In the 2019 Spring statement on 13 March , The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond allocated £81 million to a national Extreme Photonics Application Centre in Oxfordshire. The centre based at Harwell campus will help researchers and industry better understand the composition of new materials and how they behave in different conditions. Further details…
Nominations are now open for the Institute of Physics business awards. Photonics businesses have been award winners in many previous years and strong submission are encouraged for 2019. The Business Innovation Award recognises small, medium and large companies that have excelled in innovation, delivering significant economic and/or societal impact through the application of physics. The…
Innovate UK will open a £2 million competition for projects to develop reliable extreme environment grade electronics, sensors and photonics for robotics and AI systems. Supported through the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund (ISCF) Robotics and AI for Extreme and Challenging Environments Challenge, this competition illustrates the importance of photonics in enabling solutions to key societal…
The PLG is now publishing a calendar of events relevant to the UK photonics community. To add events to this calendar please contact the PLG, with details of the event location, dates, URL, organisers and a 50 word description.
The Department of International have issued a new Open General Export Licence for the export of dual-use items to the EU in the event of a no-deal Brexit. Currently dual-use items don’t need an export licence to the EU, but in event of a no deal Brexit they will. This licence should enable continued export,…
In an open letter to the European Commission released by Photonics 21, three of the worlds most eminent Nobel Science Laureates have warned of the significant negative impact if Photonics is not included in the priority list for Horizon Europe funding. Professor Gérard Albert Mourou, Professor Stefan W. Hell and Professor Theodor W. Hansch point…
At the last PLG meeting it was agreed to add Vice-Chair and Treasurer officers to the Photonics Leadership Group, to be appointed by member vote alongside the PLG Chair-person at the next PLG meeting on 27 February 2019.
…Latest government statistics on photovoltaic installations shows PV capacity in the UK exceeded 13GW in November 2018 from over 972,000 installations. November also saw the highest number of new installations in the month since September 2016. UK PV power generation capacity now exceeds that available from coal fired power stations in the UK and is…
Gov.UK has announced “Photonics supplier Qioptiq has secured a contract with the Ministry of Defence (MoD) worth £82 million – its largest ever” Highlighting the scale and capability of Photonics throughout the UK Qioptiq have invested over £3.7m in their North Wales facility as a result and will be delivering major cost benefits to the…
In a report released recently by the European Technology Platform Photonics 21, the UK received the second highest funding from the European Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation program in projects related to photonics. 494 organisations received 240M€ to carry out market focused research and innovation. At least 50% of participants of photonics related projects under…
