DIH-World - Accelerating deployment and matureness of DIHs for the benefit of Digitisation of European SMEs

Project Information

DIH-World

Grant agreement ID: 952176

DOI

10.3030/952176

Project closed

EC signature date 12 June 2020

Start date 1 July 2020

End date 30 June 2023

Funded under

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

Total cost

€ 8 650 578,11

EU contribution

€ 7 999 366,63

Coordinated by

CONSULTORES DE AUTOMATIZACION Y ROBOTICA SA
Spain

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - DIH-World (DIH-World - Accelerating deployment and matureness of DIHs for the benefit of Digitisation of European SMEs)

Reporting period: 2022-01-01 to 2023-06-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

DIH-World aimed to accelerate the uptake of advanced digital technologies by 54 European manufacturing SMEs in all sectors and support them in building sustainable competitive advantages to reach global markets by strengthening the capacities of regional DIHs, particularly in underrepresented regions across Europe.

DIH-World aimed at providing 73 DIHs, as intermediaries of successful local SME digital transformation, access to harmonised tools, well proven technologies, effective methodologies, sound knowledge, smart investment sources, rich training assets and overall, a vibrant innovation environment.

The final aim was to accelerate the matureness of DIHs and the development of their collaboration capabilities, and avoid the DIH divide due to lack of access to technologies, skills, networks, investment and infrastructures with special emphasis in underrepresented regions; so, they can capitalise and leverage on the European DIHs Networks their resources and facilities for the benefit of their local SMEs.

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

Phase 1 (M1-M6): Building the DIH-World Ecosystem activities. Main activities include:
• The creation of the DIH-World community of DIHs with the 27 DIHs partners. It includes various events (General Assembly, workshop), activities (assessment of the DIHs services and collaborations) and tool (collaborative platform).
• The development of the DIHs to bring them to the next level with the DIH Academy (kick-off and webinars), the development of the twinning scheme methodology and the activities of the DIHs services accelerator.
• The launch and implementation of 8 pilot experiments involving 7 DIHs and 8 SMEs partners. It includes the actual implementation and successful completion of the pilot experiments. It also includes the development of the monitoring framework and preparation of the ground for the Open Calls.

Phase 2 (M6-M36): Expanding DIH-World. Main activities include:
• The launch of the first and second Open Calls to expand the DIH-World community.
• The scaling-up of the DIH-World community of DIHs with the onboarding of 28 additional DIHs through the first Open Call and 18 additional DIHs through the second Open Call.
• The development of DIHs with activities from the DIH Academy in line with the DIHs needs, in particular through individual coaching, twinning scheme implementation and best practices/ use cases exchange.
• The organisation three batches of Community Days: the first community days (27 events), the second Community Days (33 events) and the third Community Days (22 events) organised in 26 counties around Europe by the DIHs.
• The implementation of 46 new experiments selected in the first and second Open Calls.

Phase 3 (M10-M36) Consolidating DIH-World. Main activities include:
• The constant monitoring of DIH-World activities.
• The dissemination of good and best practices from the DIHs activities and experiments.
• The dissemination of the project results.

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)

In 36 months, DIH-World has achieved the following results:

• Support the uptake of advanced digital technologies by 54 European manufacturing SMEs – selected in 2 open calls – through SME-driven experiments in which SMEs worked together with DIHs to uptake digital technologies, notably in less digitalised sectors such as textile, maritime, wood, construction, footwear or agri-food. In terms of technologies a wide variety of technologies have been adopted by SMEs, such as Artificial Intelligence, Big Data or Robotics. DIH-World has answered to the needs of European manufacturing SMEs through the execution of SME driven experiments leading to practical/tangible results:
o 51 new products;
o 55 new services;
o 114 training sessions related to the technologies implemented and;
o 69 business units or lines adopting or applying the technologies used in the experiment.

• Accelerate the establishment and development of a pan-European network of DIHs comprising of 73 DIHs. DIH-World provided DIHs access to the DIH Academy (100 hours of training, more than 20 hours of webinars, more than 1.100 hours of coaching, 32 use cases, 27 Regional Dissemination Workshops with more than 3,300 participants and 70+ business plans), a Service Accelerator Booster and overall, a vibrant innovation environment, thus, accelerating the matureness of DIHs and the development of their collaboration capabilities.

• Foster collaboration among DIHs. The consolidation of the DIH-World network was made through the organisation of 2 Community meetings gathering 90 participants, and 82 Community Days gathering more than 4.000 participants, the creation of a working group with DIHs and policymakers, a twinning scheme methodology and a collaboration platform which led to the enhancement and diversification of the DIHs’ capacity through the exchange of knowledge and collaboration among all the members.

• Consolidate and reinforce the existing DIHs networks and I4MS ecosystem through events, communication and dissemination leading to the scale-up and diversification of their services and resources.

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