Photonics in the Netherlands

In the Netherlands we have different photonics initiatives on a national level

Photonics Roadmap

Read our vision about the societal impact and latest development of Photonics in the Netherlands in our roadmap. This roadmap was realized in April 2018 and updated several times. It formulates the future of photonics, on which we want to unite our colleagues from the academic world, businesses and government.

The roadmap is based on the following starting points:

  • Strengthening excellence
  • Substantial contribution to societal challenges
  • Increase return from research
  • Attention to educating human capital
Download the Photonics Roadmap 2023
Download the Photonics Roadmap 2020
Download the Photonics Roadmap 2018

Photonics lights up Dutch manufacturing industry

What is photonics exactly? What can we do with it and what position does the Netherlands have on the international stage? This report, made by PhotonicsNL and ABN AMRO, sheds light on this interesting field.

Read the report in English
Read the report in Dutch

Dutch Topsectors

The Netherlands has a position in the top twenty of the largest economies in the world and is regarded as an important knowledge generating country. Our country has indeed a long history of inventions, we sailed the world oceans and traded with many other countries. The present societal challenges stimulate our innovation strength and Dutch solutions provide new products and services in the worldwide market. These challenges called for a new disruptive approach of smart collaboration between companies, researchers and the government: “The Topsector Policy”.

The nine topsectors are:

Photonics is part of the High Tech Systems & Materials (HTSM) topsector, branded as Holland High Tech. The R&D agenda has been assigned by the HTSM top team to roadmaps which are an integral part of the Innovation contract of HTSM with the government. Every roadmap team has representatives from industry, institutes, National Science organizations and scientists from universities and have defined the ambition of the roadmap. Photonics is recognized by the HTSM topsector as Key Enabling Technology.