An overwhelming amount of demonstrators, posters, workshops and a number of new cooperation opportunities characterized the second Productive4.0 General Assembly reflecting the dynamic and innovative development of the huge project with its 109 partners from 19 European countries.

Consortium Conference at the Continental Hotel in Budapest turned out to be a highly successful summit. Almost two years after the project kickoff, the community met again between March 12 and 14 to take stock of progress and explore further opportunities.

The agenda comprised administrational and management topics, the results presented by all work packages and an intensified cooperation with selected Lighthouse projects whose representatives were invited to the event.

Closing doors on first innovation cycle

While the first conference in Athens last year was dominated by basic requirements and architectures, the Budapest summit focused on preliminary results concerning development, integration and evaluation. “Aiming at Milestone5, the tasks of the project’s first innovation cycle are almost accomplished”, says project coordinator Thomas Gutt.

Alfred Hoess, head of project office, reviewed the current status of various contract amendments as well as the status of deliverables. He also set the agenda for the upcoming review meeting in July. Overall, the work packages of Productive4.0 are well on track.

Intensified collaboration with other projects

Since ECSEL projects are meant to be open and Lighthouse Initiatives are strictly based on the idea of a general umbrella for all activities related to industry digitalization, Productive4.0 facilitated a Lighthouse session with the invited guest projects Connected Factories, iDev40, I-Mech and Arrowhead Tools.

Their representatives Chris Decubber, Germar Schneider, George Bravos and Jerker Delsing presented their projects then sorting out which of the Productive4.0 work packages would suit as partners for cooperation. Given that there are quite a few gaps to be filled and links to be used, collaborative activities will include the exchange of results, deliverables, documents and more.

Underlining the importance of knowledge transfer in order to “prepare Europe’s industry for the future”, both ECSEL Program Officer Berta Ferrer and Ann O’Connell from Industry4.E CSA (Coordination & Support Actions) introduced all partners to the expected impact and cooperation opportunities among Industry4.E participants. Follow-up activities on identified fields of cooperation are already planned.

Full event fully successful

The Budapest Conference was of course accompanied by workshops deepening connections between different work packages. The success of a project like Productive4.0 depends on the creativity generated by an overall interaction across all fields and domains.

Consequently, the four big conference rooms in the hotel were crowded with people networking and discussing details. All in all, the 180 participants presented 30 demonstrators and 59 posters – way more than at the first summit in Athens.

The upcoming review meeting is scheduled for June 25 – 27 at the premises of Philips’ Innovation Center in Drachten, Netherlands