After a warm welcome from Prof. Christian Ramsauer (Graz University of Technology), who represented the ÖWGP, opens an external URL in a new window, Prof. Fazel Ansari (TU Wien, Fraunhofer Austria) emphasised the current profound structural challenges in his opening speech: from rising cost and competitive pressure to skills shortages, digitalisation, decarbonisation and geopolitical uncertainties.

It became clear that securing the industrial future of Europe and Austria requires targeted innovation and a clear focus on key production technologies. These are crucial for productivity, resilience and sustainable value creation. This is also made clear in the Austria’s Industrial Strategy 2035 and in the ÖWGP statement ‘Zukunft sichern’ (German only).

The exciting presentation by Prof. Christoph Herrmann (TU Braunschweig / Fraunhofer IST) on the topic of ‘Digital production as the key to sustainable value creation’ dealt with cyber-physical production systems (CPPS), test beds for technology testing and practical examples, among other things.

The forum then facilitated an open dialogue between science and industry. The focus was on a panel discussion with specialists in the field, Prof. Christoph Herrmann (TU Braunschweig / Fraunhofer IST), Prof. Christian Ramsauer (TU Graz) and Harald Loos (Siemens), moderated by Prof. Sebastian Schlund (TU Wien / Fraunhofer Austria). 

The experts asked themselves whether production in Austria is the backbone of the economy or a relic of the past. It became clear that production is by no means a look back, but rather an essential prerequisite for economic capacity, innovative strength and independence.