Interreg Danube Region

Project Danube Region Wood Industry Transformation Model towards Industry 4.0 – DRWO4.0

Start date: January 1, 2024

End date: December 31, 2025

Total project grant: 1.557.248,00 EUR (of which KČN  106.880,00 EUR)

Leading project partner: Competence Centre Ltd. for research and development (Croatia)

Project partners:

  • Salzburg University of Applied Sciences (Austria)
  • KO-FA Assocciation (Romania)
  • Wood Industry Cluster (Slovenia)
  • Cultural Innovation Competence Center Association (Hungary)
  • Bulgarian Furniture Cluster (Bulgaria)
  • Klastr českých nábytkářů, družstvo (Czechia)
  • University of Belgrade – Faculty of Forestry (Serbia)
  • Development Agency of City of  Prijedor „PREDA“ (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
  • Cahul Business Centre (Moldova)
  • Culmena Ltd. (Croatia)
  • Faculty of Engeenering and Information Technology (Hungary)
  • Agency for Sustainable development of the Carpathian Region (Ukraine)
  • Faculty of design, independent higher education institution (Slovenia)

 

By providing nearly 3.5 million jobs across over 400 thousand companies, helping to maintain employment and wealth generation in rural areas and contributing to the low-carbon bio-economy, the EU forest-based industry represents about 7% of EU manufacturing GDP. Forest-based industry of Europe is unevenly developed, which is especially evident in less developed regions and non-EU countries. While EU forest-based industry rushes forward with great strides (especially Western Europe), non-EU countries and less developed regions in EU countries are struggling to keep the pace with fast transformation based on digitalisation and new technologies, burdened with loss of customers, lack of high value-added green wood products, high costs etc. Although the forest-based industry of whole Europe has a sustainable development perspective, the common transnational challenges in its developing pathway indicate the presence of gaps which this project will tackle and these are mostly due to the lack of I4.0 implementation in wood industry of Europe, especially in less developed regions of the EU and non-EU countries.

To minimize mentioned gaps, the overall DRWO4.0 objective was set: the DR wood industry improvement through the contribution to its transformation towards I4.0 transformation. This will be achieved by joint development of the applicable, modifiable and replicable forest-based Industry 4.0 transformation model. The transformation model is a solution suitable for all Danube region (DR) stakeholders as a transformation algorithm towards I4.0 and for policy makers primarily, supporting them to take into account a new approach that needs to be considered in future strategies development and decision- making processes. In order to provide interdisciplinary, multisectoral and cross-sectoral connection, DRWO4.0 links interested stakeholders according to the quadruple helix approach which supports the linkage between science, policy, industry, and society necessary for knowledge transfer, innovative solutions driving and enhancement of regional and national competitiveness with a special focus on SMEs (that will be important adopters of the solution), national, regional and sectoral policy authority institutions that will be in a position to uptake data and recommendations contained in the Transformation Action plan.

In this way, the model gives a new approach based on interdisciplinarity (connecting forest-based industry with IT, design, creative industry, mechatronics, etc.) and multisectoral approach (connecting education, science, research, industry and policy.

More information about the DRWO4.0 project: https://interreg-danube.eu/projects/drwo40

 

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