25 / 01 / 2022

EC DG RTD published a SWD on “Building a European Research Area for clean hydrogen”

On 24 January 2022 the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation (DG RTD) of the European Commission (EC) published a Staff working Document (SWD) “Building a European Research Area for clean hydrogen”.

The SWD aims to show the role of EU Research and Innovation investments to support the EU’s Hydrogen Strategy describing the different varieties of investments instruments available in the field. The document will highlight the challenges but also the opportunities arising from the EU hydrogen strategy in order to ensure a full exploitation of hydrogen technologies that should lead to the establishment of an EU hydrogen economy in the near future. Furthermore, the document also stresses the importance of the achievements already recorded in the field of hydrogen, such as Fuel cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertakings, the establishment of 21 hydrogen valleys.

More information

18 / 01 / 2022

The EC Digital Transformation Accelerator for the network of EDIH: Calls are open!

The European Commission (EC) launched the Digital Transformation Accelerator (DTA) for the network of EDIH.

The DTA aims to support the network of European Digital Innovation Hubs (EDIHs) and to boost the digital transformation of the European Economy. The DTA will provide various services including:

Community building and training
Connection to relevant initiatives
Impact assessment and road mapping

Calls are open from 21 December 2021 until 4 March 2022. To benefit from the services provided by the DTA, interested parties must submit a tender available from the TED e-Tendering website.

More information

14 / 01 / 2022

EC DG R&I published its Report on “Industry 5.0: A Transformative Vision for Europe”

The Directorate-General for Research and Innovation (R&I) of the European Commission (EC) recently published a policy brief report on “Industry 5.0: A Transformative Vision for Europe” aiming at recognising the importance of industry to reach the systemic transformation inevitably required in the next decades. This report feeds into the wider debate on industrial transformation and, among other objectives:

emphasises the pivotal need of industry in the systemic transformation and the main building blocks of the Industry 5.0 approach which compliments and extends Industry 4.0
points out the key actions required at the governance level: “industry 5.0 need Government 5.0”
provides the ESIR Industry 5.0 Action Plan outlining which actions are needed and the actors called to act

According to the EC DG R&I report, the Industry 5.0 is the result of a forward-looking exercise to help framing how European industry and emerging societal trends and needs can co-exist. In this regard, the report marks a step forward in the co-creation process with all relevant stakeholders in order to provide a course of action to make a sustainable, resilient and human-centric industry- industry 5.0 a reality.

More information

24 / 12 / 2021

IHI Event “Introducing the Innovative Health Initiative: Europe’s new partnership for health” on 26 January 2022

The Innovative Health Initiative (IHI) is organising an online event on “Introducing the Innovative Health Initiative: Europe’s new partnership for health” on 26 January 2022.

This event aims to present the Innovative Health initiative and the successes of the Innovative Medicines Initiative.

The event will be divided in two sessions: the first session will focus on the presentation of the IHI Initiative. As well as explaining why the IHI has to be considered as a partnership for health, the innovations and features that will remain the same in this initiative compared to the Innovative Medicines Initiative will also be described. Furthermore, the opportunities and modalities for stakeholders to be included in the IHI will be described. The second session will open a discussion with representatives of EU institutions and stakeholders.

