A Bright Future for
Photonics21
Tim Hayes
The European technology platform
has successfully unified the photonics
community throughout the continent.
Lumiblade OLED lighting from Philips Lighting. Photonics21 promotes adoption of low-energy lighting as a means of tackling societal and economic challenges faced by Europe.
When Photonics21 gathered in Brussels for its fifth annual
meeting in late February 2011, its
members had every reason to feel
buoyant. Created in 2005 as one of
several European Technology Platforms,
Photonics21 now includes more than
1,700 representatives of the continent’s
photonics sector, drawn from industry,
research institutions and universities.
The Platforms are groups of stakeholders who work independently from the
European Commission (EC) but who
are strongly supported by it.
Neelie Kroes, the EC vice president responsible for the digital agenda,
addressed the meeting and received
Photonics21’s vision paper for the future
of the photonics sector. All present were
well aware that the EC’s current $72
billion program of coordinated research
and innovation—the 7th Framework
Programme, or FP7—concludes in 2013.
Kroes took the opportunity to stress
some political realities for public-private
partnerships in a post-FP7 Europe.
“The discussion of the next research
Framework Programme comes at a criti-
cal juncture,” she said. “Research and
innovation will be the most important
factors for getting Europe out of the cur-
rent economic crisis and for creating jobs
and improving our living standards.”
Where photonics is concerned, the
EC is pushing at an open door. As
Markus Wilkens of the Photonics21
secretariat explained, the aims of this
group have developed since 2005, and
the initial purpose of uniting a frag-
mented community has already evolved
into a mission to foster Europe-wide
collaboration and tackle specific chal-
lenges facing society.
The aims of this group
have developed since
2005, and the initial
purpose of uniting a
fragmented community
has already evolved into a
mission to foster Europe-wide collaboration and
tackle specific challenges
facing society.
“In 2005, there was no real photonics
community,” he said. “Even the EC’s own
Photonics Unit, created in recognition of
photonics’ value to the member states, was
not formed until two years later. Our first
years were spent building up this community and promoting an understanding
that photonics was an important area, but
now we are entering the next step in our
development and forging a more formal
partnership with the EC.”
12 | OPN Optics & Photonics News
Philips Lighting
The identification of photonics as one
of the EC’s key enabling technologies
(KETs) in 2009 was a major step. “It was
the first time to my knowledge that pho-
tonics was included in the same company
as biotechnology, advanced materials
research and similar dynamic sectors,”
said Wilkens. “It allowed us to make rec-
ommendations on industrial deployment
and to voice opinions on how photonics
can be of real benefit to society and the
European economy.”
Ursula Tober, economist and con-
sultant to Photonics21, agreed that the
group’s development was an example of
a public-private partnership playing to
its strengths. “The suggestion that the
technology platforms needed to trans-
form their role, to become more active
and work as real partners, came from
the EC itself,” she said. “It is asking
for another level of commitment from
industry to ensure the effectiveness of
every Euro spent and to keep the focus
on what really matters—employment
and effective capital expenditure.”
As laid out in the vision paper, Pho-
tonics21’s increased commitment to work-
ing with industry includes addressing
some structural weaknesses in Europe’s
photonics sector. Despite research of
consistently high quality, the path to
industrial deployment is sometimes
rocky. The process of commercializa-
tion can get stalled in what Photonics21
