ORC participates in new initiative to support European SMEs

Up to €80k of innovation support is available - free of charge to SMEs

The ORC is to participate in a new European funding initiative, ACTPHAST, to provide SMEs with innovation support.

To keep European industry, and in particular SMEs, at the forefront of photonics product innovation – a €350bn global market growing at an annual rate of around 6.5% – the European Commission is supporting the creation of a transnational Access Centre for Photonics Innovation Solutions and Technology Support (ACTPHAST) to remove roadblocks to innovation and provide a one-stop shop solution for industry to access the best in European photonics research expertise and technology platforms.

Through its consortium partners, ACTPHAST will be able to call on any number of over 200 experts with specialist expertise in the many different areas of photonics, who will be primed and ready to support European companies in solving their business challenges through targeted innovation projects. Up to 200 innovation projects will be supported over the four-year programme across many different application domains from Communications, Lighting and Life Sciences, to Security, Transport and Manufacturing, and many others. Projects will be of short duration (6-9 months) to accelerate time-to-market, and will be 100% subsidised for SMEs up to a maximum value of €80k.

The call for projects is now open.

If you are interested in applying for support from ACTPHAST, please contact the UK Outreach Coordinator, Tom Carr t.j.carr@soton.ac.uk.

Find our more about ACTPHAST.