In the ever-evolving landscape of digital innovation, a quiet revolution is underway, and it's not confined to the renowned tech hubs of Silicon Valley or the bustling streets of Shanghai. Instead, it's finding its roots in the heart of Europe, where cities like Amsterdam or Barcelona are leading the change. But prodigies of Europe’s successful digitalisation are always hungry for more and now, we are about to witness their next big jump - an expansion of EU’s know-how on digital transformation experiences and its supporting structure, the Digital Innovation Hubs, to all corners of Europe, to Africa and even Latin America.
The European Commission defines Digital Innovation Hubs (DIHs) as “one-stop shops supporting companies and public sector organisations to respond to digital challenges and become more competitive.” and further specifies their role in supporting local companies in their pursuit of digitalisation by guiding SMEs in improving processes, products and services while embracing the use of digital technologies. The examples of such activities can be structured around four type of services:
- Test-before-invest
- Access to financial support
- Developing essential skills through training programmes
- Advisory services on sustainability and circularity of resources
Defining Digital Innovation Hubs in Europe.
DIHs emerged from various organisations supporting digital uptake of SMEs such as clusters, regional governments , universities or research centers. Each consisting out of various partners and with diverse offer, so to fully support SMEs in its digital transformation journey.
The DIHNET, an EC-funded project coordinated by TNO and supported by Technalia, FundingBox, EUROBOTICS, BLUMORPHO and LUXINNOVATION has been a stepping stone in the development of what we call now Digital Innovation Hubs in Europe. The project resulted in building a pan EU network that coordinated and integrated a wide variety of initiatives such as hubs, competence centres, national and international programmes and infrastructures and ensured collaboration and quality to provide the best possible support to SMEs and midcaps. Within the efforts of DIHNET.EU establishing a platform to encourage collaboration with a wide range of services, information and tools, FundingBox lead the community building activities and resulted in a 1300 members strong vivid online community that shared best practices, informed one another about the recent opportunities and challenges.
Over the time, more and more Hubs emerged and thus it became apparent that the community members have different levels of maturity, therefore the focus of the network shifted towards providing support and sharing knowledge to support the widening hubs in the underrepresented countries. Establishing such connections was the primary goal of Boosting Widening Digital Innovation Hubs (BOWI), another EC-funded initiative that FundingBox had a pleasure to take part in. This time, apart from community building we were responsible for mentoring the hubs on their one to one collaboration, in order to make it more structural and effective.
Year by year and project by project the European Landscape of DIHs was growing in strength and number, guided by important initiatives that connected them with specific technology domains or topics. Just to mention some ongoing cases, DIHs can choose from a variety of opportunities to upskill and thus stay relevant for their customers thansk to Change2Twin’s Assessment Voucher granting 54 certifications for DIHs willing to master Digital Twin Technologies whereas PULSATE’s Digital Agora provides interested DIHs access to competencies, business services, communication outreach and most of all latest technological support within the Laser Based Additive and Advanced Manufacturing, one of the brightest topics on the factory floors and within the board rooms of the manufacturing SMEs.
As a result of just one open call for proposals by Change2Twin, more than 30 SMEs received assessment reports with recipes for digital twinning and 25% of them took the recipes further and obtained another €90 000 each for deploying digital twins on their production lines. BOWI brought tangible support to 60 SMEs from the widening countries, a group mainly located in the Central and Eastern Europe where digital uptake is less prevalent, in a form of either financial support or access to the latest technologies.
No wonder other regions started to look up towards the European DIH ecosystem for inspiration in adopting the concept.
DIHs at the forefront of digitalisation efforts in uncharted territories
Since FundingBox has been playing a key role in connecting and curating the European DIH ecosystem, it soon has become an important catalyzer in establishing it outside of the EU. Together with the German Development Agency (The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH - GIZ) and several innovation actors from the EU and Africa, we joined the African-European Digital Innovation Bridge (AEDIBNet), a flagship example of the European Commission's outreach to other continents. The first of a kind EC’s initiative where the commission was taking it stands tall as a beacon of collaboration and innovation, connecting African aspirations with European expertise. The project made progress within areas such as Smart Agriculture, Digital Trade and Smart Cities with hubs like JKIAN, (Kenya), 237 DT Innovation Lab, (Cameroon) and Digi Cities (Cote d'Ivoire), leading the way.
"AEDIBNet allowed us to establish JHUB Africa as a Digital Innovation Hub, foster collaborations between industries and academia, and devise community-centric solutions. Consequently, we have made significant strides in digital innovation, empowering our community to address local challenges effectively. We are eager to broaden our partnerships and amplify our impact," stated Dr. Lawrence Nderu, Founder of JHUB Africa in Kenya, a key beneficiary of AEDIBNet. This initiative has been crucial in bridging African and European innovation ecosystems, promising substantial advancements in smart agriculture, digital trade, and smart cities.
Afterwards, on the mandate of GIZ we led efforts in our innitial project in the Southeast Europe, in Kosovo, where our experts were in charge of the groundwork essential to establish the first DIH in the country - Prizren DIH. But that was only the beginning, as currently we are steering the digital transformation of the region as a partner in projects extending the DIH model to Bosnia &Herzegovina (Innovationen und Digitalisierung in KMU), and to Ukraine and Moldova (Digital transformation of small and medium-sized enterprises in Eastern Partnership countries).
But Africa and the Europe’s Former Eastern Block are not the only regions gearing up for the leap of progress - more is on the horizon as efforts are made in the South American business ecosystem. With the recent visit of Mayte Carracedo, FundingBox’s Chief of Impact and Ecosystem Building, to Mercopar - the Latin American’s top industry fair, where this topic was treated several times with main policy makers of Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil) - the South American hubs are also on the agenda. At the same time, when even the EU-based Digital Innovation Hubs are still defining themselves and uneven level of digitalisation in Europe posing a risk to the European Union’s ability to compete in the global economy, promoting the DIH concept beyond Europe is challenging.
The issues in navigating legal landscapes and understanding local contexts are just one of many issues the team faces every day. Whether in Africa, Latin America or even outside of the European Union, the struggle lies in establishing frameworks that accommodate the rapid pace of digital transformation. Mayte Carracedo notes, "While legal frameworks are being put in place, our focus is on clear and sensitive communication with the DIHs we're working with”.
DIHs as a driving force in Digital Decade
Yet, one thing remains clear, the train to digitalisation has already departed and there is no way to stop it. The ambitious goals of Digital Decade set in the European Declaration on Digital Rights and Principles presenting the EU's commitment to a secure, safe and sustainable digital transformation that puts people at the centre, in line with core EU values and fundamental rights, Digital Innovation Hubs will only get busier. And we all need them to perform at the highest levels to support the digital transformation of SMEs and communities. Thus, the FundingBox’s team continues to support local entities with the experience at hand, the numerous successful implementations of DIHs and their services accross the globe, some sour lessons of reality-checks when things did not worked out, so together they are trying to make the most out of the available resources and within the local context.
To find out more about the DIH concept as well as some recommendations on how to establish a successful DIH please check this Toolkit for DIH Creation. We also encourage you to reach out to our colleagues for tailored support with capacity building activities, connection and international collaborations and funding acquisition for your DIH. For more information, please contact Maria Roca, Senior Project Manager at FundingBox and the organisation’s Digital Innovation Hubs Lead.
