Light Jumps · An efficient and effective platform for the cooperation of photonics clusters and the exploitation of European SMEs potential

Photonics is a key innovation driver in many research and application areas like telecommunications, lighting, entertainment, laser-assisted manufacturing and sensors. Europe is a leading actor in the photonics sector, responsible of 20,3%, of the global productionIt is paramount to create a solid framework and virtual infrastructure, foster the competitiveness and global leadership of the EU photonic industry and contribute to the creation of growth and jobs in Europe, whilst raising, at the same time, the awareness of the importance of photonics by all stakeholders, including industry, academia and wider public.However, as of 2013, the picture of the EU photonics clusters is relatively negative, in particular: i) academia and industry face difficulties in networking efficiently; ii) there is inability and a lack of ambition in extending targets and cooperation; iii) important actors are missing in the value chain; iv) clusters' roles and activities are still non-uniform and are fragmented at the regional and national levels.The Light Jumps project stems from the need to overcome present difficulties and the need to establish a coherent European framework for supporting industry to tap into and exploit the vast opportunities of photonic technologies in wide range of application areas.The Light Jumps project will connect photonic clusters, enabling technologies and stakeholders (research partners and SMEs), with clusters and stakeholders in specific application areas, as such bridging communities and help overcoming fragmentation. Light Jumps will build and market-test" a unified and structured industry-driven classification scheme, knowledge framework, support methodologies, interlinked communities and web-based tools to harness the potential of EU companies."