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.

AI4GALICIA is a Digital Innovation Hub (DIH) whose mission is to increase the competitiveness of the Galician production sector by promoting and intensifying the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) by companies and other economic actors in the region.

AI4GALICIA is a NON-PROFIT organisation.

The specific objectives of AI4GALICIA are as follows:

Integrate and encourage cooperation between the University of A Coruña, technology centres, business, industry and its associates, venture capital firms, state administration bodies and other relevant agents.
Offer high added-value services in the areas of R&D, innovation management and technology transfer.
Train students, professionals and companies in Artificial Intelligence techniques and solutions.
Actively identify the challenges facing industry, the public sector and society.
Encourage cooperation between DIH nationally and internationally by promoting joint actions and projects, providing services and exchanging knowledge and good practice.

AI4GALICIA has been created as part of the European Commission’s Digitising European Industry (DEI) initiative, aimed at promoting the digitisation of industry and related services across all sectors (https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/policies/digitising-europ…).

One of the core purposes of this initiative is to create Digital Innovation Hubs (DIH) across all European regions where companies (especially SMEs and start-ups) can find the infrastructures, expertise and advice they need to incorporate digital innovations into their production processes.

AI4GALICIA operates within the framework of the Connected Industry 4.0 programme created by the Spanish government (https://www.industriaconectada40.gob.es/Paginas/index.aspx#inicio). The main tools and services offered by the programme include digital enablers and implementation support for companies, knowledge sharing, and the development of digital technology skills for industry.

AI4GALICIA is also part of the Smart Specialisation Strategy for Galicia (RIS3). Its contribution is centred around the three priorities contained in Challenge 2 of the strategy document: to support the diversification of economic driver sectors in Galicia; to strengthen the competitiveness of the Galician industrial sector; and to promote ICT in Galicia as a key enabling technology. Digital technologies.

The Digital Innovation Hub ahedd, as a non-profit partnership between research organisations and innovative SMEs with high expertise in different fields of data science, aspires to form the key cog towards the creation of a digital innovation ecosystem that will help SMEs located in Attica make the leap towards a data-driven economy.  As a result, the Hub will affect significantly the regional economy via the provision of a hands-on digitisation support to the industrial ecosystem of SMEs in Attica ; creating this way a sustainable ecosystem that will facilitate the uptake and integration of core technologies (i.e., AI, big data, IoT, etc.) across the regional and national industry.

The ahedd partners decided to join forces in order to develop a leading adn open “one-stop-shop” for local SMEs to enrich their competitive advantages through digital transformation and digital innovation. Its mission is to develop and orchestrate a digital innovation ecosystem in order to match the opportunities and challenges faced by regional SMEs in relation to big data management, artificial intelligence-empowered analytics and IoT.

The ahedd ecosystem will help SMEs to:

successfully go through digital transformation processes;
develop and enhance their digital innovation potential;
increase their digital innovation competencies and skills;
innovate in ways that take advantage of AI, data management and IoT technologies;
increase their competitiveness and add significant value to their offerings and the community they serve.

ahedd is a gold BDVA i-Space. Digital technologies.

Lithuania Agro Space Digital Innovation Hub (Agro Space DIH)

 

Lithuania Agro Space DIH is a non-profit regional focus network that brings together Lithuanian research, education, business and governmental institution organisations all aimed at fostering cross-sectoral digital technology innovation. A sum of 11 key stakeholders (governmental institutions, clusters, industry & business associations and science & technology parks) have expressed their interest in mutual cooperation and the establishment of Agro Space DIH.

 

The main strategic objectives of the Agro Space DIH are to commence and develop public sector, business and scientific cooperation in the fields of agrofood and related fields digitalisation, agrospace and agroinnovation industry innovation and novice production process, material and technology development. These objectives are to help create added value, improve business and service processes and foster mutual communication between different actors involved in the process, initiate development of new products, improve quality assurance and to participate in EU and national programmes.

 

Vilnius Industry and Business Association (VPVA) acts as the coordinator of the DIH. Established in 1996, VPVA comprises over 300 members from different industries, representing various business directions, other business associations, manufacturing, service and consulting companies in Lithuania.

