ACT. Recommendations A VISION TOWARDS A NEW RENAISSANCE LEADING ENABLING TECHNOLOGIES FOR SOCIETAL CHALLENGES. italia2014.eu

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1 Italian Presidency of the Council of the European Union italia0.eu A VISION TOWARDS A NEW RENAISSANCE ACT LEADING ENABLING TECHNOLOGIES FOR SOCIETAL CHALLENGES Recommendations This conference has received funding from the European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/007-0) under grant agreement n 60889

2 BUILDING CROSSCUTTING SCIENCS AND TECHNOLOGIES Industrial and enabling technologies can be developed within individual disciplines in response to a specific problem, but in most cases this is not the most effective approach: convergence among disciplines and sectors - together with exploitation of synergies among different financial instruments - is the only way to enhance the importance of each contribution and produce real innovation. Also, new solutions have to be sought by jointly considering the evolution of product, process, production systems and markets. The potential of such combinations is based on the creation of value which goes beyond the mere sum of all the components involved To stimulate market demand for KETs based products and solutions, made in Europe. To build exchange between stakeholders, RIS actions can be a tool leading to effective KETs embodiment in regional/national innovation cycles for different market sectors, but also building bridges between the LEIT pillar and the Societal Challenges pillar leading to specific cross-breeding actions. To promote awareness on KETs (and cross KETs) impact among stakeholders (technology offer and demand). Existing European Technology Platforms may be an appropriate tool. Cross-ETPs dialogue should be fostered. Visionary policies and research agendas need to be tested and developed on practical platforms by doing and learning. To create conditions (i.e., robust IP protocols, access to demonstration plants, joint training of experts) to enable small companies to cooperate with the large industries already exploiting KETs. To develop and provide further financial instruments and free open platforms for industry (in particularly SMEs) targeted to different stages of the development pipeline, and to encourage schemes for the establishment of incubators/research areas. To support the creation and development of multi-sectorial networks and communities for cross-sectorial innovation in order to: promote a more integrated technological and cultural education system; to develop high added-value, user-centered, sustainable and competitive technologies closer to market uptake. To reinforce the leading role of Europe in Cultural Heritage and to enhance the cooperation among all key players (research institutes and universities, public institutions, policy makers and SMEs) at a global level by: establishing a unique and distributed research infrastructure; fostering the already existing successful EU experiences, where conservation institutions and museums jointly develop inter and multidisciplinary programs with universities, research institutions, and SMEs; promoting the valorization of immaterial cultural heritage in addition to material cultural heritage-as a key asset for European economy in the global competition. To promote a stronger focus on creative methodology and design-driven innovation culture in technological research and innovation EU funding, by addressing the concerns of creative SMEs and start-ups (access to finance, IPR, fast working pace), and by including the quality of design among the elements to be evaluated for all technological proposals where it may be relevant. To foster the cooperation in health sector among different fields (bioengineering, robotics, biomaterials, nanomedicine, regenerative medicine and clinical research), while enabling a comparative assessment of different technologies, and also to foster the application and feasibility of new personalised medicine strategies.

3 MINDS OF THE FUTURE The competitiveness of Europe and of its individual countries increasingly depends on knowledge and capabilities: people will be, even more than in the past, the key for success of a society and its industry. It can also be said, that the very existence of the European Union depends on its inhabitants identifying themselves as Europeans. At each level, education must be brought to the point where knowledge leads to the capability of solving problems and inventing a new future. A new type of lifelong education is required, in order to valorise existing European culture, understand other cultures and create a new paradigm which better serves and addresses the future society. 6 Technology transfer will happen effectively when researchers and entrepreneurs agree to work together in an agora environment where knowledge becomes know-how, for instance through the funding of institutions with joint projects. The industrial and societal renaissance will unleash the human creative potential and create a wealth of potential but requires re-engineering of EU education models focused on interdisciplinarity and both technical and nontechnical skills (such as system-wide expertise, flexibility, innovative methodologies, management of capital intensive assets, entrepreneurship and communication skills). Since these skills evolve rapidly, professionals need to be re-trained and teachers need to be constantly updated and up-skilled, with specific attention to the ageing workforce. A new approach in European RTD&I initiatives is needed in developing more multidisciplinary approaches (Hard + Soft), and not just enabling technologies approaches, allowing broader team working, i.e. between universities and research organizations, industry, public authorities, Unions, as well as with NGOs (as in the field of medical research); and maybe a revamping of the product-service concept as a whole. To increase the awareness of the importance of research and technological innovation through set up and support of living labs from primary school to raise the curiosity of kids and their enthusiasm for technology all the way to university, where professors should be coached for talent development of students rather than ex cathedra lecturers. Involvement of science centers and museums should be promoted. To promote the participation of women in science and technologies at all levels, including the highest, in order to enlarge the pool of well trained people, increase their diversity, and enable awareness and actions towards gendered innovation. International cooperation should go beyond the traditional R&D ensuring a whole coverage of the entire value chain from research to viable commercialisation, while tackling issues such as standards, harmonisation of technical regulation and due governance of new technologies.

