Clust-ER MECH, the Mechatronics and Motor Industry Clust-ER for Emilia-Romagna, unites over 140 members from both public and private sectors, including companies, research centers, and training institutions, pooling their expertise and resources to enhance the competitiveness of the sector.

Emilia-Romagna, known for its automotive and manufacturing excellence, has recognized the Clust-ERs as catalysts for collaborative innovation. By focusing on research and development, these clusters drive forward new ideas and technologies. Members, including businesses and R&D labs, actively contribute to this collaborative environment, fostering innovation discussions and initiatives.

Working alongside Technopoles and High Technology Network laboratories, Clust-ERs are key players in Emilia-Romagna’s innovation ecosystem. They play a vital role in the region’s innovation and technology transfer efforts coordinated by ART-ER, the Emilia-Romagna consortium for innovation and technology transfer.

The RKW Sachsen offers paths for medium-sized businesses. As a personal supporter and sparring partner, they have been at the side of small and medium-sized companies, new business founders and start-ups, family businesses and traditional companies since 1990. Together they help you to use your strengths successfully – as required through an integrative approach of consulting, training and coaching from a single source.

LIGHTer is a leading multi-sectorial lightweight arena, that effectively creates competitiveness on behalf of Swedish industry. The cluster started in 2013 and it gathers 73 members, 65 funded technical projects, 10 academic partners and around 40 PhD students. LIGHTer intends to create a structure for the efficiency of technology development and development of people with unique, multi-disciplinary capability to create products with low weight. LIGHTer will also provide an international top level (excellence) in selected areas giving the industry conditions for competitiveness. LIGHTer coordinates activities in research, development, technology and competence development in Sweden as the hub of Swedish lightweight technology.

The Linz Institute of Technology Factory (LIT Factory) was established in 2017 at the Johannes Kepler University (JKU). The LIT factory is a member of the Austrian Advanced Lightweight Design Plattform and focuses on three main goals: digitalised processing,  lightweight design and recycling of thermoplastic composites. The Factory has sound experience in the processing of thermoplastic polymers and polymer composites, digitisation of polymer processing, design and dimensioning of components, and component testing.

The main R&D capabilities and interests include the following topics:

• Continuous and discontinuous processing of all-kind of thermoplastics polymers and polymer composites
• Process development for tape laying processes combined with other processing methods
• Tooling and machine development
• Descriptive and predictive process and component simulations
• Digitalisation of all process steps and the entire product development within a product life cycle management system
• Recycling of multilayer, multimaterial composites

The Jožef Stefan Institute is the leading Slovenian scientific research institute, covering a broad spectrum of basic and applied research. The subjects concern production and control technologies, communication and computer technologies, knowledge technologies, biotechnologies, new materials, environmental technologies, nanotechnologies, and nuclear engineering. The Advanced Materials Department is involved in basic and applied research in the field of the synthesis and characterisation of advanced materials and also participates in the education process. In the lightweight domain, the department’s research activities include the development of ceramic- and bio-based materials for electronic devices with new or improved properties and research on nanostructured materials with the processes for their preparation. It is worth pointing out the department’s many international collaborations and its extensive cooperation with domestic and foreign industrial partners.

The Centre for Innovation in Polymer Engineering (PIEP) is a private non-profit association, of a technological and scientific matrix, with a business management model.
With over 20 years of activity, PIEP provides an excellent response in the delivery of products and services, oriented to the R&D+i needs of companies in the plastics and related sectors, through innovation activities, technology transfer, technical-scientific consultancy, and service provision.
PIEP acts in terms of the provision of testing services and failure diagnoses, development of new materials and products, processing technologies, and productive tools, based on the promotion of the principles of sustainable development (Circular Economy and Environment).

Flanders Make is a strategic research center for the manufacturing industry whose aim is to stimulate open innovation through four competence clusters: decision & control, design & optimisation, flexible assembly, and motion products. To each of these competence clusters, a number of core labs have been assigned that perform concrete research. By bringing together companies and research institutions, FM contribute to the technological development of vehicles, machines and factories of the future.

Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST) is a research and technology organisation with a budget over EUR 60 million, 592 employees from 36 different nationalities, about 80 PhD students, with a 2017 outcome of 150 scientific peer reviewed articles, 26 patents and 1 spin-off company. LIST aims at transferring scientific knowledge to the market by supporting industry innovation. Three main fields of technological expertise are developed within 3 departments:

• Environmental Research and Innovation (ERIN)
• Materials Research and Technology (MRT)
• IT for Innovative Services (ITIS)

The MRT department covers the areas of nanomaterials and nanotechnology as well as composite materials. The department counts on more than 30 ongoing industrial partnerships, thanks to a highly qualified staff of 170 persons. The institute actively participates in the National Composite Initiative that aims to leverage and federate the national industry in composites in order to set-up research infrastructure and competences in the field of composite materials in Luxembourg. It focuses on RDI activities through collaborative research, knowledge and technology transfer. The composite platform hosted by LIST covers the fields of polymer processing, structural composites, characterisation, and 3D printing.

The Advanced Materials Cluster of Catalonia is formed by 55 members that together include almost 52891 employees. The cluster covers four areas of interest: Lightweight Structures & Materials, Nanomaterials, Additive Manufacturing and Circular Economy. The members (SMEs, large companies and RTOs) cover the entire value chain of advanced materials, from raw materials, suppliers, manufacturers, designers & engineers to distributors and recycling activities.

ThermoPlastic composites Application Center, is led by Dr. F.W.J. van Hattum, with 10 experienced employees in composites, over 30 students working in the laboratories and with a network of more than 70 SMEs. The main fields of research and innovation include the following aspects:

• Processing: insert reinforcements, compression moulding, and injection moulding.
• Automation: cost efficient tape placement and integrated production lines.
• Recycling: TPC recycling, and polymer recycling with TPC.

The Morevian-Silesian Automotive Cluster (Autoklastr) was founded in 2006 and it includes 77 members in which suppliers (Tier 1- 3), Large Enterprise, and RTOs related to the whole automotive’s supply chain are included. The main focus of the cluster is to foster the cooperation of the following aspects:

• Development of human resources by facilitating the training and development of competences through a centrum of experts and cooperation with educational organizations.
• Business relationships by creating supplier-customer chains.
• Research and development activities by testing components and supporting innovations

Poland’s key national cluster with over 10 years of activity. It gathers 80 companies (mainly SMEs) with more than 6k employees, sales revenue about 500 million EUR and 4 R&D institutions. The cluster has a sound experience in technical projects, education, promotion (trade fairs and missions), R&D, and international cooperation. The main areas of interest are listed as follows:

• Injection molding processing research (priamus system for injection molding process control and monitoring)
• Designing the injection molds for plastics processing
• Manufacturing of lightweight molded parts (injection molding)
• Injection molding simulations by Cadmould software
• Mechanical recycling of thermoplastics and rubber
• Designing and manufacturing multistructure parts as fusion of 3D printing and injection molding.

The main activities of the cluster are tools, polymer processing and mechanical recycling in different type of sectors (e.g. automotive, household goods, package, medical, etc.)

It is Germany’s first and only Federal Cluster of Excellence in the field of lightweight structures that incudes top class lightweight research facilities and pilot lines. The cluster gathers more than 20 research institutes, 8 facilities, and around 100 researchers and cluster management staff. The cluster is involved in several international activities in Europe and Asia for research & development, technology transfer, and innovation management of new materials and additive manufacturing, with a special emphasis in the following:

• Plastics technologies and machine design
• Fluid lightweight systems
• Calculations, simulations and design
• Textile plastics composites
• Active materials and composite structures
• Lightweight in civil engineering
• Extrusion technologies and recycling
• Polymer and interface chemistry
• Biopolymers and natural fiber composites
• Developing consortia and applications in H2020

The Fraunhofer Lightweight Design Alliance gathers 18 institutes that can provide support in material and product design, mass production of components and structural systems, certification and operational use as well as education and training programs through the “Fraunhofer Composite Engineer”.

The main areas of research include the following aspects:

• New Materials and Composites
• Simulation and Design
• Manufacturing and Joining Technologies Relevant for Lightweight Design
• Multi-Functional Design
• Non-Destructive and Destructive Test Methods