The extensive use of digital tools to create smart, autonomous factories and resilient supplier networks, should be combined with the development of smart physical production systems (advanced multi-process machines, smart fixturing and sensors with decentralised intelligence, disruptive measuring and NDT techniques, automatization, etc). 

Product design for circular and superior environmental performance

Need for new design, high performance re-manufacturing processes but not always the most sophisticated methods (expensive; intensive).

information are needed for SMEs and Education (e.g. digitalisations moduls) should be developed and implemented in professional training e.g. machine operators, technicians

LCA/LCM need clear definitions and standards to ensure high quality on technical analysis and compability; green washing must be avoided.

Ethical aspects and issues must be considered and defined by standards 

If flexibility achieved through robotics, it may also bring opportunities at DIGITAL-EMERGING destination topics (interaction between MiE-ADRA partnerships)

Excellent manufacturing is still a not sorted out challenge, a differentiating factor when comparing with low-cost countries, and a source of jobs, growth and prosperity for EU. WP25-27 should rescue again zero-defects & zero-X strategies, precision & high performance manufacturing applied to the intrafactory shopfloor domains (component-machine-process levels), reinforced and upgraded by decentralised/distributed intelligence (DTI), and obviously complemented by the green/circular/sustainable/MaaS orientation.

DTI (distributed/decentralized technical intelligence) could be an enabling technology to achieve connectivity along mnfg ecosystems.

More than a research topic title, it looks a reality to cope with.

Although also relevant for discrete manufacturing, energy-efficiency impact can be much more significant at process industry (P4P, CleanSteel), at the neighbour section within same destination (TwinTransition)

AI oriented to process control & optimization, nurturing predictive maintenance and enabling servitization strategies based on quality data spaces.

It may also bring opportunities at DATA and DIGITAL-EMERGING destinations topics (interaction between MiE--BDVA-ADRA partnerships)

Human operator empowerment to interact safely with machines, robots, CNCs based on enhanced HMIs, always keeping the decision-making at the human side (Industry 5.0)

Skills generation is crucial at these times, but perhaps MiE topics should focus on the technology fields.

I don't perceive bio-intelligent manufacturing as a clear market need and industrial requirement (so far). As exploring initiative, may be, but being 1 out of 3 topics in 2024 looks excesive (just my personal opinion).

Network resilience is more than just a singular supply chain, but an evolution in thinking within the value chain concept.  It matters greatly that EU systems are integrated and built for the wider value proposition on a societal level, creating new and improved commercial opportunities for the manufacturing sector.  This is particularly important in the current economic and political environment

A key component of the EU aspiration on autonomy is resilience of the manufacturing ecosystem.  

Europe (in general) is a higher cost economic region.  In a time of turbulence and global rising inflationary pressures, our historic growth strategy is growing through exports.  We cannot survive in a race to the bottom (based solely on price), but need to support our manufactured product proposition, via an increase in the innovation built into that manufactured product.  When people talk about the need to digitize, they are generally referring to either the production process or the resultant product.  The only reason you would wish to digitize a product (make it smarter) is to add value for the customer and/or sell an additional service.  These are by definition ‘high value added products’.  Its imperative to the future of manufacturing sector on this continent that we focus in that sector of the manufactured goods.

Europe does not have the raw materials to support the manufacturing sector, particularly in relation to precious metals needed in so many of the modern environmental systems.  We have an opportunity to lead the world in terms of recycling and circularity, both in terms of the right thing to do for the planet, but the logistical requirement to support manufacturing in Europe.  It is important to understand that there is NO circularity without manufacturing.

The use of trusted AI will transform many sectors and sections of our society.  Of no less importance in this journey is the experience of the manufacturing sector.  Technical and business decision systems will be transformed by this type of technology.  It is important to protect the worker in this transformation as well as using the power of this potential to the betterment of the manufacturing product and service within the wider community.  Much is made of the potential dangers of this technology but we should remain positive on the opportunities that it represents, particularly in a sector in such flux, as manufacturing is at this moment in time.

