The establishment of the Digital Innovation Hub is a current topic that has been widely discussed over the past period within our team. The first idea to establish the DIH occurred several years ago. The idea of an industrial hub is based on six years of direct listening to the needs of the market, with a focus on the metal processing and wood processing sector that are export-oriented sectors in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The implementation, however, had to wait due to a lack of support.
Sound foundations for the construction of the industrial hub were set in the framework of the project EU4DigitalSME: EU Support for Digitalisation of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) in Bosnia and Herzegovina together with partners from the Ministry of Economy of Tuzla Canton and Strascheg Centre for Entrepreneurship from Munich.
We are industry-oriented and the mission and vision of Industry Hub is based on the needs of production companies in Bosnia and Herzegovina with the clear aim to:
- Support the digital transformation of companies,
- Support their growth through high-tech hardware solutions. It is particularly important to emphasize that there are market software solutions available to companies, but there is a clear lack of typical providers of hardware automation and companies sometimes feel insecure regarding the whole process of digitalisation.
- Support the local economy for the purpose of creating new business opportunities and markets and facilitating the process by the local authorities,
- Provide services such as transfer of know-how, mentoring and ensuring new talented youth willing to build their capacities regarding state-of-art technology.
These fields of action contained in our mission and vision give an answer to the question how we see our industrial centre. We see it as a growing eco system and key means for creating better relations between the academia, business sector, government and society, with a strong focus on the growing business sector.
The mentioned services will be available through four centres of action connected into a single platform – Industrial Hub:
- The Robotics Centre – Industrial robotics centre for ready-made turn-key solutions in industrial robotics, including testing before investments for companies.
- Training and Mentoring Centre – High-tech services involving the transfer of know-how for the training of workforce about industry 4.0
- Solutions and Project Development Centre – Fear from investments is the result of inability to foresee the exact return on investment.
- Centre for Networking and Innovative Systems – Stimulating and preparing companies from Bosnia and Herzegovina to use state-of-art equipment and network with specialised DIHs from the whole Europe and the region.