Cardiff Civic Centre

Building on the outstanding success of its predecessors of 2007 and 2008, the Manufacturing in FP7 Conference aims to provide indepth information about the manufacturing topics addressed in both Theme 3 (Information and Communication Technologies - ICT) and Theme 4 (Nanosciences, Nanotechnologies, Materials and new Production Technologies - NMP) of the European Union's 7th Framework Programme, FP7 which will run for seven years starting 1 January 2007. FP7 is designed to build on the achievements of its predecessor, FP6 towards the creation of the European Research Area, and carry it further towards the development of the knowledge economy and society in Europe.

Senior Officers from the European Commission will give presentations focusing on the opportunities provided by the FP7 programme to help EU manufacturing industry prosper in a competitive global market. The EC Officers and invited experts on FP7 will provide practical advice including consultation sessions that would help proposers maximise their chances of success when responding to relevant Calls.

Participants from all over Europe will have the opportunity during the Conference to network, discuss, and finalise consortia for preparing research proposals in response to the 3rd NMP and 4th ICT Calls for Proposals (published at the end of November 2008).

Day 2 of the conference will also provide information about the UK Technology Strategy Board - High Value Manufacturing call for proposals. The call is looking to support projects which induce a step change in competitiveness and focuses on 4 areas: Products, Production Processes, Service Systems and Value Systems.

An Information leaflet, for delegates containing venue information, maps and the conference programme is now available.

The Manufacturing in FP7 Conference is organised jointly by I*PROMS Network of Excellence (NoE), Enterprise Europe Network Wales, the 4M Network of Excellence and the LAUNCH-MICRO Integrated Project. The event is sponsored by the European Commission, the Welsh Assembly Government and the Manufacturing Engineering Centre (MEC), Cardiff University, UK - Co-ordinator of I*PROMS. The Conference is also supported by UK FP7 NCP, the European Manufuture Platform, the Working Group on Micro- and NanoManufacturing (MINAM), the MicroSapient Project.