Institute of Production Management, Technology and Machine Tools (PTW)

Germany: Hessen

Overview

Mission/Objectives of the cluster organisation

At PTW, we believe that excellence in production is achieved by optimally combining technology and organization. This requires in-depth expertise in the respective technical subjects, a wide basic qualification in the entire topic of production as well as interdisciplinary collaboration between the scientists at PTW. The main areas of research are machining of metals, the design and engineering of machine tools and their components as well as the optimization of manufacturing processes, production organization and energy efficiency in manufacturing. The industry as a whole and the small and medium enterprises (SME) gain from our expertise through various services provided in the form of consulting, project support and training modules related to production technology.
The test bed at the PTW offers the possibility for testing and development of innovative products, services and software relating to the digitization of production systems in three unique production environments. The process learning factory CiP, which has been digitalized in an integrated brownfield approach, focuses on the conflict area between Lean and Industry 4.0, whereas the machine park offers a broad range of machine tools, additive manufacturing technologies and robot technology. The third production environment provides a holistic networked energy efficiency model factory (ETA) developed in a greenfield approach. Moreover, the test bed offers workshops and consultation in technological and organizational topics, e.g. in the field of potential analyses or retrofitting strategies. Digital technologies.

Sectors
Technology

Institute of Electron Technology (ITE)

Poland: Warsaw-Capital

Overview

Mission/Objectives of the cluster organisation

Institute of Electron Technology (ITE) is a public, Polish, non-profit research organization, located in Warsaw, Poland, carrying out applied research and close-to-market innovation (TRL 3 to 8) in microelectronics, photonics and microsystem domain. The mis­sion of the Insti­tute is to con­duct the basic and applied rese­arch in the field of semi­con­duc­tor elec­tro­nics and phy­sics in order to deve­lop and com­mer­cia­lise inno­va­tive micro- and nano­tech­no­lo­gies and their appli­ca­tions in semi­con­duc­tor micro­elec­tro­nics, opto­elec­tro­nics, pho­to­nics and micro­me­cha­nics. 

The Institute is one of the few Polish research institution that develops semiconductor devices and systems using various semiconductor materials (silicon, gallium arsenide, indium phosphide, gallium nitride, silicon carbide). The institute consist of 8 research departments concentrating on AIIIBV photonics (lasers), Silicon detectors, microelectronic components, sensors and MEMS, wide bandgap (e.g. GaN) devices, hybrid (ceramic) technologies, electronic system design, material and device characterization and diagnostics. Three of the departments include also fully equipped technological lines, enabling both scientific research and development of technologies for new devices. Unique facilities and competent staff allow the Institute to create the conditions necessary for the implementation of research results. This task is usually conducted in cooperation with the industry and the scientific community.

The largest, division of Silicon Microsystem and Nanostructure Technology maintains a research infrastructure with a well-equipped over 1000 sq.m. micro/nanoelectronics clean room. Currently it is the only centre in Poland, where fabrication of fully functional microsystems and IC’s based on CMOS/MEMS technology is performed. In parallel to research, the department undertakes a small scale, pilot production of specialized semiconductor devices for Polish and foreign customers.

The goal of the research and development activities carried out at the ITE is to provide industry and scientific communities (with special emphasize on the SME’s ) with access to advanced technology of silicon and III/V based and heterogeneous micro- and nano-devices. Thus, scope of the R&D covers broad range of technologies, from silicon photo- and radiation detectors through integrated circuits up to sensor and microsystem (MEMS and MOEMS), lasers and power devices, including integration of different technologies and devices for interdisciplinary applications. Due to the fact, that sensor technologies and sensor networks have been defined as one of the National Smart Specialization, ITE puts a strong emphasize on research in this domain, developing collaboration with national and international multidisciplinary partners, to provide Polish economy with access to advanced sensor technologies required e.g. for IoT applications.

