The six consortium partners involved with euspen for this European project are 

The German Society of Applied Optics (“Deutschen Gesellschaft für angewandte Optik e.V.”, DGaO) is a registered nonprofit association. Since its foundation in 1923, the DGaO is devoted to stimulating the interdisciplinary exchange between applied research and industry in optics and photonics. With an annual turnover approaching 40 billion Euros and significant growth rates, optical technologies are one of the most important technological areas for the German economy. Being of outstanding importance as enabling technology for the next generation of globally linked industrial production, optical solutions will further gain importance. At the same time digitalization is also becoming more and more part in integrated optical solutions, e.g. for digital image processing or wavefront sensing. In this context, training and education as well as the provision of highly trained scientists and workers is becoming increasingly challenging. DGaO is thus specifically focusing on alluring and supporting young students at the graduate and undergraduate level as well as on establishing a national and international network for the benefit of its members and the future development of optical technologies in general.

Being a voluntary, non-profit organization, the DGaO has a total of app. 600 members with a significant number of corporate members. The DGaO is supported by an office with a prat time secretary and by numerous scientists from industry and academia who are volunteering to help promoting the organization and applied optical science. The board of the DGaO consists of an equal distribution of experts from academia as well as industry. In order to strengthen the link between industry and universities, the president of the organization is elected biannually with a background alternating between industry and university.

Optics and Photonics in Germany clearly exhibit numerous best practice examples for the successful transfer of new technologies into innovative products and applications in relatively short time. DGaO is devoted to further improve this by connecting people from science and industry. Some examples of innovative technologies and approaches may demonstrate this close link between science and industry:

  • Innovative freeform, diffractive and even holographic optical elements enable compact systems and have become standard elements in modern applications, from illumination optics, integrated optical sensors to EUV lithography optics.
  • Solid state light sources and organic LEDs have not only revolutionized lighting and display applications. Their characteristics rather help to further optimize optical instruments e.g. for imaging, sensing, metrology and quality control.
  • Laser sources with optimized output power, ultra-short pulse length or specifically optimized spectra can be used as unique tools for production, metrology, biomedicine, sensing as well as optical manipulation and innovative imaging.
  • In combination with the tremendous potential of digital image recording and data processing, these new light sources trigger innovations throughout the industrial and consumer market.

Dutch Society for Precision Engineering (DSPE) actively supports interaction and post graduate training and development in the field of precision engineering. Available commercial training courses are being certified on content and quality in close cooperation with the academic world. Each training course entitles the student to a number of credit points. When a student has followed sufficient training courses, he or she receives the formal title of Certified Precision Engineer at either the bronze, silver or gold level. When a gap in commercially available training courses is identified, DSPE activity stimulates the development of the required training course to fill that gap. In the context of Erasmus+ the European cooperation on training is the targeted. Since the formation of the VET training course on 2008 there has been an annual run rate of 300 certificates issues across a total of 25 VET course subjects. The success and increased demanded for the accredited courses held within the Netherlands resulted in DSPE approaching EUSPEN to open out the certification of course across Europe.

DTU (founded in 1829) is ranked as one of the foremost technical universities in Europe, continues to set new records in the number of publications, and persistently increase and develop partnerships with industry, and assignments accomplished by DTU’s public sector consultancy. DTU has international educational exchange programmes with over 200 universities around the globe and enjoys close research collaborations with its partners in addition to building research and educational programs in Nordic Five Tech, the Euro Tech Universities-Excellence in Science and Tech., Nanyang (Singapore), KAIST (S. Korea).

The educational offer at DTU includes 17 BEng programmes, 20 BSc Eng programmes, 29 MSc Eng programmes (the majority of which have joint international study tracks) and 20 PhD Schools. DTU is the largest technical university in the Northern Europe with more than 11.000 master and bachelor students (14% international students) and more than 1300 PhD students (nearly 60% international fellows). The total staff employed by DTU (full-time equivalent) counts 6000 persons of which 3400 scientific staff and 2600 technical and administrative staff.

DTU is strongly devoted to foster innovation through patents, projects and start-ups. In 2017 DTU generated 127 notification of inventions, registered 47 patents, participated in 1367 projects with industry and its students and employees initiated 60 start-up companies.

The Department of Mechanical Engineering at DTU offers education, research and innovation within manufacturing engineering, solid and fluid mechanics, material science, process technology, design of physical products, knowledge and services. The Department contributes to both basic and higher levels of instruction and is responsible for essential parts of the Mechanical Engineering line of the BSc program, and for coordination of the preliminary four-semester programs in Mechanical Engineering and Energy Technology and of the study fields of Energy and of Design and Mechanics for the MSc program at DTU.

