Please find attached the agenda and questions to be answered during the workshop.

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WG2 Strengthening leadership in digital technologies and in digital industrial platforms across value chains in all sectors of the economy

Implementation of the

"Digitising European Industry" initiative (COM(2016)/180)

21 October 2016 08:30-16:00

Centre de Conference Albert Borschette, Rue Froissart 36, Brussels

Room CCAB 2D

Mandate

The draft mandate for Working Group 2 was endorsed by the Roundtable on Digitising European Industry on September 20. It is quoted here literally from the Roundtable’s background note:

The Communication proposes the following actions:

• Reinforce the role of PPPs as coordinators of EU-wide R&I effort, national initiatives and industrial strategies by focusing on key technologies and their integration including through large scale federating projects
• Focus a significant part of the PPPs and national investments on cross-sectorial and integrated digital platforms and ecosystems including reference implementation and experimentation environments in real setting.

The Commission will monitor the commitment by the private sector to invest, on average, at least four times as much as the EU investments in the PPPs and the use of the opportunities offered by financial instruments under EFSI and ESIF.

Motivation

The challenge is to seize the opportunities arising from digitisation to establish European leadership in the next generation digital platforms and re-build the necessary, underlying digital supply chain on which all economic sectors are increasingly dependent. It also aims at removing obstacles, including cross-border obstacles, which currently prevent large-scale testing and experimentation and block the full deployment of these technologies into the market. This is particularly relevant for the autonomous connected vehicles and the connected smart factory.

The challenge also includes better alignment of national R&D&I programmes, both with each other and with EU programmes and delivery of co-investment by industry along the continued support to digital innovations from development of technology and building blocks to roll-out of digital integration platforms, in primarily three stages with different requirements of means and intensity of public intervention:

1. Research and development of technology and systems building blocks.

2. Platform and large scale experimentation pilots.

3. Full roll out of digital integration platforms.

   

   Public Private Partnerships (PPPs[1]) are an important means to develop the technology building blocks which underpin the digital revolution. The plan is to continue this development and focus them even more on the goals outlined in the DEI action plan. This means that more coordination is required between the different PPPs and that their Strategic Research Agenda's should be better aligned to reach critical mass. SRA's should also contain plans for development of standards through large scale testing, and should be shared with the Multi-Stakeholder Platform for standardisation.

   This Working Group should develop advice at a strategic level. The recommendations will be fed into the existing process for the development of the Work Programmes of Horizon 2020, where the European Commission works together with Member States and advisory groups.

   Actions (one bullet per action)

   The proposed approach is to maintain and reinforce the European support in Horizon 2020 to the PPPs in core technologies and for national programmes to align with the priorities defined within these PPPs.

1. Priority development of technology and systems building blocks by aligning   strategic research agendas of PPPs and MSs programmes

The European Union is supporting through H2020 several PPPs for R&D of technology and systems building blocks. To ensure delivery of the PPPs and co-investment by industry, investments by the private sector in the PPP including the targeted leverage are regularly monitored by the Commission and corrective measures are taken as needed. The WG should reflect on the building block priority developments as well as how Member States could commit to align and co-invest on the same industrial priorities in order to reach critical mass. The reflection shall include consideration for the role of MS in the PPPs.

2. Platforms and large scale pilots

• For actions where the technology demonstrated in the labs is about to be brought to market, the challenge is on co-investments in large-scale integration, testing and experimentation facilities bringing the various technologies together. As demonstrated in actions like pilot lines for production and large scale demonstrations in ECSEL or in platform building around FIWARE in the Future Internet PPP, this will help bring the next generation platforms made in Europe quicker to the market. It will also create full ecosystems of innovation around the platforms and support standardisation of EU-based technologies.

• The European Union has selected a first batch of platform-related projects and large scale integration, testing and experimentation pilots under H2020 Work Programme 2016/17 in the Factories of the Future PPP ("operating system" of the connected factory of the future), the Big Data PPP (data platforms), the IoT Focus Area (large scale pilots on autonomous vehicles in a connected environment, smart farming and food security, wearables for a smart ecosystem, smart living environments for ageing well, reference zones in EU cities), and the Joint Undertaking ECSEL (lighthouse projects cutting across the value chain from components to systems). The WG should reflect on how building platforms is going to be approached on a European and national level and how ICT could be mainstreamed in the national R&I programmes.

