2.8 Enabling ICT Innovations for European SMEs

TETRAMAX as part of the SAE Initiative started in 2017 and is funded by Horizon 2020. The project supports application experiments between academia and industry (SMEs) related to Internet of Things (IoT) technologies and focusing on customized low energy computing (CLEC).
The project builds on three major activity lines:
(1) Stimulating, organizing, co-funding, and evaluating different types of cross-border Application Experiments, providing "EU added value" via innovative CLEC technologies to first-time users and broad markets in European ICT-related industries,
(2) Building and leveraging a new European CLEC competence center network, offering technology brokerage, one-stop shop assistance and CLEC training to SMEs and mid-caps, and with a clear evolution path towards new regional digital innovation hubs where needed, and
(3) Paving the way towards self-sustainability based on pragmatic and customized long-term business plans
The project impact will be measured based on 50+ performance indicators. The immediate ambition of TETRAMAX within its duration is to support 50+ industry clients and 3rd parties in the entire EU with innovative technologies, leading to an estimated revenue increase of 25 Mio. € based on 50+ new or improved CLEC-based products, 10+ entirely new businesses/SMEs initiated, as well as 30+ new permanent jobs and significant cost and energy savings in product manufacturing. Moreover, in the long term, TETRAMAX will be the trailblazer towards a reinforced, profitable, and sustainable ecosystem infrastructure, providing CLEC competence, services and a continuous innovation stream at European scale, yet with strong regional presence as favoured by SMEs.

Fed4SAE - accelerating European CPS solutions to market - will boost digitization of European industry by strengthening companies' competitiveness in the CPS market under the Smart Anything Everywhere Initiative. The H2020 project aims at creating a pan-European network of Digital Innovation Hubs (DIH) by leveraging existing regional technology or business ecosystems across complete value chains and multiple competencies. The network within Fed4SAE will enable start-ups, SMEs and mid-cap companies in all sectors to build and create new digital products and services. The project mission also includes innovation management and links these companies to suppliers and investors in order to create innovative CPS solutions and accelerate their development and industrialization.
The Fed4SAE project will fund industrial projects by means of the cascade funding process set by the European Commission and through an adapted, fast-response and agile approach to attract innovative companies. Three open calls haven taken/will take place in 2017 and 2018 in order to support the best projects in accordance with several criteria: innovative solution in terms of technical expertise, mature solution with a good technology readiness level, impacting solution thanks to efficient innovation management.
Companies will be able to use industrial CPS programmable platforms in combination with expertise and know-how from the R&D Advanced Platform according to the application domains. The ultimate goal of each project within Fed4SAE is to provide a complete solution combining hardware and software, available to be tested in the market environment prior to large deployment in the targeted market - this deployment will be supported to enhance the innovation management.

Open innovation is based on strong networks between academia and industry. ICT developments depend greatly on open innovation due to short innovation cycles and strong competition. To build an open innovation network which operates in a regional, national and international context was the idea behind the Enterprise Europe Network which started in 2008. The overall aim is to support the competitiveness and innovation capabilities of SMEs in Europe. Today, the Enterprise Europe Network is the largest innovation network in the world. It addresses every need in the whole value chain of the innovation process - from idea to product. Bernd Janson will explain how 600 partners and over 6000 consultants worldwide work together to improve the performance of SMEs in Europe. He also explains the Network's role within Tetramax.

Silexica was founded in 2014 as a spin-off from RWTH Aachen University and expanded rapidly to complete an $ 8 million "Series A" round of financing in November 2016. The following year saw Silexica open offices in Silicon Valley and Japan and win multicore solution projects with companies including Denso, Ricoh and Fujitsu.
Silexica continues to work with RWTH Aachen on research projects to develop and enhance SLX, Silexica's programming technology SLX uses state-of-the-art compiler technology and full heterogeneity awareness to support software professionals in the most challenging projects.
Juan Eusse's presentation will talk about the transfer of technology from university to a limited company, forming a strong relationship between both parties and learning from each other.
He will provide an insight into SLX with real industrial examples of how the company and technologies have since developed.

While the transfer from research to market exploitation is already a challenge in itself, additional tasks arise when it comes to products that are used for safety-critical applications. This case study will focus on the example of BASELABS, a software company which focuses on automated driving. The presentation will highlight the path from research via pre-development towards safety-certified software products and the different business models related to each stage. The objective is to provide insights and best practices helping researchers and entrepreneurs with similar challenges.

Intenta is on the cutting edge of research and development in the fields of image processing, data fusion, and object/person recognition and detection. Intenta's focus is the development and marketing of product lines based on smart sensor technologies.
Founded in 2011, the company has experienced continual growth to over 160 employees in 2017.