A.SPIRE, the European Association that manages the Sustainable Process Industry Public-Private Partnership (SPIRE), has publishes its viewpoint paper on Framework Partnership Nine (FP9). European Process Industries are those which process material resources into value-added products. Due to its position at the root of most value chains and industries, the process industry has an impact on all sectors and value chains in the manufacturing economy.

FP9 will be the successor of Horizon 2020, the EU Research and Innovation programme which is valued at €80 billion of funding between to be allocated between 2014 and 2020. Horizon 2020 is crucial for implementing the Innovation Union – a core part of the Europe 2020 strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. In its recent interim evaluation, Horizon 2020 was found to be on track in helping to create jobs and growth, tackling major societal challenges and improving people's lives.

The ceramic industry understands the importance of Research and Innovation (R&I) in achieving the Europe 2020 strategy and it is a keen partner in many Horizon 2020 projects. Cerame-Unie represents the ceramic industry within A.SPIRE.

R&I is crucial for the process industry because resource and energy efficiency improvements in the process industry have a direct impact on downstream users. For this reason, it is crucial that the process industry (cement, ceramics, chemicals, engineering, minerals, non-ferrous metals, steel and water) is engaged with the forthcoming research framework programme.

Highlights from the A.SPIRE paper:

• It is essential to retain SPIRE in FP9 to strengthen industrial leadership and guarantee implementation of European research.
• Public Private Partnerships like SPIRE are extremely important innovation instruments for getting academia, research organizations, investors, SMEs and large companies to join forces so that large-scale breakthrough innovations are brought to market quickly. In fact, 45% of SPIRE projects are expected to fully deploy their results within 5 years of project completion.
• Industry participation in FP9 is essential for incentivizing further R&I investment that is vital for closing Europe’s innovation gap both within the EU’s regions and with other countries and regions worldwide.
• The SPIRE community call for a strong LEIT (Leadership in Enabling and Industrial Technologies) pillar to reduce the gap between R&I and its implementation. The current Horizon 2020 structure could be expanded to include the European Innovation Council in the second pillar to support the uptake of Future and Emerging Technologies (FETs) and Key Enabling Technologies (KETs).

Cerame-Unie: a committed partner in SPIRE

Investments in R&I are an investment in Europe’s future and the future of its citizens. The ceramics industry is committed to working with our partners in SPIRE to bring about the changes to the process industry that are necessary to deliver positive impacts for environmental sustainability, employment and competitiveness.

Click here to read the full paper