Science Bridges- Page Under Construction Initial information below

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Project Director Vacancy

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The Institute of Photonics is keen to engage with this exciting research and commercialisation opportunity.  It is planned that the Project Director will be hosted by the Institute, the vacancy is currently being advertised, please see links above.

There have been some long standing links between Strathclyde and Stanford as well as numerous other links among the other partner Scottish Universities and CalTech. This is a new venture which will build on those relationships with an enticing blend of fellowships, projects and movement of researchers.  Research and commercialisation are both key to Science Bridges and the interactions with industrial affiliates and the investment community will be a strong and vital part of the programme.

We look forward to putting more detailed information about Science Bridges on this page.

Science Bridges website : http://www.su2p.com/

Please find the press release below.

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Science Bridges to California, Feb 2009

The innovative and commercial strengths of the photonics sector are to be harnessed in a major venture between universities in Scotland- led by Strathclyde- and California.

Strathclyde, the Universities of St Andrews, Heriot-Watt and Glasgow, together with Stanford University and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), are collaborating in a project which has won funding worth £1.6 million over three years from the Science Bridges awards, announced by Research Councils UK (RCUK).

The project, the Stanford-Scotland Photonics Innovation Collaboration, is designed to capitalise on leading research in the photonics sector, in fields including life sciences and renewable energy, and the commercial opportunities the research offers.

 It also aims to bolster existing links between universities and businesses in Scotland and the US.

 The three-year venture between the six institutions will focus on:

 ·        Biophotonics, including stem cell imaging and neuroscience photonics

·        Solar cell devices

·        Integrated photonics

·        Solid-state laser engineering

·        Photonics sensors, including atom, quantum optic and environmental sensors.

 The project will give talented young researchers the opportunity to experience working in laboratories in California. It will also enable businesses in the US and the UK to share ideas and expertise with academics in both countries.    

Professor Allister Ferguson, Deputy Principal of Strathclyde and Principal Investigator in the Collaboration, said: "This is an ambitious and inventive programme aimed at delivering huge social and economic benefits. We are pleased to have secured funding from RCUK Science Bridges to work towards this goal.

"Photonics is a sector with vast capacity for innovation in research and for commercial opportunities. It is dominated in the UK by small companies, and we aim to build on that capacity through this venture, by broadening and strengthening the links in photonics between Scotland and California.

"Through this project, we intend to build enduring relationships which will form the basis of a network with sustainable economic impact."

The programme will be delivered through the creation of a series of inter-related activities:

A number of 'proof of principle' pilot projects in areas with commercial potential

A joint industrial affiliates scheme, giving access to knowledge exchange with academics in the other country to companies, large and small, in the UK and the US

A staff exchange scheme between the universities, to develop joint projects with clear commercial potential

An investor network, comprising individuals and businesses with an interest in investing in the technology covered by the programme

A post-doctoral entrepreneurial fellowship programme, offering outstanding early-career researchers the chance to work for a year in a leading laboratory in California     

Dr Stephen Armstrong, Head of the Research Development Service in Strathclyde's Department of Research and Innovation, said: "This programme brings a unique international dimension to our knowledge transfer and entrepreneurship activities, underpinned by excellence in research.

"It's about raising our ambitions and extracting value for economic and societal benefit through linking one of the most dynamic and entrepreneurial communities in the US with Scotland."

The collaboration will involve Strathclyde's Department of Physics, Institute of Photonics and Centre for Biophotonics.