Let there be light: GoPhoton! is ready for launch

GoPhoton!, a Pan European outreach project that aims to promote and raise awareness about the ubiquity and industrial and societal importance of the technologies enabled by Photonics.

10.10.2014 Berlin-Adlershof: 5th girls’ technology congress with special focus on photonics.

Every time we use the internet, take a picture with our cellular phone, go to the ophthalmologist and many other medical specialists for a check-up, buy products at the store or scan their barcodes, we are using Photonics, the science of light and light based technologies. Photonics as one of the European KETs (Key Enabling Technologies) of the 21st century enables almost every aspect of our daily lives, but for the most part it remains an unknown science.

The European Centres for Outreach in Photonics (ECOP) launches GoPhoton!, an EU funded initiative through the FP7 program. It aims to bring photonics closer to society and to inform the general public at large as to the ubiquitous and pervasive nature of Photonics in our lives. The goal is to make Photonics a household word, gaining recognition and support for the amazing opportunities and growth potential that Photonics presents for society.

This newly launched project will enter in full force in 2015, coinciding with the International Year of Light and Light based Technologies (IYL2015). Throughout 2015, GoPhoton! will develop, implement and coordinate a series of outreach photonics activities, named PhotonicSplash, that will be replicated in each of the eight cities of the ECOP partners (Barcelona, Berlin, Bratislava, Brussels, Galway, London, Milan and Paris). During each PhotonicSplash, students, teachers, industry, other research institutes as well as the general public will have the opportunity to learn about Photonics by visiting research centres for open day events, going to exhibitions, attending talks, participating in workshops, and taking part in all sorts of educational, entertaining and fun events revolving around the concept and applications of light. Both in 2014 and in 2015 the German partner Ferdinand-Braun-Institut, Leibniz-Institut für Höchstfrequenztechnik will organise girls’ technology congresses with special focus on “light” to be held in the Science and Technology Park in Berlin-Adlershof.

The GoPhoton! partners are:
ICFO- The Institute of Photonic Sciences (Spain, coordinator of the project)
Vrije Universiteit Brussels (Belgium)
Ferdinand-Braun-Institut, Leibniz-Institut für
Höchstfrequenztechnik (Germany)
The National University of Ireland Galway, School of
Physics/Applied Optics Group (Ireland)
Institut d’Optique Graduate School (France)
Imperial College London, Technology and Medicine (United Kingdom)
Politecnico di Milano (Italy)
International Laser Centre (Slovakia)

The European Centres for Outreach in Photonics – ECOP
ECOP is a European alliance committed to create long-term European partnerships with the sole objective of accomplishing a commitment towards promotion of the importance, ubiquity, pervasiveness of optics and photonics in our lives by intending to communicate and impact at all levels of society.

Contact: