The Interreg NWE RIGHTWEIGHT project


Project Summary

RIGHTWEIGHT - Novel advanced materials solutions for affordable lightweight to meet automotive and aerospace makers’ needs

Applying lightweight solutions is the most efficient approach to make transport greener (Lucintel’18; McK’12). However, SME suppliers of automotive and aerospace parts in NWE encounter severe challenges to define optimal lightweighting: automotive struggles to integrate the most advanced materials; aerospace, to reach acceptable costs and production speeds. Each sector uniquely excels in specific areas: e.g. automotive leads automated mass manufacturing and aerospace, materials performance. To effectively adopt feasible lightweight solutions, more affordable and environmentally-friendly  innovations must be co-developed across the value chain: market-pull from demand side will stimulate a competitiveness increase of supplier SMEs, while contributing to reduce overall CO2 transport emissions.

Expectations
RIGHTWEIGHT will support 50+ manufacturing SMEs in automotive and aerospace value chains to deliver components meeting car/aircraft makers’ needs. 20+ novel lightweight products will be incubated to TRL7 by 2022, improving environmental performance and greater value-for-money via an open cross-sectorial process combining educational activities and transnational thematic competitions in 5 cross-cutting areas within lightweight:

  1. Materials supply & development
  2. Characterization & modelling
  3. Design & smart functions
  4. Manufacturing & assembly
  5. Recycling

Partners will provide dedicated training in specialised complementary fieldlabs.


5 countries with automotive and aerospace relevance (RIS3) will be involved, leveraging leader-follower synergies: FR (aero), DE and BE (auto), NL (both) and IT (strong in both). 50+ end-users (large demand actors) from 7 regions are already committed (assoc. part.).
RIGHTWEIGHT will pioneer to stimulate cross-sectorial transfer between actors now operating in one value chain with dedicated transnational sessions (also inviting peer projects) and a novel database of success cases.
We will anchor €10M turnover & 100 jobs in NWE, while generating €2M turnover & 50 jobs by 2022.

 

Objectives of RIGHTWEIGHT

The overall objective of RIGHTWEIGHT is to increase the competitiveness of automotive and aerospace SMEs delivering new solutions that meet environmental and affordability targets. Cross-sectoral collaboration and dedicated support will help them increase capacity to co-develop solutions meeting car/aircraft makers’ needs. RIGHTWEIGHT will set up a transnational ecosystem connecting 7 partner regions with complementary expertise (FR aero, DE & BE auto; NL & IT both), to be expanded with 3 additional NWE regions (LU, IE, UK).

 

Cross-cutting areas within lightweight:

Do you have an innovative lightweight solution? Apply to the RIGHTWEIGHT support programme view the challenges below and provide your solutions! 


Submit your solutions to the RIGHTWEIGHT challenges!

Apply now

Join the ecosystem

Join the ecosystem of entities working in automotive and aerospace industries, register to the NMWP portal and explore the synergies and opportunities transnationally. 


Register to the NMWP portal

Click here

Project Partners

  • Karlsruher Institut für Technologie - Institut für Produktentwicklung (IPEK)

    10 Kaiserstr
    Karlsruhe
    76131
    Germany

    View partner details

  • Flanders Make

    133 Oude Diestersebaan
    Lommel
    3920
    Belgium

    View partner details

  • Polymeris, pôle de compétitivité Plasturgie & Composites

    Rue Léonard de Vinci
    Changé
    53810
    France

    View partner details

  • IMAST – DISTRETTO SULL’INGEGNERIA DIE MATERIALI POLIMERICI E COMPOSITI E STRUTTURE SCARL

    22 Piazza Giovanni Bovio
    Naples

    View partner details

  • Cluster NanoMikroWerkstoffePhotonik.NRW c/o NMWP Management GmbH

    1 Merowingerplatz
    Düsseldorf
    40225
    Germany

    View partner details

  • AutomotiveNL

    30 Automotive Campus
    Helmond
    5708 JZ
    Netherlands

    View partner details

  • Saxion Hogeschool

    70000 Postbus
    Enschede
    7500 KB
    Netherlands

    View partner details

Lead partner

Organisation Address Email Website
Saxion Hogeschool 70000 Postbus
Enschede
7500 KB
Netherlands
j.h.d.voerman@saxion.nl www.thermoplasticcomposites.nl
Name Contact Name Email Country
Karlsruher Institut für Technologie - Institut für Produktentwicklung (IPEK) Markus Spadinger markus.spadinger@kit.edu Germany
Flanders Make Ger van den Kerkhof ger.vandenkerkhof@flandersmake.be Belgium
Polymeris, pôle de compétitivité Plasturgie & Composites Annabelle Sion annabelle.sion@polymeris.fr France
IMAST – DISTRETTO SULL’INGEGNERIA DIE MATERIALI POLIMERICI E COMPOSITI E STRUTTURE SCARL Evelina Milella presidente@imast.it
Cluster NanoMikroWerkstoffePhotonik.NRW c/o NMWP Management GmbH Matthias Grosch Matthias.Grosch@nmwp.de Germany
AutomotiveNL Jean Pierre Heijster j.heijster@raivereniging.nl Netherlands

