University of Surrey and NPL sign $16.7 million dollar photonics and communications collaboration agreement

August 3, 2009--The University of Surrey (Guildford, England), which recently announced involvement in a $2.8 million uncooled photonic devices project, and the National Physical Laboratory (NPL; Teddington, England), have signed an agreement to collaborate on the delivery of a more than $16.7 million dollar program to translate the results of communications, materials, nanotechnology, and photonics research into innovation that makes a real-world difference.

The collaboration is supported by a $6.7 million dollar Knowledge Transfer Account (KTA) from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) with an additional $10 million dollar funding from industrial partners and the University of Surrey.

The joint Surrey/NPL team will focus on three specific areas of technology, each with the potential to create transformational benefits for the U.K. economy and society. The areas are:

(1) Communications and Signal Processing: Including advances in mobile communications and internet connectivity.

(2) Next Generation Materials and Characterization: With applications in automotive, aerospace and the growing sector of space and satellite engineering (see "The global remote sensing market soars in 2008").

(3) Nanotechnology and Photonics: Covering the latest in high-speed optical communications (see "Can optical integration solve the computational bottleneck?") and the next phase of miniaturization in the semiconductor industry (see "Tiniest lasers aim for the optical-computing frontier").

Professor Christopher Snowden, vice chancellor of the University of Surrey, said, "This award affirms Surrey's track record as a leading University for innovation and commercialisation. The KTA represents a fantastic opportunity to expand the already successful partnerships developed by the University and most importantly it will be of great benefit in helping create business opportunities in these difficult times. Surrey developed the laser diode that is used in CD and DVD players world wide and NPL has also had a fantastic track record of transferring technology to industry."

For more information, go to www2.surrey.ac.uk.

--Posted by Gail Overton, [email protected]; www.laserfocusworld.com.