i-TRIBOMAT third anniversary: Europe’s single-entry point for tribology testing reaches financial sustainability

On the occasion of the third anniversary of the i-TRIBOMAT project, HaDEA interviewed Dr. Xavier Borras, industrial engineer and coordinator of the project. i-TRIBOMAT is an EU-funded initiative that has developed the world’s first open, one-stop shop for tribological materials characterisation, supporting European companies in accelerating innovation and reducing time to market. “The moment partners stopped competing and started collaborating, we knew the OITB concept was working,” says Dr. Borras.

i-TRIBOMAT was funded under H2020 programme, designed to support European industry, in particular SMEs, by providing affordable access to advanced testing infrastructure, data services and simulation tools. “EU support enabled us to build a genuine single-entry point that turns a fragmented testing landscape into an accessible, industry-facing service,” Dr. Borras continues. Thereafter, the test bed has reached financial sustainability and now operates independently, demonstrating the long-term impact of EU investment in innovation infrastructures.

Why are you proud of the work achieved through i-TRIBOMAT?

i-TRIBOMAT shows that European collaboration works. By pooling infrastructures, expertise and data across borders, we created a service that companies could not develop alone. Reaching financial sustainability is a major milestone and confirms that the Open Innovation Test Bed model delivers real value to industry.

Why is access to shared testing infrastructure so important for European innovation?

Developing new materials is costly and time-consuming, especially for SMEs. Access to high-level testing facilities is often limited by geography or budget. i-TRIBOMAT removes these barriers by offering open access to more than 100 tribological testing devices, modelling tools and data services, allowing companies to validate materials faster, at lower cost and with reduced risk.

What makes i-TRIBOMAT unique compared to traditional testing services?

i-TRIBOMAT is not just a laboratory. It combines physical testing, simulation, artificial intelligence and data analytics in a single service offer. Users can scale materials from lab to real-world applications while benefiting from harmonised data management and expert support. This integrated approach significantly shortens time to market.

How has the Open Innovation Test Bed model proven its value in practice?

Since its launch, i-TRIBOMAT has supported companies across multiple industrial sectors, including transport, renewable energy and manufacturing. The project validated its services through real industrial use cases and demonstrated that shared European infrastructures can become sustainable beyond EU funding, creating a virtuous circle of innovation.

How important was the support of EU funding for your Open Innovation Test Beds?

Essential. EU funding made it possible to set up the governance, processes, and digital layer needed to turn a distributed set of test infrastructures into a Single-Entry Point for companies. It also provided the neutral framework and resources required to align multiple RTIs and enable real cooperation, something that would be difficult to achieve through bilateral agreements alone.

For an OITB to succeed, funding must be directed to shared, cross-centre added value that individual research centres typically cannot provide on their own. This “extra layer” is the core differentiator, and the unique selling point, of OITBs.

What challenges have you encountered in implementing your project and stimulating collaboration and innovation across Europe?

Different pace and expectations, as industry often needs answers “yesterday”, while research organisations work on longer planning cycles.

Collaboration in a competitive landscape, as many research and technology organisations naturally compete for industry contracts, which can slow down cross-border cooperation.

Trust and perception, overcoming the stigma that RTIs are slow, expensive, or too research-driven for practical industrial constraints.

Culture clash, aligning scientific excellence with an entrepreneurial, customer-oriented mindset required to run a sustainable service.

Could you elaborate on how OITBs stimulate competitiveness and innovation of European industries?

OITBs lower the barrier for companies (especially SMEs) to access high-level testing, expertise and tools across borders via a single-entry point. In practice, many incoming requests describe a problem rather than a defined solution; our role is to guide the company to the most cost-efficient and technically sound pathway (test strategy, right method, right partner), so they shorten development cycles, reduce trial-and-error, and de-risk scale-up decisions. Because the single-entry point is not tied to one specific lab, the incentive is aligned with the client’s outcome and repeat business — not with pushing a particular facility.

Customers value not having to knock on several doors for testing, modelling, or data. With i-TRIBOMAT they have one entry point and one contract—we coordinate everything behind the scenes. E.g., an NDA with i-TRIBOMAT automatically extends to all the partner labs. In short, i-TRIBOMAT is here to make it easy for industry to access European technology infrastructures—efficiently, securely, and without administrative friction.

Background

The Horizon 2020 framework programme ran from 2014 to 2020 with a €80 billion budget. It provided research and innovation funding for multi-national collaboration projects as well as for individual researchers and supports SMEs with a special funding instrument with emphasis on Leadership in Enabling and Industrial Technologies. HaDEA manages the legacy Horizon 2020 projects to ensure the completion of the ambitious framework programme and supports in the auditing process of the finished projects. It was replaced by the Horizon Europe programme, running until 2027.