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Shows Prof Dermot Brabazon speaking at the Advanced Processing Institute's Industry Day event in 2025

Prof Dermot Brabazon awarded EIT Higher Education Initiative funding for A-SIDE deep tech project

Research news - Prof Dermot Brabazon APT industry day
Professor Dermot Brabazon was awarded the EIT Higher Education Initiative A-Side Project —Alliance for Sustainable Product Innovation in a Data Driven Economy — funding as part of their Call for Proposals 2024.

A-SIDE will provide an EU hub for innovation and entrepreneurship in the Deep Tech focus area of advanced manufacturing, advanced materials, as well as AI and Machine Learning including Big Data.

The project will receive €540,000 in the first phase, and and a maximum of €800,000 in the second phase which begins in 2026. Dublin City University is the lead partner of the nine member consortium which features HEIs from across Europe.

To highlight just one example of the project's intention to improve improve research and technology transfer from higher education, it will offer tailored professional development courses to students, researchers, academic and non-academic staff. These will focus on AI-driven innovations in product lifecycle management, predictive analytics for sustainable manufacturing, and circular product design. In general, the A-SIDE consortium's activities will establish training and mentorship across the knowledge triangle of business, education and research across the EU.

The funding come's as part of €63 Million awarded under the EIT Higher Education Initiative's Call for Proposals 2024. The call has supported 47 cross-sector projects connecting 620 organisations in 46 countries to enhance their innovation capacity.

The EIT Higher Education Initiative is the only European instrument solely focused on boosting the innovation capacity of higher education institutions, empowering them to become the innovation leaders of tomorrow. It grants project partners access to Europe's largest innovation ecosystem. Of the 47 EIT Higher Education Initiative projects announced, 12 will also focus on Deep Tech and will directly support the Deep Tech Talent Initiative, the EIT’s flagship programme training 1 million deep tech talents by the end of 2025.