MORE4CORE or M4C aims to improve market integration. worker mobility and innovation in Maintenance. Repair and Overhaul (MRO) in order to improve the effectiveness of this fast growing sector in North West Europe. This will be a crucial contribution to boost NWEs industrial competitiveness. MRO is key to modern industry. Beyond maintaining productivity MRO is the enabler for a fast and widespread uptake of smarter. cleaner or low energy technologies in existing processes. Such upgrade of existing systems is increasingly important as NWE's production assets are ageing. while economic circumstances demand longer competitive lives. An ageing workforce adds to the challenge. There are barriers to fully use the potential of MRO. Innovation in maintenance of complex systems lags behind. Limited transnational worker mobility reduces access to expertise. Differences in national maintenance norms and standards further fragment markets. Linkages between emerging MRO organizations in North-West Europe are needed to pool expertise. create a shared agenda and link up with EU policy makers. MORE4CORE will pioneer new. structural transnational collaborations that: ? Connect Industry and Research to create a joint European MRO innovation agenda ? Connect Industry and Education create a Maintenance Passport in the European Qualification Framework. facilitating transnational worker mobility ? Connect Industry and Policy makers to create a European roadmap for linking norms and standards. facilitating market integrating MORE4CORE consists of 5 national industry associations (representing thousands of large and small companies). the EU-level association. 2 development agencies. 1 education consortium. and government observers in 3 countries. Anchoring outcomes at the EU level and implementation by the large industry membership will ensure widespread and long-term impact of the improved institutional alignment. Achievements: MORE4CORE results were presented in full this year at the Mainnovation conference in Helsinki.Maintenance benchmark-studyPreliminary results of a 300-company benchmark study on Maintenance were presented by Rob van Dongen of Mainnovation.Perhaps one of the most surprising results of the study are the large inter-country differences in contract types for maintenance services. In the Netherlands, for example, about 40% of contracts are performance or results related, with about 20% being ad hoc. The situation in Belgium, however is much the opposite. In the Netherlands, an ageing workforce is an immediate problem, with a large percentage of the workforce retiring the coming decade. Belgium, conversely, seems to beat this demographic trend, with only 12% of its workforce retiring the next 10 years.In the coming period, the benchmark will be extended to include German and French companies.European Skills Passport workshopWim Vancauwenberghe (BEMAS) and Rene Strijbosch (MEC / KPC Groep) presented their outline for a Maintenance skills passport. Such a passport would enable skills comparison (whether obtained through formal education, training or work experience) at an international level, thus facilitating worker mobility.The audience was asked to participate in the evaluation of a proposed international crediting organisation by indicating its likely strengths and weaknesses, and making suggestions for approaches to the set-up and implementation of such a system. The resulting discussion validated the idea that, for mid-level and specialised technicians, such system would likely help to increase worker mobility.Innovation panel discussionRolf Bastiaanssen, Partner at Bax & Willems, recently facilitated a panel discussion on collaboration in Maintenance innovation. The panellists were: Helena Kortelainen, technology manager at VTT (Finland); Marc de Kerf, maintenance manager BASF (Belgium); and Denis Koch, Services Maintenance marketing manager at Scheider Electric (France). Each panellist was chosen to provide a different perspective on innovation, collaboration and the role of Europe in the process.The panellists stressed the importance of user-driven innovation, indicating that most improvement are expected to come not from new technologies, but in the world of Big Data and in particular through decision-support analysis. While such innovation could lead to operational improvements, it was recognised that for step-changes, a different approach is needed.To achieve both, more collaboration between industry and research groups is considered key. At Schneider Electric, we increasingly see the value of collaboration with research organisations at an international level and are actively developing such partnerships, said Denis Koch.Helena Kortelainen added; There is a lot of expertise in research organisations that is not being exploited by companies. Increased collaboration at an international level helps to establish the necessary links. I believe that Europe has a role to play in realising this.