Template for setting research and innovation priorities for Horizon2020 PPP work
programme 2016 - 2017 (circulated to the WG Chairs)
Photonics PPP
Photonics21 Research and Innovation topics for the Horizon2020 PPP Work
Programme 2016-20171
WORK GROUP No: 5
Per work group
1. Research topics: Time to market ~6-10 years
2. Innovation topic: Time to market ~3 years (optional)
1
Number of work group proposals on research/innovation topics is not limited
I.
Preamble:
. There will be at least one call per year where Research and Innovation (R&I) actions under
the Photonics PPP (and under the cross-cutting KETs WP) could be supported by the EC
There is therefore a need for:
1. Defining in much more detail than the level of description provided in the SRIA each of
the specific R&I actions which could be candidates for inclusion in the ICT WP 2016-2017
2. Prioritising such candidate R&I actions (incl. the definition of the respective budget
figures) for their inclusion in the ICT WP 2016-2017.
The purpose of this document is therefore to request, from each of the WG, specific inputs with
regard to items 1 and 2 above. Separate inputs are requested for the research actions (topics)
and for the innovation actions.
II.
Description of the area where Horizon2020 funding is requested (1 page max)
1. Area to be addressed: Near and mid-infrared instrumentation for cost-effective highsensitivity and high-selectivity analysis, monitoring and diagnostic sensing
The near- and mid-infrared (NMIR) spectral range – from 0.8 to 50 µm according to ISO 20473 – is
ideally suited for non-contact analysis and sensing applications because most substances show unique
“fingerprint” absorption spectra for NMIR radiation. It is well established, therefore, that NMIR
reflection/absorption spectroscopy and NMIR imaging are excellent tools for rapid analysis and
monitoring of processes and conditions in an extremely wide field of application, including agriculture,
food processing and food safety, medical diagnostics, environmental sensing, waste management and
recycling, combustion control in cars/ships/buildings, water analysis, anti-counterfeiting, safety and
security in public places and transport, etc.
Although it has been verified that many of these practical measurement problems can be solved with
NMIR instrumentation, its cost, size, and complexity often restricts its use to the lab, preventing
pervasive NMIR sensing solutions. The ultimate goal, therefore, is to provide such a cost-effective,
widely usable NMIR instrumentation platform, so that specific, personal NMIR sensing solutions in
private homes, cars, at a patient’s bedside, and even in smart phones become a reality. For complex
analysis like atmospheric trace pollutants or raw material identification (smart mining), today’s NMIR
devices lack sensitivity and specificity.
2. Position of Europe in the application domain (research, industry), foreseen evolution from
now to 2020+. What is the challenge (in Europe) in the respective area today?
Over the past few years, Europe has become the world’s largest exporter of agricultural products; in
2013 European countries have exported food products for about €120b. Out of the world’s ten biggest
pharmaceutical companies, six are European, reporting a combined turnover in 2013 of $251b, about
$60b more than the combined turnover of the other four, non-European top pharma companies.
To support these important industrial branches, and many more for which non-contact, fast, reliable and
affordable diagnostic fingerprinting is a key capability, we have to provide cost-effective highsensitivity and high-selectivity measurement techniques based on NMIR instrumentation, to bring
diagnostic capabilities from the laboratory to the end-user, such as farmers, food retailers, local
recycling and waste treatment centers, doctors, and even to the patient’s bed.
Europe will also face in the next 10 years a major economical (and political) challenge: the access to
raw material like metals and minerals. Currently, the steel sector only employs 410 000 people in
Europe and has a turnover of 150 €billions. The EU launched for this reason an EIP on raw material
(https://ec.europa.eu/eip/raw-materials/en) in which photonics could provide a key support. Although
Europe disposes of major resources
(http://ec.europa.eu/environment/resource_efficiency/pdf/Euromines.pdf), extraction would greatly
benefit from advanced novel sensing metrologies (hyperspectral NMIR imaging, scanning Lidars, etc..)
leading to “smarter mining”
Already today, European manufacturers are leading in top-tier NMIR instrumentation, in low-cost
NMIR gas sensing (e.g. CO2 sensors for less than €20), as well as in NMIR components (such as
quantum cascade lasers). However, pervasive use of NMIR solutions requires a combined effort of
component manufacturers, system designers and solution providers to achieve four goals
simultaneously:
(1) Increased sensitivity (in particular for gas sensing with its limited interaction length)
(2) Increased specificity (to discriminate individual components, especially at low concentrations)
(3) Reduced size (for portable microsystems)
(4) Reduced cost (of the order of €100 for large-volume sensing solutions and more efficient and
targeted extraction for smart mining).
Making concurrent progress in all four directions requires systematic exploitation of recent and
forthcoming R&D results, the existing broad photonics/microelectronic manufacture infrastructure, as
well as the incipient integration capabilities for photonic microsystems, under development also with
the support within H2020.
The challenge is to convince all stakeholders – from researchers over component manufacturers to
system integrators – that all elements required for pervasive, high-specificity NMIR sensors will be
available in due time, so that all stakeholders begin with their part of the development process now,
with the common goal of being finished at the same time.
3. What needs to be done?
The goal is to define and launch research and innovation actions that have a similar pace-making
function for pervasive, high-specificity NMIR microsensors as Moore’s law has had for the past forty
years in microelectronics: They should conclusively show for high-visibility and high-volume
applications that the sensitivity, specificity, form factor and price of NMIR micro- or large scale
mapping sensors can be attained that are needed for the many fields of use mentioned in section II.1:
- In a suitable research action, relevant sensing applications should be proposed and investigated,
for which novel NMIR sensing system architectures, components and manufacturing techniques
will represent a breakthrough for the future use in food, agriculture, chemicals, waste, mining
and construction materials, because the required sensitivity and specificity can be attained
simultaneously
- In a suitable innovation action, existing photonic/microelectronic components and
manufacturing techniques shall be exploited for the demonstration of miniaturized NMIR
sensing solutions, for which known and trusted NMIR measurement techniques exist, in the
domains of health, food, water, air, environment, waste management and recycling, as well as
in transport.
4. When should it be launched and how much funding is needed?
Research Action:
WP2016
Innovation Action:
WP2017
III.
Proposal for Research or Innovation Topic(s) (2 page max) in Horizon2020 WP
2016-2017
For each Research or Innovation topic, please provide a few lines of description which
comprises of at least the issues listed below under 1 to 6 (for the level of granularity of the
description per R&D topic, see for example the WP text of Objective 3.2 Photonics under the
ICT FP7 WP 2013)2. Innovation actions can be in the form of a pilot production line, a
demonstration action, a combination of these or any other form of action.
Research Action: Pervasive High-Specificity Sensing
1. Description of the topic, objective:
Increasing environmental awareness of our citizens has led to an expanding demand for sensorial
information: Many people want to know what they eat and what they drink, what air they breathe, if
their water is clean and their housing is not detrimental to their health, whether their heating operates
efficiently and their car does not produce too much pollution, whether the public places they frequent
are safe, etc. Processing, display and dissemination of this information are easily done using the
ubiquitous smartphones. What is missing, however, are novel and cost-effective methods to sense the
desired analytes with high sensitivity, high reliability and a sufficiently small form factor, so that these
measurements can be carried out essentially everywhere. In particular, the sought sensing solutions
share the following properties:
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They can be deployed on large areas (“pervasive”), either by spatially distributing a large
number of compact sensors, or by using a single device capable of a large spatial coverage;
They provide reliable information on the species, phenomena or events to be detected,
identified or measured, offering a low false alarm rate in presence of interfering elements;
this is what is understood by “high-specificity”;
They provide cost-effectiveness and high added value. To be clear, “cost-effectiveness”
should not be equated with “low-cost”; it rather means that the techniques and devices
create valuable information commensurate to the cost of generating this information.
