INNOWWIDE aims to bring European highly innovative SMEs to the forefront of international markets by prototyping and shaping a new and unique financial scheme (the “INNOWWIDE Call for proposals”) that will allow them to conduct Viability Assessment Projects (VAPs) in cooperation with local stakeholders, creating the conditions to increase the uptake of European innovative solutions in markets outside Europe. Two calls will be implemented with a total budget of 7,2M€, allowing to fund 120 VAPs (60k€/VAP), and targeting markets of developing countries, large emerging economies (Brazil, Russia, India, China, Mexico) and developed countries with the same allocation for each of these three country categories. The strength of this initiative lies in: (1) the experience of project partners concerning calls for proposals design and management, having 8 European funding agencies among them; (2) a SME-centric approach, to be implemented thanks to the extensive access and links to the European SMEs that project partners have; and (3) an ambitious stakeholder mobilisation plan with a strong focus on third country players thanks to partners international network of delegations (130 offices abroad in 45 countries). Project impact will be evaluated following a holistic, multilevel assessment approach covering European and international dimensions, done at VAP and at call level, and providing information from qualitative and quantitative points of view. This valuable information will be used to draw R&I policy conclusions, that will be shared with relevant policy bodies through the creation and operation of the “INNOWWIDE Policy Working Group”.

BW-KAM 4 will implement tried, tested and tailored innovation management services to enhance innovation management capacities in Baden-Württemberg's (Germany) SMEs that have the potential to grow and internationalise. The services will be adapted to the needs of the SMEs and also market requirements in order to provide innovative products and services to Europe’s markets. Key Account Management will be provided to SME beneficiaries of the SME Instrument, Fast Track to Innovation (FTI) and FET-Open (Future Emerging Technologies) funding, by identifying and matching SME owners with coaches and investors in order to bridge knowledge gaps or financial requirements. The region covered is Baden-Württemberg in southwest Germany, which has been served by the Enterprise Europe Network Baden-Württemberg consortium for the last ten years.

The MASTT2040 project aims to (1) Use strategic foresight methods in an inclusive and participatory manner to build a shared understanding of which changes, opportunities or disruptions are present and emerging both inside and outside of the Manufacturing-as-a-Service domain to guide decision making, strategies and actions for the EU manufacturing sector in the context of twin transition up to 2040. (2) Actively engage key stakeholders within the MaaS and CE communities, manufacturing industry as well as standards developing organisations to jointly elaborate a strategic roadmap and action plan addressing short-term (5 years), medium-term (10 years) and long-term (15 years) timescales to identify and track desired developments in order to advance digitalisation, circularity, decarbonisation and sustainability of industrial production. We strive to guide European industry community to assure that: - MaaS can become a key enabler for speeding-up and scaling-up circularity and the provision of R-cycle services. - Sustainability becomes an integral part of MaaS approaches, leading to optimal sustainable industrial production and supply for all new products (in linear and circular economy). - MaaS increases resilience of supply by strengthening local European production networks of SMEs. - Europe scales up MaaS to create a critical mass of expertise and the right supporting policy measures to accelerate the uptake of MaaS in strategic areas of importance for the TWIN transition in Europe and to ensure strategic autonomy in MaaS and CE strengthened by leading the development of key digital, enabling and emerging technologies. MASTT2040 combines the expertise of industrial umbrella organizations specialized in manufacturing strategy development and foresight: SIRRIS (Belgium), Cluster COMET (Italy), Future Industry Platform (Poland), Steinbeis (Germany), Thhink (Netherlands) and 4CF The Futures Literacy Company (Poland).

OPeraTIC will develop a highly efficient and modular manufacturing platform to boost the adoption of high-power Ultra-Short Pulsed Lasers, as a sustainable alternative to current surface processing. The OPeraTIC open, interoperable and expandable architecture will tackle the industrial entrance barriers of laser microstructuring of large 3D parts. OPeraTIC provides the required productivity/quality through different developments: (i) combination of advanced optical modules for beam transport and manipulation (ii) dexterous and precision robotic manipulator. iii) AI-enhanced process planning and adaptability. OPeraTIC proposes a modular and automated routing of optical components guaranteeing versatility and replicability, i.e beam delivery (polarization maintaining fiber), management (dynamic control beam shaping) and metrology (novel optical setups for product & process monitoring). On top of that, OPeraTIC will develop a system architecture for the upscaling of USPL machines to large envelope and complex trajectories, driven by a novel RAMI4.0-compliant controller (merging dexterous manipulation with high level CNC motion accuracy and full synchronization of motion, laser process and quality control). Finally, OPeraTIC proposes an I4.0-compliant platform for systematic data exchange and integrated bidirectional communication (Automation-ML and OPC-UA standards) between real environment and its digital representation. This end-to-end seamless connection enhances a Machine Intelligence Framework for the definition of Zero Defect Manufacturing strategies, empowered by AI and real-time monitorization and control, for process optimisation. A consortium of 4 top Research Institutions and 7 laser sector industry partners, backed by 2 adoption-oriented partners, will demonstrate OPeraTIC potential on relevant and high impact large-scale use-cases by 4 industrial end-users in the automotive, aeronautic, lighting, and white goods sectors.

Social innovation actors take on an important role in finding solutions for societal challenges. However, many social enterprises lack entrepreneurial skills and digitization of their products or services and there is still a lack of support for social entrepreneurs, which is due to the fact that many business support organisations have little understanding of the specific challenges and needs of social entrepreneurs. The social innovation and the technology innovation ecosystems are currently not well interconnected and mostly considered separate ecosystems with different skillsets. The POSITIVE project will counteract these factors by raising awareness about the benefits of social innovation and providing capacity building about social innovation and social entrepreneurship to the tech innovation ecosystem, thus creating the basis for better support for social entrepreneurs and a more inclusive innovation ecosystem based on mutual understanding. The project will also provide new opportunities for social entrepreneurs to digitise their products and services and to acquire new business skills through the organisation of an Open Innovation Challenge in three countries (POSITIVE Impact Challenge), which constitutes knowledge transfer from the tech into the social innovation ecosystem, with the specific purpose to support regional SI actors to access alternative means of financing. The POSITIVE project will also foster the interlinkage of the two ecosystems on a regional and European level through cross-fertilization, knowledge exchange and policy recommendations on how the POSITIVE Impact Challenge model can be replicated. Thus, the POSITIVE project can not only contribute to the strengthening of the social economy on different levels, but also make the tech innovation ecosystem more resilient and equipped to tackle the important societal challenges by including social innovation actors.