National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) was founded in 1836 and is the oldest and most prestigious educational institution of Greece in the field of technology. Part of the NTUA School of Chemical Engineering (Department of Materials Science and Engineering) is the Research Unit of Advanced, Composite, Nano Materials & Nanotechnology (R-NanoLab), which was founded in 2007.

R-NanoLab has extensive experience in Designing, Production and Characterization of Advanced-, Composite- and Nano- Materials, specializing in the development of carbon based nano-materials with tailored properties, carbon fibre functionalisation and construction of pilot lines (e.g. electropolymerisation and multi filament extrusion). Furthermore, it is also involved in polymer material recycling and the social & safety implications of nanotechnology.

R-NanoLab has a strong presence in European Research Activities in Materials Science, through participation in numerous EU and national funded projects. As part of the European Technological Community, R-NanoLab is an active member of several Clusters (e.g. EMCC, EPPN, NSC) taking part in establishment of new standard methodologies, provide suitable background for regulation and nanosafety, and support EC policy development.

The Jules Verne Institute (Institut de Recherche Technologique Jules Verne) is one of the 8 mutualised research and technology centres created in France in 2012. Since then Jules Verne Institute has been developing industrial research dedicated to advanced manufacturing technologies and developing solutions for the design, processing and manufacturing of parts and structures for the aeronautic, shipbuilding, automotive and energy sector.

IRT Jules Verne offers 5 areas of technological expertise: Robotics and Cobotics | Composite Materials Processes | Metallic Materials and Additive Processes | Modelling and Simulation | Characterisation, Monitoring and Control.

The IRT team works hand in hand with the very best industrial and academic resources in the manufacturing field. Together, they strive to develop innovative technologies that will be deployed in the short to medium term in 5 research areas: Forming and Performing Processes | Assembly and Joining Technologies | Additive Manufacturing Processes | Mobility in the Industrial Environment | Manufacturing Flexibility.

Working closely with production equipment manufacturers and integrators, IRT Jules Verne caters to 4 strategic industrial sectors: aeronautics, shipbuilding, the automotive industry, and renewable marine energy. In its bid to provide comprehensive solutions up to scale-1 demonstrators, IRT Jules Verne installs and utilises a wide range of exclusive state-of-the-art equipment.

As well as this core business, IRT Jules Verne also tackles additional challenges:

• Promotion of industrial professions in response to the needs of businesses
• Deployment of a coordinated strategy with the EMC2 Competitiveness Cluster in relation to the French ecosystem dedicated to open innovation in manufacturing.

AIMEN is a Non-Profit association, located in the Northwest of Spain and constituted by about 90 companies, which supplies technological support to more than 500 companies dedicated to industrial activity related to metallurgy, automotive sector, shipbuilding, etc. It is highly specialized in materials and in advanced manufacturing technologies, especially joining technologies and laser technologies applied to materials processing, robotics and automation. With more than 250 employees its mission is to improve competitiveness and technology know-how of Manufacturing Industry.

CIDETEC is a private organization for applied research founded in 1997 that seeks to contribute value to companies by harnessing, generating and transferring technological knowledge. Located in the Donostia-San Sebastian.

CIDETEC comprises three international technological reference institutes in energy storage, surface engineering and nanomedicine. Each institute has its own offices and installations furnished with top-of-the-line equipment, among them a pilot plant for integrated battery manufacture; equipment to synthesise, characterise and process polymers and advanced composites; laboratories completely equipped for surface study, characterisation and treatment; and 150 m2 of rooms classified and prepared for GMP-standard product manufacture in the biopharmaceutical sector.

Since 2001 up to now, CIDETEC has developed R&D projects with 450 companies working in different productive sectors. At the same time, in collaboration with other industrial partners, CIDETEC has set up 4 new companies that industrialize a number of developments and complement the canter’s activity.

IRES, an R&D consulting company founded in 2015, is dedicated to new and innovative nanotechnology solutions. Headquartered in Brussels (Belgium), IRES is a team of key collaborators that provide supporting services such as IP, market research, environmental solutions and marketing advice. Our mission is to deliver to our customers world-class innovative solutions for development of materials-based products.

IRES has a core business and wide experience in the fields of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) & Life Cycle Costing (LCC), Exposure and Risk Assessment (hazard and exposure scenarios), Standardization, Data Management Plan (DMP), Machine learning, Quality assurance and Data analysis. We provide customised and tailored solutions on demand, often in tool form, successfully identify possible business risks and provide sustainable directions. For this, the whole lifecycle of products is considered, through a holistic evaluation of social, environmental and economic aspects based on EU standards and regulations. IRES in collaboration with external bodies and related initiatives, is part of new technological events, rising innovative technologies and strategic research trends.

