Photonics21 - towards Horizon 2020: Intense Advocacy Activities with Politicians in Brussels to underline our position Taking stand and raising the photonics word on our positions towards Horizon 2020 was subject of a broad variety of outreach activities Photoncis21 Board members were involved in during the recent weeks. Aside from advocating for a Photonics PPP in Horizon 2020 we also took the opportunity to inform the Brussels politicians about photonics as a key enabling technology and Photoncis21 as a successful European platform.

We took part on a plenary sessions in the "ALDE"( Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe) Seminar on "Horizon 2020 – How can European research and innovation effectively respond to societal challenges?" and participated in a workshop panel on Entrepreneurship and Innovation of the Digital Agenda Assembly 2012. In One-to -One talks we met with country representatives (e.g. from France, UK, Germany, Belgium, Czech Republic and Belgium) and with EU parliamentarians being active in the ITRE, STOA and Regio Committee.


Picture Gallery (left to right): Photonics Board Member Dr. Berit Wessler presented on the ALDE Seminar / Photoncis21 Vice President Dr. Schulte in discussion with the Belgium Country Representatives / Photonics21 Board Member Dr. Berit Wessler participated on the Panel Discussion about Entrepreneurship and Innovation of the Digital Assembly 2012 / Photoncis21 member Dr. Elbers introduced Photonics21 to the country representatives from France.


Our Key Messages were along with our Position Papers and Vision documents:

• Photonics – A Key Enabling Technology great economic impact on EU growth and jobs as well as on solving some critical societal challenges
• Photonics21 platform – a successful lean, open and transparent organization representing the diverse industry – successfully build since 2005 – with about 2000 members which we do not want to loose
• Photonics community supports Horizon 2020 and its aims for growth and jobs. We are fully committed to deliver on our promises and gave an industry commitment of 4-fold leverage each public Euro
• Photonics community aims to set up a PPP within Horizon 2020 and highly welcomes the opportunity in the current draft. However we want lean and effective structures set up in a way that we do not lose our large number of voluntary members

An abstract of our positions taken we summarized in the following hand-out

PPP Position Paper abstract

Key areas of interest in the discussions were around:

• Key Enabling Technologies (KET’s)
  • Is there sufficient focus / budget assigned to the KET’s ?
  • Are there many "Cross-KET" Areas? Which are those Areas?
  • What are the differences between the various KET’s ?
  • Does the KET’s represent the areas of competitive advantage for Europe?
• Public Private Partnership (PPP)
  • Why do you strive for a PPP – what do you expect from a PPP ?
  • How do you assess the former PPP’s – what was good? What went wrong? – Here questions were raised on the operability of a PPP, especially with respect to transparency, measurement and accountability criteria
• Horizon 2020 / Funding Process / Structural Funds
  • What do you recommend to improve in the funding process to better attract SME’s and midsized companies? What can be done to reduce administrative and reporting burdens?
  • Where are your main areas of concern with the current draft of Horizon 2020?
  • What is especially important to secure that public funding leads to growth and jobs? - What needs to be improved vs. the former frame work programmes ?
  • How can Europe better attract private money/private investment?
  • How can we better secure that EU funding leads to jobs and investment ?
  • What are your ideas to better include/align EU funding and member state funding ?
  • What is your view on assigning parts of the Structural Funds to innovation? What is the role of the clusters within the innovation process?

Especially the country representatives encouraged Photonics21 members to seek intensive contacts with the respective governments in the regions and countries to advocate the photonics story and engage them for our recommendations and improvement requests.

The MEP’s and committee representatives were very interested to get more and concrete examples how Horizon 2020 can become more efficient in terms of job creation and growth as well as leaner and more open and transparent to attract also small and midsized organizations to join.

More Information can be found:

1. On the Digital Agenda Assembly: Information about DAA12 (reports, pictures, recordings) can be found under the link:
   http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/digital-agenda/daa/
   
   
2. On the ALDE Seminar:
   http://www.alde.eu/press/press-and-release-news/press-release/article/alde-urges-for-more-economic-growth-through-market-driven-innovation-39061

New KET Communication by the European Commission: "Key Enabling Technologies – A bridge to growth and jobs" In a press conference end of June 2012 Antonio Tajani, Vice President of the European Commission and head of the DG Enterprise published a new KET communication on behalf of the DG’s involved in the Innovation Union.

In his statement Commissioner Tajani declared that that Europe is a global leader in the development of Key Enabling Technologies (KETs) and it has all that is necessary to remain in this position. According to him, "the EU is the only region to master all six KETs (micro-/nanoelectronics, nanotechnology, photonics, advanced materials, industrial biotechnology, advanced manufacturing technologies)". He also underlined that Europe has a major weakness in term of translating its knowledge base into goods and services and preventing some EU patents to be exploited outside the EU.

He introduced an action plan to promote Key Enabling Technologies with four main objectives mainly aimed at promoting research and financing for KETS :

1. Adapt EU policy and its instruments in the next multi-annual financial framework on research and innovation, cohesion policy, and prioritise EIB lending activities in favour of KETs deployment;
2. Ensure coordination of EU and national activities;
3. Establish simple and effective governance structures, notably a coordination group within the Commission, and an external advisory KETs Issues Group;
4. Mobilise existing trade instruments to ensure fair competition and a level international playing field.

