photoni s development agen ies guidelines · community 6, the saxony 7 organic electronics industry...

PHOTONICS DEVELOPMENT AGENCIES

GUIDELINES

James Cogan, PNO Consultants October 30, 2015

www.pnoconsultants.com www.lightjumps.eu

Produced by LightJumps.eu. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement nr. 619463. This document corresponds to deliverable “D2.2.6 - LightJumps Guidelines” of the description of work accompanying the grant agreement.

http://www.pnoconsultants.com/

http://www.lightjumps.eu/

Draft - Photonics Development Agencies Guidelines 2015

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Forward by Kurt Weingarten

Photonics - using light to make, to measure, to connect

Photonics is the science, technology, and art of using light to make things, to measure our world, and to connect our communications. Europe currently stands as a world leader in the science and technology of Photonics. The smartphone in your pocket, the car you drove in today, and the internet connection you may be using now - have been touched and formed by many photons - photons quite likely first conceived and constructed here in Europe.

Photonics enables many of the high-quality living standards that we expect, but more importantly is a key channel for current and future high-value jobs and industries in Europe. European Universities and Institutions are leading houses in educating photonics professionals and developing the upcoming technology needed for future industry. Europe also headquarters many of the top Photonics SMEs and corporations worldwide. Where can we benefit looking into the future? The key value driver is taking the intrinsic know-how in Photonics here in Europe and empowering efficient transfer into industry. The most dynamic and value-creating avenue for this is to enable start-up companies in the photonics space and to assure their development to maturity. This report details how to do that - by using European institutes, instruments, and funding schemes, our society here can enable, empower, and multiply the tremendous existing and future resources in the Photonics community. Kurt Weingarten General Manager at Lumentum Switzerland AG

Dr. Weingarten received his Ph.D. from Stanford University and undergraduate degree from Georgia Institute of Technology. After working at a Sil icon Valley photonics startup, he moved to Switzerland in 1993 and founded his first

firm, Time-Bandwidth Products, in Zurich in 1995. Time-Bandwidth brings reliable turn-key ultrafast lasers to the industrial market combining two key technologies - diode-pumped solid-state lasers and semiconductor saturable absorber mirrors. In 2014 Time-Bandwidth Products was incorporated into world leading communic ations and manufacturing laser corporation Lumentum (formerly JDSU), based in California. Dr. Weingarten is General Manager

at Lumentum Switzerland AG. He was an invaluable member of the 2015 European Photonics Venture Forum created by the LightJumps project.


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LightJumps is an FP7 Coordination and Support Action coordinated by PNO Consultants.

The project was created in response to FP7 Objective ICT-2013.3.2 Photonics, c) Technology take-up and Innovation Support, iii) Coordination and support actions, a) “Cooperation of photonic clusters and national technology platforms to stimulate the innovation potential of SMEs, based on business cases demonstrating a clear potential for sales and employment growth” . The proposal was submitted April 16, 2013. The project ran from November 2013 to October 2015.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Executive Summary ........................................................................................................................... 4

Snapshot of Europe’s Photonics Development Agencies ..................................................................... 6

Organised sector development organisations..................................................................................... 8

Churn in the landscape of European photonics agencies ..................................................................... 9 Commission and Photonics21 Public Private Platform ...................................................................... 10

National Technology Platforms ........................................................................................................ 12 Regional sector development efforts ............................................................................................... 12

10 Year Window Of Opportunity...................................................................................................... 14

EU Sector Development Agency for Photonics.................................................................................. 15

The Fotonica Lazio Experience ......................................................................................................... 16

The European Photonics Venture Forum 2015.................................................................................. 20

Horizon 2020 Grants for Coordination and Support Actions .............................................................. 22

The EPIC Industry Association .......................................................................................................... 24

Leadership and Entrepreneurship .................................................................................................... 25

Operating Budget ............................................................................................................................ 26

Lobbying ......................................................................................................................................... 27

Photonics Brand Placement ............................................................................................................. 28

Business Incubators......................................................................................................................... 29

Mentoring, Business Case Development and Business Planning ........................................................ 30 Showcases ...................................................................................................................................... 32

Journalism ...................................................................................................................................... 33 Networks of Financiers .................................................................................................................... 33

Investment Summits ....................................................................................................................... 35

Regional Strategies.......................................................................................................................... 36

Research and Innovation Agenda Setting ......................................................................................... 39

Conclusions ..................................................................................................................................... 40

About the author......................................................................................................................... 42


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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The case for systematically investing in photonics to accelerate innovation and growth

is absolute. Europe has made the decision to do just that. Photonics is one of the

Union’s six designated key enabling technologies and the focus of close to one billion

euros of public funding for innovation and sector development directly and several

times that indirectly. Funding mechanisms have been put in place. A visionary group

of leaders1 from industry, research and the European Commission brought about the

creation of a dedicated public private platform, capable of bringing together vast

support and resources.

The contribution of a network of effective photonics development agencies or

clusters is essential.

The rate at which this network of development agencies is emerging,

professionalising and consolidating - at EU, national and regional levels – needs to

keep pace with the needs of the sector in Europe. The new public private partnership

(PPP) itself, with its portfolio of coordination and support projects, seeks ever more

agile and entrepreneurially minded members and stakeholders in order to accelerate

the sector’s development. Progress needs to be stepped up at all levels and this will

require renewed leadership impetus from all the sector’s leaders.

Photonics21 Vice Presidents Bernd Schulte and Giorgio Anania and EU Commission Vice President Neelie Kroes (from left to right) officially signed the Photonics PPP contract in the frame of a Signing Ceremony for the eight contractual PPP’s under Horizon 2020 in Brussels, December 17, 2013

This guide gathers together the insights and experiences gained in the course of the

1

http://www.photonics21.org/download/Photonics21_Association/Photonics21_Association_Board_Members_September_web_2015.pdf




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two year European Commission grant funded project LightJumps2 which had the aim

of supporting six photonics cluster organisations in four EU member state countries

in their quest to build entrepreneurial skills among the emerging photonics

enterprises in their networks. The project was not just about supporting emerging

firms in becoming better emerging firms. It was also about supporting emerging

cluster organisations in becoming better cluster organisations.

For the purposes of this document the term development agency is used to cover

everything from the European photonics Public Private Platform to the national

technology platforms, regional development agencies, industry associations and the

many flavours of cluster organisations that make up the pack.

The target readers are the 150 board members, stakeholders and managers of the

PPP and the Commission’s Photonics Unit, the 28 diverse EU member state economic

development authorities and ministries and some reasonable proportion of Europe’s

276 European regional governmental organisations.

The target readership also includes those 100 or so associations and groupings that

reflect the endless possibilities of photonics, such as LightJumps partners Sensor City3

with their inspirational municipal sensor application platform in the Netherlands, or

2 www.lightjumps.eu 3 www.sensorcity.nl

http://www.lightjumps.eu/


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JePPIX4 with it world class shared foundry for photonics integrated circuits, plus Alta

Brillanza’s5 Italian laser manufacturing sector, Lazio Connect’s aerospace photonics

community 6 , the Saxony 7 organic electronics industry and southern France’s

competitiveness cluster Optitec8.