Founded in 2008, SABELLA is a pioneering tidal stream turbine developer. With two field-tested devices, including the first French grid-connected tidal turbine in 2015, and two pilot tidal arrays under development, the company is at the forefront of tidal energy development in France and Europe. With its differentiated robust and reliable range of technologies, SABELLA promotes a new energy model tailored for remote grids and isolated shore communities. Based on a clean, predictable, and reliable resource, SABELLA’s technology offers a sustainable and economic alternative to costly and polluting fuel-based power generation systems. Involved in many European collaborative research projects, SABELLA has acquired extensive knowledge in tidal turbines-related topics including reliability of blades and composite materials.

ITAINNOVA is a non-profit technology centre whose main objective is to promote competitiveness in the industrial sector by means of the development, acquisition, adaptation and transfer of innovative technologies. ITAINNOVA offers its services with a clear market orientation, providing real and innovative solutions from its lines of research and development, which transform and accelerate the technological processes of companies or new challenges in our society.

With a workforce of 230 employees, most of whom are university graduates, this center, with offices in Zaragoza and Huesca, is contributing to the equality of men and women in contracts and to being a source of talent in Aragon.

ITAINNOVA is structured into different technological areas: Materials & Components, Mechatronics & Robotics, Power Electronics, Logistics, and Software Engineering and Multimedia technologies. The Materials and Components Division, which will carry out mainly the activities in this project, integrates 70 researchers and technicians, 30% of them holding a PhD.

SENSE-in develops and manufactures QRS (Quantum Resistive Sensors) based on innovative sensitive conductive polymer nanocomposites (CPC) formulated and nanostructured with a unique process that allows perfectly to adjust their properties. SENSE-in supports its customers for the integration of sensors within composite materials and structures, performs test follow-ups and offers signal processing tools (electronics and software) to translate both life and state of the composite material.

SENSE-in integrates skills in chemistry, physics, mechanics, processing of nanocomposite and structural composite materials and has demonstrated the compatibility of QRS during main composites’ processing techniques

Since its creation, SENSE-in has demonstrated the interest of its solutions in nautical, automotive and aeronautical applications by offering advantages to its customers such as demonstrated non-intrusiveness, robustness and low consumption of solutions, allowing to consider solutions that can be embedded in composites whatever the process: contact, prepreg, infusion, RTM, and recently automated fiber placement and filament winding.

Research of practical utility lies at the heart of all activities pursued by the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft. Founded in 1949, the research organization undertakes applied research that drives economic development and serves the wider benefit of society. At present, the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft maintains 74 institutes and independent research units. The majority of the more than 28,000 staff are qualified scientists and engineers, who work with an annual research budget of 2.8 billion euros.

With its clearly defined mission of application-oriented research and its focus on key technologies of relevance to the future, the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft plays a prominent role in the German and European innovation process. Applied research has a knock-on effect that extends beyond the direct benefits perceived by the customer: Through their research and development work, the Fraunhofer Institutes help to reinforce the competitive strength of the economy in their local region, and throughout Germany and Europe. They do so by promoting innovation, strengthening the technological base, improving the acceptance of new technologies, and helping to train the urgently needed future generation of scientists and engineers.

The Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Advanced Materials IFAM – Adhesive Bonding Technology and Surfaces is the largest independent research organization in Europe in the area of industrial adhesive bonding technology.

The R&D work is directed at a variety of industrial sectors such as car, rail vehicle, ship and aircraft manufacturing and includes the focus areas of plasma technology, paint/lacquer technology, as well as adhesion and interface research. Customized surface modification and functional coatings, methods of early detection of degradation phenomena, and validation of aging tests are research topics of the Paint Technology department at Fraunhofer IFAM. Specific equipment for coating performance testing (e.g. biofouling, ice, contamination) has been developed and internally standardized in past and current industry projects, both nationally and EU-funded. In this respect, wide-ranging experience has been established for functional materials, including the development and testing for different industrial applications, and has resulted in a deep understanding of material needs and testing requirements that will be used in this project

Founded in 1900, the University of Birmingham is one of the leading research-based universities in the United Kingdom; the breadth of research expertise is a distinctive characteristic of the University.

Birmingham is 81st in the 2020 QS World University Rankings, cementing our position in the top 100 universities globally. The University of Birmingham has extensive experience of EU collaboration and partnerships and in-depth expertise of Framework Programme matters including management, reporting and auditing.

The University has been involved in 315 FP7 projects and 284 projects so far in H2020 (March 2020). The School of Metallurgy and Materials at UoB is one of the European materials research centres equipped with world-class materials research facilities. Established in 1983, the Birmingham Surface Engineering Research Group (BSERG) was the first multi-disciplinary research group to be committed to the subject of surface engineering and continues to be one of the world’s premier research centres in surface engineering. The Birmingham Surface Engineering Research Group (BSERG) and NDT& Condition Monitoring (NDTCM) Groups in the School of Metallurgy and Materials will be involved in this project.

