LEADERSHIP IN ENABLING AND INDUSTRIAL TECHNOLOGIES<br/>for EUROPEAN SOCIETAL CHALLENGES 2014<br/>(Nanotechnologies and Advanced Materials, Manufacturing and Processing)

Final Report Summary - LEIT2014 (LEADERSHIP IN ENABLING AND INDUSTRIAL TECHNOLOGIES<br/>for EUROPEAN SOCIETAL CHALLENGES 2014<br/>(Nanotechnologies and Advanced Materials, Manufacturing and Processing))

Executive Summary:
LET’S 2014 (Leading Enabling Technologies for Societal challenges) is the International Conference organised in the context of the Italian Presidency of the Council of the European Union, supported by the European Union Funding for Research and Innovation (DG KET – European Commission), to debate the role of the Key Enabling Technologies, pinpointed by Horizon 2020, in bridging the gap between excellence in scientific and technological research, innovation in industry and access to the European and global markets. More precisely, LET’s 2014 focused on the perspectives of Nanotechnologies, Advanced Materials, Biotechnology and Advanced Manufacturing and Processing (NMBP) as a way to tackle the Societal Challenges through new products, processes and services: the academy and industry’s ability to integrate - through a systemic approach - creativity, culture, knowledge and competitiveness was pointed out during 3 plenary sessions, 24 parallel sessions, 13 dissemination workshops and a number of other networking events. LET’S 2014 organization was coordinated the National Research Council of Italy (CNR) and managed together with the Agency for the Promotion of European Research (APRE) and the Consortium for Innovation and Technology Transfer in Emilia-Romagna (ASTER), with the support of Emilia-Romagna Region and other 29 national and international partners.
LET’S 2014 was held in Bologna (Italy) from September 29th to October 1st 2014, under the High Patronage of the President of the European Parliament, Italian Presidency of the Council of the European Union, President of the Italian Republic, President of the Italian Council of Ministers. LET’S 2014 gathered 1146 registered participants from 48 countries and 696 high school
students and teachers. The programme of the 3 days conference included: 3 plenary sessions and 24 parallel sessions related to 5 thematic tracks with 135 distinguished chairs and speakers, 13 dissemination workshops, 12 company site visits, 102 presentation at the poster session “A walk through European Research”, 20 selected exhibition stands.
LET’S MATCH, the brokerage event with more than 650 bilateral meetings between representatives of 239 research centers, universities and companies.

LET’S 2014 conclusions were presented by Luigi Nicolais, President of the National Research Council of Italy, at the presence of Stefania Giannini, Italian Minister for Research, and Clara de la Torre, Director of the European Commission, during the closing plenary session on October 1st and published on the Conference website www.lets2014.eu.
Project Context and Objectives:
1. LET’S 2014: the venue
The conference was organised in Bologna, the Emilia Romagna region capital, one of the most advanced industrial districts in Europe, particularly for automotive and mechanics, agro-food and biomedical sectors. Bologna has a world-class reputation on culture, science and knowledge production and their exploitation for social services to the citizens. It hosts the oldest University in the world (established in 1088), and is an example of location in which interconnection among multiple disciplines and different research fields got social value for knowledge. Bologna hosts over 1000 researchers working in different fields, including chemistry, physics, nanotechnologies, life sciences and environmental protection. Industrial research and innovation have a central position in the political agenda of the regional administration of Emilia- Romagna, that launched, first in Italy, the regional law for innovation in 2002, supporting wide application of research results to life science, ICT, agro-food, sustainable technologies, intelligent factory.
The conference took place in the new Conference Centre, located in the trade fair districts: http://www.bolognacongressi.it/en. The plenary sessions were hosted in the Europauditorium, a multi-functional container with a capacity of 530, 850 or 1,350 as required. The Parallel sessions and workshops took place in a range of meeting rooms, each with the latest amenities and technology, hosting from 20 to 500 people. LET'S 2014 Gala Dinner was hosted in Re Enzo Palace - one of the most beautiful and characteristic historical buildings of Bologna - inside the beautiful hall Salone del Podestà: it took place on September 30th at the presence of the Mayor of Bologna and provided a cultural event especially designed for the guests of LET'S 2014.

2. LET’S 2014: the aim
LET’S 2014 Conference was focused on how the Key Enabling Technologies, pinpointed by Horizon 2020, can support the growth and the creation of new jobs and face Societal Challenges through new products, processes and services, creating opportunities for European actors.
More specifically, LET’S 2014 sessions debated on the perspective of Nanotechnologies, Advanced Materials, Biotechnology and Advanced Manufacturing and Processing (NMBP), and pointed out how the industrial system should be able to develop the industry’s ability to integrate - through a systemic approach - creativity, culture, knowledge and competitiveness.

3. LET’S 2014: the Conference content
A High Level Steering Committee (HLSC) was appointed to design a set of priorities for the Conference and the main messages to be promoted through the event. The Committee was composed of 20 European senior representatives from outstanding Research Bodies and Industries, including the Scientific representatives of the Consortium and the Representatives of the Italian Ministries of Research, of Foreign Affairs and of Economic Development.
The HLSC members first agreed on the general “Vision towards a new Renaissance” (see http://www.lets2014.eu/conference/vision/) as a starting point for the Conference content definition. Five main themes were then identified to design the programme of the 3 days conference, which was finally structured with 3 plenary sessions and 24 parallel sessions:
1. Building cross-cutting science and technology
2. Minds of the future
3. New models of governance
4. Driving disruptive innovation
5. Future of industries

Following the consultation with the HLSC (December 2013 – April 2014), the Conference programme was agreed with the European Commission with a full list of invited speakers. It was also agreed a general format for all sessions, i.e. a 1h 30m panel discussion of 4-5 speakers, to be started with short presentations (15 minutes each) and to be opened to interaction with the audience.
The Chair of LET’S 2014 Conference was Luigi Ambrosio, Director of the Department of Chemical Sciences and Materials Technology at CNR and Member of the KET High Level Group (European Commission) since 2009. Past President ot the European Society for Biomaterials (2006-2013), distinguished Professor at Nanjing Normal University (China) since 2013, he has been nominated Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (March 2001), and Fellow of Biomaterials Science and Engineering (May 2004). His research interests include design, characterization and processing of polymers and composites for medical applications and tissue engineering.

4. LET’S 2014: the Dissemination Workshops
Several workshops, organised by important stakeholders in the NMBP fields, took place during the LET’S 2014 conference, thus enlarging the participation to all the delegates interested in keeping up-to-date on the ongoing research and forefront technologies, while enabling overseas cooperation.

5. LET’S MATCH 2014: the matchmaking event
LET’S Match 2014 was a day of one to one meetings organised by ASTER-SIMPLER as Enterprise Europe Network partner, between SMEs, research centres, universities, in order to match technology demand and offer and to find potential partners for Horizon 2020 projects, in particular on the Work Programme NMP+B Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies - Nanotechnologies, Advanced Materials, Biotechnology and Advanced Manufacturing and Processing.
The event was organised on day 3 to allow the free participation of all interested parties. The networking event targeted a wide spectrum of companies, universities and researchers from all over Europe, interested in sharing new project ideas and finding collaboration partners, also to facilitate the setup of EU project consortia.
656 meetings with 239 participants from 23 countries, representing different institutions (see below) were organized with the following outcome:
• 17 participants to LET’S Match informed the organizers they already started a negotiation or they already reached a cooperation agreement
• 22 participants informed on their still ongoing contacts
• 73 participants find valuable contact for future projects

6. LET’S 2014: the Poster session “A walk through European Research”
LET’S 2014 poster session showed cutting edge research results, ongoing research projects and innovative work in progress. Three best poster awards were assigned, at the presence of European Commission Officers, based on the quality of research work and the quality of poster presentation. More specifically, 108 posters were evaluated by three different juries:
- Best communicating poster: Let's messengers, the 30 students from the Institute for Higher Studies (ISS) of the University of Bologna, have been asked to evaluate the posters according to the ease of communication.
- Best scientific posters: a scientific committee, composed of six scientific experts from CNR, ASTER and APRE, was appointed to evaluate the best poster for the scientific content. The POSTERS have been evaluated for the scientific motivation of the work, technological and impact in the NMBP fields as well as for their impact on societal challenges.
- Best poster for LET'S participants: all conference participants had the possibility to vote for their favorite poster during the coffee and lunch breaks with a sticker they received in their conference pack. The poster with the largest number of stickers was awarded a prize.
The winners were awarded on day 3, at the beginning of the plenary closing session: http://www.lets2014.eu/programme/posters-session The list of authors and title of posters is available on the same web page.

7. LET’S 2014: the site visits
On Day 2 and Day 3, 143 delegates took advantage of the rich programme of 12 site visits to World Class Companies and Research Institutes of the Emilia Romagna Region: the great brands of mechanics, motoring and agrifood are born in this land and from here have become synonymous with dream and creativity, entering the imagination of everyone.

8. LET’S 2014: the exhibition area
A three day exhibition was organized in line with the conference themes, through direct contacts with interested EU project coordinators, public and private research institutions, spinoffs, enterprises and associations.
All the selected exhibitors had the opportunity to demonstrate their products and/or technical capabilities, as well as to raise visibility not only to LET’S 2014 delegates but also to media audience. The venue space reserved to the exhibition area was the main ground floor of the conference center, near the refreshment area, in front of the Europauditorium.

9. LET’S 2014: the social and networking events
A Welcome Reception for all delegates was held in the Forum of the Conference Center on the evening of Day 1, accompanied by a demonstration of the Fresh made pasta “building process”, a process where knowledge, expertise and cooperation create excellent value chains.
Afterwards, in accordance with the “Vision towards a new Renaissance” general theme of the conference, the cultural event “The weight and the feather: Leonardo, an artistic vision of science” was offered in the Europauditorium by the organisers to all participants.
A Gala Dinner on the evening of Day 2 was organised in the outstanding Salone del Podestà, inside Re Enzo Palace, one of the most beautiful and characteristic historical buildings of Bologna. Entertainment before the dinner was provided by “I musicanti non dormono mai”, a musical trio acting for the event. A welcome message was addressed to all participant by Luigi Ambrosio, Chairman of LET’s 2014, Silvia Giannini, deputy Major of Bologna and Luciano Vecchi, on behalf of Emilia-Romagna Regione. After the announcement of Koza Yönetim ve Servis A.Ş as the winner of the IMP³rove Award 2014, the ceremony was closed by Mrs De La Torre, Director of DG KET at the European Commission.

Project Results:
Europe needs to strengthen its competitiveness and stimulate investment for the purpose of job creation. By mastering and deploying Key Enabling and Industrial Technologies, Europe can achieve its industrial goals and, at the same time, address key societal challenges towards a socially inclusive and sustainable growth. Excellent research, industrial leadership and disruptive innovation are the basis for both.
The Bologna conference reflected on the implementation of Horizon 2020, particularly in the area of Key Enabling and Industrial Technologies,
and showed how the programme can be fully exploited in terms of the European Union’s scientific, industrial and social growth, also in synergy with the European Structural and Investment Funds, and the European Investment Bank.

KEY OUTCOMES OF LET’S 2014 NMBP CONFERENCE

1) The performance of European public and private research systems is a key driver for the competitiveness of European industry through the creation of new jobs and technology-based entrepreneurship. To face present and future challenges, a continuous investment in research and innovation is needed at the European level, ensuring support for frontier research and breakthrough ideas in view of their industrial exploitation.
This is the route to advance Key Enabling Industrial Technologies and to pave the way for the new European Industrial Renaissance. Based on the rich background of European culture and industrial competence, knowledge and know-how as well as new technologies, research and innovation will lead to a strong and profoundly reshaped industry: a new industrial revolution will enhance current industrial leadership and create novel fields of excellence which will provide economic growth and new addedvalue jobs in Europe.

2) Innovative small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), including start-ups, will also play a key role in fostering technological development and job creation in Europe. Such strategic drivers will be able to create a more innovation-friendly business environment, to increase social mobility as well as to attract investments and talented people from outside the EU. For these reasons there is the need to integrate and strengthen support for SMEs in research and innovation.

3) The European industrial and social renaissance needs an innovative cultural approach, based on interdisciplinary knowledge, to create minds of the future through investments in human capital and skills at all technical levels, ensuring better coordination of initiatives in the area of industrial research. To reach the goal of 20% share of EU GDP for manufacturing and to help increase employment, it is important to define new European strategies together with all the relevant stakeholders, including the Public-PrivatePartnerships, capable of offering new opportunities for supporting the new industrial renaissance. There is also an urgent need to bridge the competence gap and to support job creation adjustments in the field of Key Enabling Technologies, which can
foster innovation, self-entrepreneurship and SMEs competitiveness, thus also paving the way for an effective response to youth unemployment.

4) Research and Innovation, bridging research in Future and Emerging Technologies with Key Enabling Technologies, need improved coordination among EU funding programmes and instruments while strengthening links among European R&I initiatives, to shorten the time to market of new ideas and to tackle the societal challenges.

Some of the aforementioned Key Outcomes of the LET'S 2014 NMPB CONFERENCE have been subsequently incorporated in the Conclusions of the European Competitiveness Council of December 5, 2014: http://italia2014.eu/media/4002/council-conclusions-on-research-and-innovation-as-sources-of-renewed-growth.pdf

The definition of LET’S 2014 scientific programme, based on the results of the consultation with the 20 High Level Steering Committee members and the priorities of the Italian Presidency of the Council of the European Union, was agreed with the European Commission Officers (Directorate for Key Enabling Technologies – DG Research and Innovation).
More precisely, two plenary sessions were organised on Day 1 (pm) to launch the general conference theme “A vision toward a new Renaissance” and to officially open the Conference “Welcome to LET’S 2014. 24 parallel sessions were organised on Day 2 (full day) and Day 3 (am) according to the 5 thematic tracks of LET’S 2014. The debate of the 3 days discussions converged into the final plenary session on Day 3 (pm) where a political conclusion was presented and the European Union representatives by Luigi Nicolais, President of the National Research Council of Italy (CNR) at the presence of Stefania Giannini, Italian Minister for Research, and Clara de la Torre, Director of the European Commission.

The debate of the 24 parallel sessions was very rich and fruitful, also thanks to the outstanding collaboration of the 24 chairs. Many of them were members of the HLSC (8) as well as representatives of the European Commission (8). They were appointed 6 months before the conference and put in touch with the 104 selected speakers, with whom they could share the content and the format of the session discussion. To facilitate the interaction with the audience, all sessions were organised in the form of panel discussion, as well as workshop and dynamic sessions: in a typical format, the 4 speakers were invited to open the discussion with short presentations (maximum 15 minutes each) in order to open the discussion with the delegates in a friendly and smooth way.
A total of 29 students from the University of Bologna were also appointed as LET’S MESSENGERS to write reports on the different sessions using two communicative approaches:
- Scientific, experiencing the role of “trainee” rapporteur, on whose production they continued working in the days following the event. The texts elaborated were examined during further didactical activities and became a dissemination tool of the results of the conference at ISS and Unibo. A further output was an information sheet on the session, devised and constructed on a common shared framework amongst the students, which were sent to the chair of the different sessions for their validation.
- Educational/Informative, elaborating in real time short texts to be spread across social Twitter and summaries to be delivered to the members of the press present at the conference.

The Italian members of the HLSC, in agreement with the EC representatives, worked together to wrap up the main results of the conference debates, thus sharing the final document “LET’s ACT” which was presented to all attendees on Day 3 and published on the Conference website:
http://www.lets2014.eu/fileadmin/content/Programme_file/Lets_act.pdf.

After the conference, all chairs and speakers were asked to contribute to the resume of each session and to share any additional practical recommendation to be addressed to the European Commission (see the document here attached). The collected recommendations were summarized, according to the five thematic tracks, to give rise to the LET’S ACT FINAL RECOMMENDATIONS, here below.
(http://www.lets2014.eu/fileadmin/content/Programme_file/Lets_act_recommendations_A4.pdf ).

BUILDING CROSS CUTTING SCIENCES AND TECHNOLOGIES
Industrial and enabling technologies can be developed within individual disciplines in response to a specific problem, but in most cases this is not the most effective approach: “convergence” among disciplines and sectors - together with exploitation of synergies among different financial instruments - is the only way to enhance the importance of each contribution and produce real innovation. Also, new solutions have to be sought by jointly considering the evolution of product, process, production systems and markets. The potential of such combinations is based on the creation of value, which goes beyond the mere sum of all the components involved.

Additional recommendations:

1. To stimulate market demand for KETs based products and solutions, made in Europe.
2. To build exchange between stakeholders, RIS3 actions can be a tool leading to effective KETs embodiment in regional/national innovation cycles for different market sectors, but also building bridges between the LEIT pillar and the Societal Challenges pillar leading to specific cross-breeding actions.
3. To promote awareness on KETs (and cross KETs) impact among stakeholders (technology offer and demand). Existing European Technology Platforms may be an appropriate tool. Cross-ETPs dialogue should be fostered. Visionary policies and research agendas need to be tested and developed on practical platforms by doing and learning.
4. To create conditions (i.e. robust IP protocols, access to demonstration plants, joint training of experts) to enable small companies to cooperate with the large industries already exploiting KETs.
5. To develop and provide further financial instruments and “free open platforms” for industry (in particularly SMEs) targeted to different stages of the development pipeline, and to encourage schemes for the establishment of ‘incubators/research areas’.
6. To support the creation and development of multi-sectorial networks and communities for cross-sectorial innovation in order to:
- promote a more integrated technological and cultural education system;
- develop high added-value, user-centered, sustainable and competitive technologies closer to market uptake.
7. To reinforce the leading role of Europe in Cultural Heritage and to enhance the cooperation among all key players (research institutes and universities, public institutions, policy makers and SMEs) at a global level by:
- establishing a unique and distributed research infrastructure;
- fostering the already existing successful EU experiences, where conservation institutions and museums jointly develop inter and multidisciplinary programs with universities, research institutions, and SMEs;
- promoting the valorization of immaterial cultural heritage –in addition to material cultural heritage- as a key asset for European economy in the global competition.
8. To promote a stronger focus on creative methodology and design-driven innovation culture in technological research and innovation EU funding, by addressing the concerns of creative SMEs and start-ups (access to finance, IPR, fast working pace), and by including the quality of design among the elements to be evaluated for all technological proposals where it may be relevant.
9. To foster the cooperation in health sector among different fields (bioengineering, robotics, biomaterials, nanomedicine, regenerative medicine and clinical research), while enabling a comparative assessment of different technologies, and also to foster the application and feasibility of new personalised medicine strategies.

MINDS OF THE FUTURE
The competitiveness of Europe and of its individual countries increasingly depends on knowledge and capabilities: people will be, even more than in the past, the key for success of a society and its industry. It can also be said, that the very existence of the European Union depends on its inhabitants identifying themselves as Europeans. At each level, education must be brought to the point where knowledge leads to the capability of solving problems and inventing a new future. A new type of lifelong education is required, in order to valorise existing European culture, understand other cultures and create new paradigms which better serves and addresses the future society.

Additional Recommendations:

1. Technology transfer will happen effectively when researchers and entrepreneurs agree to work together in an “agora” environment where knowledge becomes know-how, for instance through the funding of institutions with joint projects.
2. The industrial and societal “renaissance” will unleash the human creative potential and create a wealth of potential - but requires re-engineering of EU education models focused on interdisciplinarity and both technical and non-technical skills (such as system-wide expertise, flexibility, innovative methodologies, management of capital-intensive assets, entrepreneurship and communication skills). Since these skills evolve rapidly, professionals need to be re-trained and teachers need to be constantly updated and up-skilled, with specific attention to the ageing workforce.
3. A new approach in European RTD&I initiatives is needed in developing more multidisciplinary approaches (Hard + Soft), and not just enabling technologies approaches, allowing broader team working, i.e. between universities and research organizations, industry, public authorities, Unions, as well as with NGOs (as in the field of medical research); and maybe a revamping of the product-service concept as a whole.
4. To increase the awareness of the importance of research and technological innovation through set up and support of “living labs” from primary school - to raise the curiosity of kids and their enthusiasm for technology – all the way to university, where professors should be coached for talent development of students rather than “ex cathedra” lecturers. Involvement of science centers and museums should be promoted.
5. To promote the participation of women in science and technologies at all levels, including the highest, in order to enlarge the pool of well trained people, increase their diversity, and enable awareness and actions towards gendered innovation.
6. International cooperation should go beyond the traditional R&D ensuring a whole coverage of the entire value chain from research to viable commercialisation, while tackling issues such as standards, harmonisation of technical regulation and due governance of new technologies.

NEW MODELS OF GOVERNANCE
A new Europe requires bold decisions to be taken and new economic research systems and models to be implemented. However, change has to be generated by valorising existing strengths while changing the rules of the game. The challenge is then to drive this complex evolution and at the same time be open with citizens about what is happening and what comes next. This shift certainly requires new rules and public standards across a variety of sectors (new industrial policy, new social policy). Regarding Research and Innovation, it requires a combination of actions: linking funding instruments, new ways of coordinating public and private, EU, national and regional funding, a knowledge-based industrial governance, better links between political authorities, research communities and society. It also implies the active involvement of the innovation chain (institutions, academia, industry, society) in the process, and requires citizens to take on a new role.

Additional Recommendations:

1. To concentrate the financial support only on few priority topics, responding to the Europa 2020 strategic objectives, in order to speed-up the transformation of the economical system towards a “new model of Renaissance” characterized by the stakeholders’ capacity to integrate culture, knowledge, creativity and competitiveness. The implementation of this approach requires a better definition and orientation of the contents of the calls to allow participants to submit ambitious proposals with a potential high value-added and impact on EU society, integrating different technologies (cross-cutting) and combining different financial instruments (synergies).
2. To increase the financial resources dedicated to SMEs in order to improve their participation to H2020 and to support their efforts in overcoming the critical stage of market entry and upscaling.
3. To define clear procedures in the Working Programmes and Regional Operational Programmes in order to promote concrete synergies among different financial instruments, in particular between H2020 and Structural Funds.
4. To promote the transformation of knowledge into innovation contributing:
5. to build up a cohesive ecosystem of early stage and innovation finance , bringing different funding mechanisms together into one supportive framework and reducing differences in regulations across Member States,
6. to start to use the procurements and in particular the forward procurements.
7. To focus the available resources on the best research infrastructures, by supporting the synergies and pooling of regional, national and EU funds and the additional efforts and costs required to achieve open access to both the research infrastructures and data.

DRIVING DISRUPTIVE INNOVATION
Research can provide disruptive, non-incremental innovation that can create new industry sectors and regenerate existing ones: this can lead to unique opportunities for long-term development, high quality jobs and wealth. The challenge is making the policy choices that will allow Europe to stimulate and recognize such transitions in diverse fields, in order to induce paradigmatic changes such as those we have witnessed in past decades: from light bulbs to LEDs, from typewriters to computers.

Additional Recommendations:

1. One important aim of Horizon 2020 is linking frontier research on future emerging technologies (FET), and key enabling technologies (KET) which impact advanced manufacturing on a short-medium time scale. In the NMBP domain we are still witnessing critical disconnections between FET and KET: hence a concrete risk that important contributions of the research community to NMBP are missed. It is recommended to strengthen the coordination between the FET and KET programmes, in order to ensure the support, under the FET programme, of breakthrough technologies that can be brought to industrial application in the NMBP programme. NMBP should in turn ensure that industrially relevant technologies with longer-term impact are adequately supported with no interruption in the research and innovation pipeline.
2. Disruptive innovation most often results from productive interfaces across different hard sciences, and between sciences and engineering or medicine, with further key contributions from e.g. business, social, design cultures. Projects that profit from such interactions and target disruptive innovation goals should be strongly promoted in NMBP.
3. Additive manufacturing, in combination with frontier materials and nano(bio)technologies, has enormous potential of disruptive impact: Europe should support innovative technologies that will enable its future and most advanced developments.
4. In the EU several strategies are being deployed to push innovation from science to product. However, regulations in market-introduction are still excessively slow and cumbersome compared to other parts of the world. In order to resolve this contradiction and boost European competitiveness, speedier and simpler procedures should be implemented to enable introducing an innovation e. g. in public sector contracts.
5. Modeling and simulations will be a key ingredient to accelerate discovery and design of materials, processes and products of relevance to economical and societal advancement of Europe. To boost the impact of materials modeling in European industry there must be strong support for dual purposes: promoting the availability of much better models, data quality and code quality (and thereby the trust from the industry in modeling results), as well as their ability to design properties/functions/ processes of high industrial relevance; and promoting education, training and business models for the optimal use of existing data and tools.

FUTURE OF INDUSTRIES
It is possible to imagine a future where European manufacturing will be based on distinctive productive and technological poles where companies' excellence will be based on a balance between diversification and specialization. This depends on collaboration with research and technological centres and Universities, as well as with other companies and technology providers deeply rooted in a strong manufacturing culture, with a new configuration of territorial and industrial organizations where the cultural, economic and social factors are part of a shared vision. The real challenge for industry resides in maintaining a competitive advantage while answering to specific needs with innovative products and processes, as well as keeping core knowledge and competences in Europe. Therefore high performance technologies, additive manufacturing, end-of-life innovative services, and new production paradigms should be applied and integrated in factories developed according to a human centered approach and operating through new sustainable and environmentally conscious production system.

Additional Recommendations:

1. As the acceleration of the technological evolution is a global trend influencing Europe competitiveness, specific actions are needed to allow Europe to keep a strong position in the market managing the control of the evolving product-process and systems.
2. To consider new strategies in the European Industrial Leadership in the frame of the Industrial Renaissance: companies should be supported to apply the circular economy paradigm by mean of dedicated projects. An example could be strategies and projects on de-manufacturing of products.
3. To find efficient (public – private) mechanisms and partnerships to extract tangible value from and across projects in order to be able to build an European critical mass of innovations that can be speedily transformed into growth, jobs and solutions for our societal challenges.
4. To implement correct actions to assure the technologies have a valuable effect not at single company level, but at network level and at system level. This process is going to be a part of the pursued re-industrialization process that can make Europe competitive on the global market while ensuring a sustainable development at the same time.
5. Actions like integrating research infrastructures could play an important role in establishing learning factories, thus fostering a new entrepreneurship where innovation is the basis for the factories of the future.
6. To strengthen the support to research and innovation oriented on three factors (product, production system and process). A high range of innovation actions shall be based on the integration of strategies on production logistics, maintenance and quality control.
7. To put in place necessary actions towards new models allowing workers to have a good work-life balance and working environment with open-minded, capable and motivated personnel and the support of society.
Potential Impact:
1. The website www.lets2014.eu

The LET’S 2014 website www.lets2014.eu received 57.953 visits and 33.909 visitors since its launch on 28TH March 2014, with 244.380 page views from 152 countries. 38.11% (22.087) of users reached the website by organic search, 37.51% (21.741) of users directly, 21.28% by links, 2.69% by social. The average length of a session was 3:37 mins with 4.22 pages/session. 87.63% of visits was from desktop, 8,28% from mobile and 4,09% from tablet.

In the last 3 months before the opening of the event, the website received 30,733 visits and 17,983 visitors, with 139,141 page views.
The website was also populated with:
- 36 news (http://www.lets2014.eu/newsmedia/news/?tx_ttnews%5Bpointer%5D=2&cHash=86e2f8eda06123bb48743902a479af3b)
- 5 articles published in the LET’S stories section (http://www.lets2014.eu/newsmedia/stories/)
- 12 newsletters published from May to September 2014 (http://www.lets2014.eu/newsmedia/newsletter/) sent via email to 40.000 contacts
- 39 video-interviews with LET’S 2014 speakers
- 3 video-synthesis of the three days of conference
(http://www.lets2014.eu/newsmedia/video-gallery/)

2. LET’S 2014 on social media

The LET’S 2014 Twitter account has 234 followers and produced 270 tweets. The hasthag #LETS2014 produced the following:
• 1.706 tweet
• 231 active users
• 3.565.566 impressions
• 430.879 reached profiles
• 57,05% RT conversion

The Facebook account produced 60 posts with 146 followers.

3. LET’S 2014 Dissemination events

The biggest dissemination activities in terms of significance were:
• LET’S Preview at Europe Day - Bologna 9 May 2014
http://www.lets2014.eu/newsmedia/news/news-detail/article/lets-preview-at-europe-day-bologna-9-may-2014/
• LET’S Preview at R2B 2014 - Research to Business, Bologna 4-5 June 2014
http://www.lets2014.eu/newsmedia/news/news-detail/article/lets-preview-at-r2b-2014-research-to-business-bologna-4-5-june-2014/

The conference was also disseminated to the following event.
Event title Date Location Focus Impact (EU/Intern./National) Activity
Manufuture 6-8 October 2013 Vilnius Manufacture International Leaflet distribution
NCP NMP Meeting 18-oct 2013 Brussels NMP EU Presentation & leaflet distribution
IT-FR Seminar on Nano & Advanced Materials projects 21-22 Oct 2013 Grenoble Nano & Materials EU Leaflet distribution
NAnotechItaly 27 -29 Nov 2013 Venice Nano International Leaflet distribution
Industrial Technologies 2014 conference 9-11 Apr 2014 Athens Industrial Technology International Presentation & Leaflet distribution
ICT Innovation for Manufacturing SMEs 17-18 Jun 2014 Berlin ICT, manifacturing International Leaflet distribution

4. LET’S 2014 Press conferences and releases

The promotion campaign was developed also through six press releases issued between April and October 2014, with the results that 53 publications regarding the conference were recorded (48 webpress and 5 print press) with a wide geographical coverage (14 EU based webpress, 4 BE, 1 CY, 1 DE, 2 LU, 1 EL, 21 IT, 1 PL, 2 UK, 1 Australia, 1 Canada, 2 India, 1 Mexico, 1 Russia).

No. 1 Join us for the LET'S 2014 Conference “Leading Enabling Technologies for Societal Challenges”! 01 April 2014 (M10)
No. 2 Can 992 M€ lead Europe to a new Renaissance in 7 years? 25 June 2014 (M12)
No. 3 The Renaissance of the Industry, as the priority of the Italian Presidency of the Council of the EU. We discuss it at LET’s 2014. 02 September 2014 (M15)
No. 4 LET’S 2014 Leading Enabling Technologies for Societal Challenges 23 September 2014 (M15)
No. 5 Semester of Italian Presidency of EU: world-class experts of enabling technologies in Bologna at LET’S 2014 29 September 2014 (M15)
No. 6 Knowledge, Creativity, Culture and Competitiveness: these are the keywords of the European Renaissance 02 October 2014 (M16)

Two press conferences were organized to promote the conference with the Media:

- The first press conference was organised in Rome on the 23th of September 2014 - one week before the event - as peak of the promotion campaign. The President of CNR and the President of APRE conveyed the conference vision to the press and a video interview to both the Presidents was broadcasted through the CNR webTV (http://www.cnrweb.tv/lets-per-le-tecnologie-del-futuro/). The first press conference resulted in five news published, with the coverage of an important news agency (Asca.it) and two important media (Research Italy and Formiche.net).

- The second press conference was organised the first day of LET’S 2014. The Presidents of the three organisation (CNR, APRE and ASTER) presented the goals of the event and the concept behind the scientific programme to 23 attending international journalists. The second press conference produced as a result the publication of 25 news (23 webpress and 3 printed articles), most of which quoted the speeches of the speakers (the President of CNR and the President of APRE) assuring that the message of the Conference “A vision toward a new Renaissance” was widely spread.

A press release was produced in both cases and delivered to the journalists.

- LET’S 2014 Evaluation Summary Report
After the conference, all attendees were contacted via email and invited to fill the LET’S 2014 Evaluation Report, via a smart online form. 155 Delegates answered and all their contributions were eligible and retained for the summary report presented in pages 20 to 23 of the Final Publishable Report: http://www.lets2014.eu/fileadmin/content/Programme_file/LETS_Final_Publishable_Report.pdf

List of Websites:
Project website address: www.lets2014.eu

Final Report Summary - LEIT2014 (LEADERSHIP IN ENABLING AND INDUSTRIAL TECHNOLOGIES<br/>for EUROPEAN SOCIETAL CHALLENGES 2014<br/>(Nanotechnologies and Advanced Materials, Manufacturing and Processing))

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