OITB Village: a world of Open Innovation Test Beds at IndTech 2022

On 27-29 June, Grenoble will be the home of a unique open innovation ecosystem ready to support innovators at different stages of technological development.

Open Innovation Test Beds (OITBs) are EU funded projects managed by HaDEA, providing access to the physical facilities and services required for the development, testing and upscaling of nanotechnology and advanced materials.

Open Innovation Test Beds are joining forces to improve the visibility of this ecosystem towards the European industry. They will be present at IndTech 2022, the French Presidency conference for industrial technologies, to reinforce the OITB ecosystem and find synergies between established projects.

A number of OITBs will join forces to form an OITB village whose ultimate goals are to enable and strengthen the relationship between OITBs and innovators and to highlight and promote the integrated support to European industry at different stages of technological development.

ABOUT THE OITB VILLAGE

The joint participation of the OITBs at IndTech aims to attract the attention from industry, SMEs and research organisations to the OITBs and the open innovation ecosystem.

The OITB village will feature:

• A 300m² exhibition area on 28-29 June: a village dedicated to the OITBs where participants will have the opportunity to learn more about their services, emerging results, and prototypes. The village will also include a stage to host pitch sessions. At the OITBeer bar, participants will be able to enjoy artisanal beer from different European countries while networking with OITB villagers.

• An OITB "best practices" workshop on 30 June: a closed session for OITB representatives and the European Commission to discuss legal challenges, best practices for the open calls, alignment of service portfolios, and finally, the need for future support and feedback on the whole OITB programme.

ABOUT THE VILLAGERS

Participants visiting the OITB village will have the opportunity to network at the exhibition area, where several OITBs will be ready to present their work in different fields such as:

• lightweight, nano-enabled multifunctional composite materials and components;
  OITBs present: LEE-BED, OASIS, LightCoce
• safety testing of medical technologies for health;
  OITB present: SAFE-N-MEDTECH
• nano-enabled surfaces and membranes;
  OITBs present: FlexFunction2Sustain, NextGeneMicrofluidics, INNOMEN, NewSkin
• nano-enabled bio-based materials;
  OITBs present: INN-PRESSME, BIONANOPOLYS
• materials for building envelopes;
  OITB present: iclimabuilt
• medical technologies, digital tools and AI analytics to improve surveillance and care;
  OITB-like project present: INNO4COV-19

In addition to the 12 OITBs mentioned above, the “best practices” workshop will also gather the projects PHOENIX, TBMED, METABUILDING LABS, BIOMAT, FormPlanet, LightMe.

Village leaders:

FlexFunction2Sustain: the project has received funding from the Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme to create a network of innovative solutions for sustainable and smart products powered by nano-functionalised paper and plastic in order to support SMEs in the development and market launch of pioneering products. The FlexFunction2Sustain consortium consists of 19 European partners, including research organizations, universities and private companies.

SAFE-N-MEDTECH: this Horizon 2020 funded project is building an innovative open access platform for companies and reference laboratories in the nano-enabled medical technology space. The SAFE-N-MEDTECH consortium consists of 34 partners, including research organisations, universities and private companies.

Background information

Horizon 2020 (H2020) was the EU’s multiannual funding programme between 2014 and 2020. H2020 provided Research and Innovation (R&I) funding for multi-national collaboration projects as well as for individual researchers and SMEs via special funding instruments. Horizon 2020 is being followed up by the Horizon Europe programme, which will run until 2027.