Wallachia eHub is a consortium created by five non-governmental organisations, especially clusters, comprising universities and companies active in several sectors like: geographical information systems, design, IT&C, furniture, green energy, organic farming, oil and gas, and research and educational services. Wallachia eHub is a non-profit organization with a managerial unit located in Ploiesti, at the headquarters of a founding member, Danube Engineering Hub.  Wallachia eHub helps companies to become more competitive with regard to their business using digital technologies.

Wallachia eHub mission is to provide digital services to private sector companies, especially to SMEs, but also to public sector. Our vision is to contribute to the accelerated adoption of new digital technologies in the South-Muntenia region and to ensure through specialized services digital transformation of the SMEs in the region. In our vision South-Muntenia will become a vibrant region dedicated to digital transformation in the Danube area.

Wallachia eHub founding members are:

Danube Engineering Hub Cluster (https://clusterdeh.ro/) aims to harmonize and represent the interests of businesses, research, administration and catalyst entities in order to increase economic competitiveness and create skills, sustainable and sustainable development, internationalization of members, professional development of managers and employees, management of a common database, participation in national and European networks, increasing the innovation potential of enterprises.

The most relevant features of Danube Engineering Hub are:

Participants of the cluster are involved in the decision making and strategic orientation of the cluster organisation. DEH has a strong system of cluster governance in place. The cluster manager and/or the cluster organisation staff possess international work experience, foreign language skills and a professional international network;
Regularly and well-maintained personal contacts between the cluster management team and the cluster participants are key elements for management excellence of DEH;
Financial sustainability of cluster organisations is secured in the long term;
Already R&D or business collaboration.

For its activity DEH Cluster has received the Silver Label from ESCA (The European Secretariat for Cluster Analysis) since 2017. DEH is member of the Romanian Cluster Association CLUSTERO.

CERMAND Cluster (Cluster for renewable energies on the Black Sea and the Danube - https://www.cermand.eu/) aims to ensure the sustainable microgeneration of energy at Regional level with national, macro-regional and European impact. The use of own resources will be considered, with the central objective of ensuring environmental protection and reducing losses and pollution by integrating innovative concepts of energy transition in local development policies and aiming to support SMEs in the renewable energy sector. Its main objectives are:

Development of innovative distributed microgeneration solutions for electricity and heat from RES;
Development of the innovative circuit production-use energy based on microgeneration from RES at the place of consumption;
Developing strategies to increase productivity and competitiveness for cluster members;
Development of integrated solutions to reduce energy losses;
Development of bioeconomic business models in order to reduce CO2 emissions.

Danube Furniture Cluster (http://adf-dfc.ro/en/home/) was created at the initiative of a group of companies, start-ups and a university entrepreneurial center in order to become a center of excellence in the furniture industry and an attraction for companies in the region that want to develop on the domestic and international value chain, in a combined effort, within a cluster-like structure

Danube Furniture Cluster promotes innovation, technology transfer, entrepreneurship and collaboration based on mutual trust for developing and increasing the competitiveness of the companies that compose it.

The vision and mission of the Danube Furniture Cluster is to develop as much value chain as possible on national and international links in the field of the furniture industry, to identify as easily as possible the resources needed for the whole process, through RDI activities, and technological transfer and specific knowledge of the domain.

Bio Concept Valea Prahovei Cluster (https://www.bioconceptvaleaprahovei.ro/) was established in order to promote excellence in the field of marketing certified organic products, increase competitiveness in this field, harmonization, representation and defence of members' interests at national and international level. The activity of the cluster is supported by youth groups, community groups as well as by the local administration which is involved in sustainable development actions, environmental protection and ecology thus contributing to maintaining a natural, clean and healthy environment.

University Entrepreneurial Center USH Pro Business (http://www.ushprobusiness.ro/en) is a dedicated center for entrepreneurial activities, designed to support companies and provide solutions to sustain competitiveness throughout the business life cycle.

The center offers specialized services and assistance through projects and programes that resulted from out previous discussions with the companies and with the business environment. USH Pro Business Center brings value to the services existing on the market through the understanding regarding our partner's needs and connecting them with the university environment.

