About the Pilot
Micro and Nanotechnology are considered a growing source of cross-sectoral innovations that will drive the modernization of industry in the 21st century. It is forecasted by the expert community that nanotechnology will, in the near future, take a prominent role in many diverse technological domains.
The European Commission (2015), has identified and mapped priorities, strategies and funding instruments and volumes of 83 European regions that were addressed or related to the European Key Enabling Technologies (KETs). Several Europen regions have indicated priorities related to Nanotechnologies, including Micro-and Nano-electronics and Photonics, in their Operative Programmes and RIS3.
In the area of Nanotechnology, the sector that seems to attract most interest from regions is that related to developing next-generation nanomaterials, nanodevices and nanosystems, with a clear majority of replies related to nanomaterials. For Micro-and nanoelectronics, regions indicated a number of priorities mostly related to advanced sensors and power components.
The New Nano-Enabled Products Pilot project (Nano Pilot) aims to connect regions in order to build an industrial ecosystem in nanotechnology and to create pilot production facilities for products based on nanomaterials.
These products can be based on a synthesis of nanomaterials and nanocomponents which can be integrated in corresponding technical applications in virtually any industry sector, including areas such as clothing, automotive, construction, IT, displays, cosmetics, food, and medicine. Bringing prototypes to production by securing the reproducibility of application remains a critical point for the industry. This is where this pilot project aims to make a difference.
Activities & Long Term Goals
The pilot project aims to connect and further develop an open and business driven facility for pilot production of nano-enabled materials, systems, and products. By pooling the region’s resources and efforts, and by connecting regional strengths to create a strong European industrial fabric within nanotechnology, new value chains will emerge within the realms of innovative nanomaterials, connecting European R&D and laboratory infrastructure with different types of industries.
The key objective is to boost the existing inter-regional value chains as well as create new ones to bring micro and nanotechnology-enabled products or manufacturing processes successfully into the market. In doing so, valuable connections between science and industry can be created or strengthened. The potential market opportunity of micro-technologies (e.g. microfluidics, microelectronics) is huge and since these technologies are often applied in combination with nano-enabled products, the pilot will admit and support demo-case collaborations and projects in this field.
Based on this rationale, the Nano Pilot aims to develop concrete joint demonstration cases in which regional innovation ecosystems can intensify collaboration.
The primary objectives of the pilot are:
- Inspire and encourage policy makers to design and implement innovation strategies and operational programmes able to support inter-regional collaborations in the field of micro and nanotechnology-enabled products.
- Develop inter-regional platform of collaborative high TRL (> 6) demonstration cases in the field of micro and nano-enabled products.
- Accelerate the adoption of nanotechnologies to boost the innovation capacity of European companies in several fundamental sectors an value chains.
- Create synergies with the other Vanguard Initiative pilots as well as with European networks and associations
For further information please contact:
Matthias Grosch: [email protected] or Javier Bravo: [email protected]
