OpenMaker: Hacking Policy for the Maker Movement

As Europe decides about the next seven-year budget and considers its approach to Industry 4.0, the Maker Movement has never been more relevant. As part of the European Maker Week, the OpenMaker project is organising a High Level Policy Workshop to discuss about social and technological innovation, Industry 4.0 and digital skills for the future.

After the success of Horizon 2020, the proposed EU budget for the 2021-2027 period includes its successor, ‘Horizon Europe’. HEurope will be yet larger than H2020 (€97bn vs €70bn) and will include a specific focus on ‘Open innovation’ as one of its key pillars. The Maker movement and the OpenMaker project fit perfectly into the Commission’s view of the future of European innovation and industry.

 

The workshop hosted by Georgi Pirinski MEP will encompass a high-level session at the European Parliament on the 22nd of May, in which needs coming from below will reach the top table. It will bring together a diverse group of stakeholders with a common, ambitious goal: drive sustainable change through innovation to ultimately relaunch the European manufacturing industry.

The event will showcase four successful examples of partnerships between makers and manufacturers. These maker-manufacturer partnerships are currently developing cutting-edge technical solutions to break down barriers to social change.

This hands-on introduction will inspire a debate about the European Policies of the future. It will shed light on the ambitions and needs of the emerging open manufacturing industry and the socially-oriented and tech-driven spirit of the maker movement. All the recommendations will be gathered into a policy manifesto that will be shared with top-level policymakers in Brussels.

Luisa De Amicis, COO at PlusValue and Coordinator at OpenMaker, explained: “Building on last year’s success, we wanted to be even more ambitious for this year’s edition and organise a heavily policy-focussed and yet pragmatic event. The event largely draws upon the successful experience of our Open Call for Proposals during the past year, in which together with the 21 winners of the call we piloted new business models for a more sustainable future. We are fully confident that this can set a new exciting trend and that there are many policy lessons to be learnt from it.”

The workshop on the 22^nd of May will be a unique opportunity to engage in a forward-thinking conversation with policy-makers, academics, innovators and visionaries from the Maker Movement. The event will gather around 50 high-calibre selected participants. We will imagine and test a new framework for Industry 4.0 and make concrete propositions for the future.