ITE collaborate  with industrial entities, LE and SME focusing on consulting on development and application of tailored microelectronic, nanophotonic and microsystem solutions (including sensors), allowing for digitization of products and their manufacturing. In most cases the service is combined with a joint preparation of national, international or European projects. ITE, acting as a KET Technology Center and Digital Innovation Hub supports SMEs to go from lab to market to develop and produce new KETs-based products, helping companies reduce the time-to-market for new innovation ideas:

Dissemination of knowledge on innovative solutions leading to digitization of products and manufacturing; creation of awareness, building of ecosystem;
Finding partners and elaboration of project proposals; 
Access to technology expertise and facilities for validation;
Collaborative research
Demonstration;
Proof of concept / lab testing
Prototype development and testing;
Pilot production and demonstration
Product validation / certification
Digital technologies.

Sectors
Technology

Insomnia Digital Innovation Hub

Spain: Valencia

Overview

Mission/Objectives of the cluster organisation

Insomnia is a Business Accelerator, Incubator and Digital Hub located in Valencia, Spain, working to improve innovation in the region of Valencia and support SMEs, and in particular industrial SMEs, to uptake the use of ICT and face the challenges of digitisation.

We are located in the business and startup ecosystem of Valencia “La Marina” and have our own collaborative space (+4.000 m2) where we work to increase innovation and access to finance capacities of SMEs, mid-caps, start-ups and other agents; to conduct a permanent scouting worldwide to identify the most innovative solutions and companies (start ups, spin offs, scale ups, etc.) to attract talent to the city of Valencia and Spain; and run Digitisation Programmes and Training for Entrepreneurs and High Executives to make them know the last innovation advances and make the appropriate decisions to grow in the new economy.

Since 2017, we are “Digital Innovation Hub” in the frame of an approved project within H2020-FoF-12 Call (Factories of the Future) and the I4MS initiative called CloudiFacturing, coordinated by Fraunhofer Institute.

Main sectors: industry, metalurgy, ceramics, agroindustry, agro-food, automotive, tourism, logistics, fintech, legalteh, insurtech, proptech, publictech.

Main technologies: artificial intelligence, virtual reality, augmented reality, big data, IoT, Cloud, HPC, 5G, 3D printing, robotics, blockchain, etc.

Main services for SMEs

Digital Innovation Hub (DIH): support for manufacturing SMEs to promote their uptake of ICTs. Open call promotion for the selection of experiments to be funded under the I4MS H2020 cascade mechanism. More information: http://www.innsomnia.es/insomnia-digital-innovation-hub
Fintech Digital Program: support for SMEs and startups developing technologies and innovative in the Fintech field. Open call promotion for the selection of the best startups to be accelerated by Insomnia DIH during a 4-7 month program. More information: http://www.innsomnia.es/iv-convocatoria-fintech
Insurtech Digital Program: support for SMEs and startups developing technologies and innovative in the Insurtech field. Open call promotion for the selection of the best startups to be accelerated by Insomnia DIH during a 4-7 month program. More information: http://www.innsomnia.es/i-convocatoria-insurtech
Industry 4.0 Digital Program: support for SMEs and startups developing technologies and innovative projects in the Industry 4.0 field. Open call promotion for the selection of the best startups to be accelerated by Insomnia DIH during a 2-4 month program. More information: http://www.innsomnia.es/convocatoria-startups-pymes-reto-industrial-gsk…
Digital Immersion Program: Training Program addressed at CEO and Executives from SMEs to help them face the challenges of the digitisation and industrialization. More information: http://www.innsomnia.es/programa-inmersion-digital-empresarial
Digital Training School: Digital assessment for companies learning code. More information: http://www.innsomnia.es/digital-training-school
Tufinanziacion: support for SMEs to access finance to carry put innovative and tech projects. More information: https://www.tufinanziacion.com/

 

  Digital technologies.