Watch the video from NMWP explaining how to use their unique innovative ecosystem in this explanatory video about the NMWP portal!

 

1. Benchmark on Environmental Regulations in the North-West-Europe Region

Deliverable 3.1 – Working group on policy: goals and guidelines

View the whole document here. 

 

2. Report on operational procedures 

Deliverable 3.1 – Working group on policy: goals and guidelines

View the report here.

 

Auto – Aero: Technology Transfer Assessment for Light Weighting

NEWS and PUBLICATIONS



UPCOMING EVENTS

Join the Opportunities for an agile systems development through ASD – Agile Systems Design webinar on the 9th of January 2023 09:00am (CEST)

Organised by IPEK!

Agile and drive system development - how do they fit together?

Dealing with uncertainties poses challenges for drive system development. The webinar therefore addresses questions such as: What are the options for using agility in a targeted manner in the drive system development process and what opportunities and limitations result from this? How can best practices from agile development be successfully transferred to the development of physical systems in the company's own development process? Or what are the characteristics of particularly critical activities in drive system development?

The focus of this webinar is to introduce participants to the targeted use of agility approaches in drive system development through ASD - Agile Systems Design. This is done by presenting the basics of agile development methodologies, as well as their system- and industry-specific implementation using real-world examples.

 

Register for the webinar via: patrick.haberkern@kit.edu 

Join the Mobility & materials for lightweighting, what European funding opportunities for my project?" on Friday 25 February 2022 11h00 to 12h30

Organised by POLYMERIS and i-Trans (Pôle de compétitivité)!

Webinar program:


- Get the support of the RIGHTWEIGHT consortium in your innovation projects for lightweighting in the automotive and aeronautics sectors
- Project AMULET H2020: Promotion of SME innovation in lightweighting technologies
- S-ACCESS: an opportunity for SMEs in the mobility sector to easily access the American, Canadian and Norwegian markets
- SMEs in the lightweighting materials sector, get support on international markets thanks to the ELCA project!
- STARS (STrategic Alliances boosting Railway SMEs): a solution to support SMEs in the adoption of cutting-edge technologies.

Join the webinar

Join the Dutch Regional RIGHTWEIGHT Workshop
24 February 2022, 10.30h – 12.00h

Do you have an innovative lightweight solution for the challenges of Snoeks Automotive, Drive Line Systems BV (DLS), and/or SAG GROUP? Join this workshop, apply to the RIGHTWEIGHT support program, and receive the support to develop your lightweight solution.

Join keynote speaker Sjef van Breugel (Pontis Engineering) as he will provide a presentation about a different approach for the successful use of composites in the eMobility market.

Register here: 

Register now for the free regional workshop, details can be found below:

PAST EVENTS:

Specialised Field labs

The RIGHTWEIGHT project aimed to find lightweight solutions with improved environmental and affordability criteria. These solutions, either products and/or technologies, were aimed to be co-developed by SMEs from both sectors in close collaboration with car and aircraft makers. The project organised 3 rounds of challenge-based competitions arranged in 5 categories that cover the entire lightweight value chain: from materials supply & development to the end-of-life. RIGHTWEIGHT finished in June 2nd 2023, however the partnership decided to act on its long-term sustainability by establishing the first EU network of lightweight fieldlabs!

The RIGHTWEIGHT project established field labs (TPAC, IMAST, and Flanders Make) that reached out to associated partners from different countries to expand support for SMEs beyond the NWE area. The network of field labs aims to continue providing dedicated support to SMEs in lightweight solutions and foster potential collaborations. More field labs from additional EU regions are expected to join in the coming weeks, as their capabilities and expertise will be detailed soon.

Please refer to the map below to visualise the network of field labs created by RIGHTWEIGHT.

 

 

Discover the details of the RIGHTWEIGHT field labs 

 

 


Watch the field labs in action!

View the videos from the specialised field labs from across Europe .

Watch here

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