Aims to provide an integral and pan-European ecosystem to address Logistics for manufacturing SMEs challenges, to unleash the innovation potential of manufacturing industry especially SMEs and Mid-Caps across Europe. ED is responsible for the definition and development of the marketplace, as well as for the analysis of the feedback of different stakeholders concerning the functionalities of the marketplace that will lead to its continuous improvement and enhancement with new services.
The DIH² vision is to build a sustainable pan-European network to facilitate and accelerate the knowledge and technology exchange among robotics Digital Innovation Hubs (DIHs). The DIHs will facilitate the uptake of the latest robotic technologies across the European Union in the field of Agile Production. ED is responsible for the definition, development of an independently branded marketplace, which integrates tools and results of different projects, including L4MS and DIH². The independent marketplace is named RAMP (Robotics and Automation MarketPlace).
Aims to find the right balance between cost-effective automation, repetitive tasks and involve the human workers in areas such as adaptability, creativity and agility where they create the biggest added value. Also to pursue the highly-connected factory model to reap the benefits of all the data generated within the factory. Tapping into those data streams and human capital requires creating favorable technological, economical and societal conditions. SHOP4CF will do so by relying on the following:
- A platform developed on an open architecture encompassing technologies based on RAMI 4.0 and FIWARE Technologies which can support humans in production activities and providing basic implementation as a free, open-source solution. Including 30 components developed within SHOP4CF project by top RTOs from all over Europe.
- Implementing pilots acting as the testing facilities and seeds for adoption of the platform. 4 large scale pilots lead by industrial leaders in Europe and 30 FSTP Pilots selected through 5 competitive open calls that will receive technical, business and access to investment support.
- A marketplace as one-stop-shop for SMEs (developers and end users) to access essential services for digital transformation including business modelling, technical support, access to skills and finance.
- Building a vibrant and growing community around the platform necessary to create the adoption critical mass.
- Leading pre-standardization activities in the areas of collaborative robotics, AGVs and use of IoT devices on the shopfloor. SHOP4CF will continue its operations with a self-sustainable non-profit association with members all over Europe that could be integrated with the one created by DIH2 project. SHOP4CF will demonstrate that public funded research can help SMEs & Mid-Caps achieve digital excellence and global competitiveness through adopting advanced robotics solutions in human-centric digitalization.
Democratized innovation holds undeniable promise for European producers, but the integration with corporate innovation practices is in its infancy. While the interest is real, it is still neither easy nor efficient for producers –especially SMEs to benefit from collaborative production. The iPRODUCE project takes well proven concepts and approaches (from DIY manufacturing, FabLabs, Makerspace), and aims to upscale them through innovative technology solutions and to install them in well-connected multi-stakeholder ecosystems under an umbrella concept of collaborative Manufacturing Demonstration Facilities (cMDF)”.
A social-manufacturing platform enables multi-stakeholder interactions and collaborations to support user-driven open-innovation and co-creation. At the heart of the iPRODUCE platform is an open digital space supported by a set of innovative tools that cover matchmaking, secure interactions, generative product design, process orchestration, agile prototyping, usability evaluations and lifecycle management. These technical tools are complemented with a strong social component that aims at easing the notorious hardship of engagement with makers and aim to open up to new maker segments, while we improve on SoA tools for Lead User Innovation identification.
Growing the European manufacturing business!
Better Factory will provide a methodology for Manufacturing SMEs to collaborate with Artists to develop new and personalized products and technology for SMEs and become fully connected cyber-physical systems, which will transform them into Lean-Agile production facilities. 500 Manufacturing SMES, 320 Technology Providers and 100 Artists will be mobilized through 2 competitive Open Calls to become success stories and leverage 11M€ of public and private funding among other services.
The project aims to demonstrate that research can help manufacturing SMEs and Midcaps achieve digital excellence and global competitiveness through lean-agile production, by giving European manufacturing SMEs access to tools such as RAMP Internet of Things Infrastructure which will supply Data Analytics, Benchmarking tools and other number of digital solutions.
It will also support 16 experiments by European manufacturing SMEs, artists and technology providers to carry personalisation and digitisation of new products and services through access to the Robotics and Automation Marketplace (RAMP) a one-stop-shop for digitalisation of SMEs, beneficiaries will embark on their lean-agile transformation journey.

In Better Factory, Manufacturing SMEs connect their factory online through RAMP, which provides them with digitisation tools and connects them with service providers through production optimisation challenges
KIT4SME specifically targets European SMEs and mid-caps, with a role in the manufacturing environment, to introduce artificial intelligence (AI) seamlessly in their production systems. Leveraging the network of Digital Innovation Hubs (DIH), the project ensures that results are scope-tailored, industry-ready and delivered as a modular customizable digital platform.
Seamless adoption of the customized kits is made possible by a Powered by FIWARE infrastructure that flawlessly combines factory systems (such as MES and ERP), IoT sensors and wearable devices, robots, collaborative robots and other factory data sources with functional modules capable to trigger data-driven value creation.
KIT4SME identifies three main axes as game changers for the target companies:
- Artificial Intelligence for Quality Control that aims in early error-detection and better run time decisions
- Artificial Intelligence for Reconfiguration or product personalization – on both levels of production optimization and of optimization of scheduling and
- Artificial Intelligence for Human-Robot Interaction
This last axis includes the monitoring of workers’ psychophysical condition in real-time, the activation of fatigue and stress-relieving interventions, as well as the characterization and evolution of the workforce’s competence.