Three calls, one goal

AISkills4Lean- aims to reinforce the existing training by supplementing AI and Lean 4.0 skills, through a practical and AI-based use case. Specifically, we will customize a conversational AI (a low cost and open source voice assistant system) to enhance information accessibility within work systems and improve quality of training in learning factory context. This will be evaluated not only in the LF in Skopje, but also in the newly developed learning factory in Bulgaria and in one Macedonian SME (Fitofarm Plus) in the scope of this project and by involving associated SME partners. This approach offers two significant advantages. First, it provides a low-cost digitalization solution to industries and university partners. Second, it ensures technical scalability beyond a use-case and mobility for easy deployment and using across various partners. Furthermore, given its multinational context, this activity can be adapted to accommodate different languages and diverse organizational needs. 

Participants in the Project: 

TU Wien 

CIRKO 

Technical University of Sofia 

Fitofarm Plus doo 

EIT Contribution: € 214.041 

MetaFold Academy aims to deliver a progressive, modular training program, that addresses Green Industrial Transformation, through eco-innovation, energy, and resource efficiency, by providing training in a novel technology in the field of advanced metal forming processes, with the full support and involvement of the IPR owner. Through MFAC, 250 engineers and designers in the automotive, aerospace, energy and other industries will gain the necessary technical, innovation and entrepreneurial competences and be exposed to the latest innovation and sustainable best practices in the metal forming sector. Thus, they will become able to fully integrate a novel, green sheet metal technology inside their companies, in the form of high value, improved or new products.  

Participants in the Project: 

Volvo 

MADE 

PBN 

AMKE 

STILRIDE 

Adecco Training srl 

EIT Contribution: € 399.397 

This project will create a balanced innovative training programme that will focus on upskilling existing personnel on the topics of sustainability, resilience and human centricity, to provide CTOs with the necessary skills for Industry 5.0. 

Participants in the Project: 

LMS 

Intechcentras 

Selteka 

TU Darmstadt 

Cleantech Bulgaria 

EIT Contribution: € 391.831 

ViDi focuses on the training of professionals to deploy (establish and implement) the right data science (DS) project adapted to real manufacturing cases: organising correctly-structured DS projects for efficient data usage; identifying the impact of manufacturing problems on data treatments; formalizing the real manufacturing problem into a DS problem; applying the acquired theoretical knowledge on a practical DS project. 

Participants in the Project: 

Intechcentras 

Technogaja 

Grenoble INP 

University of Groningen 

Katty 

GEORGES PERNOUD 

EIT Contribution: € 580.740 

TF KnowNet+ aims to deliver a novel modular training program to address upskilling and reskilling in the increasingly relevant topics of circularity and remanufacturing. This program will leverage innovative approaches and will integrate design for remanufacturing and design for hybrid additive manufacturing. Developed collaboratively by a network of industrial and academic experts, TF KnowNet+ seeks to empower 280 engineers and designers across various industries (such as automotive, aerospace, energy, and naval) equipping them with the essential technical, innovation and entrepreneurial competencies. This will enable them to investigate Hybrid AM solutions for re-manufacturing high-value components within their respective organizations. 

Participants in the Project: 

LMS 

MGEP 

Prima Additive 

Volvo 

MADE 

AMKE 

HELLENIC AFC 

EIT Contribution: € 398,169  

The Young Manufacturing Leaders for Industry 5.0 (YML 5.0) is a project aimed at further enlarging a sound community of young people – students, PhDs, and young professionals and entrepreneurs, etc – who share the vision of a more digital and sustainable manufacturing. The YML community originated in 2020 with the goal of promoting manufacturing to younger generations and bridging the gap between available and needed skills. Since its origins, YML has constantly been appointed as a key success story of EIT Manufacturing.  

Participants in the Project: 

LMS 

Chalmers U 

Czech Tech 

FEUP 

UC Dublin 

Grenoble INP 

MADE 

WMF 

IMH 

Estonian Engineering Industry 

EIT Contribution: € 220,274 

STRADA 2 will build on the 2023 success (delivering two impactful training sessions to 150+ participants). Plans for 2024 include a comprehensive scalability plan, to be supported by the development of technology platform. 

The training programme will include added support for female venture builders, including an acceleration programme for women entrepreneurs, contributions from female venture capital networks and stronger links to existing EIT activities. 

STRADA2 will grow the STRADA community (alumni, trainers, contributors, mentors, training providers, women’s associations, corporate partners, etc) through networking opportunities, including at regional level. Finally, STRADA2 will build up on interest gained from major pharma and automotive companies to establish the programme’s long term financial sustainability. 

