Europe is facing major economic challenges that require an ambitious economic policy for the 21st century. The EU has set out its vision for Europe's social market economy in the Europe 2020 strategy, which aims at confronting our structural weaknesses through progress in three mutually reinforcing priorities : • smart growth, based on knowledge and innovation, • sustainable growth, promoting a more resource efficient, greener and competitive economy, • inclusive growth, fostering a high employment economy delivering economic, social and territorial cohesion. MANUNET III, as a continuation of MANUNET II, is aligned with the European priorities and pretends to create a smart sustainable growth in the European manufacturing sector by coordinating the research and innovation efforts in the field of advanced manufacturing with a special focus in the key areas of new production processes, adaptive manufacturing systems and technologies for the factory of the future. The project will also reinforce the territorial cohesion through an extended collaboration network. The consortium pretends to respond to the actual economic crisis by promoting the transnational research, innovation and entrepreneurship in the industrial sector, especially in the SMEs, which are the backbone of Europe's economy. Through this strategic and integrated approach to innovation in advanced manufacturing, MANUNET III pretends to maximise European, national and regional research and innovation potential.

Large engineering structures like turbines, bridges or industrial machinery are still manufactured by traditional processes such as forging, casting or by machining from solid blocks. These processes do not allow local control of material properties to achieve a specific function like anti-corrosion or hardness. To meet the functional specifications, engineers must operate within a limited range of design options, with high “buy-to-fly” ratios and long lead times. Unlike any other metal AM technology, wire arc additive manufacturing (WAAM) produces fully dense metallic structures with no porosity. WAAM is also unbeatable in terms of production times, making it uniquely suited for large and functionally demanding engineering structures. In Grade2XL, we will demonstrate the potential of multi-material wire arc additive manufacturing (WAAM) for large scale structures. The high printing rate of WAAM, combined with the ability to control material properties down to the nanoscale, will allow us to build strong and durable engineering structures. Grade2XL will deliver multi-material products of superior quality and performance, cut lead times by up to 96% and enable massive cost savings for the maritime and energy industry, as well as for industrial machinery. These outputs will rapidly roll out to other sectors with similar key performance indicators and become an attractive investment opportunity for SMEs. This project will strengthen Europe’s capacity to drive manufacturing innovation globally and withstand growing competition from Asia.

The European Key Enabling Technologies (KETs) strategy is important for the European global competitiveness, the creation of jobs and the European growth. Focusing on the development and valorisation of these KETs is crucial to this strategy. The industry-centred LEIT-NMBP part of Horizon 2020 is instrumental to the support of four of the six KETs: Nanotechnologies, Advanced Materials, Biotechnology, Advanced Manufacturing and Processing. The Work Programme (2016-2017), LEIT-NMBP focus on the valorisation of KETs. One of the activities supported by the European Commission are “events of a major strategic nature” such as conferences organised within the framework of the EU presidencies to create better synergy between initiatives launched by the Commission and by the Member States. This proposal is developed within the framework of the Dutch EU-Presidency (2016) and aims at the organisation of an international conference on Industrial Technologies. The main focus of the conference is the impact of KETs on the future of industry, that emphasizes the application of new and innovative technologies in the field of manufacturing to prepare the European industry for the future. Within this conference, the Dutch strategy on Smart Industry will act as the focal point to enhance the momentum to enter into a new manufacturing era in Europe. The overall aim of the conference is to co-develop the European agenda for the new industrial revolution and review the EU research agenda(s), to enhance the competitiveness of the European manufacturing industries. The conference will be held in the Netherlands in 2016 and last 3 days with an expected number 1250 participants over 30 nationalities from divers target groups (research, industry, private investors, policymakers and education). Specific attention will be paid to stimulate the gender balance at the conference and within the target groups. The conference will be international with an EU wide geographical spread.