Eurolight Ventures, the first European venture capital (VC) group to invest exclusively in photonics, stepped onto the stage last week, announcing its investment plans at the industry’s annual gathering in Brussels.
The fund is raising Euro 80-90 million to invest in 10-15 European SMEs which design, manufacture, operate or provide services that are based on opto-electronics, photonics or lasers, Victor Sunyer of Eurolight told delegates at the European Technology Platform Photonics21 conference.
At present, VCs invest more than $500 million per annum in photonic companies, but this is mainly driven by the US. “Europe lags behind in venture capital funding for photonics relative to the quantity of innovation being produced,” Sunyer said.
Indeed, as the conference heard, the European photonics industry as whole needs to address its frequent failure to make the transition from successful science to industrial deployment.
A key enabling technology
Photonics – the application of techniques for controlling and transmitting light in sectors including telecommunications, information processing, lighting, metrology, spectroscopy, holography, medicine, materials processing, and robotics – has been identified by the EU as one of five key enabling technologies that will be driving forces behind the modernisation of Europe’s industries and thus of crucial importance to Europe’s competitiveness.
The photonics industry hopes that having the spotlight thrown on it in this way will draw attention to the potential of the technology and help to bridge the funding gap between research labs and the commercial marketplace.
Bridging this gap must be a key element underpinning the next five-year EU research programme, which will kick off in 2014, the Photonics21 group told Neelie Kroes, European Commissioner for the Digital Economy, at the meeting.
Make R&D more market-oriented
Kroes acknowledged a more innovation-friendly market is needed to ensure past failures to translate European research to the market are not repeated. “It is not enough to do excellent research: We have seen that in the past with flat panel displays - where Europe was strong in research - but in the end lost most of the production to Asia,” Kroes said. “We are facing the same danger now with solid state lighting.”
Photonics21 set out specific measures to support the market in a paper presented to Kroes at the conference last week. Amongst its demands are that research is more market-orientated, rather than geared towards isolated components or applications. There needs to be a coordinated approach to funding, supporting the whole innovation chain from technology, R&D and standardization, through to deployment and market access.
Martin Goetzeler, Photonics21’s president and Chief Executive of the lighting company Osram, welcomed the recent EU policy developments, which are, “100 per cent in line” with the group’s paper. But he said, the crucial part is making it happen. “We have seen many good ideas and programmes become somewhat diluted. In view of the tremendous challenges we are facing in these times, this is something we all need to avoid.”
Call for public demonstration projects
Amongst other measures, Photonics21 called for larger and bolder demonstration projects supported by public procurement, saying that in order for the photonics manufacturing industry to take root and grow in Europe, infrastructure needs to be improved and public-private partnerships need to be encouraged.
Photonics 21 also detailed how photonics is continuing to transform information and communication technologies, and how lasers are increasingly being applied in manufacturing and healthcare, setting out the vision for each of these areas and the role the EU could play.
In emerging lighting technologies, the group highlighted the scale of the effort needed to overcome barriers to market uptake. Even though several studies have shown that investing in efficient lighting quickly pays back the initial investment, users still see cost as a major hurdle to adopting the technology. By acting as lead customers, “The EU and other public authorities can play a critical role in changing the mindset of European companies and citizens,” Photonics21 claims.
The more concrete the proposals, the better
The EU could also help by setting requirements for green public procurement for adoption across Europe. The introduction of quality labels would help protect Europe from, “Sub-standard products and solutions imported from outside Europe,” the group added.
Kroes welcomed the suggestions of Photonics21, saying the more concrete the proposals, the better. Apart from funding R&D, the European Commission sees its main role as putting in place the right framework conditions to speed up the path from lab to market, she noted.
As an immediate and concrete proposal, Kroes invited Photonics21 to set up a demonstration project at the Council of EU heads of state and government in June, saying, “Seeing is believing.”
The need to increase the industry’s visibility at a member state and EU level was raised several times during the meeting, with much emphasis placed on the need to showcase what photonics can do.
The industry itself is in no doubt about the importance of its technologies. “The 21st century will be the century of the photon, as much as the 20th century was the century of the electron,” Photonics21 says, making a comparison with the rapid evolution of electronics that followed the invention of the transistor in the 1940s. It sees itself as currently at a turning point, moving from being an emerging high-tech industry towards one of mass production and industrialisation.
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