The Commission announced today the three finalists of the first Industry 5.0 Award. The award recognises EU-funded projects whose results make European industry more resilient, sustainable, and human-centric. The projects selected are: RAMP-PV, SECOIIA and SHERLOCK. The winner will be announced during the R&I Days 2022 on 28 September.

The projects represent a variety of sectors, and are coordinated by different kinds of entities, including a university, a start-up and a major European industry player.

RAMP-PV has developed a green recycling process to up-cycle high quality raw materials (such as silicon and silver) from industrially generated photo-voltaic waste. In addition to the  environmental benefits, the project helps reduce the dependence of European industry on raw materials and also aims to minimise the health-related risks for its workers.

SECOIIA focuses on cybersecurity, which is an important component of industry’s resilience in the digital age. The project develops solutions for data-driven circular economic business models. It contributes to workers’ health, safety and wellbeing by demonstrating safe and secure human-robot interactions in non-segregated spaces.

SHERLOCK develops human-centric solutions by improving working conditions and ergonomics, reducing physical and cognitive load, thereby increasing the attractiveness of industry. It reduces the environmental footprint of the production process by increasing efficiency and reducing waste. The project develops collaborative robots that can be reconfigured, which leads to greater flexibility, and therefore resilience.

In total nearly 60 applications were evaluated by a high-level independent jury from industry, civil society, social partners, and academia.

The winner will receive communication support from the European Commission, including the preparation of a promotional video, social media publicity through Commission channels and an article in the Horizon Magazine.

The Industry 5.0 Award aims to highlight EU-funded projects whose results make European industry more resilient, sustainable, and human-centric. It contributes to raising awareness, taking stock of the implementation of Industry 5.0 in research and innovation programmes, and developing the framework moving forward. The award has been prepared in collaboration with European Factories of the Future Research Association (EFFRA) and industrial platform ManuFUTURE. To be eligible, projects must have had obtained funding from Horizon 2020, Horizon Europe or the European Institute of Innovation and Technology, the start date of the project must be after 31 August 2018, and the projects should clearly be applicable in industry.

Industry 5.0 provides a vision of the future of European industry as an engine for systemic transformation. It aims to achieve societal goals beyond jobs and growth, to become a resilient provider of prosperity that can anticipate future challenges, by making production more sustainable and placing the wellbeing of the industry worker at the centre of the production process.

Source: European Commission I Research and Innovation (https://bit.ly/3P2uCOl)