A new survey by the photonics consultant team Tematys found that the 100 photonics projects established in Horizon 2020 from 2014 to 2018 will create 3500 jobs in Europe over the next three years. The European photonics industry, which now employs more than 300,000 people, expects to add new technical positions to its workforce such as optical engineers, chemistry engineers, physicists, physics engineers, electronic engineers, IT and computer scientists, data scientists, materials scientists, and specialists in quality and certification, according to Tematys.
The new jobs will also include positions for PhD students and postdoctorates, as well as roles in academic and technical skills. The study shows that photonics technologies have become indispensable to personalized health care, Industry 4.0., and a secure digital society, for example.
While the survey shows the photonics projects are on track to create more than 1500 new positions in large companies, and almost 2000 in small and medium enterprises (SMEs), this could be a conservative estimate, given that 80% of the SMEs and only 40% of the big companies interviewed have declared their intention to create jobs.
The survey discovered that positions such as R&D are most in-demand, with 80% of respondents requiring researchers as a follow up to the project.
“Roles in quality control, safety, product management, and marketing and sales are areas of opportunity for any photonics practitioners of the future,” says professor Roberta Ramponi, a Photonics21 executive board member. “The survey also highlights areas with certain skill gaps: over 50% of the project participants interviewed claim that training skills and curricula need to be established, enlarged, or updated.”
Published by the Photonics21 group and conducted in partnership with Tematys, the survey examined 100 photonics-based consortia funded in part by the EU and private enterprises.
“Not only will the immediate deep technologies benefit but non-photonics end users will see great innovation in their products,” adds Ramponi.
From 2014 to 2018, the European Commission committed more than €445 million to photonics projects in Horizon 2020, which are comprised of 1017 participants, 275 of which are SMEs and 281 large companies.
Estimated to be worth about €90 billion (2019), the European photonics industry has leadership positions in sectors such as production technology, machine vision, digital infrastructure, optical components, and medical technology and a spending quota of 14% of sales on innovation.
With a positive growth forecast, current industry and societal trends such as digital transformation, resource efficiency, CO2 reduction, and real-time quality control for zero-failure production will drive the photonics industry further, according to Photonics21.
Source: Photonics 21
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