Digital Agenda Funding

Project Status: Live Project

Project Leader: Daniela Copaci

EU Programme: INTERREG Europe

Project Budget: €1,622,566

Start Date: Aug, 2019

Finish Date: Jul, 2023

Project Website: https://www.interregeurope.eu/digitalregions

The aim of the project is to:

Achieve an increase in the number of SMEs from the manufacturing sector cooperating with other innovation actors in the participant regions to implement Industry 4.0 solutions as a result of improved innovation policies.

Specific objectives are to:

Better utilise/improve policy measures to increase the level of cooperation taking place between I4.0 innovation actors in different regions, particularly between centres with complementary I4.0 technologies (e.g., IoT, Artificial Intelligence, Data Analytics) or serving the same smart specialisation sector, in this case manufacturing.
Improve the participation of SMEs in Industry 4.0 innovation programmes by introducing support measures to enhance I4.0 skills development, participation in test-beds/field-labs and global value chains.
Develop policy guidelines and recommendations (i.e., “I4.0 Policy White paper”) aimed at regions not participating in the project, but with a smart specialisation in the manufacturing sector.

Donegal, Ireland
ERNACT Network(Lead Partner)
Responsible for leading the management and communications that will support the project’s objectives. ERNACT will share their experience and bring good practices to the exchange of knowledge process.

Jose Manuel San Emeterio
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Bern, Switzerland
Switzerland Innovation Park Biel/Bienne AG(Partner)
Switzerland Innovation Park Biel/Bienne will actively contribute in the exchange of experience process. Apart from this it will
host site visits and thematic workshops.

Dominic Gorecky
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Cantabria, Spain
Gobierno de Cantabria(Partner)
The Cantabrian Government will actively contribute in the knowledge of exchange process bringing good practices existing in
the region of Cantabria. Apart from this it will host site visits and thematic workshop.

Jorge Muyo López
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Centro, Portugal
Business and Innovation Centre of Beira Interior(Partner)
CIEBI will bring their expertise to raise awareness and foster cooperation between companies, universities, technology centers, public bodies and other stakeholders, in order to change the strategic vision of policy makers to improve the regional policy instruments updating them with the latest Industry 4.0 approaches.

Paulo Costa
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Ljubljana, Slovenia
University of Ljubljana(Partner)
University of Ljubljana will contribute by sharing knowledge and experience from other projects in the field of open innovation, co-creation and training in the fields of digital transformation. They will also share best practices from the country and neighborhood regions.

Emilija Stojmenova
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Upper Franconia, Germany
Hochschule Hof / Institut für Informationssysteme(Partner)
Hof University will share its Industry 4.0 experiences from ERDF and other projects within the DIGITAL REGIONS partnership.

Anne-Christine  Habbel
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Varna, Bulgaria

Business Agency Association (Partner)
Will bring its expertise in supporting digital transformation processes, tools and projects under quadruple helix cooperation. BAA will apply its expertise in mobilizing stakeholders for policy deployment and improvement.

Silvia Stumpf

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West Romania, Romania

WRDA (Partner)
WRDA will actively contribute in the exchange of experience process. Apart from this it will host site visits and thematic workshops.

Cristin Cistelecan

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The ERNACT regions focus on adapting and transferring services, approaches or digital knowhow between regions. Please examine the following table to see a list of specific items transferred over the past few years

Regional Action Plan - Beira Interior (Portugal)

Centro - Business and Innovation Centre of Beira Interior

In order to become more competitive, companies will have to invest in the qualification of human resources and in the acquisition of digital technologies. To take advantage of the opportunities provided by funding programmes, in terms of digitalisation, it is crucial...

In order to become more competitive, companies will have to invest in the qualification of human resources and in the...

Regional Action Plan - Berne (Switzerland)

Bern - Switzerland Innovation Park Biel/Bienne AG

The action - Network of Networks is meant to be a platform, a one-door-principle for SMEs, to provide a clear overview of available offers of different existing innovation initiatives. The idea is to have a search tool for Switzerland’s SMEs to find the right...

The action - Network of Networks is meant to be a platform, a one-door-principle for SMEs, to provide a clear overview...

Regional Action Plan - Border, Midland & Western (Ireland)

Donegal - ERNACT Network

Innovation on Industry 4.0 for manufacturing businesses is much less likely if senior management do not have a good understanding of its benefits and consequently do not build an I4.0 strategy and undertake exploratory steps and champion such innovation. Having that...

Innovation on Industry 4.0 for manufacturing businesses is much less likely if senior management do not have a good...

Regional Action Plan - Cantabria (Spain)

Cantabria - XXX Cantabrian Regional Government

The aim of the FAST TRACK TOOL FOR DIGITALISATION OF SMES (FTFDS) is to increase the number of innovative and more digitalised companies at regional level, especially SMEs. The main activities of the project are to use four different actions at different levels in...

The aim of the FAST TRACK TOOL FOR DIGITALISATION OF SMES (FTFDS) is to increase the number of innovative and more...

Regional Action Plan - Ljubljana (Slovenia)

Ljubljana - University of Ljubljana

Provide technological knowledge (with a special focus on AI), expertise, and experimentation facilities to successfully strengthen the local economy with innovative digital technologies in the industry and public administration.

Provide technological knowledge (with a special focus on AI), expertise, and experimentation facilities to successfully...

Regional Action Plan - Upper Franconia (Germany)

Upper Franconia - Hochschule Hof / Institut für Informationssysteme

The three actions included in the regional action plan are: 1. Moonrise Project - Mass customisation for the introduction of production - related IT systems in corporate networks 2. Consolidation of the Digital Regions' regional stakeholders' group via...

