dih-edih

A gateway to digital transformation 

Digital Innovation Hubs (DIHs) have the task of stimulating and supporting the industry’s demand for innovation, reinforcing the level of knowledge and awareness about the opportunities offered by digitalization. DIHs act as a "gateway" for local enterprises to digital transformation. The strength of a DIH is that it can offer a qualified level of services through a network of regional, national and European innovation players. 

The Digital Innovation Hub South Tyrol 

The DIHs have mainly a regional or interregional dimension and operate in cooperation with other actors and institutions.

The Digital Innovation Hub South Tyrol is the local DIH in support of companies to guide them in the process of digital transformation. The DIH gathers the entire ecosystem of academia, research institutions, competence centers and industry associations of the territory. 

The DIH South Tyrol is part of the Digital Innovation Hub Trentino-Alto Adige / Südtirol (DIH TAA).

Activities and services provided: 

The Digital Innovation Hub South Tyrol carries out various activities to ensure the wide adoption of digital technologies by local SMEs and increase the competitiveness of their products or services in the global market.

These include for example: 

- awareness-raising and training on the opportunities related to the application of 4.0 technologies and through the organization of seminars, workshops and study visits; 

- stimulate the innovation needs of companies to bridge economy and research by prototyping and carrying out pilot projects, as well as “test before invest” activities.

- supporting the use of digital maturity assessment tools, definition of the roadmap for the digital transformation of business processes and guidance in the development of 4.0 projects; 

- orientation towards the innovation ecosystem: national and European competence centers, smart factories and demo centers, universities, technology parks, technology clusters, public and private research centers, technology transfer centers, incubators, etc. 

- Interact and exchange with Digital Innovation Hubs on national and European level in order to foster the exchange of best practices in the field.

- strengthen the regional awareness of companies regarding the opportunities offered by regional, national and European digitalization strategies. 

EDIH - European Digital Innovation Hubs 

DIHs are being networked at the European level to form a European network of hubs specialized in providing services to support business digitalization.

European Digital Innovation Hubs (EDIHs) will play a central role in the Digital Europe Programme to stimulate the broad uptake of Artificial Intelligence, High Performance Computing (HPC) and Cybersecurity as well as other digital technologies by companies and public sector organizations in Europe.

EDIHs are one-stop-shops that help companies become more competitive regarding their business and production processes, products or services using digital technologies, by providing access to technical expertise and experimentation, so that companies can “test before invest”. They also provide innovation services, such as financing advice, training and skills development that are needed for a successful digital transformation. 

NOI SpA coordinates the emerging European Digital Innovation South Tyrol Hub-DIS-HUB.

The hub is an ambitious and long-term project that converges where all the services aimed at the digital transformation of the enterprises present on the territory of the Autonomous Province of Bolzano converge. The heart of the hub, and its physical location, is NOI Techpark.

Hub partners include the entire ecosystem of academia, research institutions, competence centers and industry associations and special entities of the territory. The partners are:

• University of Bolzano

• EURAC Research

• Fraunhofer Italia

• Laimburg

• IDM Südtirol Alto Adige

• Wirtschaftsverband Handwerk und Dienstleister / Confartigianato Imprese (LVH.APA)

• Unternehmerverband Südtirol / Assoimprenditori Alto Adige

• Handels- und Dienstleistungsverband Südtirol / Unione Commercio Servizi Turismo Alto Adige (HDS)

• Südtiroler Bauernbund / Unione Agricoltori e Coltivatori Diretti Sudtirolesi (SBB)

• Rete economia / Wirtschaftsnetz

• Hoteliers- und Gastwirteverband Südtirol (HGV)

• Camera di Commercio di Bolzano / Handelskammer Bozen

Technology focus

The future Hub will have a multi-sector technology focus. It will be specialized and focused on one of the advanced technologies provided by the Digital Europe Program, namely Artificial Intelligence (AI), AI technologies and related application fields. Some AI-based technologies on which the Hub has strong competencies are: IoT, Real-Time Data, Data Hubs, Recommender Systems, Prediction Models, Simulation, 3D Technologies, Computer Vision, Smart fabrication, collaborative robotics, Big Data, additive manufacturing.

In other technology fields, the Hub will collaborate with other EDIHs at national and EU level.

Services:

The services provided for by the Hub will address mainly advanced services such as: 

- TEST BEFORE INVEST: the testing of technologies in the laboratory and in the field (pilot and demonstration projects) for the validation and development of innovative products;

- SKILLS AND TRAINING: high-level training in the digital field to meet the needs of local companies for highly qualified personnel;

- SUPPORT TO FIND INVESTMENT: support companies to access funding and financing opportunities​ for innovation projects at regional, national and EU level​;

- INNOVATION ECOSYSTEM AND NETWORKING: technology transfer and access to European networks and other EDIHs for facilitating the digital transition and cooperation between research and business.