The third phase of the I4MS initiative has kicked-off

The third phase of the I4MS initiative has kicked-off

During the last quarter of this year, the 4 Innovation Actions (IAs) and the Coordination and Support Action (CSA) in charge of implementing the third phase of the I4MS initiative launched their activities. The main objective of the IAs and the CSA is to address the uptake of ICT technologies of manufacturing SMEs and mid-caps and reskill the workforce by enabling the shift towards digitisation. Phase 3 projects will fund application experiments focused on emerging innovative technologies and processes, which need to be customised, integrated, tested and validated before being released on the market. To make this happen the IAs will distribute almost 12.5M € to fund application experiments to support SMEs and mid-caps in the digitisation process by offering the right combination of digital technologies and guide them through their innovation processes.

The IAs of this phase 3 are:

  • AMable (AdditivelyManufacturABLE), aims to support European SMEs in the uptake of additive manufacturing technologies by providing a number of services from design to finish. From the initial idea to produce a product by means of an additive process to the first part, AMable guides the development in an ecosystem of digital, technological and educational resources. First Open Call foreseen in January 2018.

Coordinator: Ulrich Thombansen, Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT, Germany

Website: www.amable.eu

  • Cloudifacturing (Cloudification of Production Engineering for Predictive Digital Manufacturing) will be focused on optimizing the production processes and producibility using Cloud/HPC-based modelling and simulation, leveraging online factory data and advanced data analytics, thus contributing to the competitiveness and resource efficiency of manufacturing SMEs, ultimately fostering the vision of Factories 4.0 and the circular economy. The first Open Call is expected in July 2018.

Coordinator: Prof. Dr. André Stork, Fraunhofer Institut für Graphische Datenverarbeitung, Germany

Website: https://www.cloudifacturing.eu/

  • The ambition of L4MS (Logistics for Manufacturing SMEs), is to reduce the installation cost and time of mobile. It will enable inexpensive deployment of small and flexible logistics solutions requiring no infrastructure change, no production downtime and no in-house expertise. The use of mobile robots will not only automate the logistics (50% of the production cost) but will also provide unprecedented flexibility on the factory floor for batch production. The first call will be opened in September 2018.

Coordinator: Ali Muhammad, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland 

Website: www.l4ms.eu

  • MIDIH (Manufacturing Industry Digital Innovation Hubs), will make available to developers, corporates, SMEs and startups a network of CCs and DIHs, providing them with technological services including access to CPS/IoT platform, support to customization and project design, business services such as incubation, business acceleration, access to market, access to finance and skill building services (courses, webinars, etc). MIDIH will launch its first Open Call in March 2018.

Coordinator: Susanne Kührer of EIT Digital IVZW, Belgium

Website: http://www.midih.eu/ 

The Coordination and Support Action of this phase 3:

  • I4MS-Going to market alliance aims at hosting the community for the smart manufacturing ecosystem in Europe to exchange knowledge, to inform about the latest trends of the market as well as to give support and provide access to funding opportunities for the digital transformation of manufacturing SMEs and Mid-Caps. The participation criteria of the Disruptors Awards will be presented in Spring 2018.