The University of Strathclyde is a top ranked university in the UK national Research Excellence Framework in 2013 (top 20 overall and the manufacturing in top 10 in research power). The Centre for Precision Manufacturing (CPM) has over 40 researchers who conduct internationally leading research in materials processing, product/machine design and manufacture. The activities relevant to this project include Materials Forming Processes, Material/Structure/System Analysis, Tools, Machinery and Manufacturing System Development, Condition Monitoring, Exploitation & Dissemination.

The University of Strathclydes’ operational capacity is reflected strongly by its experience in conducting world leading materials processing research and machine designs, having over 100 researchers in the directly related fields and being accessible to over 40 million pounds worthy world-class manufacturing research facilities, and substantial experience in managing large-scale collaborative RTD projects. The members of the staff of the Centre for Precision Manufacturing (CPM) have generated a series of product, process, tool and machinery designs and analysis results respectively for energy, materials, electronics, automotive, aerospace, and machinery industries. As an internationally leading research centre, the group has developed a series of forming processes, forming tools and machinery designs.

Cambridge Nanomaterials Technology Ltd (CNT) is an innovation management and nanotechnology consulting company based in Cambridge, UK. The CNT helps companies, academic and government institutions to develop world-class innovative solutions for nanomaterials related R&D and IPR strategy, partnership, products, technologies, funding and markets.

CNT is specialised in carbon nanomaterials R&D consulting and collaborative R&D project management, including exploitation and dissemination management, consortium and supply chain building. CNT has done a number of patent landscaping and market research analysis studies regarding production and use of various nanomaterials helping to link inventors and technology developers with end-users and investors.

CNT is leading private Nano-Carbon Enhanced Materials (NCEM) consortium with members from leading industrial organisations and academic institutions, such as Airbus Group, Rolls Royse, Nokia, Bosch, Nissan, Whirlpool Corporation, ArcelorMittal, Tecnalia, Johnson Matthey, Prysmian Group, National Grid, Schneider Electrics, GE, Nexans, Henkel, Stattnet, Arup, Bose, ST Microelectronics, Trinity College Dublin, Copper Industry Association. Based on a similar concept, CNT started a new private consortium Advanced Materials for Additive Manufacturing (AMAM) in November 2018. In March 2019 CNT has opened a sister company CNT Innovation based in Brussels, Belgium (http://www.cnt-innovation.com/)..

Haydale is a global technologies and materials group that facilitates the integration of advanced materials such as graphene, carbon nanotubes and silicon carbide fibres into the next generation of commercial technologies and industrial materials.

Haydale’s nanomaterial and advanced material expertise, combined with their world-leading plasma functionalisation process, delivers advanced materials with tuneable surface chemistry. This bespoke surface chemistry allows improved dispersion, increased resin compatibility or the addition of inherent functional properties to advanced materials for downstream benefits such as improved mechanical properties, thermal and electrical conductivity, permeation resistance and increased toughness. Haydale has patents granted for its technologies in Europe, USA, Australia, Japan and China and operates from five sites in the UK, USA and Asia.

Haydale’s site in Loughborough, UK, is the group innovation and application centre, specialising in the development and application of enhanced nanomaterial and advanced material products into application areas such as polymers, composites, coatings, and elastomers. Using their extensive knowledge of these systems, Haydale has deployed a portfolio of nanomaterial enhanced products to market, including mechanically enhanced, thermally enhanced and lightning strike resistant prepregs, nanomaterial additives for elastomers, and masterbatches in resins.

Haydale’s site in Ammanford, UK, is the group centre for plasma functionalisation of nanomaterials and home to the facility for the unique split plasma functionalisation of nanomaterials via their patented HDPlas technology. HDPlas functionalisation of nanomaterials has been key to Haydale’s development of a portfolio of nanomaterial enhanced conductive and piezoresistive inks, for applications such as flexible heaters and sensors. The purpose-built facility is designed to handle and process nanomaterials with a suite of prototyping and analytical equipment.

Haydale’s other sites include a facility in Greer, SC, USA for the manufacture of novel silicon carbide materials, an R&D and technical support facility in Bangkok, Thailand and a sales function in Seoul, South Korea.

AiDEAS is a highly innovative technology and data solutions provider. The company is building machine learning and AI-power technology to unlock the value hidden in huge volumes of data, reducing the time to find, diagnose, comprehend and act at a speed that is impossible for humans, thereby generating new faster insights.