Sectors
Technology

Insight Centre for Data Analytics

Ireland: Northern and Western (Ireland)

Overview

Mission/Objectives of the cluster organisation

Our mission - At Insight we undertake high impact research in data analytics that has significant benefits for the individual, industry and society by enabling better decision making.
Our vision - Empowering Citizens. Smarter Societies. Digital technologies.

Sectors
Technology

Innovation for Manufacturing in the South (I4MSOUTH)

Spain: Murcia

Overview

Mission/Objectives of the cluster organisation

Our mission is to take a step towards more sophisticated interaction design and excel in human-centered innovation in the industry. We are certain that now is the time to put human values and needs in the heart of Industrial Internet research and design for the Internet of Things and Cyber Physical Systems, in order to enable breakthroughs in intelligent, empathic technologies that would lead to Factories of Future. We believe this is the key to fourth revolution industry success. With these thoughts in mind, we develop a IHUB like an approach to the regional industry that starts with a deep understanding of human values, goes through a sequence of technological levels, and results in a new industry transformation. Scope. We expand research and use the best practices of EU projects in Manufacturing to support further industry-centered development of the Internet of Things. Simultaneous focus on the core values, evolving needs, and emerging technologies will makes it possible to reach the balance between the benefits of autonomously controlled environment and pleasure of personal decision making. Our vision is that enhanced cyber physical systems, exponential growth of data, and increased complexity of algorithms, will allow technology to become simpler and more valuable for people and industries. Connected devices will naturally adjust the manufacturing processes according to unspoken wishes, without any personal effort. Thoughtful technologies will increase the feeling of safety, improve health at work, advance personal productivity, and finally bring industry to new business models. I4MSouth engages different actors and stakeholders around technologies to be implemented in the manufacturing industry, focusing in the Industry 4.0 revolution and/or Industrial Internet. I4MSouth supports a four sides approach or strategy around: - Innovation support and Knowledge transfer. - Infrastructure and services. - Business incubation and entrepreneurism. - Funding opportunities. Strategy is performed also in four basic steps. 1. Technical Introduction of results and benefits to integrators ( ICT SME´s) and End Customers manufacturing Industries. 2. Assessment of promotion to fostering agencies (clusters, Technology centers and incubators). 3. Identification of funding opportunities for technology introduction (regionally, nationally and internationally). 4. Consolidation of the HUB, services and self-funding. Digital technologies.

Sectors
Technology

innovation experience HUB (InnexHUB)

Italy: Lombardy

Overview

Mission/Objectives of the cluster organisation

innovation experience HUB (in the following: innexHUB) is a non profit organisation founded in July 2017 and aimed at spreading the digital culture among regional SMEs, making SMEs aware of:

what being digital means;
what are the key enabling technologies;
how the digital is rapidly transforming business models;
the current and future opportunities / threats linked to digital techologies;

innexHUB has two additional purposes:

Help enterprises to understand their digital maturity level and the actions needed to digitally evolve;
Guide enterprises in their digital transformation paths, ensuring they can rely on trustworthy solution providers.
Digital technologies.

Sectors
Technology

Innovation Cluster Drachten (ICD)

Netherlands: Friesland

Overview

Mission/Objectives of the cluster organisation

The Innovation Cluster Drachten (www.icdrachten.nl) (ICD) is an Public Private Partnership in the nothern part of the Netherlands and therefore a non-profit organisation/collaboration for Large companies  (9) and SME companies (11) eg Philips, BD, Photonis, Neopost Technologies) .

The ICD will act from 2019 onwards also a Digital Innovation Hub. 

Together with 3800 FTE we work on 4 digital fields: 3D metal printing, (remote) sensoring & big data, visual intelligence & deep-learing and robotics ( as producttechnology (systems) and production technology (factory).

Today we are performing 8 precompetitive R&D projects performed by the companies ( 8 million Euro) inclusing also digital twinnig and Machine Learning. The fifth topics is renewable propulsion by solar energy and hydrogen, but we do not consider this a digital topic but a sustainable topic. We share about 20 R&D facilities in the companies and own 2 3D printers and several cobots.

