On March 18, members of the CoP 5.0 Working Groups (WG) on Business Case 5.0 and HUBS 5.0 gathered in Brussels for a workshop/brainstorming session. The focus was on developing concrete actions and tasks to be implemented in the coming months, following discussions in both WGs between January and March. The aim was to reinforce the role of the Industry 5.0 methodology as a driving force for sustainable competitiveness in Europe.

During the morning session, several growing niches for accelerating the Industry 5.0 methodology were identified, with concrete examples, such as:

• Open manufacturing hubs: open-source communities for anyone interested in learning about manufacturing, supporting SMEs (e.g., shoestring manufacturing in Cambridge[1]).
• EIT/KICs, particularly EIT Manufacturing: supporting projects that could lead to start-ups and connecting them with corporates to drive digital transformation.
• Industry 5.0 Sherpas: a network offering step-by-step support to stakeholders.

The morning's interactive discussion resulted in a range of suggestions for both working groups. For Business Case 5.0, there was an emphasis on including Taxonomy 5.0 for finance to strengthen the business case and the need for stronger connections between businesses and policymakers. It was also highlighted that the Business Case 5.0 should be prioritized, with outcomes and deliverables reflecting a “big picture” perspective.

For HUBS 5.0, the importance of combined private and public investment was noted, alongside the need to incubate and test innovations before the investment phase. The Solutions 5.0 pilot could be tested in this context, using the Cambridge open manufacturing hub as an example.

It was underlined that the main target group for Industry 5.0/CoP 5.0 support should be SMEs.

In the afternoon, parallel brainstorming exercises led to the following recommendations:

• Network of Ambassadors/Sherpas 5.0 (for interested CoP 5.0 members).
• Exploring Taxonomy 5.0 as an integral part of Business Case 5.0 for sustainable competitiveness.
• Experimentation/incubators and testing innovative 5.0 approaches for SMEs (e.g., decentralized use cases and matchmaking under the CoP 5.0 umbrella).
• Increasing innovation capacity for Industry 5.0, building on existing initiatives/networks/Horizon Europe projects, and creating an innovation assessment based on financing models and impact monitoring.

[1] Cambridge open manufacturing hub: Open source, like git-hub; put together digital solution with training; it offers software repositories - how to scale the model where the mentors are system integrators. Regional hubs being created in UK with seed funding to attract local investors. It focuses on SMEs, makers & hackers - clusters, associations of companies and regional government collaborate on this initiative.