Support to the Vanguard Initiative (3DP Pilot)

IDEA Consult is supporting the Vanguard Initiative and the associated EU-regions for a faster deployment of 3D-Printing applications. The Vanguard Initiative was launched early 2014 as a coordinated effort to better align and mutually-reinforce regional specialization strategies. More than 30 EU-regions committed themselves at the highest political level to improve policy alignment based on relative strengths and complementarities to contribute significantly to the industrial renaissance of Europe.

The 3DP Pilot, one of the Vanguard Initiative Pilots, is led by the regions South Netherlands, Flanders and Norte. IDEA Consult has been selected by these leading regions to manage the whole network of regions involved in the 3DP Pilot (Jean-François Romainville is now appointed as ‘Network Manager’). IDEA Consult is supporting the Pilot since 2014.

The main objective of the 3DP-Pilot is to accelerate the market deployment and uptake of 3DP applications by companies through the co-development of cross-regional joint-demonstration activities (> TRL5, post-prototyping). In order to reach this objective, IDEA Consult is supporting the Pilot trough the coordination of the network of 28 EU-regions, the management of internal and external communication, the mapping of capabilities, the identification of matches and opportunities for joint-demonstration in 3DP, the support to the development of identified ‘demo cases’ and the generation, design and implementation of application-specific projects (definition of the best appropriate funding mix, etc.).

As a result, several concrete cases, addressing targeted industrial challenges through AM-based solutions, have been identified and implemented for joint-demonstration in various application areas. Relying upon the support of IDEA Consult and expertise of Regional experts, a first set of concrete SMEs-led industrial projects have, among others, been generated, designed and funded towards the emergence of smarter, more sustainable and more agile Value Chains.

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