The purpose of this meeting is to plan the contribution of the Working Group 7 – Training and Education to the Strategic Research Agenda (new "blue book").   It is very important for the continued health of photonics in Europe that we prepare a strong, realistic and achievable SRA.  Please try to attend if you possibly can. Metaplan will facilitate this WG meeting, to make it a productive exercise.

The importance of the Education, Training and Research in Photonics:

The diversity of photonics and its applications in industry, medicine, the environment and many others area is why it is so important to Europe’s prosperity and the quality of life of its citizens but this diversity poses a challenge in training young people for a career in photonics-related activities.

Why is it difficult?

As in other interdisciplinary fields, training in photonics requires knowledge from several fields, notably physics, materials science, computer science and engineering, and the successful application of photonics may also require a detailed understanding of fields such as engineering, biotechnology, nanotechnology, electronics or medicine.

Example of Needs:

Industry
- Support third and fourth level education by offering internships and other training stages on international basis.
- Think European when recruiting
- Defines the skills that are needed from future workforce

Academia
- Promote photonics in third and second level education for example by offering photonics-related courses
- Work more closely with the industrial word by having industry-based stages in PhD or master programmes and by promote exchange from academic staff to industry and vice versa.
- Foster mobility amongst teachers as well as researchers.
- Develop new or update photonics related educational programmes (Master/Bachelor/PhD) that are derived from industry needs.

National and European Funding Agencies
- Establish EU funding for PhD scholarships, to support trans-national mobility.
- Establish a European Centre for Outreach and Information in Photonics
- Increased funding for research network