List of running projects

Lithium-ion batteries (LIB) are regarded as the key technology for battery storage and are finding an ever wider first life application as traction batteries for vehicles. Their continued use in stationary or other mobile applications ("Second Life") is becoming increasingly important for reasons of sustainability, but also for economic considerations: whether in e.g. electrical energy storage systems or in industrial trucks. In addition to many advantages, however, LIB has a not inconsiderable hazard potential (e.g. fire) regardless of the area of application. To ensure the operational safety of LIB over its entire life cycle, however, there is currently a lack of sufficiently detailed understanding and knowledge. This includes the safety-relevant evaluation and qualification, but also the improved early design of automotive LIB (A-LIB) for their reliable use ("First Life"), reuse (especially after an accident) and further use in another application area ("Second Life").

EE4M addresses the increasing needs for training, re-, and upskilling of engineers in the mobility value chain from raw material to recycling and back into the loop. In recent years, the mobility value chain in Europe is significantly influenced by a multitude of hyper-dynamic factors, like changing consumer behavior, disruptive technologies, the need for decarbonization initiatives, hyperlocal mobility, etc. which leads to the fact that a continuous realignment of engineering education is indispensable for the long-term success. EE4M focuses on operations management (OM) as the main area of activity for engineers in the mobility value chain which is changing due to the two predominant drivers Industry 4.0 (smart OM) and Sustainability (sustainable OM). EE4M focuses on the professional development of smart and sustainability competences of engineers in the mobility value chain through innovative vocational educational modules supported by a transnational platform between the main drivers of the European mobility value chain (Austria, Greece, Italy, Spain). The innovation of EE4M can be explained by the fact that the entire value chain in the mobility sector serves as the basis for the empirically-based realignment of engineering education to create requirement-orientated competence profiles. During the EE4M project, more than 1,000 VET teachers/trainers, practitioners, and students from all over Europe within EQF levels 4-8 will be enabled to acquire transdisciplinary skills in the field of smart and sustainable OM through innovative teaching and learning environments. A foundation for inclusive and borderless European VET education is to be laid to produce competent and well-trained VET students, graduates/professionals, and teachers. Boosting (inter)national skills ecosystems will successfully increase European competitiveness and employability, professionalize the European VET engineering education, and contribute to economic, ecologic, and social wellbeing.

Over the last ten years many efforts have been made to transfer Industry 4.0 from research to practice. Recently, great progress has been made to introduce also SMEs to the use of Industry 4.0. The next big challenge for SMEs will be to implement the dual (or twin) transformation in sense of a digital transformation towards more intelligent manufacturing, while tackling and accelerating the sustainability transformation to enhance economically, socially and environmentally sustainable processes, factories and value chains. In this project we aim to take SMEs to this next level by developing a Strategic Roadmap for making them not only intelligent but also sustainable, resilient and human-centric. This next level of SMEs will be data and intelligence-driven, thus using available data to acquire new knowledge and to apply it for optimization purposes using artificial intelligence in a secure way. Further, a great attention is paid to how manufacturing and value chains in SMEs can become more circular, green and resilient by considering ethical, human and societal values for more socio-centred factories. In this next level of SME 5.0 factories the human will play a much more important, albeit changing, role. Besides identifying emerging future work profiles and competencies of SME employees, we will develop guidelines for rendering SME workplaces in industry more inclusive and diverse and for empowering them for increased wellbeing and attractiveness of SME jobs. The main outcome of the project is to develop and propose a Strategic Guideline and Roadmap that will facilitate SMEs in Europe and worldwide to achieve the above mentioned goals. To expand the impact and exploitation an SME 5.0 Stakeholder & Training Network will be build. The applicability of the results and guidelines is ensured through a close collaboration with non-academic partners, SMEs in the partner network and the aim to validate the results through demonstrators and case study research.