10 September, 2018
The Key Enabling Technologies (KETs) Observatory is an online monitoring tool that provides national and regional policy makers, academia and business stakeholders with information perpetrating to the six areas of KETs - micro and nanoelectronics, nanotechnology, industrial biotechnology, advanced materials, photonics, and advanced manufacturing.
The last set of data, between 2007 and 2015, showed that the advanced materials, nanotechnology and photonics industries had grown within the EU, with the only declining area relating to nanotechnology being the micro/nanoelectronics industries. However, the growth of nanotechnology and advanced materials industries was greater within the EU than it was in both the US and Asia (as was biotechnology). Overall, the KETs industries in 2013 were responsible for 19.2% of production output within the 28-member states, employed 3.3 million people and produced 953.5 billion Euros worth of absolute production volume.
The KETs observatory can be used to assess how competitive the EU is within these defined technology areas, as well as for identifying any key opportunities within the market and any likely challenges. The KET observatory can also be used to compare how well the EU is performing in these technological areas compared to other regions of the world, especially in terms of exports, production, patent output and the number of jobs within each industry.
Now, the KETs observatory is in its second phase and is updating how the different KETs industries have impacted the European economy since the last set of data was obtained. It will be once again looking at the same factors as last time but will also be looking at specific KETs-based products that show a lot of promise, especially those with the potential to be manufactured on a large-scale.
