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Launched in Paris, on October 4, AgriDataSpace will coordinate a preparatory action to pave the way for the European data space for agriculture. The project, coordinated by Agdatahub, aims to facilitate data exchange, processing, and analysis in a secured, trusted, transparent and responsible manner to create new opportunities for monitoring and optimising natural resource use, stimulating data-driven innovations. Fraunhofer IESE is taking on the role of Technical Manager for the overall project. A particular focus will be on the coordination and harmonization of the technical architecture of data spaces for agriculture. In addition, IESE will be in charge of creating the “Technology Canvas”, a public report on data, models, and interoperability solutions as technological enablers for the implementation of data spaces for agriculture.

With digitalization, a multitude of new technologies will be introduced to the railway system. These will place high demands on IT platforms in regards to reliability, scalability, performance and strict safety require-ments. As part of the Digitale Schiene Deutschland sector initiative, DB Netz AG, Thales, SYSGO, Fraunhofer IESE, University of Rostock and ESE, have taken a first important step in this direction and have developed the basic architecture for a "SIL 4 Cloud". 

Since October 2022, 13 partners from research and industry have been collaborating in the new research project “BaSys4Transfer” to implement a Industrie 4.0 toolbox of engineering solutions. The focus is on the open-source Industrie 4.0 middleware Eclipse BaSyx. The goal: To make Industrie 4.0 easy! The project, led by the Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering IESE in Kaiserslautern, builds on the successful work and the results of the previous funding projects BaSys 4.0 and BaSys 4.2. In this third project, the middleware, which is currently being successfully used primarily by “early adopters”, is to be made fit for widespread use. The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) is funding the project over a period of three years with a total of 6.7 million euros.

In the new networking and transfer project (N&T) X-KIT (GAIA-X and AI Projects: Transfer & Networking), seven project partners under the leadership of the Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering IESE are working together to ensure cross-cutting networking and support for the AI projects funded by the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL). In addition, the domain “Agriculture” is being further developed in GAIA-X – a project to establish a European data infrastructure for sovereign data exchange. The overarching goal of X-KIT is to exploit synergy effects as extensively as possible and to develop compatible solutions. The BMEL is funding X-KIT from September 2022 to January 2025 in order to make the best possible use of the potential of digitalization for food and agriculture as well as for rural areas. The German Federal Agency of Agriculture and Food (BLE) is supporting the N&T project X-KIT as project management agency.

The Internet of Things and big data are revolutionizing how the manufacturing industry operates. A freshly launched research collaboration between UBC Faculty of Applied Science and two Fraunhofer Institutes will provide new digital offerings to support the industry’s transformation.

The Fraunhofer Institutes for Experimental Software Engineering IESE and for Machine Tools and Forming Technology IWU and the Faculty of Applied Science (APSC) at the University of British Columbia, Canada (UBC), signed a framework agreement for research collaboration in the field of industrial digital transformation in April 2022. The focus of the collaboration is to be on the digitalization of machines, processes, the required infrastructure, and ultimately the digital transformation of companies in the manufacturing industry.

Large-scale construction projects usually involve extensive coordination. In practice, however, the way in which information is exchanged between construction stakeholders often ends up being an inconsistent multi-step process. Now, a consortium project under the technical and scientific leadership of the Fraunhofer-Institute for Experimental Software Engineering IESE is working on a digital solution in the form of the Infra-Bau 4.0 platform, which establishes a network that takes in every stakeholder in an infrastructure project. It provides a means of mapping out resources and processes digitally, making it easier to plan and reschedule activities during the construction process.

Public buses are and will remain the central component of a strong public transport system. However, buses only realize their full potential when they are linked to many other services. These include, for example, on-demand shuttles that run according to passengers’ needs. This is the result of the study “Mobility Turnaround 2030” carried out by DB Regio Bus and the Fraunhofer Institutes IESE (Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering IESE) and IML (Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics IML).

Hannover is taking the next step toward becoming a Smart City: The state capital has now joined forces with Deutsche Messe AG and other partners from industry and research to launch the project “5GAPS”. It is supported by extensive federal funding. The plan is to use the new mobile communications standard, which allows transmitting large amounts of data, to manage and develop public spaces in a digitally flexible way. The test site is the Hannover trade fair grounds with its 5G campus network.

The participation project “Digital Villages Lower Saxony”, which was launched in April 2021, has a new option for digital participation: Today, Thursday (20 January), another component of the project, the Lower Saxony LandNews, went online. Via the website www.niedersachsen.digitale-doerfer.de, professional and volunteer stakeholders at the municipal or county level can publish information and announcements starting immediately. The articles can be accessed online or via the DorfFunk app of the Digital Villages.