PAiCE - Platforms/Additive Manufacturing/Imaging/Communication/Engineering

There are countless ways in which digital innovation can be used in the industrial environment – from robots lending a hand to their human colleagues at the assembly line all the way to using vehicle parts fresh out of the 3D printer. The potential benefits are enormous: digital innovation can help improve efficiency, reduce the use of resources and create products that are tailored to the exact needs of customers. One of the key challenges today is to figure out how digital technology can be transferred from the lab to the market. This requires testing new digital technologies under real-life conditions by undertaking large-scale pilot projects. These are to yield answers to the following questions: Which technologies actually work in practice? Where is additional research and development needed? Which technologies are ready for standardisation? What new business models can be implemented and how will value be created in the future? What are the legal implications, for example in terms of liability and data protection?

In order to provide answers to these questions, the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action is carrying out 17 research projects as part of its PAiCE (Platforms/Additive Manufacturing/Imaging/Communication/Engineering) technology programme. The projects bring together more than 100 partners from the worlds of business and science, who are developing solutions spanning the fields of 3D, engineering, communication, logistics and robotics. The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action has allocated around €50 million in funding. Factoring in the financing provided by the project partners, the programme volume stands at at a total of €100 million.