Executive summary

| Bringing the Hub to life during and after COVID-19

As the world adjusted to living with COVID-19, the Future Photonics Hub focused on bringing its virtualisation project to life to enable industry and the public to continue to engage with our world-leading researchers and facilities.

Continued restrictions and recurring lockdowns meant access to our labs, facilities, technologies and researchers remained difficult, so launching our virtualisation project as soon as possible became even more crucial if we were to continue to drive our work forward.

In 2020, we received EPSRC funding for an ambitious project to virtualise interactions with the outside world and create a unified portal that went far beyond a simple website, providing an enhanced experience for the virtual visitor to mimic or exceed normal business interactions.

The aim was to produce highquality films showcasing our research and facilities, virtual laboratory visits, online events and meetings, video teaching resources and virtual workshops for teachers and children.

A year later and the team has gone above and beyond the call of duty to launch the majority of these materials, with the rest well underway. The team has included researchers, technicians, lab managers, cleanroom staff, estates and facilities and students.

“The whole team was incredible in helping us get camera crews into the labs to film the facilities,” said Hub Research and Relationship PR Officer Michelle Mitchell.

“There are already stringent protocols in place to gain access into these areas, many of which are carrying out sensitive research. On top of this, we had to ensure that we were working within COVID-19 safety guidelines which meant adhering to lots of additional measures. The team were outstanding and worked really closely with us to enable us to film demonstrations, equipment and interviews.”

“These assets will allow us to continue vital conversations with new industrial partners. They provide companies and academics, who want to explore working with the Hub, a window into spaces they physically can’t access at the moment. We have been able to bring to life the expertise of our community, as well as the incredible facilities.”

| Bringing the Hub to life during and after COVID-19

Virtual Tours

In March, we launched the first of our virtual tours which featured Southampton’s 20,000sq ft Cleanrooms. The tour has already had more than 1,400 unique visits.

In September, our second virtual tour was launched of Sheffield’s National Epitaxy Facility.

We continue to bring more facilities online and have shot our telecommunications, laser, silicon photonics, integrated photonics and quantum photonics labs. These will be launched in the coming weeks.

Showcase Films

We have launched six films showcasing the world-leading research and development being carried out at the Hub. These feature academics talking about our research expertise, facilities and laboratory space. They ask the question, What if? Exploring the potential light has to solve societal problems in innovative ways. What if light could save a life? What if light could help us understand each other better? What if laser technology could revolutionise manufacturing? They share our capabilities, our processes, the emerging technologies and their potential applications and have already been viewed 1,200 times. The films have been launched on YouTube, highlighted on our website and are being featured in University of Southampton alumni publications and research and innovation services newsletters. The films have been promoted on social media channels and in other digital newsletters and have been picked up by EPSRC news channels.

They will be embedded in the Virtual Tours to provide another layer of information and engagement.

The Future Photonics Hub – Redefining what’s possible

Introduces the Hub’s incredible facilities and expertise to de-risk ideas and show how new technologies can be made reproducibly, reliably and cheaply. Photonics can transform the existing capabilities of electronicsbased materials and devices, creating better or brand-new technologies. The Hub focuses on the manufacturing of these technologies.

Fibre Laser innovation – the future of green manufacturing

Discover how fibre lasers are having a profound impact on manufacturing and how the Hub is developing innovative technologies to be used in digital manufacturing. The unique properties of these novel lasers are resulting in a 30 per cent increase in speed, using half the power.

Optical Fibre innovation

Explores how the Hub is working with industry to drive innovations in optical fibre design and fabrication in one of Europe’s best academic cleanroom facilities. Our experts share our mission to secure the UK’s position as a leading innovator in the high value global photonics market by transferring new, practical and commercial process technologies to industry.