Paving the Foundation for Disruptive Technologies in Tomorrow's Digital Innovation Hubs

Informazioni relative al progetto

HUBiquitous

ID dell’accordo di sovvenzione: 101016895

DOI

10.3030/101016895

Progetto chiuso

Data della firma CE 10 Dicembre 2020

Data di avvio 1 Gennaio 2021

Data di completamento 30 Giugno 2024

Finanziato da

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies - Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)

Costo totale

€ 2 462 177,86

Contributo UE

€ 1 999 918,25

Coordinato da

INNOTEC21 GMBH
Germany

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - HUBiquitous (Paving the Foundation for Disruptive Technologies in Tomorrow's Digital Innovation Hubs)

Periodo di rendicontazione: 2022-07-01 al 2024-06-30

Sintesi del contesto e degli obiettivi generali del progetto

HUBiquitous is an Innovation Action aiming at creating a joint Africa-Europe Startup & Innovation Ecosystem for long-term collaborations and partnerships. The project has the ambition to increase the technology level and capacity building of 30 local DIHs/TechHubs in 5 African countries. The project proposes highly innovative concepts called Innovation Enablers (i.e. Solution Lab, Application Business Box and MeetHub online platform). The purpose of these enablers is to provide technical (e.g. IoT, AI and BigData disruptive technologies) as well as entrepreneurial development skills to DIHs and startups/entrepreneurs. Thanks to these Innovation Enablers, the project will further demonstrate and build the local innovation and ecosystem capacity through 3 programs: (i) Talent program, building digital skills for local talents, (ii) Accelerator program, creating innovative applications and products and (iii) Community program, developing the Africa-Europe start-up and innovation communities. HUBiquitous Innovation Enablers and Programs will therefore support and empower the startup and entrepreneurship ecosystems from both continents with the development of a rich and sustainable collaboration between African and European DIHs. HUBiquitous consortium is composed of a partnership of Nine (9 ) entities, five European and four African, coming from nine different countries. It builds on the existing cooperation and partnership stemming from two previous H2020 ICT International Collaborations with Africa projects (WAZIUP and WAZIHUB). The ultimate target of HUBiquitous is to pave the way for long-term and sustainable innovation for the African DIHs.

Lavoro eseguito dall’inizio del progetto fino alla fine del periodo coperto dalla relazione e principali risultati finora ottenuti

1. We developed the physical and virtual infrastructure of the Solution Lab. A total of 15 DIHs were selected for the deployment of the Solution Lab's resources and infrastructure. The virtual infrastructure of the Solution Lab (called WaziLab, https://lab.waziup.io/) is up and running. To this date, the WaziLab has more than 1500 registered users. It is currently hosting 26 IoT programs, run by 18 hubs, spanning across 13 different countries.
2. The innovative capacity building training has been provided to all the selected 15 external Hubs. An dedicated program which was termed the ‘TecHub Catalyst Program’ was designed specifically to bring the 15 DIHs to a higher level of capacity in the emerging technologies of IoT and AI using the Solution Lab, Application Business Boxes and MeetHub. This included a business training that would design sustainable services following the training that they would implement in their hubs. A total of 6 new services were generated in this training with the promise of implementation by the participating DIHs.
3.The first “Talent Program” had some very good results receiving 613 applications in total. 314 applications progressed to the training and bootcamp phase following the screening across the 11 participating hubs. A total of 1837 applications were received across the 15 hubs in the TecHub Catalyst Program. 469 were successful through the screening process of the hubs and 224 completed the program and were issued with Certificates. The success of the program led the hubs to prepare and run a 2nd cohort of the same program in their hubs as part of the sustainability plan for the DIHs.
4. A new open call was launched for the accelerator program as a part of the TechHub Catalyst program. The open call was used to select the hubs. Each hub was asked to design their own accelerator program. As a part of this process, each HUB also developed two MVPs. A total of 30 products and 6 services resulted from this accelerator program.
5. The Wazilab platform is designed as a one-stop shop for DIHs looking to establish IoT training programs and certification. Its open nature makes it a sustainable asset for the project. It has the potential to connect both African regional and national ecosystems with European stakeholders. Moreover, the sustainability of Wazilab can be envisioned as a B2B process, i.e. selling the learning platform to DIHs, companies, or individual tech entrepreneurs. MeetHub on the other hand will also be enhanced and maintained beyond the project period. Each of the DIHs also prepared a plan to continue implementing the training and acceleration services beyond the project period. 3 of these DIHs have already conducted supplementary training with great success.

Progressi oltre lo stato dell’arte e potenziale impatto previsto (incluso l’impatto socioeconomico e le implicazioni sociali più ampie del progetto fino ad ora)

1. WaziLab and MeetHub will be fundamental in supporting DIHs beyond the project in the subsequent training cohorts that the DIHs are eager and have already begun doing. The content and features of the WaziLab platform will continue being maintained and enhanced to accommodate evolving training needs and host the new trainees that will join the DIHs programs. DIHs will be encouraged to continuously onboard the new trainees to the MeetHub platform for soft-landing on project development and linkages to investors. The Application Business Boxes will be made available to any new needs for applications development by the hubs.
2. The DIHs identified value in the 2 services that HUBiquitous introduced and co-implemented with the hubs. The DIHs have developed plans to sustain these services by launching periodic training and accelerator sessions within their DIHs following the same model. This is foreseen to amplify interests in the startup ecosystem in the various countries in Africa. MeetHub will be powerful to enhance and sustain collaborations across the African and the European continent.
3. As the DIHs continue to amplify the number of trainees through their periodic training cohorts supported by the Innovation Enablers, more youth will gain the skills needed in the modern Industry. Additional to this, they will have a Certificate of Achievement and their profile of knowledge accessible through the platform. This will be attractive for current hiring managers in the technological space thus improving their potential for employment. Wazilab already has 1500 users. As more users access the platform and gain the value, more youths will eventually be eligible for employment.
4. Two fundamental programs proposed as services to the DIHs, The IoT certification course ‘Training as a service’ and the Tech-acceleration program ‘Prototyping as a service’ are flagship services to enhance the entrepreneurial and innovation skills amongst the ICT professionals and start-ups in Africa. The IoT Certification Course includes business training which is tailored for technical personnel. The Tech-acceleration program applies the innovative Application Business Box which generally sparks innovation and accelerates the development of Minimum Viable Products. As the DIHs roll out their periodic training and acceleration services, more ICT professionals and startups will be exposed to the services.
5. The innovation enablers will continue to be supported and maintained beyond the project period. The DIHs have already begun implementing their sustainability plan of periodic implementation of services resulting from the project. The consortium will continue to interact will the DIHs during this period by interfacing the services and tools (Solution Lab, Application Business Box, MeetHub) to their needs.

Project big picture