In April this year, Insight Media attended Hannover Messe, the huge industry exhibition making a comeback after the COVID-19 restrictions. As dissemination partner for the HyperCOG project, we were there to present the progress the project is making as it nears completion and showcase its novel technology to industries that will benefit from our work.
We were also there, however, to talk to the many thousands of like-minded delegates about the digital transformation of Europe’s industrial infrastructure in the face of the many serious global challenges we face today.
As it is with ACHEMA22, it is clear that as we seek to confront these significant geopolitical, economic, climate and societal challenges, events like these are vital. They give people the opportunity to meet and share knowledge and exchange ideas in person. Meanwhile, being able to showcase new ideas and highlight what can be done, will make delivering the transformation of industry that is so necessary possible.
Of course, for Europe, the European Commission is at the heart of delivering this change. Through the policies, strategies and funding programmes it sets out for the EU, it is helping to shape our industrial future. For industry, the targets it sets and the support it offers are already helping to deliver results and, as this publication clearly shows, there are many exciting innovations still to come.
The Commissioner for the Internal Market Thierry Breton was also at Hannover Messe delivering a keynote speech which clearly set out the importance of digital in Europe’s industrial transformation. He emphasised how digital technology will help the EU meet its ambitious climate goals while delivering increased security for our economy and energy requirements.
He also confronted head-on the challenges the EU must address if it is to achieve what it is has set out to do, saying that the geopolitical and economic problems that currently exist invite us to take a fresh look at Europe’s place in the world. Bretton puts digital technologies front and centre of this fresh look.
“It means identifying and investing in the digital technologies that will underpin our sovereignty and our industrial future,” he said. “To me, it is clear where we need to place our efforts: In the global race for technological power, Europe will lead if we seize the opportunities of data, microelectronics and connectivity.
“Data, microelectronics and connectivity are clearly of interest to Europe and producing them is highly scalable,” he continued. “They will act as enablers for other technological developments, support our industry’s competitive edge, and help us build an effective European cyber shield.”
The speech was broad in its focus, covering digital sovereignty, protecting Europe’s strategic interests and protecting its companies from hostile acquisitions. But Breton was more focused on the opportunity Europe has to transform its industrial sector using the power of data and digital technologies. This, he said, would “support our industry’s competitive edge”.
“Contrary to what some may want to make us believe, Europe is not lagging behind technologically in this field,” he continued. “But we need to act fast, as our competitors are moving quickly in order to capture the value of the European industrial market.
“To be ahead of the curve, we need to develop suitable European infrastructures allowing the storage, the use, and the creation of data-based applications or artificial intelligence services.”
Breton believes that a significant par t of Europe’s digital jigsaw is missing: its capacity to produce high-quality microelectronics. Without it, he said, its industrial transformation and digital sovereignty will not be secured .
“These components, commonly known as processors or microprocessors, chips or sensors, are at the start of most of the key and strategic value chains such as connected cars, phones, Internet of Things, high performance computers, edge computers, defence, artificial intelligence,” he said.
“We need to be clear: without an autonomous European capacity on microelectronics, there will be no European digital sovereignty.
“Today, Europe accounts for less than 10 per cent of global production – up from six per cent five years ago thanks to the EU ECSEL initiative, which has been instrumental in reversing this trend. This is proof that when we get organised in Europe, with a clear aim, we can make a real difference.
“But putting a halt to a decrease is not enough,” he continued. “Now we must invest massively, with the objective to produce high-performance processors in Europe and reach 20 per cent of the world capacity in value.
“Europe has all the skills, know-how and machinery to develop its own industrial value chain. It has three R&D centres recognised worldwide, companies able to upscale their capacity and it produces the machine used to produce the chips globally.
“It is now a matter of political will and upscaling our collective investment. This is why I will explore the idea of launching a European alliance on microelectronics. This would have an R&D pillar and a production pillar, with an initial combined public and private investment of 20 to 30 billion Euros. This is of paramount importance for our European digital sovereignty,” he continued.
All the projects featured in this publication are funded by the EU’s funding programmes and they are developing, testing and implementing this digital technology that will transform European industrial processes and manufacturing.
It is clear the political will is there at the Commission to support this digital transformation and encouraging to hear of huge investments being contemplated to ensure the tools are in place to enable the technology to work on the ground. As Breton concluded in his speech: “The real industrial revolution is starting now – provided we make the right investments in key digital technologies.”