January 28, 2025: Announcement of the 2025 CRI-SCMfg Annual Meeting in Berlin, Germany
November 21, 2023: Announcement of the 3rd CRI-SCMfg Call for Proposals
May 30, 2023: Announcement of the 2023 Joint BRAGECRIM – CRI-SCMfg Annual Meeting in Natal/RN, Brazil.
November 3, 2022: Photos of the 2022 Joint BRAGECRIM – CRI-SCMfg Annual Meeting in Kaiserslautern, Germany.
March 25, 2022: Announcement of the 2022 Joint BRAGECRIM – CRI-SCMfg Annual Meeting in Kaiserslautern, Germany.
November 9, 2021: Announcement of the 2nd CRI-SCMfg Call for Proposals
October 7, 2021: Results of the 2021 Joint BRAGECRIM – CRI-SCMfg Virtual Annual Meeting
August 7, 2021: Announcement of the 2021 Joint BRAGECRIM – CRI-SCMfg Virtual Annual Meeting on October 7, 2021
March 17, 2021: Announcement of the 2021 Joint BRAGECRIM – CRI-SCMfg Annual Meeting in Hamburg
October 13, 2020: Results of the 2020 Joint BRAGECRIM – CRI-SCMfg Virtual Annual Meeting
September 7th, 2020: Announcement of the 2020 Joint BRAGECRIM – CRI-SCMfg Virtual Annual Meeting on September 29, 2020
July 09th, 2020: Postponement of the 2nd Workshop on Smart Connected Manufacturing in Hamburg
April 26th, 2020: Announcement of the 2nd Workshop on Smart Connected Manufacturing in Hamburg
November 5th, 2019: Results of the 1st Workshop on Smart Connected Manufacturing in Piracicaba
July 20th, 2019: Announcement of the BRAGECRIM Annual Meeting 2019 and the 24th High-Tech-Seminar, both in Piracicaba
The Brazilian-German Collaborative Research Initiative on Smart Connected Manufacturing (BRAGECRIM/CRI-SCMfg) associates more than 30 Brazilian and German universities, research institutes and industrial partners around a research network on the strategic topic of manufacturing technology. The main goal of the cooperation is the sustainable strengthening of the industrial sector in both countries through basic and applied research and exchange of knowledge and researchers.
Motivation
The fast growing competition originated from countries with low-cost work forces is pushing enterprises worldwide under a considerable innovation pressure. This fact is also compelling industries to improve the efficiency of their production processes, e.g. by increasing the automation level or by a better management of quality, innovation and information. A global way of thinking is required for the product development and the production planning, taking into account the complete production chain: from energy provision to raw material exploration, product development, machining, distribution, until to final use, repair and recycling. Therefore, manufacturing technology is playing even more an essential role for a sustainable development of many countries.
Brazil and Germany have collected an extended list of successful cooperation initiatives in business, science, technology and education. Many German companies have production plants in Brazil and many Brazilian products are part of the daily life in Germany. The German influence is perceived positively in the Brazilian industry and universities, as many engineers, researchers and professors have accomplished their studies in Germany. Through these traditional and in part personal relationships, several partnerships have been created in the last years between Brazilian and German universities, especially in the area of manufacturing technology.
However, there are some deficits that obstruct an efficient cooperation between both countries in the view of research and education. Up to the creation of the BRAGECRIM/CRI-SCMfg network, many of the cooperation initiatives were impelled only by isolated initiatives. Middle and long-term objectives of such initiatives, which could make a better usage of each country's potentials and also overcome the current technological deficits, were still not precisely defined. A more efficient and balanced bilateral cooperation could be achieved due to the establishment of adequate research framework programs.
Goals
Considering the strategic interests from Brazil and Germany in manufacturing technologies, the long-term goal within this collaborative research program was defined to be:
To enforce the competitiveness of both countries in the global market:
Framework
To promote this sustainable development, collaborative research projects have to be created bringing together most of the technologies involved within the product life cycle. These research projects are coordinated by an excellent research group in both countries, which connect to other research groups in each country. Thus, knowledge, technology and cooperation experience will be spread out into both countries, helping the development of emerging universities and industrial regions. In order to synchronize the research networks and to integrate the different technologies in a holistic concept, the research group coordinators of each project take part in a global network to analyse the whole production chain and product life cycle.
