Modern scientific history has taught us many times that the most revolutionary ideas come from collaborations within different fields.
In Spain there is a community of researchers, dispersed although important and relevant, who are developing their work in the field of structured light and obtaining high-impact results. However, despite what is happening in other countries or even internationally, the options for these research groups to collaborate with each other, or share their knowledge and results, are very limited.
With the creation of the FASLIGHT network it is intended to create a Spanish network of structured light, joining scientific groups with diverse expertise in fundamental and applied physics, but with common grounds in the use of structured light. This network is unique in its diversity, as it includes both consolidated and emerging research groups with own funding, working in different fields such as Quantum Optics, Nonlinear Optics, Imaging, Metrology, Ultrafast Optics, or Vision.
Zoology of structured light: unlimited forms of spatially tailored light beams that can be nowadays created, characterized, and applied [He2022].
The objectives of the FASLIGHT network are:
- To establish a framework of collaboration beyond the already existing bilateral collaborations under the umbrella of structured light, in which research groups from diverse fields of expertise can share their work, discuss novel ideas and promote new collaborations.
- To activate new collaborations between Spanish groups that make use of structured light, and to explore crossings among distant research fields (classical vs quantum, theory vs experiments, etc.).
- To enhance the international visibility of Spanish groups working in the framework of structured light. it.
- To motivate future project proposals, including European funds such as Marie Curie ITN, PATHFINDER, etc, and national and regional funds.
- To promote the use of structured light as a key technology transformer in Spain:
- To contact with companies in the diverse fields of Optics that can be potentially interested in the use of applications of structured light, mainly national but also international.
- To contact with other groups, whose activity could be benefited from the use of structured light.
- To introduce the use of structured light in the related Spanish Master programs.
- To promote the creation of specialized symposia in the national meetings .
To achieve the proposed objectives, different actions will be launched, among which the following stand out:
- the organization of workshops so that network members can present their results and share their ideas. The workshops will be organized to encourage discussion among participants. They will also include the participation of international invited researchers who are experts in structured light with whom to promote future collaborations.
- the promotion and facilitation of connections between members of the network by holding visits or short stays, in which to give specialized talks or train in the use of equipment.
- the dissemination of the network, its results and the work carried out by the teams that make up each of its nodes, through the creation of the website and other tools and social networks.