PhotonicRoadSME is co-funded by the European Commission as a Support Action under the 7th Framework Programme.
The project started on 1st of May 2008 and will end on 30th of April 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 aims at the development of individual technology roadmaps to identify future RTD strategies for Europe within the next 5-15 years. These roadmaps will identify trends in research and development and associate them to products and applications, outlining their technical and economical potential for problem solving. Validation of these results will be performed by consultation of industrial and scientific experts.
As specific SME-types and industrial sectors have specific needs, the adaption of individual technology roadmaps will be performed by conducting case studies and implementation workshops in the companies. Thus, the integration of European RTD results from the photonics sector to SMEs will be facilitated.
The project involves 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.