Periodic Reporting for period 2 - MANUNET III (ERA-NET ON ADVANCED MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGIES) Reporting period: 2018-01-01 to 2022-03-31 Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project Europe is facing major economic challenges that require an ambitious economic policy for the 21st century. The EU set out its vision for Europe's social market economy in the Europe 2020 strategy, which aims at confronting our structural weaknesses through progress in three mutually reinforcing priorities:• smart growth, based on knowledge and innovation,• sustainable growth, promoting a more resource efficient, greener and competitive economy,• inclusive growth, fostering a high employment economy delivering economic, social and territorial cohesion.MANUNET III, as a continuation of MANUNET II, is aligned with the European priorities and intends to create a smart sustainable growth in the European manufacturing sector by coordinating the research and innovation efforts in the field of advanced manufacturing with a special focus on the key areas of new production processes, adaptive manufacturing systems and technologies for the factory of the future.The project will also reinforce the territorial cohesion through an extended collaboration network. The consortium, constituted by 8 Member States, 3 Associated Countries and 1 Third Country intends to respond to the actual economic crisis by promoting transnational research, innovation and entrepreneurship in the industrial sector, especially in the SMEs, which are the backbone of Europe's economy.Through this strategic and integrated approach to innovation in advanced manufacturing, MANUNET III intends to maximise European, national and regional research and innovation potential.After 6 years of network activities MANUNET has looked back to its performance, analysing the coordination of the network and the results and impact that its calls have had in the RTD community. MANUNET is a mature and experienced platform which has succeeded launching calls every year since 2007. It has provided a regular funding opportunity to the manufacturing industry, mobilising 141 M€ of public funding. Very high SME involvement in calls: 78,3% of the MANUNET beneficiaries are SMEs. MANUNET fulfils this way one of its main goals which is to support industry and particularly SMEs, by designing calls tailored made for them. MANUNET has demonstrated added value for the need for an international network, complementary to other transnational funding instruments (both national and European funding instruments. MANUNET is an easy way to apply for funding, with relatively low administration effort, large geographical coverage and relevant topics. Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far The key activity carried out for this third contract of MANUNET with the Commission is the implementation of one transnational call with EU top-up funding of up to 33% of the total committed national/regional funding. The EU top-up funding has been used to increase the impact of the network for the benefit of the RTD community by enabling many excellent transnational RTD projects to be funded. During the preproposal phase 126 pre-proposals were received of which 62 were recommended for full proposal phase. After an external evaluation process 40 projects out of the 62 were finally recommended for funding, this can be translated into 64% of success rate from full proposal to recommended phase. As a main result, considering the focus on SMEs that the initiative has, a total of 100 SMEs were finally funded. 150% more compare to MANUNET Call 2016.3 additional calls were launched, respectively in January 2018, January 2019 and January 2020, thus maintaining regularity in the call timing, well known by the potential applicants (an aspect that has always been guaranteed over the years by the MANUNET funding agencies):- Call 2018: 66 pre-proposals, 31 full proposals, 19 funded projects.- Call 2019: 65 pre-proposals, 34 full proposals, 16 funded projects.- Call 2020: 58 pre-proposals, 27 full proposals, 16 funded projects.MANUNET III one more time demonstrates that it does fill the gap between purely national or regional projects and larger European projects, making it especially relevant for newcomers to transnational RTD cooperation and SMEs. Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far) Though the Co-fund call has been an important milestone for MANUNET initiative, MANUNET III has been launching annual calls without EU co-funding mobilizing a critical mass of public funding for Advanced Manufacturing technologies. 3 additional international calls were launched, ensuring a high cooperation among regions/countries.After 6 years of network activities MANUNET has looked back to its performance, analysing the coordination of the network and the impact that its calls have had in the RTD community. MANUNET is a mature and experienced platform which has succeeded launching calls every year since 2007. It has provided a regular funding opportunity to the manufacturing industry, mobilising 141 M€ of public funding. Very high SME involvement in calls: 78,3% of the MANUNET beneficiaries are SMEs. MANUNET fulfils this way one of its main goals which is to support industry and particularly SMEs, by designing calls tailored made for them.MANUNET demonstrates added value for the need for an international network, complementary to other transnational funding instruments (both national and European funding instruments. MANUNET is an easy way to apply for funding, with relatively low administration effort, large geographical coverage and relevant topics.MANUNET is a very well managed and coordinated network. The network activities and its management (adequacy of the consortium, quality of leadership, flow of information, governance, etc.) are considered an asset by the partners and associated partners of the network. Call applicants commend the operation of the joint calls, with clear proposal templates, guides for applicants, website, easy application procedure and constructive interaction with the national/regional funding agencies. 95% of the beneficiaries that response to que survey had obtained some kind of result after the end of the project. The type of result was commonly a process (31%), a product (27%) or method (23%), as well as license agreements, patents or publications. Funding agencies involved in MANUNET consider that the network demonstrates a clear added value for both call applicants and regional/national programmes. Considering the need for an international network, MANUNET offers SMEs a space for innovation and boosts international cooperation not only for the RTD community but also for funding agencies. However, the Cofund scheme did not bring significant benefits compared to MANUNET I and II. MANUNET logo