Objectives

Digital education of the managers and working force;
Creation of new skills based on digital technologies;
Development of smart specialization platform based on digital technologies;
Develop and promote on the market products and services based on digital technologies;
Develop relations with other regional hubs in Europe especially in the EUSDR countries.

Through Wallachia eHub we act as a catalyst for a better entrepreneurial smart specialization process in the region, digitally driven. Pursuing an assessment and selection process in the strategy, main sectors of smart specialization that have the highest potential for innovation and development have been identified:

Agriculture and food industry: with emphasis on ecological products where we will support precision and digital processes;
Tourism: for areas in the northern part of the region (mountains and hills Valea Prahovei, Curtea de Argeş, Câmpulung, Rucăr, Dâmboviţa, Bran Bridge etc) and Danube River areas in the southern part. Main focus will be digitalization for healthy and ecological tourism, cycling routes, cultural tourism;
Smart Cities: Information management and management technology, computing and imaging; Production of solar panels; Urban Mobility Plans; Waste management plans;
Wood Processing & Furniture: Production& Implementation of assistive technologies for production processes, quality & design;
Green energy;
Heritage conservation and development.

For these areas the center has developed ability to offer services to the region in engineering, GIS application, engineering in precision agriculture, industry 4.0 in furniture manufacturing and other industries and green energies, engineering in logistic digitalization.

We are able also to offer the best expertise and skills in technologies needed for digital transformation, such as: data processing, IoT, Industry 4.0, Artificial Intelligence, robotics, cloud computing, laser technologies, blockchain, systems of spatial or geographical information and others.

Targets and services for regional clients

Our hub is well connected to the Danube region and is an active partner in the macro-regional context of the Danube Strategy. Therefore, we will harmonize our services and targets not only in the national or European context, but also in the macro-regional context, South-Muntenia region being bordered at the south by the Danube River.

DIH will focus on:

SMEs in the South Muntenia region - South Muntenia region has a low density of SMEs and even a smaller number of innovative ones. Therefore, we target both start-ups and start-ups services which can focus on innovative digitalization and SMEs able to scaleup their business in smart specialisation already mentioned above. At the same group are targeted cluster managers which can act as brokers to reach the companies inside their clusters.
Researchers and innovators, including individuals, young PhD students, academics, students, Start-uppers, SMEs, and industry players actively engaged in research and innovation initiatives that are of direct relevance to define, strengthen and shape the R&D agenda for the DIH and grow the DIH ecosystem.
Local authorities, Public Administration bodies, Policymakers: the various public and private authorities and policymakers committed to the DIH by supporting the development of its initiatives, fostering research, development and innovation that shall have a positive impact for the regional/ national society.
Regional, national and EU representatives and entities, involved in DIHs assessment and evaluation – to be further identified and defined this segment.

For these groups we will design packages of services adapted to each of them which will include the following

Training, awareness and transfer of knowledge regarding digital transformation and digital technologies. We will bring together digital social innovators, universities and civil society including the broad media, citizens, students, researchers, social entrepreneurs, NGOs and smart cities representatives that could benefit from an open R&D&I ecosystem creating opportunities for individuals a

Wageningen University and Research (WUR) consists of Wageningen University and the former agricultural research institute of the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture. The research institutes of WUR carry out application-oriented and practical research on behalf of the government, the business community and non-profit organizations. Research is often conducted in a partnership of several research institutes, with or without the university, and often also with external Dutch or international knowledge partners. Based on our mission, we offer knowledge and expertise in the field of climate, biodiversity, food production, healthy and safe food and the circular economy.  The aim of Stichting Wageningen Research (WR) is to promote the general interest, and due to the financing associated with this aim, WR is part of the public domain. Any generated income remains within the foundation and is used to maintain the knowledge infrastructure in specific fields of expertise. In short, Stichting Wageningen Research is a not for profit legal entity governed by private law with a public service mission and preserved by state R&D programmes financially.  Digital technologies.

