Arctic Drone Labs DIH is a non-profit innovation ecosystem that provides world-class innovative solutions, technical and non-technical services to its members and partners in the field of UAS, robotics, autonomous systems and associated fields. We gather the best practices in relevant research and industry domains and contribute to the advancement of research knowledge, stronger innovative practices, industry-driven standardisation and development of relevant vertical and horizontal markets in close collaboration with key stakeholders. The alliance opens access to research results and brings the expertise of all its members to enable ascension in the value chain, improve work efficiency and ensure new business opportunities. We contribute to the common industry and research-driven proprietary and open system platforms and open-source solutions and are involved in standardisation and dissemination activities and policymaking. By investing systematically into the cutting-edge technology innovations, with comprehensive digitalisation and following the security by design approach, we deliver the complete range of solutions from technology enablers to post-operational data analytics – seamlessly integrating them into the existing or newly-developed processes, tools, platforms and architectures. Ethical, data privacy and data protection aspects are considered as crucial in all our operations and those projects that we plan and develop. Well-established and continuously-developed collaboration with stakeholders, including government bodies and business and research circles representing different industry sectors and research domains from all around Finland, allows us to mobilise required resources in a fast and efficient way. Together with our members and partners, we meet international requirements to facilitate European move towards digital single market strategy and contribute to the establishment of a European U-Space Demonstrator Network. Digital technologies.

The Arctic Development Environments cluster provides businesses in Finnish Lapland a one-stop-shop access point to the digital technology expertise and services of its member organisations: universities and research organisations in the region. The cluster supports businesses by helping to improve their processes, products and services by means of digitalisation. The cluster is coordinated by the Lapland University of Applied Sciences, based in Kemi-Tornio and Rovaniemi, and its operations are not-for-profit, with a pricing model based on actual costs. Most of the cluster partner organisations are publicly funded and the revenue is allocated back to the units that have operational costs from providing the service. In addition, the cluster offers businesses services related to R&D funding (access to finance).

The cluster offers companies support at different stages of the product development cycle. The cluster's services include: contract research; test-before-invest; product development; prototyping; business development; access to technological platforms and innovation spaces; funding mapping and matching; and training.

The cluster includes 50 modern infra, environments and laboratories (TEFs) and more than 750 experts and specialists, spanning almost the whole of Lapland. The cluster is also in the process of developing inter-regional collaboration to widen the spectrum of digitalisation services available through the cluster.

The digitalisation services of the cluster can be accessed on the Ardico.fi service portal. The service themes are listed at https://ardico.fi/portal#/themes. These themes include e.g. product testing and analysis, IoT, VR/AR, Cloud services and Big data. The services span the whole TRL scale, with a novel test-before-invest service portfolio.

The portal also provides businesses with tools to e.g. evaluate their level of enterprise digitalisation: https://ardico.fi/portal#/tools

The cluster's service model:

The company contacts the cluster.
The cluster produces a requirement specification based on the company's need.
The business receives a tender specifying the pricing and schedule of the service.
If the tender is accepted, a service contract is drawn between the company and the cluster. The pricing is based on the actual costs of the service.
A group of experts is selected and their work is coordinated by the cluster.
The cluster assists the company with identifying and applying for suitable R&D funding.
The cluster submits the results to the company.

The service model has been developed through piloting with SMEs. The cluster’s services are further being developed according to customer needs and feedback. The ultimate goal is to support businesses in developing new products and business models and to launch them with the help of high-quality research.

Further resources for the region’s development will be acquired through international cooperation. Networking with other Digital Innovation Hubs enables cooperation and planning of new project initiatives and consortia. Digital technologies.

The Application Center for Automation in Healthcare is operated by the Fraunhofer Project Group for Automation in Medicine and Biotechnology of Fraunhofer IPA. The project group was established by the state of Baden-Württemberg and Fraunhofer to develop new ideas for automation in medicine and biotechnology. The Application Center is used to conduct research and development for automation in healthcare applications. It is also used by companies to develop and test new automation applications in their own projects or to train medical staff. Today's demonstrators already show the beneficial use of robotics and other automation technologies to improve healthcare economics and patient outcome. 

