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TRANSFORMING EUROPEAN INDUSTRY

27 October 2017

(From ec.europa.eu)

Call summary

The purpose of this call is to transform European industry through the integration of digitisation and other enabling technologies and achieve global industrial leadership. Success will be seen in global industrial leadership, notably in manufacturing, and in opportunities for re-industrialisation.

The call covers:

  • the manufacturing process itself, ranging from manufacturing excellence and flexibility to increased reliability, accuracy and durability, from improving energy efficiency and re-use of materials or re-manufacturing to skills development and novel ways for human-machine interaction;.
  • the development of emerging and potentially disruptive biotechnologies;.
  • the development of medical technologies for diagnosis and treatment.

It complements the call 'Foundations for Tomorrow's Industry', and contributes to the focus area on Digitising and Transforming European Industry and Services, by combining digital and physical advances for innovative new products and services.

Proposals for Research and Innovation Actions and Innovation Actions submitted under this call should include a business case and exploitation strategy, as outlined in the Introduction to the LEIT part of this Work Programme.

FACTORIES OF THE FUTURE (FOF)

Manufacturing is a key driver of employment and wealth creation in Europe, thus contributing significantly to improving the quality of life of citizens. Manufacturing industry produces more than three-quarters of Europe's exports and generates more than 15% of European GDP. The fundamental challenge for European manufacturing is to shift from a cost-based to a high-value-added competitive advantage. Factories of the Future delivers European added value by helping manufacturing enterprises, including SMEs, to make the necessary adaptations in terms of manufacturing excellence and flexibility, including skills development, to capitalise on the increasing demand for more customised and higher-quality products. This necessitates a transition to a flexible, digitalised and demand-driven manufacturing sector with lower energy consumption and waste generation, which characterises the fourth industrial revolution.

Topics under Factories of the Future (FOF) will support industry to develop new manufacturing technologies, optimise work environments so that its workforce can drive the transition to new technologies, enable more customised products and underlying production flexibility, optimise environmentally sustainable production and increase accuracy, efficiency and reliability in various fields of production ranging from micro assemblies to very large parts.

Proposals are invited against the following topic(s):

DT-FOF-01-2018

DT-FOF-02-2018

DT-FOF-03-2018

DT-FOF-04-2018

DT-FOF-05-2019

DT-FOF-06-2019

DT-FOF-07-2020

DT-FOF-08-2019

DT-FOF-09-2020

DT-FOF-10-2020

DT-FOF-11-2020

DT-FOF-12-2019

DT-NMBP-18-2019

DT-NMBP-19-2019

DT-NMBP-20-2018

BIOTECHNOLOGY

The exponential development of emerging and potentially disruptive biotechnologies has broadened their applicability, improving the quality and quantity of products in a wide variety of sectors (wellbeing, environment, food, etc.), improving quality of life and becoming an important economic engine. Given that biotechnology has become crucial for industrial growth, an important objective is to deliver added value by securing an important market share for leading European industries. In addition, Europe continues to excel in its scientific know-how and the means to discover new biotechnological ideas. However, for Europe to retain its comparative advantage in biotechnology, sustained investments are needed both for feeding its research base and for translating knowledge into tangible industrial innovation. Moreover, streamlined governance for new biotechnologies will facilitate reaching their full potential.

These biotechnology topics will support European industry through the continued development of cutting-edge biotechnologies, new biotechnologies for the global challenge of environmental protection and breakthrough solutions to transform industrial processes using environmentally friendly and sustainable methods outcompeting conventional alternatives.

Proposals are invited against the following topic(s):

BIOTEC-01-2018

BIOTEC-02-2019

BIOTEC-03-2018

CE-BIOTEC-04-2018

CE-BIOTEC-05-2019

BIOTEC-06-2020

BIOTEC-07-2020

MEDICAL TECHNOLOGY INNOVATIONS

EU demographic change requires innovation to enhance healthcare delivery, quality of life and active ageing, being also an industrial opportunity and a growing market. To respond to these challenges and opportunities, the topics in this section will develop innovative design, development and manufacture of user-centric medical technologies, including implants, tissue regeneration, and smart nano- or bio-materials. The EU medical industrial sector ecosystem is currently fragmented into diverse approaches and technologies; developing and tuning innovative medical technologies performances to the patients’ needs is essential to enable the translatability of inclusive "bench to bedside" solutions into personalised clinical applications. This development could result in a major improvement on the quality of life of patients.

Proposals are invited against the following topic(s):

NMBP-21-2020

NMBP-22-2018

DT-NMBP-23-2020