The European Commission has selected the Catalan public-private consortium DIH4CAT, of which Eurecat is part, as one of the EU hubs responsible for the digital transformation of SMEs. DIH4CAT thus becomes one of the European Digital Innovation Hubs (EDIH) with the aim of contributing to getting 75 per cent of European SMEs to have carried out advanced digitalisation processes by 2030.
With this recognition, the European Commission will allocate 2.8 million euros to the Catalan project, promoted by the Catalan Ministry of Business and Employment through ACCIÓ (the Catalan Government’s agency for business competitiveness), the Catalan Ministry of the Vice-Presidency and Digital Policies and Territory, Foment del Treball, PIMEC, Eurecat, the Computer Vision Centre (CVC), the Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO), the i2CAT Foundation, Leitat Technological Centre, the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC), the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BCS) and IESE Business School. In addition to the 2.8 million euros from the European Commission, the Catalan Government, the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and the project partners will contribute up to 4 million euros to the initiative.
DIH4CAT will thus make it easier for Catalan companies to be able to carry out tests and trials of advanced technologies before investing to implement them in their business. At the moment, as part of the contribution from the project partners, an initial million euros from the Catalan Ministry of the Vice-Presidency and Digital Policies and Territory will enable aid of up to 10,000 euros to be allocated to 100 Catalan companies this summer, so they can carry out these proofs of concept, develop prototypes or do trials in the laboratories and infrastructures of the DIH4CAT members. The technologies that will be able to be tested will be connected to 3D printing, robotics, super-/quantum computing, cybersecurity, blockchain, artificial intelligence, big data, the IoT, 5G and photonics.
In parallel, technology consultancy services will also be offered prior to testing, as well as specialist technology training, connection with the innovation ecosystem and advice on sourcing funds. DIH4CAT is set up as a network service centre, a ‘single window’ where companies and public institutions can access technological capacity, solutions and infrastructure to drive their digital transformation.
Besides the funding from the Government of Catalonia and the European Commission, DIH4CAT will also go for a Next Generation funding line channelled through the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness’ EOI Foundation, which in total will have an endowment of more than 40 million euros for the whole of Spain. In this case, the aid to each company will be between 30,000 and 60,000 euros.
DIH4CAT also provides companies with a self-guidance tool to analyse their degree of digital maturity in a quick, simple and agile way. After completing the self-assessment using this link, companies can automatically obtain a customised report with their digital maturity evaluation, followed by a set of recommendations and next steps to move forward with their digital transformation; this will also be accompanied by the identification of the main resources of interest from DIH4CAT and the tech clusters that make it up.
