Life science companies seeking to enter the medtech and pharmaceutical markets with next generation photonics-enabled products are being offered fresh support to take their ideas to commercialisation.

A two-day European Photonics Roadshow will provide SMEs with industry insight to better understand market needs and surmount challenges, such as adoption and complex regulatory frameworks, to lay the foundations for future growth.

The event, taking place in April as part of the Empowering Photonics through Regional Innovation Strategies in Europe (EPRISE) project, will allow visitors to gain feedback on business-specific issues, with a panel of clinicians, business experts and end-users sharing specialist knowledge of the healthcare market and innovation sector.

Pre-arranged business-to-business meetings will take place to stimulate collaborations and knowledge transfer, with visitors able to additionally arrange one-to-one meetings.

The roadshow, hosted by the Centre for Process Innovation (CPI) – which is one of nine European partners within EPRISE – begins on Wednesday, April 3, at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, in Gateshead. Running from 9am until 5pm, the day will culminate in a social dinner.

On the second day, the roadshow will move to The Core, at Newcastle Helix, and take place between 8.30am and 1.15pm.

Other partners at EPRISE are Photonics Finland, Photonic Sweden, OpTecBB, Photonics NL, Photonics Bretagne, Optitec, Secpho and Optoscana.

Dr Tom Harvey, CPI lead for EPRISE, said: “Participating in these events is a great way for companies to meet and speak to market experts who can guide them with their product development.

“Photonics companies around Europe face common challenges and collaborating and meeting with other people outside of your own geographic region can be very helpful and informative.”

EPRISE is funded by the European Commission’s flagship H2020 programme, which aims to drive economic growth and create new jobs by supporting the commercialisation of new scientific and technological developments.

Highlighting the potential of the photonics sector to selected regional funding authorities and decision-makers around Europe, it aims to improve co-ordination of regional and European-wide funds to the benefit of local photonics companies.

The Newcastle roadshow follows similar events in Berlin, Marseille and Amsterdam, which focused on photonics in the biomedical, healthcare, agriculture and food sectors.