PhotonHub: Accelerating Photonics for Strategic Autonomy and Industrial Growth
Event details
| Date | 12.02.2026 |
| Hour | 17:00 › 18:00 |
| Speaker | Hugo Thienpont, Brussels Photonics B-PHOT, Department of Applied Research and Photonics TONA-FirW, Faculty of Engineering Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium |
| Location | |
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
| Event Language | English |
*** An apéro will follow the talk. Registration required ***
PhotonHub is the EU’s flagship innovation hub for photonics—one of the most powerful enabling technologies of the digital and green transitions. By offering streamlined access to technology and business expertise, infrastructure, and hands-on support, PhotonHub helps companies—especially SMEs, start-ups, and scale-ups—rapidly advance both their technology and investment readiness. The Swiss partners EPFL, Ligentec, CSEM, and Pandao play an important role in this flagship project.
Through cross-border collaboration and deep-tech innovation, PhotonHub drives the adoption of photonics across key sectors such as health, manufacturing, energy, space and communications. The initiative plays a vital role in strengthening strategic value chains, fostering high-value job creation, and reinforcing Europe’s technological sovereignty.
As a key instrument within the European innovation ecosystem, PhotonHub delivers tangible impact aligned with EU priorities in competitiveness, resilience, and digital autonomy.
PhotonHub in brief
PhotonHub is a unique pan-European one-stop-shop photonics innovation hub. Funded by the European Union, PhotonHub has been established to accelerate the uptake, integration, and deployment of photonic technologies in innovative products across a broad range of industry sectors, boost competitiveness and foster new business.
Through a large consortium of internationally renowned partners, PhotonHub combines the broadest possible range of photonics expertise, facilities and technologies from Europe’s top existing networks of competence centres. It also offers key technical, business, and training support services across the full value chain – technology readiness level (TRL) 3 to 8 – all under one roof.
PhotonHub Europe, which was launched in January 2021, has already helped over 100 companies deliver more than €750 million in new revenues, create 1,000 jobs and raise €250 million in venture capital. This success has led to new investment from the European Commission to continue offering expert support, fast-track access to Europe’s leading laboratories, and generous subsidies, all delivered through a ‘one-stop-shop’ photonics innovation factory called PhotonHub PHACTORY.
About Prof. Hugo Thienpont
Prof. Dr Ir. Hugo Thienpont (20-08-1961) is a full professor at the Faculty of Engineering of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB). He is director of Brussels Photonics B-PHOT, the photonics research group at VUB, which he built over the years and which today counts more than 70 photonics researchers, engineers, technical experts and administrative staff. Hugo graduated as an Electrotechnical Engineer with majors in Applied Physics in 1984 and obtained his PhD in Applied Sciences in 1990, both at the VUB. Since 2012 Hugo is also Vice-Rector for Innovation and Industrial policy at VUB.
PhotonHub is the EU’s flagship innovation hub for photonics—one of the most powerful enabling technologies of the digital and green transitions. By offering streamlined access to technology and business expertise, infrastructure, and hands-on support, PhotonHub helps companies—especially SMEs, start-ups, and scale-ups—rapidly advance both their technology and investment readiness. The Swiss partners EPFL, Ligentec, CSEM, and Pandao play an important role in this flagship project.
Through cross-border collaboration and deep-tech innovation, PhotonHub drives the adoption of photonics across key sectors such as health, manufacturing, energy, space and communications. The initiative plays a vital role in strengthening strategic value chains, fostering high-value job creation, and reinforcing Europe’s technological sovereignty.
As a key instrument within the European innovation ecosystem, PhotonHub delivers tangible impact aligned with EU priorities in competitiveness, resilience, and digital autonomy.
PhotonHub in brief
PhotonHub is a unique pan-European one-stop-shop photonics innovation hub. Funded by the European Union, PhotonHub has been established to accelerate the uptake, integration, and deployment of photonic technologies in innovative products across a broad range of industry sectors, boost competitiveness and foster new business.
Through a large consortium of internationally renowned partners, PhotonHub combines the broadest possible range of photonics expertise, facilities and technologies from Europe’s top existing networks of competence centres. It also offers key technical, business, and training support services across the full value chain – technology readiness level (TRL) 3 to 8 – all under one roof.
PhotonHub Europe, which was launched in January 2021, has already helped over 100 companies deliver more than €750 million in new revenues, create 1,000 jobs and raise €250 million in venture capital. This success has led to new investment from the European Commission to continue offering expert support, fast-track access to Europe’s leading laboratories, and generous subsidies, all delivered through a ‘one-stop-shop’ photonics innovation factory called PhotonHub PHACTORY.
About Prof. Hugo Thienpont
Prof. Dr Ir. Hugo Thienpont (20-08-1961) is a full professor at the Faculty of Engineering of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB). He is director of Brussels Photonics B-PHOT, the photonics research group at VUB, which he built over the years and which today counts more than 70 photonics researchers, engineers, technical experts and administrative staff. Hugo graduated as an Electrotechnical Engineer with majors in Applied Physics in 1984 and obtained his PhD in Applied Sciences in 1990, both at the VUB. Since 2012 Hugo is also Vice-Rector for Innovation and Industrial policy at VUB.
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