Academic partners

Since 2018, the Abbe School of Photonics has taken the lead in coordinating one of the three prestigious Max Planck Schools, which were implemented by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) as national networks of excellence. The Max Planck School of Photonics (MPSP) represents the key strengths of the German photonics community and supports highly skilled young researchers on a world class level. MPSP is supported by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research with a sum of 25 million Euro, and by the Fraunhofer-Society with an additional support of 4 million Euro.

The Australian National University (ANU) in Australia's capital Canberra is one of the most excellent and prestigious Universities in the world. Its reputable history in photonics is rooted in ANU’s impressive research in the field and the ongoing support offered by the university’s administration since the 1980s. Its evident excellence in this field is demonstrated by the results of the 2017 Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA), in which physics, and specifically optical physics, received the highest score of 5 (well above international average). According to a Nature survey in 2016, ANU was ranked top among all Oceanian Universities in physics. Our Abbe School of Photonics has built an intense and fruitful scientific collaboration between Jena and Australia for over more than 2 decades. In 2022, this strategic collaboration with ANU will culminate in the start of the DFG-funded International Research Training Group (IRTG) 2675 on active metasurfaces, including a Dual-PhD-program and the continuous exchange of PhD students and research staff between Jena and Canberra. 

Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics, China. The partnership between ACP/ASP and this University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) relies on a long-term exchange of people, ideas, and workshops. Starting from 2016, the most excellent students from CIOMP are preselected to receive extra slots in our Master’s degree program in Photonics.

Funded by the Excellence Initiative of the University of BordeauxExternal link, the Cluster of Excellence LAPHIA: Laser & Photonics in Aquitaine aims to create a consortium around sciences of light – optics, photonics, and lasers. The Bordeaux pole in optics is a recognized leader in several fields, such as high energy lasers, hot plasmas, laser-matter interaction physics, and material science. The Aquitaine Region has brought together businesses and research scientists to create France's biggest regional laser-optics industry. Since 2018, ACP has been a premium partner in the Bordeaux International Support (BIS)External link program, facilitating student and staff exchanges.

The Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Transformative Meta-Optical Systems (TMOS) is funded by the Australian Research Council under the Centers of Excellence Program since 2020, with further support from five constituent Australian universities, fifteen Australian chief investigators, 39 international partners, and associate investigators, among them three ACP principal scientists. TMOS focuses on fundamental and applied scientific challenges in the field of meta-optics, including light-matter-generation, manipulation, and detection at nanoscale. In 2021, TMOS is opening a new research building worth 200 million AUS$ devoted to nanofabrication facilities. This will make TMOS the largest scientific center in the field of meta-optics and metasurfaces in the world. The partnership between ACP and the scientists involved in TMOS is based on the close and fruitful scientific collaboration between Jena and Australia, which has lasted for over 2 decades.