enabling SMEs to develop AI and DATA solutions through support of a Community of Practice and low-TRL and high-TRL playgrounds

Project Information

AID4SME

Grant agreement ID: 101189562

DOI

10.3030/101189562

EC signature date 4 November 2024

Start date 1 December 2024

End date 31 May 2028

Funded under

• Digital, Industry and Space

Total cost

€ 11 113 088,76

EU contribution

€ 9 990 860,38

Coordinated by

KATHOLIEKE UNIVERSITEIT LEUVEN
Belgium

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - AID4SME (enabling SMEs to develop AI and DATA solutions through support of a Community of Practice and low-TRL and high-TRL playgrounds)

Reporting period: 2024-12-01 to 2026-05-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

AID4SME – enabling SMEs to develop AI and DATA solutions through support of a Community of Practice and low-TRL and high-TRL playgrounds – will facilitate SMEs in developing combined AI and data solutions for large scale resource optimisation challenges for industries that have significant impact on the objectives of the Green Deal. Minimum 20 SMEs, selected through 2 open calls, will receive FSTP to develop these solutions with the support of a Community of Practice (COP). The ambition is to create a COP that will continue after the project lifetime.
AID4SME brings together 9 technology blocks and low-TRL playgrounds from 4 scientific partners, to educate and support the SMEs. Additionally, 4 large industry partners (from automotive, whitegoods, battery and energy sector) provide real-life large scale resource optimization challenges that require combined AI and data solutions, and high-TRL playgrounds to integrate and demonstrate the solutions. AID4SME offers an open platform that is flexible to bring in challenges from outside the consortium.

In such an industrial context, and focusing on the adoption of AI and data technologies by European SMEs, AID4SME aims at:
1. Developing a Community of Practice (COP) to support and enable SMEs to develop and deploy combined AI and data solutions
2. Engaging and support SMEs to develop/deploy, implement and demonstrate minimum 20 AI and data solutions at TRL 6-7
3. Increasing the adoption of combined AI and data technology

The ambition is to promote combined AI and Data solutions for:
1. Data collection
2. Creation of insights
3. Decision support
4. Automation

Specific objectives (towards impact)
1. Validation of solutions at scale by demonstrating the potential of integrating these technologies to address challenges in industrial ecosystems and contribute to the Green Deal
2. Maintain Europe’s scientific excellence and ensure sovereignty of these key technologies
3. Exploring deployment solutions that can ensure efficient scale up
4. Boosting the uptake of AI, Data and Robotics to exploit the major contribution expected to environmental sustainability

Wider Impacts
1. Europe’s open strategic autonomy by sustaining first-mover advantages in AI, data & robotics
2. Reinforced European industry leadership across the digital supply chain
3. Greener digital supply chain, from low-power components to advanced systems

Project webpage: https://aid4sme.eu/

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

At the current stage of the project, the consortium has focused on defining the challenges and their related KPIs regarding AI and data technologies, on which the open calls are based. In parallel, the low-TRL and high-TRL playgrounds are being prepared for the foreseen activities. Furthermore, the Community of Practice is being created, with particular attention to the mentoring activities related to the two open calls (OCs). At the date of this RP1 report, OC1 is running, and OC2 is ready to be launched.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The first phase of the project focuses on defining the challenges and their related KPIs regarding AI and data technologies, on which the open calls are based. In parallel, the low-TRL and high-TRL playgrounds are being prepared for the foreseen activities. As such, no results beyond the state of the art are currently available.