"In the field of vocational education and training, the European Commission has recommended an increasing introduction of workplace-oriented learning. With this in mind, the Erasmus+ project ""Work-Based Learning in the Field of Mechatronics: Introducing VET Multipliers to Alternate Work-Based Learning in Romania and Macedonia"" introduced workplace-oriented components into vocational training for mechatronics at the Hunedoara, Timisoara (Romania) and Kavadarci (Macedonia) sites. The project had a duration of 36 months and started on 01.09.2015. The project partners were the Bildungswerk der Bayerischen Wirtschaft, the automotive companies Dräxlmaier, Continental and Contitech, the vocational schools in Hunedoara and Kavadarci as well as the school inspectorate Hunedoara.One focus of the project was the qualification of multipliers. To this end, both teachers and managers of the project partners were prepared for practical, labour market-oriented mechatronics by means of further training. Within the framework of the project, materials were also prepared for the design of instruction and the implementation of labour market-relevant learning progress controls. The documents were processed on the basis of the EC VET. By using European vocational training tools, the project contributed to cross-border transparency within mechatronics training and promoted a European training area.In addition, existing cooperation structures between the training actors were further strengthened and expanded within the framework of the project.Overall, the project supported an improvement in the practical and labour market relevance of mechatronics training in Hunedoara, Timisoara and Kavadarci. It is expected that the stronger orientation of the training towards the needs of the private sector, which was achieved within the framework of the project, will at the same time increase the employability of young training graduates and reduce the risk of youth unemployment."

The ACCURATE project aims to boost the competitiveness of European manufacturing companies and value chains by improving their sustainability, performance stability, resilience, and ability to manage unforeseen events. To achieve these benefits, ACCURATE will develop innovative approaches and deliver an integrated set of results, culminating into: • a human-centric Decision Support System offering a better understanding of the impact of unforeseen events on manufacturing and industrial networks, providing timely, optimal and robust manufacturing supply and value chains design, planning, stress testing, reconfiguration and recovery, and improving their circularity and sustainability performances; • a Manufacturing As A Service framework covering multiple critical supply and value chains, leveraging data space technologies as well as multi-scale and multi-level Digital Twins and co-simulation, delivering swift adaptation capabilities of logistics and production that are technically and economically viable; • an open, standard-based, federated, trusted data space and ecosystem integrating data flows, models, and tools across actors in manufacturing value chains, creating smart manufacturing networks empowering humans and organizations to share valuable information and collaborate on MAAS solutions while retaining full sovereignty over their sensitive data and intellectual property. ACCURATE results will be validated in 3 pivotal use cases covering multiple key European industrial sectors and value networks (aerospace, automotive, biotech, energy, medical, mobility). The ACCURATE consortium acknowledges the transformative potential of data spaces and ecosystems in revolutionizing business models and value propositions and will leverage these technologies and approaches to achieve impact, create resilient manufacturing networks, instigate deep innovation and accelerate results adoption.

5G-LOGINNOV will focus on seven 5G-PPP Thematics and support to the emergence of a European offer for new 5G core technologies in 11 families of use cases. 5G-LOGINNOV main aim is to design and innovative framework addressing integration and validation of CAD/CAM technologies related to the industry 4.0 and ports domains by creating new opportunities for LOGistics value chain INNOVation. 5G-LOGINNOV is supported by 5G technological blocks, including new generation of 5G terminals notably for future Connected and Automated Mobility, new types of Internet of Things 5G devices, data analytics, next generation traffic management and emerging 5G networks, for city ports to handle upcoming and future capacity, traffic, efficiency and environmental challenges. 5G-LOGINNOV will deploy and trail 11 families of Use cases beyond TRL7 including a GREEN TRUCK INNITIAVE using CAD/CAM & automatic trucks platooning based on 5G technological blocks. Thanks to the new advanced capabilities of 5G relating to wireless connectivity and Core Network agility, 5G-LOGINNOV ports will not only significantly optimize their operations but also minimize their environmental footprint to the city and the disturbance to the local population. 5G-LOGINNOV will be a catalyst for market opportunities build on 5G Core Technologies in the Logistics domains, thus being a pillar of economic development and business innovation and promoting local innovative high-tech SME and Start-Ups. 5G-LOGINNOV will open SMEs’ and Start-Ups’ door to these new markets using its three Living Labs as facilitators and ambassadors for innovation on ports. 5G-LOGINNOV promising innovations are key for the major deep sea European ports in view of the mega-vessel era (Hamburg, Athens), and are also relevant for medium sized ports with limited investment funds (Koper) for 5G.

While media organisations increasingly support non-linear experiences for the consumer, those are still limited to single channels and media domains. Although several media organisations have recently succeeded in breaking data silos, data sharing is mostly limited to the organisation. Thus, there are challenges for producing content feeding multiple channels with different granularities and structures, mainly related to data discovery, management and (re-)use. XRECO will create a new data-driven ecosystem for the media industry, focusing on facilitating data sharing, search and discovery and supporting creation of news and entertainment content, in particular, the creation and (re-)use of location-related 2D and 3D assets and the creation of XR experiences. The ecosystem core, represented by a Neural Media Repository (NMR), will foster inter-organisation content sharing and provide increased access to content for media creators, considering novel data monetization and rights management policies. A set of AI-based media transformation services are built around the NMR to produce novel media- and XR experiences, including 3D neural reconstructions, neural based device localisation, image stitching, de-/re-lighting and holoportation. The developed technology will be validated in use case scenarios for (i) the news media for XR-based broadcasting and automatic and customized multitarget news publishing, and for (ii) location-based information and entertainment content, with applications in tourism and the automotive industry.

It becomes apparent particularly in process industries that cognition can improve the behaviour of a complex process system. One of the main expectations of the use of digital twins is to give us the capability to observe and monitor the behaviour of their respective physical twins. In order to make it happen, we need to combine digital twins, which are driven by domain models (i.e. knowledge), with the models derived from data (i.e. experience). In order to realize it, we need a real-time processing layer where observations (i.e. events), knowledge and experience interoperate to understand and control the behaviour of a complex system (i.e. cognition). FACTLOG offers such a layer and aims at deploying and adjusting it to several process industries. By incorporating different pipelines of machine learning and analytical tools at different levels (from machines to process steps and from processes to the whole production plant), FACTLOG enables the realization of the Cognitive Factory as an ensemble of independent but intertwined ECTs, that are (i) able to self-learn, and thus to effectively detect and react to anomalies and disruptions but also to opportunities that may arise, (ii) enjoy a local or global view of operations and (iii) are capable for short-, mid- and long-term reasoning and optimization. FACTLOG is driven by several specific, yet indicative, business cases in the process industry and focuses its innovation regarding analytics, AI and optimization on the deployment and assessment of coherent Enhanced Cognitive Twins for the specific sectors represented in FACTLOG and even for the plants in which it will be pilot tested and evaluated. It will be implemented by a just right consortium of twenty partners, five of which are manufacturers and a further three represent manufacturing clusters. Technology and scientific contributors from leading academic institute and focused ICT vendors (mostly SMEs) bring in all necessary knowledge and innovation.