American, European strategies for biophotonics leadership

July 12, 2013

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.

About the Author

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.