The UK already has a substantial photonics industry, but research strength alone will not secure its future. At a Photon2026 panel, researchers and industry leaders argued that the next steps are turning discoveries into products and growing companies, building skills across the workforce, working with European partners, and managing security risks around dual-use technologies.
What the Photon2026 panel discussed
Photon2026, organized by the Institute of Physics at Newcastle University, ran from 1 to 4 September 2026. The meeting brought together the UK and European optics and photonics community. A panel coordinated by Jolyon De Freitas of the IOP Optical Group with the European Optical Society, and moderated by Anne Crean, considered the UK and EU’s strengths and the sector’s future. Participants included John Lincoln, Ruth Oulton, John Howell, Laura Young, Chris Johnson and Tom Grinyer. The views below are arguments made at that discussion, not findings from a survey of the whole industry.
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John Lincoln, chief executive of the UK Photonics Leadership Group, said: “The UK is really good at photonics and it should be something that the UK celebrates.” Industry figures help explain that confidence: the Photonics Leadership Group’s 2025 report estimates that UK photonics generated £18.5bn in output and £8.6bn in gross value added in 2024. It reports 84,800 employees across more than 1,400 firms, and more than 16% like-for-like revenue growth between 2022 and 2024. These figures describe the sector in the report’s stated period; they do not by themselves show how evenly growth is distributed or how much research has become commercial products. Photonics Leadership Group
How can the UK turn research into products and growing firms?
Panelists saw a gap between strong research and its practical impact. Laura Young argued that early medical-technology developments need routes to products that reach patients and deliver commercial or social value. That means treating translation as more than a promising laboratory result: development, validation, investment and adoption all have to connect. The panel report did not quantify how often this transition succeeds.
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Chris Johnson called for better plans to help start-ups and spin-outs grow beyond their early stages, drawing a comparison with the development of synthetic-biology companies. The point was not that the fields are identical, but that a pipeline of research and new ventures needs a path to scale. Without it, scientific capability may not translate into durable companies, manufacturing capacity or broad economic returns.
Ruth Oulton, a University of Bristol researcher, urged scientists to make the case for continued policy support with evidence of success and international comparisons. She said: “The UK government has a very strong and coherent story to tell and it gives a bit of stability and clarity for people coming here, which is really promising,” The panel’s broader challenge to researchers was to explain photonics in terms policymakers and the public can connect to: its role in AI, energy, quantum technologies and connectivity, rather than only its technical novelty.
What skills does the sector need?
Advanced research depends on more than doctoral-level expertise. Lincoln argued that skills support should also reach the engineers and technicians who help develop, produce, install and maintain photonics systems. He put it plainly: “One of the things we are calling for is to make sure that skills support goes beyond PhD to engineers and technicians,”
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This is a workforce breadth issue as well as a training issue. A sector can have excellent research groups and still struggle to manufacture or deploy products if it lacks people with practical technical skills. The panel’s call was to recognize those roles alongside PhD training, not to trade one kind of expertise for another.
Why do panelists see UK–EU collaboration as important?
Participants argued that collaboration can bring partners and scale that are difficult to create within one country. Lincoln summarized the principle as: “Collaboration makes everyone better,” and added: “Don’t think of it as us versus them, but look at it as how we can both win.”
The discussion also recognized different strengths and policy tempos. Oulton described the EU as having the scale to compete with the US and China, while being slower to move on policy; she saw the UK as able to act faster in new fields. That is her framing of a trade-off, not a claim that one model is always superior. The strategic question is how UK agility and European scale can complement one another.
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Tom Grinyer, chief executive of the Institute of Physics, recalled the UK’s period outside the Horizon funding framework: “In 2022 we were outside of the Horizon funding framework and it felt like we were staring through a window,” The panel report says the UK returned to Horizon funding in 2024. Lincoln raised uncertainty about the next European framework programme, FP10, which the report describes as intended to run from 2028 to 2034 with a proposed €175bn budget. Those terms and the UK’s future participation should be treated as policy matters that can change, not as settled outcomes.
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A free scan shows the junk files, broken settings and background clutter dragging Windows down - then fixes them in one click.Free scan · Windows 10 & 11Lincoln also argued that firms should adapt to photonics being treated as a semiconductor, and said EU photonics funding would be folded into the European Chips Act. These were his assessments at the panel; they do not establish the final terms or effect of future funding arrangements.
How can photonics serve public needs beyond industry?
The panel connected photonics to telecommunications, space, quantum technologies, defence and security, as well as AI, energy and connectivity. These applications make it an enabling technology: its components and systems can support work in fields that may not be described as photonics themselves.
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John Howell argued that better access to optics and photonics instrumentation in developing countries could improve environmental and water monitoring and disease detection. The panel report offers no quantified outcomes or named instruments, so this is best understood as a proposed opportunity rather than a measured impact.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How should the sector balance collaboration with security?
Photonics can have both civilian and military applications. Johnson connected the technology to national security and raised concerns about industrial espionage. Panelists also discussed the possibility that dual-use work may face greater scrutiny or restrictions in international partnerships.
That tension does not mean all photonics research is restricted. It does mean that organizations developing sensitive technologies may need to weigh the benefits of shared expertise and access to partners against risks to security and intellectual property. The panel treated this as a real constraint on collaboration, not a reason to abandon it.
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What does UK policy currently propose?
In advice to the Prime Minister published on 9 March 2026, the UK Council for Science and Technology recommended three actions for photonics policy:
- Develop a national roadmap to provide a long-term vision and coordinate activity.
- Use public procurement to support domestic industries.
- Expand international partnerships and exports to build links and markets beyond the UK.
The council describes photonics as an enabling technology with implications for AI, quantum, autonomous vehicles and digital infrastructure. It says a roadmap and targeted investment could help the UK reach a £50bn photonics sector value by 2035, with up to 150,000 additional jobs. Those are possible outcomes, not guaranteed forecasts or current results. UK Council for Science and Technology advice on photonics
What will determine whether the opportunity is realized?
The panel’s arguments point to connected challenges rather than a single fix. Research has to reach patients and other users; young firms need routes to scale; engineers and technicians need support alongside researchers; European cooperation must remain workable as funding arrangements evolve; and security safeguards must address genuine risks without treating every international project as suspect.
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