The Universities of Strathclyde, St Andrews, Heriot-Watt and Glasgow, together with Stanford University and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), are collaborating with local industry to build enduring relationships which form the basis of a network which helps to sustain the economic impact of photonics in both the UK and California.
Watch our short video on SU2P
The project, SU2P, capitalises on leading research in the photonics sector, in fields including life sciences and renewable energy, and the commercial opportunities the research offers.
It also bolsters existing links between universities and businesses in Scotland and the US.
The programme between the six institutions focuses on challenges in:
and includes research areas:
and
- Quantum Technologies and Applications
- Biophotonics, including stem cell imaging and neuroscience photonics
- Solar cell devices and characterisation
- Integrated photonics
- Photonics sensors, including atom and quantum optic sensors and environmental science and technology
The project gives talented young researchers the opportunity to experience working in laboratories in California. It also enables businesses in the US and the UK to share ideas and expertise with academics in both countries.
Professor Allister Ferguson, Deputy Principal of Strathclyde and Principal Investigator in the Collaboration, said: "This is an ambitious and inventive programme aimed at delivering huge social and economic benefits. We thank the RCUK Science Bridges programme for initially fudning this programme which is now being succesfully sustained by the universiites involved.
"Photonics is a sector with vast capacity for innovation in research and for commercial opportunities. It is dominated in the UK by small companies, and we aim to build on that capacity through this venture, by broadening and strengthening the links in photonics between Scotland and California."