Opportunities Boom in Light Sources

Light Sources are intense beams of light used for scientific and industrial research, product development and testing. They are substantial installations, requiring large amounts of precision instrumentation to generate and steer the light beam and analytical instrumentation. The Sensors & Instrumentation KTN (SIKTN) and Science & Technology Facilities Council (STFC) held a joint seminar on Instrumentation for Light Sources in London on 19th November. The event covered latest developments in the UK, Europe and the USA, as well as sharing case studies of companies that have worked with light sources to develop new products.

From the presentations and interaction between delegates, it was evident that the market for supply to light sources and scientific research facilities generally is dynamic and growing. Feedback from most companies was that business is doing well on existing approved projects, with some uncertainty on funding of unapproved projects as government expenditure is expected to come under pressure over the next few years.

The morning talks explained new opportunities in European and US light sources. Delegates were keen to see the SIKTN provide more international market intelligence, especially from the US and Asia. Presentations on procurement showed how much effort research facilities are making to enable awareness of opportunities for business. But SME companies in particular felt that there are (often unintended) barriers to them in breaking into the research instrumentation market. The SIKTN can partially help by building supply chain partnerships. The SIKTN provides a research facilities roadmap and procurement alerts, and STFC supports opportunities at CERN, ESO, ILL, ESRF and its UK facilities through registration at www.stfc.ac.uk/tenderopportunities

New and current spending at light sources around the world indicates a market of several £bn within the overall £14bn academic market for instrumentation. These developments provided the mostly industrial audience - with numerous potential opportunities.

There was much discussion about the costs and barriers to licensing instruments from UK Universities and Institutes. Nathan Hill, SIKTN Theme Leader for Advanced Instrumentation and chair of the day’s proceedings, suggested that the following aspects should be considered by institutes and businesses seeking to licence such products:

• Personal relationships and attributes required to develop good working partnerships
• The deal should provide access a pipeline of IP, rather than a single product design
• Sensible valuation of licence and royalties, using internal R&D costs as a benchmark
• Simplicity of deal

The afternoon session shared technology case studies and showed the benefits of long term partnerships between companies and research groups. A particular conclusion was that companies wanting to get into this business should find research groups to team up with; the SIKTN and STFC are able to support this.