Europe cannot afford to take its leadership in photonics for granted, according to a new industry strategy presented today to the European Commission, which warns that growing global competition is threatening one of Europe’s few globally leading positions in advanced technology.
The Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA), Light Driving the Future, argues that Europe must act quickly to strengthen investment, innovation and supply-chain resilience if it is to maintain leadership across technologies ranging from artificial intelligence and semiconductor manufacturing to healthcare, communications, defence and quantum systems. The strategy calls for targeted investment, mission-driven innovation, and a coordinated European approach to securing long-term competitiveness in one of the world’s most important enabling technologies.
SRIA Presented at Photonics Partnership Annual Meeting 2026
The SRIA was formally handed over to the European Commission during the Photonics Partnership Annual Meeting 2026 – the sector’s most significant strategic update since Horizon Europe began. The handover brought together senior figures from industry, research and government to discuss Europe’s long-term technological resilience, competitiveness and sovereignty.
Discussions focused on the growing role of photonics in addressing Europe’s most pressing challenges, including the energy demands of artificial intelligence, dependence on non-European semiconductor supply chains, secure communications, advanced manufacturing, and the scaling of quantum technologies.
Lutz Aschke, President of Photonics21 and a Supervisory Board Member at Light Conversion, said: “While Europe prepares its next long-term research and innovation programme, this year’s Photonics Partnership Annual Meeting is an important opportunity to reflect on where Europe leads, where it must invest, and how it can remain competitive in an increasingly technology-driven world.
“Photonics already powers much of the modern world, from global communications and advanced manufacturing to healthcare, energy and emerging quantum technologies. As the new Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda sets out, the window of opportunity is open, but it will not remain so indefinitely. Europe has a chance to lead the world in photonics through targeted investment, mission-driven innovation and a coordinated approach to the challenges and opportunities ahead.”
Grand Challenges
Central to the new strategy is a series of Photonics “Grand Challenges” – mission-driven priorities designed to help Europe maintain leadership in artificial intelligence, semiconductors and other next-generation technologies, including energy‑efficient AI infrastructure, photonic chip manufacturing, secure optical communications, and scalable quantum networks.
The explosive growth of AI systems is driving strong demand for technologies in which photonics plays an increasingly important role, including fast data transfer, powerful processing chips and lower-energy computing infrastructure.
Against a backdrop of intensifying global competition for semiconductors, AI infrastructure and industrial sovereignty, the meeting focused on Europe’s technological resilience, competitiveness and long-term strategic capability.
Although often invisible to the public, photonics has become a key enabling technology for modern economies. It underpins everything from AI data centres and smartphone sensors to satellite communications, lasers, advanced healthcare imaging, and emerging quantum technologies.
Keynote Speakers
The opening sessions examined Europe’s photonics strategy for FP10, featuring keynote contributions from senior figures, including Pierre Fossier, Chief Scientific Officer at Thales, and Kilian Gross, Director at DG CONNECT of the European Commission.
Discussions explored the growing relationship between photonics and Europe’s semiconductor ambitions through the Chips Joint Undertaking initiative, as well as the role photonics could play in meeting the rising energy demands of AI and computing infrastructure.
Innovation Award
The first day of the event featured the presentation of the Photonics21 Innovation Award, recognising emerging innovation within the European photonics ecosystem.
The Photonics21 Innovation Award 2026 was presented to ARQ Quantum Technologies (Barcelona) for their work on transmitting quantum information over long distances using existing fibre networks – a breakthrough that could help enable the future quantum internet, distributed quantum computing and ultra-secure communications.
Day 2 brought together Photonics21 working groups and industry experts to discuss concrete steps for implementing the Photonics21 Grand Challenges, funding opportunities for photonics, and the technological, industrial, and policy barriers Europe must overcome to remain competitive in critical technologies.
The two-day Photonics Partnership Annual Meeting 2026 was held at the DoubleTree by Hilton Brussels City Hotel. Organised by Photonics21, the meeting comes at a pivotal moment for European industry as policymakers and companies prepare for FP10 – the European Union’s next long-term research and innovation framework programme.
The meeting was supported by organisations that represent the breadth of the global photonics value chain, from research and innovation to industrial deployment and manufacturing, including Hamamatsu Photonics, Optica, PhotonDelta, SENKO Advanced Components, SPIE Europe and TRUMPF.
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