Started in 2013, the initiative TETRACOM (https://www.tetracom.eu) was designed as a pilot project with a novel and unique vehicle to boost small-scale and highly focused bilateral academia-industry technology transfer in all ICT domains. During its three-year pilot phase, it has strongly demonstrated how to optimally address the gap to bring academic excellence to sound business results. With a special focus on small and medium-sized enterprises, the pilot financially supported 50 actual transfer experiments throughout Europe and helped to generate a multitude of new jobs, new products and new businesses. Based on its highly recognized success TETRACOM has evolved into TETRAMAX, operating at much larger scale and with even higher ambitions (https://www.tetramax.eu). It is primary aiming to provide the implementation of the European “Smart Anything Everywhere (SAE)” initiative in the domain of customized low energy computing (CLEC) for CPS and the IoT. The initiative builds on three major activity lines: (1) Stimulating, organizing, co-funding, and evaluating different types of cross-border Application Experiments, providing “EU added value” via innovative CLEC technologies to first-time users and broad markets in European ICT-related industries, (2) Building and leveraging a new European CLEC competence center network, offering technology brokerage, one-stop shop assistance and CLEC training to SMEs and mid-caps, and with a clear evolution path towards new regional digital innovation hubs where needed, and (3) Paving the way towards self-sustainability based on pragmatic and customized long-term business plans. The project impact will be measured based on well-defined, goal-oriented performance indicators. The immediate ambition of TETRAMAX within its duration is to support 50+ industry clients and 3rd parties in the entire EU with innovative technologies, leading to an estimated revenue increase of 25 Mio. € based on 50+ new or improved CLEC-based products, 10+ entirely new businesses/SMEs initiated, as well as 30+ new permanent jobs and significant cost and energy savings in product manufacturing. Moreover, in the long term, TETRAMAX will be the trailblazer towards a reinforced, profitable, and sustainable ecosystem infrastructure, providing CLEC competence, services (https://www.tetramax.eu/the-project/​) and a continuous innovation stream at European scale, yet with strong regional presence as preferred by SMEs. Digital technologies.

The Digital Innovation Hub Technologies for Efficiency (T4E DIH) is a physical and virtual space in which actions and services of the different agents of Extremadura are concentrated for the development and improvement of products and productive and business processes, through the use of technology.
T4E DIH is a networking initiative without formal structure, non-profit in whose germ the Public-Private Foundation Fundecyt Science and Technology Park Extremadura (www.fundecyt-pctex.es). We work directly on the field supporting the Science, Technology and Innovation System of Extremadura with a focus on the new trends and digital strategies that are being developed in Europe. To do so, we offer the following services aimed at the Innovation System, companies present at the Ecosystem and entrepreneurs to help them in the transition towards digitalization. We work very closed with digital competence centers as the Foundation Cenits-Computaex (www.centis.es),  CETA-CIEMAT (https://www.ceta-ciemat.es ) University of Extremadura (https://www.unex.es/) and key players in our region such as the Association of Information and Communication Technologies Companies in Extremadura, (www.AEXTIC.com)

T4E DIH is framed in the Initiative for the Digitization of European Industry (https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/news/communication-digiti…).

Challenges and services of T4E DIH

The catalogue of services of T4E DIH responds to the following challenges: Efficiency concept  is a key factor for competitiveness in the four areas that shape the technological orientation challenges for Extremadura's DIH: Energy, Ecology (environmental), Equality, Economy. 

Energy Challenge : energy efficiency, as the main source of cost reduction facing the industry, and which also represents an important contribution to reducing the carbon footprint of production and, thereby, reducing its impact on the environment. In the same way, the integration of productive systems with energy generation systems, following circular economy models, is key for the translation of productive projects to countries with low quality of energy supply.

Technological solutions: new sources of energy, monitoring of energy expenditure, power electronics, energy storage, distributed energy models, are some examples of specific technical challenges that are included in this field. Internet of Things (e.g. connected devices, sensors and actuators networks). Robotics and autonomous systems.High Perfortmance Computing (HPC) 

Ecology Challenge (Environmental): the environment is considered by the current economists as the fourth factor of production. Consciousness of the limit in the use of resources supposes a restriction, more and more generalized, to industrial development and that changes the paradigm of productivity, typical of an oil-based economy, by a new paradigm, that of sustainability, owner of a new economic model that looks for renewable sources and that tries to optimize the biological and biotechnological processes for industrial uses. At present, the lack of productivity of biological resources and processes is the main challenge facing science and technology, leading to a progressive process of transition from an economy of fossil sources to a bio-economy.Traceability, the reduction of distribution chains and the reduction of transport needs and, above all, the hybridization between computer and electronic technologies with the life sciences, giving rise to so-called "omics" as enabling technologies Key (KETs, by its abbreviations in English, Key Enabling Technologies) that will probably provide the main disruptive innovations of the next years, are challenges and technological domains that must be present in the offer of services of the Hub.

