Covid-19 has shown that unpredictable events can disrupt supply chains, demand, and induce work restrictions, which can be detrimental to the manufacturing sector, significantly affecting growth. Especially, when medium or high-volume manufacturing is considered, resilience can only be achieved through rapid reconfigurability and digitalization. Rapid reconfigurability must be addressed in all production levels, ranging from the factory to the machinery and to each individual process step, as well as the interaction with the supply chain. The objective of R3GROUP is to develop and demonstrate resilience strategies for reconfiguration. The project will carry out industrial demonstrators in diverse manufacturing sectors (automotive, fabricated metal products, rubber and plastics, wearing apparel, home appliances) facing various reconfiguration issues (scale up or down, introduction of new suppliers, accommodation of multiple product variants, resilience to unforeseen events), engaging end-users operating with different business models (B2B, B2C) and on different positions in the value chain (OEM, Tier 1). R3GROUP will follow the 6 reconfigurability principles to develop technologies in 5 pillars towards resilience through reconfigurability: i) release an AAS-enabled platform for horizontal and vertical integrability for reconfigurability; ii) develop production tools and technologies, through the reconfigurable machine tool concept; iii) deploy a digital toolkit supporting rapid evaluation of reconfiguration impacts, using multi-level digital twins; iv) integrate innovative tools to capture the trigger for reconfiguration that provide awareness on the status of the rest of the value chain (supply chain, market); v) multi-level monitoring, control, and quality assessment to mitigate the reconfiguration impact. Finally, R3GROUP will develop human-centred solutions and put special focus on reskilling to support the adoption of novel technologies.

Artificial Intelligence is a disruptive technology of our times with expected impacts rivalling those of electricity or printing. Resources for innovation are currently dominated by giant tech companies in North America and China. To ensure European independence and leadership, we must invest wisely by bundling, connecting and opening our AI resources. AI4EU will efficiently build a comprehensive European AI-on-demand platform to lower barriers to innovation, to boost technology transfer and catalyse the growth of start-ups and SMEs in all sectors through Open calls and other actions. The platform will act as a broker, developer and one-stop shop providing and showcasing services, expertise, algorithms, software frameworks, development tools, components, modules, data, computing resources, prototyping functions and access to funding. Training will enable different user communities (engineers, civic leaders, etc.) to obtain skills and certifications. The AI4EU Platform will establish a world reference, built u

BEYOND aims to achieve a more interconnected European business acceleration industry in between ‘modest’ or ‘moderate’ and ‘strong’ or ‘leading’ acceleration ecosystems in Europe, and therefore directly contribute to foster the rise of investment flows from net contributor regions (leaders) towards ‘modest’ and ‘moderate’ regions as net beneficiaries, which might provide one effective solution against the above referred undesired geographical gap. BEYOND project will focus on: 1.- Testing a Self-Sovereign Digital Identity scheme (funding passport) that start-ups get no matter what accelerator they join. Through the funding passport start-ups can document their journey and get access to additional funding; 2.- Building a joint platform for the core acceleration enabling online acceleration and a joint framework for how start-ups are most efficiently developed; 3.- Sharing specific offers from the different project participants and resources to increase the value for start-ups; 4.- Developing an incentive structure where all partners benefit from providing high quality start-ups and develop their services; 5.- Creating a cross-region marketplace for raising funding to start-ups so start-ups are not as dependent on the local investor landscape. These 5 elements constitute the backbone of BEYOND’s Virtual Accelerator Marketplace (VAM) a trust framework to support joint business acceleration activities that will contribute in a sustainable manner to enhance a balanced interconnectedness of private investment flows and thus, contribute to dramatically improve quality and outreach of business acceleration services in developing innovation ecosystems. The VAM will be tested through 2 editions of a joint acceleration program co-designed by 5 business accelerators backed on their own VC Funds, representing moderate (BG, LT, PL) and leading regions (DK, ES), that will select and support 2 cohorts of 20 Startups that will receive access to mentoring and VC investors.

The digitalization of industry opens the path for mass customization but requires leveraging the existing manufacturing ecosystems and establishing a collaborative manufacturing environment. DIMOFAC project will enable the modularity, adaptability and responsiveness of a production line by the integration of Plug-and-Produce modules in a Closed-Loop Lifecycle Management System, for continuous production adaptation, optimization and improvement, in a fast and flexible manner. Reconfigurability is achieved by implementing a Digital Twin of each module and by deploying Digital Thread linking product and process dataflow, enabling seamless secure communication throughout the product lifecycle in factory and connecting it to the management systems in conformance to RAMI4.0. The DIMOFAC consortium is issued from the leading European open initiatives on smart manufacturing, leveraging know-how from past and running EU projects such as INTEGRADDE, COMMUNION, HIMALAIA, BRAINPORT, iM²AM, MIDIH, MARKET 4.0 and building upon a pre-existing network of open DIHs and competence centers such as SMART FACTORY KL, PICTIC, FFLOR, AFH, MANUHUB@WG. Partners will further extend their services and networks to leverage on the increased flexibility brought by modular production systems. Six industrial pilot lines, with multi-material manufacturing, additive manufacturing and assembly capabilities, will enable to demonstrate DIMOFAC Modular Factory Solution, with reconfiguration time reduction of production lines, up to 75% expected for interactive displays (SCHALTAG), 50% for cosmetic, aeronautic and additive manufacturing (ALBEA, EIRE COMPOSITES and SCULPTEO); 30% for shavers (PHILIPS) and industrial modules (VDL). A key result will be the network of open pilot lines, offering R&T and services supporting process validation and implementation in EU SMEs, Midcaps and large organisations in different sectors, spreading knowledge, awareness and adoption of DIMOFAC Modular Factory Solution.

'TOKEN' aims at developing an experimental ecosystem to enable the adoption of Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLT) as a driver for the transformation of public services towards an open and collaborative government approach. During 32 months, a multidisciplinary consortium of 11 partners comprising (a) IT developers/RTOs with experience in development of blockchain components/IoT & Big data platforms (FBA, IMEC, VIL, CERTH, FIWARE), (b) blockchain associations (INF), (c) public administrations (AYTOSAN, KATERINI); (d) SSH experts in public management (UC) and (e) think tanks specialised in digital transformation & policy-making (DEMOS) and Open Commons business models (FBR) will develop a Blockchain Platform as a Service Solution (BCPaaS) to be tested in 4 highly replicable application areas that are common to many Public Governments across Europe: public funding distribution; management of public accounts; urban logistics; valorisation of data. BCPaaS implementation will be assessed from a multidimensional perspective (technological, cultural, socio-economic and legal impacts), paying special attention to attitudes shown by public servants, as key individuals in public service provision. BCPaaS architecture will endorse the Next Generation Internet values of trustworthiness, resilience and sustainability and keep the compliance of the privacy-by-design regulation principles as core driver. It will maximise interoperability potential with IoT & Big Data platforms as well as other blockchains. A specific business model, based on Open Commons principles and Distributed Governance, will be elaborated during the second half of the project, and project dissemination will pay specific attention to meaningfully engagement of +30 early adopters, firstly as members of TOKEN Observatory contributing to TOKEN policy learning co-creation, and, secondly, to be invited to join BCPaaS platform after the project ends, and launch roadmaps to bring DLT to other public services.