The internationally recognised VRVis is Austria‘s leading nonprofit research institution in the field of visual computing and is part of the Austrian Flagship Research Competence Program COMET conducted by FFG. Through our expertise in basic research as well as in applied research, we are instrumental in positioning Austria as a leading technological and knowledge-based region in Europe. Internationality is reflected not only in our scientific network, but also in our team, our cooperation partners as well as clients from all over the world.

As a nonprofit research institute, VRVis sees its main task in building a bridge between science and industry. To achieve this goal, we build a strong interdisciplinary framework of national and international scientists, researchers, government organizations, SMEs and corporations, other nonprofit institutions as well as industry and cultural experts to develop technologies and solutions to benefit our society. VRVis transfers the know-how of top-level visual computing technology to business and industry and other branches of science to optimally leverage all possible potential through state-of-the-art R&D findings, especially by utilizing the large data sets specific to each branch and sector. We publicise our projects and achievements as well as the various uses of visual computing to the general public through active science communication to contribute to public discussion and raise awareness about technological impacts and advantages.

The core competence of VRVis is the use of the key enabling technologies data analytics and visual computing to combine the strengths of human perception with the processing power of computers to generate information and images from large and complex data. In this, VRVis focuses on the human user making decisions based on tailor-made visualization methods and solutions ("human in the loop"). Artificial intelligence research, on which VRVis is increasingly focusing, will continue this concept.

Visual Computing is not limited to any industry, so our research projects at VRVis cover a wide range of data types and applications including engine simulation, image analytics, 3D reconstruction, laser range scans, financial data, energy data, hydrodynamic modelling, automatic segmentation of point clouds, and seismic measurements for oil field research - to just name a few. Our research aims to provide means to visualize, analyze and interact with data to translate the inherent information for the human user as an essential basis for decision-making. The key factors are real-time capability, usability as well as quality and accuracy of the resulting methods and applications.

Visual Computing is a cross-section technology. This means that there is not a fixed industry area for the application of the research results, but rather a large number of markets using the computer graphics tool. Solutions and prototypes are developed by us according to customer-specific requirements and have direct reference to current tasks in industry and economy. The following is a list of the markets in which we operate:

Automotive Industries
Climate Change Adaption
Cultural Heritage
Energy sector
Industry and manufacturing
Infrastructure and traffic solutions
Medicine and biotechnology
Geology
Planetary science
Other markets

We collaborate with small and big companies as well as local and international enterprises, but support especially SMEs with our know-how and our broad services in R & D. Especially SMEs benefit through the access to the newest key enabling technologies, which we provide thanks to our award-winning in-house research as well as our extensive international network of scientific partners. Through this we offer SMEs and local enterprises the opportunity to gain a decisive technological advantage.

Competences

Artificial intelligence
Machine learning, deep learning
Biomedical visualization
Image data mining and spatial indexing
Image data and open research data management
Human computer interaction
Visual analytics
Virtual reality and augmented reality
Interactive visualization
Geospatial visualization
3D reconstruction
Additive manufacturing
Disaster management and visual decision support
Hydrodynamic simulation and modelling
Digital twins

Software Platforms

Many years of intensive research have led to a large number of software components that have developed into platforms and now provide an effective basis for many innovative projects. The fields of application range from high-performance visual computing and biomedical visualisation through to data analysis tools and the evaluation of simulation results.

The following VRVis software platforms are being used in a number of application-oriented projects:

Brain* for management, analysis and visualisation of very large collections of spatial neuroscientific data
Aardvark for smart modelling, photogrammetric reconstruction and interactive presentation
GEARViewer is a powerful visualisation framework for infrastructure projects
PRo3D short for Planetary Robotics 3D Viewer, is an interactive 3D visualization tool allowing planetary scientists to work with high-resolution 3D reconstructions of the Martian surface.
Visplore for validation, analysis, and decision making on the basis of multivariate data
Visdom combines visualisation, simulation, and analysis techniques to assist decision making in the geospatial domain.

Digital technologies.

Vpdelta: Provides area managers at home and abroad innovative solutions of Dutch soil .; Creates accessible test sites where researchers and entrepreneurs collaborate on concrete innovations .; Supports startups and SMEs in the development and market introduction of innovations .; Connects students and scientists to startups and engages in international participation projects .; Supports governments and companies in shaping their role as launching customer. Digital technologies.

