Internet of Things for European Small and Medium Enterprises Erasmus Project

Project Title

Internet of Things for European Small and Medium Enterprises

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for vocational education and training

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2016

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: ICT – new technologies – digital competences; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

Internet of Things (IoT) is widely considered as the next step towards of the digital society, where objects and people are interconnected and interact through communication networks. IoT not only has a huge social impact, but can also support the employability and boost the competitiveness of European companies. It is widely considered as one of the most important key drivers for the implementation of the so-called Industry 4.0 and for the digital transformation of the companies. Relevant impact of this technology is expected in a wide range of sectors.

In March 2015 the European Commission has launched the Alliance for Internet of Things Innovation (AIOTI) to closely work with all the stakeholders and actors of the IoT sector at European level. Then, always in 2015 has adopted the Digital Single Market strategy, of which a pillar is “digital as a driver for growth”.

In line with the European policies on IoT and fostering the Digital Single Market pillar, the IoT4SMEs proposal has pursued the main objective of:
– qualifying new professionals able to support the digital transformation of the European companies exploiting to the advantages offered by the IoT technology.

This objective has been reached by pursuing the specifically objectives of:
– raising awareness among European Small and Medium Enterprises of the IoT technologies and applications and of the potential benefits for their competitiveness and economical growth;
– creating VET qualifications for professionals inside European Companies, enhancing their digital competences and training them to introduce and manage IoT technologies and applications.

In order to realize these objectives, the IoT4SMEs partnership has been set-up. It has involved 9 partners coming from 6 different countries (France, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Portugal, Spain). The partners are 4 HEIs, 2 technological parks, 1 network of companies, 1 consultancy company and 1 expert of VET qualifications. The partnership has ensured a very good geographical coverage, bringing into the project complementary competences.

The project has been developed in 36 months. At first, after assessing the IoT actual uses and future trends, an analysis of the labour market has be performed in order to identify the most required competences and the gap of knowledge. This has allowed to the design of VET qualification related to IoT, based on the European Lifelong Learning instruments (EQF, ECVET and EQAVET). This to ensure that the other training activities, being enclosed this framework, allow the transparent recognition and transferability of the competences at European level.
The target groups (companies, professionals, IoT developers and users, researchers, students) have been able to access the training courses at distance by means of the project web-platform. To complement the theoretical competences, interviews and showcases have been also collected, in order to give a concrete evidence of IoT applications and technologies. Then, in order to allow students to acquire also practical competences, highly innovative didactic demonstrators on IoT have been developed. Working as remote or virtual laboratories, allow the students to make practical experiences with IoT technologies, complementary to the ones acquired in the distance learning courses.
Finally, a Handbook of best practice, scenarios and suggestions for the implementation of IoT solutions has been delivered, as a practical support for all the certified trainees.

A relevant number of members among the identified the target has been reached through the 10 in-presence national stakeholders’ meeting and through a wide number of activities on the web. About 6000 different users have visited the the project website, more than 2700 visualization on the project Youtube channel, more than 200 participants to the national stakeholders meetings: these are some of the proofs of the project relevant impact.

The project has directly impacted on the European companies, in terms of staff members trained and qualified to use IoT technologies and applications, on the professionals that have improved their skills and their employability, on the European Universities and VET providers, in terms of enhanced didactic offer in the IoT sector. The IoT4SMEs qualifications, designed using the ECVET instrument, allow the transnational recognition of the acquired competences and enhance the employability of the qualified users at European level.
The project long terms benefit will be to speed up and increase the use of IoT across all economic sectors, fostering the European economy grow thanks to the digitalization transformation of the corporate sector. This perfectly matches a pillar of the European Digital Single Market strategy.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 415972 Eur

Project Coordinator

UNIVERSITA TELEMATICA INTERNAZIONALE-UNINETTUNO & Country: IT

Project Partners

• Finance & Banking, Associazione per lo Sviluppo Organizzativo e delle Risorse Umane
• FACHHOCHSCHULE DES MITTELSTANDES (FHM) GMBH – UNIVERSITY OF APPLIED SCIENCE –
• VIESOJI ISTAIGA KAUNO MOKSLO IR TECHNOLOGIJU PARKAS
• Cedel – cooperativa sociale educativa ELIS
• ECOSISTEMAS VIRTUALES Y MODULARES SL
• UNIVERSITE DE NICE SOPHIA ANTIPOLIS
• ASSOCIACAO PARQUE DE CIENCIA E TECNOLOGIA DE ALMADA/SETUBAL-MADAN PARQUE