Background

The Manufacturing Helix was amongst the first tranche of Helix communities launched by Crowdhelix in early 2013. The Helix is led by the world-leading research organisation Fraunhofer Institute for Machine Tools and Forming Technology (Fraunhofer IWU).

Scope

Closely intertwined with the activities of several other Helixes; including Materials, Digital, Energy, & Circular Plastics, the Manufacturing Helix provides an Open Innovation platform for experts seeking international collaborators to carry out manufacturing-related research and innovation in the following areas:

• Smart manufacturing & processing
• Factories of the Future
• Sustainable Process Industries (“SPIRE”)
• Additive manufacturing
• Industrial robotics
• Nano-Fabrication
• Resource-efficient production
• Materials processing
• Digitalization in manufacturing
• AI-application in manufacturing

At the EU level, several of these topics are aggregated within the overarching “Nanotechnologies, Advanced Materials, Biotechnology and Advanced Manufacturing and Processing” (“NMBP”) Work Programmes, and many are considered Key Enabling Technologies, which play a particularly decisive role in determining Europe’s global competitiveness.

Policy

One of the European Union’s strategic aims for the industrial sector includes the application of Open Innovation and Open Science principles to manufacturing research & innovation, including for upscaling, characterisation, modelling, and safety. Crowdhelix intends to align its own activities in support of this endeavour by helping to provide the widest possible access to collaborators across the many sectors involved in the global manufacturing innovation ecosystem.