Project objective:

European manufacturing leadership has been built on the solid pillars of product innovation, high production quality and competitive cost. ICT based products and services have been instrumental in developing such competitive advantage. The project objective is reinforcing such leadership European manufacturing industry, and in particular SMEs, demand specific actions to (a) bring new cutting edge ICT technology closer to manufacturing to allow assessment and take up, (b) make visible the impact of the solutions and (c) multiply the competitiveness of European industry as a result. Through the ICT Innovation for Manufacturing SMEs initiative, the EC is promoting a large number of application experiments for robotics and simulation and equipment assessment experiments for sensor and laser based applications (APPOLO, LASHARE). Application experiments target advanced robot solutions for new manufacturing applications and simulation services for engineering and manufacturing SMEs including a cloud-based service infrastructure that provides the needed high performance computing resources. Assessment experiments target innovative sensor-based equipment solutions in manufacturing and control, and innovative laser applications in manufacturing. I4MS-Gate is a FP7 CSA that aims at multiplying the innovation impact of more than 160 European ICT for Manufacturing Experiments planned in the I4MS Programme. I4MS-Gate also aims at amplifying the findings of two European R&D ICT road-mapping activities (Road2Fame and PathFinder). Collaborating with major European stakeholders, I4MS-Gate will deliver the reference European portal on ICT Innovation for Manufacturing SMEs (www.i4ms.eu). Through specific dissemination and coordination actions, SMEs will enjoy an integrated access to today´s distributed innovation instruments, resources, networks and platforms. 

Project coordinator: INNOVALIA ASSOCIATION, Spain.

Participants:
EUROPEAN FACTORIES OF THE FUTURE RESEARCH ASSOCIATION AISBL, Belgium
UNIVERSITY OF KOBLENZ · LANDAU, Germany
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN DENMARK, Denmark
EUROPEAN MACHINE VISION ASSOCIATION, Spain
INSTITUTE OF APPLIED PHYSICS, Moldova

More information at http://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/109301_en.html