New European Project to Fast-Track Adoption Of Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) by SMEs

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DigiFed to Demonstrate Potential of CPS Digital Technologies in Hardware Security, Human-Machine Interaction, and Autonomy for Small & Midsized Companies

GRENOBLE, France – Jan. 29, 2020 – Leti, a research institute of CEA Tech, today announced a new European Horizon 2020 project, coordinated by the institute, to develop new cross-border services among Europe’s digital innovation hubs (DIH).

Bringing together 12 European research institutes, key members of the electronics-industry value chain, and universities, the DigiFed project will focus on boosting the adoption of advanced digital technologies, or cyber-physical systems (CPS), by EU SMEs with a focus on non-digital businesses. DigiFed will implement a business plan for the sustainability of the federation of hubs designated by the European Commission, while providing key support mechanisms for both individual companies and groups of SMEs to foster the introduction of digital technologies in their product-and-service offerings.

Created in 2016, the DIH are ecosystems of large industrial companies, SMEs, startups, researchers, accelerators, and investors whose aim is to create the best conditions for long-term business success for all involved.

DigiFed will engage at least 200 European SMEs and midcaps in its innovation program. At least 80 of these will receive funding support and benefits from one of DigiFed’s innovation pathways and half of these will be businesses beginning their digital transformation.

“DigiFed will experiment with new innovation processes for the benefit of SMEs by creating and supporting alliances between large enterprises and innovative SMEs to boost their market outreach,” said Isabelle Chartier, project coordinator at CEA-Leti. “The project also will help create alliances between SMEs to demonstrate the potential of CPS digital technologies in hardware security, human-machine interaction, and autonomy. DigiFed targets cooperation among hubs across Europe to make those technologies and know-how available to all European SMEs.”

Coordinated by CEA-Leti, with Nanolec IRT, the three-year, €7.9 million project includes the companies AVL (Austria), BluMorpho (France), STMicroelectronics (France and Italy), and Zabala (Belgium); universities BME (Hungary), University of Ljubljana (Slovenia), research center Digital Catapult (United Kingdom), and Ikerlan (Spain); and hub-focused entities Minalogic (France) and Steinbeis Innovation (Germany).

DigiFed, which leverages IRT Nanoelec and CEA-Leti’s expertise in hardware security and CPS, was launched in January 2020. DigiFed, which leverages IRT Nanoelec and CEA-Leti’s expertise in hardware security and CPS, was launched in January 2020.