The I4MS program in H2020 has been and is a great success for the Digital Transformation of European Manufacturing SMEs. Phase IV of the program was focussing on DIHs and on highly innovative technologies like Digital Twins and AI. In particular, the AI REGIO Innovation Action developed a virtuous alliance between Regions, DIHs, AI solution providers and Manufacturing SMEs, which is materialised by a new methodology for DIHs service portfolio and customer journey analysis, an AI4EU -oriented toolkit of Data and AI resources, a network of Didactic Factories and their TEchnology and REgulatory SAndboxes (TERESA) and an ecosystem of SME-driven experiments and their Digital Transformation pathways. It is time now to align such important outcomes to the evolution of Manufacturing towards Industry 5.0, the evolution of cloud AI Technologies to AI-at-the-Edge, the evolution of H2020 to Horizon and Digital Europe programmes e.g. to EDIH, Data Spaces and AI TEFs (Testing and Experimentation Facilities) for Manufacturing. Some of the AI REGIO I4MS Phase IV motivations are now evolved: it is time for AI REDGIO 5.0 for keeping momentum of AI technologies adoption in Manufacturing SMEs. AI REDGIO 5.0 aims at renovating and extending the H2020 I4MS AI REGIO alliance between Vanguard EU regions and DIHs for a competitive AI-at-the-Edge Digital Transformation of Industry 5.0 Manufacturing SMEs. AI REGIO outcomes (methods and tools for DIHs governance and cross-DIH collaboration; Data Space and AI for Manufacturing toolkit; Didactic Factories network and TERESA facilities; SME-driven experimentations in 14 Vanguard regions) will be i) extended to the I5.0 principles; ii) enabled by the newest trusted technologies along the edge-to-cloud continuum; iii) supported by European open source hw/sw reference implementations, preserving EU values and ethical principles; iv) interconnected with the EDIH network in DEP as well as with the AI TEF nodes and the Data Spaces deployment program.

Significant advances in Additive Manufacturing (AM) technologies, commonly known as 3D printing, over the past decade have transformed the ways in which products are designed, developed, manufactured, and distributed. This poses new challenges for SMEs, especially in terms of becoming aware of the benefits of AM, as well as acquiring new skills and personnel. While withstanding such transformations, according to the European Commission, public innovation agencies strive at keeping the pace of SME innovation support demand, and seek opportunities to implement programmes pivoted on new approaches. At the same time, new innovation support programs leveraging on Open Innovation working models such as Innovation Prizes and hackathons (a.k.a. Innovation Challenges) has been piloted throughout Europe, gaining evidence for improving SMEs awareness of benefits of novel technologies and innovation methodologies. Project INNOADDITIVE aims at improving the knowledge and know-how of innovation agencies about successful support initiatives that proved to impact on the adoption of Additive Manufacturing technologies in SMEs. A special focus will be given to track initiatives adopting innovative and lean formats of Innovation Challenges. This will be done by tracking existing initiatives in the field (in the three partnering regions and beyond), and then sharing relevant know-how during three peer learning workshops organized by the three project partners, and targeting an audience of innovation professionals. Ultimately, the project will deliver an actionable Guide on how to design novel Innovation Challenges capable of accelerating the adoption of Additive Manufacturing technologies by SMEs.

The digital transformation resulting from the implementation of Industry 4.0 changes the current IP management and understanding of the use of digital data. Data and algorithms using open source code increasingly serve as a foundation for the creation of added value in the digital economy. Data is not only considered a by-product of business activities anymore, but a strategic resource that constitutes the basis for developing and offering novel digital products, services and business models. Many of these business models will be based on the analysis and evaluation of machine generated data. Data can be valuable in economic terms and can assure a competitive advantage to those possessing them. European manufacturing SMEs do not know well how to protect and monetize digital IP and provide added value using their intangible assets such as data, methodologies, configuration of interconnected systems, 3D designs, processing algorithms. Moving towards a data-driven approach, embedded software into hardware, new questions arise concerning data sharing, data driven innovations, legal digital IP protection and data ownership. These new challenges of the European digital economy hamper inbound open innovation/IP sourcing in European manufacturing SMEs. Project Go-DIP will address these challenges with raising awareness of digital data and software IP value and positively impact IP management of up to 100 manufacturing SMEs in three Alpine innovation systems. SMEs will be able to better incorporate the software and data IP management systems into their business strategies and boost digital innovation. Valuating, monetizing data and software IP will be addressed through the use of practical cases of 60 SMEs directly involved. Guidelines, templates and cases will be developed in the Design Option Paper (DOP) using the EASME Twinning plus methodology. Results will be widely communicated and disseminated by partners and organizations supporting project Go-DIP.

Plastics are an essential part of our daily lives and they are everywhere, being an important enabler of humanity's progress. On the other hand, in the way they're manufactured and used nowadays they're also responsible for 80% of marine litter and suppose 26mT/year of waste. Moreover, if we could recirculate these materials, manufacture them more efficiently and apply circular business models there will be a reduction of CO2 emissions of 50%. All of these are just some of the reasons why the EU have made the transition to a Circular Economy (CE) in the plastics sector a centrepiece of their action plan.Companies manufacturing plastics face a series of barriers to be a part of this transition, being key to the lack of knowledge and awareness. According to the them, there is still not enough training that goes from general concepts of CE to the specific aspects (i.e. which recycled material can use for my products?). CircVET project aims at developing the most extensive, free and tailor-made (according to companies needs and problems) training in CE for plastics at the European level. We believe that companies are one of the most relevant stakeholders needed for the transition and we expect to help them to play their role through knowledge. Plastics employs in the EU more than 1.56 million professionals directly demanding and in need of upgrading their skills.For achieving this objective, we have gathered a consortium representing more than XXX companies of the sector, academia and VET centres, that will:- Develop training materials according to companies needs, covering all the value chain of plastics in 6 EU languages- Adapt them to be used in I-VET and C-VET- Produce 9 MOOCs/NOOCs available accredited through micro-credentials- Develop a platform for learning and connecting- Build strong links between academia/VET centres/companies (through exchanges, challenges,...)- Pilot and validate them with around 80 companies and 200 students of the sector

systEmic Standardisation apPRoach to Empower Smart citieS and cOmmunities (ESPRESSO) focuses on the development of a conceptual Smart Cities Information Framework, which consists of a Smart City platform (the so-called Smart City enterprise application) and a number of data provision and processing services to integrate data, workflows, and processes in applications relevant for Smart Cities within a common framework. To build this framework, the project will identify relevant open standards, technologies, and information models that are currently in use or in development in the various sectors. It analyzes potential issues caused by gaps and overlaps across standards developed by the various standardization organizations and provides guidelines on how to effectively solve those issues. Particular emphasize will be put on common denominators in order to eventually allow for horizontal interoperability between the various sectors of a smart city. Though horizontal interoperability is out of scope for this project, emphasizing integration reference models as a key common denominator (e.g. in the form of multi-dimensional city models) already defines essential parts of the foundation for future levels of interoperability.