Towards 2020 – Photonics driving economic growth in Europe

2. Photonics Research and Innovation Challenges
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2014/2015 2016/2017 2018/2019 2020
Support innovation
awards; Foster interdisciplinary
education
including photonics, and
cross-fertilisation towards
applications; Foster
exchange of information
to support contacts
between students and
industries.
corporate members, etc.)
and industrial partners to
favour contacts between
students and industries.
Lifelong
learning
Involve local structures
(universities, research
centres, industries,
especially SMEs) and
clusters to define needs.
Organise courses mainly
targeting SME needs on a
local basis; Support smart
specialisation initiatives;
Involve national and
international structures
(education and outreachoriented
networks,
learned societies, etc.)
to exchange best-practice
and provide support to
extend programs beyond
the local level.
Support best initiatives
to make them selfsustainable
so as to
guarantee stability in
time.
Support spreading
of best initiatives
throughout Europe,
where needed, while
respecting local
specificity.
Actions for the implementation of the
roadmap
The experience of 7th Framework Program highlighted
some critical issues that need to be addressed
for a successful implementation of the
future roadmaps, both for disruptive research and
for education and training.
Disruptive Research
Disruptive research is an essential part of the
Excellent Science pillar of Horizon 2020. Funding
programs should consider the high-risk aspect intrinsic
to really disruptive research, together with
the importance of having open schemes to help
achieve real breakthrough results.
1. Future Emerging Technologies
The FET scheme has already proved to be successful
and sufficient. However, some actions could
be undertaken to increase its impact within the
photonics area. In particular:
n FET-Open: Although the adopted fully bottom
up approach precludes the introduction of specific
topics, it is strongly recommend that the
European Commission:
n raises the number of photonics professionals
in the evaluation committee
n communicates and disseminates photonics
related FET Open projects as success stories
n FET-Proactive: It is recommended that DG
Connect introduces photonics related topics.