Firstly I would very much like to welcome everyone to the DTI today. I am delighted to be able to launch the new LINK programme on Optical Systems for the Digital Age, and pleased that so many of you could make it here today.
Optoelectronics is a relatively new and very exciting technical area, and is a field in which the UK has a world class science base. Over the years, the UK can lay claim to a number of vitally important research breakthroughs. These include the invention of optical fibre itself (at what is now Nortel's research centre at Harlow), the optical fibre amplifier (at the University of Southampton), and light-emitting polymers (at Cambridge University).
Sustained levels of Government funding over a number of years have helped academia to develop considerable strengths in optical research, and there are now a dozen or so university departments with world class reputations in this field. This support continues with the recent investment of £10.5 million in establishing an Interdisciplinary Research Collaboration led by the University of St Andrews, to carry out research into the next generation of very high speed optical communications. This will be essential for the delivery of new levels of service and functionality, and to support the rapid expansion of e-commerce
Optoelectronics has rapidly become one of the new wave of key technologies underpinning the new economy in the UK. Just as electronics has revolutionised the developed world over the past 30 years, optical technologies are likely to have a similar effect over the next 20 years.
Already we have seen the improvement to telecommunications services made possible by the installation of fibre optic links, which exploit the ability of light to carry much larger volumes of information than alternative technologies. Now the Internet is fuelling a dramatic increase in demand for digital bandwidth which can only be satisfied by optical techniques, and future multimedia and mobile services will require increasing network flexibility and functionality.
Optical technologies are also poised to make a substantial impact in fields as diverse as medicine, computing and transport, in many cases adapting and building on the technologies developed for communications. In medicine, for example, advances in Optoelectronics are making possible a variety of new techniques, ranging from the use of compact lasers for delicate surgery, to photodynamic therapy for the treatment of cancer.
To appreciate just how fast optical technology is going, it is interesting to compare its development with another fast moving technology - semiconductor microelectronics. Since the birth of the transistor in 1947, constant innovation has resulted in chip processing power doubling every 18 months, Moore's Law. Everybody accepts that this is a fantastic rate of progress. But optics is outpacing even that amazing rate, and recently the information carrying capacity of optical fibres has been doubling every 9 or 10 months.
This exponential growth of optical communications capability is creating major new opportunities for UK-based business exploiting optical technology. All the evidence would suggest that the market for optical communications equipment - already a £30 billion business - will continue to grow rapidly, perhaps to £200 billion within a decade or so, and that the technology will spread into other areas such as transportation and medical applications.
A recent analysis of the sector put UK production, of optoelectronics systems and components, last year at about £4 billion, which accounts for half of the total EU production.
This promise is already being translated into commercial success for UK-based companies. The past year has also seen a large expansion of the optical components and systems manufacturing industry in Britain, with over 6,000 new R&D and manufacturing jobs announced, including expansions by prominent inward investors such as Nortel and JDS-Uniphase, as well as large indigenous companies such as Marconi. There is also a rapidly growing number of indigenous SMEs, some of which have the potential to grow and become large companies, for example companies like Bookham Technology.
I'd like to talk now about the new programme.
Over the past decade Government Departments and Research Councils have supported collaborative research through a number of programmes under the LINK scheme. LINK has proved to be popular with the optoelectronics community, and a number of very successful collaborations have come out of these programmes. Earlier DTI and EPSRC support for optical technology is paying off in industrial terms and these programmes have helped enhance and maintain the UK's position as the prime European location for the manufacture of optoelectronic components and systems.
I believe that the potential for further growth in this area is great indeed, and the new programme on Optical Systems is aimed at exploiting the next wave of research. It is intended to help universities to develop effective relationships with industrial players in the UK, both large and small.
It will work on a whole raft of new issues related to optical switching, network topologies, and low cost networks for the home, as well as medical, transportation, computing, displays and many other applications. In my view, the opportunities for the UK, with its strong academic and industrial base, are enormous and worth pursuing, and the new LINK programme aims to increase the commercial exploitation of the excellent science base in this field.
The programme will contribute towards the primary DTI aim of increasing competitiveness and scientific excellence in order to generate higher levels of sustainable growth and productivity in a modern economy. It will enable industry, and SMEs in particular, to access the broad UK base of academic expertise in optical technology, and help attune academics to the needs of industry.
The Programme will be supported by up to £11million of public funds, - £6million from DTI and £5million from the EPSRC - to be committed to projects over the next 3 years. This will be balanced by contributions of at least £11million from the industrial participants, thereby generating an overall programme activity worth at least £22million in total. This will complement the substantial government funding for university research being provided through EPSRC, as well as the assistance provided to SMEs through the SMART programme.
I will not attempt to describe the programme in detail, as this will be covered by the other speakers later this morning. I do hope you enjoy the rest of the event, and thank you again for coming to the launch today.
I will now hand you back to your chairman who will introduce the next speaker.
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