This proposal offers a peer learning excercise between 3 innovation agencies from small regions in the South, the North and the Centre of Europe. By means of the proven Twinning + methodology they'll focus on the common challenge of the design of innovation support for SME’s operating in crossborder business value chains. In small regions, business value chains cross easily the regional borders, so SMEs have to be agile to fit these in order to grow. Stimulating business value chains is one of the policy actions of the EU Strategic Work Program. This proposal aims to 1. learn about this sub-type of SMEs 2. investigate the current mix of instruments to stimulate innovation and entrepreneurship 3. understand the criteria of ‘value chain-fitness’ 4. discuss novel approaches in the public innovation support system and make recommandations for other innovation agencies. The mutual policy learning and exchange of ‘good practices’ will enhance the transfer of good practices in SME support which is one of the specific challenge of the work programme. Futhermore, since innovation agencies are important intermediaries to SMEs, the peer learning will contribute to make public support for innovation in the EU more effectively. An information “exchange” workshop with testimonials from SMEs and economic/innovation experts will give some insights in the real needs of those SMEs. Subsequently, the participants will do a small field research in their region. The information gathered will be displayed on a digital platform working as a community of practice. Finally, the participants perform the peer learning in a 2days session collaborating together in an equal relationship and discuss novel approaches in relation to the topic. In the end, a Design Options Paper documents the implementation options and guidelines that the partners in the challenge have experienced and would recommend to other innovation agencies.

There is a consensus among industry and policymakers that Europe is currently in the middle of an industrial revolution initiated by the digitisation of industrial processes. Cyber Physical Systems (CPS), the Industrial Internet and the Internet of Things (IoT) connect people, devices, machines and enterprises like never before. For many years companies and research organisations have been addressing these challenges and opportunities both at European level (through the Factories of the Future PPP and related activities) and at national level. The ConnectedFactories project will build upon these activities and consolidate their expert networks, aiming at industrial consensus building across Europe. The ConnectedFactories project will establish and maintain a structured overview of available and upcoming technological approaches and best practices that are needed for mastering this paradigm shift. Present and future needs and challenges of the manufacturing industries will be identified in order to then identify possible scenarios of how digital platforms will enable the digital integration and interoperability of manufacturing systems and processes. Developing these scenarios will require detailed work with companies and other stakeholders through a series of workshops at national and regional level, in order to reach a necessary industrial consensus on aspects such as: innovative technology proposals, business models, aspects, standardization etc… while considering the establishment of industrial eco-systems where multi-sided IT platforms create value. This work will enhance the awareness among companies of the use of digital technologies in the manufacturing sector and equip them with knowledge to make informed decisions regarding technology and business model choices. It will reinforce the European manufacturing industries’ position in the international scene.

Metal additive manufacturing (AM) allows, by enabling use of advanced design, production of high added value components, at levels that cannot be reached with conventional manufacturing technique. Still, the AM-based manufacturing sequence implies large amounts of critical steps – design for AM, AM fabrication, post processing, etc. – compared to conventional production sequences. Presently, the key competencies related to these steps are either not fully implemented at industrial level (process quality monitoring) or dispersed geographically with poor connection between different steps. Relying on two major AM technologies (LPBF: Laser Powder Bed Fusion and EBM Electron Beam Melting), MANUELA aims at deploying an open-access pilot line facility, covering the whole production sequence, to show full potential of metal AM for industrial AM production. At first, careful instrumentation and adaptation of LPBF & EBM machines will allow increased process reliability and speed. Secondly, the pilot line – including the adapted processes – will be deployed. The hardware layer will integrate novel process quality control monitoring and automated post-AM handling and processing. The line will be fed by design/optimization and AM process simulation workshops. Those workshops will collect continuous feedback from the physical parts of the pilot lines, to increase process reliability and robustness. MANUELA relies on a consortium composed of industrial end user’s, suppliers, (material/powder, AM hardware, quality monitoring system, software, automation and post-AM treatment) as well as top research institutes in powder-bed metal-AM, covering full range of AM technology chain for pilot line deployment. The deployed pilot line will be validated for use cases, covering wide span of applications including automotive, aerospace, energy and medical. To insure sustainability of the deployed line and its open access at project end, a dedicated exploitation plan will be established.

The project will deploy and demonstrate local storage technologies which have reached TRL 5-6 in a real electrical grid, and will develop ICT tools to exploit the synergies between them, the smart grid and the citizens. The demonstration in this real environment will be driven by five use cases covering low voltage and medium voltage scenarios and a wide range of applications and functionalities. Viable business models will be defined for the cases, and proposal for changes in regulations will be made. Dissemination and exploitation activities will ensure these results drive market uptake of storage technologies. The expected outcomes of the project are: - An energy management system to be used by the energy companies to manage the energy of their associates´ storage devices. - Control systems to integrate management and decision support tools that enable the integration of renewable generation, forecasting and storage systems into the smart-grid. - Innovative storage solutions: • HESS (Hybrid Energy Storage System – Ultracapacitors + Li-ion batteries) • Second Life Electric Vehicle Batteries • Home Hybrid technologies (Ultracapacitors + Li-ion batteries) - Business models to allow easier deployment of energy storage technologies into the electricity market - Proposed changes to regulators in the social and economic areas in order to lower barriers to the deployment of distributed storage for the defined use cases. - Life Cycle Assessment / Life Cycle Cost of the storage systems used in the project The project will achieve topic expected impacts and also environmental and socioeconomic impacts, like carbon emissions reduction and lowering the EU dependency of fossil fuels. The project gives Energy Services Companies (ESCO) a main role in the deployment and exploitation of storage solutions. The consortium foresees the creation of an ESCO to exploit demonstrated business models after the project. The consortium is designed to meet the requirements of this innovation action, with strong industrial members, innovative SMEs, research organizations, experts, DSO and a follower smart-city. This consortium is capable of bringing innovative technologies to socioeconomically viable solutions.

This project aims to develop and implement a circular economy approach for sustainable products and services through their value and supply chains. Three new circular economy business models will be developed including (i) co-creation of products and services, (ii) sustainable consumption, and (iii) collaborative recycling and reuse. The Co-creation of Products/Services model will bring end-users closer to the design and manufacturing phases by identifying consumer preferences via Big-data online mining product reviews and evaluating product specifications and prototypes via Living Lab to customise the end-user requirements. Benefited from the co-creation features, sets of sustainable production methods will be implemented and new products/services will be created. The Sustainable Consumption model will develop a method to calculate the eco-points of products based on the outcome of FP7 myEcoCost project, assess product environment footprints (PEF), provide a traceability solution to monitor product’s sustainability along the value chain, and support end-users and stakeholders to actively implement the circular economy via awareness raising and knowledge sharing activities. The Collaborative Recycling/Reuse model will develop a system for stakeholders to interact with each other to facilitate the use/reuse of end-of-life products and reduce waste, and implement the eco-credits awarding scheme to encourage people to recycle/reuse. This project will be demonstrated at a large scale in electrical and electronic products and farming/agri-foods sectors, provide an effective means to communicate with wide communities to disseminate the project outcome, and involve a large number of stakeholders along value and supply chains throughout the project lifetime, including end-users, producers, researchers and civil society. An ICT platform will be developed to support the development, implementation, demonstration, communication and dissemination.