments in Europe and the European Commission, the brochure and web gallery reflect key areas and applications of photonics research funding in Europe.

Print copies of the brochure are available on request to info@myeos.org while supplies last.

Would you like to submit your project for the EOS web gallery, too? Click here: www.myeos.org/eos-project-web-gallery.

Contact and links:

Brochure download: www.myeos.org/how_optics_and_photonics_address_europes_challenges_of_the_21_century