EGI DIH: Hello world!

The EGI Digital Innovation Hub (EGI DIH) was officially approved by the EGI Council in November 2021

EGI has been collaborating with private entities since its foundation in 2011 with specific engagement programmes to promote its services among the industrial sector. Now, the EGI Digital Innovation Hub (EGI DIH) has been created to centralise and consolidate these years of collaboration.

The EGI DIH is a virtual space where companies and technical service providers meet to test solutions before investing, offering different services on advanced computing to help companies in digitalization and improving productivity. The main focus is on the coordination and development of both human and technical support for business-oriented pilots and collaborations.

The objectives of the EGI DIH are well aligned with the EGI strategy. The EGI DIH aims to help and support companies in the adoption/ testing/ validation of advanced computing technologies to become more competitive, provide an open and innovative environment for experimentation, training and networking; increase the innovation among the EGI Federation members, and facilitate the relationship between EGI community and business sectors for a wider economic and societal impact.

The initial definition of the EGI DIH services follows the guidelines of the European commission, and covers four types of services:

Test before invest: offering technical facilities to support companies and SMEs to test before investing or to validate services or solutions.
Skills and training: providing knowledge on the technical offer through webinars or consultancy services
Support to find investment: facilitating the access to funding opportunities and investment mechanisms to sustainable support the innovation.
Networking and community building: bringing SMEs and communities together with the EGI community and facilitate the interaction and open new market opportunities

For those companies interested in joining the EGI DIH, a partnership scheme with three levels of engagement has been defined: Community partners, only active for networking; Content level, where partners will get access to the EGI DIH services (accessing and offering); and the Federated level, where partners will get access to the EGI Federation (accessing and offering core services of the EGI portfolio).

The official approval of the EGI DIH took place at the EGI Council in November 2021. EGI Foundation is currently working on setting up the mechanism for operational activities and involving EGI members at different levels. Stay tuned!