Latvian IT Cluster DIH is tech community with a strong focus on internationalization, cross-sectoral collaboration and digitalization.  Latvian IT Cluster advocates the development of sustainable industries through digital tools. IT Cluster  manages different international and local projects in partnership with companies, clusters, universities and public organisations. Competences and know-how of Latvian IT Cluster are formed from more than 30 implemented projects and export activities performed. Developed know-how and cooperation with RTD partners and universities in the field of smart solutions for customers and partners, as well as firm background of IT companies and cross-sectorial approach are ensuring high level competencies that can be attracted additionally to the existing capacity.
The mission of the DIH is to support businesses, particularly manufacturing SMEs, and public administration, to boost their competitiveness and reduce the existing digital gap. DIH is a crucial support mechanism for digital transformation, acquiring necessary skills, and access to important expertise and infrastructure.
LITC is a platform for further development of innovative IT solutions and products in Latvia and all around the world for various industries. Latvian IT Cluster has experience in running productivity workshops, hackathons, tech trainings and various awareness events between ICT and industries. Fostering technology usage in manufacturing industries has been set as one of key priorities for Latvian IT Cluster for the next years. Promotion of digital capabilities, business and manufacturing transformation according to the modern technology trends and available opportunities is the key competence of Latvian IT Cluster which we are keen to share with partners and involved SMEs. LITC has been selected to take part in "Smart Factories in the new EU Member States" project to become a national Digital Innovation Hub (DIH) leader to foster digital innovations and takes active part of various European DIH networks.
As regional digital innovation hub LITC serves as a go-to partner in digitalisation projects, playing a major role in increasing the digital competitiveness of Latvian companies and driving the global competitiveness by spreading the set of digital competences of DIH ecosystem. Latvian IT Cluster as a DIH takes the leading possition/ acts as a facilitator within the ecosystem which has been built in collaboration with universities, scientific institutions, government, corporates, industry and local champions (Operating in traditional and high potential industries ). Core DIH focus is on digital transformation in agrifood,manufacturing, healthcare industries, artificial intelligence and advanced digital skills.
Our possition as a DIH is AI & Industry 4.0 Think Tank and Coordination Center, our goal is to  encourage small  and medium-sized  companies to make  a digital  transformation in local and international level. 
To achieve our goals, we have created sustainable and strong network nationally with biggest Universities of Latvia, Research and innovation centres, sectoral associations, technology providers, Knowledge sharing  organisations, Regions of Latvia and internationally with strong communities and networks such as  BOWI, EU DATA HUB, AI DIH NETWORK, IOT NETWORK, BDVA - i-Space.
The core partnership with Riga Business School is a main driver to develop and implement Latvian Advanced Digital Strategy - develop actionable frameworks & conditions for the digital industrial revolution and national data strategy, including digital skill and advanced digital skill development strategy and implementation in cooperation with governmental and academic partners.
As a cluster LITC is awarded Cluster Excellence Silver Label since 2016.

 

DIH interacts with companies in 3 levels of “Digital paths” – 1) companies without experience and digital knowledge 2) companies with a digital knowledge and 3) companies with advanced digital skills. All three offer packages consist of different services provided by DIH. Services include starting from mentoring services to trainings and raising of knowledges and continuing with technology testing and innovation creation.  See more - https://dih.lv/lv/musu-pakalpojumi/digitalas-attistibas-celi

DIH is managed in order to help local companies to acquire digital skills, new technology, innovation and business solutions, as well as to improve overall digitization level of Latvian SMEs. Latvian IT Cluster DIH core focus is on small and medium manufacturing companies, to support in their digital transformatin journey. Technology focus is on Industry 4.0 technologies and Artificial Intelligence.

Latvian IT Cluster is a membership based non-profit organization, operating as legal organization since 2008 with objectives to facilitate technology industries growth, support research and development, tech knowledge and digital transformation of SMEs, and serve as voice of industry in communication with public authorities. Transparency, ethics, non-profit perspective and sustainabality have been core values for organization; importance of which is shared and passed on the whole potential future EDIH consortium lead by Latvian IT Cluster.

  Digital technologies.

Laser LT DIH – the technology-based non-for-profit hub established a few years ago as the continuation of FP7 APPOLO project. The HUB integrates the whole concept value chain from identifying problems in existing manufacturing processes and new opportunities, offering potential technology solutions and innovations, testing technologies in industrial-grade laboratories, transferring novel research knowledge to manufacturing directly with a search of funding sources and broad-spectrum services for incubation of new technologies. Laser LT DIH is a single one-stop-shop providing access to the latest photonics related knowledge, experience and technologies to improve businesses by digitalising manufacturing processes, products and services.