They address essential parts of the supply chain, from the component technologies up to the
service providers;
Because of the enormous diagnostic potential of the NMIR spectral range, the potential low cost and
small form factor of miniaturized solutions, and because of the non-contact nature of photonic
measurement techniques, the focus of this research action is on:
 Chemical sensors based on NMIR spectroscopy, a technology that complements the current
panel of measurement technologies developed and further developed within the pilot line,
such as detection system (e.g. photo acoustics cells, liquid measurement cells, closed and
open path transmission based measurement schemes for gases), including suitable NMIR
photon detectors for integration into high-sensitivity and high-selectivity sensing systems
 Architectures and devices for stand-off chemical and biological detection solutions
 Exploitation of the results of this research action in other wavelength ranges (such as the Xray, visible, UV or THz spectral range). Projects should focus on the practical
2
See http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/ict/docs/ict-wp2013-10-7-2013-with-cover-issn.pdf, pages 40-42.
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implementation (sources, detectors, architectures) of already demonstrated effects, in view
of cost-effective innovative products. The manufacturability using of standard supply
chains (such as e.g. integration and compatibility with CMOS technology) is an important
issue for cost-effective production
Chemical and biological sensors exploiting combinations of NMIR, UV and/or THz
radiation based detection schemes, as well as combinations with chemical samplepreparation and pre-concentration techniques
Atomic and molecular scale sensors allowing nanoscale measurements (e.g. nanoscale
magnetic resonance imaging, nano-antennas for the NMIR range) or high sensitivity
measurements at room temperature compatible with biological samples. Quantum effects
can be harnessed to reach unprecedented sensitivities, for example with the novel roomtemperature single-photon NMIR spectroscopy techniques pioneered by European
researchers.
The NMIR spectral range is also of interest to developers of hyperspectral LIDAR and
time-of-flight range imaging solutions, because of increased maximum power levels for
eye-safe operation. As a consequence, either (1) novel solutions for 3D navigation,
autonomous vehicles and robots, as well as man-machine interfaces are expected, or (2)
mobile platforms allowing large scale mapping of chemical composition will become
available
2. Relevant Research & Innovation present in Europe?
Europe has a strong position along the complete supply chain of chemical and biological sensors, from
research institutes (such as FhG IAF, CEA-leti, KTH) to large system integrators (such as Siemens,
Morpho or Selex), including a large number of SMEs that have the capacity to industrialise
intermediate products, such as MIR laser sources, photoacoustic micro-cells, liquids/gas analytical
sensors etc. Examples of specialized SMEs include:
 QuantaRed Technologies (Austria) produces QCL based MIR fingerprint spectroscopic
sensors for liquids
 Alpes Lasers (Switzerland) manufactures high-performance QCL light sources for
spectroscopy, for example for gas sensing
 Cascade technologies (UK) provides a security screening portal based on MIR
spectroscopy.
 Amplitude Technologies (F) and Light Conversion (Lithuania) provide high brightness
supercontinuum sources in the NMIR
Around 30 SMEs directly developing and marketing high end chemical and biological sensor
components and systems can be identified in Europe. It is expected that the forthcoming NMIR microsensors pilot line, to be launched in 2016 as a H2020 cross-cutting KET project, will contribute to the
further strengthening and structuring of the landscape of SMEs in this field.
It should also be mentioned that research on the atomic scale and quantum physics is very strong in
Europe, and is already supported by numerous FP7 (e.g. FET proactive ICT-2013-10, ÅMOL-SDS) or
H2020 (e.g. Flagship Graphene) projects, resulting in essential control of the main technological
building blocks, from the starting host material to the final device. Start-up companies are expected to
manufacture these materials and devices in the coming years. The above mentioned SMEs, on the basis
of their technical experience and knowledge of the market, could also profit from and support such
industrialisation.
