University pilot plants form networks

Austria’s university pilot plants are forming networks among themselves and offer Austrian companies a new service to improve their digitalisation know-how called the Austrian Manufacturing Innovation Data Space, in short AMIDS. University pilot plants comprise the link between research and industrial application. They were initiated as innovation, demonstration and learning factories as a means of promoting the transfer of state-of-the-art technologies in companies.

The three Austrian pilot plants, “Pilot Factory Industry 4.0” at the Vienna University of Technology, the “smartfactory@tugraz" (tugraz = Graz University of Technology) and “LIT Factory (University of Linz) have created a network to jointly shape the manufacturing data space of the future. In conjunction with 29 partners from industry and research, an Austrian space will be developed and explored over the next five years as part of the European Gaia-X initiative. During this period two use cases will demonstrate the application and immediate effects for Austrian companies.

Gaia-X is a de-factor standard unifying European data protection stipulations as well as the demands imposed on transparency and compatibility. Within this context, tools and infrastructures are created to ensure a secure European data space and thus the secure exchange of data. With the help of the association AMIDS, Austrian companies are offered a low-threshold opportunity to test and evaluate the Gaia-X data space for their specific production processes. One key aspect is building up an innovation network for manufacturing companies which now have a total of six learning factories available to them with a cutting-edge ICT infrastructure and comprehensive expertise in the field of digitalisation and production.

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