In this news, the German-French Academy for the Industry of the Future (GFA) looks back at the highlights of the cooperation between the Institut Mines-Telecom (IMT) and the Technical University of Munich (TUM) in 2020 despite the health crisis.
More expertise in a broader ecosystem….
The year 2020 has enabled GFA to strengthen its ecosystem and expand its network to new researchers and industrial experts. It thus counts more than 150 researchers from IMT and TUM schools involved in some twenty research projects or summer and winter schools for PhD students.
The objective of the German-French Academy for the Industry of the Future is to provide solutions through research, education and innovation and to promote French-German cooperation in strategic issues of our economy, society and in the digital transformation of industry.
The companies Atos, Airbus Defence & Space and ArianeGroup have officially joined the Academy’s Industrial Partners Club. These companies will co-construct the future developments of the Academy and benefit from the numerous expertise and projects launched within the Academy and thus better respond to the challenges of digital transformation. Finally, the Academy has also extended its actions to new institutional partners in France and Germany.
… for more resilience and sustainability in industry
In order to support the industrial world during this period of crisis, the GFA solicited its scientific community in the framework of the call for research projects “Resilience and Sustainability for the Industry of the Future” and financed 9 new joint projects launched in July 2020. The common objective of these projects is to propose innovative and rapid solutions with a strong potential for technology transfer in order to provide solutions to the current crisis, better anticipate future ones and make the industry more sustainable:
– The ALaRM project focuses on the rapid manufacture of laboratory equipment through the use of multi-material components and from biopolymers.
– 6D Printing focuses on the development of on-demand drug delivery systems via additive manufacturing.
– COSMOS consists in defining new needs and tools for supply chain decision support.
– The DREAMS project deals with advanced circular economy and the use of assembly lines for the disassembly of used products.
– P4D deals with the protection of personal data in crisis management.
– RAMP-UP deals with production management and decision support for the management of production ramp-up in a crisis context.
– The MR-Robot project deals with the remote maintenance of industrial robots.
– The TRUE-VIEW project deals with trust and transparency in the collection of ambient data.
– Finally, Re-Work deals with human relations and digital technology in post-covid redesigned workspaces.
This call for proposals reflected the Academy’s strong desire to respond to the needs of industry and digitization in these difficult times with a French-German approach.
Promote new skills, digital technologies and know-how
In addition to research oriented around the needs of companies, training in new skills is of paramount importance in this period of crisis. The GFA has therefore increased its efforts in this area and has developed its portfolio of summer universities (schools) and scientific workshops on new strategic topics in Industry 4.0. These recurrent schools organized every year are accessible to academic experts, young researchers, industrial professionals. In 2020, a record number of more than 500 students attended these schools, either in person or remotely:
– Trustful AI for Industry Summer School (July 2020)
– Future of IoT Autumn School “IoT meets Security’ (October 2020)
– Reconfigurable Production in the Era of Industry 4.0 Winter School (November 2020)
– Future of Data Sharing for Manufacturing Industry Winter School (December 2020). The Academy followed in the footsteps of the French-German GAIA-X initiative by organizing the 1st training event on this strategic topic of industrial data sharing.
From the beginning of 2021, new thematic schools and online courses will be added to the training portfolio. In line with the political and scientific roadmaps of the French and German governments, the Academy will thus support high-level international scientific conferences that will strengthen Franco-German scientific cooperation on the topics of Industry 4.0.
The Academy: a driver of French-German cooperation in AI
Following the Treaty of Aachen signed on January 22, 2019, French-German scientific cooperation in the field of artificial intelligence has become a priority. The Academy is part of this bilateral dynamic and has thus joined the French-German research and innovation network initiated by the Ministries of Research and Innovation (MESRI and BMBF) of our two countries in September 2020. Thus, the Academy has encouraged the emergence and submission of several research project proposals in the framework of the first French-German call for AI research. The Academy has thus strengthened its leading role in joint scientific cooperation in AI. The results of this historic first call will be known in March 2021.
The Academy continues its development and the year 2021 promises to be rich in opportunities for French-German cooperation. Do not hesitate to contact us in order to join our ecosystem and benefit from our numerous activities in research, training and innovation for the digital transformation of our industries.
Morwenna Joubin & Paul-Guilhem Meunier
