The University’s Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) has been awarded funding to develop much-needed skills for the photonics industry.
The £200,000 in funding is from the Higher Education Funding Council for England’s (HEFCE) Catalyst Fund programme, to support the Industrial Strategy through curriculum development. It will enable the ORC to focus on addressing the skills shortage in the highly-buoyant field of photonics – the science and technology of light.
To deliver its Catalyst Fund activities, Southampton will work closely with the universities of Surrey, Cardiff, Manchester and University College London, and alongside key partners and investors including Rockley Photonics, Oclaro Technology, Huawei UK, Optocap and the National Physical Laboratory (NPL), whilst continuing to seek further industrial partners to work on bespoke curricula going forward.
The Centre will build on its capacity for offering bespoke courses for workforce training and upskilling, focused on the individual companies’ requirements, by also integrating fabrication-related skills into existing accredited undergraduate and Masters-level courses at each of the partner universities, centred on Southampton’s world-class cleanroom facilities.
Professor Graham Reed, ORC Deputy Director and Director of Cleanroom Operations, said: “Whilst there is a significant skills gap to be addressed, higher education providers lack the advanced capital intensive infrastructures required to provide training. Our proposal seeks to remove this barrier by providing broader access across UK academia with students at other universities able to take advantage of our world-class fabrication facilities here in Southampton to advance their own skills, combined with added support from major industry partners.”
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