The center is located at CUBEX41 at the heart of the University Hospital in Mannheim and pursues the following objectives:

1. Enable access to and cooperation with all medical and biotechnological facilities in the Rhine-Neckar metropolitan area for SME and large industries 

2. Establish automation in healthcare by joint research on demonstrators and showcases

3. Facilitate the translation of new technologies to medical applications through strong interaction with medical staff from university hospitals

4. To develop and test needs based solutions and to offer a complete spectrum of services from idea to clinical evaluation

The Application Center for Automation in Healthcare is fueled by several public and private funded projects. E.g. the Application Center receives funding via the BMBF Forschungscampus M²OLIE (http://www.m2olie.de/eng/metas/home).  Digital technologies.

The Digital Innovation Hub (DIH) Andalucía Agrotech is an ecosystem created to help companies in the digitisation process of the agri-food sector. This hub gathers the needs of the agri-food sector, technological services provided by ICT companies, the innovation capacity of knowledge agents and public programmes promoted by the public administration to provide support. The DIH Andalucía Agrotech has been designed to be an instrument to speed-up the implementation of digitization in the agri-food value chain and to provide, in the first phase, the necessary training.

The DIH Andalucía Agrotech is a centre of activity to create, anticipate and channel digital innovation in the agri-food sector, that provides the best conditions to enable sector companies achieve business success in the long-term. It is: 
    • an ecosystem. The Hub has to be understood as a connector and facilitator of all the actors involved in agro-technology. It is the place where the experience and know-how of farmers, livestock producers or agro-industrial experts converge with the innovative talent of technological entrepreneurs, all together with the support of the public sector, as well as with partners and stakeholders of technological and agri-food areas.
    • a one-stop shop. The Hub has to act as a pool of people, resources and tools (financing, talent, processes, methodologies, knowledge, employment, alliances, etc.), that is to say, it has to be the contact point for all the companies, people and actors related to the agri-food sector and to the implementation of digital technologies in this sector.
    • based on Competence Centres. They offer technological infrastructures, provide access to the latest knowledge, experiences and technologies to support their customers with pilot, test or experimental projects using digital innovations.
    • a provider of financial or business support to implement innovations.
    • a platform. It will be a physical and digital platform that will enable the effective collaboration between the actors of the Hub and will make resources available to them according to the working models established. 
    • the first regional contact point. Proximity is key to strengthen the innovation ecosystem.
    • a regional and international benchmark hub in the field of agro-technology. Bearing in mind the global environment currently existing, the DIH has to have a double scope: on the one hand, it must be centred on the digitization of the agri-food businesses of Andalusia and, on the other hand, it must work to connect them to other businesses at national and European levels; it must promote the cooperation of actors at regional level, but it must also be a point to generate alliances between our regional initiatives and others beyond our regional borders.
    • a driver of change. Boosting the digitisation of the agri-food sector is a fundamental task, but not an end in itself. It is a powerful way to not only achieve the competitive improvement of the sector but also to obtain positive social and environmental impacts. 

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 The Digital Innovation Hub (DIH) Andalucía Agrotech is an ecosystem created to help companies in the digitisation process of the agri-food sector with a non-profit character. This hub gathers the needs of the agri-food sector, technological services provided by ICT companies, the innovation capacity of knowledge agents and public programmes promoted by the public administration to provide support. The DIH Andalucía Agrotech has been designed to be an instrument to speed-up the implementation of digitisation in the agri-food value chain and to provide, in the first phase, the necessary training.

This DIH Andalucía Agrotech is a centre of activity to create, anticipate and channel digital innovation in the agri-food sector, that provides the best conditions to enable sector companies achieve business success in the long-term.

We can conclude in this respect that this DIH Andalucía Agrotech is a non-profit ecosystem with non-profit aims.

  Digital technologies.

