The Digital Innovation Hub of Western Macedonia

Project Description

The Digital Innovation Hub of Western Macedonia (SYNERGiNN EDIH: SYNergy – enERGy – iNNovation) will offer its services in the region of Western Macedonia.

Budget

4.196.647€

Start Date

01 July 2024

Duration

4 Year

The region of Western Macedonia, as a former lignite mining area, is very likely to face for decades deep structural unemployment, with unconceivable consequences in the local economy and eventually on the people and their communities.

According to the National Energy and Climate Plan, one of the key sectors to diversify economic activities and boost the development in the region is Environment and Energy. Taking these into account, the consortium aims to establish SYNERGiNN EDIH that will guide the companies and the public organisations into utilising Artificial Intelligence, Cybersecurity, Internet of Things, and Big Data analytics, in order to promote and transform the “know-how” that the region of Western Macedonia possesses in the Energy and Environment sectors as well as replace the lignite deposits by a longer lasting knowledge deposit.

Application areas that the members of SYNERGiNN have relevant expertise and experience in the Energy and Environment sectors are the following:
(i) smart grids, (ii) predictive maintenance, (iii) process optimisation, (iv) energy management services, (v) Industry 4.0, (vi) circular economy and bioeconomy, and (viii) smart city applications.

SYNERGiNN will provide test before invest, skills and training, support to find investment, and innovation and ecosystem networking services.

SYNERGiNN hub’s headquarter will be located in a 1,000 square meters building in Kozani, owned by the University of Western Macedonia.

SYNERGiNN consortium combines multidisciplinary competences and resources. It consists of fifteen partners representing one university, one research institute, two technology providers, three clusters, five industrial partners, one public regional organisation, and two chambers. SYNERGiNN has access to over 15,000 SMEs in Western Macedonia through its members.