Cluster NanoMikroWerkstoffePhotonik.NRW

Category: Highlight

  • Series #18: Key technologies for industrial AI and robotics in NRW

    Series #18: Key technologies for industrial AI and robotics in NRW

    Industrial AI and robotics are key technologies for North Rhine-Westphalia as a hub for high-tech and manufacturing. They enable more efficient, flexible, and resilient processes, boost productivity and quality, and help address the shortage of skilled workers.

    Their potential stems from the interplay of AI, sensor technology, actuator technology, edge and cloud computing, semiconductors, data spaces, digital twins, and modern communication and automation technology. This gives rise to adaptive robots, cobots, autonomous systems, and intelligent machines that perceive and evaluate their environment and act autonomously.

    Our magazine, “Key Technologies for Industrial AI and Robotics,” showcases the expertise landscape in North Rhine-Westphalia—from development and research through system integration to industrial applications. We are seeking real-world examples, research projects, technologies, and collaborations from North Rhine-Westphalia that highlight innovation, technology transfer, and industrial value creation.

    Submit your suggested topic now

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    • Series #19: NRW builds on high-tech: innovations in the construction and building materials industries

      Series #19: NRW builds on high-tech: innovations in the construction and building materials industries

      The construction and building materials industry is a key sector for value creation and transformation in North Rhine-Westphalia. It lays the foundation for housing, mobility, energy supply, and industrial infrastructure. At the same time, it faces the challenge of significantly reducing resource consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, closing material cycles, and becoming more productive, resilient, and competitive despite cost pressures and a shortage of skilled workers.

      Key drivers come from high-tech developments: New materials and resource-efficient manufacturing processes are converging with sensor technology and photonics, microelectronics, artificial intelligence, robotics, digital twins, additive manufacturing, and modern recycling technologies. Working together, they enable lower-emission and higher-performance building materials, data-driven production and construction processes, automated construction sites, more durable infrastructure, and new circular business models.

      With the magazine “NRW Builds on High-Tech: Innovations in the Construction and Building Materials Industry,” we showcase North Rhine-Westphalia’s technological expertise and innovative strength across the entire value chain—from materials research and building materials production through planning and construction to operation, demolition, and recycling. The focus is on groundbreaking technologies, real-world examples, research and technology transfer projects, as well as successful collaborations between industry, academia, and end users.

      We are looking for submissions from North Rhine-Westphalia that demonstrate how key technologies are driving the transition to a resource-efficient, climate-friendly, and competitive construction industry and enabling new value creation.

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      • Whitepaper “Semiconductors and microelectronics in NRW: Industrial value creation, resilience, and future opportunities”

        Whitepaper “Semiconductors and microelectronics in NRW: Industrial value creation, resilience, and future opportunities”

        Share your perspective!

        Share your insights to help shape the white paper: Stakeholders from business, academia, technology transfer, and networks are invited to contribute their experiences and assessments regarding North Rhine-Westphalia as a hub for semiconductors and microelectronics. The results will be analyzed anonymously and incorporated directly into the white paper.

        Participate in the stakeholder survey now

        Düsseldorf, June 26, 2026 – Semiconductors are tiny components with enormous strategic impact. With the kick-off event for the white paper “Semiconductors and Microelectronics in North Rhine-Westphalia: Industrial Value Creation, Resilience, and Future Opportunities,” a state-wide participatory process has been launched in Düsseldorf to strategically advance North Rhine-Westphalia as a hub for semiconductors and microelectronics. The Ministry of Economic Affairs, Industry, Climate Protection, and Energy of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia has commissioned NMWP.NRW, the state’s high-tech cluster, to draft the white paper and coordinate the process.

        Mona Neubaur, Deputy Minister-President: “Semiconductors play a key role in determining whether Europe remains capable of acting in key future technologies. North Rhine-Westphalia has real strengths in this area: a broad industrial base, excellent research, and deep technological expertise. What has been missing so far is a shared strategic vision. We are now developing that—in dialogue with the state’s stakeholders.”

        At the kickoff event, representatives from companies, research institutions, universities, networks, and the political sphere shared their perspectives. The focus was on the strategic importance of semiconductors and microelectronics for North Rhine-Westphalia, the region’s strengths and development potential, and the question of how existing expertise can be brought together more effectively in the future.

        North Rhine-Westphalia offers key prerequisites for this: a strong industrial user base, excellent research and technology transfer structures, and technological expertise in areas such as materials, photonics, microsystems technology, power electronics, sensor technology, AI, and energy and production technologies. The region’s strength lies not in a single area of focus, but in the combination of industrial breadth and technological depth. Particularly in application-oriented fields of the future—such as industrial AI, connected production, energy and power electronics, mobility, communication technologies, and secure digital infrastructures—North Rhine-Westphalia can thus contribute to greater European value creation and resilience.

        The white paper is to be developed over the coming months in dialogue with the region’s stakeholders. The goal is to highlight the capabilities of the NRW semiconductor and microelectronics ecosystem, identify strengths and opportunities, define strategic priorities, and derive concrete courses of action for business, academia, and government.

        NMWP.NRW will assume a coordinating and facilitating role in this process. As a state-wide high-tech cluster, NMWP.NRW brings together existing activities, initiatives, and expertise, identifies synergies, and highlights shared development prospects.

        “NMWP.NRW has been supporting the high-tech community in North Rhine-Westphalia since 2009. Semiconductors, as well as nano- and microelectronics, have been central themes of our network from the very beginning. Technological, economic, and geopolitical developments in recent years are giving rise to new markets, new opportunities for value creation, and new demands on resilient innovation ecosystems. This presents a major opportunity for North Rhine-Westphalia: We can bring industrial applications, research, and key technologies closer together and use this to develop a strong, application-oriented profile in the field of semiconductors and microelectronics. We look forward to shaping this process together with the state’s stakeholders,” says Dr.-Ing. Harald Cremer, Cluster Manager at NMWP.NRW.

        Stakeholders from business, academia, technology transfer, and regional initiatives are invited to contribute their perspectives to the ongoing white paper process.