Participants in the Project: 

KUKA Robotics 

LINPRA 

PoliTo 

UC Dublin 

Dana Italia 

CTAG 

Fablab 

Cleantech Bulgaria 

Nightingale 

EIT Contribution: € 249,996 

AM Healthy Future 4 focuses on strengthening the engagement of primary schools with STEM and manufacturing. It consists of two main components: 

1) Delivery of a 3D printing training programme to 200 primary school teachers across 4 countries. 

2) Delivery of a 3D printing challenge/competition to approx. 250 teachers and 3,500 pupils aged 7 to 11 years. 

This project is a further development of a training programme which has to-date successfully trained 200 teachers and engaged over 4,500 pupils across 5 countries. The training programme provides teachers with the learning outcomes needed to use a 3D printer and design software in the classroom. Incorporated into the training are aspects of sustainability. 

The overall objectives of the project are to: provide a positive perception of the manufacturing industry and its exciting career opportunities; address skills shortages by feeding the pipeline for future talent in advanced manufacturing; foster digital and green skills amongst teachers and pupils, and; increase diversity in the manufacturing sector, including narrowing the gender gap. 

Participants in the Project: 

LMS 

LINPRA 

UC Dublin 

Tartu U 

EIT Contribution: € 165,863

AI-IGC4.0-DT will build, demonstrate, and commercialize innovative AI-driven Digital Twin (DT) solutions for Industry 4.0 applications in grinding technology (IGC4.0). In this direction, the project will specify structuring principles and blueprints with a focus on optimizing production processes and increasing resource efficiency through digital solutions. 

AI-IGC4.0-DT applications will consider the characteristics of real-time digital twins (DTs) and artificial intelligence (AI). At the same time, AI-IGC4.0-DT will develop and implement a unique blend of process monitoring and cloud-based DT as a Service (DTaaS) or DT as a Platform (DTaaP) solutions. 

Participants in the Project: 

Chalmers U 

Volvo 

Medius Inc. 

UVALIDKOPING AB 

TYROLIT 

SKF Polska S.A. 

EIT Contribution: € 786,011 

DETECT aims to enhance manufacturing sustainability by introducing AI-enhanced perception technologies for the automated detection of quality issues in manufacturing and/or remanufacturing processes. The proposed solution will utilize cutting-edge technological hardware (like cameras and vision sensors) and software (AI/ML algorithms, Digital Twins) components to enable real-time monitoring, quality control and optimization of production processes, and will focus on early defect detection in the production sequence and precise measurements of the parts to be inspected leading to reduced need for rework and waste of energy and resources. The solution will enhance production modularity and scalability, enabling its applicability and adaptability to various products and fluctuating production requirements while being easy to be configured/reconfigured in a short time, eliminating the need to involve vision or programming experts. 

Participants in the Project: 

Avio Aero 

SANTER REPLY SpA 

CTAG 

AMKE 

Schaeffler Romania 

EIT Contribution: € 837,340 

SYNTH4VIS deploys synthetic datasets, a type of in-silico data generated with graphic engines and simulation tools, offering automatic annotation and accelerating the data collection phase. By integrating synthetic datasets with Machine Learning, the SYNTH4VIS solution aims at retrofitting traditional inspection tasks by accelerating and automating quality control, increasing product quality and improving energy resources efficiency. 

Participants in the Project: 

LMS 

Prima Additive 

CASP 

MEVGAL 

ALUMINCO 

ALUMINCO SRB D.O.O 

EIT Contribution: € 599,612 

The project Flexipallet is about the creation of a novel Flexible palletizer with the following functionalities: 

• Identify the size and type of element to be picked. 
• Be able to manipulate the element with different type of collaborative fixtures 
• Place them in the pallet with different mosaics depending on the size of the pallet and end user needs 
• Movable system to place it in different locations of the end user plant. 
• Possibility of connecting this cell with Mobile Robots to increase the degree of automation of the manufacturing plant. 

Participants in the Project: 

Sonae 

Worten 

SANTER REPLY SpA 

LINQcase 

Meridionale 

OMRON ELECTRONICS SAS 

EIT Contribution: € 900,000 

This activity aims to develop a new product that will go beyond the state-of-the-art in inline quality assurance for aluminum extrusion and surface treatments. The new product is an add-on to the CYRUS system that D-Cube has already launched in the market, counting already nine installations in six European countries.   

The proposed product will integrate an optimal combination of advanced Ultra High Definition optical sensors with innovative AI-based defect detection and recognition algorithms to achieve robust and reliable performance in micro defect aluminum surface detection, as well as to identify time evolving surface deterioration. 

Participants in the Project: 

D-cube 

ALUMIL 

ETEM GESTAMP Aluminium Extrusions S.A. 

Hydro Extrusion Nenzing GmbH 

EIT Contribution: € 598,409 

The aim of the activity is to use finely grained real-time energy measurements for each machine or process. This data is then used to create AI prediction models of production, which can then be compared with solar generation forecasts. This in turn enables factory managers to plan and control their production, or to let some of their production processes run automatically as and when there is solar. The benefit of increasing self-consumption from 50% to 65% would be €10,500 per factory in 2029, across Europe €3.9bn per year. 

