NEXPRESSO

The NEXPRESSO-project (FP7-project) was built on the FP6-project "ACCORD" which got its idea from the P-TAP-programme of OIDA (USA). The idea is to use public funding to buy pre-competitive photonic components from SMEs and provide them for free to researchers at academic groups. This idea was based on the use of public funding to bridge the so-called "valley-of-death" between research and product development to allow: - researchers to lay hands on innovative and pre-competitive components to do research, at no net cost - SMEs to further develop and test their components at no net cost - to establish new, non-existing relations between SMEs and academic groups. The project was very successful and also opened a new set of market opportunities to SMEs. As the idea was based on a programme originating form OIDA (USA), they were contacted to join the project at the start but withdraw at the last moment due to lack of funding and reduced interest.