Grand Challenges: Multimaterial Lightweight Technologies - Pushing Resource Efficiency beyond Horizon 2020

The Grand Challenges range from climate change to the ageing society to the efficient use of energy resources – issues of great complexity which require the full commitment of research and innovation across Europe. North Rhine-Westphalia is putting in considerable effort, aiming in particular at strengthening international links and utilising the instru- ments provided by the European Research and Innovation Area. 

Grand Challenges: Answers from North Rhine-Westphalia
The conference series is directed to European decision-makers, with North Rhine-Westphalia presenting its proposals for addressing the key issues. There will be ample opportunity for dialogue amongst Europe’s political leaders, innovative business operators and researchers.

Global challenges like coping with the impact of climate change, with the shortage of resources – and interlinked – with the necessity for resource efficiency as well as creating sustainable and affordable eco-friendly mobility solutions are some of the most urgent national and international objectives.

 Lightweight technologies will be crucial in tackling these objectives. Following the physical law of motion – the less mass one moves, the more energy one saves – lightweight technologies contribute to energy-efficient transport. In fact, our future mobility is not possible without lightweight technologies. According to a recent McKinsey study, light - weight share in aviation is currently already at 80 percent. By 2030, the share of lightweight materials used in the automotive segment will rise from 30 to 70 percent. 

Lightweight materials include high-strength steels, aluminium, magnesium and carbon fibre based plastics as well as various composite materials and different material sys- tems. Noteworthy is that future lightweight technologies are multimaterial solutions that will also crucially depend on the successful combination of different materials. 

With its vast materials sector, consisting of nearly 7.000 companies and research institutions, North Rhine- Westphalia (NRW) has excellent expertise in the field of multimaterial lightweight technologies. This unique regional concentration throughout Europe offers favou- rable prerequisites to address these grand challenges from a North Rhine-Westphalian perspective. The conference will give insights into how NRW companies and research institutes in the field of lightweight technologies deliver essential solutions to a variety of these global challenges by collaborating across different industry sectors and materials classes