“Basque Industry 4.0” embraces technological entrepreneurship
- Minister Arantxa Tapia has showcased the results of the BIND 4.0 Programme to attract technology start-ups from around the world and unveiled the programme of the leading Industry 4.0 event in the Basque Country
- The 18 most innovative projects, - 13 from Basque start-ups and the remainder from the Spanish State, Portugal, France, Poland and India -, have been selected in the first call of the accelerator launched by the Basque Government and ten groundbreaking industrial companies of the Basque Country
- The programme for the Basque Industry 4.0 Conference includes the presence of the Vice-President for Manufacturing. Digital Factory Division – SIEMENS A.G., Günter Beitinge
- Delegates can register at http://www.spri.eus/es/eventos/basque-industry-4-0
“Basque Industry 4.0”, the leading conference for Industry 4.0 in the Basque Country will yet again be held at the Kursaal Conference Centre in Donostia-San Sebastián on Wednesday 16 November, with an important new addition to its programme. In its third year, the event will embrace technological entrepreneurship by showcasing the projects selected by the most powerful Basque industrial companies from among the technological start-ups entered in the first call of the BIND 4.0 StartUP! Basque Industry Accelerator Program 4.0. private-public accelerator.
The results of this cutting-edge programme, implemented by the Basque Government together with ABB, CAF, CIE Automotive, DanobatGroup, Euskaltel, Iberdrola, ITP, Mercedes-Benz, Michelin, Microsoft, Repsol-Petronor and Siemens, were announced by Minister Arantxa Tapia during a press conference this morning.
Successful first BIND 4.0 call
The Start UP! Basque Industry 4.0 (BIND 4.0) scheme is a Basque Government initiative, together with the leading industrial companies of the Basque Country, to attract innovative initiatives to the Basque Country. BIND 4.0 is a public-private accelerator that provides those start-ups (recently created companies with new proposals in the field of Industry 4.0) with the opportunity to work on a common project and establish a customer-supplier relationship with some of the most important companies operating in the autonomous community.
The first call of the BIND 4.0 programme, launched on 6 July last, has been highly successful and attracted applications from a total of 257 start-ups from 41 countries. After an initial short-listing of 52 start-ups, 23 of which are foreign, the Basque corporations have chosen a total of 18 projects from the best 13 start-ups. It is noteworthy that the great quantity and quality of start-ups entering has meant that apart from the original promoters, other industrial companies of the Basque Country, as is the case of Fagor Ederlan, the Alcor Group, Ulma group, Maier or NEM Solutions, have signed up to the scheme.
The 13 finalist emerging companies (two from Álava, three from Bizkaia, two from Gipuzkoa, two from the rest of Spain, one from France, one from Portugal, one from Poland and one from India) selected to work on their projects within the accelerator in this first year of the programme will focus on such different areas as the Internet of Things (IoT) or the tracking of ocular movements to establish what a person is watching or what it is exactly that is seen (eyetracking). This is, for example, the speciality of Irisbond, the company of Gipuzkoa, which will develop its project within ABB, a company that has also taken on Innovae, the augmented reality start-up from Donostia-San Sebastián. The latter will also be working on a project for the DANOBAT GROUP, the machine tool company.
Bihartech from Álava and Creativitic Innova from La Rioja, both of which specialise in augmented reality and virtual reality, have been chosen along with Embeblue from Navarra (which works on the Internet of Things) to develop their technology within CAF. Creativitic Innova has also been chosen by MICHELIN.
EUSKALTEL, in turn, will host the big data project of Decidata, the start-up from Bilbao. At ITP, Zylk Industry, the start-up from Bizkaia, will also be working on analysis large amounts of data or ‘data analytics’. Hupi, the French start-up, has also been selected in this area by MAIER to work on a project based on big data and machine learning techniques, and Bigda Solutions, from Álava, will work for MERCEDES BENZ VITORIA. Addimen, a company from Derio specialised in additive printing applications, will also be working at the car company's Álava plant, and will in turn be developing another project at REPSOL PETRONOR.
