Onno Huiskamp, Technology & International Cooperation Advisor – Province Noord Brabant

The goal of the Working Table Mechatronics Alliance was foster innovation in the field of Advanced Manufacturing with building a European-wide alliance, where specific topics are hosted by regional representatives. These hosts are responsible for setting up new projects 

From 17.06.2018 to 18.06.2018, 18 mechatronics initiatives from 10 countries, including Slovakia, Romania, Great Britain, Italy, Belgium, Hungary, Czech Republic, Netherlands, Germany and Austria have met in Austria in Linz. The meeting was organized by the “Mechatronic Cluster OÖ” (Upper Austria) together with the Dutch mechatronics network to widen the impact out of NUCLEI. The aim of this meeting was to explore innovative technologies across borders and to promote cooperation. 

In the beginning of the event, Elmar Paireder, the manager of the Upper Austrian mechatronics cluster and Christian Altmann, the Clusterland manager, welcomed the guests. Furthermore, Christian Altmann talked about the high importance of innovative mechatronic technologies for the whole European industry as well as about their influence on the entire competitiveness in Europe. 

In the first part of the working table, the participating networks and enterprises introduced themselves with a short presentation. Every network reported about their current topics, priorities and expectations. On the basis of the presentations of the individual representatives, concrete topics were identified in the areas of research and development, production and management support, to which the participants have assigned themselves accordingly. 

After lunch, pre-existing initiatives such as the LCM's Symspace platform were presented and an exchange of experiences of a sustainable collaboration took place. Another important point was the cooperative development and implementation of innovation projects involving scientific institutions and enterprises. Subsequently, the identified organizational expectations and goals for a Europe-wide mechatronics alliance were concretized in a workshop. An important point for the participants was, above all, the establishment of technology-oriented platforms for transnational knowledge transfer in order to be able to make use of synergy potential. In addition, an attempt has been made to create a thematic map, which focuses on the research priorities of the individual regions. The first day ended with an exciting tour through the Ars Electronica Center, where they demonstrated where the technological journey could be in the future.

On the second day of the working table the major activity was the visit of the Upper Austrian research institutes in the field of mechatronics. The approximately 30 participants were able to gain a good impression of the local mechatronics competence in the Linz Center of Mechatronics, at the Johannes-Kepler-University and in the Excellence Center for Smart Production of the University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria. Specific examples were the robotics department of the LCM, the metal 3D-printing research at the University of Applied Sciences Wels as well as the developments of the JKU in the field of digital hydraulic valves and non-destructive digital material testing.

All in all a format like an alliance could ensure to foster innovation on an transnational level as well as to establish a sustainable platform within Advanced Manufacturing.