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Public Funding for Digital Catapult

Registration Number 07964699

Safety Advancing Federated Estimation of Risk using AI (SAFER AI)

Data privacy and security is a key concern for the adoption of Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning with IoT (Internet of Things), particularly where that data is personal or security sensitive. The number of IoT-enabled devices and machines is growing exponentially, estimated to reach 26Bn globally by 2030\. Creating platforms optimised to maximise private and secure machine learning at the edge in distributed systems that can be trusted is an urgent priority. The consortium's mission is to help solve the challenge of implementing trustworthy AI-in-IoT. This will be achieved by accelerating the development of a federated, secure, privacy-preserving, and auditable AI-for-IoT platform optimised for machine learning in IoT and edge systems. OctaiPipe is a first-of-its-kind innovation that combines privacy-preserving machine learning technology, cyber security, continuous collaborative learning and AI lifecycle management. This will allow IoT-enabled businesses to build, deploy, and manage machine learning software that guarantees the privacy and security of device data and its use, allowing the user to have a high degree of trust in the AI solutions embedded in them. Many organisations already collect high-level operational and HSE incident data intelligence through various Industrial IoT devices and cameras to successfully predict safety incidents. However, analytics based on this is not meaningfully actionable to drive changes that preventatively reduce risks. For predictions to be meaningfully actionable, they must be made at a sufficient level of granularity within the workgroup. Technology now exists to monitor such events at granularity---enabling the build of models to predict and forecast events in the future at sufficient granularity---enabling game-changing preventative impact at the workgroup level. Fortunately, HSE critical events are rare within single sites or even organisations---meaning insufficient data exists to employ ML models capable of predicting when and why H&S incidents might occur so they can be prevented. However, progress towards an AI-enabled solution is impeded by: a) a requirement for more observations than one organisation can generate alone, so it is imperative to share data, and b) barriers to sharing data across organisations that, until now, have not been overcome. Federated Learning solves this. The project will enable organisations to combine data to facilitate actionable incident predictions for small work groups. This project aims to address vulnerabilities in Machine Learning for IoT with a specific focus on FL and addresses the fundamental challenges of socially responsible AI adoption into society.

International Accelerator

The **International Supply Chain Accelerator (ISCA)** will be an integral part of the MSI programme, amplifying the impact of existing Digital Catapult (DC) run MSI acceleration activity, including the **Digital Supply Chain Innovation Hub (DSCH)** and the Made Smarter Technology Accelerator (MSTA). These programmes have successfully built an effective ecosystem that facilitates interaction - e.g. proof of concept / pilot deployment projects - between large 'challenge owners' and technology / solution providers to accelerate technology adoption / commercialisation. The ISCA will extend these programmes, adding an international dimension to existing activities by engaging with **international institutions**, **international challenge owners ("ICOs"**) and **global technology providers**; and introducing them to the UK's Europe-leading technology and digital startup ecosystem to identify **innovative UK companies** or consortia who can deliver pilot deployments that can be integrated into the ICOs existing technology systems to solve high-value challenges. Specifically, the ISCA seeks to work with: * **International Institutions** Globally important international bodies with large corporate memberships seeking to help their memberships rapidly adopt technology agnostic, digital solutions to transform their supply chains. * **Global Technology Sponsors** Large organisations who can provide technology infrastructure and platforms for UK innovators to build solutions on * **International Challenge Owners (ICOs)**Multinational companies seeking solutions to high value challenges **UK Innovators** Typically SMEs startups / scaleups or small consortia who can develop solutions to challenges described by the ICOs **The ISCA will deliver 8 projects** in total which, in combination, will tackle: * quantifying and understanding **Scope3 emissions** * **electronic trade documentation** * sustainable development goal **(SDG) compliance reporting.** The ISCA aligns with the MSI challenge target of increasing UK digital technology jobs and UK manufacturing sector GVA as well as the MSI challenge target of decreasing waste and carbon emissions. DC, as a project lead, will leverage the UK innovation ecosystem and the digital innovation systems established by the successful DSCH to coordinate with the international organisations, run mini funding calls, contract technology / solution providers from within the UK ecosystem, provide technical expertise and monitor efficient delivery of the 8 projects. DC will arrange a final showcase event to disseminate results and support the solution providers with further exploitation activities.

Critical Minerals: Network Insight Collaboration Environment (CM-NICE)

