Advanced Manufacturing (AM) is the powerhouse of EU's industrial evolution, blending cutting-edge technologies with innovative methodologies to craft superior products. It is a strategic market segment to ensure Europe’s industrial competitiveness, resilience, and the transition towards a greener and more digitally integrated future.
Examples of technologies supporting advanced manufacturing and capable of maximising the potential of EU manufacturing are AI, robotics, additive manufacturing, virtual reality, blockchain and big data. Advanced manufacturing is increasingly recognisied as a critical industry, especially in times of geopolitical tensions. For deeper economic integration and the acceleration of technological development, advanced manufacturing processes are a key enabler.
While the European advanced manufacturing sector has experienced rapid growth in the last decade, it faces challenges in terms of global competitiveness, innovation disparities, and financing shortfalls. Addressing these issues is critical for the EU to maintain its position as a leader in advanced manufacturing and drive innovation in this sector.
To pave the future of advanced manufacturing in the EU, one of the task forces forming the Industrial Forum, stemming from the New Industrial Strategy for Europe, worked with external stakeholders to provide expert advice for the uptake of AM technologies and processes by EU industry.
The task force published its report in 2023 providing recommendations to the European Commission for speeding up the uptake of advanced manufacturing technologies, as well as highlighting the advantages of AM and clean tech for the decarbonisation of the European economy.
Boosting competitiveness in advanced manufacturing: key levers
In April 2024, the European Commission organised a high-level conference on Advanced Manufacturing Industry to address these challenges and gather further ideas for enhancing the sector’s competitiveness, resilience and global standing. This included harnessing the benefits of the green and digital transition.
The main recommendations that emerged from this event are as follows
Focus on our strengths
Europe should concentrate its efforts in areas where it holds a competitive advantage, such as robotics, the Internet of Things (IoT), additive manufacturing, and extended reality (digital/virtual twins), among others.
Improve access to finance
Accessing finance, particularly for scale-ups , remains a critical challenge for the advanced manufacturing industry. To address this, the following measures were recommended
- boost public funding in selected, strategic areas to create lead markets.
- unlock access to private capital by fostering a better-functioning capital markets union.
- revise the EU taxonomy rules to recognise the greening potential of additive manufacturing, thereby unlocking private venture capital (VC) finance.
- introduce ecolabels and systematically track the ecological footprint of products along the value chain to boost demand-side investments and demonstrate the greening contribution of enabling technologies like additive manufacturing.
Facilitate access to data
The European single market for data does not yet exist, with numerous barriers remaining both within and outside the EU. To address this, the following actions are proposed
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ensure that a manufacturing data space is operational within 2 years
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provide guidance to encourage widespread adoption of this manufacturing data space
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establish an EU industrial data helpdesk and designated contact points in each Member State, to assist with data export and import issues.
Unlock the value of generative AI for robotics
To enhance competitiveness against global rivals, stronger industry collaboration is needed to unlock the value of generative AI for robotics applications. Fostering partnerships among EU robotics and AI firms, with a focus on industrial applications of generative AI, was recommended.
The initiatives announced in the recent Commission Communication on generative AI were welcomed by the conference experts.
European Commission initiatives on advanced manufacturing
The European Commission has launched several actions to leverage the opportunities of advanced manufacturing and some of its prominent components, notably electronic manufacturing, virtual worlds, advanced materials and additive manufacturing.
Chips Act
The Chips Act aims to boosts EU’s competitiveness and resilience in semiconductor technologies and applications. It supports research, innovation, and chip production in the EU, with target of 20% of the global market share by 2030. It also introduced the Chips for Europe Initiative to support large-scale technological capacity building and innovation.
The Commission launched the European Chips Survey to understand current and forecast demand for semiconductor products across industrial ecosystems. These findings are presented in the European Chips Report.
Promoting Silicon Systems manufacturing
Electronics are increasingly central to all industries and to the digital and green transition. The EU continues to have international dependencies in key aspects of the value chain. That chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Addressing vulnerabilities and building on strengths requires a “silicon to systems” approach.
