Building on the outstanding success of its predecessor of 2007, The Manufacturing in FP7 Conference aims to provide indepth information about the manufacturing topics addressed in both Theme 3 (Information and Communication Technologies - ICT) and Theme 4 (Nanosciences, Nanotechnologies, Materials and new Production Technologies - NMP) of the European Union's 7th Framework Programme, FP7 which will run for seven years starting 1 January 2007. FP7 is designed to build on the achievements of its predecessor, FP6 towards the creation of the European Research Area, and carry it further towards the development of the knowledge economy and society in Europe.

I*PROMS special sessions (APM, IDT, PAC, POM) will take place during the CIRP ICME ’08 - 6th CIRP International Conference on Intelligent Computation in Manufacturing Engineering 23 - 25 July 2008, Naples, Italy. http://www.icme.unina.it/

An I*PROMS special session will be held at the Business Sustainability 2008 conference Ofir, Esposende - Portugal 25-27 June, 2008. This event is co-organised by the University of Minho.

The I*PROMS Workshop on Statistics in Innovation and the Design Process to be held during ENBIS 8 conference in Athens, Greece 22-24 September 2008. The workshop is being organised by University of Newcastle, University of Patras and Cardiff University.

The use of statistical methods can aid all stages of the design process. Statistical thinking can enhance innovation and improve competitiveness in both domestic and international markets. I*PROMS partners and SMEs are encouraged to attend the workshop as they can potentially use statistical techniques to improve their prospects. Case studies presented will focus on how SMEs have made good use of statistically designed experiments, measurement analysis and other lean and six sigma techniques.

Virtual Enterprise and Dynamic Reconfiguration for Manufacturing Systems - Training Course
Laboratory for Virtual Enterprises
University of Minho

Competitiveness, innovativeness and sustainability are critical requirements in nowadays and future Manufacturing Systems. Dynamic Reconfigurability of the Manufacturing Systems is a sine qua non condition to meet these requirements. This motivates the new organizational approach: Virtual Enterprises, which is the main tool for achieving the highest levels of reconfiguration dynamics. Manufacturing Systems based on Virtual Enterprise is a new paradigm for the Future.