 

Agro Space DIH is tailored to ensure that every company, small or large, high-tech or not, can grasp digital opportunities. In cooperation with member and partner organisations the hub is able to provide the needed support and consultations for local SME’s in Lithuania in fields related to digital technology development. The main objective here is to help create added value, improve business and service processes and foster mutual communication between different actors involved in the process.  This is being achieved through so called “One-Stop-Shop” service that is provided by the network and partnering organisations. The network enables all industry players to initiate, design and reciprocate technologies and best practices at any given development phase.

 

The majority (around ¾) of the network’s activities are aimed at bringing together (events, search of partners, finding investment, helping to commercialise products and services) Lithuanian research and development expertise in the field of digital agriculture technology innovations and rural development. The usual practice of DIH is to lead a company through the full-length process (strategic phase, initial phase, concept phase, development phase) of achieving the solution launch, focusing mainly on TRL4 to TRL9. The scope of services also include networking, collaborative research, commercial infrastructure, financial aid through different instruments (e.g. Horizon 2020, COSME, etc.) 

 

Agro Space DIH vision is to become the “go to” solution provider for development, digital technology transfer and innovation dissemination in key sectors: agriculture, space, manufacturing (Industry 4.0) and service innovation. The priority is to advance the partnership capabilities of agricultural and space technology companies by amplifying the network’s platform within Lithuania and transnationally.

 

The main activities pithing the hub are in line with the national RIS3 strategies (http://sumani2020.lt/apie-sumania-speciaizacija/prioritetai) that comprise such strategic fields as:
Agroinovation and food technologies
    - Advanced pest control and plant nutrition systems
    - Precision (precision) crop and livestock farming technologies
    - Technologies of agricultural raw materials and their processing
Novice production processes, materials and technologies
    - Physical Impact Measurement and Materials Recognition Technologies
    - Innovative and balanced design solutions and modeling techniques
    - Virtual Product Development Technologies
    - Materials and resource-efficient technologies
    - Robotic Production Technologies
    - Intelligent Process Control Systems Digital technologies.

AgriFood Lithuania is a Digital Innovation Hub, operating on a not-for-profit basis, that brings together major research, business and public stakeholders in Lithuania for the common pursuit of digital transformations in the agriculture, food and associated sectors.

The strategic mission of AgriFood Lithuania DIH is to contribute towards achieving the vision outlined in the EU Declaration of ‘A smart and sustainable digital future for European agriculture and rural areas’.

With over 20 public, science, education, industry and SME partners, the AgriFood Lithuania acts as coordinator and facilitator of digital-based technology solutions for agriculture and food industries. To this end, the DIH seeks to:

Provide all-round support and specialized services in the research, development and deployment of AgriFood Tech innovations;
Facilitate partnerships in collaborative development, technology transfer and industrial uptake of high-tech innovations;
Link national innovation projects, startups and SMEs with wider international and cross-sector initiatives and competence networks;
Contribute to and strengthen the national and European technological infrastructure.
Digital technologies.

Digital Innovation Hub ‘AgriFood Croatia’ is a not-for-profit networked organization of Croatian research, public institutions and private business with a common goal of co-creating and implementing technological innovations for the agriculture, aquaculture and food sectors. The overall mission of AgriFood Croatia is to contribute towards the digitization of agriculture, aquaculture and food sectors, in accordance to the principles and priorities outlined in the EU Declaration of ‘A smart and sustainable digital future for European agriculture and rural areas’. The DIH acts as a one-stop-shop for innovation-related expertise, guidance, support and specialized services. It the only Croatian DIH directly focusing on agriculture, aquaculture and food technological innovations, proving national and international partners with localized know-how and specialized excellence. AgriFood Croatia facilitates strategic partnerships and enables cross-border collaboration opportunities for projects, startups and SMEs working with digital-based technologies, as well as serving industrial enterprises and farmers interested in implementing these solutions. The activities of AgriFood Croatia are not-for-profit and aimed at encouraging economic growth for its network members, partners and other beneficiaries.   Digital technologies.