A critical element in the evolution of the manufacturing sector is tied up in the need to have a more completed link between the manufactured product (through its transformation in the manufacturing process) and the subsequent use and end of life considerations within the real world consumer environment.  We need safe, clear and agreed protocols between suppliers in a supply chain, to store relevant information, so that disassembly and re purposing of the raw materials and sub components can be effectively reused in other manufacturing chain, post use of the product in this life cycle.

Compliance and regulatory restrictions to changing heavily regulated manufacturing systems needs to be automated and digitally enabled in as an effective a manner as any other element of the manufacturing / design lifecycle.  Too often critical or innovative updates to a system are postponed or rejected because the regulatory framework is too onerous to adjust.  As we experienced through Covid, this can be amended whilst keeping the vital controls required by the pharma and medical device sectors (as an example)

We are running out of people, particularly skilled people.  All of the improvements we require of the digital and green twin transition are critical form a business perspective, from an integrated perspective and no less critically form a human capital perspective.  We need to upskill and reskill our people, as well as attracting more young propel to the STEM sectors.  But people are busy within their own jobs, and releasing them for training is a challenge.  Equally there is a difficulty in ascertaining the ‘right’ skills to upskill them on.  Too many SME owner managers claim to be upskilling their staff in data programs for example, but very few are training their staff in the fundamentals like ‘standard deviation’.  We also need to be open to non STEM people coming to this sector.  If we are to overcome the significant challenges we face as a society, we will need a significant input from the humanities and other specialist areas (e.g. the moral framework for AI in our society, may be better served by a humanities expertise, rather than the person who can code this up).

Of particular interest for those processes which are coming to the end of their limits from a physical and chemical parameters, such as the production of microchips, to keep aligned with Moore's law.  There are of course more examples of this opportunity and this represents an exciting future area of focus for the manufacturing sector.  There are also significant implications for the medical devices sector, where the development of solutions in this space will grow substantially in the coming decade.

Inrtoducing advanced machinery can be a major contributor to advancing shop floor operations. 

Reduce physical fatigue. 

Help to increase productivity by combining people and machinery effiicently.

While a few strategic priority product areas may be targeted, main focus should remain on the underlying technologies and approaches that benefit European industry generally and can find applications on a broad range of designed & manufactured products.

Responsiveness depends on flexibility and reconfigurability but all links in the value chain must be reconfigurable in order to have a responsive system. Each node of the value network requires different approach/tools/technologies to operate in a reconfigurable way. Therefore enablers both digital (Digital Twins, AI decision making) and physical (robotics, human robot collaboration means, reconfigurable equipment) need to be developed to support the value chain.

Manufacturing activities will always remain a cornerstone for EU prosperity and leaderhip must be retained or extended to all sectors. Innovative production systems with human centric characteristics allowing people to remain productive regardless of their age/gender/special condition will play an important role. Technologies to integrate human in a smart working environment where resources (e.g. robots) collaborate with each other and humans in a seamless way will have a great impact on the way Europe manufactures its goods.

Optimization needs to take place both horizontally (e,g, shopfloor control) and vertically (management of operations). Digital twins able to capture information from each level and process it for decisions making using AI are needed to simplify and make the orchestration more effective. 

Strengthen the traceability through novel approaches including AI - gathering information (directly and indirectly). Digital product passport and similar approaches for data management

Already significant results have been achieved in the field through advanced robotics solutions (high payload collaborative robots, exoskeletons, mobile robots etc). The challenge is to bring them to the final stage so that they can seamlessly work with (and for) humans with minimal efforts (both cognitive and physical) required on the operator side. Maturation of the technologies need to be followed by convincing demonstration of the technologies both in industrial and open pilot environments to achieve wide acceptance at the different organizational levels.

In parallel with the digitally enabled upskilling, ways to better include and immerse humans in social manufacturing environments are needed. Cognitive augmentation in different forms can allow humans to do more with less requirements on their side. Technology working for the humans to allow them to achieve greater impact.

