About project
DIGITOP is organized in nine R&D projects (RDp).
Activities of Industrial Research (TRL 3-4) and Experimental Development (TRL 5-6) are performed in different RDps for better transparency.
The project is hierarchically organized into three levels:
- development of basic methods and tools (TRL 3),
- development of dedicated technologies for smart factories (TRL 3-4),
- and finally demonstration of technologies with real industrial data and/or processes (TRL 5-6).
The programme duration of 32 months is in line with the duration of comparable national and international R&D projects. It is considered sufficient to complete the proposed tasks. The lead institution (IJS) has references, experiences and infrastructure to coordinate the consortium. In the past IJS coordinated the RRI smart specialization programme GOSTOP of almost double size compared to DIGITOP.
As evident from the description of research groups included in the consortium, they have the necessary knowledge and links to end-users to achieve the project goals. There are research groups with strong background in robotic technologies, process control, and smart factories. Research groups that specialize in artificial intelligence are also included to support the implementation of core ideas of the project.
Research efforts at public research institutions will be fully funded by the research agency. On the other hand, research conducted by the participating companies will be in part financed by the programme and in part using their own resources. All companies generate higher than average added value and regularly invest part of their revenue into R&D. In this way they will co-fund also this programme.
The public call does not include funds for the purchase of equipment and material costs. However, most of the required equipment is already available to the DIGITOP partners. Research institutions have also other sources to finance the research equipment (internal funds, cofounding by Slovenian Research Agency, etc.).