With over 220 participants, the 2025 edition of the Photonics Partnership Annual Meeting (PPAM 2025) again showed itself to be Europe's photonics event of the year. Taking place at the historic LePlaza in Brussels from 15 and 16 May, PPAM 2025 brought together leaders from academia, industry and policy, with a strong focus on ensuring continued representation of photonics in the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF).
This year’s Photonics Partnership Annual Meeting in Brussels marked the 20th anniversary of the European Technology Platform Photonics21, celebrating two decades of advancing Europe’s leadership in photonics.
In her 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. She congratulated the community on its achievements in uniting European stakeholders to advance world-class research and innovation. At the same time, she called on them to close the innovation gap and reduce dependencies in critical technologies.
A Vision for the Future: Key Themes and Highlights
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. Combining music, movement and computer-controlled illuminated props, the performance created a captivating display of colour and choreography — a fitting tribute to two decades of light-based innovation.
Opening the 2025 Photonics Partnership Annual Meeting, Lutz Aschke, President of Photonics21 and CEO of Photonics Systems Group, delivered a powerful address outlining a strategic vision for photonics in the upcoming EU Framework Programme 10 (FP10).
Drawing on the momentum of the Draghi Report, Aschke emphasised 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 recognise photonics not only as a driver of research and innovation but as a cornerstone of Europe’s strategic autonomy and economic strength.
Photonics: EU Perspectives
Gustav Kalbe (Acting Director DG CONNECT), delivered a strategic keynote outlining the European Commission's evolving priorities for photonics as a key enabling and deep 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 emphasised that no single Member State can tackle the related challenges alone, underscoring the need for strong EU-level coordination, investment, and international cooperation.
Beyond Silicon: Photonics and Europe’s AI Future
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.
Integrated photonics offers a breakthrough: optical interconnects and analog photonic processors can deliver up to 50× performance and >30× energy efficiency improvements.
Förtsch called it a “once-in-a-lifetime” chance for Europe to lead in energy-efficient, high-performance computing through photonics.
Fireside Chat "The Future of Photonics in the European Funding Ecosystem"
Pressing topics like accelerating Photonics adoption across industries, and the role of funding for photonics research and education were discussed during the 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, signalling that it remains a "key priority" for the European Commission.
Innovation Award Winner Victor Rodriguez: “We want to change the vision of the world.”
This year’s Photonics21 Innovation Award — the annual prize recognising 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. 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.
Funding Opportunities and Strategic Directions in Focus
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), provided valuable input on upcoming funding programmes 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.
Also, 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 warmly invited to contribute to the development of the SRIA in the coming months.
