The digitalisation of industry is rapidly transforming all stages of the production value chain globally. Advances in robotics, data collection, cybersecurity and other technologies are creating increasingly efficient, sustainable, flexible and tailored manufacturing processes. If exploited, these technologies could create huge growth in European industries, enabling production of innovative and highly tailored end products for citizens in a cost, energy, resource and time efficient way. The Industry4.E (I4.E) Lighthouse is a ECSEL-JU initiative, was established to coordinate and link Research, Development and Innovation (RDI) activities, and to help European industry achieve digital transition and strengthen Europe’s competitiveness.
The overall objectives of the project has been to:
1. To support the establishment of the I4.E Lighthouse and its coordination with other national activities in the field;
2. To coordinate the relevant stakeholders, project consortia and policy makers along the Electronic Components and Systems (ECS) value chain in Europe, in full collaboration with the Lighthouse Initiative Advisory Service (LIASE);
3. To actively assist the LIASE in the continuous refining of the Major Challenges (MCs) defined in the Digital Industry chapter of the ECS-SRIA and ECSEL-JU MASP enabling the successful execution of the roadmap; and
4. To support the LIASE in facilitating the collaboration of the RDI communities, in promoting Industry4.E visibility and in their reporting obligations to the ECSEL JU Governing Board(GB)
This holistic approach has realised, developed and expanded the project impacts and enhanced European capability, capacity and competitiveness for the future digitalisation of industry.
CSA-Industry4.E (CSA-I4.E) brought together a select team from across Europe, to promote the I4.E Lighthouse vision of greater interaction and cooperation between stakeholders from digital industry. These stakeholders have included industry, SMEs, research institutes, universities, policymakers, and end users. Uptake of results from pioneering research projects has been accelerated through targeted activities including (but not limited to) the establishment of a www.ECSEL-portal.eu linked to the project website, facilitating sharing of knowledge, networking and interaction between projects, participants, and the wider RDI community. Bringing project participants together has enabled the major challenges of our time to be addressed. These activities, many digital in nature, have been informed by emerging policy and trends (European Green Deal, A Europe fit for a digital age, An economy that works for people) including Industry 5.0 policy towards more sustainable, resilient and human-centric industry, helping the community prepare for low-probability, yet high-impact events, most recently experienced through the global pandemic.