The published government strategy (July-2022) for the management of risks associated with Critical Mineral (CM) identified that better use of data generated in supply chains (end-to-end, from mining through processing, transportation, and manufacturing) is needed to accelerate innovation and a more efficient circular economy. Therefore, the purpose of the project is to implement elements of a collaboration toolkit that allows insight from data to be shared across multiple parties, without the need to expose the underlying data itself. The supply chain scenario to be used in demonstrating the capability and value will be the critical minerals supply-chain for the manufacture of Electric Vehicle batteries. The mineral extraction will take place in Australia with the final product in the UK market. The intention of the project will be to develop a prototype for a collaboration toolkit with a Technology Readiness Level of TRL 5 (technology model or prototype demonstration in a relevant environment). It has been established via government/industry engagement that: * Industry recognises that current methods of supply chain management are unsustainable (financially, environmentally and socially) * Collaboration over data usage is a prerequisite to making improvements * Proposed technology include autonomous AI agents, digital ledger technology (DLT) and cryptographic zero-knowledge proofs (ZKP). * The intervention of a neutral capability is needed to enable otherwise competitive and data-protective entities to collaborate towards a solution that works for the whole industry This project seeks to create a suite of digital tools to help govern the exchange of insight and value between companies enabling users to map activities, availability, and transit of critical minerals across the supply chain. The tools will allow users with the right permissions to access insight on the provenance and ESG performance of critical mineral supply chains; thus, playing a pivotal role in the Government's Strategy for more sustainable critical minerals supply chains. Project stakeholders include: The project, led by Digital Catapult (DC) as part of their Digital Supply Chain Hub, will lead on the technical developments with Cambridge Institute for Manufacturing. The International Chambers of Commerce, supported by Teesside University are leveraging their expertise in facilitating multi-stakeholder collaboration bringing together the Cabinet Office, GIZ in Germany and key Australian stakeholders to ensure that we will have participation of all the Lithium supply chain and technology companies from mines in Australia, through ports, UK manufacturing and into the EV batteries of cars manufactured by Nissan and Saab in the UK.

Physical assuRance fOr diGital tRadE SyStems (PROGRESS)

The PROGRESS Digital Trade Testbed project aims to develop a core capability for testing the physical assurance of digital trade systems by tracking the physical location and transit of consignments and enabling interoperability with international digital trade data-handling systems. A truly digital supply chain management system requires reliable links between the physical state, the location of consignments and the digital representation of each. Besides, the physical assurance of location, origin, and condition of physical supplies is a critical element of efficient, sustainable, and ESG-compliant supply chains. This testbed will enable us to mimic the movement and treatment of goods in anticipation of including such innovation in integrated digital environments in the future. The testbed will also support testing by partners including HMRC to inform tax and future policy delivery. To create a usable system, PROGRESS will provide a testing ground for the hardware, software and other infrastructure that are required to map multiple data sources into actionable insights. PROGRESS will be demonstrated in a controlled environment because it is almost impossible to test across international trade routes at this early stage. Therefore, the consortium will create a 5G-enabled testbed for digital trade at Teesside International Airport, which is part of the wider Tees Valley Freeport. Teesside Freeport is Britain's first operational and largest Freeport, comprising an airport and deep seaport. This unique offering will allow PROGRESS to model transit use cases for future capabilities and scalability.

Design Smarter Digital Twin NI Center

DIGITAL CATAPULT CORE DELIVERY PROGRAMME

Design Smarter Digital Twin NI Center

Made Smarter Innovation: manufacturing sustainability accelerator

We know the advancement and adoption of AI holds huge potential to deliver sustainability impact for manufacturers and the industrial sector, but understand it can feel like a lengthy and costly process. Made Smarter Sustainability Accelerator is a national acceleration programme, set to fast forward and shape the UK's technology solutions that deliver resource & energy efficiency directly into industry. The programme is designed for industry and made real by innovators: As a community of manufacturers and innovators, the programme will speed up the understanding of digital technology innovation and unlock the known sustainability benefits technology adoption has for the UK economy. It provides you with a direct opportunity to join the UK's largest industry-focused acceleration programme. Together we will help to drive innovation and digitalisation of the sector whilst gaining a competitive edge. As part of the national Made Smarter movement, we'll work with both leading UK manufacturers and industrial companies along with the UK's pioneering digital technology innovation community to develop cutting-edge technology prototypes and solutions to address sustainability challenges set by the UK manufacturing community. **Setting real-world challenges:** Made Smarter Sustainability Accelerator is a match-funded programme for medium and large industrial companies who will be part of a select group at the forefront of digital innovation. This group of leading manufacturers will help to define the scope of resource & energy efficiency challenges and be directly involved in the programme, the outputs of which will generate a direct impact on achieving a competitive edge for business. **Developing pivotal prototypes:** The UK's technology and digital startup ecosystem is the strongest in Europe, with London being one of the leading global tech hubs in the world. The Made Smarter Sustainability Accelerator programme is made real by these UK technology startups. We'll provide up to 10 teams with up to £75,000 funding and a platform to grow, as we develop prototypes that will pivot some of the UK's most relevant manufacturing and industrial challenges. **Pilot development:** On successful completion of phase one and the development of prototypes, the programme will select at least five teams for further funding, offering £150,000 each to develop their solution into industrial scale pilots. These solutions will be presented and pitched at the final Showcase, currently scheduled for the end of 2024\.