AiDEAS portfolio is built on leading-edge AI technologies including data mining and machine learning/deep learning to (i) enable data-rich and knowledge-lean automation of valuable tasks of perception, classification and numeric prediction as well as (ii) collect, organise, analyse and discover hidden pattterns and value in voluminous amounts of structured and/or unstructured data.

AiDEAS staff comes from different computer science backgrounds with over 15 years’ experience and a particular focus in developing novel algorithms as well as leading award-winning academic research for solving important existing and emerging problems in various industries such as Healthcare, Industry 4.0 and Oil & Gas.

The core team of AiDEAS is also experienced in the definition, execution and management of big EU projects in the R&D area within an extended European growing network consisting of universities, research centres, SMEs and large enterprises.

Bionic Surface Technologies (BST) provides two types of products/services. Riblet surfaces (paint, foil or laser technology) are nano- and micro-structured surfaces which reduce the drag in a fluid (air, gases or water) up to 8 %. Applications are commercial aviation, wind turbines and industrial applications (compressors, turbofan jet engines, pipelines).

BST provides also high quality CFD-analyses used in many branches e.g. automotive, power plant, processing industry. BST was founded in 2009 by Peter Leitl and Andreas Flanschger leading 20 graduated and post graduated employees at BST. There are on-going projects in nearly all relevant markets for drag reducing riblet surfaces for flow applications. BST is involved in projects in motorsports, commercial aviation, wind turbines, industrial compressors, Red Bull Airrace or Sports.

INEGI – Institute of Science and Innovation in Mechanical and Industrial Engineering is a non-profit, private and recognised as a public utility Research and Technology Organisation (RTO), founded in 1986, focused on research and technology-based innovation activities, technology transfer, consulting and technological services, oriented to the development of industry and economy in general. INEGI´s mission and vision is to contribute towards the development of industry and the economy in general, through scientific and technology-based innovation, while ensuring the personal and professional development of employees and the enrichment of higher education.

INEGI is currently considered an active agent playing a significant role in the development of the Portuguese industry, and in the transformation of its competitiveness model. The research infrastructure includes a broad set of well-equipped laboratories and an extensive engineering tools base for supporting its R&D activity as well as the production of industrial or commercial prototypes. With more than 30 years working on composites processing technologies, the Composite Materials and Structures Research Unit (UMEC) is one of the key units of INEGI with relevant experience in sectors such as aerospace, automotive, sea, energy, construction, among others. It has valuable theoretical and practical experience in composites processing technologies such as Filament Winding, Pultrusion, Resin Transfer Moulding/Liquid Compression Moulding RTM/LCM, Autoclave, Weaved and Unidirectional Prepreg Materials, Braiding, Performing Technologies, New Materials Development and Characterisation, Damage Sensing and Structural Health Monitoring (SHM), as well as Finite Elements (FEM) Modelling.

BioG3D is an R&D company, dedicated to innovative 3D printing solutions and “smart” customized products. The company was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in Lavrion Technological Park, in Athens, Greece. BioG3D mission is to enable new uses for the unique potential offered by Digital Manufacturing, by employing advanced feedstock materials, cutting-edge physical and digital tools to optimize designs, towards a holistic approach for the fabrication of new products. BioG3D team consists of 3D printing specialists, materials and mechanical engineers with experience and know-how covering the whole range of Additive Manufacturing (AM) process chain, from advanced design, to AM process optimization and design verification. It can be engaged with all stages of research for Additive Manufacturing and Reverse Engineering as well as the development of novel composite materials for Additive Manufacturing, evaluation and functionality assessment.

BioG3D is equipped with advanced 3D printing and 3D scanning systems, along with design and modelling software to deliver upon request, advanced products with specific functionalities and increased accuracy. BioG3D boasts expertise in application of Additive Manufacturing technologies, such as Stereolithography (SLA) and Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF), as well as in 3D model development, by exploiting multi-material approaches and advanced computational design and analysis tools to identify optimal solutions for AM-specific objective functions and constraints.

BioG3D has developed dedicated protocols for evaluation and quality assurance of polymer-based composite feedstock materials and optimization of their processability.

BioG3D has shown excellence in reverse engineering organic structures as a base for customized product design and fabrication.

The introduction of specific functionalities in the final product through design strategies combined with composite nanomaterials has been exhibited by BioG3D through their participation in several projects. BioG3D is continuously striving to attain expertise in the Additive Manufacturing field, by increasing their fleet of 3D printing systems, actively modifying their systems for increased functionality and by fine-tuning their design strategies. In pursuit of this, BioG3D is currently employing the latest advances in 3D printing systems and feedstock materials, while utilizing cutting-edge physical, and digital tools to provide end-to-end solutions and 3D printing services from initial conceptualization to functional prototypes.