• The WG should reflect on the form and objectives for further EU and national platform-related projects and/or large scale testing and experimentation pilots, how PPPs can align their strategic research agendas to develop the necessary platforms, large scale pilots and standards, and how national efforts could be combined in an overall support, in particular, with a view to:

  • Enable the integration of relevant digital technologies such as IoT; big data, cloud, and HPC; autonomous systems and artificial intelligence into integration platforms addressing cross-sector challenges.

  • Integrate converging digital innovations also into sectorial platforms and full solutions and testing them across national borders.

  • Develop across Europe facilities for experimentation which could foster a rapid development of ICT standardisation leading to new or better standards as outlined in the Communication on Priorities of ICT Standardisation for the Digital Single Market.

• The WG should reflect on the prioritisation of several initiatives under preparation:

  • Integration platforms addressing cross-sector challenges:

  • Leadership in IoT: The investment will address notably open platforms cutting across sectors and accelerate innovation by companies and communities of developers, building on existing open service platforms, such as FIWARE.

  • Industrial Data Platforms: The aim is to support the development of competitive open data platforms and the availability of world class data infrastructure in Europe. Key aspects include cyber-security solutions for restoring trust in the data-driven economy and for helping businesses to make safe and secure use of data.

  • 5G demonstration, e.g. at a big event. This should be considered as a result of the 5G action plan in which several options are being considered.

  • Sectorial platforms and full solutions:

  • Connected smart factory: Prepare Europe for the next generation of production systems including digital innovation based on HPC and data analytics, collaborative robotics, integrated logistics solutions, 3D printing, etc.

  • Connected and automated driving: The ambition is to set-up a cross-border testing facility pooling investments across Europe and connecting various stakeholders from AI-experts to automotive OEMs and communication service providers.

  • Robotics, IoT and AI for healthy living and active ageing covering areas such as smart hospitals and healthy living. This would bring together activities and stakeholders from the PPP in Robotics, the EIP on Active and Healthy Ageing, big data and IoT.

    3. Full roll out of digital integration platforms

    The WG would also reflect on further support to the full roll-out of digital integration platforms.

• Beyond testing and experimentation and in specific areas of market failure, public intervention for first production and deployment of technology can be essential. This is the case for both areas (micro-electronics, HPC) where Important Projects of Common European Interest (IPCEI) are currently proposed.

• The spill-over effect of investments in both areas is wide and intense and reaches a large part of the economy well beyond the sphere of the private partners involved. Achieving these IPCEIs as real EU–wide industrial projects is essential to show how cooperation between stakeholders across Europe can strengthen our competitiveness and innovation capacity and draw private investments into the modernisation of our industry and building technological and industrial leadership.

• Taking these as examples, the WG is invited to develop more integrated funding schemes (covering European, national and regional as well as private investments, including the use of financial instruments like EFSI) for other technology roll-out initiatives in areas such as 5G or Connected Automated Driving. It shall also encompass considerations for public procurement of innovations and framework conditions.

  4. Subgroups on specific platform initiatives

  The WG should propose whether platform initiatives would deserve specific attention of a subgroup, such as Industrial data platforms, Internet of Things and Connected smart factories. Such subgroups would work out the implementation details across all Technology Readiness Levels for a specific platform initiative. The subgroups could draw on the experience and knowledge of representative organisations and structures. Examples of such Working Subgroups are:

• an IoT Subgroup could reflect on how the large-scale pilots launched by the EU under the IoT Focus Area of the H2020 R&I Programme can be used to scale up IoT deployment in different sectors that includes integration of advanced IoT technology, contribution and validation of emerging standards and new business models at European and national level. The IoT subgroup could be linked to the Alliance for IoT Innovations (AIOTI).

