ACTPHAST Targets Growth in Photonics Innovation

Funded by the European Commission ACTPHAST - Access Centre for Photonics Innovation Solutions and Technology Support, is a one-stop-shop program combining the expertise and technologies of 23 of the leading research institutes in photonics from across Europe (the ACTPHAST Partners). The UK partners include the Optoelectronics Research Centre at the University of Southampton to provide next generation optical fibre, and Oclaro for InP technology.

ACTPHAST projects are aimed at addressing specific photonics manufacturing challenges in a company’s new product development process which if solved, can result in accelerated time-to-market, revenue growth and new job creation.  ACTPHAST is particularly geared towards rapid innovation projects of typically 6-9 months duration, with a low administrative burden on companies and up to 100% subsidy available for SMEs.

The current ACTPHAST program runs for 48 months from 2014 to 2017 and is open to any EU company that could benefit from photonics based technology.  In its first 15 months of operation to date, ACTPHAST has granted approval for 29 photonics innovation projects of companies, the majority of which are SMEs, from 10 different European member states as follows:

• Belgium: Lambda-X, Laser2000, Abc Interieur
• Finland: Lumichip, Oplatek
• France: Cimel Electronique, LovaLite SAS
• Germany: Fibotec Fiberoptics, Silicon Line
• Ireland: Pilot Photonics
• Italy: Evoelectronics, Italray
• Poland: Airoptic, Kongsberg Automotive, KSM Vision, SMARTTECH
• Spain: Luz WaveLabs, FYLA
• The Netherlands: Avantes, MA3 Solutions, SATRAX, Technobis, VTEC, XiO Photonics, PhoeniX Software
• United Kingdom: Fibercore, Holoxica, Lynton UK, Synaptec

“Overall we are very pleased with the progress since the start of the ACTPHAST program,” commented Prof Hugo Thienpont of Vrije Universiteit Brussel and Project Coordinator for the ACTPHAST program. “The first set of approved projects involve a range of exciting new applications targeting high growth market opportunities in areas such as Medical and Life Sciences, Machine Vision, Automotive, Aerospace, Lighting, Optical Communications, Energy and Metrology where photonics is recognized as a key enabling technology.  The projects are utilising the full spectrum of technology platforms and value-chain activities offered by ACTPHAST from modelling and design, to prototyping, characterization, packaging and integration, and finally reliability and testing.  It is particularly pleasing to see that many of the projects entail multidisciplinary teams of experts from more than one ACTPHAST Partner working in collaboration together and with the companies’ own R&D personnel.”

While the first set of approved innovation projects are now underway and at various stages of progression, ACTPHAST continues to receive and process up to 20 new project requests every month from companies across Europe.  “In addition to those countries where we already have active projects underway and many more requests for new projects, we are also currently assessing project requests from companies in Austria, Estonia, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Sweden and Switzerland,” noted Peter Doyle of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and ACTPHAST Central Contact Point & Outreach Coordinator. “It is really important that the message gets out that ACTPHAST is open to every country and company in Europe, and to that end we have a dedicated Outreach team working with local industry and innovation clusters in every region to raise awareness of the program and to encourage companies to engage in innovation with photonics.”

for information visit:www.actphast.eu