In all there are about 500 people in Europe with direct responsibility for nurturing the

Union’s photonics sector through the actions of photonics development agencies.

We hope this document provides them with food for thought.

SNAPSHOT OF EUROPE’S PHOTONICS DEVELOPMENT AGENCIES

Since 20099 Europe’s industrial and innovation policy has been founded on six key

enabling technologies10 one of which is photonics. In terms of global market size

photonics is the largest of the six technologies by a big margin, and expected to

account for nearly 40%11 of the total by 2015. The sector is as big or bigger than the

GDPs of over half of EU member states and the direct and indirect economic

contribution of photonics to Europe’s GDP amounts to about 2%.

4 www.jeppix.eu 5 www.altabrillanza.it 6 www.lazioconnect.it 7 www.oes-net.de/en/home.html 8 http://www.pole-optitec.com 9 "Preparing for our future: Developing a common strategy for key enabling technologies in the EU" COM(2009) 512 10 micro and nanoelectronics, nanotechnology, industrial biotechnology, advanced materials, photonics, and advanced

manufacturing technologies 11 http://www.stratresearch.se/Documents/Strategiprocessen/hlg_report_final_en.pdf

http://www.oes-net.de/en/home.html

http://www.pole-optitec.com/

http://www.stratresearch.se/Documents/Strategiprocessen/hlg_report_final_en.pdf


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EU Photonics Development Agencies Source: W. Boch - European Regional Authority and Cluster workshop 25.06.15

There are 276 regions in the Union. So, supposing fifty percent or more of them

engage in some degree of innovation12 and industrial development, that they think

roughly along the same lines as the Brussels industry and innovation strategists and

that levels of engagement in the key enabling technologies are proportionate to their

market sizes then we would expect about 50 regions – or clusters or communities of

various kinds - to take a particularly strong interest in photonics and to vigorously

promote its development. And in fact, if one looks at the numbers that is actually the

case. About 50 organisations have indeed emerged (figure above).

A 2013 listing13 by the Commission’s Photonics Unit indicates 48 photonics interest

organisations.

12 http://ec.europa.eu/growth/industry/innovation/facts -figures/scoreboards/index_en.htm 13 http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/ict/photonics/docs/clusters/webclusterlist-june2013_en.pdf

http://ec.europa.eu/growth/industry/innovation/facts-figures/scoreboards/index_en.htm

http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/ict/photonics/docs/clusters/webclusterlist-june2013_en.pdf


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ORGANISED SECTOR DEVELOPMENT ORGANISATIONS

According to the OECD 14 development agencies and their instruments add real value to the implementation of economic development strategies because they are able to: o Aggregate otherwise disparate development efforts within

one body that can generate real expertise and track record of delivery,

o Increase pace of response to investors,

o Enlarge scale of implementation by enabling multiple programmes and projects

simultaneously,

o Enhance reputation and credibility of member negotiators, giving external

investors confidence,

o Find means to share costs and risks between those promoting developments and

investments,

o Unlock under-used assets in infrastructure and increase efficiency in the utilisation

of local infrastructure and investment markets,

o Devise wholly new sources and instruments for investment, in partnership with

private financiers,

o Improve investment-readiness of key projects, developing propositions to make

them more attractive to external investment,

o Overcome co-ordination failures arising from fragmented jurisdictions,

o Promote and market the sector better, overcoming information gaps and

asymmetries and building a clearer image and identity.

In sum, there are no doubts as to the value and contribution of development

agencies. The important questions for governing stakeholders are whether the

number, distribution, efforts and results of such agencies are in line with needs.

14 OECD/Mountford D., “Organising for local development: the role of local development agencies.

Summary Report”, 26-27 November 2009, working document, CFE/LEED, OECD, www.oecd.org/dataoecd/54/41/44682618.pdf?contentId=446


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CHURN IN THE LANDSCAPE OF EUROPEAN PHOTONICS AGENCIES

To anyone familiar with the map of development agencies shown in the picture above

it is evident that the 50 or so protagonists are not part of a static and uniform group,

but that there is a high rate of churn, with new entrants, mergers and extinctions

taking place frequently. The snapshot shows stark differences each year. The number

of genuinely active and full-time agencies is probably half the number shown.

CORIFI15 for instance, is the national photonics technology platform in Italy. Being

recently founded with as yet limited resources it is only beginning to make its voice

heard at national level. The scope of CORIFI is, by design, oriented towards the

coordination of research and innovation agenda setting and hence it does not

consider attraction of investment, jobs creation or systematic lobbying as being part

of its core mission. The new €30 million Irish Photonic Integration Centre16 is so new

that it is not even shown on the June 2015 snapshot but it appears to have arrived

with a bang and, under the guidance of new CEO Kieran Drain, has already run a major

national photonics conference in Ireland in 201517.

There are some exciting things happening in Lithuania, Berlin, Eindhoven and the

Netherlands as a whole, and in Switzerland, Southern France, Finland, Sweden and

among Spanish SMEs.

But the overall picture – two years into the seven year programme - is of a cluster of

clusters in its infancy, still grappling with the challenges of start-up and survival. The

European members states, after ratifying the selection of photonics as one of the six

enabling technologies, have failed to mirror in any systematic way the Union’s

strategy. This omission is having the effect of blocking any policy trickle down effect,

undermining the credibility and success of the overall innovation programme.

Political support for photonics at EU and national level should be visibly and

15 www.aeit.it/corifi/ 16 www.ipic.ie 17 http://photonicsireland2015.com


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unequivocally reaffirmed in all 28 countries, providing photonics leaders and

advocates with renewed mandate, confidence and authority.

COMMISSION AND PHOTONICS21 PUBLIC PRIVATE PLATFORM

There are some major players in photonics sector development which are not shown

in the snapshot above but clearly are sector development leaders at a European level.

These are the European Commission and its Photonics Unit, Photonics21 and the

Public Private Partnership (PPP) formed by the two along with their many public,

industry and research partners. This is the body that more than any is charged with

photonics sector development in the most focused and ambitious manner

imaginable. The PPP has the ambitious aim to help secure 18 Europe's industrial

leadership and economic growth, a highly skilled workforce, and the capability to

generate new jobs that attract young people, and this resembles the mission

statement of any fully fledged multi-action economic development agency.

The PPP, created in 2014 with an €700 million investment goal over the seven years

to 2020, is a tremendous sign of intent and commitment by the European Commission

and its partners, and a credit to the people who made it happen. Its mission goes

way beyond the technology innovation focus of previous grant programmes,

encompassing development of factories, SME clusters, better finance conditions,

markets, products and policies. But its operating model imposes limits to how much

it can achieve. Its primary instrument is grant funding of a portfolio of collaborative

innovation projects. With about a hundred million euro per year flowing through its

offices it has a hundred or more projects in the system at any one time. This does

represent massive fire power. But the way these projects are conceived,

commissioned and administered – mostly through an arm’s length process involving

coordination of collegial work groups, independent evaluators and annual project

reviews – results in a somewhat non-agile organisation where a couple of years can

pass from concept to action and in which projects are difficult to steer once approved.

