An Approach for Sustainable Knowledge Management and Policy Upstreaming for Industry4.0 in Central Europe

The manufacturing industry is one of the major drivers and contributors to the success of the European economy. Within Central Europe, a large amount of high-value innovation know-how coming from academia and industry is clustered around the areas of advanced manufacturing and industry 4.0, two areas critical for maintaining Central Europe’s competitive edge and high employment rate. However, lack of transparency in access to knowledge on the opportunities offered by Industry4.0 concepts and applications, insufficient cooperation and linkages between innovation actors within and between regions and countries as well as missing alignment of strategies and programs on a policy level are some of the challenges that the Central Europe innovation ecosystem is currently facing. In this paper, the authors describe the conceptualisation, realisation and outcomes of a series of stakeholder engagements workshops for the community-driven development of a sustainable comprehensive policy implementation framework for the areas of advanced manufacturing and industry4.0 in Central Europe.