eFutures: Electronic systems technology for emerging challenges

电子技术涵盖传感器、电力电子、嵌入式计算、无线通信技术、自主系统和大面积电子等领域，预计将在未来产业和价值链的发展中发挥基础性作用。它是“创新英国”核心战略的核心，对未来经济增长的重要性再怎么强调也不为过。面对国际发展，英国保持强大的电子设计和技术基础是至关重要的。拟议中的欧洲芯片法案（2022年2月）将在2030年之前为欧盟半导体行业动员4330亿欧元的“政策驱动投资”。《美国芯片法案》将带来2800亿美元的投资，以加强他们的半导体产能，促进研发，创建区域高科技中心，并培养更具包容性的STEM劳动力。英国有一个非常活跃但分散的电子系统学术社区，在格拉斯哥大学、伦敦帝国理工学院、利物浦大学、曼彻斯特大学、纽卡斯尔大学、谢菲尔德大学、南安普敦大学、伦敦大学学院和贝尔法斯特女王大学以及一系列其他大学的卫星活动中组织了更大的活动。社区已经能够通过eFutures网络组织成一个有效的电子系统社区（EPSRC eFutures2.0：应对未来挑战拨款，2019年5月-2023年）。除了发展社区之外，现有的eFutures2.0网络的目标是为该行业探索多学科机会。eFutures的成功包括：组织了20多个面对面和在线活动（1825名与会者）；建立一个新的网站和一个YouTube频道，其中有34个视频演讲（来自19个国家的演讲者），总观看次数为1180次；将网络会员增加了400%以上，并从单纯的邮寄模式转变为包括社交媒体，实现了64%以前没有参与网络的活动参与者；交付两份新的战略景观报告：“人工智能和大脑启发计算硬件的英国景观”（2021年第四季度）和“医疗保健电子：英国研发”（预计2023年第一季度）。2021年报告有全国媒体报道，后续活动（150人参加），即将到来的高价值提案，并在EPSRC交付计划中被提及。医疗保健报告来自在线和现场活动（264名与会者），最终形成了一项计划拨款提案。该网络资助了6个多学科概念项目（7.8万英镑），使10所英国大学和4所国际大学的11名学者受益；并通过两次面对面研讨会和在线培训，与59名职业生涯早期和30名职业生涯中期的研究人员进行了重点接触。最终，目标是进一步提高英国电子系统学术研究的影响力，并使社区在与国内和国际研究人员和行业合作方面处于强大的竞争地位。如上所述，这将通过继续建立和增加网络成员来实现，组织Net-Zero多学科活动，使我们的社区与其他学术领域和公司更广泛地参与该领域，以解决这一关键主题，代表对英国电子系统学术界的强烈关注，支持早期职业研究人员，并通过鼓励国家和国际层面的互动和增加资金来发展社区。我们将在eFutures2.0活动取得成功的基础上，通过同样的领导团队和指导小组来实现这一目标。我们的指导小组公司提供了64,000英镑的实物承诺，这表明了我们对这项活动的成功和承诺。

Electech, covering areas such as sensors, power electronics, embedded computing, wireless communication technology, autonomous systems and large-area electronics, is predicted to play a foundational role in the future development of industries and value chains. It is central to Innovate UK's core strategy and its importance to future economic growth cannot be overstated. It is vital that the UK maintains a strong electronics design and technology base in the face of international developments. The proposed European chips act (February 2022), will mobilise 43 43 billion euros by 2030 in 'policy-driven investment' for the EU's semiconductor sector. The US CHIPS Act will result in a $280 billion investment to bolster their semiconductor capacity, catalyse R&D, create regional high-tech hubs and grow a more inclusive STEM workforce.The UK has a very vibrant but dispersed, electronic systems academic community, organised into larger activities in the universities of Glasgow, Imperial College London, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Sheffield, Southampton, University College London and Queen's University Belfast as well as satellite activities in a range of other universities. The community have been able to organise into an effective electronic systems community via the eFutures network (EPSRC eFutures2.0: Addressing Future Challenges grant, May2019-2023). In addition to growing the community, the objectives of the existing eFutures2.0 network had been to explore multidisciplinary opportunities for the sector. The successes of eFutures include: the organisation of 20+ in-person and online events (1825 attendees); the creation of a new website and a YouTube channel with 34 videoed talks (speakers from 19 countries) with a total of 1180 views; increased network membership by over 400% and move from a pure mailout model to include social media, achieving 64% of event attendees who had not previously engaged with the network; the delivery of two new, strategic landscaping reports: 'UK Landscape in AI & Brain-Inspired Computing Hardware' (Q4 2021) and 'Electronics for Healthcare: R&D across the UK' (expected Q1 2023). The 2021 Report had national media coverage, follow-up events (150 attendees), an upcoming, high-value proposal and a mention in the EPSRC Delivery Plan. The Healthcare Report results from online and in-person events (264 attendees) leading to a Programme Grant proposal. The network funded six multidisciplinary, concept projects (£78k), benefitting 11 academics across ten UK and four international universities; and delivered focussed engagement with 59 early-career and 30 mid-career researchers via two in-person workshops and online training.Ultimately, the aim is to further enhance the impact of UK electronics systems academic research and put the community in a strong, competitive position for collaboration with both national and international researchers, and industry. As highlighted above this will be achieved by continuing to build and growing network membership, organising the Net-Zero multidisciplinary event to engage our community more broadly in the area with other academic areas and companies to tackle this key topic, represent a strong focus on the electronics systems academic community in the UK, supporting early career researchers and growing the community by encouraging interaction or the national and international level and increasing the funding. We will achieve this by building on the successes of the eFutures2.0 activity with the same leadership team and steering group. The success and commitment to this activity is indicated by the in-kind commitment of £64,000 from our steering group companies.