Projects

Ongoing Projects

Circular DigiBuild

Circular DigiBuild – Boosting the uptake of emerging technologies in circular economy implementation in construction and buildings industry in Danube region to sustainably harness the twin transition for greener future

Forging new pathways to commonly enhance digitalisation-led circular economy innovations identification, piloting and transfer in construction and buildings industry and related policies in Danube region, ensuring stable pre-conditions to shifting the focus to a more sustainable territorial development is project’s main objective. Project gathers partners from Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Montenegro, Moldova, and Hungary. It is funded by the European Regional Development Fund through the Danube Region Programme with overall budget of 2.801.950,50 EUR.

EDIH CROBOHUB++

European Digital Innovation Hub EDIH CROBOHUB++ is an innovation ecosystem of excellence specialized in three key areas of the Digital Europe Program (DEP): (1) Artificial intelligence, (2) Cybersecurity, (3) High-performance computing. The goal of the project is to increase the competitiveness of the Croatian economy by providing free-of-charge services to small and medium-sized enterprises and the public sector with the aim of raising the level of digital maturity and green transformation, so that service users become more agile and efficient. The project will offer a coherent package of services with a focus on following sectors: (1) Manufacturing industry, (2) Digitized agriculture, (3) Energy and environment and (4) Public sector. EDIH CROBOHUB++ will be a non-for-profit hub primarily acting in continental Croatia, but also with a national scope.

e-Schools: Development of digitally mature schools (Phase II) (e-Schools)

Objective of the e-School program is strengthening the capacity of the primary and secondary education system with the aim of training students for the labor market, further education and lifelong learning. In digitally mature schools, teachers use technology to improve teaching, develop their own digital content and provide support for independent learning and the development of critical skills in students who are at the heart of the teaching process.

Development of periphery cell libraries in various submicron CMOS technologies

The R&D team of ams AG, a leading worldwide supplier of high performance sensor solutions, and ICENT run a joint project on the development of periphery cell libraries in various submicron CMOS technologies. The project was kicked-off in May 2019 and is intended to be the base for a strategic partnership.

Strengthening Research and Innovation Excellence in Autonomous Aerial Systems – AeroSTREAM

AeroSTREAM project is conceived as an effort to stream AeroTwin project positive effects on a network of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) from Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina in order to enlarge capacity for research and innovation, and to prepare and establish a long lasting and integrated cooperation between those institutions and their partners in the local ecosystem. The long lasting and integrated cooperation between institutions will be established in the field of autonomous aerial systems (AAS) applications, with emphasis on smart agriculture, forestry, and logistics.

Deep-tech venture builder Nuqleus

The first startup program that uncovers industry problems, proposes potential solutions based on innovative technologies, and forms interdisciplinary teams that validate ideas and test their business potential.

EIT Urban Mobility Accelerate2Move

Accelerate2Move is a thematic accelerator focusing on Artificial Intelligence, blockchain, 5G, Vehicle -to-everything, Internet-of-Things connectivity and Web 3.0 – advanced technologies that can contribute to sustainable urban mobility. In the period of 3 years, the Accelerator will provide support to at least 36 early-stage companies with solutions from TRL4 to TRL7 and recommend at least 12 top performers for investment to EIT Urban mobility.

AI DIH NETWORK

The European Commission has launched a preparatory action to create a European Network of Digital Innovation Hubs (DIHs) with focus on Artificial Intelligence. To achieve this goal the action, managed by PwC together with CARSA and Innovalia, is intended to lead to the development of a blueprint for cross border collaboration based on a thorough assessment of hub business models, common systems, collaboration and governance structures (including financial and legal aspects of the collaboration).

Building an innovation (&) startup ecosystem

Innovation is one of the most important drivers of economic growth. Through the successes of ambitious, brave, smart and capable individuals from various sectors, Croatia occasionally finds itself alongside much more developed countries and is put on the innovation and business success map. There is no doubt that we are a country with respectable human potential, but what is currently lacking is a quality and efficient (eco)system that connects the scientific community, industry and startups, and provides comprehensive support to individuals throughout the commercialisation process – from the idea, over research, development and innovation, to the placement of products/services on the market and expansion into new markets.