The vision of Laser LT DIH is to become the strongest DIH on lasers, photonics and advanced manufacturing in Northern-East part of Europe through the development of three main pillars:

1. Competence in laser technologies (Department of Laser Technologies of FTMC);

2. Business support and access to finance (Science and Technology Park);

3. Access to industry (Laser and Engineering Technologies Cluster - LITEK).

Through cooperation in RTD to develop, validate and provide for manufacturing SMEs the world-class laser and engineering technologies. Services provided by DIH will be research, development, designing, prototyping, validation of technologies and equipment, test-batch production, the attraction of funds, market research, incubation and commercialisation. Pilot lines combining laser technologies with complementary ones are under construction to speed up the technology transfer to SMEs. Tight connections with similar DIHs on laser-based manufacturing and advanced manufacturing is established. APPOLO HUB is an initial point, and new H2020 project on Laser DIH is ready to start. The regional network of DIHs for local industry support is under discussion. Digital technologies.

La Salle Technova Barcelona Highlights
La Salle Technova Innovation Park (Technova Barcelona) is the innovation park at La Salle–URL,
(www.technovabarcelona.org). Its mission is to provide a high-quality environment for the
development of new technology-based companies and foster technological innovation in SMEs in
the Catalan region. It offers an end-to-end service to new and existent organizations interested in
growing through technological innovation.
Technova connects the R&D capabilities of La Salle–URL with the demands and needs of
organizations in Catalonia. Technova Barcelona coordinates a network of business angels’
investors to provide additional funding sources to the start-ups of the park.
Technova Barcelona incubates over 25 startups that are developing new products and services,
most of them with a strong technological innovation component. Over 50 established companies
in the region use Technova Barcelona innovation and acceleration services in a regular basis.
Technova offers entrepreneurship advice, mentoring programs, innovation consulting, technology
valuation, innovation matchmaking, and technology valuation and transfer to their network of
associated companies and external clients. Furthermore, its extended network includes other
innovation and science parks, start-ups accelerators, a network of individual and corporate
investors, and institutional stakeholders in the promotion of the innovation ecosystem of the
region.
Technova Barcelona is member of the IASP (International Association of Science Parks). Within
this network of more than 400 Science and Technology Parks, Technova Barcelona provides a
challenge call service for innovator companies of Catalonia. Technova calls can reach more than
5000 technological start-ups that can forward solutions to address the challenge. This service
allows Catalan companies to propose cutting-edge technological challenges that can be
transformed to a call to IASP members.
La Salle Technova Barcelona History
La Salle Technova Innovation Park was born in 2001 for developing the third function of the
university, taking advantage of the Education (Talent) and the Research (Technology) of La Salle
Campus Barcelona. In 2016, Technova won the Award as one of the Top 10 Accelerators in
Europe. In 2017, Technova received the Award of the best Business Angel Network by the
Spanish Association of Business Networks (AEBAN). Nowadays host the Presidency of the
International Association of Science Parks and Areas of Innovation (400 Parks in 80 countries). Digital technologies.

Know-Center is Austria's leading research centre for data-driven business and big data analytics. As a connecting link between science and industry, Know-Center conducts application-oriented research in cooperation with other academic institutions and with companies. Within Know-Center, we pursue a wider perspective and approach data driven business as a cognitive computing challenge. Our scientific strategy is to integrate approaches from (big) data analytics with human-centred computing to create cognitive computing systems that will enable humans to utilise massive amounts of data. Therefore, our motto is “from data to intelligence”. Know Center is recognized Big Data European Innovation Space by the Big Data Value Association. Our data-driven methods and technologies contribute to value creation and benefits for customers in a sustainable way among various industries and use cases. Through our Cognitive Computing-based approach, which combines the strength of man and machine (=software), we are setting standards within both the local and the international research community. The best example for this is the area “Industry 4.0” (also known as “Smart Production”) where our approach makes companies more successful. Here, for instance, our Cognitive Computing Systems consist of integrated sensors in the production facilities, intelligent algorithms for data analysis and interactive systems that allow users to derive action-relevant knowledge and work more efficiently. Our customers benefit from this specific know-how in the form of competitive advantages and innovations directly at the value-creation chain. To support Austrian industry using Big Data methods and tools we established the Big Data Lab. The Big Data Lab is Austria’s first point of contact for all questions around Big Data Analytics and Big Data Management. The Big Data Lab enables companies to quickly and efficiently test data-driven methods as well as to assess the potential and possibilities for a data-driven business. Our offer includes consultations, data analysis and trainings. Digital technologies.

