Scientific support and transfer of results for the technology programme 'PAiCE - Digital Technologies for the Economy'

The PAiCE (Platforms | Additive Manufacturing | Imaging | Communication | Engineering) technology programme of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) comprises 15 small and medium sized enterprises (SME) oriented collaborative projects for the transfer of research results into industrial applications. Specialist topics are logistics systems, the integrated engineering of manufacturing plants, service robotics in professional applications, additive manufacturing methods in production and industrial communication. In all projects, work is being done on overarching platform concepts. The Institute for Innovation + Technology in the VDI/VDE-IT (iit) is the consortium leader of the accompanying research, partners are DIN, Prof. Dr. jur. Susanne Beck, HK2 Rechtsanwälte, the VDE and LoeschHundLiepold Kommunikation. The accompanying research supports the partners in the projects by

• networking with important actors and establishing national and international cooperation,
• monitoring and benchmarking the projects
• individual support of the projects in the conception of business and cooperation models and of exploitation strategies, and
• individual support for projects in the development of strategies for standardisation of project results.

In cross-project expert groups, the cross-cutting issues of

• legal challenges of collaborative systems in industry
• trustworthy system architectures
• cooperative business models for digital platforms

are being worked on. The accompanying research also produces short studies on current topics related to the technology programme, including the study 'Potentials of Artificial Intelligence in the Manufacturing Sector in Germany' published in June 2018. As in the BMWi's other accompanying research projects (including AUTONOMICS for Industry 4.0, Smart Service Worlds I + II), iit thus makes a direct contribution to the transfer of R&D results for digital technologies to SMEs.