3. Impact on European economy, employment
The business model of the above mentioned technologies is expected to be similar to the MIR microsensor business model described in WG5 document edited in 2012, due to the fact that for most of the
above-mentioned technologies, a substantial market can be reached only by large scale manufacturing.
Such manufacturing will rely on high end semi-conductor technologies, which needs specific facilities
that can be initiated through the set-up of pilot lines, such as the one scheduled in the ICT call 2015 for
MIR micro-sensors.
The following markets will profit, in particular, from the expected results of this research action:
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Air quality sensors (air conditioning systems)
Water quality sensors
Environmental monitoring
Security and safety
Agriculture
Smart mining
Waste management and recycling
Furthermore, this research action will have an impact on Europe’s economy in the following ways:
 There is a direct market access and market potential for EU-based companies, specialised in
photonics-based sensing equipment and complete sensing solutions making use of them,
both in the EU and worldwide.
 The value and supply chain from industrial R&D to materials and component manufactures
up to the systems integrator and end-user level is covered in Europe, with a strong
involvement of highly innovative SMEs (see above); thus the creation of further high-value
jobs in Europe will be secured through the proposed research action.
 Development of atomic scale sensors will contribute to the development of high tech
European companies and create high level jobs: atomic scale sensors will make possible
chemical analysis at the nanoscale that will be of great benefit for the European
pharmaceutical industry, securing its already strong position
 Production of host material with unprecedented quality is necessary for atomic scale
sensors. As an example, Element 6 is the leading company in supplying ultra-high purity
single–crystalline diamond substrates globally.
 Nanoscale sensors require nano-positioning capability. This is obtained with devices based
on piezoelectric technology offering nanometer precision. SMEs such as Attocube and
Smaract are developing such devices and have world leading positions in the field.
4. Impact on societal challenges
The envisaged technologies will directly contribute to sensing and monitoring air and water quality,
which are of paramount importance for the quality of life in Europe and world wide
More efficient use of resources (both raw materials and energy) will be possible along the whole value
chain from mining/harvesting through fabrication/manufacturing and transportation up to eventual
recycling and re-use. This more responsible use of raw materials is of prime importance for a
sustainable economic development in Europe. The availability of the above addressed portfolio of
sensors for chemical and biological detection will greatly assist this development.
Atomic scale sensors allow us to understand chemical processes at the single molecule scale giving rise
to unprecedented understanding of chemical and pharmaceutical processes. This will contribute to
develop entirely new and better targeted drugs inducing more efficient treatments with fewer unwanted
side effects.
5. EU added value
The necessary competences for this research action are present in Europe but spread over several
countries. The complementarity ensures a comprehensive control of the technology chain at the
European level. The worldwide competition is very strong and requires a joint effort at the European
level in order to be able to stand the competition, in particular with the US. Europe has to develop its
own technology in order to capitalize the research investment it has already performed. If we have to
rely on US technology, we will not have access to key components.
6. Funding
to be completed
Innovation Action : “Process and Product Monitoring and Analysis” (PPMA)
1. Description of the topic
Efficient processes in the chemical and food industries need sensitive and highly reliable instruments
for online and inline process control and analysis. Due to its inherent advantages photonic
instrumentation establishes a large and most rapidly growing market compared to other measurement
techniques. Process Analytical Technology (PAT) starting from a FDA initiative in 2004 and initially
focusing on the pharmaceutical industry has become a major toolbox to achieve highly efficient
processes worldwide. Nowadays, PAT aims at a complete understanding and modeling of production
processes which creates additional demand for suitable instrumentation.
Photonics PAT is a crosscutting technology as advances result in strong leverage. As described in the
SPIRE-H2020 topics, aiming at improvement of industrial processes, advances in instrumentation will
have a strong impact onto multi-billion Euro industries in Europe. By increasing efficiency and
performance they shall keep and strengthen their worldwide competitive position.
