Digital Innovation Hubs

Description

What is BG-DIH

Piraeus is Greece’s most important harbor and it is considered as Greece’s maritime capital and one of the leading maritime clusters worldwide.

However, in the last decades the city has been declining. Like many other influential metropolitan areas in Europe, it suffered from a de-industrialization and trade shrinking consequences. As a result, many wholesale companies were closed and unemployment rate started to progress.

At this end, the Municipality of Piraeus is deploying a comprehensive strategy in order to meet the challenges that the city faces due to the rapid changes of the last years, as well as the opportunities that are opening up in the coming years. This strategy is based on a long-term planning aiming to combine effectively a dynamic business environment with the concern for business development and new job creation in competitive and innovative sectors of the Blue Economy.

Piraeus Blue Growth Digital Innovation Hub (BG-DIH) goal is to inspire and help young entrepreneurs to realize innovative business concepts relating to marine and freshwater resources. It promotes creative disruption in the maritime sector and introduces promising business opportunities, create new jobs, and transform traditional processes into more productive and sustainable activities. In other words, BG-DIH hosts an umbrella of actions to promote business ideas relating to the sea and aquatic resources through a range of environmental, economic and social responsibility initiatives.

BG-DIH is a regional multi-partner cooperation (including organizations like research and technology organizations, universities, industry associations, chambers of commerce, incubator/accelerators, local and regional development agencies, etc.) serving as one stop-shop that helps Blue Economy companies to become more competitive with regard to their business/production processes, products or services using digital technologies.

In this context, BG-DIH will soon include a technologically advanced hosting and demonstration space (Key enabling technology) for acquainting and familiarizing the local population with new technologies and their capabilities. More specifically, the exploitation of advanced technological equipment (3D Printing manufacturing technology etc.), under the guidance of properly educated consulting staff, promotes experimentation and creation of new innovative products and services. At the same time, it will also be shortly able to provide business support to implement these innovations across the value chain. Another block of actions is relevant to the development of skills and knowledge of human capital, in order for Piraeus companies to maintain access to a highly ICT skilled workforce and to enable the labor force to acquire new knowledge regarding the Blue Economy and the new technologies sectors.

Organisational form of BG-DIH

BG-DIH is a nonprofit institution. Actually it operates under the Municipality of Piraeus’  Blue Growth Initiative hosted at 91, Iroon Polytechneiou street with the perspective to be relocated to new premises with advanced technological equipment (such as 3D Printing manufacturing technology, Sensors & Actuators, Microelectromechanical Systems, Robotics & Automation Systems, High Performance Computers, Cloud Computing etc.) in Agios Dionysios area, within the first quarter of 2019.

Customers' number supported annually

The main outputs that have resulted from the implementation the Hub include: the creation of 20 new businesses of 45 jobs and 55 networking events, as well as the BLUACT Transfer Network for the implementation of BlueGrowth from 7 other European cities.

The number of customers (receivers of Hubs’ incubation services) per year is the following: 2014-2015: 5 groups of startupers, 2015-2016: 8 groups, 2016-2017 :10 groups, 2017-2018: 16 groups.

Partners information section and website link

Once the key partner contributions to deliver Hub’s support services have been secured and agreed, the necessary collateral is developed to enable the these services be widely known. This can include the establishment of a dedicated web-presence and the necessary marketing material (banner stands, flyers etc.). The web-presence explains the goals, terms, structure of Hub’s services and includes an interactive form to enable future beneficiaries to submit their project idea. In addition, the emerging entrepreneurs and the concept of entrepreneurship are celebrated and widely promoted. All beneficiary teams are required to participate in promotional media and networking events. Until now there have been organised 55 networking events.

The dissemination of information is given to the audience through the website links:  http://www.bluegrowth.gr/, http://www.pireasnet.gr/

Ο Πειραιάς είναι το σημαντικότερο λιμάνι της Ελλάδας και θεωρείται ένα από τα κορυφαία ναυτιλιακά πλέγματα παγκοσμίως. Ωστόσο, τις τελευταίες δεκαετίες η πόλη δείχνει σημάδια μείωσης της παραγωγικής της δραστηριότητας. Όπως πολλές άλλες μείζονος σημασίας μητροπολιτικές περιοχές στην Ευρώπη, υπέστη σημαντική αποβιομηχάνιση και συρρίκνωση της εμπορικής και παραγωγικής της δραστηριότητας με αποτέλεσμα το κλείσιμο πολλών εταιριών και την αύξηση του ποσοστού ανεργίας.

