Jun 11 2015
Today, with the theme “Nanotechnology for European competitiveness”, EuroNanoForum 2015 is bringing together major industry players, policymakers, leading academia representatives and most innovative SMEs from around the world to address key challenges of the economic growth and European re-industrialisation by embracing change.
The 2014 Millennium Technology Prize Winner Stuart Parkin, Director at the Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics and an IBM Fellow, headlines the three-day event’s programme. Parkin’s groundbreaking discoveries provided an excellent example of Open Innovation philosophy integrated within European Innovation System.
Following similar principles of integrated collaboration, value co-creation and unleashed exponential technologies, EuroNanoForum 2015 attracted diverse pool of companies of various sizes, industries and technologies to highlight how open innovation should be practiced by many, rather than mastered by few. Major industry players like: 3M, Airbus, Haldor Topsøe, Dow Corning Corporation, Vermon, Umicore, ACCIONA, Nokia, Daikin and alike, participate and contribute to the event alongside innovative SMEs Sidrabe, Nanocyl, NIL Technology, Beneq, Skeleton Technologies, Postnova Analytics, QuantumWise, SmartMembranes and Avantium. Despite the apparent differences, all of those strive for the shared goal of supporting the European competitiveness and focusing on uncovering new ideas, reducing risk and leveraging scarce resources.
“Europe’s has always been celebrated for its excellent science and industrial innovation, though today, more than ever before, we need growth. We need to keep finding new collaboration models and new ways to support our creativity. This conference serves as a perfect example how, by joining forces, we can put our great traditions and excellence to the service of Europe’s re-industrialisation”, said Clara de la Torre, Director Key Enabling Technologies, Directorate General for Research and Innovation, European Commission. “Nanotechnologies and advanced materials have potential to lead to unforeseen advances and new markets, as well as find fresh solutions to our problems in health, energy, climate and the environment, turning those into real opportunities for growth in Europe”, she added.