June 12, 2024
The EuProGigant special award for data-sharing startups at the Manufacturing Day 2024.
Vienna, June 6, 2024. In the course of the BoostUp! East 2024 award ceremony the ecosystem surrounding EuProGigant sponsored the prestigious EuProGigant award. This illustrated the determination of the project to drive innovation in the field of data-sharing in the European manufacturing industry.
Prestigious prizes sponsored by EuProGigant, the Gaia-X Association for Data and Cloud and EIT Manufacturing East.
During this year´s Manufacturing Day 2024 which was part of the ViennaUp program in Vienna, the EuProGigant project made use of the opportunity to sponsor an award. Specifically, the EuProGigant award was offered to the best startup in the field of data-sharing.
Eligible startups entailed the following business models and industries: Simulation & Advanced, Engineering Tools, Industrial VR/AR, Industrial Robotics, Logistics Tech, Predictive Maintenance, Advanced Sensors, Advanced Detection (IR/Noise/etc.), Industrial Cybersecurity, Connectivity and IoT Infrastructure, Data analytics/AI, Digital Twins. Thus, the main aim was to encourage further developments and incentivize more European startups in data-sharing.
Furthermore, the Gaia-X Association for Data and Cloud sponsored three one-year Gaia-X memberships for the top 3 startups in the field of data-sharing. This was also reflected by EIT Manufacturing East when offering the tailored growth and service support package to the top 3 startups. Therefore, not only the winner received awards but also the runner-ups were granted rewards.
Esteemed jury members
The recipients of the EuProGigant award were selected by the EuProGigant jury. These experts offered relevant experience in the field of Gaia-X-initiatives and the manufacturing industry. The jury members were Martina Malakova, Coordinator for the Gaia-X Hub Slovakia, Roland Fadrany, COO of Gaia-X AISBL and Wolfgang Kniejski, Senior Project Manager at EIT Manufacturing East. Thus, a neutral selection process based on the experience of the experts was ensured.
BoostUp pitches
During the Manufacturing Day, multiple startups were granted the opportunity to present their business models to a larger audience of more than 400 visitors. Initially, the startups presented their business models for the chance to win the Supporting Green Innovation in Manufacturing award by the Vienna Business Agency.
Afterwards, the startups aiming for the EuProGigant special award pitched their ideas and business models to the audience. After the pitching phase concluded the jury members decided on the top 3 startups in the field of data-sharing in the European manufacturing industry.
The winners were:
1st Prize: Mestric Smart Factory, a startup dedicated to offering solutions to modern manufacturing to enhance the production quality while reducing the overall cost caused by bottlenecks.
2nd Prize: Balun Energy aims to offering production forecasts by utilizing Machine Learning technology. These forecasts can then be used to enable sufficient electricity management.
3rd Prize: Process Space supports companies in identifying ongoing operational inefficiencies. These issues can then be turned into opportunities for digital transformations.
Renowned experts and speakers
The Manufacturing Day 2024 further included exciting presentations and panels with renowned experts. Initially Steven Spear, Author and Senior Lecturer at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) School of Management held his opening and keynote speech focused on the crucial role of agility and adaptability in manufacturing. In his discussion, he emphasized how companies can accelerate innovation to gain a competitive advantage, and highlighted the importance of “Slowification,” “Simplification,” and “Amplification” in business processes. Afterwards, Katherine Bennett , CEO of High Value Manufacturing Catapult; Roman Biller, Vice President Technology Sales EMEA East and Oracle; Johannes Hunschofsky, Managing Director at EIT Manufacturing East and Steven Spear, Author and Senior Lecturer at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) School of Management exchanged their expertise in a panel on the topic of `Accelerating Innovation in Manufacturing´. This was followed by a panel discussion on the topic of `Accelerating Europe – Pathways to drive innovation!´ with Dr. Monika Bachofner, Head of Open Innovation Unit at Volkswagen AG; Johannes Hunschofsky, Managing Director at EIT Manufacturing East; Doris Schroecker, Head of Unit at European Commission, DG Research & Innovation and Markus Schweiger, Executive Director at Austrian Marshall Plan Foundation.
About EuProGigant
EuProGigant stands for “European Production Giganet for calamity-reducing self-orchestration of value creation and learning ecosystems”. The binational project was launched on March 1, 2021 and will run for four years. The aim is to establish a cross-location, digitally networked production ecosystem. The framework is provided by the Austrian program “RTI Offensive Big Data in Production” of the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Climate Protection, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology (BMK) and the German program “Development of Digital Technologies” of the Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection (BMWK). EuProGigant is a registered EU-wide trademark in word and image of TU Vienna and TU Darmstadt.
EuProGigant is supported by a consortium from Austria and Germany. The consortium leaders are the Pilot Factory Industry 4.0 at TU Wien and the Institute for Production Management, Technology and Machine Tools at TU Darmstadt.
Photo Credit: (c) Matthias Heschl
Media contact:
E-Mail: media@euprogigant.com
Lukas Schwab & Dominique Garcia Marschall
EIT Manufacturing