The Structured Dialogue on Electronics Manufacturing drew up recommendations for the future of EU Electronics Manufacturing, underlining the challenges and opportunities of the sector. Among other things, the report touches on electronic manufacturing services (EMS), Printed Circuit Board (PCB) fabricators, as well as their equipment and materials suppliers.
A broad value chains approach was deemed to help strengthen the entire European electronics manufacturing ecosystem (including PCB manufacturing and hardware assembly) as a necessary means to a secure, resilient supply chain and ongoing EU leadership in technological innovation.
Web 4.0 and virtual worlds
This is an EU strategy to enable integration between digital and real objects and environments. It also aims to make enhanced interactions between humans and machines possible.
Structured dialogue on the industrial metaverse
In February 2023, the European Commission and the European Round Table for Industry (ERT) organised a workshop to explore elements of the industrial metaverse. This event explored its relevance to European industry, uptake challenges and enabling factors, as well as the strengths, weaknesses, and dependencies of European companies. Additionally, industrial players identified areas in which the Commission could support the emerging ecosystem on a macro level.
The workshop provided the Commission with a working definition for the industrial metaverse. It is a place to experience the digital twin of industrial assets by
- visualising the digital twin and gaining insights in an immersive environment
- meeting in real time to collaboratively review the digital twin and make changes immediately
- continuously and interactively evaluating, simulating and predicting the behavior of the digital twin
- monitoring, analysing and managing real assets in closed loop with the digital twin.
Moreover, it provided insights into the internal segmentation of the ecosystem, which consists of a gaming-oriented value chain, an enterprise angle (digital workplace, virtual office, virtual learning), a consumer oriented one (social interaction, social media) and an industrial metaverse value chain, focusing on the industrial use cases.
The workshop included 5 use cases by VRdirect, Siemens, SAP, Nokia, Telefonica. These focused on metaverse implementation in manufacturing, product development, retail, and the green transition. The technology already provides early up-takers with real world benefits, in terms of faster development, reduced production time, higher product quality, fewer emissions and less waste.
The Virtual and Augmented Reality Industrial Coalition
This initiative aims to inform policy making, encourage investment, facilitate dialogue with stakeholders and identify key challenges and opportunities for the European VR/AR sector. The Coalition forms part of the overall strategy on Virtual Worlds fit for people.
Communication on Advanced Materials
The European Commission has organised a dialogue with industry and experts on the prerequisites for resilient, green, circular, and harmonised advanced materials sectors.
Together with key industrial stakeholders this structure dialogue identified strategic priorities, infrastructural needs, materials substitutions, regulatory bottlenecks, and uptake opportunities.
This work fed the Communication on Advanced materials for Industrial leadership, adopted on 27 February 2024.
The European Commission is supporting additive manufacturing by gathering interests and needs of stakeholders, organising workshops and surveys for knowledge sharing, and preparing policy recommendations for the industrial uptake of the sector.
For more information on the European Commission’s current activities in the field of additive manufacturing, please contact grow-workshop
ec [dot] europa [dot] eu (grow-workshop[at]ec[dot]europa[dot]eu).
The below document summarises frequently asked questions about the industrial capacities offered by additive manufacturing processes.
Guidance on conformity assessment procedures for 3D printing and 3D printed products
The European Commission has taken a pioneering stance with the AI Act, establishing the world's first comprehensive framework to govern Artificial Intelligence, promoting the development and integration of AI technologies that are trustworthy and uphold EU values and regulations.
The recent Communication on Generative AI further strengthens this foundation by outlining a comprehensive package of measures aimed at supporting European startups and SMEs.
This initiative seeks to enhance the capabilities of these entities to develop cutting-edge AI technologies by providing privileged access to EU supercomputers, financial support, and a robust innovation ecosystem.
The European Union has worked on the revision of the Machinery Directive to ensure better legal clarity and improved coherence with other legislation.
The updated 2023 directive harmonises the essential health and safety requirements for machinery in the EU, it promotes the free movement of machinery, and it ensures a high level of safety for workers and citizens.