The ICD Digital Innovation Hub will help entities, specially SMEs but also midcaps, big companies, to improve their products, services and processes, by introducing the great advantages of 3D printing, remote sensoring & big data, vision & deep learning, Robotics into their business. The ICD 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 a sustainable future.

We launch a new collaboration program, with other Northern stakeholders, to accelerate digitalization in every corner of our economy, with the following tracks:

‘Go Digital’ to get all companies to the stage of consciousness/competence with regard to digitalization.

‘Play the Champions League’ to connect our frontrunners with the EU innovation programs and to share our competences with additional regions.

‘Create & Share talents and competences’ by three regional demo factories annex skills labs

Digital technologies.

Sectors
Technology

INNOVATION CENTER OF MODERN INDUSTRY IN BRANDENBURG GERMANY

Germany: Brandenburg

Overview

Mission/Objectives of the cluster organisation

AUTOMATION  AND  DIGITIZATION IN BRANDENBURG GERMANY

Growth, innovation and technology transfer are central topics of the Brandenburg development policy. Due to the prevailing corporate structures in the state of Brandenburg, the concerns of small and medium-sized companies are taken into account.

One concern pursued by the economic policy strategy of the state of Brandenburg is the targeted support of small and medium-sized enterprises in coping with the challenges associated with the technology trend "Industry 4.0".

The Innovation Center Modern Industry (IMI) Brandenburg, located at the Chair of Automation Technology of the Brandenburg Technological University (BTU) in Cottbus - Senftenberg is active since 2015 and it helps the SME’s to master the challenges in the fields of automation technology, digital factory and industry 4.0.

The European Union and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) fund the Innovation Center Modern Industry Brandenburg

Services

Model Factory

In the model factory in Cottbus operated by IMI Brandenburg, will be demonstrated to entrepreneurs the use of new technologies in production or will be obtained information about reference projects that provide starting points and ideas for improving and optimizing their own processes.

On about 1,000-m² area robot-assisted automation solutions, modern milling centers as well as technologies and applications from the fields of virtual / augmented reality and information systems will be presented. The model factory is undergoing constant developing and conversion in order to adapt it to the new needs of the Brandenburg companies

Innovation Lab

Against the background of current trends and developments, it is important not to miss the leap to the digitized value chain. Unlike often suggested, it will hardly give finished solutions "off the peg”. Rather, it is about selecting from the portfolio of options those and integrating them adapted to their own company-specific needs, which promote their own company competiveness and productivity.

The diversity of related concepts and technologies as well as their different levels of maturity make this a complex undertaking. Small and medium-sized enterprises can receive support from IMI Brandenburg.

Knowledge Forum

In lectures, discussions or workshops, knowledge and best practice experiences on technologies, methods and procedures in the fields of Industry 4.0 are conveyed. In addition, by participation in regional and national conferences and trade fairs, such as As the Hannover Messe, the broadest possible audience will be informed and sensitized. Digital technologies.

Sectors
Technology

Innovation Center for Artificial Intelligence

Netherlands: North Holland

Overview

Mission/Objectives of the cluster organisation

ICAI is the Innovation Center for Artificial Intelligence (ICAI) is a national initiative focused on joint technology development between academia, industry and government in the area of artificial intelligence. The Netherlands has the talent, the world-class research and the longstanding tradition in AI education to be one of the world’s top ranked countries in terms of innovation power. ICAI brings these positive forces together in a unique national initiative.

ICAI’s innovation strategy is organized around industry labs, these are multi-year strategic collaborations with a focus on technology and talent development. ICAI will create innovative AI-applications, distribute AI-knowledge for companies and organizations in the form of technology products and tools, train corporate employees through dedicated courses, and simultaneously maintain a connection with other world-level science centers. ICAI will also facilitate commercialization by enhancing start-up and spin-outs.

