Winning photonics products will be recognized at special event taking place during Photonics West.
New open access facility, backed with European regional development funding, is expected to help incubate new photonics SMEs.
But VDMA warns of 2018 slowdown due to China cooling on mobiles; limiting factors of staff and component shortages.
Analyst firm IDTechEx forecasts global fiber laser system sales will reach $8.9 billion in 2028.
Researchers and students can once again propose their novel photonics systems for development into commercial products.