The European Digital Innovation Hubs are being launched at a conference being held today, 26 January 2021, and tomorrow, Wednesday 27 January, orgabised by Luxinnovation - in cooperation with the Ministry of the Economy, the European Commission and the DIHnet project - and will feature speeches by both Luxembourg's Prime Minister, Xavier Bettel, and the Minister of the Economy, Franz Fayot.
The European Digital Innovation Poles, and the associated network, are a joint effort of the European Commission and the Member States. They are intended to support SMEs and public sector and civil society organisations in their digital and ecological transformation.
This initiative is part of the Digital Europe plan, the first programme for a digital Europe, endowed with some €9 billion.
In a first phase, initiated in 2012, regional or national Digital Innovation Hubs (DIH) were established. On the occasion of the event co-organised "in phygital" by Luxembourg (via Luxinnovation) and the European Commission today and tomorrow, the call for proposals addressed to these different regional and national hubs will be officially launched. It will form the European network which should ultimately bring together around 200 digital innovation centres across Europe.
"It is an honour for Luxembourg to host this event", explained Sasha Baillie, CEO of Luxinnovation. “We are convinced that digitalisation will bring benefits to everyone, companies, research centres and individual citizens, and will improve our daily lives. This launch conference will be an opportunity to emphasise the importance of these poles and this network in the perspective of the economic recovery to come, and to refine the value propositions of each of the actors concerned".
More than 3,000 people, including representatives of the various Digital Innovation Hubs already established, as well as representatives of public, regional and national authorities, are registered to attend the launch. Various information and discussion sessions are being held throughout these two days.
Prime Minister Xavier Bettel is delivering the opening remarks on Tuesday morning and Economy Minister Franz Fayot is introducing tomorrow's session. The European Commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton, will also speak at this conference.
National digital innovation strategy
In Luxembourg, at the initiative of Luxinnovation and FEDIL, with the support of the University of Luxembourg, LIST, the Chamber of Commerce and the FNR, the Luxembourg Digital Innovation Hub (L-DIH) was created in September 2019. It focuses in particular on Industry 4.0, and more particularly on supporting SMEs to succeed in their digital transformation.
The creation of L-DIH is in line with the national digital innovation strategy for the development of a sustainable economy based on data and on trust, as is the ongoing deployment of the MeluXina supercomputer.
The fact that the European Commission has chosen Luxembourg to host this event shows the extent to which the skills and know-how of the Grand Duchy in this area are recognised.
L-DIH will be a candidate for the call for proposals launched by the European Commission to become a European Digital Innovation Hub (E-DIH) and thus be an integral part of the network of European Digital Innovation Poles.
