[en] Full text: Glasses and glass ceramics doped with trivalent rare earth ions are undoubtedly recognized as the dominating materials for photonic applications ranging from the ultraviolet to the mid-infrared spectral region. As part of CeRTEV – Center for Research, Technology and Education in Vitreous Materials, the research done at LEMAF (Laboratory of Spectroscopy of Functional Materials) focus on the development of new glass and glass ceramic compositions and their characterization for applications that range from UV and X-ray radiations sensing, upconverting and downconverting devices, white light generators, and near infrared lasing. Particularly, we have focused on different compositions of fluorophosphates, heavy metal phosphates and oxy-fluoro tellurite glasses doped with Nd³⁺, Yb³⁺, Eu³⁺, Ce³⁺, Pr³⁺, Dy³⁺, Er³⁺ and Yb³⁺ ions. Fluorophosphate compositions offer the advantage of a hydrophobic environment for RE ions and the heavy metal phosphate- and tellurite glasses provide a low phonon energy environment for the ions. These are desirable host characteristics because the radiative properties of the RE are largely influenced by the vibrational structure and electron-phonon coupling characteristics in the system and by the ligand field strength (especially on the first coordination sphere). In this presentation, an overview of recent contribution from the group will be given.