BIRMINGHAM, UK, Mar 10, 2015 – Delcam has joined with a group of the leading research centers across Europe in a new European Commission CSA (Coordination and Support Action) project that will have a “direct impact on the future of research in Europe.” The Kick-Off Meeting for representatives from all the consortium partners in the FOCUS project took place in Brussels at the end of February.
Representatives of the organisations undertaking the FOCUS project met for a Kick-Off Meeting in Brussels
Odd Myklebust from Project Coordinator, NTNU (Norwegian University of Science and Technology), opened the meeting. He explained that “the FOCUS project will be giving recommendations and guidance on the organisation of projects under the EC Factories of the Future program (FoF). It will have a direct impact on the future of research in Europe.”
The FOCUS project aims to support improved exploitation of FoF project results from each of its five participating clusters – Zero Defect Manufacturing, Clean Factory, Robotics, High Precision Manufacturing and Maintenance & Support.
The project will review the current state of the art in project management and exploitation, and formulate future FoF priorities. In particular, it will deliver a model and associated methodology for effective cluster creation, execution and monitoring; and a model and associated methodology for industrial exploitation for future FoF PPP projects.
Delcam will lead the part of the project looking into the provision of pro-active support to disseminate the tangible outcomes of future projects and the encouragement of industrial exploitation, both within and outside the clusters undertaking the work.
Discussions during the meeting in Brussels raised several important and interesting thoughts needing early consideration:
- What is the level of take-up of shared exploitation within the current clusters?
- How do we deal with projects within clusters starting and ending at different times?
- What happens when a project within a cluster finishes?
This was followed by the five cluster leaders presenting the background and status of their cluster, and also summarizing the benefits of collaboration. All the cluster leaders agreed that the key benefits gained from clustering were the networking opportunities, the increased impact and visibility for the EC, and the avoidance of any duplication of activities. They also warned that Intellectual Property is a hugely important issue, especially when members of the cluster are in competition with each other.
Acknowledgement
The FOCUS project has received funding from the European Union Horizon 2020 Program (H2020) under grant agreement n° 637090.
Factories of the Future is a EUR 1.2 billion program in which the European Commission and industry are collaborating in research to support the development and innovation of new enabling technologies for the EU manufacturing sector.
For further information please visit: http://ec.europa.eu/research/industrial_technologies/factories-of-the-future_en.html
About Delcam
Delcam is one of the world’s leading suppliers of CAM software and associated services, and also supplies systems for product design, tooling design, reverse engineering and inspection. The company has grown steadily since being founded formally in 1977, after initial development work at Cambridge University led by the late Donald Welbourn. It is now among the largest developers of product design and manufacturing software in the UK, with subsidiaries in America, Europe and Asia. Over 330 people are employed at Delcam’s Birmingham headquarters, with almost 400 staff working in the company’s overseas subsidiaries and around 200 more in its international joint ventures.
Delcam’s software and services help manufacturing companies to increase productivity, improve quality and reduce lead times. The company’s software is used in over 90 countries by more than 45,000 organizations. These customers range from multi-national corporations to independent designers, toolmakers and sub-contractors, and come from a wide variety of industries, including aerospace, automotive, electrical appliances, footwear, healthcare, motor sport, packaging, toys, sports equipment, jewellery and signmaking. On February 6, 2014, Delcam was acquired by Autodesk and now operates as a wholly-owned, independently-operated subsidiary.
For further information, please visit www.delcam.com.