Joensuu’s status as a leading European level photonics cluster is again strengthened as professor Jyrki Saarinen from University of Eastern Finland and executive director Juha Purmonen from Photonics Finland have been elected into the Board of Stakeholders of Photonics21. The European Technology Platform Photonics21 coordinates photonics research and innovation priorities and provides input to the European research framework programme Horizon Europe with the aim to establish Europe as a leader in the development and deployment of photonics technologies within the various applications fields such as ICT, lighting, industrial manufacturing, life science, safety as well as in education and training.

The Board of Stakeholders consist of a hundred members and is the main decision-making body of the Photonics21 platform and has a significant input for example in decisionmaking regarding EU funding for the industry. This four-year term is the second for both Saarinen and Purmonen. Tauno Vähä-Heikkilä, the vice president for microelectronics at VTT, who has elected to the Board of Stakeholders in the previous elections, continues as the third Finnish member.

• One of the leading and internationally recognized research and innovation centers for photonics has been established in Joensuu around the first-rate research conducted at the university of Eastern Finland. Research plays a key role in building the European future and it is important for impactful and responsible university research to be present in European decision-making bodies. The results of the Photonics21 elections pay tribute to this research and further strengthen the photonics cluster in the Joensuu area, says the Rector of the University of Eastern Finland Jukka Mönkkönen.