Advanced Tools Towards cost-efficient decarbonisation of future reliable Energy SysTems – ATTEST

One of Europe’s crucial goals is to decarbonize the electricity sector and the use of energy. The objective of the ATTEST project is to develop and operationalize a modular open-source toolbox comprising a suite of innovative tools to support TSOs / DSOs operating, maintaining and planning the energy systems of 2030 and beyond in an optimized and coordinated manner, considering technical, economic and environmental aspects. The consortium, from six EU countries, that has been assembled to deliver ATTEST, consists of five highly experienced research organizations in the energy systems area, two utilities that manage and operate the transmission system and the distribution system in Croatia, and two industry partners that specialize in the development of advanced ICT solutions and SCADA systems.

Development of a System for Predictive Control and Autonomous Trading of Energy in Buildings – PC-ATE Buildings

The project joins multi-year experience of the Klimaoprema company in development, production and commercialization of elements of the heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems with research results of University of Zagreb Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing in the area of model predictive controlachieved through several finished and ongoing projects.

A Network of Robotics DIHs for Agile Production – DIH²

DIH² is a network of 26 DIHs, with a target to reach over 170 DIHs. The sole aim of the network is to spark incremental (cut 50% cost of advance robotics solutions, double the growth of robotics market) and disruptive (maximum productivity & optimum agility) innovations in over 300,000 Manufacturing SMEs and Mid-Caps. It will support SMEs in their Agile Production challenge (50% increase in productivity) and unleash their digitalization potential by enabling robot solutions that are more cost effective at lower lot sizes.

AgroSPARC

Actual and upcoming climate changes will evidently have the largest impact on agriculture crops cultivation in terms of reduced harvest, increased costs, and necessary deviation from traditional farming. The project goal is to develop mathematical models of different growth stages of wheat by applying the artificial intelligence and utilize it for prediction of crop development and harvest. Analysis of the big data will be carried out with respect to various climate conditions, artificially created and permuted in the prototyping chambers, and corelated with plant development identifiers in different growth stages. The models will be publicly and interactively used through a portal for prediction of plant development in real and hypothetical climate conditions, with accumulated and archived feedback from farmers as additional data for tuning of the developed models.

Logistics for Manufaturing SMEs – L4MS

The ambition of L4MS (Logistics for Manufacturing SMEs) is to reduce the installation cost and time of mobile robots by a factor of 10. It will enable inexpensive deployment of small and flexible logistics solutions requiring no infrastructure change, no production downtime and no in-house expertise.

Effective Robotic GriNDing of Surface Areas through HORSE framework – ENDORSE

In order to respond to an ongoing skilled labor shortages and demand for high quality products, EnAe has begun with the automation of grinding process, which is vital for surface preparation prior to the high-quality painting finish. Automation of this process has several benefits: i) consistent quality of the final product, ii) no human errors, iii) the wastage of material is reduced to minimum, and iv) the exposure of employees to dusty atmosphere is minimized.

Centre of Excellence for Autonomous and Cooperative Robotic Systems — ACROSS

The overall objective of the project is to create a Centre of Excellence for Autonomous and Cooperative Robotic Systems in Croatia (ACROSS CoE), which will be at the forefront of research and innovation of novel methodologies and advanced engineering approaches in the targeted domains. ACROSS CoE will be created and run as a long-term joint venture between the UNIZG-FER ̵ University of Zagreb Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing, the KTH ̵ Royal Institute of Technology, and the ICENT ̵ Innovation Centre Nikola Tesla.

Student program

The student programme Imagine, Create, Innovate is an initiative through which the development of student entrepreneurial ideas is encouraged. With its mission, the Nikola Tesla Innovation Center is focused on applied research and the development of innovations based on scientific research, with the aim of creating a research and innovation ecosystem in Croatia. In this context, an important role is played by creative young people – students of Croatian universities who represent human capital for the future development of society. The Imagine, Create, Innovate programme brings together students from Croatian universities and enables them to acquire various knowledge and skills from the prototype development process through several phases. Selected teams also receive mentoring support during the programme, while the best teams will win valuable prizes.

GEZI

The Advanced Energy Management Platform in Buildings and Infrastructure (GEZI) is an energy efficiency platform that will provide open, modular and interactive monitoring, forecasting, control and planning solutions that make buildings and the infrastructure systems around them advanced (smart), with the improvement of user comfort conditions. The platform explores advanced energy management in 5 areas: buildings, electric vehicles, electricity distribution system and integrated electrical systems, heat distribution system, and water and gas distribution systems. These areas represent the most important energy consumers in which, through advanced energy management, the most significant energy and operational savings can be achieved.