The iPRODUCE project started in January 2020. The aim of the project has been to foster innovation and facilitate social & collaborative-based manufacturing, bringing together makers, manufacturers & consumers around common manufacturing ideas.
During the delivery of the project, the collaborative Manufacturing Demonstration Facilities (cMDFs) disseminated the project ideas and results across their communities. As a result of these efforts, this has attracted the interest of different stakeholders from these communities to join the iPRODUCE project. We call them โThe Newcomersโ.
To better understand who these individuals/ entities are and their motivations and expectations in joining the cMDFs/ project, weโve reached out to the newcomers with some questions.ย
In this piece, we shed some light on who some of our newcomers are.
Profile overview
The cMDFS are located in 5 different countries: Spain, Greece, Germany, France and Italy.
Most of the newcomers are said to be makers or part of a maker community, while others come from enablers (๐ฆ.๐จ. ๐๐ฏ๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฏ๐ข๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ข๐ญ ๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ญ๐ช๐ค๐บ ๐ฎ๐ข๐ฌ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด, ๐๐ฐ๐ค๐ข๐ญ ๐ข๐ฅ๐ฎ๐ช๐ฏ๐ช๐ด๐ต๐ณ๐ข๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ, ๐ฆ๐ต๐ค) and a couple of others are facilitators (๐ฆ.๐จ. ๐๐ ๐ช๐ฏ๐ด๐ต๐ช๐ต๐ถ๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ, ๐๐ข๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ข๐ญ ๐๐ถ๐ฃ๐ญ๐ช๐ค ๐๐ถ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ช๐ต๐บ, ๐ฆ๐ต๐ค), manufactures, consumers, artists, schools/fablabs, scientific communities and training centres.
The newcomers carry out different activities in their day-to-day lives and come from various sectors.ย Most work in education and training with students from different levels, startups and small factories.ย Other newcomers focus on product design, product prototyping, digital production and so on. Our newcomers work in the following sectors; architecture and construction, furniture, advanced manufacturing, mobility, electronics/microelectronics, art and lighting.
Motivations to join and tool interestย
The newcomers have joined iPRDOUCE and the cMDFs driven by several personal and professional motivations. Curiously, many of the main motivations are shared by several newcomers. Such motivations include networking possibilities, new collaboration opportunities, developing new ideas, ways to connect with business partners and the opportunity to participate in a project that can offer them new and valuable tools.
On the topic of tools, newcomers have been questioned about which tools being developed in the iPRODUCE project were they most interested in. The majority of the newcomers have mentioned that โall the tools interest meโ. Furthermore, almost every iPRODUCE tool was individually highlighted by the newcomers, which demonstrates that they have joined the project as they see the value and benefits in using such tools.
Our newcomers found out about the iPRODUCE project mainly through a cMDF representative, but a few of them also came across the iPRODUCE website or were referred by someone at work. For roughly half of our newcomers, their participation in one of the iPRODUCE cMDFs is their first time joining a maker space or a fablab-type community.
Future expectations and Outcomes
As iPRODUCE runs into its final phase of delivery (where the iPRODUCE platform and respective tools are nearly finalised)), it was also important to understand the main expectations of the newcomers when they joined the project.ย
In summary, three main expectations stand out:
- ย Sharing of knowledge, projects and connections
- ย Acquiring new skills, andย
- ย Better understanding of the collaborative economy
Over the upcoming months, the cMDFs will continue to open to receive other individuals and entities that are interested in the cMDFs activities and the general iPRODUCE value proposition.ย
We will be following up with the newcomers in the final stretch of the project to check in on whether their expectations were met and their plans for the future.ย ย