This is of primary importance as it affects all levels of factory hierarchy. We are facing a paradigm shift with the introduction of advanced robots and AI and people need to be properly equipped with new skills and qualifications. Training through new technologies including VR/AR and concepts (such as the Teaching Factory) should become a new standard for both new and existing personnel in manufacturing.

Advanced production concepts are indeed needed as an outlook for the future however maturation seems to require far more time than the immediate actions needed to steer manufacturing technologies to keep up with current trends.

There is a lot of work to be done in this area yet

Since several challenges are still unknown in these new sectors, this topic should be a RIA

Circular manufacturing value networks should be at regional level to be really effective. So this topic could complement running projects with this approach.

Clearly identify which are the differences with the previous remanufacturing topics

Not to focus only in recycled materials, but also in manufacturing technologies providing multimaterials that can reduce significantly the use of scarce or harmful materials. TRL is low, so it should be a RIA.

The topic is relevant but as it is described it seems to be 2 different topics, one focused on the factory and another focused on the supply chain. All indicated aspects dealed together would give rise to a topic of 10-15M€ funding per proposal. Activities focused on implementing the use of renewable energy would be out of the scope of MiE.

Data spaces are covered in Digital Europe, so this topic shouldn't be focused on this. On the contrary cloud/edge solutions to boost data spaces should be emphasized, focusing on hardware and software tools, digital twins and modelling to standarize data to be used in manufacturing data spaces. 

To be focused on innovative manufacturing solutions such as additive manufacturing

Should this be a topic on its own or should be part of another more manufacturing focused topic?

It is an interesting topic but shouldn't be focused only in interaction with biological systems, as this could limitate significantly the outcomes. Bio-inspired systems such as biomimicking, biologically inspired manufacturing processes and self-adaptable products could also be addressed.

For European leadership in strategic and high-value-added products, new business models and value-creation structures are needed. In addition to the focus on products, however, the service business is one of the key factors for differentiation from the competition, particularly in the manufacturing industry. Companies from outside the EU are now offering increasingly better product alternatives at often lower prices. Against this background, the development of strategic and high value added products must not end with the product. Product service systems incorporate this factor. This not only achieves consistent optimization of the product by permanently adapting it to customer needs. The largest part of the CO2 footprint in the manufacturing industry occurs in the utilization phase of the machines. Service offers a wide range of opportunities to have a positive impact on environmental sustainability or to offer Re-X (such as remanufacturing or recycling) as services.

Two additional focus areas for this topic should be:
1. Organisational structures will adapt to the new paradigm of a Circular economy and thereby to the changing business models (i.e. multidimensional business models are key for a successful circular economy) and working in circular, connected manufacturing ecosystems.  Companies will need support on those transformation paths.
2. Transition to circular, connected manufacturing ecosystems will be realized in each company/organization. Leaders/ managers need to be supported on how to manage a company on all levels to also develop a circular mindset and open up to inter-organizational cooperation, the basis of ecosystems.

When products need to be (re-)designed for remanufacturing, we need a focus on an everlasting core and standardized models to add on to reach high service levels throughout a prolonged life-cycle

To ensure product information along their extended lifetime to be collected,  these inspection and measurement approaches do not only need to assure high, quality, traceability, and compliance with quality standards but also dynamic ecosystem standards.

Archetypes of development parts are needed such as a maturity index for service transformation. This transformation starts with classic services that help maintain machine performance. (For example, repairs, inspections, intelligent spare parts management, etc.) They thus enable the circular economy in the sense that they extend service life. In terms of the maturity index, they follow the following logic: Reactive (provided at standstill), Preventive (provided interval- or condition-based), Predictive (predictive, then usually using data-based components). The last maturity level then flows into the next level of the maturity index, digital services (e.g., access to training videos, chatbots, predictive analytics, etc.). This requires access to the application data. However, the potential for the circular economy is high, as performances are improved and workloads are increased. The final step is the maturity index is the development of as-a-service offerings. Due to the necessary integration of the provider into the customer processes, they offer the most significant potential for increasing sustainability and for a flexible and productive manufacturing industry. 

