„Industrie 4.0 – Zentrales Leitbild für eine wettbewerbsfähige und nachhaltige Industrie“ by the Research Council Industrie 4.0 and Plattform Industrie 4.0

Munich, 30 September 2025

The Research Council Industrie 4.0 and Plattform Industrie 4.0 present in the paper “Industrie 4.0 – Zentrales Leitbild für eine wettbewerbsfähige und nachhaltige Industrie” key aspects and action perspectives for the future of networked industrial value creation. Industrie 4.0 represents the fourth industrial revolution and serves as a central, highly relevant industrial guiding principle pursued worldwide. Progress is achieved through synergistic collaboration between science and industry, as well as through governmental funding initiatives: the research perspectives of the Research Council Industrie 4.0 intersect with the implementation of digital transformation by Plattform Industrie 4.0. This enables the creation of innovative business models, increases productivity, and safeguards jobs. The objective is to sustainably strengthen the competitiveness and prosperity of German industry.

The paper produced by the Research Council Industrie 4.0 and Plattform Industrie 4.0 focuses on the following aspects to address Industrie 4.0 as a central guiding principle for a competitive and sustainable industry:

1. Industrie 4.0 – The Fourth Industrial Revolution
2. Plattform Industrie 4.0 and the Research Council Industrie 4.0 – Synergy between Industry and Science
3. Industrial AI – From Networked Systems to the Intelligent Factory
4. Digital Infrastructure – Foundation for Scaling and Sovereignty
5. Data Ecosystems – The Central Building Block for Networked and Intelligent Production
6. Research Perspectives on Industrie 4.0
7. Resulting Action Perspectives for Industrial Value Creation and the Strengthening of Industrial Competitiveness in Germany

Value Creation and Research Perspectives

Industrie 4.0 offers, among other potentials, the ability to manufacture highly individualised products at the price of mass-produced goods, promote resilience and sustainability, support humans optimally in their work environments, and overall secure the competitiveness of Germany as an industrial and economic location. Sovereign data spaces play an important role in the digital networking of companies and the intelligent factory, as does industrial Artificial Intelligence as a key enabling technology. Robust digital infrastructures, such as 5G, are also essential as a foundation for Industrie 4.0.

The Research Council Industrie 4.0 is currently developing four research roadmaps for the next ten years in the areas of “Business Models”, “Engineering”, “Ecological Sustainability”, and “Future of Work”. Key topics include, among others, the deployment of AI, the implementation of a circular economy, the creation of smart, individualised products with complementary data-based services, and the development of highly automated production facilities.

Competitiveness and Action Perspectives

The German industrial location is undergoing rapid transformation, particularly due to changing and previously rigid supply, innovation, and value chains shifting towards dynamic networks within digital ecosystems, and increasingly divergent regional economic areas (Europe, China/Asia, USA, etc.), along with the associated global systemic uncertainties. This especially affects traditional industries such as automotive, mechanical engineering, and chemicals.

It is essential to develop sovereign digital value creation in Germany and Europe, encompassing not only IT and telecommunications but also future fields such as medical technology and quantum computing. This requires German industry to address changes far beyond technological aspects towards Industrie 4.0, coupled with the readiness to act quickly and decisively. Based on this joint analysis, the Research Council Industrie 4.0 and Plattform Industrie 4.0 have developed central courses of action.

The paper “Industrie 4.0 – Zentrales Leitbild für eine wettbewerbsfähige und nachhaltige Industrie” by the Research Council Industrie 4.0 and Plattform Industrie 4.0 is available for free download on the website of the Research Council Industrie 4.0.

Information on the Research Council Industrie 4.0

As a strategic and independent body, the Research Council Industrie 4.0 makes a significant contribution to identifying research-based solutions for the further development and implementation of Industrie 4.0 and thus providing guidance – with the overarching goal of strengthening the German innovation system and value creation. To this end, the Research Council Industrie 4.0 currently brings together 31 representatives from science and industry with their interdisciplinary expertise, formulates new, pre-competitive research impulses and needs, identifies medium to long-term development perspectives and derives options for action for the successful implementation of Industrie 4.0. Research in the field of Industrie 4.0 is increasingly focussing on topics such as sustainability, resilience, interoperability, technological and strategic sovereignty and the central role of people. The work of the Research Council Industrie 4.0 is coordinated by acatech – National Academy of Science and Engineering, supervised by the Project Management Organisation Karlsruhe (PTKA) and funded by the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR).