BestPhorm21 will provide the decisive support to Horizon Europe’s “Photonics Partnership”, which is currently established between the EU Commission and Photonics21, to stimulate the growth of the European photonics industry. The project is led by the Photoncs21 Secretariat, VDITZ, in partnership with 14 National Technology Platforms, representing Europe’s photonics industry, Research and Technology Organisations (RTOs) and clusters. BestPhorm21 will develop a community driven European photonics industrial strategy and roadmap, engaging over 3,000 experts from industry and academia, that will guide Horizon Europe and industrial investments in R&D and advanced manufacturing. BestPhorm21 thus makes a significant contribution to increasing European technological sovereignty in a key digital technology such as photonics. It will furthermore establish new strategic value chains between photonics and end user industries, through the delivery of 7 additional “photonics enabled” end user industry roadmaps. This will be done in close cooperation with the respective industry stakeholders organsiations, more than 700 experts from both the photonics and end-user industries will be involved. The industrial strategy will result in new product launches and services that drive sales growth and support the digitalization of these sectors. BestPhorm21 will trigger cross-member state and regional investments, which mobilise and leverage Europe‘s full innovation ecosystem to keep Europe at the global forefront in photonics R&D and technology development, delivering cross-member state calls valued at > EUR 10 m and 5 interregional investment projects. Finally, BestPhorm21 increases access to risk finance for over 300 photonics start-ups and SMEs in their critical growth phases, through “blended finance” (European Investment Council’s Accelerator), “Venture Capital” (dedicated VC events) and “Venture debt” (European Investment Bank).

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.

The objective of the proposed CSA is to support and complement R&I activities in Smart Systems Integration (SSI) by structuring industrial cooperation and facilitating end-user adoption for the next generations of miniaturised smart objects and systems. Previous CSAs have revealed the immense breadth of SSI in its technology demands, its application sectors, its business ramifications, its provider and user communities, and have commenced the task of joining all these aspects for concerted action. They have also developed support tools, whose proven value can continue to be instrumental in the new CSA. Building on the above and supporting the strategic activities of EPoSS, the role for inSSIght is to deepen and implant this understanding through a cadre of influential partners from SSI-related clusters, research institutes and industries who will define and encourage actions to unlock and exploit innovation opportunities, provide practice-oriented support to the SSI ecosystem, underline the vital position of SSI as a Key Enabling Technology for competitive advantage and future innovation, and give credit to their enabling role as building blocks in sectors with high potential for growth and high return on investment, such as IoT, Industry 4.0, electric mobility, automated driving, smart medical devices etc. Very practically, inSSIght • organises 4 thematic conferences, two of which on MNBS, 7 demonstration sessions, 2 brokerage events, 11 expert and information workshops and 11 webinars • publishes 5 White Papers on Customised Innovation Priorities • leads a marketing campaign for SSI based on a trademark inSSIght addresses all 5 activities required in the scope description of ICT-03-2016b, considering them as inseparable and most efficiently tackled in a single concerted action.

Phorwards21 will create and implement a comprehensive industrial strategy for photonics in Europe. The action will be implemented by Photonics21 (the EU Commission's partner in the Horizon Europe Photonics Partnership) with its more than 3000 members from companies and research institutions as well as national photonics technology platforms and regional clusters. In addition to already initiated collaborations with end-user and other deep-tech partnerships, contacts with national ministries (Photonics21 Mirror Group) and financial actors such as the European Investment Bank (EIB), the European Investment Council (EIC) and (corporate) venture capital companies will be strengthened to implement the European photonics strategy and thus establish European strategic autonomy in this critical technology. Specific end-user community-based roadmaps will be developed, focusing not only on research priorities but also on industrial implementation, including pilot lines and the creation of appropriate framework conditions.

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.