Photonics21’s 20th Photonics Partnership meet draws 220 delegates to Brussels

27 May 2025

Meeting addressed by EC Executive Vice-President Henna Virkkunen; plus industry updates and Innovation Award.

With over 220 participants, the 2025 edition of the Photonics Partnership Annual Meeting (PPAM 2025) was held at the historic LePlaza in Brussels between 15 and 16 May.

This year’s PPAM marked the 20th anniversary of the European Technology Platform Photonics21, celebrating two decades of advancing Europe’s leadership in photonics.

The conference brought together leaders from academia, industry and policy, with a strong focus on ensuring continued representation of photonics in the EU’s next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF).

In a video message to the European photonics community, Executive Vice-President Henna Virkkunen stated that photonics is crucial for Europe’s sovereignty, competitiveness, and sustainability. “Photonics is not only a field of scientific inquiry but a strategic asset for the European Union. Its applications permeate various sectors, contributing to our resilience, competitiveness and security,” the Commissioner said.

Vision for the future

The event commenced with a spectacular light show commemorating Photonics21’s two-decade journey. Attendees enjoyed a striking LED performance by renowned light artist Lemmi. Opening the meeting, Lutz Aschke, President of Photonics21 and CEO of Photonics Systems Group (pictured, top left), outlined a strategic vision for photonics in the upcoming EU Framework Programme 10 (FP10).

Drawing on the momentum of the 2024 Draghi Report on EU Competitiveness, Aschke emphasized the need for Europe to become “more competitive, sovereign, and resilient by investing in critical technologies like photonics”. He called on policymakers and industry leaders to recognize photonics not only as a driver of research and innovation but as a cornerstone of Europe’s strategic autonomy and economic strength.

EU perspectives

Gustav Kalbe (Acting Director of the European Commission’s DG CONNECT), delivered a strategic keynote outlining the EC’s evolving priorities for “photonics as a key enabling technology critical to the EU’s resilience, competitiveness, and security”.

Kalbe highlighted that photonics is integral to multiple EU strategic objectives — from AI, quantum computing, and cloud infrastructure to healthcare, automotive, and advanced manufacturing. He emphasized that no single Member State can tackle the related challenges alone, underscoring the need for strong EU-level coordination, investment, and international cooperation.

Photonics and AI

In his keynote, Michael Förtsch (CEO, Q.ANT GmbH) highlighted the growing energy and performance limits of classical computing for AI. With AI workloads consuming power on the scale of entire countries, current architectures are unsustainable. He said, “Integrated photonics offers a breakthrough: optical interconnects and analog photonic processors can deliver up to 50x performance and >30x energy efficiency improvements.” Förtsch called it a “once-in-a-lifetime” chance for Europe to lead in energy-efficient, high-performance computing through photonics.

Pressing topics including accelerating photonics adoption across industries, and the role of funding for photonics research and education were discussed during a “fireside chat” with Maryline Fiaschi (CEO Science|Business) and Gustav Kalbe (Acting Director, DG CONNECT). Kalbe reaffirmed the importance of photonics for Europe’s security and competitiveness.

Innovation Award

This year’s Photonics21 Innovation Award — the annual prize recognizing outstanding early-career researchers developing commercially promising photonics-based solutions — was awarded to Victor Rodriguez, a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Optics (IO-CSIC) in Madrid, Spain (pictured above, bottom left).

Rodriguez was recognised for his work on SureVision, a breakthrough method for fast and precise vision prescriptions. Based on a new Direct Subjective Refraction (DSR) technique, SureVision uses a tunable lens and chromatic flicker perception to determine a patient’s prescription without relying on traditional letter charts. The award was presented by Photonics21 President Lutz Aschke and Roberta Ramponi, Chair of the Selection Committee.

On the second day, the spotlight turned to EU funding opportunities. Werner Steinhoegl and Jason Jung (DG CONNECT), along with Yves Gigase (Chips Joint Undertaking), gave inputs on upcoming funding programs and photonics-related activities within Chips JU. Valerio Pruneri from ICFO presented the PIXEurope Pilot Line – the new pilot line initiative for photonic integrated circuits – to the audience.

Besides that, the preparation of the next Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA) was officially launched. Seven hands-on workshops brought together experts from academia and industry – including representatives from III-V Lab, Trumpf, Leibniz IPHT, Magna Sweden, Thales, and B-Phot – to shape the research priorities for FP10/MFF. All interested stakeholders are invited to contribute to the development of the SRIA in the coming months.