DIGITAL CATAPULT CORE DELIVERY PROGRAMME

Interoperability Flagship: Optimising supply chain environmental data flow with AI/ML

This Interoperability Flagship project will develop an innovative Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning powered interoperability layer as a core capability of Digital Catapult's Digital Supply Chain Innovation Hub (DSCH). The project aims to speed up and automate the flow of information across supply chains to optimise the flows of products and money, strengthening the resilience and sustainability of UK manufacturers. We aim to do this by overcoming one of the key blockers of information flow: Inadequate interoperability where systems are not able to communicate seamlessly for the purpose of exchanging, interpreting and using data to improve decision making. For this project we are focused on optimising engineering and carbon data flows for Network Rail's Transpennine Route Upgrade using the Treasury funded Shared Digital Carbon Architecture programme as the core framework and digital tools to integrate with. The project will bring together leading stakeholders from across industry: Network Rail, Costain, Mott MacDonald, Bentley Systems, Digital Catapult, and National Physical Laboratory. We will use cutting edge AI/ML techniques, in combination with foundational data/semantic models, to infer and guide connections between system interfaces and generate interoperability dynamically across supply chain systems. This would then result in a new approach to interoperability that will enable the supply chain to be digitalised, optimised and sustained quickly enough to meet UK wide goals such as climate, productivity, resilience and monitoring of policy. The principal outcome for participating businesses will be to transform their common data environments (CDE) into connected data environments. A CDE is a cloud-based space where information from construction projects is stored and access is permissioned to participants. However, the data is often low quality, incomplete and out of date. Today, to verify the emissions of a project can take a minimum of 10 weeks - if at all - whereas we aim to be able to deliver it in 10 seconds. We will achieve this by addressing the challenge from both the business model and technology solution angles. First looking at the business requirements to unlock carbon and engineering data flow, and designing the incentives and business model to support those requirements. Then we will develop the algorithms and semantic models to create the interoperability layer for this use case and can then be expanded to a variety of others that we line up during the project (such as the application across partner programmes and the broader Digital Supply Chain Hub ecosystem).

BridgeAI Digital Catapult Direct Award

Digital Catapult Cyber Physical Infrastructure Mobilisation

Advanced Technology Production skills

Energy Efficient Networks - Cross Catapult

L3 Logistics Living Lab

Manufacturers are facing unprecedented cost and risk pressures across all areas of their businesses, especially the supply chain from inputs to energy, labour & logistics. Recent shocks (Brexit, COVID19, Ukraine) have driven further increases that cannot be mitigated from operational improvements alone. Combined with the pressures from new environmental legislation, UK manufacturers operating on wafer thin margins need to find ways to reduce costs by enhancing collaboration across their supply chains. The Logistics Living Lab Flagship Project tackles the large-scale coordination and optimisation challenges facing the UK's critical on-shore manufacturing logistics by developing and demonstrating a potential shared future public good infrastructure leveraging advanced digital technologies for securing trust, coordination, and process optimisation. At the end of 2 years, this project will demonstrate the value of innovative thinking and advanced digital technologies to create a shared public infrastructure for managing delivery vehicle slot filling, routing, and tracking. The open digital solution delivered will enable logistics companies to collaborate where necessary, and still compete in new and more efficient ways, while enhancing UK manufacturing capability.

Carbon Accounting X Catapult Net Zero

HII Seed Programme X Catapult Net Zero

Carbon Accounting X Catapult Net Zero

HII Seed Programme X Catapult Net Zero

NIDFE Ongoing funding for Digital Capital

The quantum data centre of the future

Data centres, and the networks and systems that surround them are the future work horse of digitised economies. The data processing that they provide is a well-known driver for economic growth, providing cutting edge storage and computing systems that increasingly underpin all aspects of business and society. These data centres are huge system of systems, comprising thousands of components coming from a diverse, global supply chain. To account for the ever growing amount and complexity of data that needs to be processed these systems are becoming more complex and have started to incorporate novel chip sets within heterogeneous architectures to provide more efficient training of machine learning problems. Quantum technologies, has long been described as the solution to the world's most challenging data problems. Quantum computing has the ability to significantly enhance our ability to process optimisation, machine learning and sorting problems which are beyond the reach of today's computers, and quantum communications provides the answer to ever-increasing challenges of security. However, to date, very little activity has taken place to understand from a systems perspective how quantum technologies can integrate with existing data centres. Quantum computers and communications systems are often described in isolation, more or less at-odds with the direction of the industry for the last 50 years. This misses the possibility for very significant near term value to be created with quantum/classical hybrid systems. For the first time ever, this project seeks look at quantum technologies through the lens of the existing industry. It brings together experts in classical data centres and networking, quantum computing and quantum communications and will develop a blueprint for a quantum/classical hybrid data centre and a quantum internet.

Smart Nano-Manufacturing Corridor

The Smart Nano-Manufacturing Corridor (SNMC) will bring together organisations from across Northern Ireland, using local strengths in Smart and Nano-Manufacturing to create a consortium with over 2000 jobs, providing value add of £220m to the local economy and increasing skill levels in local communities. Companies in Northern Ireland will get access to new innovation capabilities, addressing market opportunities in the healthcare, internet communications and cloud data storage sectors.

