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Optics and photonics in the European research area

Objective

With a turnover of 80 billion € the Optics and Photonics (OP) industry is one of the most important key enabling technologies for the markets of the 21st Century. They influence our entire life and are technological drivers for multi-billion industries in IST and beyond. The OP industry is benefiting through many RTD projects at national and international level.

To withstand growing competition from low labour cost countries there is a need to join forces in industry, research and politics to meet the needs of OP industries and to solve their common problems. The main objective of OPERA is to provide a framework for adequate interaction of European IST-research in OP and to develop and implement a joint strategy for research and industry with the title 'OPERA 2015' to shape the future of this highly important industrial area.

OPERA will set up an information exchange and coordination platform covering o IST-projects (FP6, FP5), other relevant European projects o National and regional funding programmes on OP in IST o European, national and regional clusters and organisations working at the supranational level (EPIC, EOS, EUROM, EUREKA, SPIE) OPERA will support the creation of the European Research Area through the stimulation of interaction of EU and national initiatives and projects. This will lead to improved transparency and cooperation of research activities and will deliver a clear view of the state and future directions of European research in OP.

OPERA will furthermore foster the link between industry and research in order to strengthen Europe's competitiveness by identifying strategic opportunities for European industries and by compiling scenarios for the future development of photonics industries. The consortium gathers experts from funding agencies, innovation promotion agencies, industrial association and research from 19 countries. 23 deliverables will be developed and 9 milestones will be used to check the progress of key activities.

Call for proposal

Data not available

Coordinator

VDI Technologiezentrum GMBH
EU contribution
No data
Address
Graf-Recke-Strasse 84
40239 DUSSELDORF
Germany

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Participants (9)