AILU’s highly regarded 2-day International Industrial Lasers Applications Symposium, ILAS 2025, is taking place on Wednesday 26th & Thursday 27th March 2025 at the Chesford Grange Hotel, Kenilworth. The event will include plenary presentations from renowned international speakers, 80 high calibre presentations from industry & academia, and 30 exhibitors demonstrating the latest in laser technology. The abstract submission deadline for presentations at ILAS 2025 is 23rd September 2024. The full programme will be informed by the abstracts received with topics likely to include: Laser W ..read more

The Photonics Leadership Group has released five future government policy actions that are critical to support the continued growth of the UK Photonics industry. Industry call on the new government to prioritise action in these areas to ensure UK photonics continues to thrive and deliver growth three times greater than the overall economy. 1. Increase Confidence in Investment: Accelerate the next Spending Review to provide certainty to departmental budgets. Protect innovation support alongside support for fundamental science to enable to UK to make more of its global science leadership. 2. Ta ..read more

Upcoming UK-South Korea Collaborative Research and Development competition Closes 22 May 2024 Building on Global Expert Mission in Semiconductors to South Korea Global Business Innovation Programme: Semiconductors, Taiwan Eureka Quantum collaborative R&D Multilateral 2024 competition Closes 8 May 2024 UK-Switzerland CR&D Round 2 funding competition Closes 1 May 2024 UK – Germany Bilateral: Collaborative R&D Round 3 Closes 3 June 2024 Recently Announced Semiconductor IKC (Innovation and Knowledge Centres) and skills projects worth £26.8 million Including a significan ..read more

On 12 March 2024 the UK Export Control Unit announced amendments to the export controls and association regulation coming into force from 1 April 2024 The amendments expand export control requirements around:- Key quantum computing technologies Semiconductors including some photonics semiconductor materials Semiconductor equipment and Laser based 3d printing among other areas.announced semiconductor among other amendments Companies and researchers are recommended to consult the changes in detail to understand how they may impact their operations and to put in place the relevant export lic ..read more

The UK has become a participating state in the European Semiconductor Chips Joint undertaking. With much of the future European funding for integrated photonics and silicon photonics forecast to be under the scope of the Chip JU this is a critical step for the UK photonics community building on the UK’s re-association to Horizon Europe. An additional £35 million in support for semiconductor sector has earmarked by the UK government to support participation in the Chips Innovate UK held a briefing event on the Chips JU participation and the calls currently open on 25 March 2024 The post UK Join ..read more

Photonics for Space – 12 March Photonics plays a key role in space capability and one that is set to grow. From space communications to solar power and major astronomy infrastructure, developments in photonics technology are crucial to the next generation of space-based activity. Join this event on 12 March to learn more. GSA International Semiconductor Conference 13-14 March For the first time in more than a decade a major international semiconductor conference is coming to London in partnership with the UK Government’s Department for Science, Innovation & Technology (DSIT) to jointly exp ..read more

The Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, Rt Hon Michelle Donelan, MP welcomed the UK’s reassociate to Horizon Europe at The Royal Society on 12 February. Joined by Iliana Ivanova, European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, the UK’s association to Horizon Europe was applauded by all. The UK was noted as a vibrant participant in past Horizon programs adding significant value to research and innovation consortia across all technologies. The department for Science, Innovation and Technology has launched a new campaign to encourage UK busine ..read more

Photonics21 has launched the Photonics21 Innovation Award 2024. This dedicated Innovation Challenge seeks to push for more entrepreneurship in photonics. The Photonics21 Innovation Award addresses PhD students, master students, young entrepreneurs, and makers alike who have an idea for a photonics product that can transform into a real business or product. This idea can be already described in a Master or PhD thesis or in a business plan or the like. Any person active in the field of optics and photonics, may apply for the “Photonics21 Innovation Award”. The deadline for applications is ..read more

The 2023 update of the UK Photonics Landscape is now available on the PLG’s YouTube channel. As presented to the Princess Royal during her visit to SPIE’s Photonex in October 2023. Further details are available in PLG’s UK Photonics 2023: the Hidden Economy report. The post UK Photonics Landscape 2023 update first appeared on UK Photonics Leadership Group ..read more

UK photonics has grown into a £15.2 billion industry, with like-for-like revenue growth from 2020 to 2022 of over 7%.  Profit growth has been even higher at 9% over two years, whilst employment in the industry has grown at 3.2% in the same period. 79,100 people are now employed in photonics in the UK.  Strong profit growth has means the gross value added (GVA) into the economy per employee has increased to £89,400 per job and the total GVA expanded to £7.1 billion. The underpinning and enabling nature of UK photonics, recognised in the UK government’s Innovation strategy, means phot ..read more