The Jožef Stefan Institute is the leading Slovenian scientific research institute, covering a broad spectrum of basic and applied research. The staff of more than 960 specializes in natural sciences, life sciences and engineering. The subjects concern production and control technologies, communication and computer technologies, knowledge technologies, biotechnologies, new materials, environmental technologies, nanotechnologies, and nuclear engineering. 

The mission of the Jožef Stefan Institute is the accumulation - and dissemination - of knowledge at the frontiers of natural science and technology to the benefit of society at large through the pursuit of education, learning, research, and development of high technology at the highest international levels of excellence.

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In order to increase the flow of knowledge and technology into the domestic and foreign economies and to promote the Jožef Stefan Institute as a Centre of excellence for technological progress for all segments of society an internal Center for Technology Transfer and Innovation (CTT) is established.

The primary task of CTT is to enable and facilitate the transfer of new technologies and innovations, developed at the Institute and its Departments, to the  industry.

Our key activities encompass:

(1)  technology testing facilities, reference experimentation facilities and technology consulting services;

(2) initiating new industrial cooperation: the search for industrial partners, including creating market analyses and support for contracting; 

(3)  establishing of new spin-off / spin-out companies, including the search for investors for licensing and the financing of spin-off / spin-out companies; 

(4) marketing intellectual property, including support for negotiations and licensing contract relations establishment;

(5) supporting active integration of economy and science with internationalization;

(6) supporting the protection of intellectual property including raising awareness about it;

(7) support and assistance in applying to national and EU tenders, including provision of information on suitable Calls for application and full proposal revision, focused on the marketing, IPR, UVP and customer segment related issues;        

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(8) support and assistance to the competence centres (e.g. the competence centre in the domain of customized and low-energy computing).

(9) measures for the popularization of science amongst young population: organization of visits to the Jožef Stefan Institute, mentoring for students and providing special services for young researchers employed at the Institute.

Through our activities, we complement and enrich innovative research, innovation management and knowledge transfer, as well as organization of focused meetings between researchers and industry representatives, thematic workshops, and trainings at the Institute. Our activities are driven by the desire to increase the visibility of the Institute, to raise companies’ awareness of the Institute, and thereby encourage their cooperation with us. At the same time our activities are implemented with the goal to promote entrepreneurial mentality among researchers, as well as with sincere concern for the education and popularization of science among young people.

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The main goal of the Center for Technology Transfer and Innovation at the Jožef Stefan Institute is to increase the flow of knowledge and technology into domestic and foreign economy and to promote the Jožef Stefan Institute as a Centre of excellence for technological progress for all segments of society.

Support at Experimentation

Jožef Stefan Institute consists of different departments, which are to be considered as focal point of development, digitization and industry relations nationally and internationally.

The research departments are listed here: https://www.ijs.si/ijsw/Research%20departments

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Participation in EU Networks and Consortiums

Enterprise Europe Network Slovenia
The Enterprise Europe Network helps businesses innovate and grow on an international scale. It is the world’s largest support network for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with international ambitions.
The Network is active in more than 60 countries worldwide. It brings together 3,000 experts from more than 600 member organisations – all renowned for their excellence in business support.
Member organisations include:
•     technology poles
•     innovation support organisations
•     universities and research institutes
•     regional development organisations
•     chambers of commerce and industry

We are the coordinators of the Slovenian EEN consortium. Our partners are Chamber of Commerce, Chamber of Craft, University of Primorska, University of Maribor, SPIRIT and Development Agency of Maribor.

Technology transfer consortium of Slovenia unites the main technology transfer offices in Slovenia and serves the researchers and other beneficiaries by assisting them in IP identification and protection, marketing, financing etc.

We are the coordinators of the Slovene consortium. Our partners are all Public Research institutions in Slovenia, active in natural sciences.

 

Link to digitization

Helps researchers and enterprises to innovate, transfer scientific results into practice and to digitalize the industry.

EU-wide Competence Centre Network is set up within the Department of Communication systems of Jožef Stefan Institute, in the domain of customized and low-energy computing (CLEC) for cyber-physical systems and the IoT providing “one-stop-shop” and the cross-border technology brokerage services over EU.

We support a competence centre at the JSI which is a contact point for the local ecosystem in Slovenia.

 

  Digital technologies.