The three actions included in the regional action plan are: 1. Moonrise Project - Mass customisation for the...

Regional Action Plan - Varna (Bulgaria)

Varna - Business Agency Association

ACTION 1 Support for creation of Open Platforms for the Adoption of Digital Innovation for industries from the 5 thematic priorities in RIS3 2021-2027 of Bulgaria ACTION 2 Setting up a network of Demonstration Centers for Digitalization

ACTION 1 Support for creation of Open Platforms for the Adoption of Digital Innovation for industries from the 5...

Regional Action Plan - West Region (Romania)

West Romania - WRDA

Envisaging the new EDIH in development, this Action Plan contributes to the consolidation of this hub in the first 6 months of existence. We intend to tackle the barriers to digital transformation by learning from our Slovenian partners experience. This...

Envisaging the new EDIH in development, this Action Plan contributes to the consolidation of this hub in the first 6...

Business and Shared Services Centre Portugal

Centro - Business and Innovation Centre of Beira Interior

This good practice is directed at companies. It is a service whose purpose is to provide infrastructure & skills for smart, sustainable businesses & has a focus on ICT for entreprises & start-ups. It is an innovative Digital Transformation Technologies...

This good practice is directed at companies. It is a service whose purpose is to provide infrastructure & skills...

Co-learning Lab

Upper Franconia - Hochschule Hof / Institut für Informationssysteme

This good practice is directed at SMEs. It is a process whose purpose is to introduce SME's to digitalisation in a playful, hands-on manner. It is a Digital Innovation Initiative and is innovative because a blended learning approach is used to accelerate understanding...

This good practice is directed at SMEs. It is a process whose purpose is to introduce SME's to digitalisation in a...

Digital Inovation Hub Slovenia

Slovenia - Laboratory for Telecommunications Faculty of Electrical Engineering University of Ljubljana

This good practice is directed at companies to act as an industry digital transformation one-stop shop serving Slovenia and beyond. It is innovative because it connects business, technical expertise, technologies, experimental and pilot environments to enable...

This good practice is directed at companies to act as an industry digital transformation one-stop shop serving Slovenia...

Digital Production Workplace

Upper Franconia - Hochschule Hof / Institut für Informationssysteme

This good practice directed at companies. It is a methodology whose purpose is to be an application for the manufacturing industry to allow digitally supported production order process & remove paper. It is innovative because it leads to a highly modular MES or...

This good practice directed at companies. It is a methodology whose purpose is to be an application for the...

Digitalization Parkour

Bern - Switzerland Innovation Park Biel/Bienne AG

This good practice is directed at SME's & is a service aiming to raise awareness of Industry 4.0 potential. Users can try & see how the technologies can be utilised in their context. It is a Digital Innovation Initiative and is innovative because its a...

This good practice is directed at SME's & is a service aiming to raise awareness of Industry 4.0 potential. Users...

Fablab Network Slovenia

Slovenia - Laboratory for Telecommunications Faculty of Electrical Engineering University of Ljubljana

This good practice is a service directed at companies. Its purpose is to be a platform for learning, intergenerational integration, creativity & support to start-ups & SME's. It is an innovative Digital Transformation Technologies Initiative because it is...

This good practice is a service directed at companies. Its purpose is to be a platform for learning,...

Green Energy monitoring app

Upper Franconia - Hochschule Hof / Institut für Informationssysteme

This good practice is directed at companies. It is a process whose purpose is to develop a smartphone monitoring app which displays energy data from all manufacturers and visualizes energy flow. It is a Digital Innovation Initiative and is innovative because of the way...

This good practice is directed at companies. It is a process whose purpose is to develop a smartphone monitoring app...

Industry 4.0 Technology Audits

Cantabria - Gobierno de Cantabria

This good practice is directed at companies. It is an initiative whose purpose is to show companies their level of digital maturity and provide them with advice when implementing their digital transformation. This initiative enables small companies to tackle...

This good practice is directed at companies. It is an initiative whose purpose is to show companies their level of...

The common challenge addressed by DIGITAL REGIONS is how to best adapt innovation policies to support smart specialisation in the manufacturing sector as a result of the emergence of INDUSTRY 4.0 (INDUSTRY 4.0 or I4.0 is often referred to as the 4th Industrial Revolution and its solutions sit at the intersection of digital transformation and advanced industrial capabilities).

The overall objective is to, by 2022, achieve a 15% increase of the number of SMEs from manufacturing sector cooperating with other innovation actors in the participant regions to implement I4.0 solutions as a result of improved innovation policies.

The 8 participant regions are Oberfranken (DE), Slovenia (SI), Espace Mittelland-Canton of Bern (CH), BMW (IE), Centro (PT), Cantabria (ES), Varna (BG) and West (RO).They are distributed across the 4 IE zones with a mix of central/peripheral areas and innovation levels (leader, strong, moderate and modest).

All have manufacturing as a smart specialisation priority and are represented by an appropriate mix of partners from each region's innovation value-chain including managing authorities, universities, Industry 4.0 Centres of Excellence and business development intermediaries.

The project seeks to improve 7 ERDF policies addressing the Thematic Objective "strengthening research, technological development and innovation” and 1 Swiss equivalent policy.

It will result in instruments which better meet the needs of I4.0 in smart specialisation manufacturing regions, taking into account revised 2021-2027 Investment for Growth and Jobs priorities and the new Horizon Europe and Digital Europe policies. They will include measures to facilitate increased I4.0 policy cooperation between regions, increased participation by SMEs and availability of skills.

It will benefit all stakeholders in each region’s innovation ecosystem, i.e. innovation policy makers, SMEs that use I4.0 solutions, suppliers of I4.0 services and universities and innovation centres.