Within the Department, the Section for Manufacturing Engineering performs theoretical, numerical, and experimental research in the field of manufacturing engineering. The research objective is to promote Precision Manufacturing to meet performance, durability, reliability, size, and cost requirements of modern products. The focus is on adopting the industry 4.0 framework in both teaching and research. The academic staff of the Section consists of internationally recognized experts in the fields of Precision Manufacturing, Micro Manufacturing and Metrology, with 6 CIRP members. Research in the Section is carried out in close collaboration with industry through National and European research projects as well as dedicated collaborations through industrial PhD or Post Doc projects.

The Section organizes since 2006 the DTU PhD Summer School on Micro Manufacturing and Development of Micromechanical Systems and since 2012 the PhD Summer School on Measurement Uncertainty Estimation using Statistical Methods.

KU Leuven boasts a rich tradition of education and research that dates back six centuries. The university’s basic research orientation has always been and will remain fundamental research. At the same time, the university remains vigilantly open to contemporary cultural, economic and industrial realities, as well as to the community’s needs and expectations. From a basis of social responsibility and scientific expertise, KU Leuven provides high-quality, comprehensive health care, including
specialised tertiary care, in its University Hospitals. In doing so it strives toward optimum accessibility and respect for all patients.

KU Leuven is currently by far the largest university in Belgium in terms of research funding and expenditure (EUR 475 million in 2017), and is a charter member of LERU. KU Leuven conducts fundamental and applied research in all academic disciplines with a clear international orientation. In the Times Higher Education ranking KU Leuven is ranked as the 21st European university, while in the Reuters Top 100 of the World’s most innovative institutions, KU Leuven is listed as the first European university.

In Horizon 2020, KU Leuven currently has been approved more than 400 projects and is ranked fifth HES institution with regard to number of signed grants (353). KU Leuven takes up the 11th place of European HES institutions hosting ERC grants (as first legal signatories of the grant agreement). To date, the over 100 ERC grants involving KU Leuven researchers, (including affiliates with VIB and IMEC) confirm that KU Leuven is a breeding ground and attractive destination for the world’s best
researchers. The success in the FP7 and Horizon 2020 Marie Sklodowska Curie Actions is a manifestation of the three pillars of KU Leuven: research, education and service to society. In Horizon 2020, we are involved in 75 Innovative Training Networks, ranking us first institution of higher education with regard to number of MSCA-ITNs. In addition, we are hosting 47 MSCA Individual Fellows.

KU Leuven employs 7,296 researchers on its academic staff (2017). To strengthen international collaboration, KU Leuven has its own international research fellowship programme and supports international scholars in international funding applications. KU Leuven Research & Development (LRD) is the technology transfer office (TTO) of the KU Leuven. Since 1972 a multidisciplinary team of experts guides researchers in their interaction with industry and society, and the valorisation of
their research results (124 spin offs, …) .  In line with the general mission of the university, the mission of Mechanical Engineering Department at the Engineering Faculty is threefold: education, research, and service to the industry and to the
society at large. As for education, the department is responsible for 6 options within the mechanical engineering study programme. One option concentrates on production techniques and production management, the other deals with machine design and mechatronics. The education in both options benefits from a strong interaction with research. This guarantees a high quality of education and an up-to-date curriculum.

The department carries out research in the areas of production engineering, machine design and mechatronics. More specifically, the research themes include new production processes, CAD/CAM/CAPP, assembly automation, dimensional metrology and reverse engineering, machine and instrument design, structural dynamics and acoustics, motion control, programming and control of robots and intelligent machines, and life cycle engineering. We pursue a balance between basic or
long-term research on the one hand, which is vital in order to maintain an advanced scientific level, Call 2019 Round 1 KA2 – Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices KA202 – Strategic Partnerships for vocational education and training FormId KA202-415053C9 Deadline (Brussels Time) 21 Mar 2019 12:00:00 EN 28 / 188 and applied or short-term research on the other hand, which is probably the most important mission of an engineering research laboratory. Over the years the department has gained a lot of expertise in each of these areas, and has acquired or built advanced equipment and software. Know-how and infrastructure are exploited in the third component of the mission, service to the industry, in which tailored solutions are pursued or specific assistance is offered in the framework of bilateral projects, or consulting. The research of the Micro- and Precision Engineering group led by Prof. Dominiek Reynaerts is focused on three fields: the development of micro-systems, micro-nano manufacturing, covering both machining processes and machine design and the development of medical
instruments.

