Boost4BSO

The project consortium consists of seven BSOs, including the Mechatronics & Automation cluster and a center of excellence from Germany, Austria, Italy, Croatia, Poland and the Czech Republic. The project participants have committed to the joint development of a comprehensive competence package and an implementation toolbox for BSOs to support local SMEs at different levels of the transformation towards Industry 4.0.

BSOs, as key actors of the innovation system, should be able to provide effective and efficient support services to local companies, covering all key aspects of the transformation towards Industry 4.0. SMEs from Central Europe should thus be able to manage their own transformation needs and develop I4.0-related business strategies.

To this end, Boost4BSO will take advantage of the results of the InnoPeer AVM project, in which the Mechatronics & Automation cluster also engaged from 2018 to 2020, as well as of two other already completed European projects (Things+, IOT4Industry). These core projects succeeded in piloting promising capacity-building methods for SMEs, but the interaction between companies and local innovation support actors could so far only be addressed on a case-by-case level. Since the deficits that prevent SMEs from seizing I4.0 business opportunities can only be overcome through interventions and transfer support, regional BSOs - as local innovation facilitators - are now targeted as the main audience of Boost4BSO.

From April 2020 and for the next two years, Boost4BSO combines an innovative systemic approach of co-developing I4.0-related BSO capabilities and SME competencies to develop a comprehensive package of support services for BSOs that can be adapted to different maturity levels of SMEs, and demonstrates a novel downstream mechanism to reach wide BSO networks.

You want to learn more about the project or are looking for an opportunity to get involved?

go to the project website