By creating a sustainable strategic network of major European ICT hubs, the goal of HubLinked is to strengthen Europe’s software innovation capacity by learning from regions of proven ICT strength and sharing that knowledge will all regions. HubLinked will (i) improve the effectiveness University-Industry (U-I) linkages between computer science faculty and different types of companies (ii) develop global software innovator graduates that can work in any sector and (iii) upskill academic and industry staff to engage in U-I linkages for software innovation. Although the ICT sector is a major economic sector in Europe, HubLinked also includes SMEs in the non-software sector to provide a ‘low-cost low-commitment’ mechanism to prototype software innovations. An established partnership of large, industry-focused computer science faculties have come together with a representative mix of industry partners (large multinationals, SMEs in both the software and other sectors and start-up companies).HubLinked has six deliverables (i) effective U-I linkages (ii) the CSI4 curriculum framework for industry-oriented, internationalised, innovation-focused and interdisciplinary computer science degrees (iii) four Global Labs modules (iv) A portal of study and placement opportunities for students (v) An online professional development for academic and industry staff (vi) Form the HubLinked Association with a long term goal of including a partner from each EU country.We estimate the HubLinked partnership can directly reach over 3,000 companies, 12,000 students and 400 staff during the lifetime of the project. HubLinked will create a network of European ICT professionals that will increase the innovation capacity and competitiveness of European software hubs and help underpin education, research, innovation, trade and economic development for years to come.

Remote digital towers (RDT) are taking place around the world to ensure efficiency and safety. TRUSTY harnesses the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance resilience, capacity, and efficiency in making significant advancements in the deployment of digital towers. The overall goal of TRUSTY is to provide adaptation in the level of transparency and explanation to enhance the trustworthiness of AI-powered decisions in the context of RDT. Through the video transmission data from RDT, TRUSTY considers the following major tasks: 1. Taxiway monitoring (i.e., bird hazard, presence of a drone, autonomous vehicle monitoring, human intrusion, etc.). 2. Runway monitoring (approach and landing) misalignment warning and the corresponding explanation. To deliver trustworthiness in an AI-powered intelligent system several approaches are considered: • ‘Self-explainable and Self-learning’ system for critical decision-making • ‘Transparent ML’ models incorporating interpretability, fairness, and accountability • ‘Interactive data visualization and HMI dashboard’ for smart and efficient decision support • ‘Adaptive level of explanation’ regarding the user's cognitive state. • “Human-centric AI” enhances the trustworthiness of AI-powered systems. • “Human-AI teaming” to consider users’ feedback to insure some computation flexibility and the users’ acceptability. To achieve the goal, TRUSTY will rely on the SotA developments in interactive data visualization, and user-centric explanation and on recent technological improvements in accuracy, robustness, interpretability, fairness, and accountability. We will apply information visualization techniques like visual analytics, data-driven storytelling, and immersive analytics in human-machine interactions (HMI). Thus, this project is at the crossroad of trustworthy AI, multi-model machine learning, active learning, and UX for human and AI model interaction.

The 4th Industrial Revolution/Industry 4.0 has enabled reduction of production costs, improved consistency of product quality and enabled mass customisation by merging the physical and digital worlds. The transition is still ongoing - Industry 4.0 is a general-purpose technology, adding value across all industrial sectors. However, the perception of Industry 4.0 at a human level has not all been positive. It has been plagued by fear of job cuts and in some sectors completely replacing the human workforce. Automation projects have often failed due to omitting the critical skilled human elements in business success with unintended consequences including reduced customer satisfaction, poorer product quality and lower process efficiency. Automation alone clearly cannot be a source of sustained competitive advantage. I5.0 will address the balance between humans and technology, focussing on the collaborative relationship between skilled workers and automation. The intent is reinstate skilled craftsmanship at the centre of production processes where people add unique value and competitive advantage, augmented by intelligent, data-driven technology emerging from Industry 4.0. In the Up-Skill project, we will address the implications of Industry 5.0, in particular the relationship between automation, skilled work and organisational systems. Our research will establish how the relationship between automation and human input plays out in a range of industrial settings, creating comparative case studies to capture effective implementation strategies. We will address under-explored strategic spaces in production - where automation adds value to skilled and artisanal work, and where further automation risks undermining product value. This research will identify the shifting organisational characteristics that are needed to ensure technology advancements are implemented within companies while ensuring sustainable, added value for man, machine, and organisation.

Digital technology has radically changed the way people work in industry, finance, services, media and commerce and has urged necessary corresponding changes in educational systems. However there is a lack of progress in the education arena. Hence, recent studies show that high percentages of college graduates can't find work, the dropout rate is high and new generations are moving back into their parents homes after school or college. Nevertheless, the digital trend indicates that today's grade-school children will end up at jobs that haven't been invented yet. Nowadays, several studies assure that digital fabrication and making technologies, if coupled with proper learning methodologies such as Constructivism can provide learning experiences that promote young people’s creativity, critical thinking, teamwork, and problem solving skills, which are essential and necessary in the workplace of the 21st century. However, as early as 2008 a OECD report remarked that “technology is everywhere, except in schools”. In addition to this, most uses of technologies in education and training today do not support 21st-century learning skills. In many cases, new technologies are simply reinforcing old ways of training and learning in current school settings and very often they are introduced according to a narrow perception as being suitable only for talented youth or only for Science-, Maths- or Engineering-oriented majors. Current developments call for a move from this elitism to the recognition that fluency with making technologies represents knowledge and skills valuable for every citizen. The eCraft2Learn project will research, design, pilot and validate an ecosystem based on digital fabrication and making technologies for creating computer-supported artefacts. The project aims at reinforcing personalised learning and teaching in science, technology, engineering, arts and math (STEAM) education and to assist the development of 21st century skills that promote inclusion and employability for youth in the EU. The eCraft2Learn ecosystem will support both formal and informal learning by providing the appropriate digital fabrication, making technologies, and programming tools. It will also incorporate mechanisms for personalised and adaptive learning.

We are at the beginning of a new industrial revolution (Industry 4.0): disruptive technologies such as cyber-physical systems, machine-to-machine communication, Big Data and machine learning, and human-robot collaboration will transform the manufacturing and industrial automation sectors. However, Industry 4.0 will only become a reality through the convergence of Operational and Information Technologies (OT & IT). The European Parliament, says that “a very wide range of skills is required for [Industry 4.0] implementation. […] the convergence of IT, manufacturing, automation technology and software requires the development of a fundamentally new approach to training IT experts.” The FORA interdisciplinary, international, intersectoral network will train the next generation of researchers to lead this convergence and cross the IT-OT gap. The convergence will be achieved through the new concept of Fog Computing, which is a logical extension from Cloud Computing towards the edge of the network (where machines are located), enabling applications that demand guarantees in safety, security, and real-time behavior. Research objectives focus on: a reference system architecture for Fog Computing; resource management mechanisms and middleware for deploying mixed-criticality applications in the Fog; safety and security assurance; service-oriented application modeling and real-time machine learning. Our ambitious objectives require individuals with a unique combination of interdisciplinary and intersectoral skills. Thus, FORA’s 15 ESRs will receive integrated training across key areas (computer science, electrical engineering, control engineering, industrial automation, applied mathematics and data science) necessary to fully realize the potential of Fog Computing for Industry 4.0 and will move between academic and industrial environments to promote interdisciplinary and intersectoral learning.