What Photonics had done for us!

‘Photonics’ is an industry that involves all aspects of light – its production, its transmission, its manipulation and its use. It has an extremely varied set of applications that covers everything from exotic long-haul telecommunications infrastructure to the laser in every CD player.

Industrial lasers are main manufacturing tools in an enormous range of industries and employed across a vast range of scale from the very large to the nano Photonics is also one of the primary “green” technologies with high efficiency LED lighting and Photovoltaic solar panels two of the main thrusts towards the low carbon economy. High bandwidth broadband communications also promises to be a major contributor to the future green economy as advanced telecoms replaces travel See Full Paper

Digital Britain review: Position paper by the Photonics Leadership Group

The Photonics Leadership Group (PLG) comments here on the ‘Digital Britain’ interim report in so far as its interests overlap.
The PLG is an industry-led group representing the photonics industry in the UK and having a membership composed of leading industrial companies, academic institutions and government. The PLG works with BERR, the Technology Strategy Board and the Knowledge Transfer Networks (KTNs) to understand emerging technologies and to promote their usage.
The PLG welcomes the considerations being given to enhancing ‘Digital Britain’ but is concerned that the plans as described for telecommunications networks are insufficiently ambitious.
Full Paper

Ultra Efficient Lighting

Recent advances in lighting technology present the opportunity to deliver considerable energy, resource and cost efficiencies. The term “Ultra-efficient Lighting” has been coined to encourage thinking beyond today’s technology to help bring about a step change in the efficiency and functionality of lighting solutions.

PLG, What we are doing..!

To help drive innovation in the UK’s lighting sector's supply chain the PLG's lighting industry expert, Dr Geoff Archenhold, and other key players from the PLG have been working with BERR on a pilot project in partnership with the Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust, the Department of Health (DH), and NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency (PASA). The project is pioneering the Forward Commitment Procurement model developed to hasten the market entry of innovative and sustainable technologies.

Forward Commitment Procurement (FCP)

We have adopted the Forward Commitment Procurement (FCP) approach, as recommended in the Governments Sustainable Procurement Action Plan, to accelerate the market entry of innovative and sustainable technologies. See the presentation of Dr Frost explaining the FCP process.

Rotherham NHS trust project

The project is part of their major ward reconfiguration and refurbishment programme (Future Wards) that aims to achieve a step change in the patient experience through the incorporation of highly efficient, smart, ultra-efficient lighting systems. In addition to creating a first-class lighting environment, intelligently controlled UEL systems should be able to deliver sizeable reductions in the Trust’s carbon footprint while delivering best value for money in terms of ownership operating costs and hygiene. Further details of the Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust project can be found at:  Link

Key Dates

31st October 08, Market sounding response period,
December 08, Market consultation workshop
February 09 (end), Procurement strategy,
March 09, Procurement process begin
October 09, First phase deployment

Market Sounding Workshop

As a first step a Market Sounding Workshop was held in The Business Design Centre, London on 29 September 2008. The purpose of this workshop was to provide an opportunity for the supply chain to inform and shape procurement strategy, design and specifications for the deployment of UEL systems in the Rotherham NHS Foundation Trusts Future Wards programme and other NHS refurbishment and new build projects. This is not a call for tenders or a pre-qualification exercise. It is a market sounding exercise to provide advance information of requirements and open a dialogue with the supply chain. The results will be used to inform future procurement specifications and strategies.

Market Sounding Workshop Agenda Market Sounding Workshop Delegate List

Breakout sessions were run by:
The Lighting Accociation
Lighting Industry Federation:
Photonics Cluster (UK)
UK Lighting and Lighting KTN
Feed back from each of these group will be posted when available.
Slides from the Workshop can be found at the links bellow:

There are likely to be other market sounding meetings held regionally in October and November, with a concept viability workshop near the end of 2008 to develop the specifications and procurement strategy that can deliver the requirement.

Ultra Efficient Lighting Workshop Feedback Summary

PLG members directly involved

Geoff Archenhold, BERR secondee
Chris Williams, Director, Displays & Lighting KTN
Gareth Jones, CTO, Enfis

Electronics Weekly, A Guide to LED lighting