American, European strategies for biophotonics leadership
The U.S.’s National Photonics Initiative (NPI), an alliance of industry, academe, and government that aims to raise awareness of photonics, was established to follow up a key recommendation of the US National Academy of Sciences’ (NAS) 2012 report, Optics and Photonics: Essential Technologies for our Nation. NPI’s Health & Medicine working group has issued a whitepaper that includes key recommendations for America to maintain its leadership role: www.lightourfuture.org/key_recommendations/healthcare.
The European photonics community has done similar work to ensure its own position in photonics: The Photonics Multiannual Strategic Roadmap Towards 2020 – Photonics Driving Economic Growth in Europe outlines research and innovation priorities and provides a technology roadmap. The full report is downloadable from the Photonics21 site; Life Science & Health is covered on pages 41–48: www.photonics21.org/download/Brochures/Photonics_Roadmap_final_lowres.pdf.
Both documents are worth a look.
Barbara Gefvert | Editor-in-Chief, BioOptics World (2008-2020)
Barbara G. Gefvert has been a science and technology editor and writer since 1987, and served as editor in chief on multiple publications, including Sensors magazine for nearly a decade.