A scientific and technological paradigm change is taking place, concerning the way that very high performance time and frequency reference signals are distributed, moving from radio signal broadcasting to signal transport over optical fibre networks. The latter technology demonstrates performance improvements by orders of magnitude, over distances up to continental scale. Research infrastructures are developing several related technologies, adapted to specific projects and applications. The present project aims to prepare the transfer of this new generation of technology to industry and to strengthen the coordination between research infrastructures and the research and education telecommunication networks, in order to prepare the deployment of this technology to create a sustainable, pan-European network, providing high-performance "clock" services to European research infrastructures. Further this core network will be designed to be compatible with a global European vision of time and frequency distribution over telecommunication networks, enabling it to provide support to a multitude of lower-performance time services, responding to the rapidly growing needs created by developments such as cloud computing, Internet of Things and Industry 4.0. The project aims at partnership building and innovation for high performance time and frequency (clock) services over optical fibre networks and to prepare the implementation of such a European backbone network.

A Centre for Innovative Manufacture in Laser-based Production Processes is proposed. This Centre will exploit the unique capabilities of laser light to develop new laser-based manufacturing processes, at both micro and macro levels, supported by new laser source, process monitoring and system technologies. The past 25 years has seen industrial lasers replace many 'conventional' tools in diverse areas of manufacture, enabling increased productivity, functionality and quality, where for example laser processing (cut/join/drill/mark) has revolutionised automotive, aerospace and electronics production. However the penetration of laser technology into some areas such as welding and machining has been less than might have been anticipated. But recently there has been a significant 'step change-opportunity' to take laser-based processing to a new level of industrial impact, brought about by major advances in laser technology in two key areas: (i) A new generation of ultra-high quality and reliability lasers based around solid state technology (laser diode and optical fibre) has evolved from developments in the telecoms sector. These lasers are leading to systems with very high levels of spatial and temporal controllability. This control, combined with advanced in-process measurement techniques, is revolutionising the science and understanding of laser material interactions. The result of this is that major improvements are being made in existing laser based processes and that new revolutionary processes are becoming viable, e.g. joining of dissimilar materials. (ii) A new generation of high average power laser technologies is becoming available, offering controllable trains of ultrashort (picosecond and femtosecond) pulses, with wavelengths selectable across the optical spectrum, from the infrared through to the ultra-violet. Such technology opens the door to a whole range of new laser-based production processes, where thermal effects no longer dominate, and which may replace less efficient 'conventional' processes in some current major production applications. These new developments are being rapidly exploited in other high-value manufacturing based economies such as Germany and the US. We argue that for the UK industry to take maximum advantage of these major advances in both laser material processing and machine technology there is an urgent requirement for an EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Laser-based Production Processes. This will be achieved by bringing together a multi-disciplinary team of leading UK researchers and key industry partners with the goal of exploiting 'tailored laser light'. Together with our industrial partners, we have identified 2 key research themes. Theme A focuses on Laser Precision Structuring, i.e. micro-machining processes, whilst Theme B is focused on joining and additive processes. Spanning these themes are the laser based manufacturing research challenges which fall into categories of Laser Based Production Process Research and Laser Based Machine Technologies, underpinned by monitoring and control together with material science. Research will extend from the basic science of material behaviour modelling and laser-material interaction processes to manufacturing feasibility studies with industry. The Centre will also assume an important national role. The Centre Outreach programme will aim to catalyse and drive the growth of a more effective and coherent UK LIM community as a strong industry/academia partnership able to represent itself effectively to influence UK/EU policy and investment strategy, to promote research excellence, and growth in industrial take-up of laser-based technology, expand UK national knowledge transfer and marketing events and improve the coordination and quality of education/training provision.

Optical frequency combs are fascinating photonic devices for realizing modern applications that rely on precision frequency synthesis and metrology. Today, microcombs offer the prospect of attaining, in a single chip-scale form-factor, an optical frequency comb with outstanding performance in terms of line spacing and bandwidth coverage. With microcombs, some proof of principle, lab-based system-level demonstrations have been realized, but these make use of large bulk components and instrumentation that prevent the large-scale deployment of this technology in mass-market applications. The overall ambition of this doctoral network is to provide the scientific and training necessary to bridge the gap between proof-of-principle applications and deployment of this disruptive technology. The network brings together experts from academia and industrial leaders in microresonator frequency combs, heterogeneous integration, packaging technology, and nonlinear physics, while covering a wealth of emerging applications: from quantum information processing to biophotonics. The collaborative science is embedded in a meaningful, comprehensive and tailored-made training program that covers crucial aspects in diversity, digital science, entrepreneurship and innovation. This network will catalyze the career of 12 doctoral candidates who will pave the way for novel scientific endeavors and deploy this technology in mass-market applications, from datacenter interconnects to lidar in self-driving cars.

Optical clocks are amazingly stable frequency standards, which would remain accurate to within one second over the age of the universe. Bringing these clocks from the lab to the market offers great opportunities for telecommunications, navigation, sensing, and science, but no commercial optical clock exists. Europe's world leading optical clock technology within academia and national metrology institutes combined with its strong photonics industry, provide us with a golden opportunity to take a leading position in this strategic technology. With AQuRA we want to seize this opportunity and build up a sovereign, efficient industrial capability able to build the world’s most advanced quantum clocks. We will deliver the first industry-built, rugged and transportable optical clock with an accuracy that approaches the best laboratory clocks. Our work is based on the experience that many of us gained by building an optical clock with industry during the Quantum Flagship project iqClock (2018-2022). In AQuRA industry takes the lead and will deliver a 20x more accurate clock in a 3x smaller volume at TRL 7. This will be possible by combining our industry partners’ experience in rugged photonics products with the know-how of our world-leading academic and national metrology institute partners. We will build, strengthen and diversify the European supply chain of optical clock components, filling critical gaps in the supply chain, and thereby establish a sovereign, competitive industry for optical clocks. In particular we will develop the rugged laser sources, miniaturized optical interface circuits, and the atom source needed for an optical clock, all of which will also become products on their own. Partner Menlo Systems will integrate these components with their ultrastable laser system into the AQuRA optical clock. We will accelerate market uptake by demonstrating our clock's usefulness to applications in telecom, geodesy and metrology, and by engaging with end users.