Photonics and optical technologies are all around us and are a key enabler for societal megatrends as a fundamental element of new technologies and applications.

Programme duration: 4 years | 2024 - 2027

Not only in recent history, optical technologies with Dutch origin influenced innovation and created new markets. The impact for storing and sharing information cannot be overestimated. Even now communication is an essential part of our society and new optical technologies provide steadily increasing capacity for stable and safe data transfer. The increasing need for data storage and transmission is highly dependent on optical technologies for high precision wafer steppers, producing ever-advanced chips that connect our society and ease our daily life.

Optical technology allows in the lighting industry can reduce energy consumption by 80% with LED solutions for governmental, industrial, and consumer markets. Efficient lighting solutions are also crucial in greenhouse applications for growing healthy plants and reducing the need for chemical fertilizers.

Modern medicine heavily depends on ever-advancing imaging technologies for diagnosis as well as surgery and treatment. Since the 1800s scientists have been curious to study the living body from the inside. Nowadays surgeons and scientists can rely on high-resolution miniature cameras that provide an instant view for diagnosis as well as surgery, decreasing the recovery time for patients drastically. Historically the Netherlands is leading in many research and application areas for new innovations in optical technologies. It has given rise to an industrial ecosystem, that not only consists of a few multi-nationals but more than 300 SMEs that use optical innovations.