The Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST) brought together more than 200 participants from more than 15 countries at the European Convention Center Luxembourg (ECCL) on 12 November for the 2026 Sustainable Composite Materials & Manufacturing (SCMM) Industry Day.
The flagship event for sustainable materials and advanced manufacturing marked an important milestone for the SCMM Innovation Centre: the completion of its first phase and the presentation of technologies that have progressed from material development towards manufacturing, testing and component-scale demonstrators.
The event was opened by Stéphanie Obertin, Minister for Research and Higher Education, alongside LIST CEO Olivier Guillon, and brought together representatives from industry, research and public institutions to discuss the next generation of composite materials and their industrial deployment. The Ministry of the Economy was also represented in the programme, including by Christian Tock, Deputy Director General Industry, who delivered the closing remarks.
The SCMM Innovation Centre is supported by Luxembourg’s Ministry of Research and Higher Education and Ministry of the Economy, as well as the European Regional Development Fund and Luxinnovation.
Olivier Guillon, CEO of LIST, said: “SCMM was created to address a very practical challenge: how to take promising research far enough for companies to assess it against their own industrial requirements. Over the past four years and in collaboration with our industry partners, we have developed several demonstrators based on top-notch materials science expertise, manufacturing facilities and testing capabilities. This is an important part of LIST’s role: helping research progress towards applications that industry can realistically evaluate and adopt.”
Stéphanie Obertin, Minister for Research and Higher Education, said: “Today, as the first phase of the SCMM Innovation Centre reaches completion, we can already see tangible results and new opportunities for collaboration. This is a powerful reminder that investing in research also means investing in competitiveness, sustainability and future prosperity.”
A showcase for Luxembourg’s composites ecosystem
Launched in December 2022, SCMM was created to help bridge the gap between promising research results and technologies sufficiently mature for industry to adopt. Over four years, more than 50 researchers and engineers have contributed to its projects, supported by semi-industrial research infrastructure and collaborations with industrial partners including Airbus, Toyota, Iveco and Thales Alenia Space, as well as Luxembourg-based companies.
That progress was at the centre of this year’s Industry Day.
Technology demonstrations were presented throughout the day in the Tech Village, allowing participants to examine the prototypes and discuss their development directly with LIST researchers and industrial partners.
Visitors discovered seven demonstrators addressing challenges across automotive, aerospace, space and transport:
The projects illustrate different ways of tackling some of the most persistent challenges facing composite materials: reducing weight while maintaining performance, developing recyclable or repairable materials, recovering valuable fibres and making new material systems compatible with industrial manufacturing.
The demonstrators also reflect SCMM’s broader role of taking technologies beyond laboratory proof of concept and assessing them under conditions closer to industrial requirements. This includes adapting manufacturing processes, validating performance and reducing the technological risk faced by companies before industrial investment.
This year’s event also featured a dedicated Composites Quarter, bringing together manufacturers, suppliers and innovators from Luxembourg’s wider composites ecosystem across automotive, aerospace, space and other sectors.
Together, the two areas reflected the ambition of SCMM Industry Day not simply to present individual research projects, but to connect the different actors needed to move technologies towards industrial use.
B2B meetings and networking opportunities complemented the technical programme. Matchmaking will also continue after the event, with dedicated B2B slots available from 13 to 27 November.
Industry perspectives on scaling composites
The programme also brought in perspectives from across the European composites value chain. Marc Fette, CEO of Composite Technology Center – CTC GmbH, addressed sustainable aviation; Christian Maugy of OPmobility focused on scaling sustainable composites for mobility applications; and Raphael Pleynet, Managing Director of the European Composites Industry Association (EuCIA), examined the role of composites in Europe’s industrial transformation.
Industry was also represented directly in the presentation of the technologies. Speakers included representatives from Gradel Light Weight, Arkema, Latécoère and Thales Alenia Space, alongside LIST researchers presenting the development work carried out within SCMM.
Technology, industry and policy around the same table
Beyond the demonstrators, the programme examined what is needed to move composite technologies into wider industrial use.
Two panel discussions explored what is needed to take composite technologies further. “Partners in Motion: Why Industry Stays with SCMM?” brought together industry voices, while “Policy in Motion: Shaping the Future of Composites Manufacturing”, chaired by LIST Deputy CEO Jurgen Joossens, included representatives from FEDIL, Luxinnovation and the Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR).
The discussions reflected the broader importance of composite materials for Luxembourg. The SCMM initiative is intended not only to accelerate individual technologies but also to strengthen the national ecosystem, connect Luxembourg companies with international industrial players and support the transfer of public research into industrial applications.
Jurgen Joossens, Deputy CEO – Valorisation at LIST, said: “Technical performance alone is not enough to bring a new material or manufacturing process into industry. We need to start with the challenges companies consider essential to solve and involve them as early as possible. Their input helps us focus on the right projects, understand industrial requirements and assess technical and economic feasibility from the outset. This can help avoid unnecessary delays and bring valuable innovations to our partners sooner—creating benefits for industry and society. Through SCMM, we can work on these questions together with industry and public-sector partners, while strengthening Luxembourg’s composites network and expertise.”
Preparing the next phase
The end of SCMM’s first phase does not mark the end of the programme. Instead, attention is now turning towards transferring the most promising technologies further into industrial applications and strengthening the network of companies active in composites in Luxembourg.
The first phase has established semi-industrial infrastructure and consolidated partnerships with companies across automotive, aerospace, space and manufacturing. The next phase is expected to place greater emphasis on industrial transfer and extend mobility-related technologies towards other sectors including wind energy, construction and industrial manufacturing.
As the SCMM projects move forward, the challenge remains the one around which the centre was originally built: making sure that promising materials do not stop at laboratory results but can be developed into technologies that industry can realistically evaluate, adopt and scale.
Levent Kirkayak, Head of the Structural Composites Unit at LIST, said: “These seven demonstrators are more than research results. They demonstrate that sustainable composites can meet the demanding requirements of industries such as automotive, aerospace and space. For many years, sustainability and high performance were often seen as competing objectives, but the technologies showcased today show that both can be achieved together. From recyclable hydrogen tanks to repairable space structures, we have transformed promising concepts into solutions that move us closer to a more circular economy while maintaining industrial performance. The next challenge is no longer proving that these technologies work but accelerating their adoption and industrial deployment.”