The UK government’s Council for Science and Technology (CST), which provides independent advice to the Prime Minister on science and technology policy issues across government, has highlighted the vital role of photonics in keeping the whole economy competitive.
Photonics: Capturing the Opportunities for Growth and Global Leadership emphasises the growth opportunity, strong UK Leadership in photonics and need for government to act quickly to capture the full economic and social impact from photonics, with three headline recommendations:
- Government should develop a national photonics roadmap to better coordinate funding, leverage existing clusters and build on technological strengths.
- Government should use public procurement to support domestic industries and reduce reliance on global supply chains to build sovereign capabilities.
- Government should expand international partnerships and export activities to support growth.
Drawing strongly on evidence gathered by the Photonics Leadership Group (PLG) the CST highlight the need for greater government coordination of policy, funding and skills planning for photonics. The PLG looks forward to working with all government departments and the Prime Minister’s office to deliver the CST’s recommendations in full.
Further detail on the current scale and impact of UK photonics is available in the PLG’s UK Photonics the Hidden Economy 2025 report, associated video on key facts and figures and the PLG’s 2035 vision.
