Better Factory First Open Call: Meet the winning teams
The Better Factory initiative selected the 7 best international teams from its 1st Open Call. During the Jury Day that took place the past 1st of September, the best proposals for experiments were selected to start the Better Factory Programme.
- The selected teams, composed by one manufacturing SME, one artist and one technology supplier, will receive €200,000 in equity-free funding to customise manufacturers products and services portfolios, and to digitise current production processes throughout the 16-month support programme.
- The experiment consortiums will also receive technical, art and business mentorship to support the solutions developed during the project. The initiatives look to innovate with new products or services on the sectors of Plastic and Rubber, Furniture and Wood, Food and Agriculture, Construction, Metal and Machinery, and Textile and Leather.
Better Factory initiative brings together key actors in the European technology, art, and innovation landscape to provide an integrated framework to deliver solutions for Manufacturing companies to create new and personalized products and innovative services around them.
The first round of the initiative closed with 367 applications from Manufacturing SMEs, Artists, and Tech suppliers from 30 different countries in Europe, and after a matchmaking process, 23 teams competed for a place on the knowledge transfer programme. On the First Better Factory Jury Day, celebrated the past September 1st, 16 finalist teams pitched in front of a panel of experts which ultimately choose the seven best proposals for experiments.
The Jury was composed of experienced technical experts and representatives from the Better Factory consortium: VTT (FI), INOVA+ (PT), European Dynamics (GR), WAAG (NL), GLUON (BE), Gestalt Robotics (DE), and In4Art (NL). Additionally, independent external evaluators were invited in order to help the consortium with the final decision.