Technological solutions: Technologies for efficiency in agriculture (high precision farming, drones or UAVs, irrigation systems by telemetry, automatized meteorological stations); technologies for efficiency in livestock etc..

Equality Challenge : the concept of equality, or equity, refers to the social dimension of economic activity, and is a gap that is becoming increasingly large between the North and the South, even within the developed societies, giving rise to some of the most pressing problems, such as migration processes, or demographic imbalances. The development of products for the Base of the Pyramid, that is, for that large percentage of the population that lives on less than two dollars a day, integrated solutions for the socio-economic development of the communities, or the use of technology with a source of rights , and services that improve the quality of life of the population, as well as the improvement of productive processes that facilitate the reconciliation of personal and professional life or skilled work from rural areas, are challenges to which digitization can contribute.

Technological solutions : Platform for responsible production and consumption; technologies for distribution and sales; technologies to improve health; work flexibility, teleworking and e-learning; robotic assistance systems

Economy Challenge : in the sense of "economy class" or "low cost" are tendencies that require efforts of efficiency in the use of resources, or in the redesign of processes so that competitiveness does not depend on the low cost of labour or environmentally unsustainable processes. European industry faces these market trends, and competition from countries with lower quality, environmental or labor standards; one option is to leave these market segments, but without them it will be difficult to converge with 20% of industrial GDP, the reindustrialization of Europe also means making companies that operate in traditional sectors where prices make a difference competitive, without the best alternative being the delocalisation of production and the focus on services, both design and development and marketing, because these activities are also less inclusive in terms of employment than productive activities.

Technological solutions Process reengineering, lean manufacturing, industry 4.0. applied to value chains, the reduction of intermediaries, the robotization of processes, the generation of large economies of scale through industrial symbiosis, competitive intelligence are some of the keys to improving efficiency in business processes that facilitate competitiveness in markets with reduced margins.Industrial robots; automatized warehouses and inventory management systems;digital manufacturing techniques, new manufacturing processes; lean manufacturing, energy saving systems in industry; energy storage systems; hybrid and electric vehicles;new materials; virtual and augmented reality Digital technologies.

The first Shared Smart Factory with a shared backbone for Smart Manufacturing, incubators en services. Next to that Added offers an in house facility for Hogeschool Stenden and educational institutes Digital technologies.

The Technologie-Initiative SmartFactory KL e.V., founded in 2005 as a non-profit association, is an Industrie 4.0 network of industrial and research partners who jointly carry out projects regarding the factory of the future. SmartFactoryKL is a manufacturer-independent demonstration and research platform which is unique in the world. Here, innovative information and communications technologies and their application are tested and developed in a realistic, industrial production environment. The technology initiative, supported by the active participation of its members, has already established pragmatic solutions, first products and common standards. SmartFactoryKL intensively cooperates with the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) in Kaiserslautern and was appointed Mittelstand 4.0-Kompetenzzentrum Kaiserslautern (SME 4.0 Competence Center) by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy in 2016. https://smartfactory.de/en/ Digital technologies.

TECHNOLOGICAL CENTER Hradec Králové supports science, research and business environment in the Kralovehradecky Region.

As a non-profit organization, founded by Statutory City of Hradec Kralove, it offers infrastructure and professional services to start-ups and SME with innovation potential. TC HK use its network of experts to provide SME with tailor-made solutions based on individual needs.

TC HK is fully-functional DIH, as it supports processes leading to development of new products, services and technologies. TC HK is involved in popularization, realization and research activities related to particular areas like virtual and augmented reality, Industry 4.0, SmartCity, Internet of Things or 3D print. 

TC HK provides SMEs, students, graphic designers and all other creative people with access to new digital technologies. Its new project, digiLAB, serves as a coworking space and it provides a wide range of HW and SW tools for creative projects, sound and video editing, virtual and augmented reality projects etc.  

