Delcam has joined with a group of the leading research centres across Europe in a new European Commission CSA (Coordination and Support Action) project that will have a "direct impact on the future of research in Europe.” The Kick-Off Meeting for representatives from all the consortium partners in the FOCUS project took place in Brussels at the end of February.
Odd Myklebust from Project Coordinator, NTNU (Norwegian University of Science and Technology), opened the meeting. He explained that "the FOCUS project will be giving recommendations and guidance on the organisation of projects under the EC Factories of the Future programme (FoF). It will have a direct impact on the future of research in Europe.”
The FOCUS project aims to support improved exploitation of FoF project results from each of its five participating clusters – Zero Defect Manufacturing, Clean Factory, Robotics, High Precision Manufacturing and Maintenance & Support.
The project will review the current state of the art in project management and exploitation, and formulate future FoF priorities. In particular, it will deliver a model and associated methodology for effective cluster creation, execution and monitoring; and a model and associated methodology for industrial exploitation for future FoF PPP projects.
Delcam will lead the part of the project looking into the provision of pro-active support to disseminate the tangible outcomes of future projects and the encouragement of industrial exploitation, both within and outside the clusters undertaking the work.
Discussions during the meeting in Brussels raised several important and interesting thoughts needing early consideration: -
- What is the level of take-up of shared exploitation within the current clusters?
- How do we deal with projects within clusters starting and ending at different times?
- What happens when a project within a cluster finishes?
This was followed by the five cluster leaders presenting the background and status of their cluster, and also summarising the benefits of collaboration. All the cluster leaders agreed that the key benefits gained from clustering were the networking opportunities, the increased impact and visibility for the EC, and the avoidance of any duplication of activities. They also warned that Intellectual Property is a hugely important issue, especially when members of the cluster are in competition with each other.
Acknowledgement:
The FOCUS project has received funding from the European Union Horizon 2020 Programme (H2020) under grant agreement n° 637090.
Factories of the Future is a EUR 1.2 billion program in which the European Commission and industry are collaborating in research to support the development and innovation of new enabling technologies for the EU manufacturing sector.