More information including a detailed agenda and registration

21 / 12 / 2021

JRC-EARTO Report and Policy Brief on Technology Infrastructures

In the frame of the European Commission’s Joint Research Center (JRC) joint work with EARTO on the topic of Technology Infrastructures (TIs), JRC and EARTO just published a set of policy documents, including JRC-EARTO Report on Technology Infrastructures, JRC Policy Brief (which constitutes a short summary of the whole report) on TIs as well as EARTO Members’ Case Studies on this matter. Technology Infrastructures (TIs) are essential enablers for Europe to deliver on its ambitions of making successful transitions to a sustainable, digital and resilient industry and society. With rising technological complexity, industry’s innovation capacity, productivity and international competitiveness heavily depend on possibilities to develop, test, validate and upscale new technological solutions with new levels of speed. For this, TIs are critical enablers in European RD&I ecosystems. TIs are the (physical or simulated) facilities and equipment such as demonstrators, testbeds, piloting facilities, living labs, building bridges between science and the market. They are mostly created, managed and maintained up to date by Research Performing Organisations, which requires a lot of resources and competences. The EC Communication on A new ERA for Research and Innovation (2020) stresses that “Industry, and notably SMEs, require access to the right technology infrastructures to quickly develop and test their innovations and successfully enter the market”. This EC Communication has been endorsed by the Council Conclusions on the New European Research Area (2020), which call for the development of an EU Strategy for Technology Infrastructures. The strategic importance of TIs in RD&I Ecosystems has also been highlighted in the EC Proposal for a Council Recommendation on a Pact for Research and Innovation in Europe (2021). This was the basis for the Council Recommendations on a Pact for R&I in Europe (2021), with a concrete Policy Agenda for the new ERA and a dedicated action plan including for TIs over the next three years. In this context, the JRC and EARTO have launched a joint project on TIs to gather evidence and highlight the common specificities of TIs across Europe, assess the challenges they face over their whole lifecycle, and identify how their capacity could be further leveraged. This work was also used to provide policy recommendations from TI managers and users as well as policy makers to support the implementation of the ERA Policy Agenda towards an integrated European landscape for TIs in the next three years. The main recommendations can be summarised as follows:

Use ESFRI as a source of inspiration for developing a TI Strategy when relevant, and design dedicated ones adapted to TI specificities when needed.
Set up an agile governance for TIs at EU level, involving Member States experts responsible for TIs and the relevant stakeholders: TI managers and their public and private users.
Develop clear pathways for public support of capital and operating expenditures (CAPEX and OPEX), aiming to ensure the long-term sustainability of TIs.
Streamline existing TIs’ mapping and use existing EU instruments for roadmapping the future needs for TIs, including European Partnerships, Industrial Alliances, IPCEIs, ERA Industrial Roadmaps, etc.
Put in place prioritisation mechanisms at EU level for EU-scale TIs, and foster the synchronisation of national/regional investment plans for regional-scale TIs.
Forster pan-European accessibility to TIs by strengthening their use in competitively funded projects, defining standardised principles for access, etc.
Create thematic networks to better integrate the European landscape of TIs, foster capacity building across regions, and spread expertise to overcome the European innovation divide.

Read the full JRC Policy Brief
Read the full JRC-EARTO Report
Read the full RTOs’ Case Studies

01 / 12 / 2021

EC launched first calls for proposals in advanced digital skills under the DIGITAL Europe Programme and organises an Info Day on 1 December 2021

Calls in advanced digital skills under the DIGITAL Europe Programme are open! Last week, the European Commission (EC) launched the first calls for proposals under the DIGITAL Europe Programme, among which EUR 73 million are devoted to advanced digital skills. The application is open for research, education and training institutions, businesses, public administrations and relevant organisations from the EU Member States, as well as entities from other countries associated to the Digital Europe Programme. The Calls will support:

New Master programmes in key digital capacities, such as AI, cybersecurity, Internet of Things, quantum, but also multi-disciplinary opportunities (EUR 70 Million)
Advanced digital skills analysis(EUR 2 Million)
Data space for Skills(EUR 1 million)

The EC organises an Info Day on 1 December 2021 from 9:30 to provide more information and facilitate the application of the different organisations that might be interested. More information about the Calls in advanced digital skills under the DIGITAL Europe Programme Registeration for the Info Day

13 / 10 / 2020

First Policy Workshop “She Figures 2021” on 26 October 2020

In the frame of the next edition of the She Figures study, the European Commission (EC) is organising two virtual policy workshops for its tri-annual publication monitoring the progress made towards gender equality in R&I in the EU. The European Commission, DG R&I, contracted ICF and its partners (Elsevier, Portia, Quantos and RAND) to produce the next She Figures Study aiming at identifying shared, inter-related policy concerns and emerging issues, and gathering additional information to further develop the analysis in the briefs. The First Policy Workshop will provide an overview of the 2021 edition of the She Figures study and some preliminary findings on the identification of current and emerging policy priorities carried out by the research team. Participants will be invited to actively engage and assess the relevance and potential links between nine thematic areas the policy briefs could focus on.

