Light for Future Semiconductors: Unlocking Economic Growth Through Photonics

The CORNERSTONE Photonics Innovation Centre successfully hosted its latest event, “Roundtable: Light for Future Semiconductors – Unlocking Economic Growth Through Photonics,” on 18th of March 2025. The discussion, attended by key stakeholders, bringing together policymakers, industry leaders, and academics to spotlight the UK’s leadership in photonics and its potential to drive economic growth. The discussion focused on how photonics can advance the government’s missions, focusing on resilience, infrastructure, and technological leadership.

We were especially honoured to welcome Gurinder Singh Josan CBE MP , who showed his commitment to advancing the sector within government, and Dr Ben Spencer MP (Shadow Minister for Technology, Science and Innovation), who provided invaluable insights.

“The round table discussion provided valuable insights emphasising the interconnectedness of electronics, semiconductors and photonics. We need to make our country more resilient, secure, and prosperous. With supply chains growing more critical, the UK’s strong R&D leadership, CORNERSTONE’s prototyping capabilities and high-volume manufacturing in key markets are more important than ever.”

Dr Ben Spencer MP, Shadow Minister (Science, Innovation and Technology)

“Photonics is actually key to ensuring that Industrial Strategy and government policy keep pace with technological change.”

Gurinder Singh Josan CBE MP , Member of Parliament for Smethwick

Key Takeaways:

  1. Growing recognition of photonics as a key enabler of future technologies and its contribution to the UK’s economy.
  2. The UK government should encourage collaboration among research clusters to avoid competition and silos, which hinder industry and research progress.
    It should emulate successful European models, particularly in the Netherlands and Belgium, where integrated research-to-innovation pipelines drive breakthroughs.
  3. The UK’s expertise in photonics should be fully leveraged by restructuring funding programs to support interdisciplinary collaboration.
  4. Our work at the CORNERSTONE Photonics Innovation Centre is widely acknowledged, reinforcing our role in shaping the sector’s future.

What’s Next?

We are working on follow-ups to translate discussions into action and writing policy recommendations. Stay tuned as we share further reflections and opportunities for collaboration!