The Arrowhead Tools project has officially started

Partners, financiers and work package leaders, have met in Gothenburg to kick-off the Arrowhead Tools project. Invited guests were also present, not the least Ibrahim Baylan, the Sweden’s Minister for Business, Industry and Innovation.

Ibrahim Baylan, Sweden’s Minister for Business, Industry and Innovation, Jerker Delsing, coordinator of Arrowhead Tools, and Klas Wåhlberg, Director General of the Association of Swedish Engineering Industries.

In his speech, Ibrahim Baylan emphasized the importance of the project.

“Competitiveness is a key to our economic success. We need to embrace new technologies and a willingness to change. We must remember that the future is ahead of us, not behind us,” Ibrahim Baylan said.

Klas Wåhlberg, Director General of the Association of Swedish Engineering Industries, also pointed out the importance of such a project as Arrowhead Tools:

“Initiatives like Arrowhead Tools are becoming increasingly important with the raised global competition”, Klas Wåhlberg said.

Arrowhead Tools is Europe’s largest project for solutions in automation and digitization for industry. The project has a budget of EUR 91 million and is funded by its partners and ECSEL-JU. Bert De Colvenaer, Executive Director at ECSEL-JU, highlighted the project’s role as world actor.  

“This is a consortium to bring technology forward. Working together is a key feature of being competitive against the rest of the world,” he said and got support from Jean-Luc Di Paola-Galloni, President of the Artemis Industry Association, Group Corporate Vice-President of Sustainable Development and External Affairs at Valeo:

“We need to build closer links between research and applications to support European industry in remaining competitive and to increase efficiency, attract volumes and protect distinguished innovations and intellectual property, especially for strategic applications.”

One of the more than 80 partners of Arrowhead Tools, is DAC. Mateusz Bonecki, CTO, talked about how Arrowhead Tools will build synergies with EU-level and national digization initiatives.

“Arrowhead Tools will reach out to industrial clusters and digital innovation hubs to deliver digization and automation solutions particularly essential for the digital transformation of manufacturing SMEs in Europe.” said Mateusz Bonecki.

Overall, the kick-off in Gothenburg was a great success. Three days of intense work has paved the way for the years to come.

“We are now beginning the journey towards making a difference in the world of digitalisation and automation,” says Prof. Jerker Delsing, Arrowhead Tools coordinator.