Project ideas that are proposed to BRAGECRIM/CRI-SCMfg have to develop knowledge and technological solutions to provide innovation, which improves the efficiency and competitiveness in different areas of the whole product life cycle (from the customer to the customer).
The proposed collaborative research initiative combines strategic technological research activities with an international educational program and a direct support to the industry. These projects focus on very innovative strategic research topics, which deal with the demands and deficits in both countries. In middle terms, the developed technologies will be transferred to industry. Such a collaborative research network promotes the knowledge exchange between both countries in a research field (e.g. quality management, precision manufacturing etc.), involving some specific research projects with high importance for both countries. These projects are executed including international doctoral, master and bachelor studies (student exchange). A central coordination manages the whole network and an open knowledge forum, stimulating the technology and knowledge transfer to the society. By organising open international (once a year) and national (twice a year) workshops as well as by student and scientist exchange, this program provides a multiplication effect to spread out the developed high-end technologies and knowledge.
Partnership overview BRA-GER
Universities and research institutes of both countries, which are international recognized leaders in the field of manufacturing technology and have a large cooperation experience, have contributed to prepare this new cooperation framework. These institutions are widely distributed over Germany and Brazil.
Up to now, the following partners participate in the initiative (the Initiative is open for the participation of new partners):
Expected results
This international research program will provide both countries with high-tech manufacturing technologies and knowledge, covering different strategic demands and reinforcing existent competencies. The benefits of such cooperation concerning the scientific, technological and educational improvements for both countries are clearly shown in the current 16 approved project ideas. These advanced production technologies will impulse the progress of innovation and competition of local industries. Therefore, it implies in a sustainable development, not only for the industry of both countries, but in general for the whole society with economic, social, cultural and environmental impacts. Some of the expected results are pointed out:
In order to stimulate and support a more efficient cooperation between German and Brazilian research groups in the area of manufacturing technology, a cooperative framework in strategic research between the both countries was prepared. The RWTH Aachen University, represented by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Tilo Pfeifer, and the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul - UFRGS, represented by Prof. Dr. Carlos Eduardo Pereira, were coordinating this cooperation program together with the funding agencies DFG (Germany) and CAPES (Brazil) until 2019. At the 11th BRAGECRIM Annual Meeting in Piracicaba in October 2019, the BRAGECRIM program was officially closed and the follow-up program with the working title CRI-SCMfg (Programa de Iniciativa de Pesquisa Colaborativa) was launched. As coordinators of the new program, the meeting participants have elected Prof. Dr.-Ing. Michael Freitag from the University of Bremen and Prof. Dr.-Ing. Enzo Frazzon from the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC).
The BRAGECRIM initiative has been started by the presidents of DFG and FINEP, which have shown the common interest to improve the Brazilian-German cooperation in the field of manufacturing technology at the end of 2005. Since then, important milestones have been met in this important international cooperation network:
The number of projects has increased in the 3rd phase of BRAGECRIM, as depicted in the graph below.
The 2nd and 3rd phase of BRAGECRIM (2011-2017) have continued to produce many positive and successful results, which are compiled below in the graph.
The BRAGECRIM/CRI-SCMfg network is organised in Brazil and in Germany by a coordination comittee:
The committee is represented by Prof. Michael Freitag from BIBA – Bremer Institut für Produktion und Logistik at the University of Bremen (Germany) and Prof. Enzo M. Frazzon, Professor at the Federal University of Santa Catarina, UFSC in Florianopolis, Santa Catarina (Brazil).
University of Bremen
BIBA – Bremer Institut für Produktion und Logistik
fre@biba.uni-bremen.de
Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina
Departamento de Engenharia de Produção e Sistemas
Programa de Pós-graduação em Engenharia de Produção
enzo.frazzon@ufsc.br
Information according to § 6 of the German Telemedia Act (Telemediengestz - TMG)
BRAGECRIM/CRI-SCMfg - Brazilian-German Collaborative Research Initiative on Smart Connected Manufacturing
Represented by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Michael Freitag and M.Sc. Hendrik Engbers c/o BIBA
Hochschulring 20
28359 Bremen | Germany
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