18 http://www.photonics21.org/AboutPhotonics21/Photonics-PPP.php


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For technical innovation projects the grant programme is well designed. For the

sector development activities, known as Coordination and Support Actions, progress

is made in slow motion. And the €800 million loses some of its oomph in the process.

This is just the way PPPs are.

The PPP secretariat, which has a modest operational budget supporting just a small

handful of full-time professionals, has limited executive control over the resources

and hence cannot be viewed as a conventional sector development agency. The

Commission Photonics Unit19 , with its team of around 20 professionals, has a core

set of very demanding tasks associated with administering the huge portfolio of grant

funded photonics projects (with that €100 million per year throughput), with Horizon

2020 programme promotion across Europe, with work programme design and with

internal Commission processes. So, like the PPP, the Photonics Unit has neither the

mission nor the structure of a fully fledged sector development agency.

The current organisational model and legal basis for photonics sector development at

an EU level was designed to administer large scale grant funding programmes for

scientific research and development over protracted timeframes. It was not designed

to handle many of the shorter timeframe executive activities of a development

agency, such as awareness building, lobbying or attraction of investments. The

system is under pressure as it strives to meet such demands. The European

Commission should take stock of this situation and - bearing in mind the narrow

window of opportunity for photonics sector development – devise suitable remedies.

19 http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/ict/photonics/

http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/ict/photonics/


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NATIONAL TECHNOLOGY PLATFORMS

Of the 28 members states in the Union ten or twelve20 have some kind of national

platform with a photonics promotion dimension. This might be construed as a real

success and it certainly has the potential to be a success. But as with the cluster

landscape generally, the national technology platforms are for the most part in their

infancy, some of them are as yet placeholders waiting for operational resources, some

are wrappers for loose collections of niche organisations and some have bounded

scopes which limit them from addressing some of the vital roles of a sector

development organisation. It would be a challenge to name even two or three

national technology platform with a strong blend of resources, maturity and impact.

A suitably authoritative and influential body of stakeholders, such as the board of the

PPP, should put pressure on member states - through the European Council – to step

up photonics sector development efforts at a national level. These steps should

include, as a minimum, the recognition of photonics as a key element of their

innovation strategies and the provision of an operating budget to their photonics

national technology platforms.

REGIONAL SECTOR DEVELOPMENT EFFORTS

All 276 regions in Europe have some kind of economic development and innovation

agency though naturally they come in all shapes and sizes.

20 page 16 http://www.photonics21.org/download/Brochures/Photonics_Roadmap_final_lowres.pdf

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Several of Europe’s regional development agencies, while not setting up dedicated

photonics units, have nonetheless put photonics in central roles in their smart

regional development strategies. In a 2015 study 21 the European Commission

identified 9 such European regions (table above). This is a strikingly low number when

one considers the size and importance of photonics and the expectation that as many

as 50 regions might have been expected to recognise its strategic importance. The

same Commission study points out (table below) that photonics is actually the least

referenced key enabling technology among the regions who participated.

Clearly the photonics sector, while undoubtedly leading in terms of real market size,

has not yet established a sector identity to match that size and hence will struggle to

fully capitalise on the opportunities of a dedicated and Europe-wide sector

development effort. In short, things may not be coming together as the founding

21 Analysis of Smart Specialisation Strategies in Nanotechnologies, Advanced Manufacturing and

Process Technologies ([email protected])


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strategists might have hoped.

A suitably qualified organisation, such as the photonics PPP, should without delay

identify 30-40 regions in Europe with the characteristics of champion photonics

regions - whether mature, developing or emerging and whether research,

productisation or market creation focused - and should make the highest possible

representations to these regions such that they proactively align with the EU

photonics programme.

10 YEAR WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY

The European Union’s trillion euro 7-year Multi-Annual Financial Framework – and

the €80 billion Horizon 2020 programme within it – has just 5 more years to run. The

pace of change in photonics is being driven not just by Europe, which holds 18% of

market share, but by highly dynamic industries in Asia and the USA. Clusters which

cannot grab market share, hold on to their shares and develop rapidly will simply be

left behind. Only the most ambitious, competent and agile will thrive.

European regions with photonics aspirations have at most a ten year opportunity –

and more likely 5 to 7 years - to take their place in the global industry. Europe as a

whole has that same narrow window to make a success of its mission to intensify and

boost the sector’s development through its big photonics KET strategy. Scale and

speed are vital.

There is no moral imperative to building Europe’s share of photonics industry. It’s not

like climate change or the migrant crisis. It is discretionary. This is all the more reason

for the sector’s leadership community to take an ambitious and energetic stance on

it. Making great strides in a short timeframe will only happen if the leaders make

those strides.

Photonics sector leaders should think in terms of what they wish to achieve in the

remaining 1825 days of this framework period and then design and implement

measures to suit. Innovative, agile and courageous leadership is called for.


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EU SECTOR DEVELOPMENT A GENCY FOR PHOTONICS

As highlighted previously, there is a gap in our constellation of photonics advocacy

and development organisations. At the EU level our PPP has one hand tied behind its

back in terms of the executive actions it can take. It cannot act directly, executing its

strategy instead through those arm’s length grant funded projects. The example of

the LightJumps Photonics Venture Forum22 illustrates the phenomenon. LightJumps

and the Photonics Unit – in a commendable show of agility – altered plan half way

through the project in order to incorporate an investment summit into it. The event

was well received by the stakeholders and there is a keen appetite to build on it in a

2016 edition. The difficulty which arises is that, despite its overarching role and

responsibility in the sector in Europe and despite its influence over the application of

€100 million per year, the PPP cannot take direct executive action to initiate a 2016

edition of the forum. Instead it can exercise collegial influence, encouraging

organisations within its sphere of influence to take the initiative. It is evident that

time may be unduly lost in the process and that whatever action is taken may be

beyond the reach of the PPP’s steering process.

To be fully effective, sector development agencies - like good regional development

or “invest in..” agencies – need well resourced, entrepreneurially minded professional

teams that operate with agility, taking real-time executive decisions on when and how

to apply their resources. The photonics sector has to compete out in the world with

lots of other sectors. Industrial Biotechnology, for instance, is one of the other five

chosen pillars of Europe’s innovation strategy and it is nearly the same size as

photonics. Don’t know about biobased? Most people don’t know about photonics

either. That’s what the sector is facing. Development agencies communicate,

educate, stimulate investment, lobby, fund raise, network and market the sector with

the creativity and energy one sees in those wonderful emerging bioeconomy start-

ups and gazelles. They can promote awareness and public procurement and

education. A professionalised photonics promotion and development agency could

easily slot into the current constellation of cluster organisations complementing what

they do already. The PPP will always design and administer the grant funding but a

22 www.e-unlimited.com/epvf

http://www.e-unlimited.com/epvf


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dedicated photonics development agency would add heavy weight advocacy and

drive, stimulating quicker take-up.

