Understanding the importance of continuous progress, Arctur has its own R&D department, registered with the Slovenian Research Agency (ARRS). Arctur is involved in joint R&D projects with research institutes, universities and other R&D organizations from EU and globally.
Main topics of our R&D activities of course pertain to advanced HPC and Cloud computing and underlying XaaS paradigm; our work represents horizontal layer for a wide variety of vertical scientific and technological fields. We were pioneers in adapting HPC services to the needs of small and media enterprises (SME) and are still among trend setters in this specific area.
Major R&D areas include: • High Performance Computing • Big Data analysis • Cloud solutions and services • Artificial Intelligence • Machine Learning • Blockchain • Tourism 4.0
Buliding Tourism for the Future with Tourism 4.0 Partnership
European tourism sector is mainly built of small and medium players. However, it is large technology players that take a large proportion of the cake – whether it be profit or data – which leaves tourism providers and local governments in subordinate position with regard to technological innovation, digital business models and tourist privacy. Arctur aims to bring change through the Tourism 4.0 (T4.0) initiative by giving SMEs access to technologies such as High Performance Computing (HPC) to empower them and their innovation capacities. Therefore, the Tourism 4.0 Partnership was established to accelerate the data driven tourism in collaboration with all stakeholders of the smart tourism ecosystem. It strives to unlock the innovation potential in the tourism sector by using state-of-the-art technology to tackle the challenges of overtourism, boost positive tourism impact and to achieve more personalised tourist experience.
Furthermore, we perceive the tourism ecosystem in a novel way by centring it around the local community even though the tourist providers, tourists and the government are clearly important stakeholders. This way sustainability of tourism activities can be attained bottom up by fostering more intense collaboration among all stakeholders in the tourism ecosystem, who are and always will be co-creating the tourist experience. For this reason, the base for the tools of the T4.0 platform that we are developing within the largest state-funded research project on tourism in Slovenia is the Tourism Impact Model. Following the local community centred approach, the model is dedicated to municipalities and cities to help them understand their limits in terms of the destinations’ carrying capacity, level of collaboration as well as to strategically act in order to create destinations that people want to visit and also live in.
In addition, other disruptive tools are being developed to support so called strategic thinking 4.0 focused on enhancing sustainable tourism that are enabling predictions, management of tourist flows, awarding behaviour with positive impact and creating anonymised personalised experiences too. Within Tourism 4.0, a special attention is also given to the field of cultural heritage programme where we see several opportunities for sustainable and enriched tourist experiences. For this, advanced technologies (360° photo and video, Augmented Reality, 3D scanning, modelling and printing, simulated reconstruction …), hybrid skills of digital business model development, and strategic planning of digital transformation are used. The programme has received a Silver prize for innovations by the Slovenian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
EXCELLERAT P2 — The European Centre of Excellence for Engineering Applications
Duration: 2023-2026 Total budget: 5.972.989,00 € Funding program: Horizon Europe
EXCELLERAT P2 aims to tackle the ever-rising complexity of scientific and development endeavours. Thus, Exascale computing is the main focus, which will solve highly complex and costly engineering problems, and create enhanced technological solutions even at the development stage. The EXCELLERAT project offers a single point of access for expertise on how data management, data analytics, visualisation, simulation-driven design and Co-design with HPC can benefit engineering on Exascale level.
EUROCC 2 — The National Competence Centres in the framework of EuroHPC
EuroCC 2 has the mission to continue the establishment of a network of National Centres of Competence (NCC) in the most efficient way while continuing to address the differences in the maturity of HPC deployment in Europe. NCCs will further support industry, public administration, and academics by providing HPC resources, knowledge, and other services. By collaborating and exchanging practices with other NCCs the HPC competitiveness in Europe will be improved.
The main objective of DATES is to explore approaches and options for the deployment of a secure and trusted tourism data space, ensuring transparent control of data access, use and re-use. The project will therefore focus on the development of governance and business models while providing a shared roadmap that will ensure the coordination of the tourism ecosystem stakeholders.
DIGI-SIaims to foster the digital transformation of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), start-ups, scale-ups and Public Administration in four strategic priority areas identified in the forthcoming Slovenian smart specialisation strategy: Agri-food, Health, Tourism and Manufacturing.
