The main goal for the years to come is the transformation of EIT Manufacturing into a well-regarded service organisation offering qualified services to the European Manufacturing domain. This transformation will include all parts of the organisation; the pillars, the CLCs and the Manufacturing SASU. An extensive catalogue of possible service offerings has been established and prioritised. The first results have been achieved already. According to our go-to-market strategy, services will be piloted by the CLCs or the Manufacturing SASU and, if successful, rolled out over the whole organisation. The first portfolio of start-ups with financial sustainability agreements has been established, with an estimated valuation of more than €2 million. EIT Manufacturing will focus its investment in the next three years on the “European Manufacturing System”, taking an integrated European approach of all pillars: Innovation, Education, RIS, Business Creation and Communication. The “European Manufacturing System” will play a key role in the Circular Economy. It will link the steps of value creation processes in a multidimensional way, in order to identify the environmentally, economically and socially sustainable favourable alternatives for each step, going from an idea to a finished product, process or service. With Europe’s sensitivity for sustainability, and its ingenious talents in developing innovative technologies, processes and means of collaboration, Europeans are destined to lead the way to further evolved and improved Manufacturing Systems. EIT Manufacturing, in cooperation with its partners and ecosystem, helps drive this leadership by postulating the “European Manufacturing System” as a strategic objective for the European manufacturing industry, with global implications. The Business Plan implementation will fully comply with the EIT Financial Sustainability principles, KIC fund principles, Innovation Principles, EIT RIS Hub Minimum Standards and Good Governance principles.

The economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and several successive periods of lockdown demonstrated the fragility of traditional economic sectors, particularly in manufacturing. At the same time, the crisis provided a springboard for the most advanced technology companies, mostly based in the US and China, to open up new markets. The objective of the SURE 5.0 project is to support European SMEs seeking to take advantage of the opportunities brought by the 4th industrial revolution, namely: the digitalisation of production processes and the use of advanced technologies, while fostering the key principles of Industry 5.0: human centricity, sustainability and resilience. SURE 5.0 covers three strategic ecosystems for the European Union: (i) Mobility, Transport & Automation (ii) Aerospace & Defence, and (iii) Electronics. The project will enable SMEs in these three ecosystems to receive assessments, recommendations, training, tailored services and financial support to implement Industry 5.0 principles that will ultimately provide them a competitive edge. Selected SMEs will be invited to join the SURE 5.0 Community of Practice Alliance. Led by the members of the consortium, this Community will promote peer-learning exchanges between members and with external organisations leaders. The consortium is composed of 5 clusters (AV, CEAGA, SAC, ANFIA, CORALLIA) representing more than 1000 SMEs, 3 RTOs (FhG, AIMEN, TALTECH) with an outstanding expertise in supporting companies on technological issues, INIZIATIVA a consulting company specialised in the elaboration of innovative and sustainable business models, F6S a company expert in EU cascade funding projects, and EITM (West) the European Innovation Community in the field of manufacturing. In terms of expected project results and his impact, 1,000 SMEs will be involved in the project activities, 700 will be assessed, 90 will be supported with services from the partners and 53 will receive financial support.

Entrepreneurship is crucial for economic growth and societal progress, yet women remain underrepresented in the field, accounting for less than a third of entrepreneurs in EU. This under-representation not only highlights inequality but also limits EU's potential to tackle pressing challenges, such as the digital, green, resilience transition, and recovery from the pandemic. Deep tech sectors are even less balanced, and investment for women-led companies remains less than 2% of the total To address this gender gap, Women TechEU will bridge collaboration between the European Commission and pan-European deep tech women-led startups to create a more gender-balanced entrepreneurship ecosystem. Built on the exisisting foundations of the EIC Women TechEU initiative, our consortium will scale this iniatiative with a clear perspective towards long-term sustainability We will invest 12M€ in equity-free grants to 160 women-led deep tech companies and additional support services in a programme enhancing current EIC BAS to which we will link The consortium is comprised by partners covering all the expertise and geographies needed to reach over 15000 women entrepreneurs in deep tech from all over Europe. Led by EIT Manufacturing, it is strengthened with the participation of other KICs from EIT like Health, Food and Climate, leveraging the power of their network and landmark events. We also count with the expertise from Sploro in cascade funding programmes. Across Limits will guide the communication and dissemination activities as well as link in the service delivery with Awaken Hub, who will coordinate an effort to evaluate over 1500 experts in 4 different open calls. The consortium is complemented by major networks of investors and women entrepreneurs like EBAN, AFAEMME, or FI Values and purpose driven we will search for sustainability and major impact of the initiative during the project and beyond even proposing a PPP structure to further exploit the project results.

The InnoMatSyn project (“Innovative Materials Ecosystem to Gain Synergies of regional, national and EU Initiatives”) will support the coordination of European, national and regional initiatives in the field of innovative advanced materials towards a materials ecosystem that cover any type of advanced materials (AdMa) and two-dimensional materials (2DM) to accelerate the development and scale up of the materials. The initiative will support the public authorities and funding research and innovation bodies by leveraging synergies between the different research communities and funding opportunities to facilitate the creation of one overarching materials ecosystem. The project will deliver 4 main outcomes: (i) a materials innovation knowledge repository tool capable to connect existing databases at EU, National and regional projects, and to identify possible needs and gaps; (ii) support to national regional funding agencies to create joint calls between funding agencies M-ERA.NET, FLAG-ERA, EUREKA, and EIT’s to facilitate the development and scale up of materials research. iii) an overarching, resilient European R&D&I ecosystem facilitating the cooperation within the different materials-related communities and funding agencies to monitor on-going research and to generate new projects, to run workshops in support of funding calls, and to challenge the knowledge generated in Europe, enabling future initiatives. iv) support EU, national, and regional initiatives with technology leakage risk assessment strategies, generating guidelines and common understanding at regional, national, and EU level to enhance EU sovereignty. Furthermore, InnoMatSyn will engage with all stakeholder groups including citizens, to gain awareness and attention to the potential of innovative materials. Emphasizes will be put on the empowerment by co-creation of skills, supporting and in collaboration with the Advanced Materials Academy, and related partnerships e.g. IAM4EU,‘AI, Data and Robotics'.