The PI HUB platform: a tool for innovation and collaboration among Process Industry DIHs

Among the dissemination and innovative collaboration activities launched within the CAPRI project, the PI HUB initiative is of particular importance.

PI HUB (Process Industries HUB), under the umbrella of SPIRE-06, researches 'Digital technologies to improve the performance of cognitive production plants' using cognitive artificial intelligence solutions. Projects within this paradigm are to develop new technologies to realise cognitive production plants with increased efficiency and sustainability through the use of intelligent and networked sensor technologies, intelligent management and online evaluation of various forms of data streams, as well as new methods for the self-organisation of processes and process chains. In addition, they cover the entire digital transformation of a complete plant or site, including e.g. data acquisition, communication, automation, analysis, modelling, prediction and standardisation of relevant data interfaces. Interfaces and technologies that in many process industries take a long time to implement.

The implementation of a comprehensive set of digital transformation techniques and the 'knowledge and cognition' that can be extracted from this transformation (thanks to technologies applied to big data and AI) are very innovative in the process industries.

The implementation of various AI and cognitive solutions are features also shared by the other five projects of the SPIRE-06 community:

COGNIPLANT, Cognitive platform to enhance 360º performance and sustainability of the European process industry:

COGNITWIN, Cognitive plants through proactive self-learning hybrid digital twins;

FACTLOG, Energy-aware Factory Analytics for Process Industries;

HyperCOG, Hyperconnected Architecture for High Cognitive Production Plants;

INEVITABLE, Optimization and performance improving in metal industry by digital technologies.

The PI HUB SPIRE-06 community strengthens collaboration in the Process Industry and in Cognitive ICT domains by disseminating results and sharing progress.

 To facilitate collaboration within SPIRE-06, POLIMI is developing a matchmaking platform for European DIHs to share solutions and services in their activities to support the digital transformation of European Process Industry SMEs. The objective of the platform is to create an extended and connected network of industrial DIHs that will enable them to interact, sharing solutions and services that meet the local digitisation needs of the SMEs; with this objective, and in line with the European strategy on DIHs, one of the goals will be to promote the involvement of DIHs as potential customers of the platform.

 The platform under development is a specific instantiation powered by DIHIWARE, called PIWARE, which borrows a similar existing platform dedicated to the manufacturing industry, DIH4INDUSTRY, which POLIMI has developed within the European projects MIDIH and AI REGIO. DIH4INDUSTRY constitutes a European network of Digital Innovation Hubs active in the context of Industry 4.0, providing information on their main activities and a direct link to the relevant spaces.

DIHIWARE is a solution developed by Engineering within the MIDIH H2020 European project, I4MS Phase 3 - 2017, and currently in use in many digital ecosystems in Europe. It offers a complete collaboration environment inspired by Enterprise Social Software, building a bridge between actors with different experiences, providing access to the latest knowledge and expertise, uniting teams and providing a fertile ground for experimentation. These knowledge-based services are fully integrated with collaboration services in order to create a digital space where all stakeholders of the platform can collaborate to stimulate innovation together, digitally enabling and supporting the intended co-creation methodology. Essentially, it is based on several Open Source components, using a flexible and modular integration and deployment approach to ensure the possibility of tailor-made solutions adapted to various environments; its core is based on Liferay, chosen because it is a widely used and state-of-the-art Open Source content management system, also suitable for many integration scenarios, whereas the second subsystem is Catalogue Management, which manages the organisation and cataloguing of resources, configured according to the requirements of the platform instance.

 The PIWARE platform in this initial stage consists of two parts:

- a dedicated collaboration space to promote innovation in DIHs;

- a marketplace of services to support the digitisation of SMEs turning to DIHs.

The services marketplace is based on a taxonomy of services called DBEST, developed by POLIMI within the MIDIH and AI REGIO projects, and then adopted in several other projects; the letters D, B, E, S and T stand for Data, Business, Ecosystem, Skills and Technology, and correspond to the first classification level of the taxonomy; there are then two deeper levels. The strength of this classification is that it facilitates the exchange of information on services because all services are classified according to the taxonomy and have their place there, which makes it easy and clear to find and understand them, since they are classified.

 Although the content entry in the platform is restricted only to DIHs, all other types of institutions can also register, so that all SPIRE stakeholders will be able to be involved, with the following objectives:

- understand the gaps: users of the platform will be able to browse a structured library of the most relevant and up-to-date resources and lessons learnt from previous projects in the areas addressed by SPIRE; lessons learnt, best practices and key scientific and technological challenges already solved will be passed on to "inspire" newcomers on how to overcome the business scenarios they wish to master;

- enhancing networking: various collaboration tools will provide easy access to user-generated content, dynamic discussions, matchmaking services and networking opportunities that will produce a growth effect to move from needs (seeds of ideas) to solutions (growth and nurturing of ideas using collaboration and co-design methodologies), supporting in particular inter-organisational and even cross-sectoral collaboration networks;

- promote excellence: catalogue management services will provide easy and intuitive access to key technologies, research results, innovative experiments, services and business applications, fostering easy adoption of innovation results from the entire community built around SPIRE;

- improve collaboration between the different stakeholders in the European DIH community with a wide range of services, information and tools to help DIHs communicate, align, collaborate and synchronise activities;

- develop a clear overview of DIH services provided in Europe, exploring how they relate to networks and their services;

- update the DIH Catalogue, inter alia, by identifying/activating activities in the DIH Community in coherence with regional, national and EU policies;

- create an online community to foster hub interaction, information exchange and peer learning;

- building bridges with similar initiatives active in the Process Industry domain;

- create a community of experts in the Cognitive Process Plant domain, with the aim of sharing knowledge, lessons learnt and best experiences;

- identify "SPIRE-oriented" DIHs, to improve collaboration and customise the project platform for SPIRE's specific needs.

The potential is therefore to bring together hundreds of DIHs and create a new ecosystem while also taking on the burden of growing it by providing not only a showcase of services but also an environment to share knowledge and collaborate.

 Already during 2022, several initiatives were taken within the CAPRI project to promote and develop this new collaboration and innovation platform.

Initially, a database including more than 200 European DIHs with interests in the Process Industry was built; subsequently, the following dissemination workshops were organised:

May 20th and May 27th, 2022: 'Digital Innovation Hubs for the Process Industry: creating a network and an innovation community';

October 5th, 2022: 'PI HUB: Digital Innovation Hubs for the Process Industry'. More than 50 attendees participated in this event. 

On 21 February 2023, the PI HUB initiative was presented at a workshop in Brussels held in conjunction with an event organised by A.SPIRE/P4Planet, thus bringing the results and experiences of the project to the A.SPIRE/P4Planet community, together with the Cognitive Plants results of the SPIRE cluster projects: COGNITWIN, COGNIPLANT, CAPRI, INEVITABLE, FACTLOG and HyperCOG.

A.SPIRE is the European association committed to managing and implementing the Processes4Planet co-programmed partnership. It represents innovative process industries, 20% of the entire European manufacturing sector in terms of employment and turnover, and more than 180 process and research stakeholders from over 20 countries across Europe. A.SPIRE brings together the cement, ceramics, chemical, engineering, minerals and ores, non-ferrous metals, pulp and paper, refining, steel and water industries, many of which are world-leading sectors operating in Europe. A.SPIRE's mission is to ensure the development of enabling technologies and best practices along all stages of production in the existing large-scale value chain, which will contribute to a resource-efficient process industry.