Maintaining product quality is the second important issue driving development of advanced photonics
instrumentation. Composite products have to keep their functionality from curing to recycling. This is
also a challenge for the food industry, where roughly 50% of agricultural products are currently wasted
from farm to fork. By optimized monitoring and process control along the food chain of sensitive
products this could be improved. Agriculture and food industries are a considerable part of European
economy, as mentioned above, and food logistics is causing a major part of traffic in Europe, too.
In food processing frequently large volume streams of natural goods like wheat grains or milk have to
be continuously monitored. Thus fast instruments are needed. On the other hand there is need for small
handheld instruments to check the quality of individual food products e.g. the ripeness of fruits.
Finally, product monitoring also includes long term infrastructure as a key backbone of European
economy. Transport infrastructure for people, water, materials, products and energy, and public and
private building infrastructure have to be maintained during at a high level of functionality. Photonics
instrumentation is needed to improve whole life surveillance and maintenance at lower costs, and
enable planning of future maintenance /construction activities in advance.
For Process and Product Monitoring and Analysis (PPMA) applications, reliability is the most
important challenge for novel photonic instrumentations, especially if safety issues are important. The
aim of this innovation action thus is to advance the state of the art of photonics instruments (i.e.
components, modules and systems) towards reliable solutions for challenging PPMA applications. New
developments shall either define a pilot line of dedicated instruments/systems achieving a TRL > 5 or
perform demonstration actions for at least one specific PPMA application with novel
instruments/systems with TRL > 5. Innovation actions should demonstrate strong industrial
commitment and be driven by user requirements. Reliability of the instruments has to be demonstrated
in realistic scenarios.
As many novel PAT applications result from advances in chemometric software the focus of these
innovative actions shall be on photonic hardware development.
Specific objectives:
Innovation actions should address:
1. Advanced photonics instruments and sensors for on-line- /in-line process control, including novel key
photonics components and modules, e.g. novel and compact laser sources, MEMS spectrometers,
detector assemblies, fibers for extended spectral coverage, etc. Process analytical instrumentation
should be show clear improvements beyond the state of the art in sensitivity, specificity, long term
stability, high measurement rate, and reliability. Instruments should have self-testing/-monitoring
functionalities. Calibration stability and on-site calibration capabilities have to be included.
2. Advances in rugged instruments combining e.g. NMIR hyperspectral sensing and imaging features
for spatially resolved monitoring and analysis of process streams in real time. Advances shall be
demonstrated for specific industrial applications, preferably in the fields of chemical production,
manufacturing of composites, and food industries.
3. Compact and miniaturized photonics sensors and sensor networks outperforming state of the art PAT
instrumentation in terms of process relevant specifications, size, and cost. Key innovations may be
novel photonics components and/or system integration concepts to meet the application requirements.
The advantages compared to conventional sensors have to be demonstrated in a specific industrial
application.
4. Pilot line of novel handheld photonics sensors and sensor networks for monitoring product quality
especially in the food and agriculture industry. Estimated production cost of such instruments should be
attractive for SME users in this field. Increase in efficiency and reduction of waste along the logistic
food chain has to be demonstrated.
5. Advanced NMIR photonics instruments for the smart monitoring of transport, energy and building
infrastructures. Novel solutions beyond the state of the art could be e.g. fiber based, multispectral
sensors and sensor networks, or time-of-flight systems. Mobile instruments for inspection on demand or
sensors for long term installations have to be applied and demonstrated for specific applications. Long
term reliability and cost of maintenance have to be addressed.
2. Relevant Research & Innovation present in Europe
Photonics research in Europe is considered to be at an excellent level. Many active R&D centers with
high level equipment exist and interact well due to continuous European and national funding of
photonics.
Additionally, PPMA instrumentation is already well positioned in European industry, because many
large enterprises in the chemical industry are established in Europe (e.g. BASF, BAYER,..) using such
instruments. However, most production plants currently run or being constructed by these companies
are abroad. Process instrumentation and related services are strongly covered by European
manufacturers (i.e. ABB, E+H, Siemens,..) cooperating with European process and production
industries.
