The ClusterXchange hosted by Photonics4Industry partner Photonics Bretagne took place alongside the Photonics PhD Days between Jan 18 and 20, 2023 in Lannion, Brittany (France).
The event gathered around 50 guests from industry and research, including 25 PhD students. We welcomed several non-French speaking participants, among which 3 ClusterXchanges Visitors from Poland, Austria and Finland. For these, Photonics Bretagne hosted additional company presentations as well as a cultural visit of Lannion’s medieval town centre and a discovery of the regional gastronomy.
PhD students could pitch their thesis, network with local entrepreneurs and industry leaders and visit several photonics companies. Then they were invited to put on an entrepreneurial hat: they worked in small groups on ways to turn a research topic into a start-up – a difficult but inspiring challenge, which allowed many participants to revise their preconceived ideas about what their careers could look like… Now they know that industry or even entrepreneurship is an option for them, even in DeepTech, and that support is available on these paths too!
Photonics Bretagne will host this event again next year, and looks forward to welcoming even more young European researchers.
