Implementing the European Photonics21 PPP strategy

ended

EuroPho21 provides the decisive support to Photonics21 for strategy development and implementation and paves the way for the re-industrialization of Europe. The networking and coordination among Photonics21 stakeholders and the end user industry in the strategy development and implementation will speed up the innovation process and time to market for new products. This is a critical step to overcome the so called “Valley of Death”. EuroPho21 will build bridges to other parts of the Horizon2020 Programme to create value chains. Furthermore, it will reach out to regions where a strong end user industry is present to increase the deployment of Photonics as a Key Enabling Technology. To this end the project supports building up manufacturing and creating jobs in Europe. The current fragmentation of the European, national and regional activities represents a major barrier to the implementation of one photonics strategy in Europe. EuroPho21 will overcome these barriers and will build bridges between regional, national and European funding in photonics. Increasing the participation of Member States and regions in the Photonics21 Mirror Group enables Horizon2020 photonics projects to be jointly financed by regions, Member States and the European Commission through the ERANET+ scheme. Combining regional funding with Horizon2020 Photonics project funding will be enabled by bringing together the relevant stakeholders. Photonics21 as the central communication platform for Photonics Research and Innovation in Europe will communicate information about Horizon2020 Photonics KET projects, national and regional activities reaching out to more than 600.000 recipients, with special focus on end users. The EuroPho21 proposal is submitted by the Photonics21 secretariat and 12 National Technology Platforms - representing more than 30 Cluster - at the request, with the consent and on behalf of the Photonics21 Board of Stakeholders which will closely steer all activities of the project.