Exchange of experiences and guided tours. This was the Czech-Austrian EDIH Twister

20 Mar 2024

The cross-border conference was hosted by CyberCampus^CZ in Brno on 20^th March. The main organizers CzechInno and CyberSecurityHub^CZ invited representatives of the Czech and Austrian European Centres for Digital Innovation (EDIH), as well as the public interested in digitalization to the fifth EDIH Twister. The presentations and discussion sessions answered what opportunities EDIH can offer to companies and public organisations and how the approaches in the two countries differ.

The EDIH Twister conference brings awareness of the opportunities that digital innovation hubs bring to SMEs and public organisations. The event, held on the first day of spring this year, focused not only on Czech hubs but also on those from Austria. There were no shortage of discussions or space for networking.

As stated by the main coordinator of CyberSecurityHub^cz, Tereza Šamanová, the aim of the event was to meet colleagues from Austria, exchange first experiences from the activities of EDIH and somehow move forward the digital transformation of clients in the Czech Republic and Austria.

Different focuses, same goal

Tourism, cybersecurity, sports, agriculture, artificial intelligence... Although the focus of the participating hubs often varies, the goal remains the same. To help organisations with their digital transformation. And this through the services of any of the pillars - test before invest, providing access to investment and funding, through the innovation ecosystem and networking, or through education and training.

In addition to CyberSecurityHub^cz, eight other EDIHs – five Czech, three Austrian – attended the conference, either in person or online.
Which ones are they?

Austrian EDIHs can also offer their services in other countries

In addition to presentations by the EDIHs themselves, there were also discussions. One of the main differences between hubs in individual countries was mentioned - the possibility of providing services to clients in other countries. While Czech EDIHs cannot provide their services to foreign clients, Austrian hubs can.

Another difference between the countries was mentioned in a presentation by Christian Wögerer from Vienna-based EDIH AI5Production, who pointed out that there is less demand for training and educational services in Austria. This is because there is a very well developed training and training structure in the country with many service providers, and therefore they cannot offer many more services there. However, there is still interest in training for Czech company and organisation representatives, as evidenced by ongoing and emerging training services. For example, digital academies can be found at Brain4Industry, EDIH-DIGIMAT, EDIH Northeast, and CyberSecurityHub^cz.

The conference ended with guided tours

After the presentations, participants had a choice of two guided tours. They could go to the EDIH-DIGIMAT testbed at CEITEC, which contains state-of-the-art technology and allows to carry out experiments in an environment similar to a real industrial one. They could also choose to take tours of the Cybernetic Polygon (KYPO), where a number of cybersecurity exercises take place, including as part of the CyberSecurityHub^cz services.

The event strengthened Czech-Austrian cooperation and the EDIHs present agreed on mutual study visits, excursions, visits for clients and other networking events.