An important aspect that has not been addressed yet properly is the integration of the specific organizational processes of companies and their IT systems. Hence we propose to add the topic of "Integration of data spaces into business applications (ERP, MES)  

Focusing only on HMI seems a bit low in ambition, it would be a good idea to include low code/no-code explicitly. 

Organizational structures will adapt to the new paradigm of a circular economy and the connected transformation of factory work. Organizational design and new blueprints are needed so a company can meet this transformation. 

Advanced mechatronics to provide physical support.

Involving stationary robots and wearable robotics.

Personalized support based on current operation.

Create jobs that promote gender equality.

Allow employment of older personnel.

Provision of cognitive support via in time knowledge, enabling the employment of non skilled personnel, reduction of human errors and improvement of productivity.

By increasing autonomy and by adopting optimization strategies, production technologies can take into account constraints by design and be more responsive to changes.

To achieve these goals simultaneously represents a serious challenge because it requires to foresee market requirements and understand how production technology can influence the sustainability of the value network.

Flexible manufacturing is a growing request that often in conflict with the need of massive production and high-quality standards. To improve automation capabilities is a possible way to fulfill all these goals at once and achieve strategic autonomy.

Increasing autonomy in manufacturing automation is a goal that should be pursued in order to implement the main principle of human-centered Industry 5.0. Increasing autonomy and adaptation of machines, possibly with an interaction among different machines, would give humans the possibility to move to more intellectual tasks.

The remaining challenge is to develop new methods for optimizing processes by combining standard control approaches with data-driven AI tools.

High added value products are among the main goal of many EU industries, how to preserve and improve this is a challenge.

Circularity is still missing on the vast majority of manufacturing processes but it will become more and more important to achieve sustainability.

Remanufacturing is fundamental for circularity but a big part of the problem is in materials, product design and production processes.

Pushing toward a highly connected and distributed intelligence can improve scalability of manufacturing technologies while ensuring zero-defect solutions thanks to the shared processing of a larger number of data.

The remaining challenge is distributed on-edge computing and intelligence.

Actual production is mostly based on raw materials availability and does not consider reusability in the design of products and production processes. A big impact can be generated if new products will be designed starting from end-of-life products and facilitating the reuse of the materials at end-of-life.

Energy efficiency and net-zero production are relevant aspects of future manufacturing and value chains.

Optimal manufacturing can be achieved by pushing toward optimization approaches that take into account data by exploiting novel AI approaches. However, formal verification of the data-based AI tools is mandatory.

Trusted AI and digital twins are important tools but for sure not the only one needed to face the problem.

The remaining challenge is to combine model-based optimization and control approaches with AI tools to increase trustworthiness.

We suggest adding “trusted and human-centric AI” in the title.

These aspects are still relevant challenges in many manufacturing sectors.

The massive availability of data due to digitalization calls for new processing solutions that exploit these data. However, in order to efficiently have scalable solutions, it is necessary to design solutions at the edge and then in the cloud that securely manage these data.

Remaining challenge: decentralized on-edge processing algorithms.

The innovation of manufacturing processes exploiting digitalization is a huge challenge for many EU industries.

Circularity, sustainability, digitalization, flexible manufacturing, etc. All these aspects require transformation of factory work and organizations.

New solution in the Industry 5.0 paradigm need to allow humans to extend their capabilities in interaction with machines and environments. This is possible by designing new virtual prototyping and augmented reality solutions. 

We suggest adding “inclusive, human centric and socially sustainable manufacturing”.

Remaining challenge: machine and robotic simulators with advanced capabilities.

There are many manual activities in production that can benefit from cognitive augmentation to be more inclusive, to decrease workers cognitive stress and then decrease the impact of human errors.

We suggest adding “inclusive, human centric and socially sustainable manufacturing”.

All these are relevant aspects to enable industry transformation toward circularity, sustainability, flexible manufacturing etc.

Understanding how to mix the manufacturing needs with the properties of biological products will have a major impact.

