On 20 March 2026, PROSPECTS 5.0 participated in the Industry 5.0 Community of Practice (CoP) Plenary Session, organised by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Research and Innovation in Brussels. The event brought together over 120 stakeholders from across Europe, including representatives from industry, academia, and policy, to reflect on the progress and future direction of Industry 5.0.

PROSPECTS 5.0 was featured in the plenary session “State of play of Horizon Europe Industry 5.0 projects”, alongside BRIDGES 5.0, UP-SKILL, SEISMEC, and SURE5.0. The session provided a platform to share key insights from ongoing projects and to identify common challenges in advancing Industry 5.0 across Europe.

A central message emerging from the discussion was that Industry 5.0 cannot be achieved through technology alone. Speakers emphasised the importance of human-centric design, worker involvement, and organisational change as key drivers of successful transformation.

Across projects, there was strong alignment on several challenges:

• the need to support SMEs with practical tools and guidance
• the fragmentation of existing assessment frameworks and KPIs
• the importance of linking policy objectives with real industrial practice

These findings closely resonate with the work of PROSPECTS 5.0, particularly the development of the Industry 5.0 Assessment Framework (I5.AF) and its validation through real-world use cases.

PROSPECTS 5.0 is proud to contribute to this collective effort and to support the transition toward a more human-centric, sustainable, and resilient European industry.

The recordings of the Plenary session are available here: https://research-innovation-community.ec.europa.eu/events/2kVXBUohw3iJ7RNsE4dVJO/programme