Participants in the Project: 

SANTER REPLY SpA 

Industry Innovation Cluster 

Tec Eurolab 

GridDuck 

Metal Office Equipment Ltd 

DIVERSEY 

EIT Contribution: € 599,023 

EmpowerWeld is a ready to commercialize self-navigating, human-centric robotic welding solution that revolutionizes manufacturing. It enables flexible, customized production lines, targeting SMEs with high-mix low-volume productions. It operates agnostic to the environment, reducing costs, improving welding quality and enhancing industry competitiveness. Our solution prioritizes worker well-being and safety, eliminating laborious tasks, harmful radiation, and toxic fumes. It provides a solution to the diminishing welding workforce, by digitizing and upskilling the task, while making it accessible to all social groups. 

Participants in the Project: 

iknowhow SA 

CARELL 

VELO LAB GMBH 

APCL Advertising Product Company LTD 

EIT Contribution: € 597,736 

ARIOS aims to enhance manufacturing sustainability and efficiency through the introduction of human-centric tools in industry. More specifically, this project will focus on the implementation of a multi-platform and multi-user Augmented Reality (AR) experience towards an intuitive and seamless operator support in assembly processes. AR-based tools such as headsets, screens and projectors will be integrated for step-by-step in-process guidance of operators, visualization of virtual components in the real environment for accurate positioning and assembly processes, as well as user training and upskilling through audiovisual media. In addition, ARIOS will introduce cutting-edge technological hardware, such as external or AR-based tools embedded vision sensors, and AI-enabled algorithms to enable real-time monitoring, quality control, and optimization of production processes. 

Participants in the Project: 

Prima Additive 

UC Dublin 

SANTER REPLY SpA 

AMKE 

TRYGONS 

EIT Contribution: € 865,764 

CIRCLEAR project proposes to enhance, industrialise and commercialise a new generation of mitigation barriers traditionally used as static infrastructure only on main roads for noise reduction. The final aim is to provide noise abatement solution together with noise reduction for urban areas where noise and air pollution are a growing threat to healthy environment. 

Participants in the Project: 

Aalto Univ 

Is CLEAN AIR 

BETON-LUČKO 

Innorec Srl 

University of Zagreb Faculty of Civil Engineer 

EIT Contribution: € 599,731 

The RAPTOR project, embodying a circular business model, represents a pioneering stride in sustainable development and the digital transformation of manufacturing. This initiative centers on commercializing scalable, efficient production technologies with an initial focus on circularity. RAPTOR introduces groundbreaking techniques by integrating custom-designed electromagnet and scanning systems within 3D printers. This innovation ensures the precise alignment of anisotropic powder, dramatically improving product efficiency. Crucially, it underscores the utilization of recycled materials from end-of-life permanent magnets. The project is committed to clean production technologies and remanufacturing, effectively bridging the gap between early product design phases and end product. 

Participants in the Project: 

UL 

Jozef Stefan Institute 

VALEO 

Kolektor 

Pforzheim University 

CIM UPC 

EIT Contribution: € 844,758 

The provided solution will bring together both needs to increase the resilience of the production sites and spare parts availability, while decreasing the stock size and destruction of components. By sharing the spare part stock inventories within the community, the members will be able to decrease their stock sizes and increase the reutilization of spare parts instead of discarding them. The principle of solidarity and sharing provides the clients not only financial benefits, but also establishes a circular business model to avoid overconsumption and reusing existing components. 

Participants in the Project: 

SUPSI 

Inspire 

kheoos 

Michelin – MFPM 

John Cockerill H2 

HOUSE OF CODESIGN SAS 

EIT Contribution: € 594,810 

TT Accelerator is a project that aims to help SMEs and entrepreneurs in RIS countries to adopt green and digital practices in manufacturing.  The project consists of online workshops, physical bootcamps, mentoring, coaching, and matchmaking events, covering topics such as IoT, blockchain, RPA, AI, cybersecurity, and sustainable supply chain management. The project targets four RIS countries: Greece, Slovakia, Romania, and Portugal, and expects to create impact in terms of knowledge dissemination, hands-on experiences, and networking opportunities.  

TTA will also delve deeper into mentoring, coaching, and the development of Go-to-Market strategies for the participants, emphasizing practical guidance and support. The project encompasses a structured approach blending online workshops, physical bootcamps, mentoring, and coaching to facilitate the adoption of green and digital practices in SMEs. It emphasizes knowledge dissemination, hands-on experiences, and networking opportunities. 

Participants in the Project: 

INESC TEC 

Slovak U 

AMKE 

Iceberg Plus 

EIT Contribution: € 398,930