Puglia and Basilicata aim to boost digital transition

The digital maturity of southern companies passes first and foremost through technology transfer, especially if we talk about the steps necessary for implementation in SMEs. A new opportunity to integrate advanced digital systems into ordinary business processes now comes with the full operation of the European digital innovation hub for Puglia and Basilicata, Edih (European Digital Innovation Hub) Cetma-Dihsme, a hub promoted by Enea with Cetma and 12 other local partners. The objectives to support the digital transition will focus on three themes: artificial intelligence, high-performance computing and cybersecurity. Edih stems from the multi-year Digital Europe Programme funding programme, worth over 7.5 billion: for Basilicata and Apulia there are resources of 6 million. The implementation of the project does not remain confined to the southern territories, but relies on the collaboration of a network of innovation actors, which will be active until September 2025 with a possible extension of four years.

The need to accelerate this type of digital advancement is further amplified by the numbers, which show a low level of corporate awareness. "Out of the total number of companies contacted, only 7% have thought about applying advanced technologies and only 2% have started experimenting in this direction," explains Angelo Mariano, an ENEA researcher in the IT and ICT systems development division. "The entrepreneurial fabric has a strong need to be spurred on and, above all, to have opportunities to grow their businesses," Mariano continues. "Our challenge is to bring these technologies, which seem so highfalutin, to SMEs so that they become a zero-cost tool for businesses. From an analysis that Enea has carried out on the territory, the most active sectors are agriculture, manufacturing, services and public administration. They all need flexible tools that can be appropriately configured and adapted to the individual degree of maturity of each company. "We are monitoring this data through Digital maturity assessment, an evaluation tool that we will continue to use on a regular basis,' Mariano explains. 'In the south we suffer from a digital divide compared to the business fabric in the north, but in some areas (e.g. agriculture) the differences are not very marked and we often find excellence in the southern regions. There is therefore a certain resistance on the part of companies to grapple with these challenges, but often there is a need for help in mastering them. Edih Cetma-Dihsme intends to bridge precisely these gaps, providing technological assistance but also strategic consulting, in particular by broadening the spectrum to include fund raising and trying to make long-term sustainability more secure.

Artificial intelligence, supercomputing and cybersecurity are at the heart of the hub's action, but are complemented by other technologies related to simulation, robotic automation, virtual and augmented reality, the internet of things and data analytics. A plastic example of application was realised with fluid dynamics, particularly in the design of new process component profiles. For a live test, it is necessary to build the prototype, make various configurations and test them appropriately, which is time-consuming and costly. Today, however, a digital twin of the object can be made, which is tested by simulations and provides feedback within a few days. In the field of fashion, it is possible to receive trend indications on social media, with data on what is in vogue, reasons for appreciation, geographic areas with more consistent targeting, and much more. "The implications for business processes make it possible to reduce repetitive work and provide support for better specialisation of tasks," Angelo Mariano concludes. "However, it is essential to raise awareness of the importance of combining advanced digitisation with this type of specialisation."