There are four great challenges for setting up and steering such an agency and these

are legal basis, funding, agenda setting and X-factor, where X-factor refers to its ability

to behave with agility and entrepreneurialism. It’s mission would be closely aligned

with the PPP, i.e. stimulating innovation, but it would have a special remit for

supporting the 50 or so other photonics agencies in Europe, for running high impact

EU-wide events and for continuous advocacy and outreach at regional and national

levels throughout the EU.

The first item on the order of business for the agency will be to create a series of

regional photonics investment forums to energetically market the sector in those

locations where it can have most effect.

Somewhere within the many innovation and economic development programmes

and organisations in Europe must be found the will and the budget to create a

European Photonics Sector Development Agency. This agency will have the mission,

the mindset and the resources to perform those actions which are beyond the reach

of the current sector development vehicles.

THE FOTONICA LAZIO EXPERIENCE

Setting up regional development agencies is not for the faint hearted. There are

numerous examples of failed attempts. LightJumps has first hand experience.

Italy is a large and highly industrialised country. By GDP it is the 4th largest of the

continent’s 43 countries. In 2011 Italy also ranked 4th by number of photonics

companies23 and by volume of photonics research activity. It has a long tradition of

immensely successful and important research, innovation and commercialisation in

high tech sectors too numerous to count, including medical scanning, precision

manufacturing, electronics, optics, communications, lighting and displays. Italian

23 http://www.photonics21.org/download/Leverage_Internetversion.pdf

http://www.photonics21.org/download/Leverage_Internetversion.pdf


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stakeholders were at the heart of the EU wide initiative to make photonics a strategic

Key Enabling Technology (KET) from 2009 onwards. There is a vibrant photonics

community24 in the country.

At the same time, by 2014 Italy’s national photonics technology platform was only

just emerging into the light and the only dedicated photonics development agency

routinely active was Optoscana25 which was first proposed in 2011. There clearly

seemed to be a gap in the market for new photonics development agencies in Italy.

The question is whether this gap is a low hanging fruit waiting to be picked or whether

there is something inherently and brutally difficult in the business of setting up sector

development agencies. Either way, the situation represents a structural limitation to

Europe’s photonics development strategy – and indeed the strategies of the other

KETs - and, while the causes may vary form country to country, the phenomenon is

clearly not limited to Italy. So what did LightJumps do and what can be learnt?

The LightJumps coordinator Ciaotech Srl26 (known as PNO Consultants in Europe) is

located in Rome in the region of Lazio, along with aerospace partner Lazio Connect27

and research partner CNR28 (Institute for Microelectronics and Microsystems). The

LightJumps footprint in Lazio was considerable therefore. Lazio region’s GDP is about

1% of the total for Europe and the region, with its large research and aerospace base

and its ambitious strategy for promoting SME entrepreneurialism, represents a

reasonably good prospect for photonics sector development. The aim of Lazio

Connect within LightJumps was to develop its mission in order to strongly reflect the

photonics dimension of its aerospace cluster members. And this has been successful.

About six months into the project however the LightJumps partners decided to take

things a step further and establish a start-up regional photonics agency called

Fotonica Lazio. The aim of the agency was straightforward: To embrace all sectors

with photonics interests in the region, to mirror Europe’s and Italy’s PPP strategy, to

24 http://www.fotonica2015.it/documenti/Fotonica_2015_programma.pdf 25 http://optoscana.net 26 www.pnoconsultants.com 27 http://www.lazioconnect.it 28 http://www.artov.imm.cnr.it/romolo-marcelli.html

http://www.fotonica2015.it/documenti/Fotonica_2015_programma.pdf

http://optoscana.net/

http://www.pnoconsultants.com/

http://www.lazioconnect.it/

http://www.artov.imm.cnr.it/romolo-marcelli.html


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strengthen the SME community and to lobby for photonics in the region.

There was no difficulty in establishing a credible and enthusiastic board of directors

comprised of highly respected leaders from industry, research and the public sector.

They included representatives of CNR, the Sapienza University, PNO Innovation, ENEA

and the region’s industrial players. They were happy to give their time, to host

meetings and even to cover some early start-up costs associated with legal and

administrative matters. The directors were ready to take on the challenges of

overcoming the low brand recognition of photonics in the region, of the fact that the

Lazio regional smart specialisation strategy29 does not – mistakenly in our opinion –

include photonics and of the fact that the region suffers from association fatigue, with

too many already present in the territory and too many of them not exhibiting X-

factor behaviour, i.e. many associations in Lazio, as in the world over, can be dormant

or even parasitic, creating a negative perceptions of and resistance to associations

generally.

A central element of the Fotonica Lazio mission was to be financially diversified and

independent, through a combination of membership fees, participation in granted

projects and provision of commercial services such as event management, mentoring,

communications services and intermediary support. In any case the directors could

identify no scheme - whether regional, national or European – which would provide

operational grant support, so there was no option but to aim for financial

independence.

Fotonica Lazio would have 12-18 months of limited indirect support from its founding

29 http://www.lazioinnova.it/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/regione_lazio_smart_specialisation_strategy_luglio_2014.pdf

http://www.lazioinnova.it/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/regione_lazio_smart_specialisation_strategy_luglio_2014.pdf

http://www.lazioinnova.it/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/regione_lazio_smart_specialisation_strategy_luglio_2014.pdf


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LightJumps members through their LightJumps participation, i.e. they would conduct

LightJumps work under a Fotonica Lazio umbrella in those activities which presented

synergies, and they would stage the 1s t edition of the European Photonics Venture

Forum in Rome as a means of giving a Fotonica Lazio a high impact debut into the

regional and European sector development scene. A successful Fotonica Lazio start-

up would represent an extra added value contribution of LightJumps to the sector.

What happened in practice was that Fotonica Lazio did not survive the early start-up

phase. It needed an operating budget to get it off the ground. None of the founding

organisations were in a position to fund the early phase, partly because such funding

actions are not in their organisations’ missions and partly because there was

uncertainty over how funds would or could ever be repaid. Even an institutional

crowdfunding initiative was going to require months of work to manage. The

LightJumps project activities did allow for synergies, but not enough to sustain the

efforts required.

But the crux of the matter was that there was only very limited confidence in the

concept. Even though it was created by senior and respected professionals it had the

semblance of a private bottom-up initiative, unrecognised by state or European

institutions – and this is very important in many European countries - and it appeared

to represent only a tiny niche and esoteric interest, i.e. photonics. We were

promoting an idea that was not resonating. Fotonica Lazio soon fizzled out.

The learning from the experience is that there is a significant disconnect between

what goes on in innovation and industry strategic planning at a European level and

what goes on at national and regional levels. Rome is Italy’s capital and Italy signed

up to idea of making photonics a pillar of the EU’s industrial future. Yet when it comes

to implementing the strategy at regional level not all the dots are being joined up.

Horizon 2020 lasts seven years, we are two years through it already and many of the

moving parts have not yet come into play. This is clearly not limited to Italy. Most

member states present similar scenarios.