Finally, Algo Engines, the start-up from India, will apply its technology in the Internet of Things in collaboration with NEM SOLUTIONS from Gipuzkoa, as well as with the ALCOR GROUP. The ULMA GROUP, in turn, has expressed its interest in Glartek, the Portuguese start-up, and FAGOR EDERLAN in Kontakt.io from Poland.
The results of this first call will consolidate the Basque Industry 4.0 strategy of the Basque Government's Ministry of Economic Development and Competitiveness; BIND 4.0 was set up with the aim of strengthening the Basque entrepreneurship ecosystem and of positioning the Basque Country on the map of advanced industrial entrepreneurship, contributing to the efficiency and better competitiveness of Basque industry and generating wealth and jobs.
16 November:Basque Industry 4.0 at Kursaal
Entrepreneurship is yet another area included both in the Basque Government's Basque Industry 4.0 and the Conference of the same name, which will be held for the third time on 16 November at the Kursaal Conference Centre in Donostia-San Sebastian.
“Basque Industry 4.0” is organised by the Basque Government’s Ministry for Economic Development and Competitiveness, through SPRI. It will be the opportunity for companies, clusters, technology centres and universities to discuss the 4th industrial revolution, while fostering the integration of the new information and electronic technologies (IETs) in production processes.
Among the different speakers and discussion sessions, the Basque Government’s Minister for Economic Development and Competitiveness, Arantxa Tapia, will present the results and initiatives currently underpinning one of the main commitments in Basque industrial strategy. Furthermore, Siemens’s Vice-President of Manufacturing, Günter Beitinger, will be at the event and will outline the German multinational's experience in digital manufacturing, a solution that simulates and shows industrial processes in 3-D. It also cuts manufacturing and project costs and shortens the time to market.
Basque Industry 4.0 combines experiences, trends, strategies, opinions, workshops, displays and the view of experts regarding the technologies making up Industry 4.0: additive manufacturing, collaborative robotics, cyber-physical systems, augmented reality, cloud computing, big data, artificial vision or cyber-security, all of which are aimed at creating the so-called “smart factory”, which will be better adapted to the production processes and needs of the company at any time.
Apart from the interventions of Arantxa Tapia and Günter Beitinger, a roundtable will be held at the Kursaal when Titanium, ABB, CIE Automotive, Microsoft and Gestamp representatives will explain their view and experience regarding the situation, future, strategies, key issues, challenges, etc. in this area, during a discussion session moderated by Enrique Rodal, an expert journalist in technology.
Etxe-Tar, the machine-tool company from Gipuzkoa, will also be at Basque Industry 4.0. It is one of the companies of the Basque Country at the forefront of the digitalization race and whose experience will be showcased as an example of leadership in Industry 4.0.
The programme likewise includes examples of Basque industries specialised in developing IET solutions and with success stories in processes, products and services. As regards the outlook for the future, the University of the Basque Country and Technology Centres will be tasked with pinpointing which industrial applications could benefit from the new technologies.
The event will also include four practical workshops, organised by GAIA - the Telecommunications Cluster, on the capacities of the gamification technologies (Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Simulation, etc) in the different phases of the industrial processes: Pre-Production, Production and Post-Production. The workshop delegates may experiment with applications already operational in companies and analyse the use of these technologies in their own organisations.
The event will also boast an exhibition area where 29 Basque companies that offer solutions for Industry 4.0 will showcase their range of technology and service products, and will have the opportunity to establish contacts for business cooperation or potential partnerships. And there will be opportunities throughout the event for networking, sharing points of views, swapping business cards and establishing contacts.
15 November:Basque Cluster Day at the Miramar Palace
In the same way that technology start-ups are part of the Basque Industry 4.0 governmental strategy, this year its programme also embraces the Basque Cluster Day, which will be held at the Miramar Palace in San Sebastián on 15 November. It is an internal session for Basque cluster to reflect on, among other key topics, the role that they must play in the RIS3 smart specialisation process Research and Innovation Smart Specialisation Strategy).
Basque Cluster Day will be held in the capital of Gipuzkoa, along with the IV International Cluster Congress, which will this time discuss the role of clusters both in Industry 4.0 and in the companies themselves.