REGINNA 4.0 — REGional INNovAtive learning for society 4.0
The REGINNA 4.0project aims to provide SMEs and start-ups with access to Deep Tech knowledge and infrastructure through a collaborative platform. Well-established research institutions will deliver customized training courses in Nanotechnology, Industry 4.0, and Innovation and Entrepreneurship. The project benefits students in technical and business fields, promoting collaboration between HEIs and industry for future innovative solutions.
Beyond Snow — Enhancing the Resilience of Alpine Space Snow Tourism Destinations and Communities to Climate Change
The project BeyondSnow deals with the consequences of climate change on the tourism sector in the Alps. It focuses in particular on small medium-altitude snow tourism destinations in the Alpine area promoting climate change adaptation and disaster risk prevention, and resilience, taking into account access-system-based approaches.
CulturalDeTour — Sustainable Cultural Tourism by Design-Driven Innovation
CulturalDeTour (Creative Europe): focuses on boosting innovation, sustainability and business creation through a design-driven process used to facilitate collaboration and entrepreneurship in the cultural tourism sector.
B-chain Agrifood — Blockchain for Agri-Food Educators
Duration: 2022-2024 Total budget: 250.000,00 € Funding program: Erasmus+
Blockchain for agri-food educators will improve the incidence and quality of agrifood higher educators’ provision of education and support in blockchain technologies spanning theories, methods, processes, and teaching concepts. Importantly, our training must not be solely technical: it must address the attitudinal, knowledge and skills barriers that the agrifood sector faces.
5DCulture — Deploying and Demonstrating a 3D cultural heritage space
CulturalDeTour focuses on boosting innovation, sustainability and business creation through a design-driven process used to facilitate collaboration and entrepreneurship in the cultural tourism sector. Earth-centred design and design-driven innovation are used as the method and process to facilitate sustainability integration and technology adoption.
AgriNext — Agricultural and rural excellence Incubator and Platform for the Exchange of competencies
Duration: 2022-2026 Total funding: 2.553.260,00 € Funding program: Erasmus+
AgriNext project aims to create a learning environment that responds to the skill demand on the job market in the field of multifunctional agriculture. AgriNext project addresses and analyses the flexibility of Vocational Educational Training and the establishment of a pilot incubator of skills that will enable learners to acquire vocational skills and key competencies with an innovative learner-centred holistic approach.
Duration: 2022-2024 Total funding: 2.959.999,00 € Funding program: Horizon Europe
The main objective of QUSTom is to introduce a new medical imaging modality that can complement or even replace current modalities that use X-ray due to its safety, scalability and quality. Ultrasound imaging can be deeply enhanced by means of algorithms developed in the field of geophysical imaging. Such algorithms, based upon adjoint-state modelling and iterative optimization, provide quantitative images of human tissue with very high resolution.
CLASSICA — Validating AI in classifying cancer in real-time surgery.
Duration: 2022-2026 Total funding: 5.978.717,00 € Funding program: Horizon Europe
The Classica project validates AI-driven imaging and decision support in real-time cancer surgery, utilizing breakthrough research in fluorescence and perfusion analysis. The goal is to develop an operating room-standard tool, validate its performance, address obstacles, and create clinical guidelines for adoption.
The AI4DEF project is set to pave the way for accelerated development and application of AI in defence to maintain European sovereignty and excellence in this area. The collaboration consists of 21 large, medium, and small companies as well as research institutions in Europe who are specialized in AI and defence security.
TourBIT — Fostering digitalisation of European tourism SMEs
TOURBIT main objective is fostering skills and capacity and boosting the uptake of digitalisation of European tourism SMEs, making them more resilient and competitive and so contribute to a faster digital transformation of the European tourism sector.
DigNest — Digital Entrepreneurial Nest and Industry 4.0 in Montenegro
The DigNest project is focusing on supporting modernization of HEIs in Montenegro by enhancing their cooperation with wider businesses in order to maximise the benefits from digital technologies in priority areas of agriculture and health while ensuring that students, graduates, future experts and the workforce are adapting to the digital area.
