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…
Photonics Europe has been rapidly reconfigured as an online digital Forum opening Monday 6 April. Over 700 recorded presentations, 500 manuscripts and 4 plenaries will be available Free to the photonics community. Authors can be questioned and content discussed through the digital forum. Adapting to the current almost global lockdown, moving to a digital format…
The Defence and Security Accelerator has just launched a challange around the rapid sanitising of ambulances that have carried suspected COVID-19 patients. The challenge is aiming to test and demonstrate new technologies capable of cleaning the inside of ambulances in under 45 minutes (the current benchmark). DASA have £500k to fund multiple projects, but timelines are naturally…
