Demcon is a part of CO-VERSATILE Digital Technopole

CO-VERSATILE Digital Technopole to unlock the power of European manufacturers and help SMEs repurpose their production facilities in response to urgent societal needs.

Led by Budapest-based SZTAKI, the EU’s CO-VERSATILE project reached a new milestone in steering collaboration of the European manufacturing market players . The ‘Digital Technopole’ will lift Europe’s preparedness to counteract future disruptions and shortages to new heights.

20 April, Budapest, Hungary – CO-VERSATILE, the EU-funded Horizon 2020 project, today launched the ‘Digital Technopole’, a single-entry easy access to tailored services, technologies and consulting expertise for European manufacturers willing to quickly react to crisis situations and repurpose their facilities to scale up production of critical supplies, such as vital medical equipment.

The ‘Digital Technopole’ is a novel cloud-based platform that aims to boost collaboration and build trust among various stakeholders including logistics firms, experts, consultancies and European manufacturing players.

“The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the vulnerability of supply chains and manufacturing processes in Europe and the EU’s dependency on non-EU sources for medical and personal protective equipment. To respond to future pandemics and cross-border threats, we need new forms of cooperation and new business models. That’s why the CO-VERSATILE partners came up with the ‘Digital Technopole’ solution. With today’s release, we open the door to two million European manufacturing enterprises, ready to play their part in times of emergencies; for example, computer electronics, rubber and plastics, machinery and metal production companies,” said Dr Robert Lovas, CO-VERSATILE project coordinator and Deputy Director of the Hungarian Institute for Computer Science and Control (SZTAKI), Eötvös Loránd Research Network (ELKH).

The ‘Digital Technopole’ is based on technology from clesgo and backed by expertise and services from 21 forward-thinking CO-VERSATILE consortium partners from nine European countries. Underscoring the commitment of all project partners, the ‘Digital Technopole’ will grant access to their expertise and services. As a proof of concept, the ‘Digital Technopole’ will integrate the first project results achieved through the development of the CO-VERSATILE manufacturing scenarios.

“This novel B2B cloud platform is seeking to streamline the access to solutions, experts and infrastructure – thanks to its dedicated functionalities that support the ‘Digital Technopole’ community interactions and marketplace services for buyers and providers. Having the willingness and the commitment of the engaged manufacturers, the Community Network and the Marketplace of the ‘Digital Technopole’ are expected to play a key role in achieving a rapid, 48-hour response to urgent production needs in Europe,” said Sebastian Pena Serna, Founder of clesgo GmbH.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, staying home and remote access helped to save lives and prevent virus spread. This, together with already accelerated digital transformation and digitally enabled collaboration in the manufacturing sector, only increased the demand for cloud-based simulations and Digital Twin environments – needed for fast repurposing and efficient reconfiguration of production lines.

“The ‘Digital Technopole’ will address this growing demand by offering a central access to decentralised and customisable services including plant simulations and supply network simulations that enable fast reconfiguration process and reduce costs and material waste. Such scalable cloudification of simulation services will be provided by University of Westminster and SZTAKI as part of the ‘Digital Technopole’”- described Dr Tamas Kiss, Professor at Westminster’s Centre for Parallel Computing.