Last 1st December 2023 was the starting day of the European project BRIDGESMEs, funded by the European Commission under the Horizon Europe programme. For three years, the 9 partners collaborating in the project will work to boost the transition to Industry 5.0 in five industrial ecosystems: mobility, transport and automotive; aerospace and defence; electronics; cultural and creative industries; and tourism.

The project aims to function as a bridge that connects pilot SMEs with startups and technology companies, offering opportunities for them to collaborate and jointly develop innovative and pioneering solutions in the market. To achieve this, different activities will be carried out to assess the main needs of SMEs in each ecosystem, events such as hackathons and matchmaking events will be organised to bring together companies with technological supply and demand, and support services will be offered to accompany companies in their transition to Industry 5.0.

Behind the project there is a consortium carefully selected, with cluster organizations and associations, RTOs, universities and business innovation centres as members, being able to offer cross-border high level expertise in various domains of competence and the best value to SMEs.

The consortium partners are:

  • Iniziativa Cube SRL (Italy) - Coordinator
  • Technical University of Ostrava (Czech Republic)
  • AIMEN - Asociación de Investigación Metalúrgica del Noroeste (Spain)
  • Aerospace Valley (France)
  • CNR-ISPC Istituto di Scienze del Patrimonio Culturale | Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (Italy)
  • CORALLIA - Athina-erevnitiko kentro kainotomias stis techno (Greece)
  • Silicon Alps Cluster, GmbH (Austria)
  • CEAGA - Fundación Cluster de Automoción y movilidad de Galicia (Spain)
  • ANFIA - Associazione Nazionale Filiera Industria Automobilistica (Italy)