Project description
A big technological boost for small enterprises
Digitisation is transforming how we do business, creating new practices and generating opportunities. This is why accelerating innovation in SMEs, especially those outside the technology sector, is one of Europe’s top priorities. The EU-funded DigiFed project will develop a business model for the sustainability of the federation of digital innovation hubs (DIHs). Its model is based on collaborative investments and reduced innovation risks. The project will focus on cyber-physical and embedded systems with special emphasis on security and privacy, autonomy and human-machine interaction. Overall, the project’s aim is to provide SMEs the support needed to introduce digital technologies in their products and services. It will gather six DIHs from different countries and link with other DIHs and DIH networks to create an EU-wide offering of sustainable cross-border DIH services.
Objective
DigiFed, part of SAE initiative, is dedicated to supporting EU industries to digitalise their product & services and reaching new markets enabled by Cyber Physical Systems (CPS) & Embedded Systems.
DigiFed gathers twelve partners with expertise in digital technologies and/or innovation management from nine EU countries.
The main aim of DigiFed is to accelerate and promote the digitalisation of European companies by providing significant support mechanisms for individual and groups of SMEs and Midcaps to foster the introduction of digital technologies in their product and service offerings.
DigiFed partnerships are designed to strengthen the European digital ecosystem through the adoption of advanced digital technologies (CPS & embedded systems) and a combination of regional, national and European funding instruments so that SMEs and midcaps can benefit from knowledge sharing regardless of their location. Three main innovation pathways are proposed to EU companies.
· Applications Experiment (AE) with an innovative model of “TWIN AE” involving two cross-border SMEs/midcaps, one of which is of a low digital maturity level”
Two explorative services for DIH will be trialled involving the following co-funding schemes:
· Generic Experiments (GE) are designed to test new collaborations between research centres and a group of SMEs and midcaps as well as evaluate new co-financing mechanisms between European and regional funding to foster European industry digitalization. DigiFed targets to launch 3 GE Communities.
· Digital Challenge (DC) will experiment with new co-funding mechanisms with large European organisations -the Digital Challenge Owners (DCOs). Advanced digital technology SMEs will be selected through an open call to solve the challenge proposed by the DCOs. The purpose of the Digital Challenge is to highlight attractive market needs to be addressed through CPS and embedded systems and for which new solutions are required. DigiFed aims to launch 3 Digital Challenges.
Altogether, DigiFed aims to involve at least 200 EU SMEs and midcaps with different Digital maturity levels and from all markets including sectors with low digital penetration. A minimum of 80 EU companies will receive Cascade Funding support through one of DigiFed’s innovation pathways.
Finally, DigiFed aims to foster interaction between European Digital Innovation Hubs (DIHs). The DigiFed consortium already involves six well-established DIHs from different countries and will expand its network through collaboration with other DIHs aiming at fostering cross-border sustainable collaboration and improving the services given by the European DIH network.
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Funding Scheme
IA - Innovation actionCoordinator
75015 PARIS 15
France