News

During this second trimester of the year, the ESM Pilot has been extremely active in promoting its activities while participating to several conferences and organising demo-case meetings to boost the pilot. On 3rd April, the ESM Pilot was presented as an excellent example of an open innovation ecosystem, providing support to companies with commitments of regions, at the conference “Boosting innovation for EU Industry: Industrial infrastructures & Open Innovation Ecosystems”  organised in Ljubljana by the Slovenian Business & Research Association and the European Commission, DG Research and Innovation.

On 18th April, the ESM Pilot coordinator participated in the event “Entrepreneurial Discovery Focus Group on Industrial Modernization” in Sibiu, to highlight the experiences and disseminate information about the activities of the ESM Partnership in supporting Industrial Modernisation. The dissemination towards Romanian regions continued on 21st May in Bucharest at the conference “Towards a better economic convergence and competitiveness within EU macro-regions”, discussing the role of transnational clusters for economic convergence and economic growth, where the example of AFIL in leading the ESM Pilot was presented as a best practice.

The ESM Pilot has also supported the organisation of several demo-case meetings with the aim to boost their activities and progress:

• The “De-and Remanufacturing” demo-case met with a DG REGIO expert on 2nd April to discuss the interregional pilot action as well as the next steps and activities planned for the upcoming months mainly focused on three aspects; improvement of the business plan, definition of governance and procedure, and communication and dissemination.
• The “Polymer-based Functional Products” demo-case took part in a workshop and matchmaking event organised by the Interreg MED project GREENOMED in Barcelona on 11th April. Representatives of the “EFREFO” demo case was involved in virtual sessions during the event, with the intent of investigating possible synergies and expansion opportunities. On 12th April, the demo-case co-coordinator, EURECAT, opened its Smart Plastic Laboratory in Cerdanyola to show the participants the assets available in this node of the pilot network.
• Representatives of the “Digital Transformation” demo-cases met in Eindhoven on 20th and 21st April to present demonstrators and field-lab applications to be integrated into the demo-case network. The participants also discussions the challenges faced by companies to integrate these technologies and how the demo-case can contribute in tackling these challenges. Moreover, the participants had the opportunity to visit the Brainport Industry Campus and investigate possible funding opportunities from upcoming calls.