Photonics, the generation and manipulation of light, is an important enabling technology for a diverse range of application areas; in 2006, the photonics industry in Europe accounted for revenues of €49 billion. PROPHET (Postgraduate Research on Photonics as an Enabling Technology) is an Initial Training Network funded by the EU Framework Programme 7 Marie Curie Actions, which aims to train the next generation of photonics researchers in the full range of skills required for a multi-disciplinary, industry-focused career in photonics.

The PROPHET network brings together a carefully-chosen, well-balanced consortium of 9 academic partners, 4 industry partners and 2 associated partners, with European and worldwide reputations as leaders in their fields. The network will train a cohort of 14 early stage researchers and 5 young experienced researchers in the full gamut of skills required for a career in photonics, including materials growth, device fabrication, characterisation, design, theory, and commercialisation.

These skills will be applied in four application areas; mode-locked lasers for Communications Applications, solar cells for Energy Applications, gas sensing for Environment Applications, and fast tunable laser sources for OCT in Life Science Applications. Each researcher will experience both academic and commercial environments thanks to the strong industrial involvement, resulting in multi-skilled, industry-focused graduates. See the Project Overview page for more.

This website is still developing, and will contain much more information in the near future; please check back regularly. The network funds 14 PhD and 5 postdoctoral positions; while all of the early stage researcher (PhD) positions have now been filled, there are still places available for young experienced researchers. These positions are mostly aimed at researchers who have just completed their PhD (or are about to), and many of them are based at an industry partner. Details on these positions are available on the Vacancies page.

Vacancies currently available:

5 Postdoctoral positions

First PROPHET Workshop, Lancaster, 3^rd – 5^th October, 2011

Students at the PROPHET Workshop in Lancaster.

The first of four PROPHET workshops was held at Lancaster University, UK, on 3^rd – 5^th October, 2011. The theme of the workshop was "Growth and Fabrication of Photonic Materials and Devices" and it was attended by over 40 delegates. The workshop included a one day training course on Communication Skills, in which the students learned presentation techniques and prepared a short talk which was later presented to the workshop attendees.

High-profile speakers gave tutorial-style talks introducing the students to important photonics technologies such as MOVPE and MBE growth, electron beam lithography, plasma etching, III-V device fabrication, solar cells, quantum dots and nanowires. The speakers included two from industry; Dave Rogers from Nanovation, France and Geoff Hassall from Oxford Instruments, UK. Other speakers came from PROPHET partner institutions and included Thomas Krauss and William Whelan-Curtin (St. Andrews), Sophie Bouchoule and Jean-Christophe Harmand (LPN), Udo Pohl (TUB) and Qiandong Zhuang (Lancaster U.). The network’s Supervisory Board meeting was also held on the final day of the workshop.