FF4EuroHPC — FF4EUROHPC connects business with cutting–edge technologies
FF4EuroHPC helps facilitate access to High-Performance Computing-related technologies for European Small & Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and thus increases the innovation potential of European industry. Whether the SME is running high-resolution simulations, doing large-scale data analyses, or incorporating AI applications into its business or service workflows, FF4EuroHPC assists SMEs to connect their business with cutting-edge technologies.
MEDS — Manager of European Smart Destination
Duration: 2023-2024 Total budget: 250.000,00 € Funding program: Erasmus+
TheMEDSproject aims to build on the key concepts and practices of the European Capitals of Smart Tourism, namely Accessibility, Sustainability, Digitalisation, Cultural heritage & creativity, to a novel cohort of Destination Managers capable of working in and with Public Administrations.
SD4TIM — Space Data for Tourism Impact Model
Duration: 2022-2023 Total budget: 100.000,00 € Funding program: European Space Agency
The overall objective of SD4TIM is to build a knowledge base for bringing Satellite Earth Observation (EO) data into strategic planning. The technical objective of the project is to develop the Air Quality Indices, quantify changes in air pollution to provide aggregate estimates in Europe using EO data and integrate it into Tourism 4.0`s award-winning innovation Tourism Impact Model.
TIM DDF4CE — Tourism Impact Model Dynamic Data Fusion 4 Circular Economy
Arctur (partner) and Aerosol (lead partner) are teaming up to tackle air pollution in tourism with supercomputing and data science. Arctur provides own T4.0 Core platform and its TIM and FLOWS tools that measure and forecast the effects of tourism on the local community and environment. The solution will reveal the sources of air pollution using data from both systems.
The objective of AI4VET4AI is to contribute to the digital transformation of the EU labour market by adding new innovative teaching content and methods to VET curricula across 11 European countries and 18 EU NUTS2 regions, in order to support the growth of AI-skilled workers.
EuroCC — National Competence Centres in the framework of EuroHPC
Duration: 2020 – 2022 Total funding: 1.044.675,00 € Funding program: Horizon Europe
EuroCC project will enable establishing a single National Competence Centre (NCC) in the area of high-performance computing (HPC) in 33 respective European countries. The project aims to elevate the participating countries to a common high level in the fields of HPC, HPDA and artificial intelligence (AI). Ultimately, the goal is to make HPC available to different users from science, industry, public administration, and society.
Amazing AoE — Responsible Green Destination Amazon of Europe
Aims to enhance sustainable economic growth and tourism development based on distinctive natural and cultural heritage, which will result in collaboration network of key actors and enabling environment for high-quality tourism, responding to limited resources of ecosystems. Amazing AoE will bring sustainable development opportunities for managing diversity of natural and cultural heritage and resources in AoE from local to transnational level, while enabling unique experiences for international visitors.
ISE-EMH — Italian-Slovene ecosystem for electronic and mobile health
The aim of the ISE-EMH project is to develop an ICT system in the field of EMH (Electronic and Mobile Health) in order to provide innovative services, applications and products. As part of the intelligent ecosystem of EMH, a platform will be developed that will enable the efficient connection of various stakeholders and easier launch of health ICT applications.
WEAVE – Widen European Access to cultural communities Via Europeana
WEAVE project aims to develop a framework to link the tangible and intangible heritage of cultural communities, safeguarding the rich and invaluable cultural heritage which they represent. It will contribute to preserving for future generations the richness of the European identity and its cultural plurality. In particular, the project will aggregate over 5,200 new high-quality records to Europeana.
The INSITES (Erasmus+ Programme): project explores the dual purpose of technology to digitally preserve and safeguard Europe’s tangible and intangible cultural heritage gems and future-proof the sector by making it more attractive to young people (digital natives) who are the future consumers/custodians of Europe’s cultural heritage. Arctur takes a co-ownership of the Immersive Cultural Heritage Experience, which is a multilingual cultural heritage tourism training pack that upskills learners in the powerful potential of digital technology to rejuvenate, preserve and grow cultural heritage tourism in Europe.
DIVA — Development of ecosystems and innovation value chains: supporting cross-border innovation through Creative Industries
DIVA (Interreg ITA-SLO): connects and integrates the cultural and creative sectors with the economy. Thanks to the creation of an innovative eco-system and the use of Smart technologies, DIVA strengthens the competitiveness of companies on international markets and improves services for society and the interregional economy.
