Showcasing our national leadership

| National leadership

Hub Principal Investigator Professor Sir David Payne delivers a plenary at SPIE Photonics West in San Francisco

Our role is to increase awareness and engagement with the ways photonics manufacturing research is tackling Grand Challenges, improving people’s lives and boosting productivity. We provide access to expertise which helps industry innovate and champion strategic investment that will drive social and economic impact.

Conferences and exhibitions

Playing an active leadership role on the conference and trade show circuit is one of the most powerful ways to engage stakeholders and represent the community on a global stage. Since 2016, we have participated in 106 conferences, trade shows and workshops around the world, giving keynotes and plenary talks, presenting papers and exhibiting technology demonstrators.

Despite the 2020 COVID-19 lockdowns, we continued to deliver our research to the some of the largest and best-known international conferences and exhibitions. In February, Hub Principal Investigator, Professor Sir David Payne delivered a plenary just before lockdown at the prestigious OPTO at SPIE Photonics West in San Francisco, the world’s largest photonics technologies event with 22,000 attendees.

The Hub had a very strong presence across the five day event, with a number of accepted papers, an exhibition stand and a feature within the Tyndall Award 50th birthday exhibition, in recognition of Professor Sir David Payne’s Tyndall award for the invention of the Erbium Doped Fibre Amplifier.

Our 2020 industry day was held online in May at the SPIE Photonex + Vacuum Expo Digital Forum. The event programme for ‘Advances in Resilient Photonics Manufacturing’, included talks from leading colleagues in industry and academia enabled industry to access the latest innovations in new processes and approaches for manufacturing photonics components.

The format provided virtual networking opportunities and facilitated knowledge transfer of how photonics platforms can drive novel solutions to business challenges.

In February, we took a stand at the Materials Research Exchange exhibition and conference at the Business Design Centre in London.

Photonics horizons

In March, Professor Sir David Payne, Professor Jon Heffernan, Professor Graham Reed and Dr Natalie Wheeler were invited by the Photonics Leadership Group to participate in a series of photonics horizon scanning workshops, where 22 internationally renowned professors and four early career researchers came together to represent the views of the UK photonics community.

| National leadership

Hub Deputy Director Professor Heffernan played a key role in defining and organising the initiative whilst Hub early career researcher, Dr Wheeler was involved in the workshop design and co-authored the report – Future horizons for photonics research 2030 and beyond. She also delivered a presentation about the report at the SPIE Photonex conference in May.

The report was designed and funded by the Hub and was produced to stimulate engagement from government, funding agencies and industry to shape and support future innovation strategies and to mobilise the next generation of researchers.

Carol Monaghan, MP and chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Photonics and Quantum, provided the foreword to the report which looks into the future and aims to distinguish what will be possible in photonics, the disruptive technologies on the horizon and the opportunities that they present for the UK to lead in knowledge generation and wealth creation.

Engaging with government and industry

Throughout the year, we actively engaged with government and industry.

Hub Industrial Liaison Manager, Dr John Lincoln, took part in briefings on the National Security Investment legislation and worked with us to encourage the photonics community to participate in the consultation process.

Dr Lincoln engaged with the UK Fibre Connectivity Forum and Connected Britain for opportunities to commercialise optical fibre in readiness for the ever-increasing demands on our networks. In November, Professor Sir David Payne was invited to deliver a keynote at the Bessemer Society dinner - Building a resilient future for telecoms. The Bessemer Society provides a forum and rallying point for the leaders of high tech companies engaged in ‘hard tech’ manufacturing, facilitated by dinners with key enablers and industry leaders.

This year our online voice was more important than ever. Through social channels, newsletters and the press, we initiated debate and provided thought leadership on live issues, such as UK investment in R&D, stimulating the local economy and encouraging diversity in the technology sector.

We have developed a High Power Laser Centre white paper and policy brief with industry input and have fed into government consultations and select committee evidence calls on topics such, ‘measures to ease the economic impact of Covid-19’.