A package of support measures – both in cash and in kind – should be put in place to

enable start-up sector development agencies to survive their first 18 months. A key

element to this support is recognition and visibility.


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THE EUROPEAN PHOTONI CS VENTURE FORUM 2015

Without political support marketing the idea of a new regional photonics

development agency is going to be a daunting challenge anywhere. It is not the kind

of thing that easily grabs people’s attention. LightJumps initiated the much more

appealing concept of the European Photonics Venture Forum as a vehicle for

marketing the photonics sector. Investment forums or summits have a bunch of very

positive attributes. At their core, they stimulate deal flow. They create deal markets.

It is impossible that money changes hands on the day or that signatures are put on

paper, but they do set in motion the dynamics for making it happen. Whatever about

the would be deal-makers themselves, the entire process attracts a lot of attention

from C-level managers, from emerging entrepreneurs gathering intelligence and from

financial and public institution policy makers. The format of investment project

pitching is engaging as it puts a spotlight on real people with real projects. The whole

things takes place in a single exciting one or two day event.

The settings for investments forums offer opportunities to regions and sectors to

showcase themselves. The host region enjoys massive advantage, being able to

promote its own entrepreneurs, technologies and interests to the international

community that travels in. They are wonderful for attracting foreign direct

investment. Investment forums are prized among regional development agencies.

It was with this in mind that the LightJumps partners opted to locate the photonics

investment event in Rome, giving a boost to the start-up Fotonica Lazio initiative.

Investment networking expert Europe-Unlimited30 joined LightJumps to manage the

initiative and assure its success. See it at this link.

https://youtu.be/uYRQqTL3OzE

In order to maximise the impact and opportunity for the region, key institutions

30 http://www.e-unlimited.com


http://www.e-unlimited.com/


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21

including Invitalia 31 (inward investment), the ministry for economics 32 and Lazio

Innova33 (regional development) were invited to take a role. Also contacted were

ICE 34 (Chambers of Commerce Abroad), Confindustria 35 (industry federation),

Unioncamera (chambers of commerce) and Roma Capitale (city hall). However the

response generally was noticeably limited. President Zingaretti of the Lazio Regional

government offered conference facilities and the region’s official endorsement, but

Lazio Innova, the economic and innovation development agency, failed to engage.

The event36 itself was well attended by industrial investors, photonics entrepreneurs

and a number of cluster managers from around Europe. There is a push to do bigger

and better editions in 2016 and 2017. There are several regions actively preparing to

host successive editions of the European Photonics Venture Forum and to make it a

regular event.

While the poor representations by regional and national institutions is definitely

indicative of Lightjumps limited advocacy skills it is also indicative of something more

important: Photonics as a sector enjoys less recognition than its role in European

innovation and industrial development would imply. Photonics advocates dedicate

as much time to explaining the word, the sector and its role as they do to focusing on

the specific advocacy asks of any given day. This is not a phenomenon limited to our

sector. All six of them – micro and nanoelectronics, nanotechnology, photonics,

advanced materials, industrial biotechnology and advanced manufacturing

technology – with their nerdy names and technical subject matters have a built in

yawn factor sure to induce sleepiness in all but the hardiest of insiders. The original

KET Communication, "A European strategy for Key Enabling Technologies - A bridge

to growth and jobs"37, was pitched at the right level. It’s language was aimed at a

generalist target audience of politicians and economic strategists. With a combined

3131 www.invitalia.it 32 http://www.mef.gov.it 33 www.lazioinnova.it 34 www.ice.it 35 www.confindustria.it 36 https://youtu.be/uYRQqTL3OzE 37 http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-12-484_en.htm

http://www.invitalia.it/

http://www.mef.gov.it/

http://www.lazioinnova.it/

http://www.ice.it/

http://www.confindustria.it/


http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-12-484_en.htm


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research and innovation target of something in the region of ten billion euros the KETs

have no excuses for not making massive impact.

Big complicated transformations – as any great leader in times of change will point

out – come with big communications and advocacy efforts. There is high level

political lobbying, there is branding and concept placement (like product placement),

deployment of local champions and there are targeted and orchestrated

communications campaigns. Launching the KETs with severely underpowered

advocacy at the high echelons has left photonics cluster organisations at ground level

with a significant barrier to progress, i.e. lack of recognition. What this means in

concrete terms is that it is difficult to persuade institutional development authorities

to invest in the sector. This reduces the multiplier effect of Brussels investments.

Some portion of the ten billion euros may usefully be applied to building more

recognition.

Investment in scientific innovation in the six European Key Enabling Technologies

should be accompanied by vigorous promotion (“marketing”) of the terminology, the

concepts and the values in order to assure recognition and support at regional level.

HORIZON 2020 GRANTS FOR COORDINATION AND SUPPORT ACTIONS

There are considerable funds available for photonics sector development. The annual

coordination and support action grants in Horizon 2020 have around four million

euros per year to spend, and the dissemination and communication activities of the

innovation projects, add about the same amount again. Eight or ten million euros per

year goes a long way to building recognition and the desired multiplier effect. There

are however a number of factors which combine to reduce the impact of these funds.

The coordination and support actions (CSA) are designed as part of the annual work

programme process which sets the priorities for all of the European Union’s

centralised innovation grant programme in Horizon 2020. Eight percent of Europe’s

entire seven year one trillion euro budget goes on Horizon 2020. One percent of this

eight percent goes directly to photonics (more if one includes photonics in other

programmes). And four percent of this goes on coordination and support, coming to


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that four or five million per year.

PNO Consultants (LightJumps coordinator), as a leading innovation management firm

in Europe, participates in a number of CSA projects each year and strives to bring to

them a fresh and energetic approach in order to maximise the impact of the

Commission’s programmes.

The work programme definition process is highly effective where CSAs are concerned

and the topics which come up each year read like a wish list of excellent sector

development actions. For instance the grant application deadline of April 12 201638

offers one million euro grants for proposals focusing on coordination of regional

photonics strategies and on enhanced photonics maker labs.

The process has a number of fatal or near fatal weaknesses however. Firstly it may

have taken that regional strategies concept one or two or more years to get from a

long list of ideas into the upcoming funding programme. Then six months pass while

partnerships are formed and proposals written. The next eight months go by while

the winning proposals are selected and formalised. Another year passes while the

38

https://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/portal/desktop/en/opportunities/h2020/topics/5094-ict-29-2016.html




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granted projects build up momentum and then they generally have a year or maybe

two to go and actually do stuff. And the most important factor of all – the elephant

in the room – is that many of the granted projects fail to make much of an impact.

Great proposals evaluated only on paper do not always turn into great projects.

Unwieldy democratic partnerships yield lowest common denominator results. It can

be next to impossible to foster creativity and agility. Expectations are low and

scepticism high. Mediocrity and excellence get paid equally. Even with the best will

in the world the Commission does not have the instruments to steer the portfolio of

activities. That original regional strategies concept can take five or six years from

concept to implementation, the quality can be poor and there are no second chances.

