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10 COMMERCIAL 6.5.2021 EIT Manufacturing's RIS 2021 pro- gramme is designed to help individuals, businesses, including small and medi- um-sized enterprises (SMEs), start-ups, scale-ups, corporates, RTOs, and Uni- versities to contribute to Europe's in- novation ecosystem with new solutions and ideas for manufacturing originating from eligible EU Member States and Horizon Europe Associated Countries, which are modest and moderate innova- tors according to the European Innova- tion Scoreboard. EIT Manufacturing is an innovation community supported by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), a body of the Europe- an Union. "e EIT's Regional Innovation Scheme is a priority EIT instrument, designed to provide targeted support to a wide array of countries and regions in Europe, by boosting their innovation capacity, tal- ent pool, and integration within EIT ac- tivities. We are excited to have addition- al, high-potential players and regional actors from the manufacturing industry, join Europe's largest innovation ecosys- tem, and contribute to delivering more innovation across Europe", said Luke In- corvaja, Strategy Officer at the European Institute of Innovation and Technology. "e geographic scope of the EIT Re- gional Innovation Scheme is important for EIT Manufacturing and for the Euro- pean manufacturing industry as a whole. A lot of well-known European manufac- turers, often global market leaders, de- pend on suppliers, subcontractors and solution providers that are based in these countries", said Dr. Konstantinos Geor- goulias, Director of Regional Innovation Scheme and EU Affairs at EIT Manufac- turing. e manufacturing industry is a global base for prosperity and key to Europe's economic, social and environmental sustainability. More than 2 million man- ufacturing companies provide over 32 million jobs in Europe. Increasing the re- silience of Europe's industry is important to maintain a healthy European economy and to boost its competitiveness globally. In 2021, with an approximate budget of EUR 5 million, a long set of EIT Man- ufacturing RIS activities will be taking place in 18 eligible countries. ese ac- tivities cover all three pillars of the EIT Knowledge Triangle: Education activ- ities engaging pupils to ensure a skilled future workforce and Teaching & Learn- ing factories to transfer knowledge and close the gap between industry and ac- ademia; Innovation activities to support innovative solutions originating from el- igible countries, facilitating growth and job creation; Business Creation activities to support local start-ups and SMEs. Open calls in 2021 In 2021, there are, indicatively, four initiatives out of EIT Manufacturing's RIS portfolio, where potential external applicants can apply right now or in the near future: EIT Jumpstarter, Evolution of research results in manufacturing, Leaders, and BoostUp! RIS competi- tion. More information on these EIT Manufacturing RIS opportunities, and all the future ones, can be found on the EIT Manufacturing website. e EIT Jumpstarter is targeting those individuals/teams from EIT RIS countries who have innovative ideas but need help to turn them into busi- ness. e programme provides guid- ance offered from best-in-class experts and know-how to validate novel ideas and help in creating a business model around them. Individuals with innova- tive ideas may apply until the 30th of April. e training will start in June and last until November. rough this time period, there will be several training and mentoring sessions for the selected teams. For SMEs, Universities, and RTOs who would like to launch their inno- vative projects on the market, EIT Manufacturing set up the Evolution of research results in manufacturing. e programme accelerates the mar- ket launch of innovative projects via networking and financial support in establishing a market-ready product or service. Within the programme's framework, selected teams will have to finish their prototype and test them in a real market environment. Teams or companies from EIT RIS eligible countries are also invited to submit their innovative proposals and participate in the BoostUp! RIS 2021. e event showcases cutting-edge manufacturing innovation and tech- nologies in Europe. e competition is part of the Manufacturing Days pow- ered by EIT Manufacturing at the Vi- ennaUP'21, one of the largest start-up festivals in Europe. It will be taking place on 11th and 12th of May. As part of the event, finalists in the BoostUp! RIS 2021 pitching competition will present their ideas and solutions in competition for financial prizes and dedicated packages of support servic- es provided by the EIT Manufacturing Business Creation team. More infor- mation on the BoostUp! RIS 2021 can be found here. Strong track record in 2020 In 2020, EIT Manufacturing achieved great success through its RIS activities across RIS countries. For example, in terms of education activities, seven EIT Manufacturing Partners from five RIS countries involved more than 1,500 high school students in webinars on robotics and digitalization where they learn how the manufacturing indus- try can be an attractive future career for them. More than 1,000 individu- als were involved in EIT RIS activities throughout Europe, and 50 aware- ness-raising events were organized in numerous RIS countries by the 13 EIT Manufacturing RIS Hubs. In projects bringing together academ- ia and industry, eight Teaching Factory Projects and six Learning Factory Pro- jects were executed with the involve- ment of more than 20 organizations from EIT RIS countries where students, researchers, and engineers from manu- facturing companies worked together to mutually develop skills and co-create solutions to industrial manufacturing challenges. In the scope of another EIT RIS activ- ity in 2020, EIT Manufacturing part- ners ran calls for companies in EIT RIS countries who needed support in their digital transformation. Altogether, thanks to this RIS project, 22 compa- nies from nine EIT RIS countries now have a better understanding of what their maturity level is for digitalization and had a chance to select the most important next step for their digitaliza- tion journey through ad hoc consulting from experts. Another highlight was in spring 2020, when, during the first wave of the COV- ID-19 pandemic, the research team at the Czech Institute of Informatics, Ro- botics, and Cybernetics at the Czech Technical University in Prague (CII- RC CTU) developed and certified the 3D-printed RP95 protective half-mask providing the highest degree of protec- tion. In collaboration with the start-up company TRIX Connections, and a financial contribution within the EIT Manufacturing RIS activity DigTra- foRIS, the mask has been enhanced with a face-scanning smartphone app allowing for a customized selection of mask seals to ensure a perfect fit. EIT Manufacturing RIS to launch activities worth €5 million to boost European manufacturing industry competitiveness

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