EIT Manufacturing and Slovak Authorities join forces to strengthen the manufacturing ecosystem in Slovakia
2 November 2021
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In October, a delegation from EIT Manufacturing CLC East and the Regional Innovation Scheme (RIS) visited Slovakia to participate in the first Summit of the Slovak Gaia-X Hub held in Žilina and Liptovský Mikuláš. During their trip, the EITM delegation also met with four Slovak ministries in Bratislava to discuss potential collaboration opportunities.
At the first Summit of the Gaia-X Hub Slovakia from 11-12th October, EIT Manufacturing was invited to present itself and its activities to support Slovak companies in developing innovative solutions and projects. Various stakeholders including representatives of the Industrial Innovation Cluster (IIC) and the Slovak government, specifically delegates from the Ministry of Finance, Regional Development and Informatization of the Slovak Republic (MIRRI), and the Ministry of Defense participated in the event. This event was organized by the Gaia-X Hub Slovakia, supported by the Academy of the Armed Forces of General Milan Rastislav Štefánik in Liptovský Mikuláš (AOS) and the University of Žilina in Žilina (UNIZA).
Additional parts of the event programme included the presentation of the Gaia-X initiative and the demonstration of ongoing and past projects by the Gaia-X Hub Slovakia as well as the Gaia-X Hub Greece. “Gaia-X has all that is needed in order to radically improve data sharing and cloud uptake in Europe.”, says Dr. Kosmas Alexopoulos from the Laboratory for Manufacturing Systems & Automation (LMS) at the Department of Mechanical Engineering & Aeronautics of the University of Patras and representative of the Gaia-X Hub in Greece.
As a highlight of the summit, the Austrian-German project EuProGigant was introduced by Markus Weber, M.Sc., Head of Research TEC|Manufacturing Technology at the Institute of Production Management, Technology and Machine Tools, TU Darmstadt and Project Coordinator for EuProGigant.
EuProGigant stands for “European Production Giganet for calamity avoiding self-orchestration of value chain and learning ecosystems”. It is an Austrian-German project for smart and sovereign use of data in the European manufacturing industry and aims to build a multi-location, digitally networked production ecosystem. EuProGigant is an official lighthouse project for Gaia-X, which strives to build an open, European data infrastructure. EIT Manufacturing CLC Central and East are two of the 16 project partners of EuProGigant.
“Gaia-X is a major European initiative, whose importance needs to be explained to the general public. We, as Slovakia, are very proud to be part of such a great European project, whose relevance will continue to grow in the future. Gaia-X will certainly influence and actively shape the lives of the inhabitants of the European continent.”
Martina Le Gall Maláková, president of Industry Innovation Cluster and Gaia-X Hub Slovakia Coordinator.
In the course of the visit in Slovakia, the EIT Manufacturing team also met with four Slovak ministries in Bratislava, specifically the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Economy, the Ministry of Environment and the Government Office of the Slovak Republic, to elaborate on possible ways for further collaboration. And they were successful: In November, EIT Manufacturing is going to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the Slovak Minister of Economy and other Ministers could follow this path soon.
The State Secretary and Advisors of the Minister of Environment, Representatives of the Industry Innovation Cluster and EIT Manufacturing
About Gaia-X: Gaia-X is a European initiative to build a common, secure and sovereign data infrastructure for Europe based on the principles of trust and transparency, using the European legal framework. EIT Manufacturing is a member of Gaia-X and a Gold Sponsor for the Gaia-X Summit on 18-19 November. Register here