Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - I4MS-Growth (Support and stimulation of dynamic and organic growth of pan European ICT for Manufacturing SME Innovation Ecosystems)

Teaser

The I4MS initiative was launched by the EC on July 2013, showing substantial success and contributing to the progressive development of European SMEs, adopting advanced ICT solutions for manufacturing. I4MS supports the adoption of innovative ICT by SMEs involved in...

Summary

The I4MS initiative was launched by the EC on July 2013, showing substantial success and contributing to the progressive development of European SMEs, adopting advanced ICT solutions for manufacturing.
I4MS supports the adoption of innovative ICT by SMEs involved in manufacturing. Through eleven large projects in four key areas, such as HPC Cloud-based simulation, advanced robotics, CPS/IoT and smart sensors, I4MS brings SMEs ́ end-users and suppliers directly into research and innovation projects, introducing them to innovative technologies and supporting the adoption of such technologies or supporting them to move their technology from the lab to the market.
Recently the EC presented its set of measures and recommendations with the aim of fostering European industrial competiveness by supporting companies in their digital transformation. One of those measures promotes the creation and reinforcement of Digital Innovation Hubs in every European region, which will support industries, especially SMEs and mid-cap companies, in the uptake of digital technologies.
New actions to expand the network of competence centres and digital innovation hubs to new regions through the launch of calls for regional Digital Innovation Hubs present a good opportunity to reach out and involve the diverse landscape of European SMEs and mid-caps.
I4MS-Growth CSA works towards the final success of the initiative, adapting to the needs of the eleven projects involved as well as in close collaboration with the XS2I4MS CSA that also supports the I4MS initiative in other areas.

Work performed

Objective 1 – Support and reinforce the I4MS innovation ecosystem
In order to enlarge the innovation ecosystem I4MS-Growth has:
* Created an informative webinar for integrating new projects within the I4MS community
* Provided support for the registration and organisation of a webinar for the call for the DIHs (performed by XS2I4MS)
* Arranged the common participation from the I4MS projects in Hannover Fair.
* ICT 2015 (Lisbon):
* Conference on “I4MS next steps”
* Organising a joint booth for the HPC projects + Lashare
* Participation in regional workshops within the Basque Country, Lombardia and Sweden.
* Participation to the EFFRA raodmapping workshop on the 4th November 2015
* Participation to the World Manufacturing Forum in Barcelona, 2-4 May 2016
* Organisation of the I4MS European event held on the 24th of June 2016 in Amsterdam within the “Industrial technologies 2016” as well as of the I4MS booth in the exhibition area.
* Provided dissemination actions in different regional workshops and conferences.

There has been an iterative work performed in order to obtain an area in the platform dedicated exclusively to the Competence Centers which are organised in an interactive map, both capturing the information from the projects as well as adjusting different maps options. The map will be live in M13.

Webinars to support the launch of open calls have been organised in cooperation with the IAs (Fortissimo 2 and BeinCPPS).
* A webinar to help new projects understand I4MS and the cooperation potential
* I4MS monthly calls including the I4MS Coordination Board.
* An I4MS coordination board was organised remotely in November 2015 and, then a meeting was held in Brussels on April 2016.
* ICT 2016 Joint booth (Lisbon), Hannover 2016, BIEMH 2016 (Bilbao)
* Regional events
Within this period I4MS-Growth has published a trimestral Newsletter (December 2015, March 2016, April 2016, June 2016 and July 2016) with the latest news and specific newsletters focused on IAs’ Open Calls (Fortissimo 2 and BEinCPPS) and specific newsletters to promote the I4MS 2016 event.

Objective 2 – I4MS Platform management
A renewed platform has been launched, with improved user-friendliness, rearranged content and with higher visibility for the new projects. Since a need arised to dedicate an area of the website to work done inside the CSA XS2I4MS (related to the network of DIHs), the platform was extended in a 2nd stage. Continuous interaction with the XS2I4MS project was managed in order to enable an area with the same image and design as the main. The renowned design and I4MS branding image has been kept for the sake of continuity with the first phase of the initiative.

The CSA will build on the success achieved during the first phase to enlarge the audience, cooperating with other initiatives and projects to obtain the maximum dissemination impact and extend its regional scope to the whole Europe.
* The amount of targeted followers has already been overcome in the first 11 months of the project with 900 followers.
* Specific dissemination activities related to the launch of Open calls, activities aimed at promoting the I4MS initiative as a whole, also with the collaboration of associated projects, have been carried out.
* Linkedin group kept stable during the first 11 months.
* Videos from webinars have been included in the YouTube channel
* Slideshare presentations have also been included in the I4MS account.

Final results

I4MS-Growth has continued to work for the I4MS initiative, helping to support companies in their digital transformation. Based on the work performed in I4MS during the first phase, the reinforcement of the I4MS community including the new projects, DIHs , SMEs, regions... has been achieved. Among other aspects covered, we can find the creation and reinforcement of Digital Innovation Hubs in every European region, which will support industries, especially SMEs and mid-cap companies, in the uptake of digital technologies.
New actions to expand the network of competence centres and digital innovation hubs to new regions through the launch of calls for regional Digital Innovation Hubs have been a good opportunity to reach out and involve the diverse landscape of European SMEs and mid-caps.
I4MS-Growth CSA works towards the final success of the initiative, adapting to the needs of the eleven projects involved as well as in close collaboration with the XS2I4MS CSA that also supports the I4MS initiative in other areas.
Currently I4MS-Growth has designed different strategies, that will:
ï‚· Renew the I4MS Portal, with improved areas for providing information of interest.
ï‚· Enable the interchange of synergies between IPs and IAs involved in the initiative.
ï‚· Support the interaction with the I4MS competence Centre Network reinforcing their brand, and enabling their interaction with the digital hubs.
ï‚· Administrative management of digital hubs considered as third parties from I4MS-Growth
ï‚· Promote and Support the involvement of SMEs in the new launch of open calls for IAs
ï‚· Facilitate the dissemination of the experiments from the IPs and IAs
ï‚· Help positioning the I4MS, as one of the key initiatives in Europe for the Manufacturing and ICT sector.

Website & more info

More info: http://www.i4ms.eu.