As we enter the final year of the Flagship funding period (2019–2026), this is a timely moment to reflect on the achievements of our Flagship while looking ahead with ambition. Over the past year, PREIN has continued to deliver strong scientific, educational, and societal impact, confirming the maturity of the Finnish photonics ecosystem built during the Flagship period.
Throughout 2025, PREIN activities have remained at a consistently high level across all key dimensions. Our research is internationally visible and highly competitive, with 330 scientific publications during the year and a substantial fraction appearing in high-impact journals. Collaboration across partners continues to extend, with a growing number of jointly coordinated projects and co-authorship. In parallel, PREIN researchers have secured significant external funding and received wide international recognition through awards, fellowships, and leadership roles in major photonics organizations.
Education and talent development remain a central pillar of PREIN. Our master’s and doctoral programmes continue to attract international cohorts, and the doctoral pilot I-DEEP has further strengthened the national doctoral training landscape through joint courses, industry engagement, and industry mentoring. These activities directly support Finland’s long-term competence in photonics.
Importantly, PREIN key performance indicators remain at an excellent level. The targets defined at the launch of the Flagship in 2019 have been exceeded across scientific output, degrees awarded, internationalisation, gender balance, innovations and industrial collaboration, and societal engagement. Maintaining this performance in the later stages of the Flagship demonstrates that PREIN will have a lasting impact rather than short-term gains.
The year 2025 was also marked by consolidation and visibility. PREIN played a central role in major international conferences and fairs, organized flagship-level national events, and maintained a strong presence in outreach activities reaching schools, families, decision-makers, and the general public. These efforts reinforce PREIN position as a national hub connecting research, industry, education, and society, and clearly demonstrate the societal relevance of photonics.
At the same time, 2025 represents a strategic transition year. PREIN is actively preparing a re-application for a possible new Flagship term beyond 2026. This effort builds on a demonstrated record of scientific excellence, impact, and collaborative culture across universities, research institutes, and industry. The objective is not only to sustain current activities, but to further develop PREIN’s role in addressing emerging challenges and opportunities in communications, semiconductor and quantum technologies, smart photonic systems, health, digitalisation, dual-use and security.
We sincerely thank all PREIN researchers, partners, students, and stakeholders for their commitment and contributions. The achievements reported here are the result of collective effort and shared vision. As we approach the current Flagship period, we do so with confidence for the future of PREIN and Finnish photonics.
Goëry Genty & Jyrki Saarinen
Read more and download the report!
The PREIN Annual Report 2024 is published in both pdf and print version.
The report summarises the key performance indicators, activities and scientific achievements for the past year in the PREIN Flagship.