Audience of the Future

Subsea Enhanced Autonomous Mapping (SEAMless)

Subsea inspection and surveys require highly accurate mapping to support activities such as site assessment, detailed inspection, and asset maintenance. Data collected can be leveraged through the advancements and application of underwater robotics and autonomous systems to support future industry grow. By improving data accuracy and utility, operational costs and campaign durations can be reduced, eliminating the need for repeat surveys. This supports making offshore a trusted cost efficient and sustainable industry. SEAMless (Subsea Enhanced Autonomous Mapping) will develop a gold standard in composite 3D mapping to deliver the 'Google Maps' of subsea with positioning better than GPS. The fusion of multiple complementary sensors, such as visual perception, novel bio inspired wake detection, acoustic-inertial hybrid navigation, and position sensors, will provide an unambiguous answer to "Where am I?" and "What's around me?". This makes the task of deciding what to do next much easier for autonomous assets and is a key enabler for next-generation trusted long-endurance subsea autonomy. The advanced perception and intelligent decision-making systems will run on-board an autonomous underwater vehicle through a modular architecture. The provision of dense millimetric mapping and drift tolerant positioning, in turn, reinforces the autonomous navigation and control to improve system performance and safety. The latest in serious gaming technologies will provide advanced visualisation, situational awareness and pre-mission planning and post-mission analysis. SEAMless will operate in open water and near infrastructure, for offshore renewables, oil and gas decommissioning and environmental assessments to provided targeted surveys and inspections. This project aims to create a system that could feasibly map an entire offshore windfarm creating a digital model through multiple session, with increased autonomous awareness enabling underwater robots to position themselves and navigate along safe collision free path.

The Digital Supply-Chain Innovation Hub (DSCIH)

Studio UK - Open Networks 5G Enhanced Virtual Production Studio

The Digital Supply-Chain Innovation Hub (DSCIH)

Studio UK - Open Networks 5G Enhanced Virtual Production Studio

The Digital Supply-Chain Innovation Hub (DSCIH)

Studio UK - Open Networks 5G Enhanced Virtual Production Studio

Digital Manufacturing Global Scale Up Programme (the “Project”)

DSBD Technology Access Programme

INtelligent TrustEd SuppLy ChaIn (INTELI)

INtelligent TrustEd SuppLy ChaIn (INTELI) establishes a new methodology of supply chain collaboration by providing an improved architecture for real-time visibility of operations data across the supply chain hierarchy, enabling dynamic forecasting and predictions, predictive/prescriptive analytics, compliance and supplier transactions.

DSBD Technology Access Programme

Made Smarter Digital Supply Chain Innovation Hub

The Digital Supply-Chain Innovation Hub (DSCIH) will establish and nurture an ecosystem that connects expertise from supply-chain experts in many of the UKs most important manufacturing industries with technology providers, research organisations and academics to improve their competitiveness, resilience, productivity and sustainability. It will combine \>£10mn in private co-investment with £10mn in public funding over ~4 years to accelerate commercial integration of industrial digital technologies by a wide range of UK manufacturing supply-chains. The Hub will be managed by the Digital Catapult, collaborating with HVMC, NPL and TWI. The consortium are already active members of the government's flagship, "MadeSmarter" programme of R&D support to the UKs manufacturing sector. The Hub will rapidly establish a national "network of excellence" in digital supply-chains by cross linking existing networks, seeded by existing relationships and the previous successes of the MadeSmarter programme, facilitating collaboration between industries and across supply-chains. Any UK based organisation with supply-chain or digital solution expertise will be able to bid for access to ISCF co-funding, expertise and testbeds to deliver ~£8mn portfolio of digital innovation projects, helping accelerate digitisation of the UK's critical manufacturing supply-chains. The Hub will also deliver five "flagship" projects which will act as exemplar testbeds: * **Last Mile Living Lab (LMLL)**, led by DC, seeks to explore and develop delivery resource management infrastructure to tackle the challenging and costly "last mile" of delivery. * **Digital Enabled Manufacturing Sourcing (DEMS)**, led by TWI, seeks to connect manufacturing capacity with emerging manufacturing needs to increase capacity utilisation and boost production flexibility. * **Differentiator**, led by AMRC, will develop new supply-chain models to support clinical trials and help get the right medicine to the right patient at the right dose, on demand. * **Connected Tempest** (NCC,AMRC) seeks to supply and accelerate digital skills development and connectivity of the Tempest Supply chain, driving cost and time savings into the design phase of the defense programme. * **Supply-Chain Lab** (Deloitte) will be cross-sectoral and focus on earlier stage ideation to help SMEs identify valuable challenges and develop 120 day roadmaps to solution implementation The hub will monitor, impact assess and disseminate transferable lessons-learned to accelerate technology transfer between supply-chains. The Hub will be supported by ISCF MadeSmarter funding until March 2025\. Thereafter, the hub will become self-sustaining, funded by industry to ensure UK manufacturing supply-chains continue digital transformation, driving improvements in competitiveness, resilience and sustainability for decades to come.

