EFFRA Working Groups

EFFRA is structuring its work on high-priority research and innovation topics in Working Groups (WGs). EFFRA currently has 6 Working Groups running, destined for EFFRA members only, with the following thematic focuses:

• WG1: Productive and flexible manufacturing
• WG2: Circularity; re-manufacturing; circular products
• WG3: Human: Skills, Tools, and AI
• WG4: Manufacturing needs of the energy sectors
• WG5: Manufacturing needs of the transport sectors
• WG6: Exploitation of research results

WG1: Productive and flexible manufacturing

R&I brief: Productive and Flexible Manufacturing

The EFFRA Working Group 1 on Productive and Flexible Manufacturing has developed an R&I Brief that positions productivity and flexibility as central to Europe’s future manufacturing competitiveness, sustainability, and strategic autonomy. The Brief synthesises the current industrial context, identifies key challenges, and defines R&I priorities up to 2040 to support FP10, the Made in Europe Partnership, and related European frameworks.

The Productivity WG highlights the shift towards personalised, circular, and multi-variant products, requiring adaptive, digitally integrated production systems. It sets out priorities around trustworthy AI, advanced robotics, digital twins, circular manufacturing, and human-centred innovation, supported by cross-cutting enablers such as skills, infrastructures, and interoperability. The Brief also provides concrete recommendations for FP10, including targeted missions, demonstrators, and SME-focused measures.

Overall, the work of the Productivity WG underlines that manufacturing productivity today is defined by adaptability, resilience, and sustainability. By coordinating R&I actions that connect technology, policy, and people, Europe can lead globally in flexible, high-performance, and clean manufacturing systems.

WG2: Circularity; re-manufacturing; circular products

R&I Brief: Circularity as a Driver of Resilience and Competitiveness

The EFFRA Circularity Working Group has developed a White Paper that positions circularity as a core driver of Europe’s industrial competitiveness, resilience, and net-zero ambitions. The document provides a critical assessment of the current state of European manufacturing, highlighting persistent linear practices, recycling-heavy but reuse-light systems, fragmented reverse logistics, and R&I funding models that still prioritise vertical silos over systemic circular solutions.

The WG sets out a clear vision for 2028–2032, calling for a shift from circular pilots at the margins to advanced circular strategies as the default model for European manufacturing. Central to this vision are high-value “R-strategies” (reuse, remanufacturing, refurbishment), OEM-led remanufacturing embedded in core business models, factories retooled for disassembly and reintegration, and operational digital product passports and data frameworks enabling high-retention loops.

The White Paper provides concrete R&I and policy recommendations, including making FP10 a true circular economy agenda, linking funding to verified life extension and service revenues, deploying regional reverse-logistics hubs, developing EU-wide circularity indicators, and embedding circular skills and micro-credentials across manufacturing. Overall, the work of the Circularity WG positions Europe to move from linear survival to circular competitiveness, establishing a single circular market and global leadership in advanced circular manufacturing.

WG3: Human: Skills, Tools and AI

R&I Paper Human-Centric Manufacturing: Tools, Skills and AI

The Human-Centric Manufacturing Working Group has developed an R&I Brief that sets out a clear strategic direction for placing people at the core of Europe’s industrial transformation. The Brief provides guidance for policymakers, industry, research organisations, and social partners on how human-centricity can become a decisive lever for Europe’s competitiveness, resilience, and social sustainability in the context of digitalisation, the green transition, and demographic change.

The WG emphasises that human-centric manufacturing goes beyond technology deployment, ensuring that AI, automation, and digital tools augment human capabilities, improve job quality, skills, inclusion, and workplace well-being, and build trust in new technologies. It identifies key challenges and needs across workforce empowerment and skills, human-technology collaboration, organisational and cultural transformation, and enabling policy and standards.

Through targeted R&I priorities, the WG highlights actions to operationalise human-centricity at scale, including SME-ready solutions, lifelong learning systems, responsible AI, and collaborative ecosystems. Overall, the work of the Human-Centric Manufacturing WG positions Europe to lead globally by demonstrating that productivity, innovation, sustainability, and social progress can be mutually reinforcing when people are placed at the heart of industrial transformation.