Embracing sustainable and flexible production technologies can foster innovation within the aluminum industry. By investing in research and development, adopting advanced manufacturing processes, and collaborating with partners across the value chain, the industry can drive technological advancements and stay ahead of competitors. This innovation-led approach not only improves competitiveness but also opens up new business opportunities.

Automation can greatly enhance productivity by improving efficiency, reducing downtime, and minimizing errors in the manufacturing process. By automating repetitive tasks, workers can focus on more complex and value-added activities, leading to increased productivity and output. This improved efficiency can help the european aluminum industry meet the growing demand and maintain a competitive edge in the global market.

Investing in research and development is crucial for driving innovation and creating high-value-added products. From european aluminum industry perspectivie, there is the need to foster a culture of innovation, collaborating with academia, research institutions, and technology partners to develop cutting-edge solutions. This includes advancements in material science, manufacturing processes, and product design that align with market demands and emerging trends.

European Aluminium forecasts show that with the right policy framework in place, 50% of Europe’s demand for aluminium could be supplied through recycled aluminium by mid-century. As a result, aluminium recycling could reduce CO2 emissions by up to 39 million tonnes per year by 2050 compared to today, which corresponds to 46% less CO2 per year in 2050. This is achieved mainly by replacing carbon-intensive primary aluminium imports from outside Europe with recycled domestic aluminium. Therefore, boosting a circular economy is one of the main point for the aluminium and many other heavy industries in Europe and should, as such, be among the highest priorities. 

Re-manufacturing technologies could enable the european aluminum industry to extract additional value from used or end-of-life products. By employing advanced automation, robotics, and data-driven systems, the industry can achieve higher levels of efficiency, productivity, and quality in re-manufacturing operations. 

The availability of raw materials plays a crucial role in the manufacturing process, and the european aluminum industry faces challenges related to new or limited raw materials availability. Manufacturing with new or limited raw materials availability necessitates diversification of sourcing strategies and supply chains. The European aluminum industry must identify alternative sources of raw materials to reduce dependence on a single supply region or supplier. 

Achieving energy efficiency and transitioning towards net-zero manufacturing processes and value chains offer several key benefits for the European aluminum industry such as carbon footprint reduction, cost savings, supply chain collaboration and innovation and technological advancements.

The deployment of quick response services, powered by trusted artificial intelligence and digital twins could bring several benefits to the aluminium industry, such as optimal manufacturing operations, predective maintenance, cost reduction, improved quality controls. Embracing these advancements strengthens the industry's competitiveness and efficiency.

By adopting a holistic approach to the life cycle of manufacturing systems, the industry can achieve sustainable resource management, flexibility, productivity, efficiency, and regulatory compliance. 

Data spaces and cloud/edge solutions enable real-time data analytics would allow the industry to gain valuable insights from manufacturing processes. 

Integrating innovative manufacturing solutions digitally will enhances operational efficiency, in order to optimize processes, reduce waste, and improve overall productivity. 

The transformation of factory work and organization could involve the integration of automation and digital technologies. Understanding this transformation enables the industry to identify opportunities for automation and determine how technology can be effectively integrated into aluminium manufacturing processes.

This can enhance worker safety, promote workforce inclusion, increase productivity and efficiency, support skill enhancement and training, improve job satisfaction, and demonstrate ethical and social responsibility. 

Digitally enabled upskilling programs empower workers to acquire new skills and competencies required.The aluminium industry will need to focus as well on workers' skills and adaptability, foster a culture of continuous learning, facilitate job transformation and reskilling, promote workforce agility.

Automation of manufacturing for increased productivity and human centric requires further improvements on robotic cognition with, for instance, real-time visual servoing, improved safety of liaison human2robot, AI, etc, which will increase system’s reactivity to unexpected changes on the production line, adding flexibility for multi-product lines, etc.

Implementation of real-time digital twin for ensuring zero-defect and real-time control/detection of product deviation from technical specifications. That would require process monitoring, data management and analysis, validated reduced simulation models of the manufacturing prcesses, etc.

