Promote sustainable cooperation between European countries: the Ecos4sin project – Repubblica.it

THE WORD "robot" was born in the Czech language ("robota"), used for the first time to mean automata still not well identified in the play by the writer Karel Capek. And it is in the Czech Republic, in Ústi nad Labem, that the opening event of an interregional European project on Industry 4.0, destined for Central Europe, took place. It's called Ecos4sin, which means: international ecosystem for industry 4.0. Like all cross-border projects ("interreg" the acronym in the European institutional language), it aims to cooperate and interact with local governments, research centers, universities, companies and stakeholders from multiple states. In this case, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Austria, Poland, Croatia are affected. And Italy, present with the Ca Foscari University of Venice and the Giacomo Brodolini Foundation. Numerous companies from the business world and research participated in the first meetings held in Milan and Venice. The idea behind the project, funded by the Interreg Central Europe program and co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund, is to prepare, accompany and strengthen regions in the great technological change of industry 4.0 – no longer robots that replace servile work, as in the dystopian text of Capek, but the intelligent machines put online. If the change and the challenge are global, the possibility of participating and benefiting will be played on local and regional capacities, this is the philosophy behind the initiative. Key word of the Ecos4sin project is "sustainability": to promote sustainable cooperation between the protagonists of innovation, in order to prepare central European regions for these changes.
The project has a total cost of 1.4 million euros, of which 1.2 are financed by the ERDF, and will last for three years. The first part, already begun, provides a detailed analysis of the current situation of industry 4.0, aimed at the realization of a tool called "Eco4sin knowledge base", to collect data, information and knowledge in the pilot tests in the various regions, for the phase of the diagnosis. This will be followed by the development of action plans in each region, with material and proposals for possible additions or reviews of innovation strategies in the regions concerned.The project is implemented with the contribution of the European Commission. The authors of the articles are the originators of the editorial contents. The Commission cannot be held responsible for any use made of the information and opinions reported.