Riga Photonics Centre is an association of research organizations, educational institutions, government functions and individuals involved with photonics in Latvia and more broadly the Baltic Sea Region.   Photonics can be defined as the study and practice of controlling photons to meet human needs.  Photons are quanta of light.   As such photonics is involved in all devices that use light across the full spectrum including optical devices, lasers, fiber optics, spectroscopy, telescopes, microscopes and numerous other technologies and devices.   Photonics is involved in research as well as in manufacturing as well as in everyday devices such as mobile telephones.   Photonics frames fields such as quantum sciences, space sciences and related technologies and is an important component of research conducted in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia comprising approximately 45% of research output in peer reviewed journals from the three Baltic Sea states.

Historical development

Riga Photonics Centre has been formed as a not-for-profit association to continue the public outreach and cluster services that were part of the FOTONIKA-LV Regpot 2011 Framework 7 project.   During the course of the Project nearly 100 colloquiums were conducted on various scientific and technical subjects, a series of seminars were conducted on intellectual property management and protection for SMEs and for researchers.   Additionally in depth training seminar was held in the TRIZ innovation acceleration methodology.   More about the results of the FOTONIKA-LV project can be found at https://fotonikalv.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/nsc-fotonika-capabilities-2015-07-16-final.docx

A poster summarizing FOTONIKA-LV progress can be downloaded by clicking here.Poster for exhibit-size-5