UK grants include photonics companies to spur technology commercialization

June 4, 2012

Three UK organizations will invest £20 million in over 40 business-led technology projects, some of which include photonics. The projects include universities allied with photonics companies such as Coherent Scotland, Gas Sensing Solutions, Gooch & Housego, M Squared Lasers, Plastic Logic, Solar Press, Solus Technologies, and Thales Optronics.

Conard Holton

Three UK organizations--the Technology Strategy Board, Scottish Enterprise, and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)--will invest £20 million in over 40 business-led technology projects, some of which include photonics. The projects to be funded through the Technology Inspired Innovation competition include universities allied with photonics companies such as Coherent Scotland, Gas Sensing Solutions, Gooch & Housego, M Squared Lasers, Plastic Logic, Solar Press, Solus Technologies, and Thales Optronics.

Over 120 UK businesses and institutions and 20 universities will share this funding and take part in the R&D projects. In addition, over 80 small and micro businesses will receive grants of up to £25,000 each from the Technology Strategy Board to carry out smaller-scale feasibility studies to test out new ideas. The R&D projects and feasibility studies fall within five broad areas–-advanced materials, biosciences; electronics, photonics, and electrical systems; information and communications technology; and nanoscale technologies.

For example, in one project to develop high peak power ultrafast oscillators for microscopy, Coherent Scotland and the Institute of Photonics at the University of Strathclyde will investigate the applicability of innovative laser sources to multiphoton microscopy and explore bringing this imaging modality to a wider market.

M Squared Lasers, Solus Technologies, and the Institute of Photonics at University of Strathclyde will develop a novel CW OPO in the LWIR for hyperspectral imaging and sensing using nonlinear materials such as orientation-patterned gallium arsenide and zinc germanium diphosphide.

To see the full list of grants and companies, CLICK HERE.

About the Author

Conard Holton | Editor at Large

Conard Holton has 25 years of science and technology editing and writing experience. He was formerly a staff member and consultant for government agencies such as the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority and the International Atomic Energy Agency, and engineering companies such as Bechtel. He joined Laser Focus World in 1997 as senior editor, becoming editor in chief of WDM Solutions, which he founded in 1999. In 2003 he joined Vision Systems Design as editor in chief, while continuing as contributing editor at Laser Focus World. Conard became editor in chief of Laser Focus World in August 2011, a role in which he served through August 2018. He then served as Editor at Large for Laser Focus World and Co-Chair of the Lasers & Photonics Marketplace Seminar from August 2018 through January 2022. He received his B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania, with additional studies at the Colorado School of Mines and Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.