Maximising the economic and social impact of the implementation of the Einstein Telescope (ET) in Euregio Meuse-Rhine (EMR)

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By extremely high technical demands on components and systems, large research institutions represent demanding customers for SMEs. Often only small quantities are needed and limited markets are addressed. With the current efforts of the EMR regions for the construction of the Einstein Telescope (ET) for the detection of gravitational waves, there is a chance to establish a large-scale research facility here, which offers simultaneously a great chance esp. to SMEs, to improve their technologies. These innovations can be transferred to other applications and other high demanding markets and, thus, will strengthen the company’s competitiveness. In addition to the technologies used to build the telescope, the following technologies are of particular importance for the operation of the facility: Cryogenics, Controls, (Quantum) optics, Vacuum Technology, Polishing and coating of mirrors, Precision engineering, Me­chatronics, Metrology, Lasers, Sensors, Advanced Materials, Computing / Algorithms and Modelling. It will take several years until the ET is operational. This period should be used to enable SMEs already located in the Greater EMR or start-ups still being founded to benefit from this facility with their products and services. Due to numerous high-tech SMEs and start-ups as well as research institutions and universities,Grea­ter EMR is currently already very well positioned in these enabling technologies on international level. In order to provide the players with the opportunity of a return of investment up to the construction of the ET, related markets like aerospace and automotive, but also other, neighbouring application fields (profiting from the emerging ET technologies), are addressed simultaneously by  ET2SMEs. These markets place similarly high demands on products and services in the same technology fields. In the aerospace sector, low temperatures and vacuum are a particular challenge, in the automotive sector, new materials as well as new (optical) sensors and the accelerated development of technical systems requires new simulation methods in particular. SMEs in the addressed technology fields are often highly specialized and only known to actors in their field. However, interdisciplinary solutions from different fields of technology are getting more important to keep international competitiveness and innovation-leadership up in times of markets, which are developing faster and faster. This is not only important for the envisaged, but also for the exploration of new markets. To increase the visibility of these “hidden champions” in the Greater EMR area, a mapping of the corresponding SMEs and research institutions will be done and made visible to all interested users via a central website. Thus, target is to integrate regional SMEs into an ecosystem focussed on key technologies needed for the construction and operation of the Einstein Telescope. Such an ecosystem is necessary, since the individual SMEs find it difficult to assert themselves against international competition. This long-lasting activity will strengthen the visibility of the region as a high-tech hot spot. Based on this preliminary work, SMEs are directly supported by ET2SMEs via funding their cross-bor­der innovation projects. In a first step, the identified SMEs will be addressed directly and the challen­ges, opportunities and chances offered by the envisaged markets will be discussed with them. In a second phase a matchmaking of potential cooperation partners is carried-out in order to solve these challenges through cross-border cooperation. The most promising cooperation consortia receive financial assistance. At the same time synergies can be used by participating in this umbrella project, e.g. in public relations and project administration, which increases the visibility of the individual cooperation projects.  ET2SMEs supports the development of new innovative products and services by promoting transnational R&D projects established by SMEs collaborating across borders. Experiences in EMR from two previous INT-periods prove clearly, that these collaborations are well accepted, if the right pre-con­di­tions are fulfilled, building on two main pillars: 1.  Active Business Development Support : Cross-border networking opportunities, individual company visits,  substantial support in the formation of appropriate consortia, application process and project implementation. 2. Attractive funding opportunities: Good balance between efforts and money for SMEs, simple and quick administrational and payment procedures. The ET2SMEs voucher budget is € 900, 000. If based on a separate "capitalisation call" additional resources could be made available for running EMR INT projects, ET2SMEs would be able to allocate more fundings directly to the benefit of SMEs.

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