WATIFY receives the Global Entreps Award 2018 for Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure

The award is devoted to Goal 9 of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals - to 'build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation'.

It recognises the WATIFY project’s dedication to stimulating the modernisation of European industry. The campaign focuses on regional digitisation and the uptake of advanced key enabling technologies in small and medium-sized enterprises across the EU.

And we did it! 250,000 Europeans, across 21 countries have participated in WATIFY so far, and we are still counting. 100,000 businesses are following WATIFY on social media. The main achievements of the campaign can be summarised in 3 words: reach, community and reality.

• Reach: WATIFY has managed to reach out to every corner in Europe - from Lapland to the Canary Islands, from Ireland to Estonia and Cyprus.
• Community: creating, maintaining and continuously growing a community of stakeholders both online and off-line across the domains of manufacturing and mechanical engineering, healthcare, finance, creative industries, construction, tourism, agro-food and retail.
• Reality: inspiring and creating real technological transformation opportunities for start-ups and SMEs by providing the connections and resources needed for transformation.

This reach has been achieved through:

• 240 awareness events to boost technological transformation
• 40 matchmaking events which connect SMEs with regional stakeholders to spark smart collaboration and investments
• 100 success stories of emerging tech uptake, to inspire companies and local stakeholders

WATIFY has partnered with a range of organisations in order to reach as many diverse stakeholders as possible and ensure that a maximum number of SMEs have the opportunity to learn about the resources that are available. This list of partners includes regional development agencies, industry associations, digital innovation hubs and more.

Additionally, the initiative has worked closely with campaign ambassadors to help spread its reach regionally and throughout specific sectors. It has strived to fulfil its campaign goal, 'WATIFY comes to you', with its presence becoming a valuable resource to SMEs at local, regional and European levels.

Visit the Watify website to see upcoming events, success stories, best practices and more.