The EUR3KA.eu project, an ambitious scientific initiative that has captivated researchers and enthusiasts alike, has reached its anticipated conclusion after two years of groundbreaking work. Throughout its duration, EUR3KA has been at the forefront of cutting-edge discoveries, pushing the boundaries of knowledge in various scientific domains, particularly in resilient and smart manufacturing in the new digital age.

Eur3ka stand for “European Vital Medical Supplies and Equipment Resilient and Reliable Repurposing Manufacturing as a Service Network for fast Pandemic Reaction”. The project was created in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and aimed to secure supply chains for future crisis situations, such as pandemics. In crisis situations, it is crucial that production companies can react quickly and restructure their production so that the supply chains for vital medical supplies are maintained. This is achieved by enhancing personal skills, creating new industrial value chains, promoting service innovation, technological innovation, and innovation methodologies.

Background of the project

Eur3ka is funded by the EU through Horizon 2020 and run from December 2020 to December 2022. A total of 24 partners from 11 different European countries participated in the project – 12 companies, three universities, five associations and four organizations. During the project, they worked together to improve the supply chains across national borders.
Achievements within the project

The project has produced remarkable findings, leading to significant developments in manufacturing processes. Some key results include:

🔹 Upgraded testing equipment for verifying CO2 levels in full-face masks, ensuring higher quality and safety standards.

🔹 Implementation of automation services for measuring machines, enhancing efficiency and accuracy in manufacturing processes.

🔹 Development of a business analytics suite for big data analysis and visualization, providing valuable insights for decision-making.

🔹 Creation of a software solution for smart shift allocation during the #COVID19 pandemic, optimizing workforce management and ensuring safety measures.

🔹 Establishment of a platform supporting the digital transformation of the manufacturing industry, offering services like Manufacturing as a Service Network and access to innovation marketplaces.

Our role in the project

As a Digital Innovation Hub in logistics and manufacturing, the Hub contributed to the Eur3ka project by sharing our expertise in logistics. We brought our network of knowledge in supply chain management and smart logistics, as well as our experience in supporting SMEs in the implementation and application of digital technologies.

The Digital Hub has successfully transferred the Eur3ka project results to the existing DIH services of „Access to Knowledge“ and „Access to Technology“ within DHM’s Start-in-Factory for the target group of SMEs and small midcaps. Furthermore, the results will be added to existing technology transfer activities, broadening the service portfolio of DHM within the Digital Hub Logistics. The companies and SMEs from our Digital Hub Logistics ecosystem now know about the Eur3ka toolset. Stakeholders of our ecosystem can now test the Eur3ka toolset (Plug & respond interoperable trusted data connector, service platform & infrastructure, R3 cognitive digital twins) so that they can make use of it if circumstances require it.

This is also where the work of the International Data Spaces Association for Data sovereignty becomes very important. As an essential part of our innovation ecosystem and also as a partner of the Eur3ka project, the IDSA has been able to contribute a lot of expertise here. The project required intensive data exchange and secure, sovereign data spaces based on the IDS architecture. The field was currently in the spotlight, so there was an opportunity to use IDS as a technical platform and to exploit application potentials beyond the project.

DHM will continue integrating the project results into our competence portfolio and knowledge transfer, as well as into the communicative work with different target groups (SMEs, mid-caps, start-ups, multipliers, corporates, local RTOs). The Hub sees a big need and demand to share application scenarios and best practices by organizing webinars or providing editorial articles in the local innovation ecosystem to increase adoption by companies from logistics and manufacturing, especially SMEs. We will also collaborate further with partners from the Eur3ka project as part of the European Digital Innovation Hubs (EDIH) network and via cross-border collaboration with the Digital Transformation Accelerator (DTA) to enable knowledge transfer to other hubs. Regular exchange of experience within the Eur3ka community organized through EDIHs on success factors and obstacles that companies from our DIH environment communicate in order to implement improvements in a targeted manner.

The DHM strongly believes in the further success and crucial role of the Eur3ka project in driving innovation and sustainability in the medical supply chains and delivering additional benefits not only to the industries but to society as a whole.