Three guest speakers participated in this session: Maurizio Gattiglio (Prima Power) from Italy, George Chryssolouris (Patras University) from Greece and Joaquim Menezes (Iberomoldes) from Portugal.

The three speakers also played also hold relevant positions in the European Technology Platform MANUFUTURE, in the European Factories of the Future Association (EFFRA) and in the Public Private Partnership Factories of the Future (PPP FoF).

The goal with the ACE FORUM – Alliance for Cooperation in Engineering – is to gather the main players in higher education teaching and research so that they can interact, find common interests and solutions and combine forces to obtain successful results.

The theme of the Forum was "Promoting international collaborations within the 2020 strategy." The European 2020 strategy presents a number of challenges to higher education institutions across the world, namely those challenges resulting from the synergies between the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) and the European Research Area (ERA). Education and Research, as catalysts for innovation in the knowledge triangle, were the two main pillars of the Forum.