It is my great pleasure to announce that the 2022 Joint BRAGECRIM - CRI-SCMfg Annual Meeting  will be held at FBK - Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Production Systems in Kaiserslautern, Germany.

The city Kaiserslautern is the largest city in area of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate (Rheinland-Pfalz) in the soutwest of Germany and has approxamitaley 100,000 inhabitants. The historical meaning of Kaiserslautern is very important. Already the romans realized that the geografical properties around Kaiserslautern at the center of the biggest forrest of Germany, the Palatinate Forest, have strategically important impacts on the military and trade routes. The city name Kaiserslautern refers to the holy roman emperor (english for "Kaiser") Frederick I, also known as Frederick Barbarossa, who built one of his royal places near the river "Lauter". Meanwhile, the river is diverted unter the city and the Palatinate Forest is part of the UNCESCO-designated Platinate Forest-North Vosges Biosphere Reserve.

Nowadays, Kaiserslautern develops to a city with focus on science and IT, mainly enabled through the RPTU (RPTU). Founded in 1980, the 12 departments of the RPTU offer a broad range for studies for nearly 15,000 students. The RPTU is the only technically oriented university in Rhineland-Palatinate. Based on the technical oriented area, two Fraunhofer Institutes (Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Mathematics and Fraunhofer Institute for Experiental Software Engineering) and the Max-Planck-Institute for Software Systems have opened later.

Located at the faculty of Mechanical and Process Engineering at the RPTU, our institute is responsible for research and teaching in the subject area Manufacturing Technology and Production Systems. Close contact and various collaborations with industry ensure a practical approach to industrial manufacturing. The strong engagement in the German Research Foundation (DFG) is an expression of confidence in the basic research in leading edge technologies being conducted here. Together with modern laboratory infrastructure and our professional support team, this forms the basis for excellent research and teaching, as well as for a productive and inspiring atmosphere for the conference.

The BRAGECRIM program (Brazilian-German Initiative for Collaborative Research in Manufacturing Technology) and its successor CRI-SCMfg (Collaborative Research Initiative on Smart Connected Manufacturing) are results of a long-term partnership between DFG and CAPES (Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel). The main focus of the international collaborative research collaboration is advanced manufacturing and Industry 4.0.

We are looking forward to host an in-person meeting at the RPTU to provide a fruitful atmosphere for discussions and collaborations after a long period of travel restrictions. Nevertheless, depending on the development of the pandemic situation, we are prepared to perform the 2022 Joint BRAGECRIM - CRI-SCMfg Annual Meeting online. A final decision will be taken in August 2022. I am honored to host this annual meeting and I am looking forward to meeting you in October 2022 in Kaiserslautern, Germany.

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jan C. Aurich

• October, 6^th - 7^th 2022: Annual in-person meeting at Kaiserslautern