of Photonics Technologies: the European Perspective The Leverage Effect
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<strong>The</strong> <strong>Leverage</strong> <strong>Effect</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>Photonics</strong> <strong>Technologies</strong>: <strong>the</strong> <strong>European</strong> <strong>Perspective</strong><br />
3.2.4 Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats<br />
In <strong>the</strong> present situation, <strong>the</strong> following conclusions can be drawn on<br />
what <strong>the</strong> present <strong>European</strong> strengths are:<br />
■ Research and development in Europe is strong in this area, especially<br />
optical measurement, adaptive optics, biophotonics, spectroscopy,<br />
microscopy, astronomy and (parts <strong>of</strong>) imaging are well represented<br />
in Europe.<br />
■ <strong>The</strong> connection between research and industry in several subsectors<br />
is closely connected, allowing research based innovation.<br />
■ <strong>The</strong> production <strong>of</strong> photonics enabled manufacturing systems is in<br />
Europe well represented, especially in <strong>the</strong> field <strong>of</strong> “low volume, high<br />
cost” tailor made production systems.<br />
■ For some high value submarkets Europe is leading including e.g.<br />
medical diagnostics systems (especially biophotonics based), design<br />
<strong>of</strong> low cost CMOS cameras, light microscopes, biometrics and surveillance<br />
cameras, safety systems, scanning systems for science.<br />
■ Europe shows strong capacities in system integration, where different<br />
components are integrated into new complex products.<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>European</strong> weaknesses identified are <strong>the</strong> following:<br />
■ In general, Europe is not <strong>the</strong> world leader in <strong>the</strong> production for final<br />
markets, especially in consumer areas.<br />
■ Consumer oriented production is almost not present in Europe and<br />
<strong>the</strong>refore is not an important market.<br />
■ <strong>The</strong> <strong>European</strong> imaging components manufacturing industry in general<br />
is not strong, but <strong>the</strong>re are some markets where Europe is a<br />
global player, like (advanced) imaging, lenses and some high performance<br />
components.<br />
<strong>The</strong> opportunities for <strong>the</strong> <strong>European</strong> industry, created by external trends<br />
and factors mainly based on <strong>the</strong> assessment that <strong>the</strong> contribution <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />
area to <strong>the</strong> grand societal challenges identified by both <strong>the</strong> <strong>European</strong><br />
Commission as well as several national governments are:<br />
40 / 190<br />
■ <strong>The</strong> pressure on <strong>the</strong> healthcare system, in combination with ageing<br />
lead to a fur<strong>the</strong>r demand for efficient (cost reduction) and effective<br />
(high quality) healthcare. Scanning, sensing & imaging can<br />
facilitate both, and a significant increase in <strong>the</strong> market demand is to
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