The EPSRC invites participants for its manufacturing with light call. This aims to encourage adventurous research ideas to explore how to generate, collect, manipulate, control and transmit light to transform and shape the manufacturing industry.

Research ideas should have the potential to revolutionise production processes or develop new and profound technological applications, where a consideration of the pathway to manufacture is necessary.

The proposed research should endeavour to bring the physics, materials, engineering and manufacturing research communities closer together and to support the device development community. Some examples of innovative areas that fall within the scope of the call are:

• non-traditional uses of light in manufacturing processes or technologies;
• developing new sources of light that are applicable to manufacturing;
• manufacturing with light outside traditional spectral range;
• innovative interactions between materials and light;
• novel metrology and inspection concepts that exploit the properties and characteristics of light;
• manufacturing with photons;
• new manufacturing technology for production of devices;
• manufacturing applications of quantum physics or quantum devices;
• quantum physics or laser science for new manufacturing processes;
• new applications that arise from wavelength-tuning of light sources, for example, biological and medical applications.

Higher education institutions and some research council institutes and independent research organisations are eligible to apply.

The budget is up to £3 million. Grants should not exceed £300,000 and a duration of 18 months.

Closing date 24 Jul 13

For further information go to http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/funding/calls/2013/Pages/manufacturingwithlight.aspx