ICNAP – International Center for Networked, Adaptive Production
ICNAP – International Center for Networked, Adaptive Production

Detailed range of services


Yearly Community Meetings – Networking with the Community!

Our Approach

  • Yearly, one-and-a-half-day community meeting in Aachen
  • Keynote speech about latest results and developments in the ICNAP focus topics
  • Presentation of results of studies and researches
  • Definition of new work groups and study topics
  • Moderated expert forums to trending topics
  • Community speed dating
  • Discussion rounds and networking possibilities

Your Benefit

  • Knowledge exchange with other companies regarding networked, adaptive production
  • Presentation of your innovations and products to other community members
  • Voting of new topics for joint studies and researches regarding the topic networked, adaptive production
  • Meet and exchange with potential partners to realize a networked, adaptive production at your company respectively to establish your products in a production company

Partner Matching Portal – Answer Research Questions Together!

Our Approach

  • Online platform for community members is provided and hosted by Fraunhofer
  • Every community member has its own company profile and can present their products as well as their needs for a networked, adaptive production
  • Exclusive online discussion forum
  • Access to virtual ICNAP shop floor that shows the connected machines as well as their hardware (e.g. sensor, data base)

Your Benefit

  • Partner for collaborative and bilateral projects can be found faster and contacted more easily
  • Enabler have the possibility to present their products (e.g. software, sensors) more target-oriented
  • Production companies can easily find the right supplier for their digitalization projects
  • Access to best practice examples for networked, adaptive production by a virtual shop floor

Biannual Newsletter – Latest Information from First Hand!

Our Approach

  • Biannual newsletter with reports of latest results and developments around ICNAP
  • Newsletters include:
    • Findings and developments in ICNAP’s focus topics big data analytics, smart manufacturing platform, digital twin and adaptive process chain
    • Findings in cross-industry pilot lines
    • Best practices of community members

Your Benefit

  • Latest results and findings regarding the seminal topic networked, adaptive production are presented well prepared and first hand
  • Possibility of presenting and promoting your company to the community in form of best practice reports

Access to Test Data – Learn how to Handle Production Data!

Our Approach

  • Production data from cross-industry pilot lines are prepared and stored in a database in our Fraunhofer-invented cloud, the Virtual Fort Knox
  • Production data need to fulfill different requirements regarding data acquisition and data usages (e.g. high latency, large amounts of data)
  • Community members get access to the cloud and can work with  selected data sets

Your Benefit

  • Get to know the multifaceted requirements of production data and how these are influencing the data usages
  • Production companies can learn how to handle and understand data, especially when they did not generate their own production data yet
  • Enabler have the possibility to test soft- and hardware with real production data

Studies & Research – Analyses of Topics of Your Choice!

Our Approach

  • Identification of possible topics for studies and researches by Fraunhofer based on market analyses in ICNAP’s focus topics
  • Presentation of topics during yearly community meetings
  • Choice and concretization of topics by community members
  • Elaboration of studies and researches over the year (between two annual community meetings), validation by use cases of community members

Your Benefit

  • Independent research results
  • Direct influence on topic and content of the study
  • Interdisciplinary group of experts
  • Possibility to provide use cases for the study and thus to get an analysis of your company regarding the chosen topic

Hackathon & Techathon – The Creative Way of Research!

Our Approach

  • One joint hackathon respectively techathon per year
  • Planning and conception of the event
  • Customized advertisement to get the right participants
  • Organization of the event (e.g. location, catering) and supervision of participants by Fraunhofer
  • Presence of Fraunhofer during whole event

Your Benefit

  • Creative solutions for your problems within a short amount of time
  • Solve problems and answer research questions in a completely different way
  • Access to creative and talented students in Aachen (around 60,000 students in Aachen; big faculties for engineering and computer science)

Public Funding – Financial Support in Your R&D-Projects!

Our Approach

  • Identification of available public funding possibilities corresponding to your needs (e.g. BMBF, BMWi, EU, EFRE)
  • Identification of potential research project partners and consultation regarding the research topic your company should focus on
  • Composition of consortium for research project

Your Benefit

  • Support in the acquisition of public funding for collaborative research projects
  • Overview of partners that fit for joint research project
  • Support in the preparation and formulation of the research proposal

Workshops & Work Groups – Focused Exchange in the Community!

Our Approach

  • Set up industrial work groups, which are separated by the topics and technologies round about the topic networked, adaptive production
  • Latest developments and topics for joint research projects are discussed during regular work group meetings
  • ICNAP website as communication platform for work groups

Your Benefit

  • Technology- and product-oriented networking
  • Identification of precompetitive projects and initialization of these projects
  • Creation of a showcase for your services and products in- and outside the community

Trainings & Seminars – Become an Industrie 4.0 Expert!

Our Approach

  • Training and seminar offers regarding ICNAP’s focus topics (big data analytics, digital twin, smart manufacturing platform, adaptive process chain)
  • Presentations and workshops with Fraunhofer experts
  • Practically relevant presentation of contents through demonstrators on the shop floor

Your Benefit

  • Intensive and practically relevant training and application of topics of your choice
  • Transfer of contents to the members of your company