JADS, a collaboration between Tilburg University (TiU) and the Eindhoven University of Technology (TUe), is an interdisciplinary data science research and innovation hub in the Netherlands. JADS does fundamental and applied research in close collaboration with the business community on the entrepreneurial, innovative and societal aspects of data science (a.o. the applied research lab Data & Smart industry). JADS develops data based analytics and management methods and implements these in specific pilots to obtain new insights into processes and value chains. Also, JADS supports partners with knowledge on business models, data governance and legal aspects of data use and generation, e.g., relating to data protection (a.o. SME datalab/ data maturity scans)  JADS participates in the Dutch Smart Industry innitiative. The aim of this innitiative is to make the industry more competitive through faster and better utilisation of the opportunities ICT has to offer in digitzing industry. JADS has a non for profit aim, since it is a cooperation between two public universities and the Province of North Brabant and the Municipality of ’s-Hertogenbosch.

The list of services offered to the SMEs is presented as follows:

JADS SME Datalab: https://www.jadsmkbdatalab.nl/  and https://www.jads.nl/…
Drive by data platform (in which SME datalab participates): https://platformdrivenbydata.nl/
JADS Playground: https://www.jads.nl/playground.html
Data Expert Programhttps://www.jads.nl/dataexpertprogram.html
Data Entrepreneurship in Action https://www.jads.nl/joint-master-program-data-science-entrepreneurship…
PDEng projects for companies: https://www.jads.nl/pdeng-post-master-data-science.html
Digital technologies.

The association (non-profit organization) JESSICA FRANCE was created by the CEA and Bpifrance to implement the CAP'TRONIC program. The goal of the CAP’TRONIC program is to help French SMEs improve their competitive edge and innovate by integrating embedded software and electronics in their products, whatever the field of activity and the stage of development. Its vocation is to raise awareness, inform, train and technically assist SMEs in the introduction of embedded electronic and software technologies in their products. This aid program has offered a concrete answer to the technical expectations of SMEs for over 20 years.

The program has helped 9 400 SMEs increase their market share by leveraging such technology for the past 5 years. More than 1 000 sessions of workshops and seminars have been provide to 7 500 SMEs and 1 280 SMEs has been helped trough a technical expertise during the last 5 years. CAP'TRONIC counts on 24 engineers specialized in embedded software and electronics. These specialists provide neutral expertise to adapt projects according to the needs of companies and the market. As a result, this enables companies to quickly find realistic and cost-effective technological solutions.

CAP'TRONIC's action with SMEs takes different forms:

Technical seminars: to raise public awareness on a theme related to electronics, embedded software and connectivity;
Workshops and training: to transfer knowledge and know-how during sessions of 2 to 3 days;
Consulting: thanks to the intervention of a consulting engineer, provide support in identifying critical points, selecting solutions and implementing technical solutions;
Technical expertise: co-financed intervention by an expert chosen from a network of 650 public and private expertise centers;
Project follow-up: support from a co-financed expert to ensure the technical follow-up and the correct execution of the project.

The technical expertise is at the heart of CAP'TRONIC's activity from the ideas to the final product, and goes to three main phases during which CAP'TRONIC's support can be decisive:

Needs definition / Feasibility study: detailing of the needs, search for electronic or software solutions, evaluation of the solutions searched, architecture proposal, development and production costs evaluation, design offices list…
Support throughout development: negotiation with design offices, monitoring of the different phases of development
Industrialization support: search for EMS, validation of tools, proposal for the integration of the final product...

As an expert in the Internet of Things, CAP'TRONIC has published several guides for SMEs wishing to take the turn of connected objects. These guides are available on the CAP'TRONIC website.

« Take the turn of the connected objects »: questions and aspects to consider for a successful project (https://www.captronic.fr/Guide-Prendre-le-virage-des-objets-connectes.h…)
« They have taken the turn of the connected objects »: a guide focused on feedback from 10 industrial companies in B to B (https://www.captronic.fr/Guide-Ils-ont-pris-le-virage-des-objets-connec…)
« What methodology to make your electronic project a success ? » : to know what main steps to follow (https://www.captronic.fr/Guide-Quelle-methodologie-pour-reussir-votre-p…)
« How to control the cybersecurity of your connected objects and systems ? » : in collaboration with The National Information Systems Security Agency (https://www.captronic.fr/Guide-PME-Comment-maitriser-la-cybersecurite-d…)
« The Internet of Things, value creator » : through a day in the connected life of a hospital (https://www.captronic.fr/L-INTERNET-DES-OBJETS-CREATEUR-DE-VALEUR.html)

Contacts: JESSICA France, as a national organization, has 4 offices.

South-east inter-regional office: 

CEA-G/LETI - 17, rue des Martyrs
38054 GRENOBLE Cedex 9

FRANCE

Engineers are also present at Lyon (69), Marseille (13), Annecy (74) and Montbeliard (25). 

