PhotonicRoadSME was co-funded by the European Commission as a Support Action under the 7th Framework Programme.
The project started on 1st of May 2008 and ended on 30th of September 2010.
In the next ten years, scientific developments in the field of nanophotonics as key driving force in photonics will influence many different industrial branches. In these industrial sectors, many small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) are involved as traditional suppliers, start-ups or producers of high tech products. In order to remain competitive on these markets, the SMEs have to integrate these new results and developments in their commercial vision for future applications and products.
The pilot project PhotonicRoadSME aimed developing individual technology roadmaps in the field of photonics in order to identify future RTD strategies for Europe within the next 5-15 years. These roadmaps identify trends in research and development and associate them to products and applications, outlining their technical and economical potential for problem solving for SMEs. Validation of these results has been performed by consultation of industrial and scientific experts.
As specific SME-types and industrial sectors have specific needs, the adaption of individual technology roadmaps has been performed by conducting case studies and implementation workshops in the companies. Thus, the integration of European RTD results from the photonics sector to SMEs was facilitated.
The project involved nine well-known European organisations from five European countries, which are research leaders in the domain of photonics, European experts in the development of technology roadmaps and photonic networks.