In June 2021, six European projects took part in the joint digital conference “Integrated Digital Transformation” of the Interreg project CORA. The conference focused on promoting synergies between European projects. To this end, the partners of the CORA, COM³, Futures By Design, GrowIn 4.0, CUPIDO and SMARTVillages projects shared their experiences of digital transformation and provided an outlook for the future. The focus of all projects is on shaping the digital future in Europe. aconium is working in four of the six participating projects as a project partner, in project communication and as part of transnational project management.
The joint conference of the Interreg projects “Integrated Digital Transformation” was an excellent opportunity for the project partners and stakeholders to discuss their results with other experts and practitioners, reach a wider audience and get to know the results of similar European projects – all in the context of digital transformation, smart regions, digitization of companies and Industry 4.0.
The “digital divide” in Europe’s rural areas is clearly noticeable – in many cases there is no suitable digital infrastructure and digital skills are limited. To address these pressing issues, the Interreg NSR project “CORA – COnnecting Remote Areas with digital infrastructure and services” stimulates digital infrastructure, services and skills in rural areas. The project supports local authorities in identifying common challenges and empowers them to share experiences, test innovative solutions and create an advanced digital environment.
The Interreg NSR project GrowIn 4.0, in which aconium acts as a supporting project partner, aims to develop strong skills and tools that SMEs in the participating regions can use. The approach is to establish a strong partnership that pools knowledge about the manufacturing industry and Industry 4.0. This will result in improved and new methods and tools that will be developed in interaction with SMEs to promote the development of digital skills.
The Interreg NSR project COM³ also aims to make rural areas more attractive places to live, work and invest by building digital skills and transforming SMEs. This is done by developing a unique support model that strengthens and empowers local and regional actors in their role as innovation promoters and enablers.
The Interreg NSR project Futures By Design prepares SMEs from various sectors for the coming economic, technical and digital challenges by transferring knowledge and sharing information.
In each of these projects, aconium leads the project communication, carries out project management activities and/or contributes as a project partner to establish a strong network in the world of digitalization and Industry 4.0 as well as becoming a reliable partner in the development of regions.
Knowledge transfer and sharing experiences were the focus of the digital conference, which was also the final conference of the CORA project. At the digital conference, the CORA project presented the pillars and dimensions of the digital transformation model, which addresses various facets of digital change. Futures By Design presented an analysis of the status quo of data-based working of SMEs and representatives of the GrowIn 4.0 project presented the barrier report developed as part of the project, as well as business innovations and the changes of SMEs. The COM³ partners shared their experiences in building communities around the digitalization of companies. The exchange of experience and knowledge did not stop at the aconium projects – the Interreg NSR project CUPIDO gave exciting presentations on the concepts of “Museums at home” and “Museums without walls”, and the Interreg Alpine Space project SMARTVillages provided insights into its digital exchange platform and pilot experiences.
Further information can be found on the Website of the CORA project.