EPIC, the European Photonics Industry Consortium, has published a public database of more than 5000 company entries, an interactive map, and a report on the photonics ecosystem in Europe. With the support and contribution of numerous associations, clusters, event organizers, media organizations, and all the individuals who contributed to the survey, EPIC compiled a database of companies active in the field of Photonics. The database lists companies that manufacture photonic related equipment/materials/components/systems or extensively use photonics components, or provide services to the European photonics ecosystem. The European photonics companies are segmented by the type of systems they provide, with respectively sensing 27 percent, imaging 17 percent, transmitting information 11 percent, information storage and display 5 percent, light providing 19 percent, energy providing 6 percent, and processing 15 percent.
“One of the nice surprises of the study is the breakdown of final markets with a fairly uniform distribution, the photonics industry in Europe clearly tends to diversify” says Carlos Lee, Director General at EPIC.
The final markets are manufacturing 13 percent, lab equipment 10%, healthcare and biomedical 9 percent, life science 7 percent, automotive 6 percent, defense 6 percent, energy 5 percent, consumer electronics 5 percent, communications 5 percent and a large variety of other sectors. In addition to serving a variety of end-markets, European photonics companies are less exposed to the European crisis due to their strong exposure to foreign markets, more than 50 percent of sales are done outside Europe.
“The photonics market is terrific for Europe! The photonics companies purchase and manufacture mainly in Europe, and sell mainly outside Europe.” says Lee.
The survey also quantified Europe’s photonics employment at 377.000 people. Most companies are small, 86 percent have less than a hundred employees, but those are the ones that forecast highest growth in employment.
“The ratio turnover/staff between 150 and 250k€/employee reflects a generally high skilled workforce” says Lee.
The database, report, and map are freely available from www.epic-assoc.com/database thanks to the sponsorship of European clusters and research organizations CSEM (Swiss Center for Electronics and Microtechnology), Photonics Cluster Berlin Brandenburg, Photonics Finland, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna (TeCIP Institute) / CNIT (Italy), SECPhO (Southern European Cluster in Photonics and Optics, and SWISSPHOTONICS.
EPIC is the industry association that promotes the sustainable development of organisations working in the field of photonics. Its members encompass the entire value chain from LED lighting, PV solar energy, Silicon photonics, Optical components, Lasers, Sensors, Displays, Projectors, Optic fiber, and other photonic related technologies.