Bernd Liepert, President, euRobotics, provides this month’s personal reflection with a focus on euRobotics 2.0
Over the last year, we have been speaking about a fresh orientation for euRobotics, which we can call euRobotics 2.0. It describes who we are as an association, why we are here (our mission), what we will do to fulfil our mission and, most importantly of all, how we will deliver value to our members.
So first, why are we here? The answer is that, as the focal point for robotics in Europe we exist to influence awareness of robotics – and unlock the full potential of robotics – to improve the quality of life. We’re here to add value to our members by delivering shared knowledge relevant to their success by bringing creative minds together, both from within robotics and from other disciplines where this helps us to fulfil our mission. And we’re here to promote and support excellent robotics built on European values through an ecosystem with critical mass. We’ve defined a set of concrete outcomes to help us direct our energy and expertise and in a future newsletter I’ll talk more about these.
Now we move on to ‘how’. Broadly, we make best use of our knowledge, experience and connections to provide networking, create alliances and offer visibility to our members. Many members will be aware of what we do specifically to achieve this. We have a programme of established activities, notably ERF, ERW, the euRobotics Awards, the Topic Groups (TG) and now the TG Summit. We are also increasing our involvement in the European Robotics Leagues (ERL). We have a relationship and regular dialogue with the European Commission both directly and also via our membership as co-founders of the AI, Data and Robotics Association (Adra). Distinct but related, we have a bi-lateral relationship with CLAIRE, one of the leading AI associations, and this is only the first of what we intend to be a series of alliances that will work for the benefit of our members.
We follow a strategy and produce roadmaps, we communicate via our recently refreshed website, the TG portal, increasingly through social media and – not least – this newsletter. And underpinning all of this, we have our Secretariat, headquartered in Brussels, which provides operational support, and our Executive Team, which provides leadership and decision-making resulting from the direction given by our Board of Directors. Put that altogether (and we have!) and you get euRobotics 2.0, an evolved mission and a robust operating system for a changing paradigm.
Individual members have their own ideas and expectations about euRobotics. I welcome you to share them, because we gain strength and grow as an association when we hear and learn from the perspectives of all of our members.