PROPHET

Postgraduate Research on Photonics as an Enabling Technology

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Why this project?

• Semiconductor lasers research activities, recently focused on quantum dot lasers

– We submitted several Marie Curie ITN proposals on Quantum Dots but they were never funded.

• We decided to put forward an ambitious project on Photonics

– EU commission has identified Photonics as one of the five Key Enabling Technologies.

– We decided to focus on four applications • Telecommunications• Life-Science (Optical Imaging)• Environment monitoring (Gas sensing)• Energy (Solar cells)

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PROPHET

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TeleTele

Design and modellingDesign and modelling

GrowthGrowth

FabricateFabricate

CharacteriseCharacterise

ImplementImplement

Telecomm Life science Environment Energy

Choice of partners

• Industrial partners identified as essential– They work in a well-defined area, e.g OPTOPOL sales systems for Ophthalmology– They will hire a post-doctoral researcher for two years and will host PhD students

• Academic partners– Most of the academic partners have two PhD students working in two different

areas of research, e.g. Univ of St Andrews has a PhD student in Energy and a PhD student in life science

– Some partners work in only one area and therefore have only one PhD student

• The list of partners progressed slowly. We made sure that people wanted to contribute to our proposal.

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Partner Telecom Energy Environment Life science

Tyndall/CIT Student Student

LPN-CNRS Lead & student Student

T Univ Berlin Student Post-doc

Univ Lancaster Student Lead & student

St Andrews Lead & Student Student

Nicolus Copernicus LEAD & Student

Weierstrass Student

Matis (Catania) Student

Pavia Student

Alcatel Thales Industry: student

Optopol Industry: post-doc

PROCAL Industry : post doc

U2T Industry: post doc

ST-Microlectronics (AP)

Industry

Telecom& Management Paris(AP)

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Building the proposal

• In CIT/Tyndall, David Williams and I worked full time on the project.

• We assigned a workpackage leaders, e.g. LPN is the lead partner for the workpackage: Photonics Enabling Communications Applications

• Each workpackage developed – 1 page on Scientific background and state-of-the-art– Description of each project with location and duration of the secondments– 1 page description of each workpackage

• Each partner provided half a page – To provide a general description– The role in the project– Key competencies and facilities– Key personnel

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Proposal layout

• 1st page: description of the project– European strategy (reference to Photonics 21 that clearly states that key

challenges for the next few years the training of qualified photonics researchers and the improvement of research coordination and cooperation across Europe.

– PROPHET aims to address this shortage

• Background and state of the art for each field (4 pages)• Research methodology and objectives

– Description of growth and fabrication, device characterisation, theory and design, industrial applications

• Training– Fellows will obtain a working knowledge of the full range of skills employed in

the development of photonic devices. Development of Complementary skills: personnal, presentation, IT, management, ethics, IP

– Personnal Career Development plan.

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Proposal layout

• Description of the project– 10 lines: general description. List of placements

• Workshops, summer schools and conferences– Workshops on

• Growth and Fabrication of Photonic Materials and Devices • Modelling and Design for Photonics • Industry Applications of Photonics • Characterisation of Photonic Materials and Devices

– Summer school in Corsica (3 visiting researchers)– Conference in Cork

• Implementation– ½ page per partner, visiting researcher’s profile– Workpackage description: management, telecomm, energy, environment and life

science– Private sector involvement, synergy between the partners

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Proposal layout

• Recruitment strategy• Benefit to partners, to the Europe (reference to Photonics

21)• Impact within the scientific community

– The workshops and the conference will be open to external participants

• Impact on public-private sector collaboration

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A few tips

• Spend time to define an ambitious proposal• Spent a lot of time at looking at the website of projects

previously funded in similar area• Look for European documents, e.g. Photonics 21• Careful choice of the partners: everybody says yes.

– We ask a few reliable people if they would accept to lead a work-package– No need to have a partner who will spend a month to write a 10 line project– High profile partners can be high maintenance, last minute negotiation !!!!– Some industrial partners have difficulties to hire people, e.g if the company is

not doing well.

• Share the work– We had two people working on the project in Cork

• David Williams put the proposal together• I spent a lot of time calling people to make sure they are on-time

• Be prepared to submit your proposal several times

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PROPHET

• Leading a European Network: Postgraduate Research on Photonics as an Enabling Technology (PROPHET)

– Photonics is a key enabling technology for a wide range of applications such as Telecommunications, Energy, Environment and Life Science.

– Need a common training to design, model, growth, fabricate, characterise and implement in systems photonics materials and devices

• PROPHET brings together– 15 partners including 5 industrial partners to train 14 PhD students and 5 post-

doctoral researchers– The project is lead by CAPPA with a total funding of about €4M

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