With more than 800 companies representing more than 35,000 jobs, the weight of the manufacturing sector in Luxembourg is really significant. This is also why the Luxembourg Materials & Manufacturing Cluster wishes to make known the scope of its activities to a maximum of players.
The Annual General Meeting, this Thursday, 28th. February is the ideal opportunity to do so and in addition to the members of the cluster, the event will be open to any organisation active in this segment.
They will be able to witness first hand that the cluster is very attentive to its members and tries to involve them as much as possible in its activities. The first report of the advisory group, set up in May 2018, and coordinated by Caroline Muller, the cluster manager, will be presented. This group brings together about fifteen members in two working groups. “Everyone has their say,” explains Mrs Muller. “We meet on average once a quarter and we promote cooperation and collaboration between companies. In concrete terms, we have created a group of “materials analytics” experts, as well as a database listing the analytical technologies and the experts associated with them.”
The target is to create a new exchange tool between members, currently under development, to communicate more easily via direct contact, a chat service, a forum or a frequently asked questions. “This tool is in line with the request from our members,” outlines Mrs Muller.
Cross-sectoral approach
This Thursday’s AGM will also present the latest developments of the Composite Industry Luxembourg initiative, created a year ago to also help implement collaborative projects. “Six topics of interest to develop such projects have been identified. We are currently defining the technology roadmap and the actors who will be directly involved,” says Mrs Muller.
At the heart of the presentations will also figure the multiplication of cross-sectoral projects, as the cluster is increasingly led to open its doors to other sectors of activity. In 2018, workshops and events were co-organised with the Wood Cluster and the EcoInnovation Cluster. Similar initiatives are being prepared with ICT Clusters (about Industry 4.0, Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things and Digitisation in general) and Creative Industries. “Engineers are not necessarily the most creative in how to present and promote the projects they are working on. Hence the idea of marrying the creative industries with manufacturing industries to come up with new ideas and generate this creativity,” said Mrs. Muller.
Two other points will also be on the agenda of this AGM: a presentation of the next calls for European projects for the manufacturing industry and an intervention on digital learning and the perspectives of these new digital learning methods applicable to industry, by Dr. Jan Zutavern of the University of Luxembourg.