Vitus Bering Innovation Park  connects and facilitates the innovation ecosystem, and provides a close contact between research, education and industry. The park was founded by VIA University College and the foundation Insero, both actively contributing to Vitus Bering Innovation Park’s unique development environment, where innovation, business and education meet and houses cluster companies and start-ups within tech and digital solutions.

Vitus Bering Innovation Park are experts in incubation and acceleration programmes for tech and digital entrepreneurs, with diverse testing facilities (Engineering lab, ICT lab, BIM lab, Design Lab, Energy Lab and a Maker Space) and business consulting. Vitus Bering Innovation Park also develops international innovation projects and provides aid on external funding and/or investments. Digital technologies.

VIRTUAL VEHICLE is a leading international research and development center for the automotive and rail industries, located in Graz, Austria. The center focuses on the advanced virtualization of development. An essential element is the linking of numerical simulations and hardware testing which leads to a powerful HW-SW system design.

VIRTUAL VEHICLE’s international partner network consists of:

80+ international industrial partners (OEMs, Tier 1 & Tier 2 suppliers, software vendors)
40+ international scientific institutions

VIRTUAL VEHICLE is the largest COMET funded research center and is also active in 30+ EU-projects. Furthermore, VIRTUAL VEHICLE offers a broad portfolio of contract research for the vehicle development. Digital technologies.

ViDIH unites business oriented clusters, innovative high-tech companies and research institutions. ViDIH aims to become a strong intersectoral DIH at North-Easter Europe level, developing the activities in these four areas: IT technologies Photonics, laser, space, telecomunications, scientific publishing and advanced manufacturing Consulting on access to funding, and the access to finance of implementation of digital solutions Relations with industry ViDIH has strong expertise in Big Data Management, Artificial Intelligence, IoT and applications for process control in various market verticals (photonics, laser, space, telecomunications, scientific publishing and advanced manufacturing) aiming to combine practical hands-on solutions and consulting activities with strengtened skills. Apart from mobilising business, technical and social capital to promote digitization locally, ViDIH would be very much interested in collaborating with other DIHs nationally and EU-wide. DIH coordinator – VITP (Visoriai information technology park) is an experienced non profit organisation with 16 years of successful project management history and advanced network of collaboration in Santara Valley (Life Science, ICT, information technology development at Santara Valley is coordinated by VITP). There are partnerships with Vilnius University in areas of Mathematics and Informatics; R&D and technology transfer activities focus on (together with Vilnius Gediminas Technical University): industrial and business software development; recognition processes, data analysis and multi-modal optimization of multimedia technologies; tagging and contextual search of scientific information; development of new medical devices. Services Provided Businesses need to understand which technologies to invest in, when to invest and to what extent. ViDIH helps businesses and technology companies to become more competitive by means of digital technology. ViDIH allows any business to access the latest knowledge, expertise and technology for testing and experimenting with digital innovations. ViDIH provides connections with investors, facilitates access to funding, and helps connect suppliers and users of digital technologies. Present network allows ViDIH to provide full range of DIH services: awareness creation; ecosystem building, scouting, brokerage, networking; visioning and strategy development for businesses; collaborative research; concept validation and prototyping; testing and validation; pre-competitive series production; commercial infrastructure; digital maturity assessment; incubator/accelerator support; voice of the customer, product consortia; market intelligence; access to funding and investor readiness services; mentoring. Digital technologies.

ViaMéca is a « pôle de compétitivité » (innovation hub) devoted to the "design, production and integration of intelligent mechanical systems". ViaMéca collaborative projects as well as scientific knowledge deal with :

- Surface Engineering and Manufacturing

- Advanced Manufacturing Processes

- Robotic and Productive Systems

- Engineering driven by uses and servitization Digital technologies.

