DIHs are one-stop-shops that help companies to become more competitive with regard to their business and production processes, products or services using digital technologies. DIHs have the mission of helping companies to betteDIHs are one-stop-shops that help companies to become more competitive with regard to their business and production processes, products or services using digital technologies. DIHs have the mission of helping companies (mainly start-ups, SMEs and mid-caps) to better understand and experiment on how digital technologies can improve their efficiency, effectiveness and product quality – in other words, their competitiveness. DIHs should have strong linkages with service providers outside of their own region in order to support companies in those services and technologies where regional DIHs do not have the requested in-house resources to provide services based on specific technologies sought by users. In recent decades, health-related activities have evolved from a reactive approach (curing diseases) to an approach based on the P4 medicine paradigm: Predictive, Preventive, Personalised and Participatory. In this new paradigm, the use of digital technologies is key. Thanks to digital technologies such as AI or HPC and the massive generation of medical and other health-related data, traditional methods for early detection, diagnosis, treatment, patient management, precision medicine, drug development, genomics, or medical image analysis are being transformed. DIHsP4_MEDICINE project aims to unleash the potential that exists around the collaboration among DIHs focused in health-related activities. The lessons to be learned from the activities carried out within the framework of the project will make possible to take advantage this experience for the implementation of joint long-term and stable programmes to fostering collaboration among DIHs, as well as exploring the opportunity to articulate stable Hub corridors to shape these collaborations.

Despite a decrease since the 90s, 3.1M non-fatal accidents still happen at work, with at least four days of absence from work, and around 3 300 fatal accidents in the EU-27. These work-related accidents and illnesses cost the EU economy 460 b€ in 2019, i.e., 3.3% of GDP annually. Production machines are one of the accident causes. In France, 10 to 15% of accidents at work are related to their use, leading to working day lost equivalent to a company of 15000 people that do not work for a whole year. In 2021 the EC proposed a new strategic framework for Health and Safety at Work (HSW) to protect health (incl. mental) and safety of its 170 million workers and achieve sustained decent working conditions for all workers, especially in the new world of work brought about by the digital transitions and industry 5.0. Digital transition is driven by the introduction of robots, AI and remote work that reduce the risks of dangerous tasks and increases productivity. But cognitive overload, digital fatigue, mental exhaustion and various forms of ‘techno-stress’ are also increasing and shall be tackled to ensure HSW. EARASHI will support Start-ups and SMEs in the uptake of advanced digital eco-responsible technologies (in particular AI, data and robotics) to help workers in their daily activities and improve their working conditions (safety, health and well-being) leading to productivity increase. Through open calls, 10 beneficiaries will access to leading edge technologies and test facilities from RTOs and industrial partners, business support, mentoring by industrial pairs, support in Ethics, system integration and user acceptance. Selected projects will focus on improving work conditions and worker trust and acceptance of collaborative embodied AI in robotic systems for the production machine application field. By investing early in and sustaining competitive emerging enabling technologies, EARASHI will contribute to accelerate an eco-responsible digital transition by 2030.

InfraChip is to implement the first integrated, distributed research infrastructure as a wider European research platform for the sustainable development of next-generation and future semiconductor chips. InfraChip will mobilise a critical mass of people, expert knowledge and technology blocks, and capital investment on state-of-the-art equipment to address the EU’s twin digital and green transition and ensure Europe’s capacity to innovate at the early to medium readiness levels. Building on existing RI communities, namely ASCENT+ on Nanoelectronics, EMERGE on Sustainable Flexible Electronics and EnABLES on Powering the Internet of Things (IoT), the InfraChip initiative will advance the state-of-the-art by supporting comprehensive user projects for multi-and-trans-disciplinary path-finding research on sustainable Information and Communications Technologies (ICT)driven by the secure edge. These challenge-driven projects will target the introduction of new materials, proof-of-concept and feasibility studies of new manufacturing processes or disruptive technologies. To accelerate the translation of results from the lab to the fab, InfraChip will channel project activities to Testing and Experimentation Facilities, European Digital Innovation Hubs and Pilot Lines. InfraChip will also develop talent and train a skilled workforce through its Research Accelerator Programme and additional hands-on courses and education resources to support early career innovators and the high-value semiconductor industry. As a whole, InfraChip will significantly contribute to research and innovation capacity within the objectives of the European Chips Act.

DigiFed’s main objective is to encourage the adoption of advanced digital technologies by EU SMEs with a focus on non-digital businesses. DigiFed implements a business plan for the sustainability of the federation of Digital Innovation Hubs (DIHs), while providing significant support mechanisms for individual and groups of SMEs to foster the introduction of digital technologies in their product and service offerings. DigiFed aims to engage at least 200 SMEs and midcaps from all across Europe in its innovation programme. At least 80 of these will receive also funding support and benefits from one of Digifed’s innovation pathways- half of these will be businesses with low digital maturity. DigiFed’s business model is based on collaborative investments with fair return for contributing parties, realised by our ability to reduce innovation risks and generate new business opportunities. DigiFed leverage both funding from private sector and public co-funding from regions of DIHs, in order to maximise value from EU investments. These will be used for the development of truly differentiated and impactful digitization solutions targeting the needs of different markets, penetrating the value chain down to non-technology companies. DigiFed focuses on Cyber Physical and Embedded Systems with a particular attention on security and privacy, autonomy and human-machine interaction. Its innovation pathways offer two main instruments: Generic Experiments target a group of mainly non-tech SMEs to implement advanced technology demonstrators with co-funding from regional authorities; Application Experiments allow individual SMEs to define an R&I project to disrupt, upgrade or manufacture an innovative digital product or service. DigiFed gathers 6 DIHs from different countries with established ecosystems and will continue expanding and linking with other DIHs and DIH networks through its lifetime to create a truly EU-wide offering of sustainable cross-border DIH services.

The objective of the proposed CSA is to support and complement R&I activities in Smart Systems Integration (SSI) by structuring industrial cooperation and facilitating end-user adoption for the next generations of miniaturised smart objects and systems. Previous CSAs have revealed the immense breadth of SSI in its technology demands, its application sectors, its business ramifications, its provider and user communities, and have commenced the task of joining all these aspects for concerted action. They have also developed support tools, whose proven value can continue to be instrumental in the new CSA. Building on the above and supporting the strategic activities of EPoSS, the role for inSSIght is to deepen and implant this understanding through a cadre of influential partners from SSI-related clusters, research institutes and industries who will define and encourage actions to unlock and exploit innovation opportunities, provide practice-oriented support to the SSI ecosystem, underline the vital position of SSI as a Key Enabling Technology for competitive advantage and future innovation, and give credit to their enabling role as building blocks in sectors with high potential for growth and high return on investment, such as IoT, Industry 4.0, electric mobility, automated driving, smart medical devices etc. Very practically, inSSIght • organises 4 thematic conferences, two of which on MNBS, 7 demonstration sessions, 2 brokerage events, 11 expert and information workshops and 11 webinars • publishes 5 White Papers on Customised Innovation Priorities • leads a marketing campaign for SSI based on a trademark inSSIght addresses all 5 activities required in the scope description of ICT-03-2016b, considering them as inseparable and most efficiently tackled in a single concerted action.