He reported that the European Commission will allocate € 6.7 bn in industrial capabilities on KETs in Horizon 2020 and implement "innovation-oriented public-private partnerships (PPPs) for those KETs where the necessary conditions specified in Horizon 2020 are in place".

The Commission also outlined the role of KETs in developing Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) that "are expected to account for the majority of future jobs. For example, in the photonic sector the bulk of the 5,000 European companies are SMEs".

On the monitoring mechanisms he underlined that the Commission will launch a monitoring mechanism on KETs in 2013 to provide relevant market data on the supply of and demand for KETs in the EU and other regions and ensure KETs development at EU level. This monitoring will be made public and available on a dedicated website.

With a view on KETs at the intersection with other policy areas and institutions he stated:

• Cohesion Policy also needs to be enhanced to support KETs by promoting KETs-related cluster-specific actions and by launching a study on national KETs policies.
• The European Investment Bank too will define KETs as a mutual priority area and provide additional resources via the new SME risk-sharing instrument (RSI) for the next financing period.
• The Commission will strive to ensure a favourable trade environment so that Europe can play a relevant role in a globally competitive market.

The press release of the press conference on Key Enabling Technologies can be found here:
http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=MEMO/12/484&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

You can read the KET Communication if you click here:
KET_MEMO-12-484_EN.doc

Sustainability: European Commission published new study on "Photonics technologies and markets for a low-carbon economy" DG Connect (the new name of the former DG INFSO) now published a new study on "photonic technologies and markets for a low carbon economy". It was prepared by Optimat, NPL, InGaN Research, CIP & TWI

Its aim was to analyse Europe’s market positioning in in areas of photonics particularly relevant for building a future low-carbon economy such as energy-efficient lighting, photovoltaics or all-optical communications, and their potential for further development. It primarily focuses on technologies that can be exploited over the period to 2015 and the barriers that will need to be overcome to maximise Europe’s global market share. In addition it also identifies attractive technologies for the period to 2020 and the related barriers to exploitation.


Aside from a 28 page summary report the study has 5 annexes which more in depth show the impacting factors in those areas.

• Annex 1: Photovoltaics Technologies and Applications
• Annex 2: Energy Efficient Lighting and Displays Technologies and Applications
• Annex 3: Energy Efficient Communications Technologies and Applications
• Annex 4: Advanced Sensors and Instrumentation Technologies and Applications
• Annex 5: Clean Manufacturing Technologies and Applications

To access the study please go to:

http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/ict/photonics/studies_en.html

Photonics Multiannual Strategic Roadmap process towards Horizon 2020 and a Photonics PPP After the launch of the photonics roadmapping process in the frame of the Photonics21 Annual Meeting in March the process has been continued by further interactive workshops of Photonics21 Work Groups 2, 3 and 5 within the last weeks. The workshops participants provided further input and discussed about the research and innovation challenges for the Photonics Multiannual Strategic Roadmap.

The photonics roadmap will be an important milestone in the further development towards a Photonics Public Private Partnership and will outline the direction for future photonics research and innovation in the upcoming Framework Programme Horizon 2020 as strategic input to the European Commission.

Following Photonics21 workshops will take place within the next week (Please note that registration is possible via e-mail to secretariat@photonics21.org until the 5 July 2012):

• Photonics21 Work Group 1, 9 July from 10.30 – 16.30 in Brussels
• Photonics21 Work Group 6, 12 July from 10.00 – 16.30 in London
• Photonics21 Work Group7, 13 July from 10.00 – 16.30 in London

Furthermore, Photonics21 Work Group 4 will hold the next workshop on the 4 September 2012 from 10.00 – 16.00 in Brussels.

Any relevant players of the value chain are invited to participate in the Photonics21 workshops.

In the following weeks a first draft version of the work group specific chapters for the Photonics Multiannual Strategic Roadmap will be circulated to the Photonics21 work group members for feedback and further comments. It is foreseen to finalize the Photonics Multiannual Roadmap until November 2012 and to provide it to the European Commission.

You will find an overview on the photonics roadmap process here:

Photonics21: Election of a new Photoncis21 President Board of Stakeholders will decide on proposals end of September End of September there will be an extraordinary Board of Stakeholder Meeting to finally decide on the election of a new Photoncis21 president after Photonics21 former President, Martin Goetzeler, has announced that he will not be longer available due to his exit from Osram AG.

Following the process decided on the Annual Meeting 2012, currently a nomination committee of 4 Executive Board members (Giorgio Anania, Roberta Ramponi, Mike Wale and Bernd Schulte) is evaluating and screening candidate proposals coming from the community and/or from additional search.

Final voting process will be done in an extraordinary Board of Stakeholders Meeting held in autumn in Brussels. Target is to have the new President in place at the beginning of October.

