On March 19th at the Baglioni Hotel in Florence took place the international workshop on "Industrial Modernization and Interregional Cooperation", organized by ASEV and Arezzo Innovazione, leader of the European networks NMP-REG and TRINNO, with the collaboration of the Tuscany Region. The event was attended by more than 100 people representing 20 European regions, Tuscan scientific experts, policy makers, and a representative of the European Commission. The discussion was focused on the ongoing and active experiences of numerous European projects in the field of Industry 4.0.
Industry 4.0 (I4.0) is taking off across Europe. It concerns automation and data exchange in manufacturing technologies, making everything around manufacturing processes digitally connected. For this reason, Industry 4.0 represents both an opportunity and a challenge to adapt traditional sectors, production systems, and SMEs. The idea of the workshop was born from the desire to deepen the different visions of the fourth industrial revolution by comparing European cooperation projects that address issues related to Industry 4.0.
The conference initially provided two sessions focused on understanding the state of the art of industrial modernization at European and regional level through the contributions of the representatives of the regions present. In particular, in the morning the plenary session was attended by:
Session 1: Understanding Industrial Modernisation (Moderated by Paolo Martinez, FUTOUR)
- Interreg Europe, TRINNO and NMP-REG – Sara Bonci and Lorenzo Sabatini
- Video message: Europe policy for Industrial Modernisation – DG GROW, Nicos Pantalos,
- Industrial Modernisation at European Level: the role of Capitalisation and Exchange Platforms – Interreg Europe Policy Learning Platform Thematic Expert, Marc Pattinson
- Industrial Modernisation and the regional policies: the Enterprise 4.0 Platform in Tuscany – Tuscany Region, Albino Caporale
Session 2: Interreg Europe and Industrial Modernisation (Moderated by Paolo Martinez, FUTOUR) Participants:
- TRINNO Project, University of Barcelona, Xavier Testar Ymbert
- NMP-REG Project, Norte Regional Coordination and Development Commission, Ester Silva
- INNOPROVEMENT Project, Hungarian Ministry of Finance, Péter Keller
- STEPHANIE Project, National Research Council, Roberto Pini
Afterwards, in the afternoon session, there was the simultaneous holding of two workshops on the impact of new digital solutions and advanced manufacturing on production systems with the presentation of significant experiences adopted by some of the most important companies in Europe:
Session 3: Thematic Workshops
- Industrial Modernisation and Traditional Manufacturing SMEs: opportunities and risks and how public policy can adapt Managed by TRINNO project - Moderated by Alberto Bramanti, Bocconi University
- Industrial Modernisation and Advanced Materials: opportunities and risks and how public policy can adapt Managed by NMP-REG project - Moderated by Paolo Martinez, FUTOUR and with a presentation made by Massimo Innocenti, University of Florence
Here below is made available a video summary of the workshop:
(credit by Barry Guckian, Northern and Western Regional Assembly, TRINNO Project)
A selection of pictures taken during the event is available here.
