OpticsValley, a founding partner of the LASER-GO partnership, has been selected by the ECCP team to participate in the EU-US Cluster Cooperation Seminar and Matchmaking Event which will bring together 24 clusters from the EU to meet their US counterparts for the initial round of introductions. The event will take place in conjunction with the Hannover Messe on 25-26 April.

Opticsvalley represents over 200 SMEs and research organisations based in the Île-de-France region and mainly specialised in the field of photonics, electronics and software. The cluster as well as the LASER-GO partnership it represents is focused on getting to know the US clusters active in the field of health technologies aiming to pursue two objectives of LASER-GO: 1) to search for the application areas related to photonics-enabled technologies in health-related uses and 2) to link up with other clusters active in the areas which can increase the cross-sectorial scope of the present partnership and open up access to new value chains in mobility, smart cities, active and assisted living. In order to fulfil these objectives OpticsValley together with partners from LASER-GO (Human Technology Graz and LITEK Vilnius) will organise over the period of the next 12 months two missions to the US to explore the possibilities of establishing contacts with the clusters in the US involving companies using photonics in their products for health uses.

The first mission is being planned for October 2016. It will be organised with a side event in Minneapolis (Human Technology Graz will coordinate the mission) in conjunction to the participation at the AdvaMed, a yearly event of the Advanced Medical Technology Association (http://advamed2016.com/) due in Minneapolis on 17-19 October 2016. The  goal of this mission is to create leads for future activities involving companies from LASER-GO clusters and their US counterparts to develop new product application ideas for medical  devices, diagnostic products and health information systems. The second mission is planned to be organised with the help of the French Tech Hub, a subsidiary of Paris Region Enterprises, in collaboration with the Île-de-France regional authorities. The mission will explore the Greater Boston Area (where a French Tech Hub is located) and the Research Triangle Park in Durham, Raleigh and Chapel Hill, looking for potential cluster partners in the high-tech areas which have a high concentration of health tech companies. This search will start already at the EU-US Cluster Matchmaking Event in Hannover.

Linas Eriksonas, LASER-GO & Fiona Gerente, OpticsValley