The AMSYSTEMS Center In 2016, TNO and High Tech Systems Center of the Eindhoven University of Technology founded the AMSYSTEMS Center, a joint innovation center to develop the next generation additive manufacturing production equipment for smart, personalized and multi-functional products. Additive manufacturing (AM) concerns methods whereby products are produced layer by layer, such as 3D-printing. The AMSYSTEMS Center targets high-tech applications, 3D printed electronic devices, 3D printed food and pharma applications with spin-off to other markets that require personalized, customized, on-demand manufacturing. At the heart of the Brainport / Eindhoven region The AMSYSTEMS center is at the heart of the Brainport region and has a strong link with the Dutch Smart Industry action agenda. It also has established the Smart Industry Fieldlab MultiM3D and received an investment grant for a pilot line additive manufacturing (PrintValley2020) to be operated at the Brainport Industries Campus (BIC). Scientific and technological challenges. For many applications the AM technology is still immature. The product quality is typically inferior to that obtained with conventional manufacturing methods, the choice of available materials is limited, the yield is low by process-induced defects, manufacturing costs are high, and productions speeds are typically low. The AMSYSTEMS Center therefore focusses on the development of new multimaterial/multi-technology AM concepts and the integration of these technologies in masscustomization production chains, making it an integral part of a ‘next generation industry’ approach, and aimed at stimulating the competitiveness and growth of the industry. Our focus. The center brings AM concepts from prototyping to industrialization with emphasis on new functionality and cost-effective manufacturing while maintaining system flexibility, stability & reliability. The center activities focus on the development of: 1) new concepts for multi-material / multi-technology digital manufacturing, 2) high-speed and continuous AM technology, 3) in-line metrology technologies, 4) novel integration and ICT architectures. The AMSYSTEMS center targets the development of high-tech equipment for manufacturing of smart and integrated products, smart electronics, customized medical products, printed food, and 3D printed pharmaceutical and high-tech products. Examples are complete implants, prostheses, dental bridgework, smart electronics like Epill, smart connectors and integrated LEDs or spare parts for high-tech equipment that can be printed on the spot when needed. Why will it work. The AMSYSTEMS Center brings together two complementary expertise areas in a joint proposition, i.e. the mechatronics and materials expertise of the High Tech Systems Center of the TU/e and the AM concept development and 3D print knowledge of TNO. In addition, a new chair and research group ‘Systems Mechatronics for Advanced Manufacturing’ will be established at the Eindhoven University of Technology TU/e. It is foreseen that within four years 25 PhD students research assistants will be undertaking research and that more than 50 full-time professionals will be involved in the center. Common facilities and infrastructure located at the university campus and joint research under one roof will increase the cooperation between the founding fathers TNO and TU/e HTSC and enable easy access of the industrial partners to the programs and research staff. How it will work The center stimulates the co-creation of eco-systems around new AM equipment concepts, organized in shared research innovation programs, addressing next generation AM equipment challenges and creating value for companies along the value chain. AMSYSTEMS offers a mix of shared fundamental and applied research as well as contract research, to serve the needs of the industry. Digital technologies.

am-LAB is having a physical presence in the West Pannon region of Hungary. The location of am-LAB is: 9700 – Szombathely, Zanati str. 32-36 (Hungary). am-LAB is in the proximity of the CLAUDIUS Industry Park of Szombathely supported with excellent road connections (motorway, highway), excellent public transport (regular buses, trains), and of course high speed internet is granted.

am-LAB is the service provider for promoting and assisting digitization of SMEs in Western Hungary. In the forefront are additive manufacturing, maturity technology survey and their broad applications. am-LAB is the 100% daughter company of Pannon Business Network Association - PBN.

Currently am-LAB website is operating under www.amlab.hu where it is clearly explained am-LAB activities and the services provided related to the digital transformation of the SMEs.

PBN has over a decade of experience in developing competitiveness of businesses and transforming them into policy inputs. Over 200 SMEs received innovation benchmarking and mentoring services in the previous funding period. More than 50 international partnership projects contributed to the gathering of high end international know-how and connections that were translated for the benefit of the companies. Key industrial focus areas are mechatronics, wood and furniture and logistics.

For over 3 years by now, Industry4.0 and digitization are the core areas. Numerous partnership projects include Central European collaboration for knowhow sharing, specialization in the field of smart factories. Additional competency is the high growth companies development. PBN got the contract of developing nationally the top 300 most promising HGCs, and transform their growth into a sustainable way – with digitization the center. It also includes technology maturity audit, in close co-operation with Upper Austria and Baden- Württemberg. Over a year ago additive manufacturing was also incorporated into the vision.

PBN has strong co-operational network in mechatronics, which is a decisive sector in Western Hungary. The relevant cluster management and educational institutions have a strategic working relationship with PBN.

Wood and furniture sector is important, as the forestry coverage is significant and the only university with forestry specialization is located in Western Hungary. The nationally accredited cluster management has ten years of working relationship with PBN. Logistics and warehousing are dependent on the strong manufacturing industry. It represents important part of the employment, and Hungarian SMEs are well represented.