Contact Data

Coordinator (Other)

Municipality of Pireaus

Year Established

2014

Location

91, Iroon Polytechniou Ave, 18536, Piraeus (Greece)

Website

http://www.bluegrowth.gr/

Social Media

Contact information

Mr. Petros Kokkalis
dpkantharou@gmail.com
+30.210.45.27.303

Technologies

• Sensory systems
• Screens and display technologies
• Robotics
• Internet of things
• Big data, data analytics, data handling
• Additive manufacturing
• Laser based manufacturing
• Logistics
• Internet services

Link to national or regional initiatives for digitising industry

BG-DIH is, among others, a support facility that helps candidate companies to become competitive by improving their business/production processes as well as products and services by means of digital technology. It acts as a one-stop-shop, serving companies within their local region and beyond to digitalize their business.

The services available through a BG-DIH enables any future business to access the latest knowledge, expertise and technology for testing and experimenting with digital innovations relevant to its products, processes or business models. In addition, BG-DIH provides connections with investors, facilitate access to financing for digital transformations, and help connect users and suppliers of digital innovations across the value chain. These services are of particular relevance to future companies which have a relatively low level of digitalization and which do not have the resources or personnel to address the digitalization challenge.

In this scope BG-DIH is related to the following initiatives for digitising industry:

•         In 2016, the European Commission launched the Digitizing European Industry initiative (DEI) which aims to reinforce the EU's competitiveness in digital technologies and ensure that every business in Europe can draw the full benefits from digital innovation. BG-DIH’s mission and support services provided to young / future entrepreneurs are closely related to the second Pilar of DEI  given the fact that it operates as one-stop-shop where companies –especially SMEs, startups and mid-caps– can get help to improve their business, production processes, products and services by means of digital technology. One of the key DEI priorities is to support a strong network of DIHs to ensure that every company in Europe can take advantage of digital opportunities: BG-DIH’s is, between others, an open infrastructure to all potential entrepreneurs who want to be supported to mature business ideas and develop them into entrepreneurial undertakings by using advanced ICT means.

•         The (Greek) National Digital Strategy (NDS) 2016-2021 is the road map and framework for the country's digital development. It puts forward the vision and specifies the areas of intervention to which the effort should focus, so that Greece, by 2021, joins with the European digital map. Ιt focuses on seven areas of intervention with specific priorities for each sector. The priorities correspond to acknowledged gaps in the Greek public administration, the economy and society and form a coherent framework of ICT interventions, focusing on producing results and optimizing the use of available public resources.

In this context, BG-DIH is closely related to the following NDS’s Priorities:

-          2. 1 Promotion of SMEs Digital Operationality: According to this Priority, it is imperative to systematically and continuously encourage SMEs to adopt ICTs, especially at the current time when their potential for access to sources of finance is limited.

-          3.2 Exploit ICT innovation in the priority sectors of the economy. According to this Priority a focus on ICT innovation is needed as a supportive tool for generating value in the economy  which will offer to the ICT business ecosystem a test environment for generating new specialized innovative products, which in turn will create significant prospects for economic extroversion.

•         RIS3 for the Attica region aims to strengthen innovation activity in three areas of specialization: Creative economy, Blue economy and Sustainable Needs Economy. In these three areas, Attica faces significant challenges and, at the same time, has the potential to strengthen existing and promote new activities to become a metropolitan center with international reach. BG-DIH is mainly appertain to the RIS3’s  Blue Economy area, but it is also connected to the priority actions of the other two specialization areas. BG-DIH can be related to the following indicative actions-objectives of the Attica RIS3’s Action Plan:

- Incubators’ development in order to create new innovative businesses or products

- Increase in the number of new or diversified market products

- Development of ICT products and services

 - Strengthening start-ups

- Development of innovative products and services in areas of high added value

- Creating new and sustainable jobs and reducing high youth unemployment

- Support the dissemination of new products and services, with a focus on start-ups

Market and Services

Partners

• Regional Authority of Attica
  Regional government
  
• University of Piraeus
  University
  
• Technological Education Institute of Piraeus
  University
  
• Hellenic Institute of Transport –Institute of Centre for Research & Technology
  Research & Technology organization
  
• Greek Institute of Maritime Technology
  Research & Technology organization
  
• Piraeus Chamber of Commerce and Industry
  Chamber of Commerce
  
• Piraeus Chamber of Small Industry
  Industry association
  
• Hellenic Chamber of Shipping
  Industry association
  
• Aephoria
  Incubator/accelerator
  
• Hellenic Marine Equipment Manufacturers & Exporters (HEMEXPO)
  Industry association