Technology and application Meta-Roadmap

Public and private RDI efforts should concentrate on the progressive substitution of critical raw materials, hazardous substances and the recycling of all materials, in general, for the benefit of citizens and the environment. Research organisation, Academia, education and industry should collaborate in establishing centres for knowledge transfer of best practice into all relevant sectors and domains, including the general public. They should proceed in close international cooperation, aligned with the objectives of the Horizon Europe and the Digital Europe Programmes, and based on additional private investment. 

RIA and IA actions would be appropriate in order to tackle technological challenges associated to designing eco-friendly products and processes to support this progressive substitution inside the different classes of materials: basic ‘raw’ materials; artificial materials; and industrially produced/processed materials (as defined by EMCC). Progressive substitution should be envisioned from a product eco-design standpoint, without compromising products performance, market emergence and eventual economic value. Alignment with user expectations and market needs must be considered. In addition, cross-fertilisation and transferability across electronics sectors and functionalities have to be taken into account. 

Industry, especially producing and manufacturing enterprises should follow strictly the commonly accepted regulatory and standardisation measures to better address user perspective and achieve broad acceptance. There is a need to better address the user perspective, specifically “acceptance”, flanked by correlated regulatory and standardisation measures to set a legal framework for the development, testing and use of lower footprint electronics as well as novel uses of electronics enabling a more circular economy, in general. This could be the base for a generally accepted and adopted set of successive updates of policies and standards currently in place, or even new measures, to be designed in priority around product cases and usage of acknowledged high environmental footprint but with high economic impacts. 

CSA, RIA and IA actions would be appropriate in order (1) to mobilise all necessary EU stakeholders to prepare the field for a radical change in policies & standardisation wherever relevant and urgent (CSA); (2) to design future measures & recommendations towards policies and standardisation bodies, including product eco-design, for emerging products & uses (RIA); and (3) update existing policy framework and standardisation on products & uses about to reach their markets (IA). 

Public and private R&D effort should concentrate on edge vs cloud computing, calculation resources, latency and storage requirements. Manufacturing, suppliers, marketeers & service providers for e.g. virtual reality techniques will be impacted. 

• RIA and IA actions would be appropriate in order to (1) tackle technological challenges (2) consider alignment with user expectations and market needs and (3) cooperate with HEU / DEP, incl. Areas of Intervention from the clusters in pillar 2. 

• CSA actions would be appropriate to mobilise all necessary EU stakeholders to prepare the field for a change in paradigm in policies & standardisation wherever relevant and urgent. 

Public and private R&D effort should concentrate on the high system / product integration level (energy vector, energy scale, reliability, lifetime & cost) and on multi-energy harvesting integration opportunities. 

• RIA and IA actions would be appropriate in order to (1) tackle technological challenges (2) consider alignment with user expectations and market needs, e.g. energy autonomy for remote or low-accessibility needs and to (3) cooperate with HEU / DEP, incl. Areas of Intervention from the clusters in pillar 2. Manufacturing, suppliers, marketers & service providers need to increase competitive position. 

• INFRA actions would be appropriate for Research organisation, Academia, education and industry cooperation in establishing centres for knowledge transfer of best practice into all relevant sectors and domains, including the general public. 

Public and private R&D efforts should concentrate on the selection of the best energy storage technology for a given application with high system / product integration level (storage capacity, energy scale, low power management, reliability, lifetime & cost) and on safety and recyclability challenges. 

• RIA and IA actions would be appropriate in order to 1) tackle technological challenges (2) align with user expectations and market needs, e.g. energy autonomy for remote or low-accessibility needs, (3) to cooperate with HEU / DEP, incl. Areas of Intervention from the clusters in pillar 2. Manufacturing, suppliers, marketers & service providers need to increase their competitive position. 

Public and private R&D effort should concentrate on new material investigation for power electronics by guaranteeing high reliability of power components, converters design (topology, selection of the active power components, sizing of passive components) and specifications (increase the switching frequency/speed). 

• RIA and IA actions would be appropriate in order to (1) tackle technological challenges (2) align with user expectations and market needs, and (3) cooperate with HEU / DEP, incl. Areas of Intervention from the clusters in pillar 2. 

• INFRA actions would be appropriate to match with EU electronics strategy to develop sector for power components. 

• CSA actions would be appropriate to mobilise all necessary EU stakeholders to prepare the field for a change in paradigm in policies & standardisation wherever relevant and urgent. They should proceed in close international cooperation, aligned with the objectives of the Horizon Europe and the Digital Europe Programme, and based on additional private investment. 

Public and private R&D effort should concentrate on Smart solutions combining monitoring, control and diagnostics for optimal operation of energy systems and smart grids. 

They should concentrate on Digital Twin and Artificial Intelligence for the development of e.g. optimal predictive control algorithms; production and consumption power forecasting; diagnostic/prognostic algorithms; cloud solutions. 

There is a need to develop new products and software solutions for optimal operation of grids (mix planning (hydrogen, energy harvesting), dynamic reconfiguration, frequency/voltage regulations…) and for grid reliability / robustness in a context with high share of intermittent generation. 

• RIA and IA actions would be appropriate to (1) tackle technological challenges, (2) align with user expectations and market needs, (3) cooperate with HEU / DEP, incl. Areas of Intervention from the clusters in pillar 2. 

• INFRA actions would be appropriate to match with EU electronics strategy to be developed e.g. in smart grid. 

• CSA actions would be appropriate to mobilise all necessary EU stakeholders to prepare the field for a change in paradigm in policies & standardisation wherever relevant and urgent. 

Public and private R&D efforts should concentrate on novel sensors and multisensor systems that recognise and react on quickly changing situations. 

