Description:

Main focus of the European FP7 project 4M2020 (Advanced Manufacturing of Multi-Material Multi-Functional Products Towards 2020 and beyond) is to build upon the durable integration mechanisms/structures and innovation chains created within three levels of different project clusters that led to the creation of long term Research, Development & Innovation (R&D+I) partnerships. The project clusters are from the fields of multifunctional miniaturised products and their applications in energy, medical, optoelectronics and microoptics, printed electronics and ultra-precision engineering the industrial sectors.

The aim of the 4M2020 programme is to strengthen the “foundations” of the technological research and product demonstration pillars and to bridge the “valley of death” by commercialising these diverse ranges of products and their underpinning value chains and manufacturing platforms in a coordinated action. In particular, 4M2020 aims to coordinate high quality research in this key area for European competitiveness in a number of industrial sectors by promoting and capitalizing on three main trends underpinning the creation of novel multi-functional miniaturized products and their underlying key enabling technologies (KETs):

• the continuous advances of a multitude of new functional materials
• innovative integration of a “tool box” of “constructive” bottom up and “ablative” top down structuring technologies
• the convergence of formerly separated enabling technologies

 4M2020 will facilitate cross fertilisation of product centred advanced manufacturing platforms along the five R&D+I streams and thus create alliances based on interrelated technological research and product demonstration activities. This will provide added value to the stakeholders by establishing R&D+I environment for combining KETs heterogeneously in the context of specific technology and product requirements.