MyWorld

MyWorld will focus on the highly interrelated areas of content creation,delivery and consumption (the Creative Continuum), particularly in thecontext of emerging immersive media formats and technologies. Whileoffering enormous potential, this also presents significant innovationchallenges that are currently stalling investment. MyWorld brings together aworld-leading team of partners that will deliver a pipeline of prototypeproductions, methodologies and technologies, based on a backbone of newinfrastructure, pathfinder research and R&D collaborations, that willtransition our region from one of the best in the UK to one of the best in theworld. This funding will amplify current strengths, provide additionalitythrough integrated academic-industry collaboration, and produce a cogentbusiness plan for increased GVA and employment generated by the cluster.MyWorld builds on the production, technology and research strengths ofthe Bristol & Bath region to create a globally unique proposition for screen-based media - developing drama, factual, animation, games and virtualreality, and creating pipelines for R&D into production, for emerging talentand for inward investment. It will develop new technique and talent thatdelivers the vision of successful clusters as outlined by Bazalgette andothers.MyWorld will focus on enhancing collaborations, accessibility, knowledgeand innovation. It will create accessible infrastructure; major new facilitieswill be developed with an operational structure to seamlessly support bothcommercial and research usage. It will build a framework for sustainableR&D investment at all levels, from more basic collaborative researchthrough industrial R&D to pre-production prototyping and demonstration.Investment from our partner universities will provide advanced trainingprogrammes developed collaboratively with our cluster partners. This willfeed an extensive knowledge exchange programme that will enable us tobetter share expertise within our Cluster, across the UK and with thegeneral public. This in turn will help promote the sector while addressingEquality, Diversity and Inclusion. We will build on our status as a UNESCOCity of Film, on our reputation as the Green Hollywood, and as anemerging power in VR and games, to run internationally leading events andshowcases. These initiatives will combine to promote growth, attract inwardinvestment and internationalise our offering. Finally, few sectors can matchthe translational potential of the creative sector. Through engaging withorganisations across aerospace, architecture and health we will explorethis potential and provide a funding stream to support it.

Smart logistics network cost optimisation

Supply chains are under pressure in the UK due to coronavirus, leaving the EU and the new legislation that is being implemented. These supply chains are highly fragmented, with data stored in silos across many organisations that at present, do not see a business case for sharing the data. This leaves companies blind to the impact of their actions on other actors and commercial power, rather than data, normally provides the justification for decisions. When one actor reduces costs, they then transfer and often increase costs for others diminishing the resilience of the whole system. The current tools and models available in the market are designed to optimise the processes of single companies not whole supply chains. This means they cannot analyse the complex product and information flows and activities within and between companies to generate the required financial and resource efficiencies that reflects the interdependence of the actors. For over a decade, Incept have been working at the forefront of this field with companies like Carrefour, Unilever, SPAR, CHEP and Coca-Cola and have developed the Network Value Model (NVM) that, when applied, has delivered millions of pounds of savings equivalent to between 10%-30% of total costs. The NVM model runs a full analysis in minutes, however setup of the exhaustive model is a manual exercise which takes weeks to run, the analysis requires expert interpretation meaning it can take months to realise savings, by which time the operating environment has changed. The study will use data from 20,000 products shipped in over 100 million cases through supply chains including 1,200 suppliers, 1,400 stores and 11 distribution nodes. This will provide a valid representation of potential benefits of supply chain integration and optimisation for UK grocery logistics across the whole of the country. The hypothesis that this feasibility study will test is that the latest techniques in AI can be used to optimise the existing NVM model to deliver cost savings of between 10-30% for the users. This will in turn reduce carbon emissions at a similar level and significantly reduce waste whilst improving resource utilisation. It will also develop a business and governance model that will users will trust to enshrine the IP for the tool into a social enterprise structure that is governed by its users and reduce the barriers to adoption for all stakeholders in the UK manufacturing sector.

Open Networks 5G Enhanced Virtual Production Studio

SMARTER - A 4D, Cloud-based Simulation-as-a-Service Digital Twin of the Combined ATM / UTM Airspace

SMARTER is a Four-Dimensional Digital Twin of the Combined ATM / UTM Airspace. Using novel machine learning / deep reinforcement learning techniques, SMARTER will address challenges arising from problem statement 2 of the Future Flight Challenge. SMARTER will: * Based on Massive Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG) technology, provide an innovative, collaborative, cloud-based Simulation-as-a-Service environment where several thousand aircraft (both traditional civil aircraft, military aircraft and UAVs) will be simulated based on both real-world data and simulated data. * Learn, infer and deduce the new rules needed to accommodate the safe _and_ efficient (both environmentally and commercially) management of the combined ATM and UTM traffic (both for non-segregated, lower airspace and en route traffic). These rules can then be used in support of the safety case for CAP670, CAP722, ED-109A, DO-178C compliance for both UAV operators and Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSPs) and facilitate global capacity management modelling and collaborative decision making. * Allow users (e.g. ANSPs) to test "what-if" scenarios including modelling sensor failures / low coverage regions, weather, population density, loss of control of the UAV, loss of communications, special use areas / danger areas. SMARTER will learn how each aircraft, the airspace and indeed the system of systems is required to react in order to both meet safety and performance KPIs. * Develop novel mathematical techniques to characterise the uncertainty associated with ascertain the single source of truth for the presented state of the airspace given the multiplicity of data inputs from sensors, measurements, radar (both primary and secondary surveillance), ADS-B (over satellite comms), etc all of which are at varying levels of data quality. * Develop next-generation, turn-key 4D visualization and user experience techniques with haptic controls to gamify the manipulation of the airspace - streaming from centralized, cloud-based servers to either standard PC, mobile device or 4D visualization devices (e.g. Occulus Rift, etc.). This facilitates rapid scenario testing. Users will be able to get an account, log-in and use the environment without purchasing any specialized equipment. * Since the environment is cloud-based, it will provide an on-demand collaborative decision making environment where multiple stakeholders can work together to form a consensus on capacity & separation management standards whilst respecting the commercial constraints of both small SMEs (e.g. UAV operators), ANSPs and large multinational OEMs. SMARTER will use emerging ATM data standards (such as WIXM / FIXM / AIXM) for seamless integration into ANSP operations. Furthermore, as well as being used to facilitate the development of the safe, efficient separation management rules, the simulation environment provided by SMARTER can be used to train UAV operators, air traffic controllers and even pilots.

