Industry 2020 in the Circular Economy

Specific Challenge : Additive Manufacturing (AM), including 3D-Printing, is one of the potential game changers that, for some applications, has already reached a tipping point of maturity. European companies are still strong in some areas but this position requires high levels of continuous innovation, especially where competitors are fast approaching. There are also other areas that are comparatively less developed and where the technology transfer and adoption is not functional, leading to a slow uptake of the results. Despite the EC support, in the global picture the competitiveness of the European companies is threatened by important investments at international level. Moreover, some of the more fundamental aspects in order to take advantage of this promising technology still need to be addressed. It is necessary to identify current bottlenecks and barriers to further development of AM technologies in Europe. Furthermore the stakeholders also need to be mobilised in order to exploit the business opportunities that AM provides, facilitating the take-up of this technology in Europe, with a focussed promotion and support strategy for Additive Manufacturing technologies. Scope : The proposals should address most of the following aspects: Identification of gaps and opportunities for further research and innovation, as well as non-technological gaps in order to develop policy framework recommendations (e.g. regulation, standardisation, public procurement). Community building activities (think-and-do-tank) and actions to foster dialogue and collaboration across levels (stakeholders and governance) and with key strategic partners, the Member States and the European Commission. This broad multi-stakeholder community (science, policy, business, society) at local, regional, national and EU level will enable the launching of innovation partnerships for developing and testing of AM. Assessment of the current regulatory and IPR frameworks, micro- and macro-economic assessment of opportunities and risks and its impact on social aspects and labour market benefits. Productivity and resource efficiency gains through AM and its impact on European competitiveness through localised manufacturing, where more goods will be manufactured on demand, individually designed and close to their point of consumption. Identification of current bottlenecks for the transferability of new technologies across sectors. Development of best practices to help stakeholders to achieve large scale deployment. Identification of bottlenecks that prevent the stimulation of investments in new AM technologies and promote successful innovative AM solutions. Support information exchange and collaboration between EU funded projects which address the same AM areas to exploit synergies, particularly through SMEs. Development of new integrated design and manufacturing paradigms, where the time to replan, reprogramme and evolve in the shop floor production is reduced. Building skills capacity for innovation and competitiveness, engaging with academia for the development of learning resources adaptable to different learning approaches and curricula at undergraduate, master, and life-long learning levels. Assesment of the current regulatory and IPR frameworks; anti-counterfeiting features, particularly where high value and/or safety critical components are being manufactured; micro- and macro-economic assessment of opportunities and risks; and its impact on social aspects and labour market benefits. Proposals should include the organisation of workshops with top-ranked international experts and EC services from the various disciplines aiming at the elaboration of a future AM roadmap, as well as an International Conference on AM at the end of the project. In order to ensure the industrial relevance and impact of the research effort, the active participation of industrial partners represents an added value to the activities and this will be reflected in the evaluation, under the cr