AMIRES Chaired Sessions at the Industrial Technologies Conference

Last week, Dr. Rudolf Frycek, CEO of AMIRES chaired a section ‘Innovative Financing Solutions for Scaling up and Large Scale Facilities‘ and led a round  table discussion ‘Strong and efficient system for open innovation’ at the Industrial Technologies 2016 Congress (IndTech2016). IndTech2016 is the largest networking conference in the field of new production technologies, materials, nanotechnology, biotechnology and digitalisation in Europe.

The session ‘Innovative Financing Solutions for Scaling up and Large Scale Facilities’ identified the need for innovative financial engineering for SMEs, midcaps and large research infrastructures. The session recommended to lower the barrier between traditional grants (i.e. H2020) and loan and debt financing instruments (i.e. EIB, EIF). Continuity between these tools would facilitate faster industrialisation and scale up.

During the round table discussion on ‘Strong and efficient system for open innovation’ the following policy recommendations have been suggested:

• To re-gain trust in H2020 by decisive measures and transparency (e.g. stopping activities without fast/sufficient progress);
• To stop performance measurement of H2020 based on inputs (e.g. funds distributed) and start to measure outputs of EU projects (business impact).

EU and MS have been asked to coordinate better and faster implementation of the S3 strategies and to accelerate building unique but connected ecosystems/brain-belts throughout Europe. Wider public communication on positive societal impacts by industrial technologies and Industry 4.0 is also needed.