A £13.5bn industry employing over 69,000 people in the UK with nationally leading productivity and global industrial and societal impact
The PLG is a voluntary collective of photonics industry and academic leaders nudging policy, strategy, industry and research in mutally beneficial directions
Add yourself to the UK photonics community contact list to be kept informed of key information and consultations regarding photonics in the UK
SPIE have confirmed that their Security + Defence, Remote Sensing and Space, Satellites, and Sustainability meetings scheduled for 21-25 September 2020 in Edinburgh will now take place as a free-to-access remote Digital Forum, including live plenary presentations and on-demand technical talks. Photonics West 2021 has been moved to 6-11 March 2021 to enable best new…
Photonics21 are undertaking a major new project to update the size of the European photonics industry and increase the understanding of EU photonics markets and trends in Europe. The results will provide a baseline for advocating in favour of Photonics current and future impact in Europe towards decision-makers as well as public and private investors.…
Recent events and the rapid development of industry and innovation policy have highlighted the need to have a method of quickly communicating with the whole of the UK photonics community. Although we know a wide number of people in the community personally, GDPR compliance means we cannot email you with significant industry updates and give…
The publication of the UK Research and Development Roadmap by government is welcomed by the Photonics Leadership Group. The Roadmap identifies the importance of “investing in priority cross-cutting technologies… to support our security and prosperity”. The PLG calls for photonics to be recognised as just such a technology, contributing as it does to the “resilience,…
The Cornerstone project has launched a short survey to gauge community interest in a UK Silicon Photonics & Lithography EPSRC National Research Facility (NRF) to support cutting-edge research and cement the UK as global leaders in Silicon Photonics enabled research. Anyone engaged in research at UK academic centres is invited to complete the survey. This…
The PLG welcomes the award of £25.4 million from the UK Strength in Places fund to the South Wales compound semiconductor cluster, CSconnected. The award will support a major £43.7 million project to strengthen the UK’s advanced semiconductor materials and manufacturing capability. The Strengths in Places Fund supports the UK’s “levelling up” objectives by supporting…
Over 40 leading members of the UK photonics community joined the remote ZOOM PLG meeting on the 3 June. The resilience of UK photonics was very much in evidence with 90% of the industry able to safely continue production through the Covid pandemic. The PLG is now calling on University labs to follow industry’s lead…
Innovate UK has launched a number of new support packages for existing innovate grant holders. These include additional grants for fully funding the remaining costs of live projects, automatic 3 month extensions and monthly payments. Apply quickly – Continuity grants are available only until 29 MAY 2020. For those businesses with active Innovate projects facing…
Initial analysis of the first 200 responses to the PLG’s survey of the impact of coronavirus measures on photonics and acoustics industries shows 85% of manufacturing organisations have been able to continue production, with half of these organisation reporting only a minor impact capacity. The impact has been more severe among those providing high value…
The PLG posed the question of “What is on the Horizon for Future Photonics Research” to twenty-five of the UK’s leading photonics academics to generate a picture of where photonics research will be be focused in ten years time. The raw output of that workshop is captured in the summary of seventy topics identified as…