Fly2Plan – Enabling a new model aviation data system-of-systems

Fly2Plan - _Enabling a new model aviation data system-of-systems_ seeks to develop a new model for aviation data exchange to allow new entrants in urban air mobility and autonomous operations to participate. By researching the use of modern and emerging internet technologies of public cloud infrastructure and distributed ledger technology, the decentralised operating models built over generations of pioneering aviation discovery can be preserved, whilst transforming operating resilience and costs for the community. Fly2Plan directly addresses the following themes: * ATM&UTM: Fly2Plan vision is to develop a set of open-source Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) technologies and platform that underpin all aspects of airport, ATM, UTM, flight and UAV operations based on distributed ledger technology such as Blockchain. * Digital Infrastructure: solution for the transformation of legacy systems into agile, on-cloud interoperable platforms, to enable secure plug-and-play interactions between partners in the ecosystem. * Digital Communication Systems: as digital data and voice communication systems mature in the ATC environment, a natural evolution to more data traffic and less voice will occur. Fy2Plan offers the tools in order to enable this transformation. * Viable, challenging, use cases: a variety of users will benefit from Fly2Plan technology: drone operators, traffic controllers, UTM platform providers, ANSPs, airlines, airports, military, baggage handling providers, ground handling providers... As part of this, end users are represented within the consortium and the rest have been approached during proposal preparation to gather their insights and needs and will be part of WP5 conversations to refine use cases. There are several of them already being considered: 1. Flight Plan and Operation of Autonomous UAV BVLOS in non-segregated air space 2. New Capacity Model definition, with headroom quantified 3. Trajectories management, enabling fuel burn reduction in stacks and rewarding excellence in planning. 4. Vehicle technologies enablement -- autonomous flight (UAVs, eVTOLs, automated aircraft,...) will not happen if there is no provision of data such as flight data (FIXM), aeronautical info (AIXM) and weather (WIXM) from an open, reliable system-of-systems as the one Fly2Plan will develop. The Consortium is well balanced and formed by thirteen partners from across multiple sectors and disciplines. Within these partners, big corporates, start-ups and research institutions are included: * Operations: Heathrow Airport, IAG, Consortiq, Altitude Angel, Cranfield University, NATS * Technology: SITA, IBS, Snowflake Software, TEKTowr, Rockport Software * Research: Oxford University, Cranfield University * Product Management Office: Digital Catapult. The project is divided into five costed 'Industrial research' work packages. * WP1 -- Product Design and Project Management * WP2 -- Governance model definition * WP3 -- Development of the new open-source DLT platform\] * WP4 -- Trust Assurance Mechanisms * WP5 -- Communication, IPR strategy and Phase III preparation The project has obtained letters of support from relevant stakeholders as: Eurocontrol, ACI, UAE GCAA, Gatwick Airport, Microsoft and the Industry Resilience Group interested in the value Fly2Plan could unlock for them and want to monitor the progress of the project. The project has a total duration of 15 months and total cost of £4,670,932, where partners are co-funding 51%.

Enabling Conditions

Digital Servitization Demonstrator: From Sensor to Service to Business Success

Baxi is a global player in the heating sector and has been working with industrial digital technologies (IDTs) for over ten years, aiming to improve our market share, competitiveness and productivity. Servitization is a growing manufacturing model, with 70% of manufacturers offering some level of servitization. However, few manufacturers offer more than consumables with maintenance schedules. We have assembled a cross sector project consortium with input from industry, UK SMEs and research organisations. The project will develop a Digital Servitization Demonstrator. We will deploy a new and innovative fusion of advanced services and digital servitization technologies, including sensors and IoT to create a digital twin of Baxi's manufacturing and service business. The DSD will provide the basis for a neutral Digital Platform (DP) which is not sector specific. This will be a wider, all-industry adaptable servitization model which can be transferred between sectors and developed as a bespoke model for individual companies. The model will enable a range manufacturing and supply 'digital twins' but also provide a means for businesses to use digital technologies to manage contracts, supply chains, customer contacts and all aspects of their business. The model has the potential to facilitate a step change in UK manufacturing and in other sectors, speeding manufacture, facilitating logistics, supply chains and customer service. Rollout of the models developed will enable UK business to become more agile and more competitive, stimulating growth.

