Digitalization is increasingly regarded as one of the keys to ensure the future competitiveness of enterprises, including small and medium-sized ones. In the year 2020, IT4Innovations National Supercomputing Center, a research institute of VSB – Technical University of Ostrava, together with the Moravian-Silesian Innovation Centre therefore decided to share their know-how through the setting up of the Digital Innovation Hub Ostrava. The Hub helps companies primarily based in the Moravian-Silesian Region to identify and potentially even meet their needs in the field of digitalization.


What is the Digital Innovation Hub

Digital Innovation Hubs (DIHs) serve as a supportive instrument to help companies become more competitive through the improvement of their business/production processes, products, and services using digital technologies. DIHs work as one-stop-shops, which help companies in digitalizing their business. Digital innovation hubs provide access to knowledge and technologies which are normally unavailable to commercial sector. With their assistance, companies have an opportunity to experiment with these digital innovations, which in turn may simplify their decision making as well as implementation of these technologies and know-how in their business structures. Main DIH clients include small and medium-sized enterprises, public administration institutions, and medical centers, which contribute to enhancement of the life of society as a result of implementing these digital innovations.


Why bringing together IT4Innovations and MSIC

The Digital Innovation Hub primarily aims at small and medium-sized enterprises. At the very beginning, these enterprises often need to assess whether and where they actually might be in need for digital solutions. This is where digital audit or expert support might come into play depending on particular identified needs. It is this very area where MSIC develops its specialization. However, there will be cases when the solution of the company need is conditioned by employing specific expertise consisting in the use of example, high-performance computing, big data analysis, and artificial intelligence. And this is exactly where IT4Innovations with its supercomputing technology and its experts able to assist with their deployment come into play. Bringing both organizations together, the potential for the synergic effect as a result of complementary digitalization support-based know-how has unlocked.

 

DIH Ostrava is by no means a greenfield project. One of its two constituent parts, i.e. IT4Innovations, has been featuring on the list of Digital Innovation Hubs registered at the European Commission level for several years.

In the forthcoming period, it aspires to obtain the status of the European Digital Innovation Hub.

In case of interest, do not hesitate to contact us using the following e-mail address dihostrava@vsb.cz.

The subsidy for the “Digital Innovation Center Ostrava – Pilot Verification” project is provided from the budget of the Moravian-Silesian Region (Contract No. 08183/2019/RRC)