European Manufacturing: Leading and Shaping Our Green and Digital Future

The manufacturing industry is a global base for prosperity and key to Europe’s economic, social, and environmental sustainability, acting as the main driver of industrial innovation, job creation and growth for the European society. The European manufacturing sector is currently undergoing green and digital transitions to become more sustainable, adopting circular economy principles to transform Europe into the first climate neutral continent by 2050. Going through these major transformations, the industry strives to retain leadership in a competitive global landscape, accelerating innovation and attracting investments. On this journey, it is critical for European manufacturers to embrace digitalization to achieve leaner operations and boost profitability and competitiveness. The lack of workers with the right skills, however, is one of the biggest constraints to the successful green and digital transitions. It is therefore equally important to train the sector’s workforce and develop their skills and competences to match the industry’s current and future needs. As a public-private partnership, co-funded by the European Union, EIT Manufacturing has a clear purpose to improve people’s lives through sustainable manufacturing. This purpose is accompanied by the mission to connect manufacturing players by promoting talent and entrepreneurship to accelerate sustainable innovation in Europe. During this presentation, CEO Caroline Viarouge will elaborate how EIT Manufacturing stimulates manufacturing ecosystems and supports European manufacturing companies, research institutions and universities with various instruments and activities, including talent reskilling and upskilling via educational programmes, as well as supporting startups through various calls, Access-to-Market and Access-to-Finance services, co-investment opportunities, and coaching and support in commercial expansion.