FOCUS INTERNATIONAL NEWS


News from EPIC By Carlos Lee, director general, EPIC W


hile EPIC generally promotes Europe at large, it is meaningful to focus occasionally on a specific


country and highlight its strength in photonics. I had the honour to moderate a panel discussion at Photonex in Coventry, UK, which was an opportunity to get up to date on the latest developments in the country. The show itself is much improved; after a dip in 2009 following the banking crisis, the UK’s only photonics exhibition has grown to have 105 exhibitors, a level not seen for many years. Maybe it was due to a general improvement of the photonics market or because the organisers have added a co-located vacuum technologies exhibition – or because of the application-related sessions in the programme, such as nano- and bio-imaging, and space applications. The event was also combined with Vision UK, which could arguably have been the primary European event in vision technology in 2013. The UK, which has historically been strong in manufacturing but then shifted its focus to banking decades ago, wants to go back and rebalance the economy to include manufacturing – which it recognises is imperative to create jobs, to create growth, and to avoid stagnation. Photonics will certainly play a role; one of the features of our industry is a high proportion of small


EPIC Events


Technology workshop: Lighting (free event) 21 November; Munich, Germany


Technology workshop: Unmet healthcare needs as opportunities for photonics technologies 27-28 November; Maastricht,


The Netherlands


Technology workshop: Meet or eat?


Carlos Lee with Anke Lohmann, director of photonics at the Electronics, Sensors, Photonics Knowledge Transfer Network


The UK


claims 1,500 companies in photonics with a direct employment of 70,000


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companies, which anticipate a higher recruitment percentage growth than larger companies. The UK claims 1,500 companies in photonics with a direct employment of 70,000 with a production output of £10.5 billion. This is about 20 per cent of Europe’s total and the UK expertise is well balanced, with a distribution based on employment of optical systems (20 per cent), medical (19 per cent), production (15 per cent), and defence (10 per cent). On this last point, Glasgow is home to Thales Optronics, which on 15 October hosted the EPIC B2B Roundtable on Photonics technologies for aerospace, security, and defence. EPIC looks forward to further engaging with its members in the UK.


Collaboration and/or competition in photonic integrated circuit? 5-6 December; Rüschlikon, Switzerland


EPIC 10th anniversary 13 December; Brussels, Belgium


Technology workshop: Optical Interconnect in Data Centers


18-19 March 2014; Berlin, Germany


EPIC General Assembly 20 March 2014; Berlin, Germany


EPIC EU Funding 7 May 2014; Aachen, Germany


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NOVEMBER 2013 l ELECTRO OPTICS 7


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