General Information
PhotonicRoadSME is co-funded by the European Commission as a Support Action under the 7th Framework Programme. The project started on 1st of May 2008 and will end on 30th of April 2010.
Project summary
In the next ten years, scientific developments in the field of nanophotonics as key driving force in photonics will influence many different industrial branches. In these industrial sectors, many small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) are involved as traditional suppliers, start-ups or producers of high tech products. In order to remain competitive on these markets, the SMEs have to integrate these new results and developments in their commercial vision for future applications and products.
The pilot project PhotonicRoadSME aims at the development of individual technology roadmaps to identify future RTD strategies for Europe within the next 5-15 years. These roadmaps will identify trends in research and development and associate them to products and applications, outlining their technical and economical potential for problem solving. Validation of these results will be performed by consultation of industrial and scientific experts.
As specific SME-types and industrial sectors have specific needs, the adaption of individual technology roadmaps will be performed by conducting case studies and implementation workshops in the companies. Thus, the integration of European RTD results from the photonics sector to SMEs will be facilitated.
The project involves nine well-known European organisations from five European countries, which are research leaders in the domain of photonics, European experts in the development of technology roadmaps and photonic networks.

Overall objectives
The European project „PhotonicRoadSME“ develops individual technology roadmaps in the field of photonics for supporting small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). The demands on forthcoming photonic products shall be identified at an early stage. Analysis of relevant international research and development results concerning photonic materials, fabrication technologies, and photonic devices and components shall help the SMEs to react to these emerging requirements. This roadmapping process will contribute to SMEs investment decisions and to the design of successful business models in medium term. For this, the project is divided into three phases.
Phase 1 - Market driven and technology driven approach
The needs and market requirements of SMEs will be analysed by conducting interviews, surveys, and SWOT-analyses (strength/weakness/opportunity/threats analyses). Furthermore, national and international research activities and research publications in the scope of photonics will be investigated and evaluated branch-specifically. A newly developed dynamic database will contain all these information and will be used for developing industrial sector specific and SME specific roadmaps.
Phase 2 - Industrial sector specific and SME specific technology roadmaps
The results of the analyses in phase 1 will contribute to the development of technology roadmaps for the four industrial branches:
• information and communication technologies (ICT)
• environment
• health & well-being
• safety & security.
The identified trends within each of these sectors will highlight products and their application fields that possess high potentials for solving current social, ecological, and economic problems. The three different SME types “developer”, “producer”, and “user” will be analysed separately.
Phase 3 - Integration of the roadmaps into the industrial context
These individual technology roadmaps developed in phase 2 will be validated by conducting case studies and implementation workshops at the SMEs. Thereby, strategies for products development will emerge, enhancing the global competitiveness of these SMEs. The interaction between research facilities and SMEs shall be improved and the training of professionals in the photonics sector shall be facilitated.
There are several organization from different European countries involved  into this project. The main Polish coordinator of this project is Doc. dr hab. Witold Łojkowski from Institute of High Pressure Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Contact persons:

1.  Doc. dr hab. Witold Łojkowski – Adres poczty elektronicznej jest chroniony przed robotami spamującymi. W przeglądarce musi być włączona obsługa JavaScript, żeby go zobaczyć.
2.  Joanna Sobczyk – Adres poczty elektronicznej jest chroniony przed robotami spamującymi. W przeglądarce musi być włączona obsługa JavaScript, żeby go zobaczyć.
3. Dr. Sergiy Yatsunenko – Adres poczty elektronicznej jest chroniony przed robotami spamującymi. W przeglądarce musi być włączona obsługa JavaScript, żeby go zobaczyć.

More detail information you can find in Internet. Project website address:
http://www.photonicroad.eu/