Periodic Reporting for period 4 - EPIC (Centre of Excellence in Production Informatics and Control) Reporting period: 2021-01-01 to 2022-06-30 Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project The high-level goal of the project is to establish a leading-edge knowledge Centre of Excellence in Production Informatics and Control (EPIC CoE) with the mission - as a leading-edge knowledge centre of cyber-physical production systems - to accelerate innovation, realize industrial solutions, train new generations of highly qualified professionals and support the development of a sustainable and competitive European manufacturing ecosystem.The main strategic objectives of EPIC CoE are to: • Initiate and accelerate focused basic research excellence, and application-oriented development; • Raise the scientific profile and soft skill base of staff and institutions involved in seven selected Priority Research Fields (PRF) and several Complementary Skills; • Attract international talents and also enable industry talents to enter into academia and vice versa; • Significantly improve technology transfer and industry innovation in Hungary;• Intrinsically and sustainably impact on the development of education and training programs for engineers and researchers in the field of CPP; • Develop and shape a regional CPPS ecosystem by stimulating and strengthening triple-helix (industry & regional clusters – academia & university - government) relationships; • Promote and enable new international collaborations; • Contribute to better public understanding of science and scientific literacy; • Create new opportunities for Hungarian SMEs by facilitating their participation in research projects and thus develop their innovation capabilities;• Launch cooperative, customer centered value creation processes. Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far Despite the dire international pandemic situation, which affected all of us, also in the third RP the project developed successfully, and, for example, all scheduled deliverables have been submitted timely, many very interesting trainings and a large number of publications could be accomplished. COVID, however, had both its drawbacks and enablers. Some highlights of the past 15 months are as follows: • The COVID situation generated the need for a much more intensive coordination, and for a number of events to be either moved online or be postponed to a later date. Face-to-face on-site staff visits, or company visits were not possible after March. Also, people needed to acquire new complementary skills, such as getting familiar with different online communication tools (e.g.: Teams, Webex, Zoom, Gotomeeting, google hangouts, GoogleMeet). On the positive side though, we were able to have a much larger number of virtual encounters (e.g.: online trainings, workshops etc.) involving a higher number of participants, and even get involved in new industry alliances that have formed because of the international pandemic situation (e.g.: DigiLean Competence HUB). • 49 more staff visits / thematic exchange meetings were organised.• 13 more scientific/complementary skills trainings (e.g.: Training on Value Stream Design; Production Logistics; Factory Planning; Digitalization and New Technology Trends; Creating Value with Big Data; Digital Communication and Media Management; New Economic Views; Data Driven Business Models; Simulation in production; Defining and executing industry-initiated projects; EC Audit and Reporting; Horizon Europe; Creativity, Innovation and Digitalization) were accomplished.• EPIC InnoLabs is growing in the planned rhythm, there is no deviation from the initial plan.• Further standardized and improved industrial technology transfer processes and obtaining of the ISO9001:2015 certificate at EPIC InnoLabs is to be noted as well. • 57 scientific articles, 4 industrial publications and 1 new journal special issue editing. • 14 EPIC organised/co-organised thematic events and 37 conference participations.• A catalogue of 27 advanced training courses for the EPIC consortia was elaborated, representing in particular services for customers of EPIC Innolabs Ltd. on the technology fields Digital Factory and PPC. • 32 strategic cooperation projects with 19 industrial partners have been initiated.• A Digital Learning CPPS toolbox for project acquisition has been established. • Cooperation with industry continued, (34) workshops and events were organised.• 49 partnership building workshops were held.• An interactive map for the EPIC pilot CPPS network has been published.• The first jointly developed and implemented “Digital Assistance Systeme as a Service” use-case, was implemented in Győr and Vienna.• Strong media presence via: 33 new press releases taken over by about 100 media outlets, 3 EPIC InnoLabs digital newsletters, web-sites, leaflets, LinkedIn, television interviews, YouTube Channel, EPIC Flipboard Magazine. 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 work in the 4th reporting period continued successfully as a combination of (due to COVID) remote and face-to-face actions. Some highlights of the past 15 months are as follows:• Significant overpass of Scientific KPIs: • 49 scientific articles,• 18 conference participations,• 2 industrial publications,• 12 EPIC organised / co-organised thematic events.• Extensive improvement in the communication output with special focus on the social media channels, as recommended by the project reviewers.• Successful completion of 1st complementary funding R&D project and running the 2nd complementary funding project without issues.• 55 strategic cooperation projects have been initiated.• 69 staff visits/thematic exchange meetings.• 45 scientific/complementary skills training sessions.• Industrial cooperation projects directly originated from or by using the EPIC cyber-physical demonstration environments have been conducted.• Infrastructure in the EPIC pilot factory network were used to provide realistic use case scenarios for during the EPIC Summer School.• The pilot factory of the Vienna University of Technology was digitally mapped with several use cases and integrated into a virtual tour in FutureWork360.• A catalogue of 27 advanced training courses was developed (Digital Factory and PPC) and four iAcademy Apps have already been introduced.• Relevant teaching material for university students on Cyber-Physical Systems at BSc level and Cyber-Physical Production Systems at MSc level were developed• Growth of the EPIC Innolabs as per original schedule.• Many joint project proposals as a means of future sustainability were initiated. EPIC CoE’s vision and mission
