The project's main objective is to develop a highly innovative, secure-by-design framework that fully exploits the MaaS paradigm. This framework will offer secure data exchange between companies and cutting-edge tools to enhance production efficiency and sustainability. The MEDUSA framework will establish a seamless connection between existing marketplaces, facilitating optimized production by leveraging users' machinery and shared resources from other manufacturers. All resources will be treated as part of a distributed Cyber-Physical System of Systems (CPSoS), maximizing production. The implementation of an automation layer will enable the exchange of real-time production data and asset monitoring, allowing for the tracing and optimization of the product life cycle. The framework will also support the implementation of a DPP and provide AI-based tools for manufacturers to support decision-making for production planning, remanufacturing, and machine reconfiguration, always being energy-aware.

Digitizing European industry is essential for European competitivity in the 21st century, but only 1/5 of EU SMEs is highly digitised. Laser Based Advanced and Additive Manufacturing (LBAAM) technologies are regarded as Key Enablers for Digital Production and offer important advantages to the adopters. SMEs have strong entry barriers for the technology: Investment cost, technology complexity, system integration and awareness/adoption readiness. PULSATE aims to lower all said barriers to boost the adoption of Laser Based technologies by SMEs and promote the development of SME-friendly laser based equipment and solutions. PULSATE will establish a Pan-European Network to stimulate SMEs to take part in Innovation Ecosystem of LBAAM, by connecting Digital Innovation Hubs (DIHs) to a support structure of knowledge, infrastructure and services, designed to tackle the issues currently limiting the adoption of LBAAM technology. A balanced combination is proposed between wide outreach using interconnected Virtual Communities and ICT tools (a Single Entry Point will connect a wide range of networking and servicing tools), and close exchange and interaction via DIHs. The project relies on a consortium of 6 competence centres (AIMEN, FTMC, MTC, SINTEF, Fraunhofer, CEA), service community and marketplace providers (FBA, CLESGO) and a photonics industry association (EPIC). With >50 previous projects outcomes, existing tools and services, connections with 74 running DIHs, Clusters and regional initiatives, PULSATE counts with the explicit support of companies and institutions (>80LoS), and an independent Board of Stakeholders gathering key players in LBAAM will ensure the quality and pertinence of PULSATE orientation. PULSATE will operate under 4 action areas: Business, Technology, Competence & Awareness, addressing the following technology domains: Nano/Micro Fabrication, AM, High Power Laser Manufacturing and Digitisation, and implementing 4 Open Calls and a catalogue of services.

CO-VERSATILE aims at increasing the adaptation capacity, resilience and flexibility of the European manufacturing sector, focussing on vital medical supplies and equipment, to support Europe in improving its response and preparedness to deal with pandemics. CO-VERSATILE builds upon research and innovation industry-driven initiatives to deliver demonstrators of a flexible 48-hour industrial response capability at scale, to cope with sudden spikes in demand of strategic products, for requalification or release of Manufacturing Settings. The project foresees four key objectives: - Deliver a rapid response to the ongoing emergency situation in the re-orientation and repurposing of production capacities through repurposed MVP for 7 manufacturing settings at M2 of the project and improved results iteratively delivered every 3 months after that, allowing an increased production capacity of vital medical supplies and equipment. Manufacturing settings outside the project will start having access to the project results at M6 of the project through a digital platform - Set up an accessible and democratic Digital Technopole for the re-orientation and repurposing of production capacities to meet the urgent needs of our societies for vital medical supplies and equipment, consisting of 5 operational building blocks. - Validate the proper operation of the Digital Technopole on 7 selected Manufacturing Settings to demonstrate a flexible 48-hour industrial response capability at scale, to ramp up production in response to sudden future spikes in demand of strategic products (for instance medical equipment such as PPE, respirators), for requalification or release of production lines. - Ensure the sustainability of the Digital Technopole and the multiplication of the offered services to the European Manufacturing Industry to achieve wide replication.

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is essential for the digitalization of the manufacturing sector; notwithstanding, less than 25% of the manufacturing companies in Europe profit from ICT-enabled solutions. In order to democratically boost the competitiveness of the European manufacturers (especially Small and Medium-sized Enterprises - SMEs), innovative solutions need to consider technological and commercial scalability from the beginning. From this perspective, the cloudification of services has become the ideal enabler in the manufacturing digitalization. Successful European initiatives such us CloudFlow, cloudSME or Fortissimo have demonstrated the benefits of cloudification for engineering services, by means of combining HPC resources, computational tools, and cloud computing platforms. Manufacturing SMEs are empowered to compute and solve problems that cannot be tackled without cloud and HPC technology, making them more competitive by reducing development times for innovative product with better performance. The results of these initiatives are fostering the engineering and to some extend the prototyping processes within the manufacturing workflow; however, monitoring and optimizing production processes have not yet greatly benefited from an integrated information workflow and simulation loop based on on-line factory data. The core partners of CloudFlow (eu-cloudflow.eu) and cloudSME (cloudsme.eu) are joining forces to leverage factory data with cloud-based engineering tools: a) paving the way toward manufacturing analytics, b) enriching the manufacturing engineering process with on-line data, and c) simulating and optimizing the production process with the vision to support it in real-time. The consolidated platform between CloudFlow and cloudSME with extended capabilities to process factory data is going to be accessed through a central interface, enabling the stakeholders to interact, and collaborate.