Photonics Innovation Village participants present their projects as part of the exhibition at SPIE Photonics Europe; above, one of the 2010 entrants describes his work.

CARDIFF, UK -- Submissions for the fifth Photonics Innovation Village, a competition to encourage the commercialisation of optics and photonics research and technology into useful products, are due 15 December.

Winners will be announced during a ceremony on 18 April at the Photonics Innovation Village during SPIE Photonics Europe 2012 in the Square Brussels Meeting Centre.

Awards will be made in three categories, with winners determined by representatives from the European Commission Photonics Unit, SPIE, Photonics21, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), a venture capital company, and a large European photonics company. Winners each will receive an award of €1500, and first and second runners-up each will win €500.

The Photonics Innovation Village is organised by B-PHOT, the Brussels Photonics Team at VUB, and supported by SPIE. Awards are sponsored by the Brussels Capital Region Government.

The Innovation Village offers a complimentary "mini-booth" in a high-traffic section of the Photonics Europe exhibition to publicise research teams and their new applications and product development. The village will be open to all attendees of the Photonics Europe conference and exhibition.

Products must be displayed during the event; however a demonstration does not have to be continuous. SPIE recommends supplying English-language literature describing the product.

Teams must be able to attend Photonics Europe. While there is no limitation on the number of team members, three is the recommended size. Improvements on already existing products, or products that already have been commercialised, will not be considered for the Innovation Village exhibition.

Complete application details are online.

SPIE Europe, headquartered in Cardiff, UK, is a European-based extension of SPIE, an international educational not-for-profit organisation founded in 1955 to advance an interdisciplinary approach to the science and application of light. SPIE Europe annually presents several symposia comprising conferences, exhibitions, courses and workshops as well as other membership, educational and industry forums throughout Europe. In addition to organising and sponsoring technical conferences around the world, SPIE publishes journals, books and proceedings, with technical papers available for download via the SPIE Digital Library.

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