Message
20 September 2006
Photonics research to get a significant boost in FP7
Dear Members and Friends of Photonics21,
The first reports from Brussels are very positive about the position of Photonics in FP7. The present proposal covers only the budget for the first couple of years of FP7, 2007 and 2008. In fact the overall FP7 budget for these two years only increases by a very small amount (less than 7%). Nevertheless, the Commission's present proposal is to increase the budget of Photonics (Photonics components and subsystems) by 50% !! This is a clear recognition of the importance of Photonics to Europe.
In addition to the area "Photonics components and subsystems", there will be Photonics related research funded in a number of different areas in FP7. We look forward to getting a detailed overview of these areas during our Photonics21 Annual Meeting to be held on the 4th and 5th of December in Brussels.
As you can see from the recent DG IST presentation posted on our website, the overall FP7 budget is set to increase substantially in the later years of FP7. We would expect that Photonics is well placed to benefit from additional increases after 2008, assuming that we maintain our strong performance!
Sincerely yours,
Photonics21 Secretariat
c/o VDI Technologiezentrum GmbH