Development of composite structures using manufacturing technologies with quasi zero-waste, limiting the use of raw and recycled materials and related energy. Development of manufacturing processes that can maximise productivity and mechanical quality of products issued from recycled materials.

Link to human-centred innovations in manufacturing:

Make it mandatory for future proposals to integrate a human-centric approach to manufacturing, with appropriate SSH contributions. Make proposals address a) the involvement of end-users in the pilots to ensure human-centric approach and maximise acceptance among the European workforces; b) how technologies can improve factory work for humans and how human-robot cooperation can be improved. A strategy for skills development should be included. This requirement is currently included in a limited number of topics and should be integrated into all relevant MiE topics. 

Link to ethics:

In the MiE WP 2025-27, Introduce ethical, legal and societal issues management strategy as mandatory in proposals with a strong focus on AI in the same way as the D&E&C strategy is mandatory.  

Make it mandatory for projects to appoint an ethics advisor/advisory board for projects with an ethics dimension. In the EC’s guidance to beneficiaries on how to complete the ethics self-assessment, this is currently only a suggestion, not an obligation. 

It could be interesting to continue passing to higher TRL the concepts and projects that started as FOF-02-2018

New and innovative approaches linked to safe and sustainable by design debondable on commnad adhesives will enable the development and application of new methodologies/technologies of demanufacturing, Such technologies will result into the reuse of valuable parts and products. Linked to this, new concepts of product design/conceptuallization will be required to allow the revalorization of such parts.

Ideal starting TRL for this topic would be 3-4 to make sure real innovative approaches are considered.

This is especially relevant for manufacturing industries such as surface and thermal treatments.

Suitable to continue the line of reserach opened with the HORIZON-CL4-2024-Twin-Transition-01-01. 

In this case an Innovation action would be the most appropriate tool to continue such research and the topic should be opening around 2026-2027.

It would be relevant to develop simulation models/tools to help with decision-making / manage trade-offs in real time between: cost, supply availability, proximity, green, etc.

It seems that this priority actually covers different sub-themes, which could lead to an important oversubscription in a call. It would be relevant to differentiate those sub-themes, by creating separate topics or at least sub-topics receiving a dedicated part of the topics’ budget (as in 22-TT-02).

Zero-defect should be one of those. Zero-x should be clearly defined and clearly encompass zero-defect. Especially as zero-defect interests a large part of the manufacturing community, and yet it is not mentioned as such in the rest of the priorities, as the other prioritiy mentioning it refers only to remanufacturing cases (The next level of circular economy through scalable, highly productive and zero-defect re-manufacturing technologies). This would also allow to decorrelate it from automation. Permitting to address it through automation but also through other technologies (IoT, datamining, instrumentation for real time control of processes, …).

The focus of this priority should be restricted, as it encompasses too many sub-themes to make it clear for participants and will probably lead to over-subscription too. 

It should mention physical tools : machines, robots, …

Need to specify the definition of discrete manufacturing. Does it differentiate sectors or production modes: e.g. metallurgy can be continuous, but can also produce individual parts. It should be clear for those type of industries whether they are concerned or not. 

Besides, it seems that in that field, technologies are quite mature today. Thus a high TRL level (starting 6-7) for the AI would be adapted.  Other funds than Horizon Europe can support the uptake of existing solutions. 

In this priority, it would be relevant to mention remote maintenance/surveillance/monitoring and the associated services

It is not clear what actions are required concretely. The expectations should be specified.

Are are we sure of the business model or the organization of the eco-system/value chain?

The way this priority is presented seems to correspond more to Digital Emerging topics and priorities rather than Made in Europe's. In particular it is too wide and it not clear enough what type of use-cases are expected. Besides, the question of data spaces seems already covered and better addressed in two other priorities which have a more relevant and concrete approach: 

• Sustainable value network resilience and competitiveness through robust and flexible production technologies 
• Data spaces and cloud/edge solutions for responsive and robust manufacturing

The use-cases and stakes of this topics are not clear enough. 

