Futuring European industry: assessing the ManuFuture road towards EU re-industrialization.

Industry is the backbone of the European economy-producing 80% of Europe's exports, accounting for 80% of private Research, Technology Development and Innovation (RTDI) expenditures, and providing more than 30 million jobs with additional 70 million in related sectors. Thus, the manufacturing sector plays a vital role in fostering economic growth and social welfare across Europe, and it has the potential to provide innovative solutions for the grand societal challenges. However, European Industry's share of added value has substantially decreased during the last decades. Against this backdrop, the European ManuFuture platform was created in 2003 to provide visions, scenarios as well as RTDI strategies and roadmaps for the re-industrialization of Europe. This article recapitulates the successful Vision 2020 generation and implementation process of the ManuFuture community. Based on a systemic assessment of the multi-actor, multi-governance-level and multi-sector policy approach, success factors are elaborated as guiding principles and framework for the upcoming Vision 2030 process. With reference to currently discussed issues in the European Research and Innovation area such as digitising industry and circular economy, this article concludes with some options to pursue the 'ManuFuture Road'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]