 

am-LAB partnership hub has a broad access to regional and national SMEs. PBN has over a decade of experience with SME innovation management and benchmarking. The pool of partners exceeds 250, covering all strategic sectors of the Western Hungarian economy. Additionally, PBN is the partner of the High Growth Companies development program, including 300 manufacturing companies. It is the exclusive access to the highest potential family-owned companies in Hungary. There are ongoing activities related to the SMEs at PBN. It also supports a living, innovation-oriented partnership pool, which is a solid platform for the am-LAB hub.

Local innovation technology transfer network has strong organically developed relations. Members of the hub are local university – ELTE Multidisciplinary Science Network -, local manufacturing company, cluster of mechatronic manufacturing SMEs. Regional government is supporting and closely following the progress.

PBN is also member of the Hungarian National 5G Coalition, which aims to collect all the innovation-oriented organizations that are willing to benefit from the broadband development of Hungary. am-LAB - due to the large quantity of digital data generated and processed – is a strategic member. Conferences are great platform to intermediate international knowledge to the local ecosystem.

PBN is organizing conferences and workshops, in 2017. November on additive manufacturing. 6 international partners are presenting and sharing how digitization contributed to their local business environment evolution, and am-LAB will be introduced as the anchor of the regional digitization initiatives in SME manufacturing. It is a regular form of sharing insights and know-how. Digital technologies.

Algebra LAB is an innovation/research and education hub, working as a part of the largest private educational institution in Croatia, Algebra University Group. Algebra LAB represents a one-stop relevant experience point for the application of digital technologies in business.

Our mission is to provide access to best practices, education, use cases, guidelines and support in applying digital technologies and the development of digital skills in order to help clients address their challenges in a business-focused way and with a common service model, offering services that are not readily accessible elsewhere. By leveraging our expertise, we are providing support on all levels of digital maturity, agnostic to technology, across various sectors, with proven ability to predict future skill needs.

Algebra LAB as DIH is supporting companies in the region and across sectors respectively with expertise in digital technologies they need for their digital projects and digital transformation in several areas: 

Data science&advanced analytics including IoT, AI and blockchain,
Digital marketing,
Digital art production and
Cybersecurity.

DIH is providing access to experts in digital technologies as well as use cases and best educational practice, making possible for companies, and especially SMEs, to utilise DIHs resources in order to focus on quality and competitiveness of their services and market presence. Using the 20 years of our educational/research market legacy, Algebra LAB community includes 600+ experts, 15.000+ participants/year, 1.000+ active students and 50+ industry partners.

Within Algebra LAB, we established an innovation incubator/accelerator and acquired as its basis the oldest Croatian entrepreneurship incubator ZIP (http://zipzg.com/en/). This enabled us to attain access to funding for SMEs, as well as to develop an innovation ecosystem and incubator/mentoring services.

As a part of our instituional focus on promotion and raising awareness concerning the importance of digital technologies, we are taking roles and partnerships in regional, national and European policy initiatives for industry digitalization. Digital technologies.

Algarve Smart Destination (ASD), Digital Innovation Hub (DIH) is as an informal network of private and public institutions focalized in digitalization of economy in the territory, mainly in turism sector, led by the Algarve Systems and Technological Partnership Association (Algarve STP), a non for profit association that incorporates the University of Algarve, the National Association of Young Entrepreneurial (ANJE) and three Municipalities of the Algarve region, namely Loulé, Faro, Olhão and a private association of IT companies, Algarve Evolution

ASD incorporates the Division of Entrepreneurship and Technology Transfer (CRIA) of the University of Algarve, as an experienced entity in assisting SMEs, entrepreneurs and research centers, scouting and fostering research and development, and implementing innovation. Moreover, CRIA manages an early-stage innovation incubator, aiming to foster startups and spinoffs and support the implementation of applied R&D projects by industry partners. Moreover, CRIA integrates an Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs), assisting researchers, entrepreneurs, startups and SME’s in protecting and transfer knowledge to the market. In the scope of the digitization process, the University of Algarve, CRIA plays a relevant role in providing training courses and services to support the transition to the digital economy.

Altis is a technological company with large expertise in the field of communication and digitalization, especially trough Altice Labs. The company is an important player, at a national and international level, that reinforces the activity of the Algarve Smart Destination HUB, as well as the innovation and networking potential

Fraunhofer Portugal contributes significantly with expertise in the digitation process and in applied research with companies.

The ASD focuses on linking research institutions, industrial and technological centers, industrial associations, incubators, science and technology parks, industrial companies, technology companies, training institutions, and government agencies.

