The aim is give SMEs the opportunity to test out new technologies for Industry 4.0. Scientists at the ‘Hybrid Services in Logistics’ Innovationlab of the Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics (IML) and the Technical University of Dortmund are collaborating with employees from SMEs on new solutions. Each project will be funded to the tune of €50,000 by the Innovationlab; all the SMEs will have to provide will be human and material resources. Detailed information about the application procedure can be found on the Innovationlab Website .

The Fraunhofer IML is also working on Industry 4.0 technologies in other areas. For example, since December 2017, the institute has been collaborating with Deutsche Telekom to develop Internet of Things (IoT) applications in their Open IoT Labs development center. Last year, Fraunhofer joined forces with the European Pallet Association (EPAL) to develop smart europallets in the center. The pallets communicate with a central network via NarrowBand IoT and could mark a milestone in logistics.