ADSEE — Creating useful educational and training modules in data science for non-technical universities
The main objective of theADSEE project is to deliver useful educational and training programs in data science through the following: the development of educational modules; the adaption of contents and methods according to the envisioned needs of target groups; the creation of interactive didactic tools and the production of guidelines and recommendations for the innovative educational approaches in DS. Arctur will help to develop the training materials on the AI and data science area.
EXCELLERAT — The European Centre of Excellence for Engineering Applications
EXCELLERAT is a European Centre of Excellence for Engineering Applications. The CoE is an initiative of several European HPC Centres, teamed up to support key engineering industries in Europe in dealing with complex applications using HPC technologies. We conduct research, provide leadership, guidance on good practice, user support mechanisms as well as training and networking activities to our community.
Tourism 4.0 for the Black Sea will boost sectoral cooperation and allow greater usage of the Industry 4.0 technologies in tourism. To achieve this, partners will raise awareness of the data driven tourism benefits with three cycles of workshops in Ukraine, Romania, and Georgia as well as pilot Tourism 4.0 tools there to demonstrate the potential of Data Analytics for sustainable tourism development in the region.
SME/HPC — Enabling SMEs to gain competitive advantage from the use of HPC
SME/HPC project takes a pioneering step towards improving the awareness about the innovative potential of HPC by SMEs by co-designing tailor-made courses delivering a coherent set of competences required for the application of HPC in SME and micro-enterprise contexts. Duration of the project is 36 months, from November 2017 to October 2020.
NEXTGenIO project explores the use of non-volatile memory technologies and associated systemware developments through a co-design process with three end-user partners: a high-end academic HPC service provider, a global numerical weather centre and a commercial on-demand HPC service provider.
Fortissimo2 — Enabling Manufacturing SMEs to benefit from High Performance, Computer-based Simulations
Fortissimo2: the principal objective of the project is to drive the uptake of advanced modelling, simulation and data analytics services by European engineering and manufacturing SMEs, hence delivering for the companies: improved design processes, better products and services, and improved competitiveness.
CaxMan — Computer-aided technologies for additive manufacturing
CAxMan the objectives of Computer Aided Technologies for Additive Manufacturing (CAxMan) are to establish Cloud based Toolboxes, Workflows and a One Stop-Shop for CAx-technologies supporting the design, simulation and process planning for Additive Manufacturing.
SESAME Net — Supercomputing Expertise for Small and Medium Enterprise Network
SESAME Net: the aim of the project is to create an open and inclusive European network of Competence Centres and Organizations joining forces in order to raise SMEs’ awareness on HPC and to demonstrate its features and benefits.
CloudFlow — Computational Cloud Services and Workflows for Agile Engineering
CloudFlow enabled the remote use of computational services distributed on the cloud, seamlessly integrating these within established engineering design workflows and standards.
IOstack — Software-defined Storage toolkit for Big Data
Fortissimo is a collaborative project that aims to enable European SMEs to be more competitive globally through the use of simulation services running on a CloudHPC infrastructure.
Duration: 2018 – 2021 Total funding: 2.319.240,00 € Funding program: Operational Programme for the Implementation of the EU Cohesion Policy
Tourism 4.0 TRL 3-6 Research Project is the biggest R&D public founded project in the field of tourism in Slovenia. It aims to unlock the innovation potential in tourism by enabling collaboration between all stakeholders of the smart tourism ecosystem. Its goal is to build a collaborative tourism ecosystem centred around the local community enabling data driven strategic planning and boosting positive impact of tourism.
DEMO PILOT TOURISM 4.0 — Tourism 4.0 TRL7-9 Demo Pilot
Duration: 2019 – 2022 Total funding: 10.700.000,00 € Funding program: Operational Programme for the Implementation of the EU Cohesion Policy
Tourism 4.0 TRL 3-6 Research Project is the biggest R&D public founded project in the field of tourism in Slovenia. It aims to unlock the innovation potential in tourism by enabling collaboration between all stakeholders of the smart tourism ecosystem. Its goal is to build a collaborative tourism ecosystem centred around the local community enabling data driven strategic planning and boosting positive impact of tourism.