16 / 07 / 2020

EARTO Joint Contribution to the EC Consultation Reviewing the GBER

EARTO and Vanguard Initiative published their Joint Contribution to the second European Commission (EC)’s Consultation on targeted review of the General Block Exemption Regulation (GBER): extended scope for national funds to be combined with certain Union programmes. EARTO as well as Vanguard Initiative welcome the EC’s proposals, aiming at facilitating the combination of shared managed and centrally managed funds. This will indeed help synergies, complementarities and a more efficient use of different funds to become a reality, avoiding overlaps and administrative obstacles. Legal certainty and clarity are critical to these purposes. However, apart from the proposals on the table, this joint contribution addresses some considerations about assessing this specific approach as state aid. Read full Joint Contribution

14 / 05 / 2020

EC launched new ERA Corona Platform

On 14 May 2020, the European Commission (EC) launched the new European Research Area (ERA) Corona Platform, which enables the scientific community, especially R&I Programmes’ beneficiaries, to

11 / 03 / 2020

EC presented a new European Industrial Strategy

19 / 02 / 2020

EP Committees’ reactions to Council President Proposal on MFF

06 / 11 / 2019

MLE on Research Integrity published its Final Report

The Horizon 2020 Policy Support Facility (PSF) was set up by the Directorate- General for Research & Innovation (DG RTD) of the European Commission under the EU Framework Programme for Research & Innovation ‘Horizon 2020’, aiming at supporting Member States and countries associated with Horizon 2020 in reforming their national science, technology and innovation systems. The Mutual Learning Exercise (MLE) on Research Integrity, which forms the basis of this report, was carried out between July 2018 and June 2019 by a dedicated PSF panel consisting of four independent experts and twelve countries

24 / 07 / 2019

EC organises CONCORDi 2019 on 25-27 September in Seville, Spain

The European Commission (EC) in collaboration with the OECD organises the 7th European Conference on Corporate R&D and Innovation (CONCORDi 2019) on 25-27 September in Seville, Spain. CONCORDi 2019 will focus on “Industrial innovation for transformation”, aiming at:

addressing issues related to the economics and policy of corporate R&D and innovation;
identifying the research, business and policy challenges;
providing helpful input into the EU policy agenda on industrial research & innovation, competitiveness and employment.

More information Registration

27 / 06 / 2019

EC launched Innnovation Scoreboards 2019

17 / 07 / 2018

CETMA – European Research Center for Technologies Design and Materials

Country: Italy Founded in: 1994 EARTO Membership: Individual www.cetma.it

Key Figures 2016

€5.98M Income

95 Employees

1 Patent Applications

225 Industrial Partners

3 Spin-offs Created

N/A H2020 Projects

Mission & Vision

Mission: CETMA carries out applied research, experimental development and innovation, increasing and integrating knowledge related to pervasive and enabling disciplines such as materials engineering, computer engineering and design. Using this knowledge in an integrated form, it stands as a multidisciplinary center for the innovation of products, processes and services. The activities on which CETMA focuses its efforts are as follows: • the development of skills and expertise on innovative technologies on advanced materials and their applications; • the development of specialized software for engineering innovative applications, manufacturing and services; • the development of skills on product design and product development aimed at product innovation.

Vision: CETMA operates in the full awareness of the innovation process importance for the economic and social development of society and at the same time that it is a complex, risky and multidisciplinary process, which requires interaction and cooperation among different actors of the Innovation System. CETMA is a connection and integration element among different key actors of Innovation: producers, final users and mediators of knowledge.

Technology Expertise

Natural Sciences: Mathematics ; Computer and information sciences ; Physical sciences ; Chemical sciences; Earth and related environmental sciences ; Biological sciences ; Other natural sciences
Engineering & Technology: Civil engineering ; Electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering ; Mechanical engineering ; Chemical engineering ; Materials engineering ; Medical engineering ; Environmental engineering ; Environmental biotechnology ; Industrial Biotechnology ; Nano-technology ; Other engineering and technologies
Medical & Health Sciences: Clinical medicine ; Health sciences ; Health biotechnology ; Other medical sciences
Agricultural Sciences: Agriculture, forestry, and fisheries ; Agricultural biotechnology ; Other agricultural sciences
Social Sciences: Economics & business ; Social & economic geography ; Media & communications ; Other social sciences
Humanities: History & archaeology

Participation in EARTO Innovation Awards

Impact Expected 2017 1st Prize Leather Tanning Gets Cleaner

Impact Delivered 2017 Taking Digital Radio to the Next Level

Impact Delivered 2017 Inspecting the Micro World with 3D Holography

03 / 07 / 2018

Country: Germany Founded in: 1950 EARTO Membership: Association www.fraunhofer.de