Following the High-level governance meeting of the European platform of national initiatives on digitising industry led by Commissioner Mariya Gabriel on the 21st of November 2017, 3 new Working Groups were established in order to advance the digitisation of the European Industry.

The Working Group 1 held its second Working Group meeting of Digital Innovation Hubs in Europe on 21 February 2018.

The aim of this second Working Group meeting was to bring together Digital Innovation Hubs, who are part of the European Catalogue of DIHs, to discuss how to finance DIHs and how to improve access to finance for SMEs.

During the day we gave the opportunity to all Digital Innovation Hubs that wanted to share how they finance their DIHs and which business models they are using, as well as how they support SMEs in finding funding for their business innovations to give a short presentation about it.

A recorded version of the event is available here and the participants list here. 

The third Working Group meeting of Digital Innovation Hubs will be held on 25 May 2018 in Brussels and will focus on networking and collaboration models for DIHs. 

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You are kindly asked to fill in the Digital Innovation Hubs Survey that can be accessed here. Your input will allow us to shape future programmes for Digital Innovation Hubs, financing the digital transformation of SMEs and state aid.

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Furthermore, you are kindly invited to participate to the Digitising European Industry Stakeholder Forum 2018 which will take place on 27 and 28 March 2018 in Paris Nord-Villepinte, France.

 

Please find the agenda of the event with all presentations as follows:

 

Agenda

09.15-10.00: Welcome coffee and registration

10.00-10.30: Setting the scene: Access to finance for Digital Innovation Hubs and SMEs – objectives & expectations

Anne-Marie Sassen, European Commission (5') - presentation

Soren Gigler and Alberto Casorati, European Investment Bank (EIB) (15') - presentation

10.30-11.30: Session 1 – Financing Digital Innovation Hubs and business models

(Individual presentations of 7' and 20' discussion)

University of Oulu (FI), Jukka Riekki - presentation

Experience from the Super IoT and AI Innovation Hub

Digital Catapult (UK), Marie Claire Tonna - presentation

The business model of Digital Catapult in the UK

CEA LIST (FR), Gregorio Ameyugo - presentation

DIGIHALL – Building links at local, regional, national and European level to finance DIH

Politecnico di Milano (IT), Sergio Gusmeroli - presentation

Regional Manufacturing DIHs in the Vanguard Initiative Efficient and Sustainable Manufacturing pilot

TNO (NL), Maurits Butter - presentation

Business models for DIHs

Athena Research and Innovation Center (EL), Jorge Sanchez - presentation

Financing and Business models of a DIH in Greece

Discussion

11.30-12:15: Session 2 – How to avoid state aid when publicly financing DIHs and SMEs

European Commission, Irina Orssich - presentation

Introduction to State Aid

 

Discussion

 

12.15-13.15: Networking lunch

 

13.15-14.30: Session 2 – Challenges for SMEs to access finance

(Individual presentations of 7' and 30' discussion)

Jožef Stefan Institute (SI), Robert Blatnik - presentation

How do we offer SMEs access to finance?

SPRI (ES), Cristina Oyon - presentation

Innovation vouchers for accessing the Basque DIH in an interregional cooperative scheme

CEA Technologies, (FR), Pierre-Damien Berger - presentation

Cascade funding: an agile finance tool within a full ecosystem/DIH dedicated to SME. What are the results in the long term?

Fraunhofer Institute for Factory Operation and Automation IFF, (DE), Christian Blobner - presentation

Financing-mix for the VDTC Digital Innovation Hub

TCS – Toolmakers Cluster of Slovenia, (SI), Anton Sagadin - presentation

DIGITECH SI-East Slovenia; Consulting SMEs on Funding Opportunities, experience with Eurostars

Wageningen University & Research, (NL), Sjaak Wolfert - presentation

SmartAgriHubs - Connecting the dots to unleash the innovation potential for digital transformation of the European agri-food sector

SmartEEs (FR), Jerome Gavillet - presentation

DIH dedicated to Organic and Large Area Electronics (OLAEs)

14.30-15.00: Coffee break

15.00-16.30: Session 4 – Break out in smaller groups to discuss topics of common interest

During the day all participants will be able to fill in post-its with themes they would like to discuss further with the other participants. In this session we will break out in smaller groups that discuss these topics. The objective will be that the participants learn from each other and everyone can go home with one or two ideas on how to improve the business model of their hub or how they can help SMEs find finance for their digital transformation.

16.30-17.00: Reporting back from the break-out groups of Session 4 & Closing