Heritage in Action — Participatory methods and digital learning sources for inclusion of youth in heritage practices and education
Duration: 2019 – 2021 Total funding: 40.000,00 € Funding program: Slovenian Research Agency CRP
The main mission of the Heritage in Action project was to analyse the existing and develop novel participatory methods and ICT tools to bring cultural heritage closer to the elementary and secondary school pupils in an interesting, creative and modern way. At the same time, the idea was to actively engage them in various heritage actions carried out within local or national communities. The central challenge, therefore, was to motivate the young to find greater interest in heritage.
Sm@rt Cloud machine monitoring system je skupni razvojni projekt podjetij GOSTOL TST, ARCTUR in OMP, ki razvija edinstveno rešitev v računalniškem oblaku s katero bodo mikrokovaški stroji podjetja Gostol TST nadgrajeni v pametne stroje, v skladu s principi Industrije 4.0. Cilj projekta je razvoj monitoring sistema, ki bo z integracijo z mikrokovaškim strojem in s pomočjo posebnih senzorjev le-temu omogočil delovati kot pametni mikrokovaški stroj. Sistem bo preko posebnih tipal zajemal informacije o delovanju in stanju elementov mikrokovaškega stroja ter podatke pošiljal v aplikacijo v oblaku, ki bo te podatke analizairala ter ocenjevala preostalo življensko dobo.
HPC4SME - Napredna superračunalniška platforma za mala in srednja podjetja
Arctur bo v sklopu projekta razvil napredni uporabniški vmesnik za dostop in uporabo superračunalniških (HPC) kapacitet namenjen predvsem inženirskim uporabnikom v malih in srednjih podjetjih (MSP). Nov vmesnik bo zaobjemal najnaprednejše pristope za prodajo, upravljanje, prilagajanje in razširitev naprednih enovitih (ang. Hiperkonveriranih) računalniških kapacitet uporabnikom, predvsem inženirskim malim ter srednjim podjetjem. Namen projekta je razviti inovativen, napreden, varen in intuitiven vmesnik preko katerega bodo končnim inženirskim uporabnikom na voljo HPC kapacitete po storitvenem modelu Software as a Service (SaaS). To pomeni, da ima uporabnik na voljo pred-pripravljena vsa orodja in kapacitete za nemoteno delo in uporabo HPC infrastrukture. Ta orodja zajemajo tako optimalno konfigurirano strojno opremo kot tudi že prilagojene in konfigurirane programske rešitve, skupaj z jasnim pregledom zakupljenih in porabljenih zmogljivosti.
"Naložbo sofinancirata Republika Slovenija in Evropska unija iz Evropskega sklada za regionalni razvoj." www.eu-skladi.si
Cilj projekta Turizem 4.0 TRL 3-6, ki je v skladu s strategijo Industrije 4.0, je preoblikovati današnjo turistično industrijo v vrednostno gospodarstvo (angl. value-based economy) z inovacijami, znanjem, tehnologijo in ustvarjalnostjo. Projekt je osredotočen na uporabnika (Turista+), ki bo s svojim znanjem, pričakovanji in izkušnjami pomagal so-ustvarjati nove storitve in izdelke v turističnem sektorju z namenom nenehnega izboljševanja kakovosti doživetij. Objective of project Tourism 4.0 TRL 3-6, which is in line with the Industry 4.0 strategy, aims to transform the today tourist industry into a value-based economy through innovation, knowledge, technology and creativity. Focus of the project is on user(s) (Tourist+), who will contribute their knowledge, expectations and experiences to build the new services and products in tourism sector in order to rise up the quality of experience.
"Naložbo sofinancirata Republika Slovenija in Evropska unija iz Evropskega sklada za regionalni razvoj." www.eu-skladi.si
DEMO PILOT TURIZEM 4.0 (TRL 7-9)
Cilj projekta je razvoj celovitega poslovno inovativnega okolja Turizem 4.0, ki bo turističnemu gospodarstvu omogočil nadgradnjo interakcije med gostom in ponudniki turističnih storitev ter ponudil nove produkte T4.0, ki temeljijo na željah in pričakovanjih gosta. Gre za edinstveno rešitev s podporo omogočitvenih tehnologij Industrije 4.0 na področju trajnostnega turizma v svetu. The objective of the project Demo Pilot Turizem 4.0 aims to develop a comprehensive and innovative business environment that will help the business economy to upgrade the interaction between guests and tourism providers. This type of environment will enable the creation of new T4.0 products based on guest’s wishes and expectations. It is a unique solution in the field of sustainable tourism with the support of enabling technologies of Industry 4.0.
