Photonics Innovation Factory for Europe (Photonics Partnership) (IA) -

Expected Outcome

Projects are expected to contribute to the following outcomes:

• Substantially improved penetration of core photonics technologies into multiple end-user application domains and industry sectors, in particular through carefully selected SMEs and new start-ups with the strongest potential for high impact in terms of business growth and employment, enabling a demonstrably more competitive and technologically sovereign European industry.
• Creation of a sustainable streamlined ecosystem for photonics innovation in Europe from TRL 2-7, providing European Cross-Border Added Value with a high leveraging effect on investments made at national and regional level in photonics.

Scope

The aim is to provide a virtual factory with a flexible and open structure, allowing for a multiplicity of competitive actors and services operating as a sustainable fully integrated European ecosystem of cross-border deep innovation support in core photonics technologies for the benefit of European industry. The factory should lower the entry threshold to photonics and facilitate the broad uptake and integration of these technologies in new products and processes with high potential impact in the market and on society.

It should help speed up the deployment of proven photonics technologies within European industry in order to increase its global competitiveness, with an emphasis on technological sovereignty and resilience while also fostering strong new enterprise business growth. Care will be taken that it will not compete with existing commercial offers.

Proposals should address the following:

A streamlined virtual access, supported through a network of competence centers acting as a single consortium, to a supply chain which offers a broad range of photonics technologies that cover the entire photonics innovation spectrum from concept to commercialization (TRL2-7).

The action should create pathways from initial concept through to production, employing scalable manufacturing methods connected to pilot lines and pre-series production facilities appropriate to the market, and thereby closing the gaps in photonics value chains and unlocking investments in European manufacturing based on more complete and mature solutions.

The action needs to target primarily first users and early adopters enabling the wider uptake and deployment of core photonic technologies in innovative products and processes with strong commercial potential.

Support cases should be innovative and industrially relevant, requiring intensive cross-border collaborative expert intervention to overcome specific innovation challenges based on synergetic photonics core technologies, and should include business-related coaching activities directly linked to the innovation activities to support industrialization steps to full commercial launch as a complete value chain appropriate to the market needs.

Users and early adopters may start individual support cases at different levels of technology readiness depending on their needs: TRL 2 may be useful for researchers using photonic technologies whereas industrial users may start higher, e.g. at TRL 4 or 5. Support cases should increase the start TRL by at least two levels. All actions taken together should cover TRL work between 2 and 7.

The action should build on relevant previous European initiatives and existing infrastructure at European and regional levels, use an appropriate quality management and impact measurement framework for the direct innovation support interventions, demonstrate a record of accomplishment in supporting industry, in particular SMEs and start-ups, with deep cross-border innovation support.

The action should provide strong linkages with established European Photonics industry and investment networks such as the Enterprise Europe Network, as well as (pan-) European Digital Innovation Hubs and cluster organizations in both the photonics and photonics-enabled application domains.

The action should address innovation-readiness support in the form of Demonstration Centers and Experience Centers to help prepare business cases plus additional supports such as technology, business, investment, and intellectual property coaching aimed at maximizing the potential future commercial impacts from the innovation support activities. The action should also be capable of demonstrating a strong business plan towards durable funding and sustainability of its activities.

This topic implements the co-programmed European Partnership Photonics.

Activities are expected to start at TRL 2-5 and achieve TRL 4-7 by the end of the project – see General Annex B.

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