Generally, PPMA instrumentation is handled in a very conservative way in a production environment.
Production engineers and maintenance teams strongly stay with the established rugged, reliable sensors
or instruments. Failure of a sensor must not influence a running production process. They have to be
clearly convinced by the advantages (e.g. ROI within < 3 years) of a new instrumentation technology.
As pointed out in the German NAMUR roadmap (Prozess-Sensoren2015+) of 2009 major industrial
demands for future PAT sensors are increase of reliability, increase of sensitivity, availability of in-line
and spatial information of process parameters.
Photonics instruments are considered to be best suited to meet these challenges. As a result, process
instrumentation manufactures are increasing their product portfolio adding optical instruments and /or
acquisition of photonics companies (e.g. acquisitions of Spectra Sensors, Analytic Jena and Kaiser
Optical Systems by Endress and Hauser in 2013).
The main bottleneck between the excellent European photonics research and the development and
application of rugged PPMA instruments is to convince European instrument manufacturers and their
industrial customers to invest into increasing the TRL of a promising photonic technology. This is the
aim of the innovative actions.
3. Impact on European economy, employment
According to the German NAMUR roadmap “Prozess-Sensoren 2015+” of 2009, the chemical and
pharmaceutical industry just in Germany represents a workforce of more than 400.000 employees with
annual turnover of €170b and F&E expenditure of €9.5b. The world pharmaceutical market in 2014 is
estimated to be $970b (F&S study 2010).
A recent F&S study on “Strategic Analysis of the Global Food and Beverage Processing Support
Market” (August 2013) reports a market of $228b for food and beverage equipment with an annual
compound growth rate of 2.7%. Key driver is increasing demand for convenience food products.
Competitions drives innovations in food safety, product quality and energy efficiency. This generates
request for process analytical instrumentation.
As described in the F&S market study “World Process Analytical Instrumentation Market” (June 2010)
a market volume starting from $2.7b in 2009 and exceeding $3b in 2014 with compound annual growth
rate of 2,7% is expected. Key drivers are increasing process efficiency and environmental issues (e.g.
regulations). The largest market share show process analyzers for the chemical and petrochemical
industry worth approximately $1b. Oil and gas followed by pharmaceutical and biotech process
instrumentation are next. Installation of PAT instrumentation is mainly abroad. In a more recent F&S
study for the South-East Asia process analytical instrumentation market (May 2013) revenues of $228m
in 2012 and a compound annual growth rate of 3.9% was reported.
Developments of process analytical instrumentation thus will have a leverage to about a thousand times
larger markets, in particular the pharmaceutical market.
Generally, process spectrophotometers cover $720m which are dominated by infrared instrumentation
exceeding $600m.
These combined figures are a strong indication that development in photonic PAT instrumentation
especially in the NMIR spectral range will have a huge economic impact.
4. Impact on societal challenges
It is expected that photonic PPMA instrumentation and sensing may have considerable socio-economic
impact in the field of infrastructure monitoring. Compared to other regions, the well-developed
transportation infrastructures for energy, water and traffic are clearly favoring Europe.
Optimization and future planning of the efforts to maintain and improve the infrastructure is a key task
of any region in Europe. Furthermore, resilience of sensitive infrastructure has to be improved to react
to future unforeseen man-made or natural events. Photonics instrumentation can e.g. monitor the
condition of buildings, roads, bridges, gas pipelines, power lines, water supply etc.
Another field of socio-economic relevance is the application of photonic instrumentation in the food
and agriculture industries. Reduction of waste along the logistic chain, optimized application of
fertilizers, safe food, etc. will result from photonic PPMA developments. They can help to ensure a
sustainable supply of affordable and high quality food to our society.
5. EU added value:
to be completed
6. Funding
to be completed