NextPho21 provides the decisive support to the European Photonics21 community for developing a European industrial strategy for the upcoming 10 years. Strategy development will involve more than 3000 Photonics21 and end-industry experts in an open, transparent and democratic decision-making process. The strategy approach focusses on future market opportunities arising from the megatrends like digitisation, urbanisation, smart anything everywhere which disrupt business models and whole industries. Through developing the joint strategy, the European photonics industry will be in the pole position to become a key driver of this revolution. Furthermore, NextPho21 will set up a management and steering platform for implementing the current Horizon2020 Photonics21 Public Private Partnership strategy. It provides strategic and organizational support to the PPP boards and Horizon2020 Photonics KET (PPP) projects in reaching its objectives, namely to create growth and jobs in Europe. This includes a central public relation and dissemination services to the projects demonstrating the impact of photonics for wider deployment of photonics in end user industry products. NextPho21 implements a dedicated set of actions to increase the investments in photonics research, development and manufacturing by European venture capital funds and the European Investment Bank to bring photonics innovation to the market. It will trigger cross regional and cross member state strategy development and investments in photonics respectively by providing a coordination and support platforms to these stakeholder groups. The NextPho21 project consisting of the Photonics21 secretariat and 12 National Technology Platforms - representing more than 25 photonics cluster – runs at the request, with the consent and on behalf of the Photonics21 PPP Boards which will closely steer all activities of the project.

EPRISE project aims to promote and support Photonics as a KET with focus on Life Science applications in 4 target markets where Europe holds a leading position – Medical Technologies, Pharmaceuticals, Agriculture and Food. Companies developing photonics-based products for these markets face highly specific Go-to-Market challenges such as long time to market adoption, complex regulatory frameworks and high barriers to market entry to name but a few. They are often in need of support from public funding to help them cross the “Valley of death” between innovation ready phase (TRL 4), and investment ready phase (TRL 7). During this time, they are also in need of advice from market specific experts who can guide them on non-technological (business) topics. EPRISE consortium will organise a “European Photonics Roadshow”, a series of 7 major events hosted by European regions, with the aim of providing SMEs with concrete solutions from market experts on how to overcome market barriers and boosting collaboration along the complete value chain via pre-arranged B2B meetings. Photonics clusters involved in EPRISE have both local connections and technology understanding to set-up, together with Regional Authorities, an efficient framework that will encourage creation of funding synergies between regional and European funds in order to better exploit potential of European Photonics industry. The project aims to provide regional policy makers with an overview of funding synergies to be considered in the current or following Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF). Furthermore, the project aims to establish a formal collaboration with the ongoing European Photonics projects offering technology support (ActPhast, Pix4Life) that can address potential technology issues linked to SMEs access to market.

EuroPho21 provides the decisive support to Photonics21 for strategy development and implementation and paves the way for the re-industrialization of Europe. The networking and coordination among Photonics21 stakeholders and the end user industry in the strategy development and implementation will speed up the innovation process and time to market for new products. This is a critical step to overcome the so called “Valley of Death”. EuroPho21 will build bridges to other parts of the Horizon2020 Programme to create value chains. Furthermore, it will reach out to regions where a strong end user industry is present to increase the deployment of Photonics as a Key Enabling Technology. To this end the project supports building up manufacturing and creating jobs in Europe. The current fragmentation of the European, national and regional activities represents a major barrier to the implementation of one photonics strategy in Europe. EuroPho21 will overcome these barriers and will build bridges between regional, national and European funding in photonics. Increasing the participation of Member States and regions in the Photonics21 Mirror Group enables Horizon2020 photonics projects to be jointly financed by regions, Member States and the European Commission through the ERANET+ scheme. Combining regional funding with Horizon2020 Photonics project funding will be enabled by bringing together the relevant stakeholders. Photonics21 as the central communication platform for Photonics Research and Innovation in Europe will communicate information about Horizon2020 Photonics KET projects, national and regional activities reaching out to more than 600.000 recipients, with special focus on end users. The EuroPho21 proposal is submitted by the Photonics21 secretariat and 12 National Technology Platforms - representing more than 30 Cluster - at the request, with the consent and on behalf of the Photonics21 Board of Stakeholders which will closely steer all activities of the project.