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 will continue to be updated with new information, so please check back regularly.

The network funds 14 PhD and 5 postdoctoral positions, with the prestige and attractive financial package that comes with being a Marie Curie Fellow. All these Fellow positions have now been filled, and there are no vacancies at this time.

Third PROPHET Workshop, Paris, 7^th – 8^th March, 2013

The third PROPHET workshop was held at the Institut Mines-Telecom in Paris, France, on the 7^th – 8^th March, 2013. The workshop, “Industry Applications of Photonics“, was organised by the associated partner, Telecom & Management SudParis (TMSP), and was specifically focused on the commercialisation of photonics research and its applications in industry. A number of invited speakers gave presentations on their experiences from various different aspects. Eric A. Swanson of OCT News gave an excellent talk on his extensive experiences founding and running several successful start-up companies. François Rosala spoke about his experiences with his SME company, AdvEOTec in Evry, France, while Henri Porte, CEO and co-founder of Photline Technologies, discussed the process of moving from technology transfer to industrial production. Tom Pearsall from the European Photonics Industry Consortium (EPIC) completed the invited talks with a discussion on the opportunities for photonics entrepreneurs, highlighting some of the large-scale projects which will be a major focus of Horizon 2020.

For previous PROPHET events, see the Archived News page.

The Telecom ParisTech building.

Attendees at the PROPHET Workshop in Paris.