Ventspils High Technology Park, Foundation is identified among two existing Digital Innovation Hubs (DIHs) in Latvia. DIH in Ventspils helps regional companies to become more competitive by improving their business processes as well as services and products by means of digital technology. In broad terms, the services available through DIH in Ventspils may be categorised as:

Awareness and Skills Creation
Knowledge and Networks
Co-creation Infrastructure
Collaborative Research
Business Development

The market sectors covered by DIH in Ventspils today include high-tech and mid-tech manufacturing industries (e.g., ICT, machinery and equipment, electrical and optical equipment). We plan to upgrade existing DIH in Ventspils by meeting wider needs of regional economy and setting-up the fully operational DIH in specific ICT competencies (robotics and automation) and Edtech.

A more detailed description of the services available through DIH in Ventspils is available below.

 

Awareness and Skills Creation

Awareness and Skills Creation services include:

Creating awareness around Digital Technologies. We engage within business community to create awareness of the opportunities and benefits of digitisation.
Identifying technologies that enable companies to remain competitive.
Showcasing the best practices and technologies through success stories how companies can digitise their processes, products or business models.
Providing training both to technical specialists and management.
Building local eco-system by networking developers, educational organisations, companies, governmental, municipal and support institutions within region to digitalise industries.

 

Knowledge and Networks

Knowledge and Networks services include:

Assessment of the potential of digital technologies (audits).
Innovation scouting, and access to specialist expertise.
Having identified needs, we work with the client to find solutions for digitisation.

We provide up-to-date knowledge and sector specific expertise, technology expertise and business model expertise. Our innovation experts offer consultations in innovation management, latest technologies, business trends, effective use of digital marketing channels, including social media.

We apply different types of innovation framework of building breakthroughs. Creating new products is only one way to innovate. DIH experts identify new opportunities beyond products and develop viable innovations (profit model, network, service, process, customer engagement, etc.)

Being part of a larger innovation ecosystem, DIH in Ventspils provides access to the services, facilities and expertise of a wide range of partners.  We link-up with other innovation hubs to improve collaboration, reinforce specialization and offer the best possible support for our clients.

 

Co-creation Infrastructure

We provide co-creation infrastructure to support maker culture, maker movement, grassroots digital fabrication and community-based innovations. We provide equipment, instruction, and support and build community for the purposes of enabling community members to design, prototype and create solutions that wouldn’t be possible to create with the resources available to individuals working alone.  We organise and provide:

Instruction to significantly increase community coverage and number of users involved in innovations, technology design and fabrication.
Tools and physical environment where individuals and start-ups can experiment and learn with others through hands-on involvement and self-directed projects.
Access to municipality support and consultations, as well as access to networks, funding and open­-source designs, tutorials, and workshops globally.

 

Collaborative Research

Collaborative Research services include:

Implementation of collaborative research projects in close co-operation with experts from Ventspils University of Applied Sciences and companies within region.
Collaboration with other DIHs in Europe is an essential part of innovation projects.
Help to companies through supporting design and fabrication of new products (e.g. concept validation, prototyping, technology testing and validation, pre-competitive series production).

 

Business Development

Business development services include:

Visioning and Strategy Development for digitisation. Working with the clients to envision their digital future and develop a strategy for delivering this vision.
Brokering/matchmaking.
Business coaching & mentoring.
Access to funding and investments. Helping SMEs and start-ups to access regional, national and/or European funding to make use of new technologies. Assisting SMEs to explain their strategies to banks and private investors.
Investor readiness and growth services.
Digital technologies.

The mission of the VDTC is to explore and promote the role of human operators in an ever-increasing digitized and automated production and work environment. Following an approach coined as “Digital Engineering and Operation”, the VDTC postulates the consistent and consequent use of digital data throughout the life cycle of a production and/or work system. Being able to fully retain and exploit data from and within all steps in the life cycle, from design, to testing, documentation, factory planning, training, operation to dismantling, offers the opportunity to radically change human machine interaction. The VDTC offers solutions for embedding human operators in a digitized and automated environment by providing assistance systems, which fully benefit from a virtual knowledge base established through the approach of digital engineering and operation.
Within this mission, the VDTC offers its services to companies of varying sizes from SME and Mid-Caps to large companies and international corporations. The VDTC’s solutions, moreover, provide for different customized approaches addressing companies on different innovation stages, from awareness raising and maturity level identification for newcomers to digitization, to insular solutions and services for starter companies, to full systems solutions for advanced companies. Digital technologies.