Mullingar facility moves set to be approved as a European Digital Innovation Hub
A Mullingar digital hub, IMR's FactoryxChange, has moved one step closer to being fully approved as a European Digital Innovation Hub.
The European Union is investing over €700m to co-fund an EU-wide network of hubs. Each Irish hub is set to receive annual funding of €1.9m from both the EU and the Irish government under the National Recovery and Resilience Facility.
These new hubs will work with local SMEs and public sector bodies to help them ‘go digital’, incorporating the benefits of digital technology in their operations, no matter what stage they are currently at.
The hubs will provide help with training, research and testing and advice on funding. They will be up and running by the end of this year.
Subject to the outcome of the next phase of national due diligence and evaluation, the FactoryxChange (FxC) and the other Irish candidate hubs will be eligible to be co-funded under the Digital Europe Programme.
The FxC is a consortium led by the EI/IDA Technology Centre Irish Manufacturing Research (IMR) in the National Science Park, which will accelerate factories to become ‘Factories of the Future’ integrating ecological, digital, and societal solutions into their core business models.
Minister of State for Trade Promotion, Digital and Company Regulation, Robert Troy TD says that the announcement of Ireland's candidate European Digital Innovation Hubs is “another step towards ensuring that Ireland is at the forefront of a digital future”. “Digital transformation, including the adoption of AI, across the enterprise base is a core focus for government, particularly for SMEs and the regional ecosystem.
“This new network, once approved, will help enterprises all around the country to realise the huge opportunities the digital economy presents to improve services, enhance customer experience, and increase competitiveness.
“The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment and Enterprise Ireland will now work with the proposed EDIHs over the coming months to progress through the next steps in the national approval process and help them operationalise so they can commence offering their services before the end of the year,” he said.
Leo Clancy CEO of Enterprise Ireland said:
“I welcome this important milestone in the development of Ireland’s candidate European Digital Innovation Hubs.
The ambition of the proposed hubs to provide services to SMEs related to digital transformation, circular economy, sustainability, artificial intelligence, manufacturing 4.0 is welcome, as is the regional spread of the hubs here and their overall complementarity.
Increasing the competitiveness and productivity of SMEs through higher levels of operational focus, more innovation and digital adoption is very much in line with Enterprise Ireland’s three-year strategy “Leading in a Changing World”, which is supporting a vision for Irish enterprise to 2030.”