TC HK cooperates with regional and national partners, such as CzechInno, CzechInvest etc. to help SME with their digital transformation and is a part of national and regional activities and initiatives related to new technologies, smart technologies and digitalization.

More info: https://www.tchk.cz/sluzby/inovace/digital-innovation-hub/ Digital technologies.

The TechMed Innovation Hub is a non-profit collaboration of partners, coordinated by the TechMed Centre of the University of Twente that stimulates the development and implementation of technology for better healthcare. In order to realize true impact in healthcare and the medtech industry, the TechMed Innovation Hub boosts innovation and digital transformation by; 

connecting different stakeholders in its network and regional ecosystem, 
offering a wide diversity of services, 
stimulating new innovation projects with funds and voucher programs, 
and by offering our extensive experience in Tech Transfer.

The hub offers access to state of the art facilities, supporting activities in education (regular programs and tailor made life-long-learning approaches), research and innovation, and actively facilitates collaboration by organizing network events and facility sharing vouchers. The network of partners includes facilities such as production and testing labs for medical imaging, medical robotics, wearable technologies and translational physiology, experimental hybrid OR’s, simulated ICU’s, a variety of medical training-simulators, a CitizensScience lab to include future users, an eHealth lab where users can “try before you buy” and a broad range of specific technical medical research labs.

The Hub offers specific support to SMEs and larger companies to ‘future proof’ their companies, by means of free consultancy, access to student-employees and internships, funding advice, networking, matchmaking sessions and access to end-users. (future) Entrepreneurs are actively supported by innovation-brokers to discover the trends and technologies that dominate the industry of tomorrow, explore potential innovative opportunities and get started with tools and programs.  Digital technologies.

The Tallinn Science Park foundation is a science and business campus which aims to advance technology-based entrepreneurship in Estonia, bring scientists and entrepreneurs together and provide suitable conditions and a suitable environment for the realisation of breakthrough business ideas. Tallinn Science Park Tehnopol services are focused on three business areas: Information and communication technologies, Green technologies, Life Sciences. Tehnopol offer incubation programme, export services and business accommodation. Digital technologies.

The aim of T2i is to support companies in making innovation an on-going corporate process that will make them regain competitiveness in the market.
T2i is a reliable and consolidated research partner whose work with an extensive network of local, national and international centres of excellence allows the creation of “tailor-made” multidisciplinary work groups to meet clients’ needs.
T2i is a no-profit innovation consultancy firm that fosters the regional innovation ecosystem in the framework of I4MS initiatives performing networking, matchmaking, brokerage and dissemination activities.
T2i supports the companies through IT-enabled services, namely:
•     Technology, Innovation and IP strategy advisoring;
•     Digital assessment, Technical evaluation;
•     Engineering, Testing and Certification (facilities, HPC, User Centred Design);
•     human factors improvement in product/service design and development (e.g. AR, VR, UX);
•     networking with RTD, TTOs, SMEs for technology scouting, applied research and technology transfer;
•     competencies and skills empowerment;
•     support to business ideas and start-ups (i.e. Incubation), financial funding application. Digital technologies.

Created in 2005, Systematic Paris-Region innovation and technology cluster brings together and promotes an ecosystem of excellence in software and digital technologies with over 800 members.  Systematic connects stakeholders and boosts digital projects through collaborative innovation, SME development, business sourcing, across a range of strategic sectors: energy, telecoms, healthcare, transport, information systems, factory of the future, digital city and security.  The cluster promotes its members, region and innovation projects, with the aim of raising their profile and enhancing the attractiveness of the Paris-Region area and ecosystem.

The cluster and its projects are supported by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), the French State (Direccte) and Paris Region Council.

Systematic Paris Region has faciliated the development of 534 R&D projects representing a global R&D support of 2.78 billion€ and an aggregated public effort from the State, its agencies, the National Research Agency, EUREKA, BPI France, local authorities and the ERDF representing more thant 1,01 billion€. Digital technologies.

Formerly ADISIF Interface, SynHERA is the network of 19 University Colleges (UC) and their associated research centres in the Wallonia-Brussels Federation. It supports the University Colleges and their associated research centres in order to valorise their research projects and to match skills between the University Colleges and the Walloon, Brussels and international research stakeholders. In addition, SynHERA is willing to offer University Colleges’ researchers a space for sharing and reflexion. Digital technologies.