• A data platforms Subgroup could reflect on how to best support the growth of innovative data-driven businesses in Europe and the exploitation of the potential of the value of data across sectors, in particular in an industrial context. It could build on the preliminary discussions launched at the Industrial Data Roundtable[2].

• A Connected Smart Factory Subgroup should reflect on how industry (in particular SME) can undergo a digital transformation and be fully connected with its upstream and downstream value chains, building on approaches like RAMI[3], S3P[4], FITMAN[5] and the platforms initiatives launched uner the Factories of the Future[6] EU Programme

Expected outcome

The WG should develop a Report on the alignment of priorities and programmes and mobilisation of investments towards platform/standardisation initiatives. Expected timing:

• A first draft of this report should be ready before the end of December 2016.

• Revised draft for stakeholder forum (end of January 2017)

• Final version for Hannover Fair 2017.

   

   

Agenda 21 October 2016

08:30 - 09:00   Welcome Plenary: purpose, concept, setting, by Khalil Rouhana and Peter Droell

09:00 - 10:00   State-of-play in

Vertical topics:

• Smart Connected Factory (15’), by Max Lemke and Erastos Filos

• Digital transformation of health and care (5’), by Michel Brochard

• Smart agriculture (5’), by Ana Cuadrado

• Connected Autonomous Driving (5’), by Eddy Hartog

  Horizontal topics:

• Industrial Data Platforms (10’), by Marta Nagy-Rothengass

• Internet of Things (10’), by Joel Bacquet

  10:00 - 10:30   Discussion

  10:30 - 11:00   Coffee break

  11:00 - 12:45   Parallel sessions on vertical areas:

• Smart Connected Factory

• Digital transformation of health and care

• Smart agriculture

  12:45 - 13:45               Lunch break

  13:45 - 15:30   Parallel sessions:

• Industrial Data Platforms

• Internet of Things

  15:30 - 16:00   Closing plenary: reporting from groups, next steps, and closure

Questions

For the Oct 21 workshop and follow-up afterwards, each subgroup is invited to reflect on the following questions:

• What is the current landscape of activities in Europe (national initiatives, EU funded activities, other)?

• Where do we want to go?

  • What kinds of next-generation platforms are needed (if any)?

  • What kinds of large-scale federating initiatives are needed (if any)?

  • What concrete gaps/problems could be addressed through platform development and large-scale initiatives at EU level?

• How do we bridge the gap between what we have and what we want to achieve?

  • What concrete platform building initiatives and large-scale pilots can be expected/supported/promoted?

  • How to combine large-scale demonstrators across the EU and across Member States, taking into account already ongoing national developments?

• Who are the main stakeholders to be involved?

  • How can PPPs contribute to building platforms?

  • How can existing/planned MS initiatives contribute to building platforms?

  • What are the complementarities/synergies/needs for coordination between EU (PPPs) and MS levels? How to avoid overlaps and strengthen synergies?

In a later stage, the following questions should be addressed:

• How do Member States see the role of the PPPs in supporting the alignment of R&I programmes?

• How do Member States see the PPPs evolving, the Member States involvement in PPP activities, and PPP involvement in Member States activities?

• Standardisation: how can alignment of initiatives strengthen the European position in standardisation?

• How to ensure the necessary mobilisation of resources at all levels?

• Which targets and indicators should be used to provide evidence and monitor progress?

[1]     DG CONNECT PPPs: 5G, Photonics, Robotics, Factories of the Future (digital), High Performance Computing, Big Data, Cybersecurity and ECSEL JU. PPPs managed by other services such as Factories of the Future, SPIRE, EGVI, Energy Efficient Buildings, BBI, IMI and CleanSky also play an important role in this process.

[2] http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/newsroom/image/document/2016-34/report_rt_idp_17_8_2016_final_16821.pdf

[3] http://www.plattform-i40.de/I40/Navigation/EN/Industrie40/AreasOfAction/NormsAndStandards/norms-and-standards.html

[4] http://www.esterel-technologies.com/news-events/press-releases/consortium-de-leaders-de-lindustrie-lance-le-projet-collaboratif-majeur-lalliance-s3p/

[5] http://www.fitman-fi.eu/

[6] https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/factories-future