»Naložbo sofinancirata Republika Slovenija in Evropska unija iz Evropskega sklada za regionalni razvoj.« www.eu-skladi.si ''The investment is co-financed by the Republic of Slovenia and the European Union under the European Regional Developement Fund.''
eGOZD – Elektronsko poslovanje kmetijskih gospodarstev z izrazito gozdarsko dejavnostjo
Projekt stremi k uvajanju elektronskega poslovanja na izbranih kmetijskih gospodarstvih v slovenskem prostoru. V Sloveniji delujejo vsi členi gozdno-lesne verige, vendar je učinkovitost povezav ter optimalnost delovanja nujno izboljšati. Neizkoriščene priložnosti vidimo predvsem v povezovanju znotraj posameznih členov in predvsem med členi verige. Projekt bo ponudil nove in poenostavljene možnosti načrtovanja, spremljanja in izvedbe del ter tako prispeval k učinkovitejšem gospodarjenju z gozdovi v lasti kmetijskih gospodarstev.
Glavni namen projekta je dvig stopnje digitalizacije na področju učinkovitega in ekonomsko vzdržnega gospodarjenja z gozdovi in tako neposredno vplivati na dvig produktivnosti in dodane vrednosti v celotni gozdno-lesni proizvodni verigi.
Glavni cilj projekta je digitalizacija in razbremenitev birokratskih bremen kmetijskih gospodarstev z namenom optimizacije gozdno-lesnih verig ter intenziviranja gospodarjenja z zasebnimi gozdovi.
Arctur v procesu digitalizacije poslovnih procesov gozdno-lesne verige sodeluje kot tehnološki partner.
"Projekt je financiran v sklopu ukrepa M16 Sodelovanje, podukrep 16.2 Podpora za pilotne projekte ter za razvoj novih proizvodov, praks, procesov in tehnologij na področju gozdarstva."
TIM DDF4CE - Tourism Impact Model Dynamic Data Fusion 4 Circular Economy
TIM DDF4CE je nova in inovativna storitev na področju preprečevanja in nadzorovanja onesnaženja zraka kot dela prehoda na krožno gospodarstvo. Rešitev združuje natančno merjenje trdih delcev v zraku – ogljičnih aerosolov in njihovih komponent, z različnimi drugimi viri podatkov po kazalnikih turizma v dinamično fuzijo podatkov, ki ponuja uporabnikom (odločevalcem v turističnih destinacijah) ključne informacije o onesnaženosti zraka. Te namreč temeljijo na osnovi realnih, natančnih in visokofrekvenčnih podatkov ob pomoči analitičnih metod strojnega učenja in umetne inteligence.
Rešitev temelji na (a) merjenju ogljičnih aerosolov z nadgrajenim sistemom Carbonaceous Aerosol Speciation System (CASS), ki bo omogočil meritev koncentracije in komponent, kar je ključno za identificiranje, koliko posamezni ogljični aerosoli škodljivo vplivajo na zdravje ljudi in okolje, (b) dinamični fuziji podatkov in grafičnem prikazu na Arcturjevi platformi T4.0 Core, ki ponuja visokozmogljivo analizo in vizualizacijo različnih tipov podatkov v času ter določanje korelacij med njimi, nadgrajenih z umetno inteligenco in možnostjo simulacij. TIM DDF4CE storitev omogoča strateško načrtovanje razvoja turizma na temelju realnih podatkov in tako bistveno prispeva k zmanjšanju škodljivih vplivov onesnaženja zraka na zdravje ljudi, kulturno dediščino, ekosistem in na podnebje.
Arctur is involved in various research and development projects, both in national and international context, and is cooperating with a number of prominent researchers and research organizations from Slovenia and other EU countries. Our partners are universities, research institutions, R&D oriented industry organizations, and NGOs.
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