ERANET+ BiophotonicsPlus - preparing for launching BiophotonicsPlus, an ERA-NET-Plus action under the ERANET scheme of the European Commission, is a transnational call for project proposals which contribute to the fast translation of biophotonics methods and tools into appliances and products. The call will be funded jointly by the participating national funding bodies from Catalonia, Germany, Flanders, Israel, Latvia, Toscany and the United Kingdom and co-funded by the European Commission.

The participating countries and regions commit to invest more than 10 M€ for the funding of the R&D projects to be selected under the joint call. Together with the complementary funds of the European Commission, the call budget for transnational research projects will amount to about 15 M€.

The launch of the BiophotonicsPlus call is planned for September 2013.

Any further information about the call will soon be available on the BiophotonicsPlus call website www.biophotonicsplus.eu.

Further news from the community:

Inform about photonics in Europe: Summer edition of ELI Newsletter published The European Laser Institute (ELI) has published a summer newsletter edition. The newsletter also provides an article on Photonics21 and the ongoing photonics roadmap process. You can also inform about ELI activities, the Innovation Award Laser Technology and the LASER World of Photonics.

Photonics21 invites you to have a closer look and further inform about photonics in Europe and ELI.

You can read the newsletter if you click here: ELINewsletterSummer2012.pdf

Join: Third Strategies in Light Europe to take place in Munich, 18-20 September 2012 Strategies in Light Europe is in its 3rd year of providing a comprehensive conference and exhibition for the rapidly-growing LED lighting industry. The event offers a platform for networking opportunities and a forum for the sharing of ideas and experiences in the latest technologies.

With a sold out exhibit floor at both the 2010 and 2011 event, and a 54% increase in registered attendees, Strategies in Light Europe is becoming a leading European event for the LED and lighting industry.

Attendees will gain valuable insights into future directions and strategies of the European and broader worldwide LED markets from one of the largest and fastest-growing LED lighting events

Event Highlights comprise amongst others

• Two pre-conference workshops addressing key issues that affect the current implementation and future development of LED lighting:
  1. Lighting Beyond Vision -- Biological Aspects of Lighting
  2. European Standards for LED Lighting
• Solid-State Lighting Investor Forum – designed especially for current and potential investors, addressing the financial aspects of the European LED lighting industry
• Keynote Session – providing the latest market information on LED lighting by the world leader in LED market research, Strategies Unlimited, plus keynote presentations by high level executives from Osram and Philips
• Plenary Session – High-level presentations by leading European industry and government experts

More information can be found under: http://www.sileurope.com/index.html

Join: Plastics Electronics and Semicon Europe, October 9-11, 2012 in Dresden "Plastic Electronics 2012 and SEMICON Europa 2012: Two events that belong together" is the lead on the invitation to join the 2012 conference and exhibition at the "Messe Dresden" on October 9-11, 2012.

The combination of the two events is designed to offer visitors and exhibitors great synergies and opportunities by combining the two disciplines under one roof in Dresden, Germany. Topics like "Smart System Integrations" touch both traditional semiconductors and new technologies emerging from plastic electronics.

Earlier this year SEMI acquired the Plastics Electronics Conference and Exhibition to enhance SEMI's member value and to advance the related industries towards successful commercialization of new products in the field of organic and inorganic large area electronics (OLAE).

Organic and inorganic large area electronics (OLAE) promise a large market potential of over $50 billion by 2020 according to the Bank of America, Merrill Lynch and several other research organizations.

To reserve a booth, send in papers and register – please go to:
http://www.plastic-electronics.org/Conference/EventSchedule

From Abroad: Putting Light to Work for Canada - New Canadian Photonic Industry Consortium (CPIC) Aims to Help Companies Acquire New Customers, Investment and Share In the frame of the international conference “Photonics North”, the photonics community celebrated the official launch of the new Canadian Photonic Industry Consortium (CPIC).

Following a merger of the Canadian Institute for Photonic Innovations (CIPI) and Canadian Photonic Consortium (CPC), CPIC’s strives to combine the strengths of these organizations and to further further increase the competitiveness of Canada’s photonics industry. By connecting photonics companies to new knowledge, investment and end-customers, CPIC aims to accelerate the application and adoption of Canadian photonic technologies across all sectors of the global economy.

Officially established in April 2012 with leadership from industry, CPIC brings together 10 inaugural member organizations across Canada. These include small to medium-sized firms that develop novel photonic technologies; multinational corporations that can put these innovations to work; and research centres that support photonics R&D and commercialization. These organizations have fostered different types of photonics expertise and span several end-user sectors.

CPIC will address the specific needs of Canadian photonics companies, including access to financing, new technologies, talent and commercial opportunities. As a first priority, CPIC will connect photonic firms to prospective customers in communications; energy and lighting; life sciences and health care; defence and security; transport; and manufacturing. To kick start this activity, the consortium is currently planning initial workshops such as Photonics for Shipbuilding to be hosted in Halifax, Nova Scotia and Vancouver, BC in October, 2012. CPIC will also help photonics innovators tap into research funding opportunities with the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC).

The full release you will find here:
CPIC_Launch_Press_Release_Photonics_North_FINAL_June_7_2012.pdf