INSPIRE partners CIT and Tyndall are coordinators on the recently funded Marie Curie Initial Training Network PROPHET (Postgraduate Research on Photonics as an Enabling Technology - www.prophet-itn.eu). The network consists of 13 partners throughout Europe, and will receive total project funding of €4.8M from the Framework Programme 7.

The PROPHET network will train a cohort of 15 early stage researchers and 4 young experienced researchers in the full gamut of skills required for a career in photonics, including materials growth, device fabrication, characterisation, design, theory, and commercialisation. A carefully-chosen, well-balanced consortium of 9 academic partners, 4 industry partners and 2 associated partners are well placed to provide the training in these skills, with European and worldwide reputations as leaders in each field. These skills will be applied in four application areas; mode-locked lasers for Communications applications, solar cells for Energy applications, gas sensing for Environment applications, and fast tunable laser sources for OCT in Life Science applications. Each researcher will experience both academic and commercial environments thanks to the strong industrial involvement, resulting in multi-skilled, industry-focused graduates. PROPHET thus directly addresses the need for additional skilled photonics professionals, as identified by the European Technology Platform, Photonics21.

The official start date is 1 January 2011, pending completion of the Grant Agreement; researchers interested in applying for the available positions are encouraged to visit the project website, www.prophet-itn.eu. The network will link in very well with the national Graduate Education programme being developed within INSPIRE.