For the fifth consecutive year, EIT Manufacturing East proudly hosted its flagship event Manufacturing Day during ViennaUP, Europe’s largest decentralised startup festival. This year, the event drew an even larger crowd, with more than 500 attendees gathering in Vienna to celebrate innovation, entrepreneurship and the future of manufacturing.

On 9 May 2025, Vienna’s historic Sofiensäle provided the perfect backdrop for Manufacturing Day 2025. Under the theme “Collaborate to Innovate,” speakers and participants explored how strategic partnerships, cross-border networks, and shared missions can turbocharge Europe’s industrial competitiveness and help drive the green and digital transition the sector urgently needs.

BoostUp! East 2025 startup competition

One of the day’s highlights was the BoostUp! East 2025 startup competition, where Europe’s most promising industrial tech startups pitched their solutions focused on energy transition solutions for the manufacturing industry.

Eight pioneering startups pitched on stage their innovations in key areas such as renewable energy generation and storage, energy management and the Internet of Energy (IoE), decentralised energy solutions and industrial decarbonisation.

Supporting green innovation in manufacturing 

The Vienna Business Agency awarded the best startup in fostering green innovation in manufacturing. The winner received a EUR 5 000 cash prize. 

🥇 eChemicles

The Hungarian startup has developed the best performing and scalable CO² to CO conversion electrolyser technology, capable of directly utilising CO². They transform emission into valuable molecules in a profitable way, using only green electricity as energy input. Read more on their website.

eChemicles from Hungary wins BoostUp! East 2025 | Theresa Neuhauser, Dudu Gencel, Balázs Hepp | Photo credit (c) Matthias Heschl

AI, collaboration and the future of manufacturing

The keynote came from James Taylor, an internationally renowned innovation expert, who delivered an energetic and visually-rich talk titled “SUPERCOLLABORATION – Accelerating Innovation in the Age of Artificial Intelligence.” Taylor argued that the most successful manufacturing companies in the coming decade won’t just integrate AI and robotics, they’ll build them into collaborative teams alongside human creativity. The convergence of human and machine collaboration, he said, is reshaping how we invent, make and scale.

Keynote by James Taylor | Photo credit (c) Matthias Heschl

Real-world collaboration lessons

The event featured two panel discussions, each diving into how collaboration can speed up industrial innovation.

The first panel, “The collaboration advantage: driving innovation through strategic partnerships,” gathered experts like Julia Reilinger (B&C Innovation Investments) and Andreas Mühlberger (Infineon Technologies) alongside James Taylor. They unpacked how corporates can break down silos and work more closely with startups and research institutions to accelerate product development and market expansion.

Panel discussion: “The collaboration advantage: Driving innovation through strategic partnerships” with Andreas Mühlberger (Infineon Technologies), Julia Reilinger (B&C Innovation Investments) and James Taylor. Moderator: Johannes Hunschofsky | Photo credit: (c) Matthias Heschl

The second panel, “Stronger together: empowering industrial collaboration in Europe,” zoomed out to look at international, national and regional as well as cross-border frameworks. Experts from UNIDO (Jason Slater), FFG (Karin Tausz) and Vienna Business Agency (Eva Czernohorszky) stressed the importance of pan-European collaboration to maintain the continent’s competitive edge against US and Asian rivals.

Panel discussion “Stronger together: empowering industrial collaboration in Europe” with Jason Slater (UNIDO), Karin Tausz (FFG – Austrian Research Promotion Agency) and Eva Czernohorszky (Vienna Business Agency). Moderator: Johannes Hunschofsky | Photo credit: (c) Matthias Heschl

A stronger, greener, more collaborative future

Manufacturing Day 2025 once again proved that collaboration is the engine of Europe’s industrial future. Startups, corporates, and policymakers came together to exchange ideas, forge partnerships, and showcase a shared commitment to shaping a resilient and sustainable manufacturing sector.

Thank you to all who made this unforgettable day possible! We look forward to seeing you again next year at Manufacturing Day 2026!

Thank you to our partners!

🙏 The success of Manufacturing Day 2025 would not have been possible without the invaluable support of our sponsors and partners: EY, Infineon Technologies, CYRUS, United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), Austria Wirtschaftsservice, Vienna Business Agency, Erste Bank und Sparkasse, Fachhochschule Technikum Wien, TU Wien – Academy for Continuing Education, MOORE SKZ, INDUSTRIEMAGAZIN, brutkasten and The Recursive.