Looking at the Future of Industrial Engineering in Europe

The paper aims at identifying competence required to Industrial Engineers to face with current and future challenges of the EU. In order to properly address the topic, a reference framework is proposed. The framework provides a context analysis of major industrial and societal challenges which affect grand challenges as identified by the European ‘2020’ strategy. Knowledge exploitation of Key Enabling Technologies and Sustainable Urban Development are considered major industrial and societal challenges which, in turn, are significant opportunity of growth for industry. Major gaps between industry needs and competence provided by Industrial Engineering (IE) curricula are identified. A multi-university collaborative network could be the appropriate answer to bridge educational gaps and pursue a unifying view of IE in the EU, respecting educational and industrial traditions of different Countries of the European Higher Educational Area (EHEA).