Focus Area - Digitalization

 

Digitizing and transforming European industry and services

Information and Communication Technology has a huge potential for future digitization of products, services and industrial processes in terms of wellbeing, growth and creation of jobs. Advances related to digitisation, underpinned by key enabling technologies (KETs), is trasforming industry and providing solutions to several major societal challenges. The Internet of Things, Big Data, Cloud, high-performance computing and artificial intelligence are among the most prominent themes supported by H2020.

 

Expected impact 

  • enabling all sectors and application areas to adapt, transform and benefit from digitisation and enabling technologies, notably by allowing also smaller and newer players to capture value;
  • developing industrial strategies, including new business models, and leverage this major transformation to increase the competitiveness of EU industries and create new markets;
  • connecting to Member States and regions in order to better align research and innovation agendas and develop synergies;
  • removing barriers for innovation enabled by digitisation, by addressing issues such as up- and cross-skilling, harmonising regulatory frameworks and standardisation.

 

COMPONENTS OF THE FOCUS AREA

The focus area is implemented with the instruments of:

  1. Digital innovation hubs that provide easy access to the latest digital innovations and experimentation facilities and foster synergies with other key enabling technologies;
  2. Cross-sectorial and integrated digital platforms and large-scale pilots for experimentation and co-creation with users.

 

+ - LEIT - ICT

Leadership in Enabling and Industrial Technologies – ICT:

LEIT-ICT is supporting digital innovations aimed at fostering:

- the acceleration of the design, development and uptake of advanced digital technologies by European industry in products that include innovative electronic components, software and systems, and especially in sectors where digital technologies are underexploited;

- an improved uptake of photonics and robotics technologies by end-user industry;

- the take-up of manufacturing platforms by SMEs.

 

Budget: € 461 million

+ - LEIT - Space

Leadership in Enabling and Industrial Technologies – Space:

Activities are including:

- new applications of space robotics for orbital and planetary use,

- in the domain of satellite communications, the targets are secure satellite communications, high speed processing, flexible telecommunication payloads and optical communications for very high throughput systems,

- satellite navigation applications are contributing to digitisation of products and services in mass markets and adoption of innovative features such as better multipath resistance and authentication.

 

Budget: € 59 million

+ - LEIT - Nanotechnologies, Advanced Materials, Advanced Manufacturing and Processing, and Biotechnology'

Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies - Nanotechnologies, Advanced Materials, Advanced Manufacturing and Processing, and Biotechnology (LEIT-NMBP):

The part of NMBP concerning ICT is supporting:

- open innovation test beds, which enable the upscaling and uptake of nanotechnology and advanced materials in industrial products and applications,

- test beds for computational modelling and characterization, which reduce dramatically the need for experimental validation,

- the transition to a flexible, digitised, resource-efficient and demand-driven manufacturing sector reflecting the fourth industrial revolution.

 

Budget: € 703 million

+ - SC1 - 'Health, demographic change and wellbeing'

Societal Challenge 1 - 'Health, demographic change and wellbeing' (SC1):

Activities of Societal Challenges 1 are adressing the need for secure and user-driven ICT-based solutions in early risk detection and interventions with big data approaches that enable aggregation of a variety of new and existing data sources such as medical records, registries, social platforms and other environmental, physiological and behavioural data. It aims at offering solutions for smart living environments and smart hospitals.

 

Budget: € 60 million

 

+ - SC2 - 'Food security, sustainable agriculture and forestry, marine, maritime and inland water research, and the bioeconomy'

Societal Challenge 2 - 'Food security, sustainable agriculture and forestry, marine, maritime and inland water research, and the bio-economy' (SC2):

ICT have the potential to transform production systems in aquaculture, agriculture and the related food value chains and to contribute to healthier and more sustainable diets. They also provide considerable development opportunities for rural and coastal areas arising from better connectivity, increased social inclusiveness and openings for new business models. Activities under SC2 are looking for improving knowledge and innovation systems, speeding up the rate of knowledge creation based in the potential of the use of data. Improving interoperability would allow for increased data sharing and the resulting knowledge generation in farming, food and nutrition systems, both terrestrial and aquatic.

 

Budget: € 107 million

+ - SC3 - 'Secure, clean and efficient energy'

Societal Challenge 3 - 'Secure, clean and efficient energy' (SC3):

These new and smarter technologies are integrating renewable energies from variable and distributed resources in the energy systems and increase efficiency through better monitoring and optimisation of assets. Moreover, these technologies can provide an opportunity for the uptake of new energy services and business models enabling consumers in the active participation in the energy system and energy markets. The promoted key issues are:

- the interoperability of communication to and from the appliance/device in a smart home to enable smart energy services, possibly combined with other services for consumers;

- the ability of the energy sector to handle much larger amounts of data than they currently do and use them to optimise the system.

- the cybersecurity since in such a market with a lot more data, and remote control actions linked to them, the reliability of the grid and of the communication channels becomes critical for a secure network operation.

 

Budget: € 30 million

+ - SC4 - 'Smart, green and integrated transport'

Societal Challenge 4 - 'Smart, green and integrated transport' (SC4):

Actions focus on large-scale demonstrations to test the performance and safety of innovative highly automated driving systems for passenger cars, efficient freight transport operations and shared mobility services in urban areas.

 

Budget: € 103 million

+ - SC6 - 'Inclusive, innovative and reflective societies'

Societal Challenge 6 - 'Inclusive, innovative and reflective societies' (SC6):

Actions under these topics are aimed at developing ICT-enabled solutions for the delivery of new forms of public goods and inclusive public services, addressing the challenge of migrant integration through ICT-enabled solutions, collaborative approaches to cultural heritage for social cohesion and the curation of digital assets. They address the impact of digital transformations on governance and the delivery of public services as well as on children and youth.

 

Budget: € 166 million

 
CONTATTI:

Divisione Ricerca e Innovazione

Via Oberdan, 8 - 60122 Ancona

email: ricerca@univpm.it

tel.: +39 071 220 - 2246 - 2419 - 2355

fax: +39 071 220 2319

Digitisation Research and Innovation
 

MAGGIORI INFORMAZIONI: