First Open Call for ‘CloudiFacturing’ announced

The first open call for involvement with the 'CloudiFacturing' project in the European Commission’s I4MS Funding Programme has been announced. This great funding opportunity, especially focused on SME participation, is for: Testing and implementation of the latest high-performance computing and modelling technologies.

The European Union's initiative ICT Innovation for Manufacturing SMEs (I4MS) connects SMEs, startups and mid-cap companies with European Digital Innovation Hubs, who can help companies to test and adopt the latest digital technologies.

CloudiFacturing - Cloudification of Production Engineering for Predictive Digital Manufacturing - is a European Innovation Action (IA) in the framework of Factories of the Future (FoF) PPP with the mission of optimising production processes and producibility, using Cloud/HPC-based modelling and simulation, and leveraging online factory data with advanced data analytics; thus, contributing to the competitiveness and resource efficiency of manufacturing companies, especially SMEs.

To pursue this mission, computationally demanding production engineering and simulation, as well as data analytics tools, are to be provided as Cloud services to ease accessibility and make their use more affordable. With the Open Call, I4MS is seeking innovative use cases in the context of the project’s mission.

Use case impact

The use cases should clearly state their industrial impact for the involved manufacturing companies, based on their expected benefit from exploiting computational engineering and production services and workflows powered by the CloudiFacturing technology.  

The call comprises:

1. simulations of manufacturing processes or manufacturing tools,
2. leveraging factory data to learn from it, and
3. optimising manufacturing processes and/or the manufacturability of goods

The use cases need to be driven by the ultimate end user, preferably SMEs. Seven or more Application Experiments are planned to be funded in this call which has an overall European Commission contribution of roughly EUR 700 000.

The call opening date is 1 July 2018 and the closing date will be 30 September 2018. The duration of the successful funded experiments will be 12 months from 1 January to 31 December 2019.

More information including how to access the call through regional Digital Innovation Hubs can be found in this download document and/ or via this web link.

EFFRA Launches Public Consultation on FoF PPP Work Programme

The European Factories of the Future Research Association (EFFRA) has just launched a public consultation on the ‘Factories of the Future’ (FoF) PPP work programme for 2018 through to 2020. The FoF consultation document contains a wide range of potential call topics that will be of interest to the SusChem community from manufacturing complex and multi-material components to additive manufacturing (3D printing), material and resource efficiency in manufacturing, energy efficiency, new processes, digitisationresouir and circular economy issues.

The public consultation is part of EFFRA’s preparations for strategic discussions with the European Commission concerning the final ‘Factories of the Future’ work programme under Horizon 2020.

The consultation is a unique opportunity to provide your input to this important research and innovation programme. The deadline for consultation feedback is 4 May 2016 (17:00 CET).

EFFRA is looking for input from representatives of industry, research and innovation, and academia to provide their views on priorities for the work programme that will shape the ‘Factories of the Future’ research and innovation call topics in 2018, 2019 and 2020.

EFFRA will use the input received to compile a roadmap document that complements the current ‘Factories of the Future 2020’ roadmap. The new document will be entitled 'Factories 4.0 and Beyond' and will be delivered to the European Commission to provide a key contribution to preparations for the work programme.

How to get involved

The consultation feedback form can be completed online through the EFFRA Innovation Portal. The feedback form does not have to be completed in one sitting and participants may save and return to it as often as they need until the close of the consultation on Wednesday 4 May.

To access the response form you must be registered and logged into the EFFRA Innovation Portal. Instructions on how to participate are available here.

You can access the consultation response form here when logged onto the portal. The consultation document itself is available without logging on here.

For more information, or if you have specific questions on the consultation, please contact Chris DeCubber at EFFRA.

K4I presents ‘What Digital’ / ‘What Smart’ for Advanced Manufacturing

Knowledge4Innovation (K4I) is holding a K4I Forum Dinner debate on 'What “Digital” / What “Smart” for Advanced Manufacturing?’ on Tuesday 12 May from 19h30 to 22h00 in the Members Salon of the European Parliament in Brussels. The event will be hosted by Mr Victor Negrescu MEP.

Advanced manufacturing is undergoing an unprecedented transformation. As an industrial renaissance takes hold in Europe, advanced manufacturing is being transformed in multiple ways. From the nature of work within a plant to the physical technology used, the traditional picture of manufacturing is fast becoming outdated.

Europe is well positioned to take a leading role in this transformation. Advanced manufacturing in Europe is diverse, technologically advanced, produces high quality products and employs a highly trained workforce. A key economic activity, it provides over 20% of Europe’s jobs and generates 67% of its exports.

But there are a certain challenges that advanced manufacturing in Europe faces in its struggle to improve competitiveness and similar issues also face the ICT sector. At this forum participants will explore the transformation currently underway in advanced manufacturing and its specific technological and non-technological needs and the further potential for “smart” transformation. Participants will also debate what digitalisation and the introduction of the 'internet of things' means for manufacturing as well as the management of 'big data'.

Issues

• Status of ICT use in advanced manufacturing
• Potential of even further ICT-enabled advanced manufacturing for a European Industrial Renaissance
• Current challenges faced in going forward
• Approaches to sustainability

Questions

• What are the challenges of the advanced manufacturing industry that can be solved by ICT?
• What are the main challenges that the ICT industry / community need to solve in order to enable its best use by an advanced manufacturing?
• What common non-technological issues need to be addressed and how to make Europe a competitive place for advanced manufacturing?
• What EU action is currently being taken, and should be taken, to support digitalisation in and around advanced manufacturing?

Speakers at the event include Zeljko Pazin Executive Director, EFFRA (who will act as Moderator); Prof. Egbert-Jan, Vice Chairman, EFFRA; Rudolf Strohmeier of DG RTD, European Commission; Khalil Rouhana of DG Connect, European Commission; and Danuta Hübner, MEP

More information and registration
For more information on the event, please visit the K4I website. To register directly, please click here. Registration is open until Tuesday 5 May.