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Event | Publikation

Workshop on Flexible and Printed Electronics

This workshop, organised by the European Commission (DG Connect, Competitive Electronics Industry Unit) on Flexible and Printed Electronics, focused on ‘Manufacturing and Access to New Technologies for Innovative Products’. The workshop aimed to explore how Europe can capitalise on developments made in this domain over recent years.

A collage of flexible and wearable components and devices

inSCOPE, SmartEEs and Place-IT projects, Philips, Holst Centre

An image of flexible, printed and wearable electronics - devices

The event gathered several key stakeholders from industry and research covering major part of the value chain, from components and technologies to products and solutions. It explored the needs and hurdles faced in Europe and provided insights into existing strengths, gaps and issues to be addressed in order to contribute to the resilience of key or strategic electronics value chains in Europe.

Several gaps and need for actions were identified, e.g. in the areas relating to, access to manufacturing foundries in Europe for prototyping and production; building strong investment cases for  public funding, venture and other capital investments; support for design and prototyping activities, and common approaches to IPR, licencing, certification and standardisation and training.

The main recommendations put forward relate to: The establishment of a strong platform, including aggregation of capabilities to support foundries; Actions to provide access for innovative European companies to a broad set of technologies and production facilities; Support for research and development to address major technical challenges and achieve critical mass of design and prototyping; The allocation of an ambitious public and private investment, to strengthen industrial manufacturing technology transfer, application ecosystems and market reach.

Finally, more information on the discussion and outcome will be available very soon in the workshop report.

Please follow this link for the presentations

Please follow this link to download the report

Initial announcement

The objective of the workshop is to discuss with key stakeholders what sort of actions can be undertaken at European level to drive further innovation, including whether and how building up manufacturing capacity can benefit the community. The programme will consist of pitch presentations followed by open debate on key topics, the outcome of which will inform future EU workprogrammes and initiatives. The agenda will be available very soon.

The topics which will be covered relate to:

  1. Technology development and advancing innovation – structural electronics, wearables, smart textiles etc.;
  2. Access to manufacturing and upscaling the production process of flexible and printed electronics - Roll-to-Roll, Sheet-to-Sheet, Hybrid electronics, etc.
  3. Current strengths, market opportunities and emerging applications for flexible, printed and wearable electronics;
  4. Europe’s position in this domain - current limitations and challenges ahead - what can be done to better support the field.

Map / Location

DG CONNECT, Avenue de Beaulieu 33, 1160, Brussels

Related content

Report on the Flexible and Printed Electronics Workshop

Event report | 15 april 2019

This workshop, held in Brussels on 10 December 2018, focused on manufacturing of and access to flexible and printed electronics for innovative products. The event brought together several key stakeholders from industry and research, covering major parts of the value chain, from components and technologies to products and solutions, while exploring existing European strengths and areas in need of improvement. The report includes recommendations for action at European level to strengthen flexible and printed electronics value chains and build up coherent and connected manufacturing capacities.