BOSTON, MA - A new international organization whose goal is to serve as an information and commercialization “portal” for the photonics industry made its official debut at the “Future in Light” meeting held at Boston University Photonics Center November 10. The International Photonics Commercialization Alliance (IPCA) is a not-for-profit organization that brings together international businesses, technology clusters, and government agencies to foster collaborations that will serve the photonics industry as a whole, according to Jim Frappier, IPCA spokesperson.
“Our mandate is to provide the commercialization, marketing, and organization of networks that allows photonic ideas to be marketed successfully,” Frappier said. “The IPCA is like a large toolbox that will enable the commercialization of photonics opportunities much more easily and more timely.”
The idea for the IPCA began a year ago when the Canadian Photonics Fabrication Centre-part of the National Research Council (NRC) of Canada-and the Canadian Consulate of Buffalo (NY) began discussing collaborative opportunities that would create value for clients in both Canada and the United States and significantly accelerate the time to market for photonics products. They signed a memorandum of understanding and then, realizing there might be other organizations interested in similar kinds of arrangements, they approached the Photonics Center at Boston University, which quickly signed on, according to Frappier.
Today, just three months after establishing the IPCA, membership includes Infotonics Technology Center, New York; Canadian Photonics Consortium; Optoelectronic Industry Development Association; Canadian Institute for Photonics Innovation; Ottawa Photonics Cluster; New England Fiberoptic Council; and Rochester Regional Photonics Cluster.
And the IPCA is already holding workshops designed to further connect with the photonics community and spread its message of global collaboration. At the Future in Light meeting, they sponsored a commercialization seminar intended to discuss the state of the photonics industry as it relates to the technology roadmap developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT; Cambridge, MA). In addition, the IPCA is sponsoring a financial presentation, “How to gain VC investment in Canada,” in Ottawa on December 7, in conjunction with the Ottawa Photonics Cluster.
For more information about the IPCA and its events, go to www.ipcalliance.org.