Members of euRobotics are invited to attend the euRobotics General Assembly (GA) in Rimini, Italy. The General Assembly will be held just ahead of the start of the next European Robotics Forum, which takes place 13-15th March 2024. The exact date, time and venue for the GA will be officially announced in January.
The GA is an important part of euRobotics’ governance mechanism and through the Board election process it provides the association with a source of both renewal and continuity. During the GA, elections will take place to fill several seats on the Board. If you are interested in becoming a Board member of euRobotics, your candidature is invited. We would very much like to increase the number of women in the Board, therefore we encourage female candidates to apply.
The candidature form will be made available to eligible members of euRobotics shortly and will need to be completed and returned to euRobotics by 31 January 2024. Full details about the role, responsibilities, the application process and the number of Board vacancies will be shared at the same time. Meanwhile, some further background may be useful to anyone considering serving our community by becoming a candidate to join the BoD.
The Board exists to direct and coordinate the activities of euRobotics. Since euRobotics exists to serve its Members’ interests, the Board’s composition is chosen to represent all its Members. If you are elected as a Director, you will therefore represent one of the categories of Members on the Board. Listening to and consolidating the views of other Members in the same category of membership as yourself will be part of the representative role.
This highlights an important distinction between Member representatives who, for example, represent an individual Member organisation at a GA of euRobotics, and Directors, who each represent a category of Members and serve the interests of the whole of euRobotics and its Members. When transacting Board business, you will be expected to represent the wider community, not just your own Member organisation.
A part of euRobotics’ purpose is to represent the robotics stakeholder community in front of the European Commission. In Horizon Europe, euRobotics acts as Founding member and at the same time as a Strategic member of the new association “Adra” which represents the private side of the new partnership on AI, Data and Robotics. In the past, euRobotics has been the private side of the SPARC Public Private Partnership (PPP) between euRobotics and the European Commission (EC) under Horizon 2020.
One of the main mechanisms for stakeholder engagement in generating roadmaps and contributions to the WP is the set of activities of the various Topic Groups. It is helpful to the Topic Groups and to the Members for each Director to take an active role in the activities of at least one Topic Group. This enables direct communication and input and feedback between the Board and Topic Groups.
Directors may be asked to take part in specific outreach and external engagement activities. Recently, these activities included work on member benefits, dealing with the Topic Groups, participating in the ERF Program Committee, acting as a link to other robotics interest groups in Europe and worldwide, and speaking at European and international events around the world on behalf of euRobotics. If you, as a director, have a specific skill set, expertise or experience which could help euRobotics, you may be asked to provide specific input to certain activities from time to time. These activities may be internal or external. The Secretariat often solicits help or advice from specific Directors with particular management expertise.
Every Member of euRobotics is a significant stakeholder in European robotics, and every Member’s representative is a senior individual within that Member organisation. The Board tends to be made up of the most senior and accomplished individuals of their type within, and respected by, the whole community. Being a Director provides the opportunity to work alongside experts eminent in their own areas, who all share a common interest in robotics. While it can be demanding, working with this outstanding group of individuals can be enormously satisfying and interesting.