In the last few years, both materials and technologies are becoming the leading elements of product design practice as a lever to foster innovation and add value to final products. “Despite the relevance of materials and technologies for advances in many fields, and particularly its importance to the success of the “creative industries”, there is a gap between the creative design of products that meet the needs of the market, and the research and development of new materials and technologies to be used in these products. At the heart of this issue, is the lack of collaboration between researchers and creative industries. (Innovamatnet, February 2013)
“In Europe there is a widespread perception of a gap between a high performance in science and a deteriorating industrial competitiveness, labelled as the ‘European paradox’. The decline in competitiveness raises questions as to whether science fails to make the kinds of contributions needed, whether industry lacks the ability to use effectively the knowledge produced in the science sector.”
Researchers from University have to develop knowledge that can be transferred and used by industrial worlds, to reason on the no-technological dimension as possibility of the designer and the company to create new experiences and innovation for specific Emerging Materials and Technologies (EM&Ts) and simultaneously to adopt a more entrepreneurial attitude.
Based on these ground the project datemats (Knowledge & Technology Transfer of Emerging Materials & Technologies through a Design-Driven Approach) aims at creating a transnational network among Universities, Research Centres and Organizations in contact with SMEs in order to develop and implement interdisciplinary new methods for both design and engineering students in the field of emerging materials and technologies, and to boost also knowledge and (Emerging Material) technology transfers from academia and research centres to companies and vice-versa.
The partnership comprises 10 organisations from Italy, Spain, Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Portugal.