Abstract
The manufacturing activity in Europe represents today approximately 22% of the EU GNP. It is estimated that in total 75% of the EU GDP and 70% of employment in Europe is related to manufacturing. European manufacturing has great potential as part of a sustainable EU economy, but its success will depend upon continuous innovation in products and processes. The Manufuture Technology Platform aims to provide an analysis and methodology leading to a transformation of European manufacturing industry into a knowledge-based sector capable of competing successfully in the globalised marketplace. The economic importance of sustaining a strong manufacturing base in Europe is evident from the fact that it provides jobs for around 34 million people, and produces an added value exceeding €1 500 billion from 230 000 enterprises with 20 and more employees. Today, however, it faces intense and growing competitive pressure on several fronts. In the hightech sector, other developed economies pose the greatest threat and manufacturing in more mature traditional sectors is increasingly migrating to low-wage countries such as China and India. The Manufuture European Technology Platform was launched in 2004, with the publication of ‘Manufuture – a Vision for 2020’. This document recommended to develope a more detailed Strategic Research Agenda (SRA), paving the way for the definition of research priorities to be implemented by the EU Framework Programmes, in coordination with the Member States on regional and individual stakeholder levels. A Norwegian manufuture roadmap has been developed. The roadmap is based on a study of existing R&D projects (IST, NMP, EUREKA etc) where Norwegian industry and academia has participated. Research areas have been identified and are described in the report.
