Orgalim views on the upcoming EIT KIC on value added manufacturing: For entrepreneurship, sustainable employment in manufacturing and a successful transition into the digital age

Orgalim welcomes the decision of the European Parliament and of the Council to have the EIT set-up a KIC on value added manufacturing in 2016. We believe that this is a unique opportunity to complement the existing research and innovation support instruments. Additionally we think that it is one of the elements that has the potential to help raise the industry‘s contribution to GDP to as much as 20% by 2020.

Well-trained employees and students, entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs bring value through innovation to European manufacturing and to the economy. A KIC can also provide companies with a comprehensive insight into the available European talent pool. In addition, the KIC could create a European network for manufacturing innovation, providing new contacts and opportunities for cross-border cooperation. 

We think that the EIT KIC can help generate more innovation in the EU through the appropriate training of the right target groups. Indeed students exposed early to entrepreneurship challenges get a better grasp of market needs and what it means to develop a product or a service with customers in mind. Similarly lifelong training generates innovation. 

By fully making use of the competence of the KIC participants, educational projects can combine state-of-the-art research results with experience from practitioners and entrepreneurs in individual courses or in full curricula. This is not commonly done today. 

Consequently we have listed items we would like to see incorporated in the KIC on advanced manufacturing to answer industry’s needs and also added some extra wishes. Orgalim leaves the “how” (online, coaching, teaching factories, FabLabs etc.) open. However we think that access to full-scale production environments and use of modern digital technologies would bring new dimensions to education and foster entrepreneurship. 

To read our recommendations in full, please download the position above.