The work performed in the project has been organised around the 4 main project work packages:
●WP1: I4MS Value Proposition and Best Practices
The goal of this work package was mostly dedicated to promoting and encouraging the uptake of manufacturing technologies, especially the ones promoted by the I4MS initiative. The support of the I4MS Contact Points was crucial in raising awareness and reaching local SMEs/Midcaps. The Contact Points Network has grown significantly since the start of the project and now counts on 124 members that help widespread knowledge and awareness on I4MS opportunities to approximately 100,000 SMEs/Midcaps across 33 European countries.
●WP2: Community engagement, Collaboration and Dissemination
The goal of this WP was to continue enlarging the I4MS community, by providing updated information relevant to the manufacturing industry, raising awareness of Innovation Actions and DIH services as well as fostering dialogue among stakeholders. Extended efforts were made in creating general conditions that would widespread I4MS positive reputation, and would later support the work of current and future Innovation Actions.
Moreover, 9 Working Groups have been organised during the I4MS4Ts lifespan (T2.5). These meetings acted as an “advisory board” for identifying the challenges and needs of regions. Results were gathered and published as recommendations under the two topics Upskilling challenges and Best Practices and supporting Mechanism on Digital Transformation.
Lastly, cooperation of the I4MS initiative with other ecosystems and initiatives (T2.6) has led to the development of different synergies with EU projects and the promotion of I4MS in different ecosystems.
●WP 3: Onboarding of Manufacturing Companies
The objective of WP3 was to create awareness among manufacturing SMEs on digitalisation’s impact, to offer a basic understanding of the industry 4.0 technologies and the implementation paths, and to find synergies between SMEs and DIH by providing training and support services. The results from the awareness campaign and the 12 Industry 4.0 awareness and configuration workshops were gathered in form of a train-the-trainers toolkit to leverage the resource for other interesting regions or I4MS community members. Finally, to match SMEs with the open calls that would provide the appropriate support, the IT tool of the Brokerage System was created, and complementary activities were implemented to foster better engagement within the parties
●WP4: Innovation support mechanism to finance digital transformation
The I4MS CSA has been gathering inputs from the Working Groups, from interviews (19) conducted with the I4MS Innovation Actions, and from experts in private and public funding on their perceptions regarding digital transformation, the potential mechanisms, strategies and the tools needed. Our legacy as a CSA has been gathered into 5 key pivotal messages and a special chapter about the FSTP mechanisms. Our messages have been presented to the I4MS community in different events and discussed with Innovation Action in a series of two different workshops. At the same time, the report has been distributed among the members of the community, policy makers and projects that have been supporting and collaborating with us in the last 30 months.