It could be interesting to mention the technology/human ratio, and useful and capacitating technology on a human and organizational scale

It could be interesting to mention the technology/human ratio, and useful and capacitating technology on a human and organizational scale

Rapid reconfiguration continues to be key, and collaboration from all the value chain is needed, from design to logistics in delivery. This will also support improving energy efficiency productions.

High-mix low-volume production will be leading the production in many different manufacturing sectors, and flexibility will ensure it.

Alignment with the twin transitition, attaining the leadership of strategic and high value added products is key, at society level, ensuring the easy access to quality and green deal accordance products in different sectors. Also ensuring info and trazability of products is very important for consumers.

Energy efficiency should be an objective not only for the Green Deal but for improving manufacturing processes' costs and minimizing production movement to external countries.

These elements for digital twins, AI have already been deployed in some areas, but other sectors will need to upgrade these capabilities.

Aligned with the previous priority, product-service can streamline the failures, stop time or update for manufacturing, so this priority is clear.

The importance of exchange of data is critical here, and also it will need to ensure cybersecurity along with moving to quantum cryptography (in next steps of evolution of quantum technologies).

In alignment to the needs of this priority, the interest of getting new workers in manufacturing should be consider. How the new technologies can switch the idea of manual works into more attractive ones.

There should be links to university, vocational studies in the upskilling, for the use of new technologies that are already in the manufacturing processes.

As indicated, these technologies are at lower TRL. These should wait until setting for real the physical and cognitive augmentation at real and common work in different manufacturing scenarios. 

“difficult-to-automate-processes” are the core domain for the Made in Europe Partnership - hence, they should be kept under the spotlight in the forthcoming actions

Europe risks lagging behind other main geopolitical areas in this regard. Urgent action is needed to fill the gap with our main technological competitors, which are aggressively funding R&D and manufacturing in these domains, i.e. through the Inflation Reduction Act. 

The establishment of circular value networks is a perfect fit for a EU-Funded action: it is challenging, complex and requires the collaboration of a very diversified and wide set of stakeholders, which probably would not find find enough incentive to target such an ambitious goal without public funding

Another domain where competition with other main geopolitical actors in the world will be crucial - who will own the the best technolgies for “doing more with less”?

Creating sustainable network that covers wide aspects of the value chain in different domains with the aim to build up R&I capacities:

• Widening participation and strengthening the European Research Area 
• Reducing the Technological Gap between different European regions by sharing knowledge and resources

Developing solutions to support the design and implementation of sustainable practices in terms of creating climate neutral industrial scenarios:

• solutions for energy and water efficiency, waste reuse and upcycling supply chain
• tools and functionalities for conducting life cycle assessments

An interoperable and secure ecosystem of integrated tools that will support the creation of industry data space and links with other thematic EU data spaces:

• Accelerating the pathway towards a common European Manufacturing/Industry Data Space
• Industrial data spaces offer opportunities for companies to move to data-driven business model

This priority is a strategic imperative for achieving long-term competitiveness and resilience in the face of global challenges and disruptions.

Can play a crucial role in the competitiveness of EU manufacturing by serving the improvement of quality control, predictive maintenance, and energy management, but also reducing the need for physical interventions, thus optimizing the overall plant availability.

Embracing transformative technologies and human-centered innovations in manufacturing can enhance the competitiveness of EU manufacturing by enabling the optimization of work processes,  productivity, efficiency, and quality, while also fostering worker well-being and inclusivity.

The human workforce remains the cornerstone of modern factories, possessing invaluable qualities such as decision-making abilities in unpredictable situations, adaptability to process new variants, dexterity, and continuous learning capabilities. Furthermore, the industry-specific knowledge and skills developed by experienced production workers are essential assets for sustaining excellence within the EU. Recognizing the upcoming challenges posed by an aging workforce, and the results already achieved so far with advanced robotic solutions, bringing the augmentation technologies to the final stage for seamless human-robot collaboration can play a vital role in preserving and enhancing human capabilities while also addressing potential labor shortages. 

Flexible and fast production processes is key elements to defend the price gap producing (more) sustainable in Europe compared to far east