ICAI is an open national network of academic, industrial and governmental partners that is based at Amsterdam Science Park. ICAI has a growing number of partners: Technical University Delft, University of Amsterdam, Utrecht University, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Ahold Delhaize, Bosch, National Police, Qualcomm and Elsevier. So far five research labs have been founded: QUVA Lab, Delta Lab, AirLab Amsterdam, AIRLab Delft, Elsevier AI Lab, Police AI Lab, with more to come.

ICAI has a physical presence in the Amsterdam region, specifically at Amsterdam Science Park 904.

ICAI is a non-profit organization, part of the University of Amsterdam, and aimed at knowledge and talent development. ICAI helps to disseminate state-of-the-art know-how in artificial intelligence as part of the Amsterdam Data Science meetup, with close to 5000 members. It connects master students to startups and SMEs, both for temporary assignments and for full time employment.

ICAI helps tech companies (such as Qualcomm and Bosch) and companies in the service industry (such as Ahold Delhaize (retail) and Elsevier (information)) and governmental organizations (Nationale Politie) with digitilization through knowledge development and talent development.

In 2019, ICAI will use the way of working previously established in the national COMMIT program (http://commit-nl.nl) to transfer high science to SMEs. In this setup, relatively small projects are run, jointly with academic participants and SMEs on well-defined tasks defined by the SME(s). Past examples include sentiment analysis on social media data and privacy-aware mobile recommender systems for mobile systems. Digital technologies.

Sectors
Technology

Innovalia ZDM Digital Innovation Hub

Overview

Mission/Objectives of the cluster organisation

The Innovalia ZDM Hub is a digital innovation HUB immersed in the Automotive Intelligence Centre (AIC) network of international partners in the automotive Sector.

The Innovalia ZDM Digital Innovation Hub has been created and it is coordinated by Innovalia Association a technology agent of the Basque Country Technology Network (Innobasque) and a private non-for-profit technological centre whose primary objective is to foster technological and business innovation in small and medium companies. Innovalia ZDM Digital Innovation Hub brings together the skills, laboratories and experimental infrastructures for local industry advanced manufacturing excellence.

The ZDM-DIH has been created in order to articulate a “one stop shop” with the sufficient critical mass capable of providing a comprehensive and integrated response towards digitisation of local manufacturing industries; with a particular focus on integrated operation of enabling digital technologies for zero defect manufacturing services & solutions.

The DIH activities are focused on

(1) Increasing awareness and knowledge of emerging digital technologies/products for ZDM (Zero Defect Manufacturing).

(2) Easing access to consistent assessments across local industries about their product/process digital readiness level.

(3) Promoting the establishment of digitalisation and digital transformation plans supporting manufacturing process design for ZDM.

(4) Facilitating local industry access to finance and participation in (international/strategic) R&D&i projects on development and industrial application of digital technologies, products and platforms (IIoT, Big Data, Cyber Security, 5G, Cloud)

(5) Simplifying access to advanced quality control instrumentation, assets and pilot manufacturing lines for experimentation, validation and verification of advanced ZDM digital products and processes.

(6) Enabling training, re-skilling and up-skilling on digital products and processes and quality 4.0.

(7) Accelerating innovative digital business models development and access to market to local SMEs.

(8) Assistance in the development of local industrial partnerships on ZDM digital products and platforms for international market access.

 

Vision:

Any local manufacturing industry should master manufacturing excellence through zero defect manufacturing products, processes and services.

Mission:

The DIH mission consists on ensuring that local industry can fully benefit from digital opportunities (technical support, access to experimental infrastructures, financing, skill development, market intelligence…) on the following competences:

Digital automation, Industrial IoT and CPPS

Zero Defect Manufacturing (ZDM) digital platforms

Factory 4.0 Big Data & 3D mobile data visualisation

Cybersecurity and digital trust

Digital technologies.

Sectors
Technology