Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Optical broadband - EU projects worth EUR 22.3 million on photonics research under PPP provisions

[zdnet] The UK, Poland, Germany, Austria and the European Commission collectively donated a total of €22.3m (£20m) to the photonics projects, with the countries putting up two-thirds and the Commission one-third of the funding pot, the Commission announced on Tuesday.

"I'm very happy that research on technology relevant to delivering super-fast internet speeds to the homes and businesses of 500 million Europeans is taking off," Neelie Kroes, digital agenda commissioner, said in the announcement. "Such technology could have a crucial role to play in meeting Europe's broadband needs far into the future."

In February, Kroes invited the photonics industry to enter into a wide-ranging public-private partnership with the Commission to drive the technology forward in a variety of fields.

Each of the 13 projects involves components and IT systems based around photonics for fast broadband. They are all projects submitted to the Piano+ initiative, which was a competition for the funding of future EU broadband projects announced in March 2010.

Photonics for broadband gets £20m EU boost

No comments: