Periodic Report Summary 1 - INNO-PRO 2014 (INNOvation in PROduction: A regional perspective on innovation drivers for SMEs and the NMP role)
Project Context and Objectives:
The objective of the IndustryTech and InnoPro CSA projects has been to co-operatively support the organization of the Conference “Industrial Technologies 2014 - Smart Growth through Research and Innovation ‐ Towards Europe 2020” in the context of the Greek EU presidency during the first semester of 2014. This co-operation of the two actions would allow realising economies of scale and increasing the impact in the target audience by proposing a more attractive event. The co-operative conference aimed at facilitating a multi-perspective view of European stakeholders on innovation for production in Europe, focusing on a regional perspective of innovation drivers for SMEs and the role that new NMP technology deployment is expected to play.
Industrial Technologies 2014, the third in the series of Industrial Technologies bi-annual conferences, was held in Athens, Greece on April 9-11, 2014. Over 1300 delegates participated in the event, among which 150 high-level speakers presenting nanotechnology, biotechnology, advanced materials and new production technologies. The Conference Agenda included 4 plenaries, 17 parallel sessions and 20 workshops related to nanotechnology, biotechnology, advanced materials and production technologies. Parallel activities such as the Conference Exhibition, the Greek Showcase, the FutureFlash! Demo, the Best Poster and Best Project Awards, the Matchmaking event, and the brand new Industrial Technologies for Schools activity complemented the Conference Programme.
Throughout the conference, the ways NMP-enabled products change the daily life have been emphasised. The conference has addressed areas where nanotechnology can be applied and emphasised how businesses need to move with the times and need to redirect their attention towards transformation into new areas. Furthermore, issues regarding safety of advanced materials and process in terms of nanotechnology were also mentioned. Finally, the impact of nanotechnology in sustainable healthcare, biotechnology and water supply were fields that driven the interest of many delegates.
The conference gave a multi-perspective view on innovation processes, highlighting the critical role of cooperative research and regional development. It discussed the major challenges related to efficient, high quality and agile manufacturing; it contributed a vision about the resource-efficient factories of the future and a comprehensive view on market needs and technology trends for the smart manufacturing systems of the future. It also gave an insight on new approaches to skills development and competence building, in view of the critical role of talent-driven innovation for future manufacturing and the foreseen change of employment pattern in industry towards more knowledge- and skills-intensive jobs.
The timing of Industrial Technologies 2014, FP7 ending and Horizon2020 just to be launched, provided an opportunity to look ahead to how the NMP activity will change, and to look back to review what has been achieved so far.
Project Results:
Industrial Technologies 2014, the third in the series of Industrial Technologies bi-annual conferences, was held in Athens, Greece on April 9-11, 2014. Over 1300 delegates participated in the event, among which 150 high-level speakers presenting nanotechnology, biotechnology, advanced materials and new production technologies.
Presentations, workshops, exhibitions, poster displays and competitions over three days demonstrated convincingly the importance of NMP technologies in ensuring that Europe retains a foothold at the very forefront of global manufacturing. Indeed, the importance of European re-industrialization through research and innovation in industrial technologies was the fundamental topic which repeatedly emerged during the course of the three days. Furthermore, the importance of innovation in SME’s through the commercialization of NMP research results, including the support of smart specialization by pushing innovation policy further in the new member states, especially in the Balkan and Mediterranean countries was repeatedly emphasized and highlighted by all key players and was reflected in the committed participation of so many delegates from beyond those borders. The enthusiastic participation of so many delegates in the brokerage sessions demonstrated a very real willingness on the part of those delegates to establish new collaborations.
The event programme featured updates on the latest developments in NMP technologies from many leading research centres and universities and provided practical information on industrial applications from European industrial companies. Inevitably, due to its timing with the Greek EU presidency, the relevance and importance of Horizon 2020 (Europe’s new Framework Programme for Research and Innovation) was repeatedly addressed. Hopes were expressed that the projected growth of this Programme and the strategic positioning of NMP technologies within that Programme, would remain as a characteristic of the Industrial Technologies element of the Programme.
Throughout the conference, the ways NMP-enabled products change the daily life have been emphasised. The conference has also addressed other areas where nanotechnology can be applied and emphasised how businesses need to move with the times and need to redirect their attention towards transformation into new areas. Furthermore, issues regarding safety of advanced materials and process in terms of nanotechnology were also mentioned. Finally, the impact of nanotechnology in sustainable healthcare, biotechnology and water supply were fields that driven the interest of many delegates.
The conference gave a multi-perspective view on innovation processes, highlighting the critical role of cooperative research and regional development. It discussed the major challenges related to efficient, high quality and agile manufacturing; it contributed a vision about the resource-efficient factories of the future and a comprehensive view on market needs and technology trends for the smart manufacturing systems of the future. It also gave an insight on new approaches to skills development and competence building, in view of the critical role of talent-driven innovation for future manufacturing and the foreseen change of employment pattern in industry towards more knowledge- and skills-intensive jobs.
Finally, through the Greek Showcase and the matchmaking activities channels of communications between academia and industry were launched, supporting the effort to commercialize the new key enabling technologies (KETs). Integration between academia, SMEs and industry will allow innovations to be commercialised and then produced on a large industrial scale (developing demo and pilot lines through clustering activities) for economic growth and job creation. This will bring more cutting-edge technology related jobs and patents back to Europe to complement the knowledge-creation.
Potential Impact:
The timing of Industrial Technologies 2014, FP7 ending and Horizon2020 just to be launched, provided an opportunity to look ahead to how the NMP activity will change, and to look back to review what has been achieved.
IndTech2014 reviewed current NMP research activities, particularly in the context of the grand challenges facing Europe, such as urbanisation, climate change, and aging populations. This highlighted the importance of NMP in development solutions to these challenges, from materials technology to building lightweight vehicle chassis for improved energy efficiency, to targeted delivery of nutrients with nano-encapsulation etc. The impact of this will be the sharing of information between projects.
The event also addressed H2020 conditions, such as access to finance or regulation, which act as barriers to innovation, especially for new member states. The focus of the sessions was not only on identifying barriers but also on the policies or strategies that have been used to overcome them. The primary audience for these types of sessions are industry and research, but also those with the ability to effect change, such as investors or policymakers. The latter will derive a clear understanding of where policy or strategy changes could have a beneficial long term impact.
Cooperation and coordination has been one of the main objectives of the congress. By learning about each other’s research priorities and activities, international researchers, local, national and transnational networks and bodies will be able to identify cooperation policies and learn from successful models. The impact of this will be to reduce fragmentation of effort and build coordinated approaches.
The innovation excellence of SMEs in Europe and their role in production development, in view of the challenges that have been set by Europe2020 was also a key theme. Specific attention was given on how SMEs can utilize their regional character, facilitated by the European internal market, to compete in a global environment supported by highly innovative products and services.
In addition, the conference helped to understand and underline barriers and opportunities in South-East Europe for cooperation in High Added Value global manufacturing and for solutions to overcome such barriers. The conference developed hints for SMEs acting in transforming economies. The conference also informed about advanced, industrial oriented implementations in manufacturing (directions, trends, examples) from all over Europe with focus on networking in manufacturing. Effective models and best practices of cooperation and networking between academia, research and industry have been defined, namely in the scope of research and innovation projects as well of new models of engineers’ education.
Governments of member states and third countries have shared plans and priorities for industrial technologies research, and received information about how best to coordinate with other initiatives, as well learning from success cases how activities can be structured to provide the highest likelihood of generating economic growth with NMP.
Industry shared information about their own research activities and gave their viewpoint about development of new or existing markets. They got a better understanding of research prospects in NMP, as well as specific technologies that may be available for development or exploitation.
Researchers shared information about the current state and future prospects of NMP from a research viewpoint. They had the chance to learn about changes in the policy environment, industry needs and to find inspiration for challenges that their research could address. Both industry and research representatives had the opportunity to find partners for future collaboration at the event.
A societal viewpoint has been incorporated by identifying how NMP is contributing to the solution of grand societal challenges, and which solutions are likely to have the greatest impact.
List of Websites:
www.industrialtechnologies2014.eu
The objective of the IndustryTech and InnoPro CSA projects has been to co-operatively support the organization of the Conference “Industrial Technologies 2014 - Smart Growth through Research and Innovation ‐ Towards Europe 2020” in the context of the Greek EU presidency during the first semester of 2014. This co-operation of the two actions would allow realising economies of scale and increasing the impact in the target audience by proposing a more attractive event. The co-operative conference aimed at facilitating a multi-perspective view of European stakeholders on innovation for production in Europe, focusing on a regional perspective of innovation drivers for SMEs and the role that new NMP technology deployment is expected to play.
Industrial Technologies 2014, the third in the series of Industrial Technologies bi-annual conferences, was held in Athens, Greece on April 9-11, 2014. Over 1300 delegates participated in the event, among which 150 high-level speakers presenting nanotechnology, biotechnology, advanced materials and new production technologies. The Conference Agenda included 4 plenaries, 17 parallel sessions and 20 workshops related to nanotechnology, biotechnology, advanced materials and production technologies. Parallel activities such as the Conference Exhibition, the Greek Showcase, the FutureFlash! Demo, the Best Poster and Best Project Awards, the Matchmaking event, and the brand new Industrial Technologies for Schools activity complemented the Conference Programme.
Throughout the conference, the ways NMP-enabled products change the daily life have been emphasised. The conference has addressed areas where nanotechnology can be applied and emphasised how businesses need to move with the times and need to redirect their attention towards transformation into new areas. Furthermore, issues regarding safety of advanced materials and process in terms of nanotechnology were also mentioned. Finally, the impact of nanotechnology in sustainable healthcare, biotechnology and water supply were fields that driven the interest of many delegates.
The conference gave a multi-perspective view on innovation processes, highlighting the critical role of cooperative research and regional development. It discussed the major challenges related to efficient, high quality and agile manufacturing; it contributed a vision about the resource-efficient factories of the future and a comprehensive view on market needs and technology trends for the smart manufacturing systems of the future. It also gave an insight on new approaches to skills development and competence building, in view of the critical role of talent-driven innovation for future manufacturing and the foreseen change of employment pattern in industry towards more knowledge- and skills-intensive jobs.
The timing of Industrial Technologies 2014, FP7 ending and Horizon2020 just to be launched, provided an opportunity to look ahead to how the NMP activity will change, and to look back to review what has been achieved so far.
Project Results:
Industrial Technologies 2014, the third in the series of Industrial Technologies bi-annual conferences, was held in Athens, Greece on April 9-11, 2014. Over 1300 delegates participated in the event, among which 150 high-level speakers presenting nanotechnology, biotechnology, advanced materials and new production technologies.
Presentations, workshops, exhibitions, poster displays and competitions over three days demonstrated convincingly the importance of NMP technologies in ensuring that Europe retains a foothold at the very forefront of global manufacturing. Indeed, the importance of European re-industrialization through research and innovation in industrial technologies was the fundamental topic which repeatedly emerged during the course of the three days. Furthermore, the importance of innovation in SME’s through the commercialization of NMP research results, including the support of smart specialization by pushing innovation policy further in the new member states, especially in the Balkan and Mediterranean countries was repeatedly emphasized and highlighted by all key players and was reflected in the committed participation of so many delegates from beyond those borders. The enthusiastic participation of so many delegates in the brokerage sessions demonstrated a very real willingness on the part of those delegates to establish new collaborations.
The event programme featured updates on the latest developments in NMP technologies from many leading research centres and universities and provided practical information on industrial applications from European industrial companies. Inevitably, due to its timing with the Greek EU presidency, the relevance and importance of Horizon 2020 (Europe’s new Framework Programme for Research and Innovation) was repeatedly addressed. Hopes were expressed that the projected growth of this Programme and the strategic positioning of NMP technologies within that Programme, would remain as a characteristic of the Industrial Technologies element of the Programme.
Throughout the conference, the ways NMP-enabled products change the daily life have been emphasised. The conference has also addressed other areas where nanotechnology can be applied and emphasised how businesses need to move with the times and need to redirect their attention towards transformation into new areas. Furthermore, issues regarding safety of advanced materials and process in terms of nanotechnology were also mentioned. Finally, the impact of nanotechnology in sustainable healthcare, biotechnology and water supply were fields that driven the interest of many delegates.
The conference gave a multi-perspective view on innovation processes, highlighting the critical role of cooperative research and regional development. It discussed the major challenges related to efficient, high quality and agile manufacturing; it contributed a vision about the resource-efficient factories of the future and a comprehensive view on market needs and technology trends for the smart manufacturing systems of the future. It also gave an insight on new approaches to skills development and competence building, in view of the critical role of talent-driven innovation for future manufacturing and the foreseen change of employment pattern in industry towards more knowledge- and skills-intensive jobs.
Finally, through the Greek Showcase and the matchmaking activities channels of communications between academia and industry were launched, supporting the effort to commercialize the new key enabling technologies (KETs). Integration between academia, SMEs and industry will allow innovations to be commercialised and then produced on a large industrial scale (developing demo and pilot lines through clustering activities) for economic growth and job creation. This will bring more cutting-edge technology related jobs and patents back to Europe to complement the knowledge-creation.
Potential Impact:
The timing of Industrial Technologies 2014, FP7 ending and Horizon2020 just to be launched, provided an opportunity to look ahead to how the NMP activity will change, and to look back to review what has been achieved.
IndTech2014 reviewed current NMP research activities, particularly in the context of the grand challenges facing Europe, such as urbanisation, climate change, and aging populations. This highlighted the importance of NMP in development solutions to these challenges, from materials technology to building lightweight vehicle chassis for improved energy efficiency, to targeted delivery of nutrients with nano-encapsulation etc. The impact of this will be the sharing of information between projects.
The event also addressed H2020 conditions, such as access to finance or regulation, which act as barriers to innovation, especially for new member states. The focus of the sessions was not only on identifying barriers but also on the policies or strategies that have been used to overcome them. The primary audience for these types of sessions are industry and research, but also those with the ability to effect change, such as investors or policymakers. The latter will derive a clear understanding of where policy or strategy changes could have a beneficial long term impact.
Cooperation and coordination has been one of the main objectives of the congress. By learning about each other’s research priorities and activities, international researchers, local, national and transnational networks and bodies will be able to identify cooperation policies and learn from successful models. The impact of this will be to reduce fragmentation of effort and build coordinated approaches.
The innovation excellence of SMEs in Europe and their role in production development, in view of the challenges that have been set by Europe2020 was also a key theme. Specific attention was given on how SMEs can utilize their regional character, facilitated by the European internal market, to compete in a global environment supported by highly innovative products and services.
In addition, the conference helped to understand and underline barriers and opportunities in South-East Europe for cooperation in High Added Value global manufacturing and for solutions to overcome such barriers. The conference developed hints for SMEs acting in transforming economies. The conference also informed about advanced, industrial oriented implementations in manufacturing (directions, trends, examples) from all over Europe with focus on networking in manufacturing. Effective models and best practices of cooperation and networking between academia, research and industry have been defined, namely in the scope of research and innovation projects as well of new models of engineers’ education.
Governments of member states and third countries have shared plans and priorities for industrial technologies research, and received information about how best to coordinate with other initiatives, as well learning from success cases how activities can be structured to provide the highest likelihood of generating economic growth with NMP.
Industry shared information about their own research activities and gave their viewpoint about development of new or existing markets. They got a better understanding of research prospects in NMP, as well as specific technologies that may be available for development or exploitation.
Researchers shared information about the current state and future prospects of NMP from a research viewpoint. They had the chance to learn about changes in the policy environment, industry needs and to find inspiration for challenges that their research could address. Both industry and research representatives had the opportunity to find partners for future collaboration at the event.
A societal viewpoint has been incorporated by identifying how NMP is contributing to the solution of grand societal challenges, and which solutions are likely to have the greatest impact.
List of Websites:
www.industrialtechnologies2014.eu