Strong support from SSI community for new EPoSS SRA following presentation of the draft version at SSI 2013

During the EPoSS Session at SSI 2013, which took place in Amsterdam, 13-14 March 2013 and attracted some 300 participants, the draft version of the new EPoSS SRA was presented together with strategies for its implementation and industrial roll-out. Feedback received from participants was positive; the Smart Systems community strongly supports the new SRA.

This year, both EPoSS Sessions on the first day of the SSI conference were dedicated to the new Strategic Research Agenda – SRA – on Smart Systems Integration. The first session, chaired by EPoSS Chairman Carmelo Papa of STMicroelectronics, included presentations on the content of the SRA. The second session, chaired by Head of EPoSS Office Wolfgang Geßner of VDI/VDE-IT, dealt with the implementation and industrial roll-out of the SRA.

For nearly a year EPoSS and the Smart Systems community have been working intensely on the new SRA, supported by the EC-funded FP7 Coordination Action IRISS:

  • Last year at SSI 2012, a survey was launched to gather data on sector activities, technologies, drivers, barriers, turnover and headcount in SSI.
  • Following the evaluation of the survey results, key experts in the most relevant sectors, technologies and production processes have worked on SWOT analysis, research priorities, subsector roadmaps, timelines and prospects.
  • The resulting draft SRA provides comprehensive data on 7 sectors, 32 subsectors, 12 technologies, 10 production processes and safety & security as a horizontal topic.

Since the time in the first EPoSS Session "A new Strategic Research Agenda for Smart Systems Integration: Markets, Technologies, Processes" was very limited, but it was nevertheless seen as vital to gather feedback from the session attendees on the draft SRA, the amount of information presented had to be reduce drastically. Accordingly, it was decided that following an introduction on the background of the work by David Topham of Arts&Science, EPoSS key representatives present main findings from the draft SRA in 5 of the 7 sectors covered by the SRA, namely

Each 15 minute sector presentation included a 10 minute report highlighting the most important SRA results and a 5 minute open discussion and feedback gathering slot. There was a very good response from the attendees, who actively and very positively participated and contributed to the session.

The second EPoSS Session “Implementing the new EPoSS SRA: Policy Recommendations and Industrial Roll-out” was aimed at showcasing the implementation of the new SRA on different levels.

Chris Merveille of IK4-IKERLAN explained why it is worthwhile to promote the new SRA on the level of EU Member States and regions and how this can be done.

A skilled workforce and consequently education and training in Smart System Integration are a big concern of the Smart Systems industries. Marc Desmulliez of Heriot-Watt University presented on the Erasmus Mundus Master of Science in Smart Systems Integration that HWU is setting up together with its project partners. It has already been confirmed that the technology chapter of the new SRA is very well suited for the introductory course module of the MSc.

Amin Njah of MST Baden Württemberg explained how the regional cluster MicroTEC Südwest benefits from and will implemnt the new Smart Systems SRA.

Roger Grace of RGA explained what role technology clusters play in the commercialization of (smart) microsystems, and Géraldine Andrieux of Yole Développement gave a presentation linking the Smart Systems SRA with the respective EU-funded take-up projects.

Due to the bad weather conditions in Brussels Khalil Rouhana, Director Components and Systems, DG CONNECT was not able to travel to the conference and was thus not available for the scheduled dialogue on contribution of SRAs to European Policy processes and the implementation of Horizon 2020. However, the time reserved for this dialogue was very well used for feedback-gathering and a dialogue with the participants on the implementation of the Smart Systems SRA. As an example, 10 participants expressed their interest in actively supporting roadshow activities to promote the new SRA on the level of Member  States and regional clusters.

A particular highlight of the second session was an applications-pull presentation from the service industry, linking services and Smart Systems. Ulrike Blume of Philips Healthcare Germany was the first speaker in this session with her presentation on „Services and Capital Goods: How Smart Systems and Services Change the Health Market”.

Much like the Smart Systems industry, the big challenge of the service industry is to argue the benefits, added value and unique selling point for their products, i.e. services. In the case of services the additional challenge is that the “product” itself is intangible, it is consumed at the time of delivery, it cannot be stored, and it always involves human factors both on the part of the user and of the provider. Quality measurement and beforehand specification of the “product” is difficult, and furthermore there is often an expectation of trustworthiness or reliability. At the same time, services are frequently delivered in conjunction with (high-tech) products and make up for a large percentage of EBIT (~10%) compared to that of the (high-tech) product itself (~2.3 %). It is partly due to these specific characteristics that the services industry has become master and model in the development of business models for product-service bundles. Consequently, it was for the following two reasons that the Smart Systems community engaged with the service industry:

  • The Smart Systems industry can learn from the experience and solutions developed by the service industry in terms of business models, and convincing customers of the added value and unique selling points of new enabled “products”.
  • The service industry accounts for approx. 70% of gross value added, and is in itself a user of high-tech products, lots of which could be enabled or enhanced by Smart Systems. Knowing application requirements from this industry is thus of high value to the Smart Systems community.

Presentations

All presentations given during the EPoSS Sessions are available in this folder. 

Pictures

Pictures taken during the conference are available here.