ICT Innovation for Manufacturing SMEs (I4MS) is the EU initiative to digitalise the manufacturing industry. I4MS recently launched its third phase, with a global budget of €33 million, to promote and drive the digital innovation of manufacturing SMEs in Europe. Since 2013, €110 million has been invested in the initiative to provide financial and technical support to SMEs, enabling them “to experiment with different ICT enabling technologies, digitised Industry 4.0 processes and innovative business models“.
The third phase has funded four different projects, focused in four technology areas:
- Robotics (L4MS)
- Additive Manufacturing (AMable)
- HPC cloud-based simulation (Cloudifacturing),
- Cyber Physical Systems and IoT (MIDIH)
In addition, these four projects will launch a total of nine Open Calls across 2018 and 2019 with the aim “to extend recent advances of ICT beyond the traditional European manufacturing sectors […] to other industrial sectors such as in food, textile, printing and health care”, hereby helping SMEs to become key players in their respective area.
To stay up-to-date with all I4MS developments, to benefit from the opportunities it offers, to share best-practises, and to collaborate, join the I4MS Community.
