The clusters Photonics Austria, Photonics Bretagne, Photonics BW, Photonics Finland, and Toolas (Lithuania), designed and implemented a range of new services to their members within the Photonics4Industry project. From a longlist of twenty possible services, addressing expressed members needs related to networking, employee skills and recruitment and digital services, the clusters implemented a select few. 

Most prominent and aided by travel grants through the ClusterXChange scheme were the joint delegation trips. In 2023, three different types of events were organized: Participants from all the consortia clusters were invited to get to know Photonics Austria during the event held in conjunction with the International Day of Light from 15 – 17 May 2023. Workshops on quantum technologies, green photonics and cooperative innovation and funding opportunities attracted more than 50 participants.

The Optics and Photonics Days, 30 May – 1 June, 2023, were seasoned by Photonics Finland with two days of company visits in the Joensuu area and attracted more than twenty international participants. OPD2023 ClusterXchange provided many new and interesting insights, also connections to the participants.

Photonics BW offered a program in connection to the Laser World of Photonics trade show. Between June 26 and 30, around twenty international visitors participated in this exclusive program, starting with a welcome workshop with cluster and company presentations as well as networking. During the trade fair, the participants had the opportunity to meet several companies on thematic tours with specific technological focus dedicated to machine vision, laser sources, biophotonics, optical metrology, quantum technology as well as materials and components. Invitations to the consortium clusters’ pavilions offered select networking opportunities.

Overall, more than seventy institutions benefited from the ClusterXChange travel grants in Photonics4industry.

Recruitment and employee skills

To address the SMEs need for a skilled workforce, an international job board was set up at the project’s digital platform photonics4industry.eu/jobs.

Photonics Bretagne created the PhD Days, a three-day, fully English-speaking event, aiming to bring together PhD students, research centers and companies from the field of photonics, and to explore entrepreneurship. On the agenda: conferences, PhD pitches, PhD posters, “PhD to Startup” workshop, one-to-one appointments with CEOs, networking, and visits to industry and research facilities.

To further train optical engineers, the Advanced Optical Design Seminar organized by Photonics BW was set up as fully English-speaking training in autumn 2023. Four days full of learning, in theory, practical examples and hands-on exercises.

Digital services

Within this scope, Photonics BW established a dedicated search engine among their member base to provide direct access to its members’ products and services. This can be used via photonicsbw.de.

The projects‘ digital platform did evolve not only to be the information hub on all the projects‘ activities, it is also the access point to an automated matchmaking tool, which allows members to specifically search for potential partners in Austria, Baden-Württemberg, Brittany, Finland and Lithuania – photonics4industry.eu/p4i-matchmaking-tool.

Photonics4Industry was co-funded by the COSME programme of the European Union under Grant Agreement No. 101037888. Project Duration: 01.02.2022 – 31.01.2024. Within the project, the partners developed a joint strategy for their future cooperation and signed a memorandum of understanding.

The partners of P4i all look forward to continuing their cooperation to create new connections and collaborations between the different organizations and countries involved, and to helping to boost your business in future projects.