European Commission pledges €480 million for photonics

Horizon Europe (HE) is the European Commission’s latest research framework program (succeeding Horizon 2020) with a budget of €95.5 billion (around $108 billion) to be allocated over the period 2021-27. Photonics has been designated as a strategic technology under the scope of HE, meaning that approved collaborative projects can win funding.

The program facilitates collaboration and strengthens the impact of research and innovation in developing, supporting and implementing EU policies while tackling global challenges. It supports creating and better dispersing of excellent knowledge and technologies.

The general aims of HE are: to tackle the impacts of climate change; to help achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals; and to boost competitiveness and growth of the European Union and associated countries, including the UK. The European Commission and Photonics21 — the stakeholder organisation, with members across the continent, which also advises Commission — have entered into a partnership to work together on the further development of this sector. As a key element of HE, the Commission has committed to invest at least €480 million into photonics research and innovation activities in the seven-year course of the program. The Photonics Partnership is one of 49 partnerships selected by the EU Commission in strategic areas ranging from AI to batteries, and clean energy to robotics.

There are regular Photonics Calls for Proposals (by collaborative research partners seeking funding) published by the European Commission. The first Horizon Europe calls for proposals were launched on the EU Funding and Tenders Portal in June, 2021. The photonics-related Calls are allocated within focused “clusters” — 1. Health; 4. Digital, Industry & Space; and 6. Food & Natural Resources. Further information and new announcements are available on the EC website: ec.europa.eu

Growing sector — despite the pandemic

Markus Wilkens, Secretariat and Head of Operations at Photonics21, explains that Europe’s photonics sector growth over recent years has not been dampened by the Covid-19 pandemic: “Europe’s photonics industry grew from €76 billion in 2015 to €103 billion in 2019 according to a recent Photonics21 market study conducted by analyst Tematys.”

This equates to a growth rate of 7% (CAGR), meaning that Europe’s photonics industry grew faster than many other high-tech industries (e.g. the IT industry: 4.5%, medical technology: 4.9%, microelectronics: 4%).

“However,” he says, “recent market data from German technology industry association Spectaris suggests that, more recently, the coronavirus pandemic has had a rather mild effect on the European Photonics Industry and the prospects are good.

“Photonics was seen by the European Commission as a key technology with which to respond to the corona crises. The pandemic prompted the Commission to open calls for urgently needed research into the coronavirus.”

Markus Wilkens, Secretariat and Head of Operations at Phoronics21. Credit: VDI Technologiezentrum GmbH.

At the time of the pandemic calls, last year, Thierry Breton, the European Commissioner for Internal Market, and responsible for photonics, commented: “We are supporting the health authorities, healthcare professionals and the general public in all member states in tackling the coronavirus crisis. To this end, we are deploying innovative technologies and tools that can quickly be used to prevent, optimally treat, and recover from this pandemic and prepare for its aftermath. These include digital solutions and technologies such as telemedicine, data, AI, robotics, and photonics.”

Projects under consideration

So, pandemic aside, what are the emerging areas of interest and technical problems to be solved for the European photonics sector that could become new collaborative projects?

Wilkens proposes: “Currently, the Photonics21 working group leaders and deputies are in the process of drafting the call priorities for the 2023-24 funding program, which we will then discuss with the EU Commission. More than 1,500 experts have been consulted in the past three months, photonics experts as well as experts from other technology areas and end-user markets. The final decision will be made by our Board of Stakeholders in January 2022.”

The types of projects coming up can be divided into classical research projects, typically covering Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs) of 2-5 (early- to mid-stage research and feasability assessment), and innovation projects, covering TRLs of 5-7 (prototypes and demonstrators).

Wilkens adds, “Of the topics, according to our new strategy, a large area will be where a core technology is to be advanced, so that several fields of application will benefit at the same time. A typical example would be imaging. This is relevant simultaneously for agriculture, medical technology, automotive engineering, and many other fields.”

