European Commission

The WATIFY project is proud to announce the event ‘WATIFY: Inspire to Transform,’ which will be taking place on 2 May in Sofia, Bulgaria. This event will bring together innovation leaders from across Europe to discuss the latest insights in technology, transformation and innovation. There will also be opportunities to pitch your projects and ideas, as well as exchange experience with innovative European SMEs that will be showcasing their technological transformations, and sharing their success stories through live 3D printing visualisations, virtual reality demonstrations and other interactive activities.

High-level keynote speakers, including Slawek Tokarski, Director of Innovation and Advanced Manufacturing from the Directorate General Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (DG GROW) and the Bulgarian Presidency of the Council of the EU will present their vision on the WATIFY initiative. The event will also feature a WATIFY matchmaking event with a keynote from Sasha Bezuhanova – founder and chairperson of MOVE.BG – and show & tell brainstorming sessions in different technology domains. The closing for the event will be just as exciting, when the most prominent SME success story from the WATIFY campaign will be honoured and presented during the WATIFY Awards ceremony.

Don’t miss this opportunity to be part of the technological transformation conversation, and register today! Don’t wait too long – registrations close on 16 April and there are a limited number of places available.

‘WATIFY: Inspire to Transform’ is organised with the support of MOVE.BG and Enterprise Europe Network Bulgaria and will also be partnering with the high-level event Smart Specialisation and Technology Transfer as Innovation Drivers for Regional Growth, organised by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre under the auspices of the Bulgarian Presidency of the EU Council. This event will follow the WATIFY conference, and take place from 3-4 May also in Sofia, Bulgaria. If you are also interested in attending this event and especially the WATIFY story-telling session on 3 May, have a look at the event website for more information.

The first edition of the WATIFY Solution Award will take place this year on 15-16 November in Copenhagen, Denmark, as part of the Global Finals of the Creative Business Cup 2017. The Award is looking to recognise the next innovative SME that has technological transformation at the core of its successful business. This SME should be an inspiring example for other European SMEs and encourage them to adopt digital and/or key enabling technologies.

All entries will be screened against a set of pre-defined criteria by WATIFY experts in the fields of innovation and technology. This screening will result in a shortlist of 5 finalists.

The finalists will then pitch their cases in Copenhagen before a live audience and a Jury composed of business executives and senior representatives from the European Commission (DG GROW), its Executive Agency for SMEs (EASME), the Creative Business Cup and WATIFY, will decide on the overall WATIFY Solution Award winner 2017.

The prize

The winner will:

• Receive a 1000 euro prize
• Have the opportunity to showcase their technological transformation in a promotional video
• Be awarded a CBC/WATIFY Diploma certificate
• Have opportunities to network with entrepreneurs and investors from across the globe

Who can apply?

European SMEs and entrepreneurs that have gone, or are going through, a high-impact and innovative technological transformation.

In particular, the Jury will be looking for a creative transformation that:

• Innovates in terms of technology, product or service
• Brings about change in the value chains of industry and inside the company itself and/or can inspire new business models
• Shows unique value propositions
• Has scalability potential.

The application deadline is 24 October 2017. More information on the WATIFY Solution Award can be found here.

Apply here.

Bottom-up innovation could be the competitive way forward for European advancement on the international stage across industrial sectors, and help to harmonise the current digitisation discrepancies across European industrial sectors. Digital innovation is necessary in order to keep up with the fast pace of digital technological change, but this fast pace can leave decision makers with difficult decisions regarding when to invest, to what level and in which technologies.

Currently around 60% of large industries and more than 90% of SMEs feel like they are lagging behind in digital innovation, which is why the European Commission (EC) has been actively developing Digital innovation hubs to ensure that every company, regardless of size and  technological capabilities, can grasp digital opportunities.

There are already several initiatives and platforms from the EC that aim to shape the pan-European network of DIHs, with a focus on helping SMEs master their digital transformations:

• Innovation for Manufacturing SMEs (I4MS);
• Smart Anything Everywhere (SAE);
• iHub;
• Open Data Incubator Europe (ODINE);
• European Institute of Innovation & Technology (EIT) Knowledge and Innovation Community (KIC);
• European Coordination Hub for Open Robotics Development (ECHORD++);
• Access Center for Photonics Innovation Solutions and Technology Support (ACTPHAST);
• Supercomputing Exercise for SMEs (SESAME NET);
• The call for tender EU13 DIHs;
• A thematic smart specialisation platform for industrial modernisation; and
• Watify.

With EU funding and the initiatives above, there has been not only an increase in competitiveness of existing industries, notably for SME and mid-caps, but also additional business creation in new digitised products and services. The EC aims to continue supporting these actions by channeling 500 million EUR over the next five years from Horizon 2020 budget.

For more information: https://ec.europa.eu