Regulatory issues are becoming more and more of a pressing concern for companies and experts involved with 3D printing and additive manufacturing. Just last week, news emerged of the US FDA opening up a dialogue about 3D Printing Medical Devices later in the year, while the AMT – The Association For Manufacturing Technology’s — Board of Directors recently sent a letter to the US congressional leadership requesting action on a bipartisan manufacturing agenda for 2014.
Though a great deal of focus is being placed on US regulatory issues related to 3D printing by stakeholders, in Europe there are also specific concerns being addressed. A week after European wide elections for a new European Parliament and Commission, with the President and leaders yet to be decided, one certain outcome is that the same 3D printing / AM regulatory issues will be high on the agenda of the new Parliament and Commission once the votes are counted.
The priority issues revolve around the concerns for European companies, which are:
- Medical devices/ applications, and related regulations about quality and quality control.
- IPR (specifically on Copyrights).
- Privacy laws and the related implications.
In this vein, the “3D Printing Revolution – Challenges and Opportunities” conference,which will take place in Brussels next month on June 10th, 2014, has been established and will focus on 3D printing, the related standards and IPR protection parametersof the EU Regulatory Agenda. The conference aims to address the needs of specific 3D printing industry sectors in Europe and worldwide.
This half-day conference will be divided into the following two panels:
Panel 1- 3D printing Perspectives and Opportunities
Panel 2- 3D Printing Challenges and Threats
The speaker line up is strong, as follows:
- Gianni Pittella Vice President of the European Parliament (tbc)
- Carla Van Steenbergen Legal Counsel at Materialise
- Bonifacio Garcia Porras Head of Unit B3 – Innovation Policy for Growth, DG ENTR, European Commission
- Franco Accordino Head of theTaskForce “Digital Futures”, European Commission
- Carsten Engel Additive Manufacturing Expert and Medical Devices Technology Advisor, Sirris
- Peter Troxler, Research Professor at Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences, founder and member of the Board of the International Fab Lab Association
- Prof Dr Denis Dufrane Head of Endocrine Cell Therapy Unit, Université Catholique de Louvain
The complete program and flier can be found here and here or you can register directly.