• RIA and IA actions would be appropriate in order (1) to tackle technological challenges and (2) to consider alignment with user expectations and market needs. 

• CSA actions would be appropriate to mobilise cross-fertilisation and transferability across electronics sectors and functionalities. 

Multipliers and intermediaries like Clusters, Associations, Chambers or Consultants should take the lead in a public discussion about AI-related liability issues with the stakeholders (industry, academia, public authorities etc.). 

CSA actions would be appropriate to better address the user perspective, specifically “acceptance”, flanked by correlated regulatory and standardisation measures to set a legal framework for the development, testing and use of autonomously operating machines. This could be the base for a generally accepted and adopted set of successive autonomy levels (as already established for self-driving cars) for the future autonomous operation of any plant, machinery or equipment 

Industry, especially producing and manufacturing enterprises should improve suitability for daily use of AI in general and especially edge AI supporting the autonomous operation at the currently up-to-date autonomy levels 1 and 2. 

• RIA and IA actions would be appropriate in order (1) to better address user perspective, especially user needs and user friendliness (2) to achieve broad acceptance / adoption (3) to optimise the cost / benefit balance and (4) to improve regulatory or standardisation measures. 

Research organisations, Academia, education and training centres should cooperate in establishing centres for knowledge transfer of best practice into all relevant sectors and domains, including the general public. 

In parallel the establishment of Living Labs is necessary to provide manifold “test before invest” possibilities as already proven successfully in the pan-European DIH-network. 

• RIA, IA and CSA actions would be appropriate, flanked by public and private investments in infrastructure 

The addressed stakeholders should proceed in close international cooperation, aligned with the objectives of the Horizon Europe and the Digital Europe Programme, and based on additional Public-Private-Partnership. 

Next generation sensors need to be developed going beyond the sensing algorithm, including multi-model, AI, proximity. There are 2 major topics in this subject: 

1. Novel sensors that go beyond the algorithm of existing sensors. (TRL 3-5) 

2. Upscaling and integrating novel sensors and adjust these to the automotive specifications. (TRL6-7) 

Research organisation, Academia, education and industry should provide knowledge transfer of best practice into all relevant sectors and domains, including the general public. They should proceed in close international cooperation, aligned with the objectives of the Horizon Europe and the Digital Europe Programme, and based on additional private investment. 

Primary target: 

• For topic 1 (low TRL), this can be addressed through Research and innovation actions (RIA), 

• for topic 2 (high TRL), Innovation Actions (IA) would be appropriate, 

in order to tackle technological challenges associated to designing upscaling and low TRL products and processes to support this progressive substitution inside the different classes of materials. 

High density monitoring for fast changing conditions in situation based awareness (big data sensing) 

Sensor networks are set up including large area monitoring of e.g. weather conditions, air quality, in a very detailed manner. This is requiring sensors deployed in large numbers (e.g. 1.000.000 sensors) and large area (e.g. remote fatigue monitoring in hard to reach equipment). Both set ups require novel sensors and production methods thereof. Flexible electronics and smart systems can be the technologies to provide this. 

RIA and IA actions would be appropriate in order to mobilise all necessary EU stakeholders to prepare the European manufacturing and sensor deployment. 

Beyond algorithms sensor development (re-active towards pro-active, AI, product integration) 

New sensors are needed to monitor persons’ health and support the transition from monitoring to prediction and prevention. Thereto on-body sensors are needed that are either applied to the skin or integrated in wearables like clothing. The sensors need to be improved and standardised, thus integrating these in existing products. 

RIA and IA actions would be appropriate in order (1) to mobilise all necessary EU stakeholders to prepare the European manufacturing and (2) allow industrial uptake of developed technologies. 

Large area, high density monitoring sensing platforms 

New sensors are needed to monitor fast changing conditions, people management, crowd control etc. following e.g. the smart cities paradigm. These sensors, integrated in products that act in an autonomous matter, remote and hard to reach areas, are exploited in large numbers. The sensing systems are mutually connected, forming sensor swarms requiring a new approach/ technology platform for data storage and communication. 

Primary target: 

• For topic 1 (low TRL), this can be addressed through Research and innovation actions (RIA), 

• for topic 2 (high TRL), Innovation Actions (IA) would be appropriate, 

in order to tackle technological challenges associated to designing upscaling and low TRL products and processes to support this progressive substitution inside the different classes of materials. 

Functional Electronics being characterised by an increasing integration of functionalities, but also by the use of new substrates and materials, incl. those compatible with circular strategies, and having lower environmental impact, a new challenge is arising around the reliability of Functional Electronics. Research and Innovation Actions and potentially testbeds including Characterisation and Testing are needed, in order to meet the requirements of demanding applications, e.g. in healthcare, transportation, production, energy. Data is particularly needed in order to be able to model and simulate the behaviour of Functional Electronics in real environment and usage. This will contribute to improve maintenance and life-time of Functional Electronics based products. 

The 5E project developed a methodology to identify sweet spots at the interface of the three areas of electronics, namely Nanoelectronics, Flexible, Organic and Printed Electronics, and Electronic Smart Systems. However, in the course of the project it became clear that reducing the methodology to these three areas would be too restrictive, because the shift to functionalities opens up the field to a broader range of technological areas. 

As a consequence, the concept for Functional Electronics needs further development through methodologies, strategies and consultations. Furthermore, engaging with communities representing other emerging technologies is paramount to foster the innovation potential of digital technologies. A Coordination and Support Action covering these aspects and adding further circles to the 5E model, for instance photonics, biotechnologies or quantum technologies, would therefore be needed in the short term.