Fianium, a manufacturer of ultrafast fibre laser technology, has won three UK-government competitive funding competitions amounting to £1.35 million. The R&D projects which received the funding will further develop the company’s ultrafast and supercontinuum fibre lasers for high-volume industrial and medical applications.
The projects are funded as part of the UK Technology Strategy Board (TSB) SMART scheme, offering funding to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to engage in R&D projects which have potential to stimulate UK economic growth.
It is exactly this kind of funding that industry experts speaking as part of a panel discussion at the Photonex show in Coventry wanted to see more of to encourage growth in UK photonics.
Fianium’s CEO, Anatoly Grudinin, commented: ‘We have been extremely successful over recent years in winning several important R&D grants from the UK Technology Strategy Board to streamline our product development programme. The funding initiatives are a clear sign of the UK government’s investment in technology SME’s and the latest success is recognition of Fianium’s ability to develop and commercialise industry-leading fibre lasers.’
The projects are in collaboration with research groups at the Centre for Photonics and Photonic Materials (CPPM) at the University of Bath and at Southampton University’s Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC).
