The European Competence Network (ECN) for IEC 61499 is an European initiative to foster the large-scale adoption of this international Standard as the reference for distributed real-time automation systems.
The ECN for IEC 61499 is being currently created and launched by the joint effort of a small group of European Technology Transfer stakeholders - research institutions, universities, competence centres, etc. - that agreed to closely cooperate for raising awareness and sharing knowledge about the R&D, technology and industrial application of the IEC 61499 Standard.
Gathering the momentum of the “Digitizing Industry” European initiatives – focused on both the creation of Digital Innovation Hubs, Competence Centres and on supporting the on-going transition to Industry 4.0 – the ECN represents a concrete solution to bridge the gap between the supply of technologies and the market demands and needs for distributed automation, by focusin on the application of the interoperable solutions proposed by the IEC 61499, whichever the industrial sector.