Green Limerick: Digi manufacturing programme focuses on green potential

A NEW programme developed at the Technological University of the Shannon (TUS) is bringing together small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to establish their green potential.

The Digi Manufacturing 2.0 programme was developed by the Irish Digital Engineering and Advanced Manufacturing (IDEAM) for SMEs to create new business opportunities with a strategic lens on their digital and green potential.

The overarching aim of Digi Manufacturing 2.0 is to create and enhance new cross-border strategic value chains and enhance the green uptake between both Manufacturing Northern Ireland and IDEAM Cluster manufacturing SMEs.

Dr Liam Brown, vice president of research, development and innovation at TUS says the university is “delighted” to form part of the Digi Manufacturing 2.0 project.

“Industry clusters have proven to drive regional economic development due to the significantly greater increases in innovation and technology applications and commercialisation of these applications.

“This (programme) will make a real impact on the growth of the all-island advanced manufacturing ecosystem with a particular emphasis on the digital and green transition of the sector as a whole,” he said.

The Digi Manufacturing 2.0 project is being delivered with support from InterTradeIreland’s Synergy initiative.

Synergy is a cross-border cluster initiative set up by InterTradeIreland, the cross-border trade and business development body.

It aims to scale cross-border collaboration among SMEs and other players such as universities, third-sector organisations and government agencies using cluster and networking supports with a particular focus on meeting 2050 Net Zero and Global Green Deal targets.

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The second iteration of Digi Manufacturing was officially launched this month at the Irish Manufacturing Research (IMR) centre in Mullingar.

Dr Jamie Meehan, Cluster Manager, IDEAM said: “At IDEAM, we believe that this Digi Manufacturing project 2.0 will foster new collaboration opportunities for manufacturing SMEs across the island of Ireland and beyond.

“Connecting like minded SMEs to unlock new data-driven energy efficiency ideas and collectively solve similar challenges, acts as a real catalyst for change in the manufacturing sector”.

“Establishing trust between the key stakeholders can ignite fruitful opportunities. Together, we can build a unique ecosystem to support businesses to collaborate, innovate and grow,” he added.

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