The coordinators of CSA projects should join a PPP “quality and agility” steering board

representing all the projects in a given portfolio and they should be held to account

for the quality and drive of the projects under their stewardship. The language of

quality, excellence and exceeding expectations should be introduced into the process.

Prizes and recognition should be given to high-achievers. Ten or twenty percent of

projects should be axed each year for under achievement. Interviews should be

conducted with project leads prior to grant approval in order to improve the chances

of picking successful project leaders.

THE EPIC INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION

Founded in 2003 and with over 220 paying industry and research members from all

over Europe the industry association EPIC39 is a very relevant and positive force in the

photonics evolution. EPIC and the PPP are complementary organisations that jointly

aim to strengthen the sector in Europe. For 12 years EPIC has been steadily building

the identity of the photonics brand and community. The association conducts fifty or

more outreach events each year, bringing people in contact and creating a strong

sense of industry identity. EPIC commissions and publishes half a dozen invaluable

studies each year, they conduct market focused technology workshops and they

39 http://www.epic-assoc.com

http://www.epic-assoc.com/


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provide a stable and reliable networking environment in which people can find

research and business partners. Most of all, EPIC has an immensely valuable core

group of committed CEOs, CTOs and CFOs who can be counted upon to support joint

initiatives.

EPIC routinely contributed to the LightJumps project by connecting its member

network to the project and accelerating networking and intelligence gathering. The

LightJumps venture forum in April 2015 benefited from the contributions and

presence of a dozen CEO level EPIC members. Their credibility and influence gave the

event much of its quality and content.

In the quest to quickly scale up Europe’s photonics sector EPIC and the PPP can

contribute more by leveraging their complementary roles in a more direct and

targeted manner. There are a number of topics of common interest they could form

agreements on, such as international cooperation, attraction of foreign direct

investments, greater industry involvement in the PPP and development of regional

photonics champions. Many members of the PPP are also members of EPIC and it

appears natural to them that the two organisations should enjoy constructive

relations. EPIC and the PPP collaboration is a real case where two strong

organisations working together do more than each working singly.

Efforts should be made by all parties to further enhance collaboration and synergies

between EPIC and public funded sector development platforms.

LEADERSHIP AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Sector development agencies can only be successful if led by competent, ambitious


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and charismatic leaders.

Developing a sector is as challenging as developing a company, with all the creativity,

resourcefulness and passion that this involves. The future is an unchartered ocean.

The sector leader should have the curiosity and foresight to visualise how things may

evolve and how to best play in the opportunities and resources that come to hand.

The role demands multiple skills, multi-tasking, inspirational behaviour and tireless

communication, outreach and advocacy.

Measures of successful leadership are (a) active participation of CEO level directors

from industry, research and government on the agency’s governing board and (b)

financial independence through diversified sources of income combining public

support, membership fees and consulting income where such consulting services are

in line with the agency’s sector development mission.

The governing boards of photonics development agencies should carefully consider

their vision and mission for their agency and then select management candidates with

the experience and leadership qualities to suit.

OPERATING BUDGET

The first thing an agency leader needs is the resourcefulness to acquire operating

budget, to grow it and to put it on a secure long term footing. This is a basic

entrepreneurial obligation of the board and the manager and should be kept to the

forefront of the agency’s mission. The directors of agencies which do not acquire

funds to cover the costs of basic administration and professional services, whether

internal or external, are failing. Failure is not always avoidable and it’s not always


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bad. But it is still failing.

The LightJumps attempt to create Fotonica Lazio as a regional agency in Italy was one

such failed attempt. Such unviable agencies should ideally be wound up, leaving a

visible gap and free space for fresh attempts. There are a number of static photonics

agencies in Europe which are neither advancing nor winding down. Leaders who

occupy a position but do not succeed in progressing their agendas by acquiring a basic

budget contribute to an overall trend of under-achievement in the sector.

The landscape of photonics agencies illustrated in the first stage of this document

should be updated to characterise and rank the organisations in terms of their

operating budgets, activity levels and successes. This will allow EU wide strategists

steer the sector based on real instead of notional resources. Agencies with potential

but which are struggling should be boosted by their peers. Agencies lucky enough to

have secure operating budgets but which fail to reach their potential would

stimulated to renewed efforts by way of a ranking system. Efforts should be made to

accelerate the shake-out of the sector development community so that strong

organisations can emerge and be supported.

Promising photonics sector development agencies need a boost from the entire

photonics community in order to help them achieve basic operating viability. The

group requiring most urgent support are national and regional agencies.

LOBBYING

The European vision for its photonics future is founded on a vision of grand synergies,

collective efforts and a strong and positive sector identity.

If a photonics development agency has funds for only one activity then that activity

should be lobbying.

Photonics as one of Europe’s six innovation pillars faces a number of immense

challenges. These are lack of support at national and regional level and lack of name

and sector recognition. What this means is that investment support at these levels is

not mirroring the Horizon 2020 strategy. Horizon 2020 can only be successful if it


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28

catalyses and reinforces other investments. These weaknesses can be addressed by

skilled politicised lobbying.

The leader of a photonics sector development agency should have a comprehensive

lobbying plan which identifies target organisations and individuals, articulates

messaging content, and has reasonably clear actions and aims. CORIFI in Italy for

instance, has launched an awareness campaign to alert political leaders to the

opportunity of photonics as a motor of economic growth.

Lobbying aims can and should include acquisition of operating budgets for the agency.

The typical subjects of lobby activity are regional and national economic development

ministers, heads of regional development and innovation agencies, incubator

systems, industry associations, innovation consultants, industry leaders, technology

celebrities, journalists and media outlets, and university, research centre and school

principles.

Lobbying for recognition and public development support is the number one priority

of sector development agencies.

PHOTONICS BRAND PLACEMENT

Photonics as a word and photonics as a sector are little known or understood. They

are few references to them in daily life and few in the contexts of government,

economic development and research.

One of the first specific goals of any lobby and communications campaign must be to

have the word photonics, plus appropriate explanations, embedded into the regional

landscape of websites, organisational missions, planning documents, academia

curricula and innovation and economic development agendas. Initially it is not


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necessary that there be firm plans or commitments made for photonics. The goal is

to socialise the concepts and values of photonics. Aspirational references are

sufficient. Plans and commitments can come at appropriate moments later on, when

sufficient sector recognition has been established.

Endorsements by politicians, industry leaders and journalists are valuable in this

context.

Awareness and acceptance builds quickly as internet searches return a critical mass

of relevant results to the searcher.

Recognition building and “product placement” are among the core aims of photonics

development agencies.

BUSINESS INCUBATORS

Most progressive regions have one or more hubs of incubation and entrepreneurship.

They have some kind of tradition of start-up support, business mentoring, hosting,

finance support and acceleration.