The Zepler Clean Room complex at the UK’s University of Southampton used by the Future Photonics Hub. This facility enables the development of next generation fiber lasers for green manufacturing and silicon photonics technologies that will massively reduce power consumption in data centers. Credit: Zepler/University of Southampton

Wilkens believes that photonics, like many other cost-intensive key technologies, must break out of the technology silo. “We want to launch joint calls with other areas in Horizon Europe to accelerate diffusion. For example, the Made in Europe partnership on manufacturing or the Quantum Flagship, specifically for the area of quantum photonic integrated circuits, ” he says.

“With the introduction of the Photonics Partnership in the previous framework program (Horizon 2020), we raised the industrial share in projects to about 50%, which we consider a good value for collaborative research projects. At the end of the day, it’s about bringing together the industrial and academic sides to come up with truly new innovative ideas. SMEs play a special role here, as they are the lifeblood of the European photonics industry. In the past, they accounted for about half of all industrial participants, a value we expect to reach in this partnership as well.” 

Meeting society and market needs 

Photonics21 has aligned its seven working groups (Digital Infrastructure, Manufacturing, Health, Climate & Energy, Space & Defense, Agriculture & Food, and Core Photonics) according to the needs of society and what are described as the “future megamarkets.”

Wilkens says, “We believe this will allow us to better exploit synergies and prevent us from working in parallel. We have also made some changes to the process. Whereas all working groups used to meet in parallel, we now ask the application groups to meet first and bring the results back to the core technology working group. “Only in this way can we identify the common relevant technology topics and needs and later bring them into the partnership calls. In addition, we are able to bring together all relevant experts along the entire value chain, to jointly work on solutions to specific challenges, hopefully also outside of the funded projects.”

UK must ‘continue participation’ in Horizon Europe

The particular interests of the UK photonics sector, including its continuing relationship with European and other international partnerships, is the focus of the Photonics Leadership Group (PLG), led by its Chief Executive Dr. John Lincoln.

The PLG aims to nudge industry, academia, support agencies and government to work together to make photonics “bigger, faster, and stronger.” In an interview with Show Daily, Lincoln says, “Our latest vision, released in November 2021, is to grow UK photonics to a £50 billion ($68 billion) industry by 2035, at which point 60% of the UK economy will depend on photonics to keep it competitive.”

John Lincoln, CEO of the UK’s Photonics Leadership Group. Credit: Courtesy of John Lincoln

Lincoln stresses that the UK’s continued participation in Horizon Europe “will be key to delivering that vision.” He adds, “UK photonics organisations have already joined consortia bidding for the first calls to be released from Horizon Europe and we fully anticipate UK photonics companies, research organisations and universities will add significant value to many future consortia.”

He also believes that a key part of being associated with Horizon Europe is to be an active member of the community and Photonics 21 itself. “I personally am extremely pleased and grateful to have been elected to the P21 Board of Stakeholders at the election of November, 2021.”

Lincoln is joined by Alison McLeod from Photonics Scotland and Richard Pitwon from Resolute Photonics, who are both also committed to European collaboration.

He adds, “It is great to see the new Photonics 21 Working Groups up and running again, defining the program for 2023/2024, and great to see UK participants joining their peers from across Europe in shaping future research and innovation direction and priorities.”

Post-Brexit, the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) included provisions for the UK to continue participating in certain EU programs, such as HE and Copernicus (space). Although the TCA has been in operation since January 2021, UK participation in these programs has yet to be formally signed off.

‘Collaboration is key’

Lincoln is keen to see this participation officially confirmed at governmental level: “Collaboration is key, we are 100% behind UK participation in HE as an associate member, welcome the support from across Europe in getting participation ratified as soon as possible and very much look forward to working with our European friends on the next generation of photonics innovation.

So where does he feel that the next opportunities are to be found? “Photonics has such broad impact it is impossible to pick one technology or innovation out for special attention. However the big challenges we must address are clearer. First and foremost is sustainability and achieving Net Zero. Photonics impacts on so many dimensions from power generation to energy efficiency to waste reduction. We must champion these impacts so photonics is clearly a critical part of the solution maximizing the attractiveness of our industry to investors, customers, policy makers, employees, and most importantly, new recruits.”

Further information about Photonics21 is at www.photonics21.org and the UK Photonics Leadership Group at www.photonicsuk.org.

Matthew Peach is editor-in-chief of optics.org and director of Original Content Ltd. A version of this article appeared in the 2022 Photonics West Show Daily.