Enabling Conditions

Made Smarter Technology Accelerator

The Digital Sandwich - Digitised Food Supply Chain, fusing IoT, Blockchain and AI data layers to improve productivity, traceability and reduce waste

Public description The Made Smarter Review estimated the UK food and drink industry could realise £56bn in productivity growth and efficiency savings over a 10year period through the wide-spread adoption and integration of novel IDTs across the supply chain. Working with a large consortium of manufacturers, supply chain partners, industrial digital technology (IDTs) suppliers, trade and governmental organisations, Raynor Foods Ltd, a leading UK sandwich will develop a national and open demonstrator of a digitalised food supply chain - an open multi-party software platform, connecting supply and value chain stakeholders from food primary production to retail to increase business productivity, agility and resilience. Although this is a national food supply chain demonstrator, the UK sandwich industry is worth over £5.6bn, employs over 325k people and is growing at 4.2%CAGR. Recent, well-publicised, health and safety issues (NHS Listeria outbreak and Pret/allergic reaction) have thrust issues around production methodology, traceability and accountability in the supply chain into the public-eye . The highly-fragmented, fast-moving nature of these supply chains leaves critical segments of the industry suffering a perfect storm of challenges, impacting labour (availability / cost) and resource productivity, waste (product and financial), brexit impacts on international supply chains and consumer safety. Although the adoption of new IDT technologies such as Blockchain-DLT, integrated IoT platforms and AI analytics has occurred in large, international companies, there are an estimated 10,000 SME suppliers who can't afford/don't have access to these technologies, and without industry-wide adoption (and IDT compatibility) the benefit of IDT has so far been limited. In this collaborative proposal, we will fuse 3 IDT's (Blockchain-DLT, IoT and AI) and demonstrate them within a sandwich manufacturing supply chain. Via immutable traceability, a Blockchain-DLT enabled supply chain will drive trust across the food sector, IoT will integrate critical meta data and new AI driven analytics will drive productivity/ reduce waste. Technologies developed will be demonstrated by Raynor Foods . When scaled nationally this novel integrated stack of IDT's will optimise and simplify national, cross border and international food supply chains, increase productivity by ~10%, reduce inventory waste by ~14% and generate £2.8bn GVA within 10 years. Whilst food and digital sectors are the exemplars in this demonstrator project, the consortium's vision (particularly the technology partners) and priority will be to share best practices, technology and learning across multiple industrial domains that have complex, fast moving and high trust requiring supply chains such as pharma, aerospace, automotive etc.

Made Smarter Technology Accelerator

Using IoT & DLT to automate the collection and operation of weather related clauses in standard NEC construction contracts: The Weather Ledger

It may be annoying for you when it rains, you get your brolly out and move on, but for the construction industry it raises a whole host of questions. Is this above or below the 10 year average? Is it disrupting work, by how long and what's the cost? As it stands today weather related disputes in contracts last up to and over 12 months and can have millions of pounds hanging in the balance. It's a wasteful and stressful process that creates friction and reduces productivity. That's where the EHAB Weather Ledger (EWL) comes in, we deploy Internet of Things devices on construction sites to take hyper-localised weather readings, record this to a blockchain that all parties agree is the digital 'source of truth' and we provide self-executing smart contract clauses which calculate the outputs and compensation requirements, only needing human input if a complication arises. Bad weather is annoying for everyone and it's about time to take this outdated process off the plate of public and private contractors.

KnowRisk SC - Fusing data from Industry, Accounting, Insurance and Law to better identify, monitor and manage risk across entire supply chains

Challenge Governance Risk and Compliance (GRC) guidelines for large organisations stipulate that all risks need to be properly managed, fully- disclosed and provisioned for; Auditors must verify that reserves for unmitigated risks are properly accounted for on the balance sheet. Risk managers within corporations must ensure that risks are properly identified and mitigated in-line with corporate tolerances. Insurers need to fully understand the risks their policies are underwriting. Lawyers must know the risks being transferred and understand the policies that affect claims. Unfortunately this relies on data and in globalised fast-moving supply chains, accountants, insurers and legal firms can't get access to the data necessary to understand a client's exposure, liabilities, obligations and therefore can't put in place the appropriate mitigations to manage the risks involved. Focus We intend to develop an open source Blockchain-Distributed Ledger Technology, layered with standards, data sharing and access control policies for risk identification, legal agreements, accounting, continuous assurance and risk management. Each chained block will comprise critical data that helps form a risk profile on areas such as provenance, safety and smart contracts that facilitate the flow of goods and finances (enabling payments, goods receipting, automatic invoicing, secure financing/ factoring) through the supply chain. This distributed platform will allow data to be accessed under access control policies without needing to centralize the data. The lead partner is Sweetbridge who will be providing the models and data sharing and access control policies of identity verification, legal agreements, accounting and risk management. Agile Datum will provide corporate liability risk assessment and claims. R3 will provide the blockchain transaction layer. Digital Catapult which will provide consortium governance and independent oversight on all the non-technical ethics, bias and privacy issues that may arise from the data. Engine B will define and provide the AIL data and data standards for accounting, legal and insurance data. Cystellar will provide geospatial tracking and analysis of crops, sustainability, chemical use, and supply chain verification of IoT devices. Impact The project drives both competitiveness in the manufacturing industry and in the AIL industry by enabling the real-time identification, tracking and management of dynamic risks for all parties across the entire value chain. This in turn will help reduce the cost of insurance by an estimated 20% and risk exposure can be reduced by 50% to 80%. With reduced risk comes lower cost of working capital particularly to smaller players in the value chain.