Often these are limited to dotcom start-ups or they are lacklustre for want of

involvement by real world entrepreneurs and leaders. Nonetheless they offer a ready

made platform for the photonics community and should be leveraged for the creation

of photonics start-up hubs.


www.lightjumps.eu

30

This is not necessarily a trivial undertaking. The LightJumps partners approached the

LUISS Enlabs40 innovation hub in Rome to propose the creation of a photonics add-on

division to the hub. LUISS Enlabs is a successful, professionally run and privately

funded hub with a well developed community of investors and mentors. It has a well

defined focus of operation which does not cover high tech hardware.

In the event LUISS Enlabs declined the LightJumps invitation to explore the prospects

for a photonics innovation add-on. A full time photonics development agency in Italy

may have the resources and tenacity to make further overtures and turn the idea into

a success, whether in Rome or another city.

A Europe-wide virtual start-up factory could be created too. There are plenty of

inspiring examples of photonics start-ups which have resulted in high profile

investments or acquisitions by large trade investors.

Photonics development agencies, whether singly or as a group, need to devise novel

means for creating and building a start-up culture in photonics which is suitable for

the sector and which allows it compete with the more simplistic and much talked of

dotcom sector.

MENTORING, BUSINESS CASE DEVELOPMENT AND BUSINESS PLANNING

Mentoring is one of the most valuable, economical and abundant resources available

40 http://luissenlabs.com/#home

http://luissenlabs.com/#home


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31

to entrepreneurs of all kinds, including directors of sector development agencies.

One of the central LightJumps goals was to bring about a culture of mentoring,

business case development and business planning similar to that of the dotcom,

biotech and life sciences sectors. Photonics is a sector requiring deep technical skills.

It doesn’t attract the casual entrepreneur unless the people who understand the

technology are able to empathise with entrepreneurs, reach out to them and draw

them in.

LightJumps encouraged the SMEs in its networks to identify and develop relationships

with 3-4 people with whom they have good interpersonal chemistry and to create an

ongoing dialogue with them on the subject of business development.

LightJumps was fortunate that the SME Instrument was launched at the same time as

the project and was able to use the SME Instrument as a lure for encouraging

emerging entrepreneurs to engage in mentoring and in business planning activities.

Project partner InvestorNet-Gate2Growth 41 executed the LightJumps business

41 http://gate2growth.com

http://gate2growth.com/


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32

planning, business development and mentoring process through a series of

workshops with cluster partners and their SMEs. As an expert in the SME Instrument

InvestorNet-Gate2Growth was also able to offer deep insights into the programme.

Photonics development agencies which aim to promote SME development, jobs

creation and industrialisation in their regions and sectors should make it a habit of

assuring their business members are actively using mentoring as a means to

accelerated business development.

SHOWCASES

LightJumps produced showcases. Each of the six clusters picked three small firms and

profiled them in a one page show case brochure.

Why bother? There is no scientific value in publishing a high level summary of a firm’s

or researcher’s profile and publicising it. But there is huge sales and marketing value

to it. Short and appealing profiles travel far. They are found in internet searches,

referenced by politicians, shown to friends and family and act as inspiration to new

entrants and potential partners in the sector. Creating showcases is a means for

firms, researchers and sector development agencies to learn and present a short

(“elevator”) pitch for themselves. In a world of information tsunami they learn to

effectively articulate both their value proposition and their basic profile data.


www.lightjumps.eu

33

VTT, one of the world’s best national innovation organisations, combines

excellent science with excellent showcases and

marketing material.

Sector development agencies should produce a constant stream of inspiring spotlight

or showcase material, giving all of their members exposure from time to time and

making the practice a central part of their marketing process.

JOURNALISM

Yes, the world is awash with information, data and messages. There is still plenty of space for quality writing. Magazine, blog and website editors are hungry for fresh, insightful and original content. This represents an excellent opportunity for photonics advocates to get their messages across via authoritative media channels and without spending cash resources. All it requires is a few hours each month writing relevant content and interacting with the editors.

Entrepreneurially minded directors of photonics development agencies should

include in their key performance indicators some measure of the volume and quality

of their journalistic outreach.

NETWORKS OF FINANCIERS


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34

Sectors such as photonics are comprised of consumers and suppliers of financial

resources. Consumers include researchers, innovation centric firms, universities and

schools and, of course, the sector development agencies themselves.

Suppliers of finance include the well known European, national and regional

innovation grant programmes. There is increasing awareness of European

Investment Bank initiatives, of the InnovFin instruments and the emerging European

Fund for Strategic Investment (or Juncker fund). There is some vague awareness of

possible opportunities for synergies with European Structural Funding. But for the

most part the range of potential suppliers includes multiple sources not typically

accessed by technology innovation communities, as shown in the diagram below.

For every project-funder pair there are also several potential matching channels for

putting projects in touch with funding.

The managers of sector development agencies should establish a map of their own

unique landscape of sources and needs. This map should include specific names,

funds, programmes and events, in order to be actionable and realistic. The agency

should have a finance committee to gather intelligence on the viability of certain

sources and channels and establish networks within those finance communities. The

committee needs to remain in a constant learning mode and be prepared to be

innovative in its way of approaching finance challenges.


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35

INVESTMENT SUMMITS

The ultimate aim of any development agency is to stimulate investment in the sector.

This can be public investment in research, venture capitalist activity, foreign direct

investment, trade developments, hiring people, political capital investment or simply

individual efforts by people to develop careers for themselves.

Investment summits are any kind of event designed to stimulate such investments,

so they could be called trade or recruitment fairs or brokerage forums. There are

countless variations on the theme.

There is a common error made by advocates in any sector which is to think that

somehow there is no space for another investment summit. This is like saying there

is no room for another type of soft drink or sports car. There is always room for

another summit because there are countless niches and because the landscape is

constantly changing.

Investment summits are the high impact annual marketing events of any photonics

sector agency. They are an excellent pretext for shouting out what the sector is good

at, for refining the value proposition and for generating excitement and publicity.

When potential partners in other sectors and other parts of the world are doing their

scouting they are highly influenced by who is making buzz. They see who to contact


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36

and where to go. Buzz generates business.

LightJumps partner Europe-Unlimited42 is unique in its combined knowledge of the

private financial sector and of Europe’s innovation programmes. Europe-Unlimited

delivers about 25 high impact investment summits each year. Sector development

agencies can visit any of these and learn how they function.

Every photonics sector development agency should include one or more investment

summits in its annual calendar, whatever the name, the size or the niche.

REGIONAL STRATEGIES

It is the opinion of the LightJumps partners that no region can or need exclude

photonics from its regional development strategy. The conventional interpretation

of photonics specialisation is about pure science, basic technology research and early

product development. And clearly for those regions with core competencies in these

fields there is a strong case for making photonics their number one innovation pillar.

These regions should be among the top ten European photonics regions.

But there are ample opportunities for a second tier of photonics regions in which the

emphasis is on application development, systems building and market building.

These parts of the value chain are equally essential to Europe’s KET strategy.

LightJumps partner Sensor City is an excellent example of this exciting innovation

strategy.

42 http://www.e-unlimited.com/home/home-public.aspx

http://www.e-unlimited.com/home/home-public.aspx


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37

The municipality of Assen and the province of Drenthe are working together to

develop the Sensor City project. Sensor City is an ambitious concept where a large-

scale municipal measurement network will be implemented, which will allow the

development of a variety of practical applications that use complex sensor systems.