WG4: Manufacturing needs of the energy sectors

R&I Brief: Manufacturing for Clean Energy Transition

The EFFRA Working Group on Manufacturing for the Clean Energy Transition has developed an R&I Brief that positions manufacturing as a central enabler of Europe’s energy transition, competitiveness, and strategic sovereignty. The Brief aligns advanced manufacturing research and innovation with Europe’s climate neutrality goals for 2030 and 2050, as well as with key EU initiatives such as the Clean Industrial Deal and the Net-Zero Industry Act.

The WG addresses manufacturing from a dual perspective: enabling the large-scale, competitive production of clean energy technologies, and transforming manufacturing itself into a more energy-efficient, low-carbon, and digitally enabled sector. It highlights Europe’s current gap between technological leadership in clean energy innovation and its weaker position in industrial-scale manufacturing, particularly in areas such as photovoltaics, batteries, and emerging net-zero technologies.

The Brief identifies short-, medium-, and long-term challenges and R&I priorities, including advanced and automated manufacturing processes, digital and data infrastructures, remanufacturing, energy-efficient and net-zero factories, standards, skills, and modular system concepts. It also stresses the importance of regional ecosystems, cross-sector integration, and policy alignment at the EU and national levels.

Overall, the work of the WG underlines that manufacturing for the clean energy transition is not only about producing technologies, but about redefining Europe’s industrial base. By strengthening manufacturing capabilities, reducing industrial energy footprints, and accelerating scale-up, Europe can secure a clean, resilient, and globally competitive energy system.

WG 5: Manufacturing needs of the Transport:

R&I Brief: Transport

The EFFRA Thematic Working Group on Manufacturing for Transport has developed a policy brief that provides a comprehensive assessment of the current state, challenges, and research and innovation priorities for Europe’s transport manufacturing sector. The Brief supports the European Commission and key stakeholders in defining strategic actions to strengthen Europe’s competitiveness, sustainability, and technological leadership across transport domains.

The WG highlights the profound transformation of transport manufacturing driven by digitalisation, sustainability targets, and global competition. It identifies critical gaps in the uptake of digital technologies, the scalability of circular manufacturing practices, and the ability to compete with rapidly advancing global players, while underlining the strategic importance of maintaining leadership in aerospace and closing gaps in automotive and emerging mobility sectors.

The Brief adopts a holistic perspective, integrating sustainability, technological, industrial, and societal dimensions. It sets out R&I priorities spanning innovative and energy-efficient production methods, circular business models, advanced materials and lightweight structures, digital twins and XR-enabled collaboration, human-centric automation, and workforce upskilling. Through this work, the Transport Manufacturing WG positions manufacturing as a key enabler of climate-neutral, competitive, and socially accepted transport systems, and calls for coordinated action to future-proof Europe’s transport manufacturing base.

WG6: Exploitation of research results

R&I brief: Exploitation of research results

The EFFRA Working Group on Dissemination and Exploitation of R&I Results has developed an R&I Brief addressing one of Europe’s most critical challenges: turning high-quality manufacturing research and innovation outcomes into widespread industrial uptake and tangible socio-economic impact. The Brief positions effective dissemination and exploitation as strategic levers for strengthening Europe’s competitiveness, resilience, and strategic autonomy, particularly for SMEs across industrial value chains.

The WG highlights persistent structural barriers that limit impact, including late or weak integration of exploitation strategies in R&I projects, fragmented knowledge transfer models, inconsistent IP management, and dissemination tools that are poorly aligned with industry’s absorption capacity. Despite progress in awareness, platforms, and early exploitation planning, many promising results still fail to move beyond prototypes due to gaps in maturation, validation, standardisation, financing, and post-project continuity.

The Brief calls for a shift in mindset across the R&I ecosystem: from treating exploitation as a final project activity to embedding it as a core driver from project design through post-funding deployment. By strengthening framework conditions, incentivising impact-oriented pathways, and reinforcing the role of intermediaries and regional ecosystems, the work of the WG aims to ensure that European manufacturing innovation is not only created but effectively scaled, retained, and commercialised within Europe, maximising the return on public and private R&I investment.