Direct Printed Battery-On-flexible circuit boards for digital applications

When something goes missing at home, like your keys, it's an annoying program. When things get misplaced or lost at work, it's a real problem that costs businesses across the world a lot of money. In the course of everyday business, a growing new workforce of geographically disperse employees share use of things ranging from tools, demo kits, equipment for portable medical use, IT, or service truck-rolls, to boxes put into storage. When something goes missing, work doesn't get done. Production lines go down. Lives can even be at stake when medical equipment isn't where it's supposed to be. Reelables, a London-based start-up, has invented a smart label to make tracking things at work completely automatic. It simply peels and sticks like a barcode label. Employees gather information about assets at work with their phones running an app in the background. No scanning required. The unique software provides every employee the ability to know where all their things are at any moment. It also enables them to find things, see what their co-workers have, and when they had it. Existing asset tracking solutions on the market require a lot of work or are very costly to use and install. They range from simple barcode labels to very expensive GPS-enabled devices. RFID solutions, like barcodes, require manually going about scanning things or installing high power antennas in the ceiling or doorway. The Reelables smart label addresses a mid-range solution which allows for wider market implementation. The key innovation making this possible is a manufacturing process to form a battery directly alongside a wireless circuit on a thin plastic film. Initial working prototypes of the smart label are made on the same material used for ordinary potato crisp bags. However, the added cost and size of an external battery is the barrier to mass production. This feasibility study, in conjunction with the Centre for Process Innovation and Digital Catapult aims to demonstrate a game-changing new technology for forming a Battery-on-Circuit. The team intends to show that by electrochemically coating and laminating two plastic films together, an extremely low cost battery can be formed to power a wireless label for more than a year. The team further intends to demonstrate a host of new applications, business efficiencies, and use cases enabled by the innovation that in turn drives economic growth.

Valuechain Intelligence Trading Authorisation Ledger for Additive Manufacturing Ecosystems (VITALam)

The objective of this project is to streamline the capture of real-time digital factory data from multiple Additive Manufacturing (AM) sources (people, plant, process, powders, products and partners) to create an AM accurate record (digital thread); and utilise artificial intelligence to optimise machine, atmosphere, powder (raw material) and AM build parameters. VITALam will securely share and consolidate data from multiple organisations to create a digital AM ecosystem whereby stakeholders, such as Aerospace Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs); AM agencies; AM plant vendors; AM powder / raw material vendors; and post-processing suppliers; can exchange and benefit from real-time intelligence and performance monitoring to optimise product quality and productivity levels. This will accelerate aerospace AM technology advances and ultimately unlock the scalability of this game-changing technology which has the potential to disrupt all advanced manufacturing sectors, such as more environmentally friendly and economical component design and production techniques, supported by agile global supply chains. The main project output is a working prototype solution that will be piloted by FDM Digital Solutions, which is now owned by Gardner Aerospace (a global tier 1 supplier into Airbus) and/or several SMEs to refine the following: - innovate world's first dedicated Manufacturing Execution System (MES) for AM and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions that can support every AM technology from "Fuse Deposition Modelling (FDM)" to "Selective Laser Sintering (SLS)" for all sizes of AM business from OEM to start-up SME - uniquely integrate with disparate real-time data sources to create reliable and granular digital thread - deploy innovative machine learning, with state-of-art insights from University of Huddersfield to curate big data, predict issues and optimise AM product quality and productivity - unique deployment of blockchain technology to provide secure AM intelligence exchange platform with unique insights from University of Liverpool - establish a digitalised AM ecosystem with FDM Digital Solutions and other existing Valuechain clients / partners Valuechain will work with FDM Digital Solutions in order to help guide the development of the functionality provided by VITALam, with the goal to offer as much value to customers as soon as possible. Also, to introduce Valuechain to other AM partners who may be interested in the development of such a solution. Valuechain will initially focus on the global aerospace AM due to the significant and immediate market opportunities; such as compliance legislation, significance of the product quality, significant financial and operational savings, such as weight saving component design and the potential for spare part production anywhere in the world. Following the completion of this project, Valuechain will innovate VITALam with its automotive, defence, nuclear, industrial gas turbine, marine, rail and medical clients and then scale into these other global advanced manufacturing sectors once traction and substantial aerospace market penetration has been secured.