CORE Innovation Days: Shaping Tomorrow’s Industry, Today
The inaugural Industry 4.0 conference, hosted by CORE Group, was an astounding success.
Author: Alexandros Patrikios
January 23rd 2025
CORE Innovation Days, Greece’s first Industry 4.0 conference, took place last week. The two‑day, invitation‑only conference brought together key global leaders from industry, academia, and policy‑making to showcase new trends, challenges and successes in digital transformation and discuss the future of Industry 4.0.
The event was funded through the CORE Innovation Centre’s participation in Twin4Twin, a project supported by the Horizon EU Widening Work Programme.
The main event | Day 1
The conference opened with remarks from Stefanos Kokkorikos and Dr. Nikos Kyriakoulis, Founders and Managing Partners of CORE Group, welcoming conference attendees and introducing the Twin4Twin project.
Their welcome was followed by greetings from distinguished guests, including Stefan Estermann, Ambassador of Switzerland in Greece; Prof. Konstantinos Karantzalos, Secretary General at the Ministry of Digital Governance; and Michail Dritsas from the Greek Ministry of Economy & Finance, who highlighted the STEP Programme’s potential in advancing Greek and European organisations.
Session A: Digital Transformation in Industry
Session A explored the transformative journey industries are taking to embrace digital innovation throughout their production pipeline, in Greece and abroad.
George Panagiotopoulos (EY) focused on the digital transformation journey of Greek industry, suggesting ways for manufacturers to leverage digital tools to create value sustainably and at scale. Raimund Klein (INCIT) introduced the strategic framework offered by the SIRI tool to Greek audiences. Dr. Dominic Gorecky (SSF) shared some real-world insights from the Swiss model for a smart factory. Dr. Nikos Kyriakoulis concluded the session, introducing CORE Group’s Greek Smart Factory initiative – a platform for manufacturers and tech providers to network, innovate and test before they invest.
Session B: The Present and Future of Industry 4.0
Session B provided a forward‑looking perspective on the technologies driving Industry 4.0 and was moderated by Prof. David Romero (World Manufacturing Foundation). Prof. Romero presented the 2024 World Manufacturing Report, which offers insights on future-proofing manufacturing and was edited by a global team of contributors, including CORE Group’s Dr. Nikos Kyriakoulis. You can read the full report here.
Discussions focused on how businesses can prepare for an uncertain and ever‑evolving future through strategic frameworks and advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence and digital modelling. Prof. Dimitris Kyritsis (University of Oslo) introduced foundational frameworks for connecting digital assets. Dr. John Soldatos (Netcompany) highlighted the transformative potential of generative AI and LLMs in industry. Dr. Foivos Psarommatis (Zerofect) discussed upcoming regulations on DPPs and how they are expected to affect industrial operations. Ignacio Montero Castro (AIMEN) explained how AASs can act as bridges between physical and digital worlds. Dr. Jacopo Cassina (Syxis) explored industrial data spaces as tools for cognitive production. The final speaker for this session, Jarkko Soikkeli (Visual Components) examined the evolution and applications of Digital Twin technologies in productivity optimisation.
Session C: Industry 4.0 Innovation Case Studies
The final session of the day showcased real-world applications of Industry 4.0 applications, highlighting groundbreaking Horizon EU Industry 4.0 projects from CORE Group and its partners in three separate panel discussions.
The first panel, Digital and Green Transition of Manufacturing, moderated by CORE Group’s Dr. Pantelis Papachristou, explored how digital and green technologies are reshaping manufacturing ecosystems, identified challenges and opportunities, and discussed the roles of innovation, data, and AI-collaboration in driving this change. Projects discussed included, among others, MODUL4R, M4ESTRO, and Circular TwAIn. Panel participants included Dr. Dimitris Panopoulos (Suite5), Prof. Paolo Pedrazzoli (TTS), Prof. Pedro Malo (Unparallel), Dr. Niki Kousi (EIT Manufacturing) and Dr. Vicky Panagiotopoulou (LMS).
The second panel, Energy and Sustainability of Processes with Industry 4.0, was moderated by CORE Group’s Valia Iliopoulou and focused on energy‑efficient and sustainable industrial processes, such as the ones introduced in TRINEFLEX. Panel participants included George Tsimiklis (ICCS), Dr. Mario Pichler (SCCH), Anna Domènech Abella (CELSA) and Dr. Hussam Jouhara (Brunel University of London).
The third panel, Digital Transformation of Mines with Industry 4.0, moderated by CORE Group’s Konstantina Tsioli, attempted to address inefficiencies, sustainability issues, and resilience demands in the mining industry, driven by high global demand for raw materials, declining ore grades, and environmental imperatives. Milestone mining projects such as MASTERMINE took center stage. Panel participants included Dr. Antonis Peppas (NTUA), Dr. Jose Ramon Valdés (ITA), Kostas Botsialas (AURORA), Dr. Santiago Cuesta Lopez (ISMC) and Emilios Vazoukis (Terna MAG).
Parallel Demo Sessions
Throughout the conference, attendees got to stop by demos set up by our team, showcasing different Industry 4.0 technology trends. One of our demos showcased COREbeat, our end‑to‑end predictive maintenance platform, which included a motor connected to a beatBox, COREbeat’s hardware component. Visitors were allowed to push a nail in the machine and watch COREbeat’s UI platform spot the malfunction in near‑real time. Another demo showcased a solution for AI application deployment which boasts data acquisition on the edge, AI modes for Remaining Useful Life and Federated Learning for increasing data volume while retaining enhanced data privacy – a combination of technologies used in MODUL4R and RE4DY, two of our Horizon EU projects. The final demo, which our team carried out in collaboration with the Swiss Smart Factory, scenario–based optimisation of an actual manufacturing process for drones, using Digital Twins and 3D visual representation for enhanced explainability.
Proposal Writing Workshops | Day 2
For the second day of the event, participants were invited to proposal writing workshops, aimed at fostering collaboration and building consortia for upcoming Research & Innovation calls. Throughout the day, partners met in groups to explore specific funding opportunities, during focused parallel sessions carried out in CORE Group’s central offices.
These workshops were designed to empower participants with practical insights and strategies for crafting competitive proposals, ensuring alignment with the latest Horizon EU priorities. By facilitating direct interaction and knowledge exchange, CORE Innovation Days is paving the way for innovative partnerships and impactful solutions that address the challenges of tomorrow.
