Photonics gets brought into the spotlight with a new European education network. “Photonics offers new and unique solutions where today’s conventional technologies are approaching their limits in terms of speed, capacity and accuracy.”To build the skills necessary to capitalise on this critical sector, the European Commission has today (16 September) announced funding of €5m over four years for a new photonics education and training network. Called Phortify, the network aims to boost Europe’s photonics talent pipeline by equipping students and professionals with a coherent set of skills to tackle the industry’s challenges and opportunities. ‘We are on the verge of a new photonics era’“Photonics is one of the fastest growing enabling technologies in Europe, but the way it’s taught has been fragmented,” explains Majorie Jammaers, photonics education officer at VUB. It also aims to build an open-access repository to make photonics training widely available to students, researchers and professionals.