KET study

The purpose of this study was to assess the current scope, intensity of and possible gaps in the cooperation between the leading European Technology Centres of Excellence (higher education / academic and technology research centres) active in six major areas of Key Enabling Technologies, KETs (i.e. micro-/nanoelectronics, nanotechnology, photonics, advanced materials, industrial biotechnology and advanced manufacturing technologies) and identify potential policy actions to foster their collaboration to promote innovation.

The study captures and analyses existing situation, identify potentialities, as well as existing gaps in the current collaboration framework between KETs TCE and suggest new routes for strengthening sustainable collaboration, as well as schemes which could support collaboration. The study utilizes several well-targeted tools (i.e. on-line survey, data analysis, case studies, workshops, study visits) to fuel a gap analysis that will identify potential mismatch between the demand (industry/SME needs) and supply side (the type of equipment/services/trainings offered by KET TCEs at pan-European level) so as to provide recommendations to the European Commission on how to foster their collaboration and promote innovation.

Last but not least, the study was to develop an inventory of the existing leading KET TCEs situated in EU-28 Member States. The inventory became available to the public via a map-based visualization tool, accessible through the dedicated web portal of the study to all interested stakeholders at international level.