The University of Huddersfield (UoH) was founded in 1992 form its former designation as a polytechnic. University of Huddersfield’s Centre for Precision Technologies has an unrivalled track record of world-class precision engineering/metrology research (e.g. ERC Frontier Programme: Surfund 2009-2015) and delivering large research programmes (e.g. FP7 Nanotechnology: NanoMend 2011-2015) and was awarded 4* REF 2014 for Impact for the development of its software for machine tool error compensation. This software having been implemented at such prestigious organisations as Rolls Royce Aero Engines and BAE Systems. The CPT formerly hosted the UK’s EPSRC Innovation Manufacturing Centre (EP/I033424/1, 2011-2017) and currently hosts the EPSRC Advanced Metrology Hub (EP/P006930/1, 2017-2024).

Key personnel within the CPT have internationally recognised expertise in: machine tool technology, surface metrology,
mathematics for metrology, instrumentation and ultra-precision manufacture. The CPT currently host both the Royal Academy of Engineering/Renishaw Chair in Precision Metrology and The Taylor Hobson Chair in Computational Metrology. The CPT has a complement of 50+ staff and researchers and houses state-of-the-art facilities comprising 2500 m2 of workshop area for precision manufacturing (including new multi axis CNC machines) and a Dimensional Metrology Lab (including six large-volume high precision CMMs and roundness instruments from: Zeiss, Nikon and Taylor Hobson). Of significance within the UK university sector the CPT possesses a high specification environmentally controlled clean room (Class 10,000) and temperature controlled (+/- 0.5º) laboratories ‘Nanolab’ (376m2) including: (i) Surface Nanometrology Lab (tactile, scanning probe
microscopes and interferometers) with novel anti-vibration technology and (ii) an Ultra-Precision Machining Cell (Nanoform250 Ultragrind and Zeeko IRP-200/A11). The CPT also has an Advanced Optical Lab specially designed for developing embedded optical instrumentation research, and recently expanded to include a developmental autonomous optical manufacturing unit based at the STFC Daresbury Laboratory which is renowned for its world-leading scientific research in accelerator science, bio-medicine, materials, engineering and computational science. The Optical manufacturing facility comprises bespoke polishing machines (Zeeko IR 600) robotic part handling and AI based process control. In terms of knowledge transfer the CPT has a history of developing training materials both on line and as full attendance courses. These cover areas such as Co-ordinate metrology, machine tool calibration and surface metrology. In short, the facilities at CPT are widely acknowledged as being among of the best in Europe and are certainly unique in the UK.

The University of Padua, founded in 1222, is ranked as the first large Italian University for the quality of its research results according to the first ever two reports issued by the National Research Assessment Committee (ANVUR). Based on the number of citations of articles and publications by its researchers (source: ISI), the University of Padua ranks among the top three Italian universities for total impact index, productivity index, and presence index. Research at Padova is also attracting
more and more public and private funding. Some 5.2% of the resources that the Italian State allocates to scientific projects of national importance are awarded to Researchers at the University of Padua, while financing from the European Union for projects in various departments and research centres at the university has grown by 40% over the last three years. Further confirmation of the university ability to contribute to the cultural development and economic growth of the region comes
from the number of ongoing contracts with public and private bodies for experimental activities. Commercial research services alone account for 32% of the income of the university departments.

The institution consists of 32 Departments that offer 100 first cycle degree courses, 80 second cycle degree courses, 70 Short specialization degree courses, 65 specialization schools (mostly medical ones), a School of Excellence (Scuola Galileiana di Studi Superiori) and over 76 different doctoral programmes.

It is one of the most important higher education institution in Italy with more than sixty thousand students (40000 at bachelor level, 20000 at master level and 1500 at doctoral level), 230 post-doc researchers, 2300 members of the teaching staff and 2300 members of the administrative staff. At the School of Engineering (www.ing.unipd.it), the Precision Manufacturing Engineering research group (www.labtesi.dii.unipd.it) includes the Laboratory of Industrial and Geometrical Metrology, which has a world-class reputation for research in coordinate metrology, including computed tomography. The Group’s scientific staff consists of about thirty researchers, including professors, assistant professors, research assistants and Ph.D. students. The planned project activities will benefit from the strong collaboration between the Precision Manufacturing Engineering research group and a number of industrial companies in both the automotive and general industry where precision mechanics, metal forming, polymers processing and assembly processes are applied.  Courses are offered at different levels: university courses in various engineering curricula, master and doctoral courses. Vocational education and training is offered for both private manufacturing
companies and unemployed individuals. Some parts of the courses are delivered using eLearning based concepts.

The University has a central International Office which provides informative and management support for international projects. At department level, the Research Office provides support for administration and reporting as well as for contracts with appointed personnel and subcontracted services.

 

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