The House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee is conducting an inquiry into the role of the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) in providing guidence on UK Government decisions on intervening in foreign takeovers that may result in signficant incluence of change of control. “The Committee will also focus on what safeguards are required in the…
The PLG are currently constructing the second survey of the impact of Covid-19 on the UK Photonics and Acoustics industry. Our first survey in April showed the high resilience of UK Photonics manufacturing at the peak of lockdown and the high degree of uncertainty on future impact. The second survey will seek to generate an…
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…