 

West inter-regional office: 

60, Boulevard du Maréchal Juin
44100 NANTES 

FRANCE

Engineers are also present at Caen (14), Brest (29), and Tours (37).

 

Southwestern inter-regional office: 

Parc d'Activités Georges Petit 
43-47 rue Marcel Sembat
33130 BEGLES 

FRANCE

Engineers are also present at Toulouse (31), Montpellier (34) and Limoges (87).

 

Paris and north inter-regional office:

CEA Saclay / NANO INNOV
Bâtiment 863 - Point courrier 44
91191 GIF sur YVETTE Cedex

FRANCE

Engineers are also present at Villeneuve d'Ascq (59), Vandoeuvre (54) and Noisy-Le-Grand (93).
Digital technologies.

The mission of the Data Cycle Hub is to be a reference one-stop shop DIH in the Valencia region to foster data driven and artificial intelligence based innovation. The objective is to bridge the gap between research and industry, specifically SMEs, providing innovative solutions and services that require advanced data analytics, automatic learning and artificial intelligence. 

The Data Cycle Hub has a non-for-profit aim and is coordinated and led by ITI, also a non-for-profit Research Centre and a reference on Big Data and Artificial Intelligence in the Valencia region, with connection to all relevant stakeholders: industry, regional agencies, accelerators, Chamber of Commerce, education, providing a rich ecosystem of technological companies working on these fields.

All the technologies covered by this DIH are around the DATA, from Data Gathering to Data visualization. In this sense, the DIH addresses Primarily Big Data and Artificial Intelligence, but also other key digital enabling technologies like Cyber Physical Systems, IoT, Cloud and High PerformanceComputing Platforms or statistics optimization.

ITI is Founding member of Big Data Value Association (BDVA) and has been labelled by BDVA as iSpace the last 2 years. ITI is working hard in establishing the baseline for a network of Big Data and Artificial Intelligence DIHs.

ITI has two main Data Hubs. One is focused on ITI own experiments with data and AI and the other is oriented to provide services to external experiments coming from more than 50 competence centres in the region and also from companies. The network of competence centres that ITI is leading, groups more than 20.000 SMEs that are potential users of the Data Cycle Hub Services. Digital technologies.

IT4Innovations National Supercomputing Center provides state-of-the-art technologies and services in the field of High Performance Computing (HPC) and makes it available for Czech and international research teams from academia and industry. IT4Innovations is the only national large research HPC e-infrastructure operating national Tier-1 systems. It currently operates two supercomputers, Anselm (94TFLOPS Rpeak, installed in summer 2013) and Salomon (2PFLOPS Rpeak, installed in summer 2015).

IT4Innovations is a part of the National Roadmap for Large Infrastructures for Research, Experimental Development and Innovations of the Czech Republic, represents the Czech Republic in the European research infrastructure PRACE (Partnership for Research and Advanced Computing in Europe), and is a member of ETP4HPC (European Technology Platform in the area of High-Performance Computing).

IT4Innovations is also an R&D centre with strong international links. The centre currently participates in dozens of international projects, mostly H2020 with top academic and industrial partners. IT4Innovations is also the only Intel Parallel Computing Centre (IPCC) in the new member states of the European Union (EU13). Its research activities are distributed across 5 laboratories:
•     Advanced data analysis and simulations lab
•     Infrastructure research lab
•     Parallel algorithms research lab
•     Modelling for nanotechnologies lab
•     Big data analysis lab Digital technologies.

We will build out the I4MS program in a practical manner – including training programs, demonstration activities, industrial pilots and practical innovation translation activities.
Fundamentally, the Digital Innovation Hub will be built out to become a One-Stop-Shop for SME access to digital manufacturing technologies and solutions in the space of CPS/IoT with associated training, case studies and access to capability and competence.

Irish Manufacturing Research is part of a select EU network of I4MS – Regional Manufacturing Digital Innovation Hubs that provide a one-stop-shop for manufacturing companies to access all of the supports they need to become ready for the next generation of digital manufacturing.  We provide information and support to manufacturing SMEs from:

Access to key research capacity and skills in Ireland and across Europe
Access to Competence Centres across Europe and Ireland
Access and support in accessing public and private funding
Connectivity to networks of manufacturing companies (SMEs and multinational)
Best known methods and case-studies
Technology roadmaps and frontier technologies
Integration into EU consortia and funding programs
Access to experimental facilities
Connectivity to national funding bodies and authorities
Digital technologies.