As a testing ground and showcase for sensor system applications, it is a unique facility

throughout the world.

Sensor City attracts investment and innovation in the region and provides a platform

for development where before there was none.

LightJumps, in one of its exploratory initiatives to create more situations like Sensor

City, used its network to support a novel idea based on the concept of a “sensor river”

or smart river project (the term “photonics river” was considered too difficult to

explain). The river Tiber in Rome is among Europe’s most polluted. The local region

has yet to take steps to implement the 2000 Water Framework Directive by carrying

out remedial work. There are massive untapped European funds for river restoration

actions. The concept for the photonics river project was devised by one of the

LightJumps participants together with the Sapienza University (sensors

development43), local SME Smart-I44 (smart sensors systems integrator) and Spanish

sensor product maker Libelium45. In the project, called RiverWatch/Tevere, the river

would be put under monitoring at several points in its course.

43 Prof. Maria Marsella (@uniroma1.it) 44 www.smart-interaction.com 45 http://www.libelium.com

http://www.smart-interaction.com/

http://www.libelium.com/


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38

Libelium luminosity sensor probe for in water applications.

A combination of in water and above water sensors would continuously capture high

resolution optical data which can be processed real time or ad hoc into information

on flow rates, water levels, temperatures, chemical compositions, dissolved gas

levels, particle and object counts and many other indicators. Some of the

information, including live video streams, would be put online and there would

methods for capturing information sourced from external parties. The entire system

would build into a open repository of big data for all researchers and stakeholders

and a real time “vital signs” dashboard would be put online, allowing all stakeholders

participate in the health of the river.

The project was promoted by the regional river association Consorzio Tiberina46, won

a European contest for collective participation called Chest (7th Framework) and

attracted considerable media attention 47 . Should it ever be implemented it will

undoubtedly form a useful template for other regions to replicate.

The Sensor City and RiverWatch/Tevere concepts are inspiring examples of projects

which present synergies relevant for smart regional specialisation strategies and

which have photonics at their core.

There are countless concepts that could be similarly devised to stimulate photonics

innovation in dozens of regions around Europe.

46 www.unpontesultevere.com 47 http://roma.corriere.it/notizie/cronaca/14_luglio_27/contratto-piattaforma-web-l-impegno-circoli-il-tevere-

d599cd1e-1572-11e4-bcb3-09a23244c28e.shtml

http://www.unpontesultevere.com/

http://roma.corriere.it/notizie/cronaca/14_luglio_27/contratto-piattaforma-web-l-impegno-circoli-il-tevere-d599cd1e-1572-11e4-bcb3-09a23244c28e.shtml

http://roma.corriere.it/notizie/cronaca/14_luglio_27/contratto-piattaforma-web-l-impegno-circoli-il-tevere-d599cd1e-1572-11e4-bcb3-09a23244c28e.shtml


www.lightjumps.eu

39

Remember, companies and young professionals can relocate. Regions cannot. A

region that wishes to remain vibrant and attractive needs to work at it. Companies

and young people need to be convinced to come and to stay.

The strongest means for distinguishing a photonics community, and for acquiring a

critical mass of support for it, is to focus on the regional dimension, building unique

selling propositions around that dimension. Development agencies should invest in

this.

RESEARCH AND INNOVATION AGENDA SETTING

If there is one area in which the European photonics innovation community excels it

is agenda setting and priority definition at a European level. The process is open to

all, transparent and consistent. The rules only change every seven years and even

then the transitions are well publicised and in line with commonly accepted

principles.

The quickest routes to engagement are by joining the PPP (free and open to all

individuals), offering to contribute to work groups (by invitation), unsolicited inputs

and proposals (will be acknowledged), joining the PPP Board of Stakeholders (by

election) and – most importantly but least practiced – working through relevant

regional and national photonics technology platforms.

All photonics development agencies should define in their missions their role in

research and innovation agenda setting and they should articulate clearly each year

what their unique agendas are in preparation for engagement with European level

innovation programmes.

Many EU countries and regions may be missing out on photonics innovation funding

opportunities for their researchers and businesses because they are failing to engage

effectively. Likewise, many countries and regions are under-investing in photonics

innovation due to poor advocacy by their local photonics sector development

agencies (or technology platforms).

Photonics sector development agencies with a regional or national footprints should


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40

be measured, among other things, by the level of energy and effectiveness with which

they influence public funding programmes at EU, national and regional level. Their

impacts should be explicitly reported annually to their members.

CONCLUSIONS

At 2 years into Europe’s 7 year photonics sector development programme LightJumps

has had a unique opportunity to participate at the core of the programme for SME

and industrial development and to take stock of the challenges and opportunities.

There are a number of important barriers to be overcome.

- Photonics sector terminology and concepts have yet to percolate into the regional

and national development organisations which are best placed to assure SME

support synergies with Horizon 2020. Promotion and political support is required.

- The Horizon 2020 organisational model for grant programme administration is ill-

equipped to provide agile and short term SME sector development services. A

more suitable approach should be devised to boost the PPP’s efforts.

- A network of around 50 professionalised and well-resourced sector development

agencies is needed to drive the photonics sector at ground level, accompanying

the PPP programme. The current network has yet to reach anything near critical

mass. Quick and high impact action is needed to accelerate the development of

sector agencies. Promising agencies need start-up support.

- Horizon 2020 Coordination & Support Action projects for SMEs should be put

under a governance umbrella bringing about ever more agile, entrepreneurial,

integrated and results oriented behaviours among partners and coordinators.

- Regions should be energetically encouraged to place photonics at the hearts of

their economic development strategies, and to include application and market

focused photonics programmes in addition to pure technology innovation.

- Directors of photonics sector development agencies need to be entrepreneurial in

their approach or risk extinction. There are some inspiring examples in Europe

acting as trail blazers for others to follow. The SME Instrument has been a great

boost for entrepreneurial thinking among sector development managers.

- Attraction of investment to the sector has yet to become a priority (or skill) for


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many development agencies. This is a key benefit they should and can be giving

their stakeholders.

With 1825 days remaining to the completion of Horizon 2020 there is just time to take

stock generally and make those critical route adjustments so that photonics

continues to grow as one of Europe’s core industrial competencies.


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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

James Cogan is a technology, industry and policy analyst with PNO Consulting in Brussels. He is a graduate of electronics engineering at University College Dublin and received an MBA from Trinity College Dublin. After a period as an aviation and digital video systems

engineer with Alenia in Turin and Avid Technology in Dublin James spent over ten years as a director with Accenture in Rome delivering large ICT programmes to Europe’s major telco operators. He founded and ran his own start-up in the five year period prior to joining PNO in 2012. He works for a number of private and public clients developing a

mix of industrial innovation projects and public policy proposals. PNO Consultants is Europe’s largest independent grants and innovation management firm, founded over 25 years ago in the Netherlands and now counting over 200 professionals and a presence in 12 EU countries.