The Commission adopted a Digitising European Industry (DEI) initiative in April 2016. 

Building on and complementing the various national initiatives for digitising industry, such as Industrie 4.0 (DE, AT), Smart Industry (NL, SE), Industrie du Futur (FR), Industria Conectada 4.0 (ES) and Industria 4.0 (IT), the Commission is using its policy instruments, financial support, coordination and legislative powers to mobilise public and private investments in all industrial sectors and create the framework conditions for the digital industrial revolution.  

In a nutshell, here are several highlights of the recent activities:

• In September 2016, a roundtable with high-level representatives from national initiatives, ministries and European associations launched the first implementation steps of the DEI initiative, aiming at concrete joint actions.
• The roundtable started two Working Groups, to work out the roll-out of Digital Innovation Hubs across the EU (WG1) and to outline the common actions towards Digital Industrial Platforms initiatives (WG2). The Working Groups meet regularly to develop advice at strategic level and have produced preliminary reports (WG1 report and WG2 report). Further contributions relevant for the Working Groups can be found in this Futurium web site.
• Still in September, a workshop was organised at the Digital Assembly event in Bratislava, aiming at clarifying the concept of Digital Innovation Hub which is essential for digital innovations to reach out to any industry.
• The German Federal Ministry of Economy (BMWi) and the European Commission organise also a large public event for broad consultation and networking: this is the Stakeholder Forum taking place in Essen on 31 January and 1 February 2017. Here you can find the invitation letter, which you are welcome to forward to any interested stakeholder. Registration will be possible soon. The programme of the event is here.

All these activities have the same objective: helping European industry to make the best use of digital technologies, through the coordination of existing initiatives and the support for Digital Innovation Hubs and Digital Industrial Platform initiatives. More information can also be found on Futurium and Europa web sites.

 invitationemail.pdf