Prof. Edik Rafailov (AIPT) as a partner of a large consortium has been awarded a prestigious 4 year H2020 grant worth €5.2M. This is collaborative work with 12 partners (Aston part over €610k). The main target of the project is to develop a world record power 2.5kW laser providing from picosecond down to femtoseconds pulses at repetition rates up to 1GHz with excellent beam quality and brought to the market at highly competitive costs enabling widespread industrial uptake.