More specifically, ASD aims to create linkages, namely:

Between technological providers and technological needs of tourism and smart destination and cities;
Supporting SME’s in the digitalization process;
Improving the use of the technological solution for problem-solving in tourism and smart destination and cities;
Attract innovative and technological providers in the territory, mainly for the tourism sector and management for a smart destination using ICT and process digitalization;
To create a favorable environment for technological development and experimentation;
Develop IA and deep learning applied in the tourism sectors and in digital marketing applications

Predictive analysis and deep learning to understanding the tourism industry and IoT process automatization to foster an efficient Smart Destination Management are some of the paths to follow Digital technologies.

The mission of Alexandra is to help private and public companies to develop new ICT-based products and services based on the newest ICT-research and technology. Alexandra is a Danish Research- and Technolology Organisation (RTO) - in Danish GTS – Advanced Technology Group is a network consisting of independent Danish research and technology organisations.  A GTS-institute is approved as technological service provider by the Danish Minister of Higher Education and Science. Alexandra has participated in a number of Danish national and regional initiatives in order to assist companies with digitization.  Here we describe some of the current initiatives where Alexandra participates.  Alexandra has assisted many companies with digitization since 1999 -- many of these are presented as Cases at www.alexandra.dk. When collaborating with Alexandra, companies get acces to the newest research and technology within ICT and in this way they get ahead of the competition. Digital technologies.

Artificial Intelligence & Robotics for Sustainable Development Goals (AIR4S) is the one-stop-shop hub in Madrid Region that provides innovative solutions and services to Industry and Public Administrations on Artificial Intelligence and Robotics based technologies. AIR4S bets for the accomplishment of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) as a way to leverage growth on organizations in a sustainable way and to effectively return to the society their investment. The DIH seeks to promote the development and growth of industry in the Community of Madrid through the use and implementation of technologies based on artificial intelligence and robotics as a driver of change and transformation of industrial and business activity in line with the objectives of recent initiatives promoted by the regional and national government. Its activity is non-profit, as it aims to facilitate the digitisation process of the business fabric of the Community of Madrid (more than 90% of which is made up of SMEs and Startups) and of the Public Administration. All the project's resources are invested in achieving these objectives aimed at social and economic change and transformation. AIR4S is promoted and coordinated by UPM, and it counts with the participation of outstanding partners strongly committed to complete an amazing open innovation ecosystem to drive companies to transform, grow and become more competitive in the digital world. AIRS4S will help entities, specially SMEs but also midcaps, big companies and public administrations, to improve their products, services and processes, by introducing the great advantages of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics into their business. UPM firmly believes that the future of innovation in these technologies is to address the co-creation of the digital future together with other disciplines in research, open innovation and education, aligning business and growth with the Sustainable Development Goals. AIR4S vision is to become a reference DIH in Europe contributing to the digitization of industry by transforming companies and public administration through Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals and being respectful with the social, legal and ethical aspects of these technologies. To achieve this vision AIR4S internally operates in a network of 5 Research Institutes, 13 Research Centers, 3 Innovation Centers and 200 research groups where professors, researchers, engineers, students, business developers and entrepreneurs, physically come together to jointly co-create the digital future in all areas of Engineering and Architecture. AIR4S ecosystem Thanks to this UPM broad environment, AIR4S can provide all-disciplines-companies a multidisciplinary and personalised approach and consequently address multisector domains in a confident way, bringing together world-class technological expertise and infrastructure on AI & Robotics but also deep knowledge on how to apply these technologies on different market domains. The expertise and collaborations of the different sectoral Centers/Schools definitively contributes to support organizations in their related field, tackling their digitization process really from the market need (eg: Agronomics School, Forestry School, Biomedical Technology Center, Mines and Energy School, etc.). UPM is a leader in AI & Robotics technologies, with a number of H2020, National and Regional Research and Innovation projects, but also with long-term direct alliances with companies which fully acknowledges UPM track record expertise in these technologies. UPM is Founding Member of the Big Data Value Association (BDVA) and Member of the euRobotics Association, and is actively contributing to the European Artificial Intelligence Alliance and the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking. The DIH is complemented by leading stakeholders that will successfully complement AIR4S services and impact thanks to its huge expertise proving services to entities, supporting different funding models and disseminating innovation in the region.  AIR4S is supported by many funding sources, but specifically by the Madrid Region innovation hubs call with 450K€ for the 3-year period 2019-2020. The partners involved in AIR4S are: Digital technologies.