4 NEW MODELS OF GOVERNANCE A new Europe requires bold decisions to be taken and new economic research systems and models to be implemented. However, change has to be generated by valorising existing strengths while changing the rules of the game. The challenge is then to drive this complex evolution and at the same time be open with citizens about what is happening and what comes next. This shift certainly requires new rules and public standards across a variety of sectors (new industrial policy, new social policy). Regarding Research and Innovation, it requires a combination of actions: linking funding instruments, new ways of coordinating public and private, EU, national and regional funding, a knowledge-based industrial governance, better links between political authorities, research communities and society. It also implies the active involvement of the innovation chain (institutions, academia, industry, society) in the process, and requires citizens to take on a new role. To concentrate the financial support only on few priority topics, responding to the Europa 00 strategic objectives, in order to speed-up the transformation of the economical system towards a new model of Renaissance characterized by the stakeholders capacity to integrate culture, knowledge, creativity and competitiveness. The implementation of this approach requires a better definition and orientation of the contents of the calls to allow participants to submit ambitious proposals with a potential high value-added and impact on EU society, integrating different technologies (cross-cutting) and combining different financial instruments (synergies). To increase the financial resources dedicated to SMEs in order to improve their participation to H00 and to support their efforts in overcoming the critical stage of market entry and upscaling. To define clear procedures in the Working Programmes and Regional Operational Programmes in order to promote concrete synergies among different financial instruments, in particular between H00 and Structural Funds. To promote the transformation of knowledge into innovation contributing: to build up a cohesive ecosystem of early stage and innovation finance, bringing different funding mechanisms together into one supportive framework and reducing differences in regulations across Member States; to start to use the procurements and in particular the forward procurements. To focus the available resources on the best research infrastructures, by supporting the synergies and pooling of regional, national and EU funds and the additional efforts and costs required to achieve open access to both the research infrastructures and data.

5 DRIVING DISRUPTIVE INNOVATION Research can provide disruptive, non-incremental innovation that can create new industry sectors and regenerate existing ones: this can lead to unique opportunities for long-term development, high quality jobs and wealth. The challenge is making the policy choices that will allow Europe to stimulate and recognize such transitions in diverse fields, in order to induce paradigmatic changes such as those we have witnessed in past decades: from light bulbs to LEDs, from typewriters to computers. One important aim of Horizon 00 is linking frontier research on future emerging technologies (FET), and key enabling technologies (KET) which impact advanced manufacturing on a short-medium time scale. In the NMBP domain we are still witnessing critical disconnections between FET and KET: hence a concrete risk that important contributions of the research community to NMBP are missed. It is recommended to strengthen the coordination between the FET and KET programmes, in order to ensure the support, under the FET programme, of breakthrough technologies that can be brought to industrial application in the NMBP programme. NMBP should in turn ensure that industrially relevant technologies with longer-term impact are adequately supported with no interruption in the research and innovation pipeline. Disruptive innovation most often results from productive interfaces across different hard sciences, and between sciences and engineering or medicine, with further key contributions from e.g. business, social, design cultures. Projects that profit from such interactions and target disruptive innovation goals should be strongly promoted in NMBP. Additive manufacturing, in combination with frontier materials and nano(bio)technologies, has enormous potential of disruptive impact: Europe should support innovative technologies that will enable its future and most advanced developments. In the EU several strategies are being deployed to push innovation from science to product. However, regulations in market-introduction are still excessively slow and cumbersome compared to other parts of the world. In order to resolve this contradiction and boost European competitiveness, speedier and simpler procedures should be implemented to enable introducing an innovation e. g. in public sector contracts. Modeling and simulations will be a key ingredient to accelerate discovery and design of materials, processes and products of relevance to economical and societal advancement of Europe. To boost the impact of materials modelling in European industry there must be strong support for dual purposes: promoting the availability of much better models, data quality and code quality (and thereby the trust from the industry in modelling results), as well as their ability to design properties/functions/processes of high industrial relevance; and promoting education, training and business models for the optimal use of existing data and tools.

6 FUTURE OF INDUSTRIES It is possible to imagine a future where European manufacturing will be based on distinctive productive and technological poles where companies excellence will be based on a balance between diversification and specialization. This depends on collaboration with research and technological centres and Universities, as well as with other companies and technology providers deeply rooted in a strong manufacturing culture, with a new configuration of territorial and industrial organizations where the cultural, economic and social factors are part of a shared vision. The real challenge for industry resides in maintaining a competitive advantage while answering to specific needs with innovative products and processes, as well as keeping core knowledge and competences in Europe. Therefore high performance technologies, additive manufacturing, end-of-life innovative services, and new production paradigms should be applied and integrated in factories developed according to a human centered approach and operating through new sustainable and environmentally conscious production system. 6 7 As the acceleration of the technological evolution is a global trend influencing Europe competitiveness, specific actions are needed to allow Europe to keep a strong position in the market managing the control of the evolving product-process and systems. To consider new strategies in the European Industrial Leadership in the frame of the Industrial Renaissance: companies should be supported to apply the circular economy paradigm by mean of dedicated projects. An example could be strategies and projects on de-manufacturing of products. To find efficient (public private) mechanisms and partnerships to extract tangible value from and across projects in order to be able to build an European critical mass of innovations that can be speedily transformed into growth, jobs and solutions for our societal challenges. To implement correct actions to assure the technologies have a valuable effect not at single company level, but at network level and at system level. This process is going to be a part of the pursued re-industrialization process that can make Europe competitive on the global market while ensuring a sustainable development at the same time. Actions like integrating research infrastructures could play an important role in establishing learning factories, thus fostering a new enterpreneurship where innovation is the basis for the factories of the future. To strengthen the support to research and innovation oriented on three factors (product, production system and process). A high range of innovation actions shall be based on the integration of strategies on production logistics, maintenance and quality control. To put in place necessary actions towards new models allowing workers to have a good work-life balance and working environment with open-minded, capable and motivated personnel and the support of society.